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Hadestown is the fourth studio album by American folk singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell, and was released by Righteous Babe Records on March 9, 2010. The concept album, which became the basis for the stage musical of the same name, follows a variation on the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, where Orpheus must embark on a quest to rescue his wife Eurydice from the underworld. It has been advertised as a "folk opera". Several of the songs feature singers other than Mitchell, including Justin Vernon, Ani DiFranco, Greg Brown, Ben Knox Miller, and The Haden Triplets (Tanya, Petra and Rachel Haden). The album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Recording Package in the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards. Between 2006 and 2007, Mitchell staged performances of Hadestown, a musical based on the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Unsure what lay ahead for the stage musical, she decided to turn it into a concept album. Raising a few thousand dollars by emailing her fan base and asking them to pitch in for shirts and other merchandise, Mitchell worked on the album for over a year. The album encompasses a variety of American roots music forms, including folk, indie folk, country, blues, ragtime, gospel, rock, swing, and avant-garde.
What ever you think this album will be, it will surprise you.
I never heard of Anaïs Mitchell before this list. The album consists of great songs, inspiring lyrics and terrific guest singers.
This is great and as a side note, Ani DiFranco should have an album on this list.
3 Probably better as a musical
A folk album that is elevated from being quite nice to cool and intriguing by Greg Brown's Tom Waits-esque vocals popping up on a handful of tracks. Rating: 3.5 Playlist track: Hey, Little Songbird Date listened: 17/12/24
Always up for a musical concept album. Liked this quite a bit, now I want to see the musical!
Cool!
Wonderful! I'm very interested in seeing this show now...
I liked this pretty well. I'm not surenit needed to be well-versed an hour, or that it brought anything much new to this well-travelled myth, antlers it was leaning on Tom Waits pretty heavily throughout. But the music was very nice and it generally held up.
Folk, Americana, indie folk. Me han gustado algunas canciones. Venga, un 4.
I get major theater kid vibes from this pick despite this technically being the concept album version. It’s a good album though with a solid mix of jazz and blues applied to Greek mythology which is super unique. Also why we build the wall feels a bit too literal now despite it being written almost two decades ago.
Love this one, kudos to whoever chose this one! Sometimes I feel like I'm the only person who's ever heard of Anais Mitchell. I found her through her Tiny Desk performance many years ago and became obsessed. Seriously, an incredible singer and songwriter, and the fact that she made this stage play (by now, it's become a Broadway thing and won Tonys!) is really impressive. Justin Vernon and Ani DiFranco on this thing is also awesome. "Why We Build the Wall" is still one of the greatest songs ever, ever. I could write an essay about that one, but will save my breath today. Anyway, fantastic album. 4.5/5
There are some things I like about this, but I'm really not a fan of musical theatre. It's just sort of over the top dramatic. I may check out other works by her to see if there are some that are less theatre-y. 3 stars.
I remember reviewing this for my local student radio station in college when it came out. It's an interesting project with some fun numbers (one or two are earworms for sure). Overall it feels less than the sum of its parts.
Interesting proposal with retro overtones, but nothing spectacular. A very long album for this type of more "passive" performance, it was tiring.
A re-imagining of a Broadway soundtrack recorded as its own album? Kind of a silly premise to begin with – losing the orchestral flair (and going for this super-soft indie vibe) means the dramatic moments aren’t emphasized, and at the end of the day I now still have to watch the play to get the full experience. An hour of softly-whispered narrative with only a few dramatic highlights is a lot to ask of a listener without the staging behind it, and as a standalone LP this falls flat on its face as a result.
Wasn’t for me. I can see why people would like it, but just not anything I would ever want to listen to again.
I thought this album was a bit odd until I realized it’s an accompaniment to a play. In that sense it makes sense why it sounds the way it does but it still doesn’t make the album all that enjoyable. It’s like not being part of an inside joke. The Justin Vernon songs weren’t bad. 4.6/10
I have nothing but a question mark about all of this. Why does it exist? Why would this be nominated to the list? HUH?
Oh god the first minute or so of this was a real rollercoaster. First I read that it was folky, which made me want to throw up. Then the first few notes of acoustic kicked in, and it sounded alright. Felt a bit of hope. Then the chick's voice started and I felt physically ill. The guy's voice seemed vaguely passage, but then he either changed it or another guy turned up with an even worse voice. By the time I got to some gang singing "COME ON DOWN TO HADES TOWN" I realised it was just an irredeemable piece of utter shit with an added rock opera snobbishness. It went for about another 45 agonising minutes, loving itself the entire way. This was just too much for me. That whole vibe where art school dorks pretend they're voodoo southern cajun hipsterbilly honky-tonk afficionados, all high on reviews they or their friends wrote for their own stuff, probably referring to themselves as a "collective"... ugh, spare me. 1/5.
Rating: 8/10 Best songs: Way down Hadestown, Hey little songbird, Doubt comes in
Never listened to the album but Why We Build the Wall is a classic. My brother introduced me to that song. We build the wall to keep us free...powerful stuff. I was shocked to learn the album was from 2010, I would have bet money it was 70's. The whole album is very unique too, lots of folk and jazz. Songs like When the Chips are Down reminded of New Orleans. All in all, very cool someone included this album so I could reminisce about those memories. Also caught Justin Vernon on a couple songs, I believe that is Bon Iver himself.
Very interesting & enjoy Anais' voice...Appreciate this recommendation!
One thing I will say for this album is that it's thematically ambitious in a way I wish I heard more in music. Musically it was fine, if with a rather strained, oddball vintage sensibility. I imagine this plays better if you are familiar with the musical it inspired, or even with Greek mythology. I struggled with Anaïs Mitchell's voice and mostly preferred the tracks that featured other vocalists. "Flowers (Eurydice's Song)" was a notable exception. Fave Songs: Hey, Little Songbird; Flowers (Eurydice's Song); If It's True; Wait for Me