A lot can happen across a span of six years. If you would have told me six years ago that I would have spent the majority of 2020 locked in my house due to government guidelines I would never have believed you! I would never have imagined that I would be a writer and YouTuber (if you haven’t already checked out my latest interviews with the cast and crew behind exciting new musicals you can follow me on YouTube here- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHSoxy7Iw6ru0P6mUFOr2iw) I am pretty sure that in 2014 when I was around 15 I wanted to be a WWE wrestler and now I am currently studying to become an English high school teacher … how times changes aye! This is the premise of the new soundtrack to the song-cycle Seasons which is now available on Spotify! If you are unfamiliar with the term song cycle (I explain it in a blog which can be found here https://rhysopayne.wordpress.com/2020/11/02/the-theory-of-relativity-soundtrack-reciew/?preview=true) but essentially it is where each song represents its story/narrative told through the perspective of a specific character.
As the show is a song cycle it does tend to lean towards being more of a concert rather than a musical production at times, which in all honesty I would love to see a concert version of this show as the songs are just so powerful I imagine they are that much more moving when performed live. This soundtrack is a concept album for the show which means that this collection is not the show in its final form and will change a lot in coming months. The musical accompaniment is stripped back to just a piano which incidentally makes the show more emotionally driven but despite the show being in its early stages of development, it shows such fantastic promise and already high quality of the show. Additionally to the concept album, the show is also be used as a fundraiser for good very important causes namely Broadway cares: equity fights aids and feeding America which is the icing on the musical cake. One of the things I love about this show is the beautiful artwork they have used to promote the show. The album cover and social media posts are some of my favourite theatre artwork I have seen in a very long time!
The opening number in this musical titled “season” ticks every box in an opening number list of requirements. It builds up the excitement for the show which is perfect and the number itself has an almost 80s electric feel to it which I can imagine a man rising from the floor masked by fog playing one of those guitar/piano hybrids. The opening number is very energetic and fun with the energy continuing throughout most of the other songs in this playlist. One of my favourite numbers in this entire album is the song “Paris” performed excellently by Dillon Klena. The music and lyrics were structure in such a way that sounded delicate and pretty (almost ornate) which reflects the romanticised idea of Paris which is the subject of the song. Dillion’s voice perfectly with this song choice and they are a very talented performer. The song “Glory Days” was a rock-inspired song that was a nice contrast from the other songs in this soundtrack. This was a welcomed change from the more emotional drive songs whereas this number was a power rock number which was nice. The singer for this number, Micheal Restino, is a very talented performer and excelled at the higher-pitched vocals during this number. The number “Let me Come Home” started as an insanely powerful, emotionally-driven number but did become very repetitive after a while “Let Me Come Home” is repeated constantly and does become somewhat tiresome towards the end of the song. All the song in this album are beautifully performed and the vocals are very simplistic and accessible which I know many people would love as they can easily sing along!
Overall this is a concept album that shows fantastic promise with great song performed by fantastic performers. It is yet another great example of a song-cycle musical that many people can relate to and the songs are very accessible which adds to the audiences relatability. I would rate this show 3 and a half stars out of 5!
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