Composer Reacts to Miracle Musical - Dream Sweet in Sea Major (REACTION & ANALYSIS)

Bryan reacts to and talks about his thoughts on Dream Sweet in Sea Major

Contains links for Special Selection submissions, the CR Patreon, access to the CR Discord Server, the CR Twitter profile, and more.

0:00 Intro
01:37 Reaction
08:53 Analysis - What An Ending
10:01 Analysis - Baseline Understanding
12:21 Analysis - Atmospheric Sounds
17:11 Analysis - Instrument Choices
19:21 Analysis - Interesting Production
22:41 Analysis - A Waltz!
24:33 Analysis - Musical Collage
28:33 Analysis - Lyrical Dive
33:47 Outro

#reaction #miraclemusical #artpop

[reebox]

fun fact: the reason for why the song is exactly 7 minutes long is because that's the remaining time a human brain keeps working after someone dies. If you take the ending without transitioning to variations on a cloud, you will feel like that your time was up and your brain has just shut off and you officially died, like if there was no other side.

[GALACTICREZZ]

22:00 the album was released on 12/12/12 because, at the time, thats when everyone thought the world was gonna end, and it just made sense to joe (the guy who spearheaded this album) to release it then. it was a goodbye in a way. and, the reason its called hawaii: part II is because it can be seen as two lovers parting, its also supposed to represent one of the twin towers

[Dry_Bones_Stan_]

here's a fun fact about the song, The lyric "signed yours truly the whale" refers to Joe Hawley (the albums creators) old username he used to use on social media

[StringHead]

Yeah, this is a song about death. And it's also a bit of a meta song about ending an album. The whole record is genre pastiche after genre pastiche, with an overall experimental production and varied instrumentation. The intro of this song is a reprise of album opener Introduction to the Snow, with slightly different lyrics so the record kind of comes full cycle with it.

Imo the music and the abrupt ending actually fit thematically, I just feel you should take the siren more as a metaphor for death coming to take this person and less on a literal sense of an actual siren coming for them. This is a song about peacefully accepting death, letting yourself go when the time comes, that's how I see it at least. The fact that it ends so abruptly fits if you consider how death just happens, no matter how ready or how expected it might be. You just suddenly cease to exist, at least in a physical, material way. For me, the grand finale (the fake out) is the last moment of consciousness by the main character of the song, while the actual, abrupt ending, could represent his body finally shutting off. It could even represent doctors trying to revive the person and possibly failing at that. Either way, the character is no longer conscious that's why the music shifts.

The waltz section has always felt like this person saying their goodbyes for me. Or at least reminiscing about important people and events in their lives, in a slightly sadder way than in the sections before, more bittersweet.

Great insight as always, Bryan! And watching you react to this weird sound collage was also fun 😂

[CheesecakeMilitia]

This whole album is a trip. I'm a big fan of the Final Fantasy chiptune track with sick rap bars over it

[jacksongreen]

Technically, the people behind this album put out more than just this one. The main people behind this album (Lyricist and Singer Joe Hawley, and Head Coordinators and Mixers Ross Federman and Bora Karaca) were previously either part of or (in Bora's case) close friends with a band called Tally Hall. Zubin Sedghi and Rob Cantor, two other members of the band, sang the songs "White Ball" and "Time Machine" (respectively) from this album. Rob and Joe also have solo albums that further develop a couple unused song concepts from their Tally Hall days. The final member of Tally Hall, Andrew Horowitz, didn't contribute to Miracle Musical, but did help out with songs on Joe and Rob's solo albums, and has a solo album entirely of his own making under a different name. And finally, Bora is part of an entirely different band called Cojum Dip.

Anyway, Tally Hall made two albums: "Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum" and "Good & Evil." They're both really fun listens if you have time! The rest of Hawaii Part II is also really good (ESPECIALLY as a full album), and Joe and Rob's Solo Albums ("Joe Hawley Joe Hawley" and "Not A Trampoline", respectively) are also great! Andrew's Solo Album is probably fine, but not really my thing. Same thing goes for Cojum Dip, with the exception of one song that I really love.

Or, if you're more of an individual song guy, here's some individual song recs;
> "Good Day" (Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum)
> "Welcome To Tally Hall" (Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum)
> "Taken For A Ride" (Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum)
> "The Bidding" (Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum)
> "Ruler of Everything", and its intro track "13" (Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum)
> "Never Meant To Know" (Good & Evil)
> "&" (Good & Evil)
> "Turn The Lights Off" (Good & Evil)
> "Fate Of The Stars" (Good & Evil)
> "Isle Unto Thyself" (Hawaii Part II)
> "The Mind Electric" (Hawaii Part II)
> "Time Machine" (Hawaii Part II)
> "Variations On A Cloud" (Hawaii Part II Bonus Track)
> "Bahamian Rap City" (Joe Hawley Joe Hawley)
> "I'm Gonna Win" (Not A Trampoline)
> "Waltz in E-major, Op. 15 'Moon Waltz'" (Cojum Dip)

Sorry for the ramble, I'm just a big fan of Tally Hall and their related projects, and I really love seeing people listen to them for the first time!

[.Angel.]

0:37 Miracle musical is written primarily in English with some songs using lyrics in Japanese and French! It's a really good album and a lot of people consider the artist to be Tally Hall since I believe all but one member of the band worked on this album. One of my favorites with so much to think about and dissect. As an artist, I'm in love with the album cover! I think in the context of the songs, the staircase are ones to heaven or the afterlife that they are dancing up to get to the "white ball". The white ball is the moon. The palm trees help show that the main character thinks they are dancing up to paradise. The angler fish (the teeth he pointed out) could represent that songs that seem innocent enough actually represent a story of murder and decent into madness. Recently I've been obsessed with Hawaii ll and am literally just dumping anything I find interesting here haha. One interpretation of the album in its entirety I like is that the main character met the love of his life, only to end up killing her in a forest. He pleads insanity and is given "electro shock therapy" (worth noting idk exactly what it is) where he then dies and reunites with his love in the afterlife. He thinks she is taking him to paradise but he is lead to a location "above the brightest star" where he must atone. Overall pretty dark but it's so interesting to find all of the details in each song and try to make sense of them. It's even more interesting to hear other peoples interpretations! The lyrics include many references to stories and religious ideas among other things and the music does a great job of portraying the story. The first and last songs of the album, where the character is dead, feel peaceful ethereal and floaty. The song containing the murder feels ominous and dramatic. There is a song sung backwards when the character may be getting shocked which represents how scrambled their brain is. AHHH so good.

[TheRealDanTheManYT]

I notice you asked why it's called "Part II" when there's no Part I. In a way, you answered your own question when you started to talk about the line "we never meant to part." In an interview, Joe Hawley talked about how the title references not only being a second part, but also the parting of two souls. In fact, only as I watched this video did it click for me the relationship between "Part Two" and "To Part."

[Plamspam]

It makes more sense in the context of the entire album. Since it is the final song, it includes reprises of many of the previous songs. Great video BTW, I loved your commentary!

[Commander_Appo]

My biggest regret so far was finding out about the 10 year anniversary of this album…. at like 2am on 12/13/2022. I was so incredibly mad at myself, this is my favourite album ever and Dream is my favourite song to have ever been made.

[timeisntrealtheuniverseisalie]

This song always reminded me of older Christmas music. The low vocals with higher female vocals in other parts and the use of bells. Thats where a lot of the nostalgia of this song comes from for me.

[ocomolinaehain]

I can confidently say that this is my *_Favorite Song_*

I never expected to be able to be able to say that, it's just so truly unique to me, and i can't even pinpoint _why_ it's my favorite. I have not had a day in weeks where this song hasn't played in my head once, or i've not at least hummed it aloud

Also, i'm, pretty sure the "monster" on the right of the album is actually meant to be an angler fish, the moon being it's lure?

[homestuckfan]

Love this song. Feels heavenly but still relating to the sea, and of course, the stars.

[tuney]

It need be remarked that 7 seems to be a trending number in hawaii part ii, black rainbows lists 7 colors, space station level 7 ( despite being the 6th song) the album itself was sold for 7.77 on bandcamp etc

[jonathanhenderson]

I'm rather at a loss for words on this one. It's mostly a pastiche of... I wanna say 50s pop, but with enough contemporary elements so that we can't mistake it for being genuinely that old. The melodies and harmonies are definitely pleasant, but I kept expecting some kind of surprise with even more contemporary elements to take over and turn this into a postmodern work rather than a pastiche, but it never really did. Loved the whole "how are they gonna wrap this up? It's gotta be ending soon we're getting close to... **music ends** Oh..." :D

[sealestial]

I think the whole album is a cyclical tragic love story.
They where made for each other
They remember fond times together
They are happy together but the routine is getting stale.
There is a fight, a misunderstanding. "Not seeing the forest for the trees" means too caught up in the details to see the bigger pictures. So if he can't see the trees in the forest. He can't see the small details that make the relationship work.
They split up, and he is in "heaven" but it's foreign and he can't understand it. It's not really heaven.
His past catches up and he is sentenced due to a crime, but pleads insanity. While being treated with electroshock therapy he breaks, he is different.
Then she comes back and is toying with him.
He runs away, he runs away so far that he is nearing the end of time, he finds her there as well at the end of it all he has since come to terms with being alone, but he still wonders about her, she is there with him and at the end they know they were made for each other. And they must go to the end together, but the end is only the beginning, and the time restarts. They were made for each other.

Im not sure about all the motives. And I feel there could be some weird timey whimey stuff. Especially with the Time machine noises playing in other songs. And I not sure who gets murdered or who the murderer is also she was the one staging Music murder so who knows. But I feel like this is a multi layered album with double, triple and quadruple meaning within each lyric.

[theoriginalgreenskittles]

alternate title: Composer listens to Joe Hawley's Acid trip and enjoys it.

[elitettelbach]

I love this album! And Dream Sweet in Sea Major is a particular favorite of mine. I’m not sure if you intended to only listen to the final track, or if that just kind of happened, but I really enjoyed your analysis of it. The song works really well as a culmination of the album since it includes musical motifs from all of the other songs on the album. It’s also nice how much benefit of the doubt and leaning towards intentionality you gave some of the more confusing elements. When you said it felt like the end of a play you were pretty spot on! Would definitely recommend giving the whole album a listen if you haven’t done so yet!

[TheRealDanTheManYT]

HEY HI I HAVE SOMETHING TO LET YOU KNOW

This song is the "final track" of the album, yes, but there is a simultaneously official AND unofficial "track 0" that's meant to be played IMMEDIATELY AFTER, called "Variations On A Cloud." That's what the ending builds to.

This album has many interpretations, there are no "correct" ones, as stated by the creator. It's more of an abstract flow of consciousness and artistic expression with a beginning, middle, and end. It very intentionally keeps everything JUST VAGUE ENOUGH to be able to identify characters and plot, but nothing is concrete. I HIGHLY recommend listening to the whole thing. I have it uploaded on my channel, or there are several playlists that do so on spotify. Either way, I'm going to subscribe with notifications in hopes that you do that haha

Also, this album made the most sense to me on psychadellic drugs to be honest. Some things are just beyond words. Which may not make for a great spoken analysis, but it is an absolutely otherworldly first-person experience.

[TheRealDanTheManYT]

The final statement in this video was a real eye opener for me. There is a channel called Brad Taste in Music who did a reaction to this album and HATED every minute of it. He's supposed to be a critic, but the whole thing was really more cynical.