Grammy Award for Best Musical Theatre Album 2018 — Page 4

I would hope that Sunday in the Park... would take the Grammy over all the others considered in this thread.

To my mind, a 'Best Album' winner is one that tells a story, in a way that is engineered and composed ('composed' as in how it is laid out in album format for listening - NOT as in how the score was composed) so that the listener feels all the elements of story line: beginning, middle and end, tell a complete story.

SITPWG demonstrates the story elements, and is also engineered beautifully. Hello, Dolly! on the other hand (as an example) has some glaring engineering flaws - just listen to Sunday Clothes as an example of how that HORRIBLE sample of poor mixing makes the suspension @ 4:29 sound like an accidental note.

Of all the contenders, SITPWG fits all the criteria.

Updated On: 12/31/17 at 09:15 PM

The Grammy Award for Best MT Album is totally dumb anyway. You think the votes are gonna sit down and listen to each album and award it on merit? Nah.

Also, Re: Adele vs. Beyonce - I agree that Lemonade did something different, but I mean, damn, there's not one bad song on that Adele album. Where as Lemonade, to me, has a few clunkers (Sandcastles, Daddy Lessons).

I tend to agree, even as someone who actually enjoy most of Lemonade. Lemonade, to me, was an artist taking themselves WAY too seriously. And did it even turn out any radio hits? The songs are all fine in context, but I don't find myself reaching out to listen to them the way I would Adele's.

gypsy101 said: "several songs on 25 are very mediocre, Remedy and River Lea come to mind immediately. it has some great moments but does not reach the heights Lemonade reaches. i also disagree about the songs you listed as clunkers from the latter (daddy lessons is a complete jam imo). i suppose neither one is perfect but still think Lem deserved the award over 25 (although i think All I Ask may be Adele’s best song so far)."



Beyonce’s problem when it comes to album of the year is that she is a manufactured performer and not an artist. People felt the same way when Beck won over Beyonce in 2014. The last time a pop album won Album of the Year, where the performer didn’t help craft every song since its inception was Nora Jones Come Away with Me in 2002. Especially since pop music as a whole has turned away from crafting traditional albums and more toward singles in the world of Itunes, The Album of the Year category has become a category music purists have clung to awarding the process of crafting an album instead of the final product. Until Beyonce releases a stipped down album of songs she has personally written, she may get nominated, but she will likely never win Album of the year.

After Eight said: "Call_me_jorge said: "The Dolly album is just poorly produced"



The "Hello, Dolly!" score could be played on a kazoo and recorded with the sound quality of a scratched-up 78 RPM, and it would still be and sound 78 zillion times better than any of thewoeful thingsthat the critics throw superlatives at."

Surely even you, yourself,
are bored with the droning
by now.

After Eight said: "

"Dear Evan Hansenis the winner!



Ridiculous!Asinine! Unbelievable!

Dear Evan Hansen wins a music award over Hello, Dolly!?

Over HELLO, DOLLY!????

Can such a dumb, ludicrousdecision actually be forreal?

Like there is anything in Dear Evan Hansen that comes within even 206,712,843 miles of the score to Hello, Dolly!?

Is this the kind ofabsurd nonsense indicative ofthe world in which we live?

Absolutely.

I wholly expected it."

I'm on the West Coast and haven't
seen the show, and there seems
to be some question about the
tweet announcing the winner.

But I'm sure you know the
category in question doesn't
judge the DEH score v. the
HD! score. It is the recordings
that are in competition and
the DEH recording is clearly
superior.

You and I can agree that HD!
is the more important score
historically, but that's not the
question put to the voters. I
own five different recordings
of Hello, Dolly! and the Midler
revival is by far the weakest
(alas, despite the lovely work
by Baldwin and Creel).

After Eight said: ""It is the recordingsthat are in competition andthe DEHrecordingis clearly
superior."



Oh, so that'show it works. In that case,a perfect recording ofcats screeching in an alley could be givenan award over a recording of a Beethoven symphony. Makes perfectsense. And, I wonder, if the Dolly recording is so bad, why was it given a nomination in the first place?

Absolutely absurd.

But this is the world in which we live."

They wouldn’t be in the same category

After Eight said: "Like there is anything in Dear Evan Hansen that comes within even 206,712,843 miles of the score to Hello, Dolly!?"

Hello, Eight!

You know you're one of my favorite posters on this Board, right? That being said (truthfully), I still have to point out that the question you've asked doesn't apply.

The award isn't for "best score" (even though I share your thought that Dolly's score is better than Evan Hanson's). The award is for "album".

IMO, the new Dolly album is very poorly produced (engineered?). Case in point: in "Put On Your Sunday Clothes", who allowed that baritone's (tenor's?) voice to stand out like a solo on the suspension at the modulation???? It sounds as if someone's hit a sour, clunker note instead of the interesting chord Herman wrote. In general, the ensemble lacks any sense of blend - at least that's how they're engineered on the album.

And that's just one example. Others have mentioned the absence of the Finale. Also, the whole album sounds flat and dull - in spite of how the performances may have sounded in the live theater. It's one of the few recordings I have to tinker with the EQ settings before listening.

The Evan Hanson album however, sounds GREAT (no EQ tinkering needed) - even if I'm not so much a fan of the score, which I think has already dated itself.

But again, it's not about the better score. It's more about the quality of the album.

PS: Still my favorite curmudgeon....

Updated On: 1/29/18 at 09:06 AM