Hazbin Hotel

Hazbin Hotel has finally begun airing. I've been following this series since the pilot dropped and I've been a fan of Helluva Boss over the past few years, so I've been eagerly awaiting the premiere of this show. My opinions on the show as a whole are mixed at the moment - like Helluva Boss, it feels like a huge mixed bag with some distractingly amateur elements and some absolutely brilliant elements. When it comes to the soundtrack, I feel as though the context in which the songs play in the series is very important, so while I don't normally do this in my reviews, I went through each track and gave some detailed thoughts on them, how they're written/performed and what I think about their role in the show.
"Happy Day In Hell" is a great introduction to the series and a really well made pastiche of the traditional Disney "I Want" song. Very memorable and an incredible vocal performance from Erika Henningsen. Instrumental is vibrant and lively. The only thing that doesn't really work for me here are the attempts at comedy (especially the "touch my parts" thing which is not only not very funny but also kind of butchers the pacing of the climax of the song) but that's pretty standard fare for the entire show.
"Hell Is Forever" is a fun way to shove a lot of exposition into the first episode. I think the structure of the song is kind of mess and I really do not like the choice to have a key change but it seems like the song is intentionally very hokey to establish the arrogance of Adam. I generally really like the vocal performance and the reprise of Happy Day In Hell at the start is cute, albeit a little awkward sounding. This one is pretty decent.
"Stayed Gone" sucks. I really cannot tell what exactly they were going for with this half rapping half spoken word ass battle between Alastor and Vox. it sounds terrible. I genuinely wonder if it was written to be a traditional rap but the voice actors couldn't hack it. The singing parts are generally okay and I really do like Alastor as a character but this is a really disappointing introduction and I hope he gets something better in the later episodes.
"It Starts With Sorry" is another extremely weak song. This is the first point in the show where I start to really doubt Charlie's motivations. I side with Vaggie and Angel Dust here! Sir Pentious was trying to kill them like, 5 minutes ago. It feels like plot convenience that after Charlie encourages him to say "sorry" he's just now cool and doesn't try to kill anybody. I get that he's supposed to be kind of pathetic, but there's a general insincerity to this song in how it's written that kind of butchers this plot thread for me. With the context of Episode 3 I understand why this needed to happen from a narrative standpoint, and I don't hate the idea of putting this in a song, but I feel like it could have been a lot more powerful and honest.
"Respectless" is a little more fun than the past 2 tracks, but it gets entirely kneecapped by the ridiculous lyrics. Like, yeah. I understand that this character is meant to be associated with the internet influencer lifestyle. Why exactly are we still saying the word "hashtag" in songs? "I ain't swiping right"? Come on. I think it generally sounds alright and I really like this character's singing tone but this really is not all that interesting or likeable as a song.
"Whatever It Takes" feels a lot more sincere than the Episode 2 songs, but it doesn't entirely hit the mark in the sound department. It's a little over-dramatic and I don't think Vaggie and Carmilla's voices blend all that well together. The Vaggie singer is clearly stretching her voice to make this duet work and while Carmilla's singer is clearly extremely talented she feels almost out of place on a song with writing this derivative. It sounds like the dollar store version of "Let It Go" or "Into the Unknown" from the Frozen movies. I don't think this song is awful by any means, but it's really not all that impressive or unique. I also don't think it was entirely narratively earned, at least on Vaggie's side. We could have cut out the Angel Dust segment and spent more time with Vaggie to demonstrate the insecurities that drive this song.
"Poison" sounds like "Dance Past Midnight" by Mori Calliope. Just wanted to get that out there.
This is the most divisive song in the show and it mainly has to do with the plot thread it's connected to. Sonically, it's a pretty generic and catchy pop song. I don't mind Blake Roman's singing for Angel and the instrumental has a really satisfying forward momentum to it. The content of the song itself is really upsetting with the context of the episode and the visuals while the song plays in the show are especially uncomfortable. I don't have any first-hand experience with SA, so I can't speak to how tasteful the portrayal is - I'll leave that discussion to the people with more stakes in the matter. What I can say is that the intentions were clearly there and while some of the lyrics are a little on-the-nose (especially the "gulp" part) I generally really enjoy this song and this episode for how daring it is and how uncomfortable it manages makes me feel. Good song.
"Loser, Baby" is a fantastic end to the first 4 episodes and EASILY the best song in the show so far. Keith David is probably my favourite celebrity casting choice in the series and I'm really glad they let him get an elaborate and colourful musical number. His singing voice is so extremely satisfying and the songwriting here is a step above everything else in the show so far. It's narratively very sweet and sells me on Husk's role in the series (as well as the entire second half of this episode). I would normally be bothered by Angel's vulgar interjections in an otherwise pretty clean-cut and wholesome song, but it makes sense that he and Husk are bouncing their vices off of each other at that stage in the song. It's a very sweet moment and an incredible song.
I'm still not entirely sold on the concept of having two songs per episode. I think some of these musical numbers are pretty great, and some of them are disappointingly amateur. I hope that as production continued on the first season the crew got more comfortable fitting these songs into the world of the characters and their stories and we get more stuff like the songs from Episode 4. I could also see the songs really taking away from moments that are meant to be more dramatic and heartfelt down the line. In terms of song concepts I'm hoping for: I want Alastor to get a more traditional villain song, I want Niffty to get a song (preferably in an episode focused on her and her backstory/connection to the other Hotel residents), I want Vaggie to get another song with more of a punk influence and I want Angel Dust and Cherri Bomb to get a duet that mirrors Addict from the pilot era of the show. All in all, the musical focus of Hazbin Hotel is a fun gimmick that admittedly keeps me on my toes while watching, but the execution absolutely could have been cleaner so far. It's a mixed bag, but I'm cautiously optimistic at this point in time.