The score for Be More Chill can be uneven, but the numbers in the show that I like, I really like. With a combination of wildly-appealing melodies, lines that neatly capture the universal high-school condition, and a fine helping of surreality, the show is wild and fun, featuring a number of songs that I love to listen to. Here are my favorites (a few spoilers.)
“More Than Survive” – I love me a good opening number, and this one has a lot to offer. Our introduction to Jeremy, his high-school plight, and his longing to be just a little less of who he is, “More Than Survive” features an infectious melody and quickly populates the student landscape for us. Also, while the lyrics for a number of the songs can be hit-or-miss, I think this one is solid. The Jeremy we meet is insecure and self-berating, but he’s also smart and poignant, and the song sets up the central crisis of his existence (in his mind) in a way that, for me, makes him easy to root for.
Best lyrics: “I’m never gonna be the cool guy. / I’m more the one who’s left out. / Of all the character at school, / I am not the one who the story’s about.”
“Be More Chill – Part 2” – I’m already on the record as being a major fan of the SQUIP, and both iterations of “Be More Chill” are fantastic. Right away, we’re introduced to the SQUIP’s deal: taking control over Jeremy but cutting him down, but with the promise to build him up. In Part 2, that gets even more overt, as the vicious chorus from Part 1 morphs into something so much more triumphant. “Everything about [Jeremy] is so terrible,” but if he listens to the SQUIP and obeys its every word, “Everything about [him] is going to be wonderful.”
Best lyric: The song is super catchy and the theme is spot-on, but the lyrics are more meh. I’d probably go with Jeremy repeating Part 1’s chorus after the SQUIP, especially that soft, “Everything about me makes me… wanna die.” It shows how much the SQUIP is preying on his insecurities.
“A Guy That I’d Kinda Be Into” – Very high school, but very sweet. Christine’s roundabout confession to Jeremy about the eponymous “guy that [she’d] kinda be into” is a charming number. I enjoy Christine’s nervous babbling, which is awkward but delightful, and the ensemble bits add a lot of pop to the song. Also, it’s not part of the actual song, but I laugh when Jeremy wonders if the guy is him and the SQUIP assures him, “I’ve been activating your pheromones. Keep it up!”
Best lyric: “I don’t always relate to other people my age, / Except when I’m on the stage.” Been there, Christine!
“Michael in the Bathroom” – Probably the most well-known song in the show, and I get why. When Michael’s attempt to get through to Jeremy at the Halloween party fails, he winds up locking himself in the bathroom and starts to spiral over the fear of losing his best friend. I like how the song includes lines that might feel flippant or funny, even as it continues to build to an emotional frenzy – that feels like a very teenage thing to me, where even stuff that might seem a little silly or inconsequential can feel like life-and-death when you’re in it. Another great melody, especially the pre-chorus and chorus. This is a definite earworm!
Best lyric: “I am hiding, but he’s out there, just ignoring all our history. / Memories get erased, and I’ll get replaced, with a newer, cooler version of me.”
“The Pitiful Children” – Here’s where we see the SQUIP’s insidious nature beyond its influence on Jeremy. In this banger of a number, the SQUIP seduces Jeremy into “saving” his classmates by giving SQUIPs to all of them. The melisma is delicious, I love that down-and-dirty guitar, and I get a kick out of the awesomely-random “beep boop beep boop” in the middle of the SQUIP’s dark manipulations
Best lyric: I’ve heard a little of the Broadway recording, enough to know that a lot of the lyrics are different here, but I’ll stick with the original cast recording for now, since that’s where the brunt of my experience is. “All your peers are just so incomplete. / You can’t see it, but they’re all in pain. / Their operating system’s obsolete. / So let’s complete the chains / And get inside those brains.”
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Shang-Chi is out now, but I still have more Tony Leung Chiu-wai excitement than can be contained in Marvelous Wednesdays posts. We got a couple of actual press-junket interviews from him, mostly from Asian media outlets. I appreciate what he says about how difficult it is for him to feel comfortable working with a new group of people (but that he had a great experience with the Shang-Chi crew!), and it makes he laugh that he says most of his scenes were done in only one or takes because of how much they had to get through everyday, when Destin Daniel Cretton says it was because Leung was knocking it out of the park and there was no need to do more! Aww.
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