thank god another epic hater. I did a few reviews of them from a music/story standpoint (I have my degree in music so I spent a lot of time thinking about that) and all of epic is just so... nothingburger. jorge is a terrible lyricist who tries to cram as many syllables per measure he can (god forbid we spend more time on a phrase instead of two lines and you're done). the music is also very... lame. it's all pad strings all the time with no clarity or space for the vocalist or other parts. it's uninteresting and is just sonic noise.
also, in 'the challenge' specifically, there are some very, very large leaps very early on in the song. not only is this challenging and exhausting for a performer, but it also doesn't differentiate itself from the song's climax. most songs I've reviewed are at an 11 at all times. there is no high or low. it is a constant, uniform state throughout.
and the bullshit layering he does with ensemble vocals makes me want to vomit. a 'musical' with a ginormous fucking voice cast and you can't ask them to record a few ensemble takes? or maybe do different takes of your own instead of chordifying one take? christ it's all so cheap
i think that last word sums it all up: "cheap". And it's strange because assumedly he's made fuckloads of money for it. He could probably afford:
Some bits of live orchestra
Spending an extra minute recording more takes for the layering instead of just using the same on e and it sounding like shit
Getting your cast together to record ensemble
To hire someone else to play odysseus because my my does Jorge scream-sing a lot.
And yet the whole thing feels so lazy to me... especially as the "musical" goes on, most evident in the Ithaca saga, Christ it's all just the same stupid rhythm melody and instrumentation for the entirety of the songs! I mean he knows people will listen to it no matter what at that point but that doesn't mean he should make it shit. The whole musical feels like some slop an AI spat out and the lyrics fit that description too.
And not to mention what it did to the odyssey itself! It butchered my child! (I could go on for pages about this although this is about the music right now so...)
I don't know why it gets praised? I mean I suppose I have studied musical theory but you don't need to be a cook to tell your food is plain. Somehow though, people started to like it and now it just has a cult following so people can't criticise it. Also the majority of the fandom, maybe not here but on other apps is soooo bad and very toxic unfortunately. Unfortunately I think it has distorted a lot of people's perspectives on the odyssey for the worse.
