Review: The Mean Girls soundtrack released via Paramount Pictures and Interscope
On a Friday afternoon my partner asked me to watch the new Mean Girls musical assuming we’d both laugh it off and forget about it. We watched, were completely captivated, saw it again in theaters and even, by seemingly fate, got to see a touring stage production of it less than a week ago. What I thought would be a lark is now instead a hyper fixation album for both of us.
Every character in this story not only has their own sets of songs but are each assigned totally unique genres and functions within the story. Starting the record and movie off, Auli’i Cravalho and Jaquel Spivey, who play Janis and Damian, are the most showtune, classic musical of the cast. Their songs serve as set dressing, they establish the narration of the story and slowly build the lore of North Shore High and its students almost exclusively from the sidelines. They explain the cliques, don’t assign themselves to any and only really signify themselves as the queer kids.
Angourie Rice plays Cady Heron and her tracks are the sort of pop rock you’d hear on the radio in the aughts. In fact, Cady’s songs also just more or less could exist outside the world of Mean Girls and be distributed as singles. “I See Stars” and the movie-exclusive “What Ifs” are tracks I could definitely see on adult contemporary stations for their self-aware feeling of being lost and wanting to be more than what the narrator is in their current state. Rice also has some of my favorite vocal performances among the cast for how she aches so badly to break out of her own shell.
Renee Rapp plays alt-pop Regina George and sells herself as actual high school Satan. Every iteration of this story tells us Regina rules the school and every single one of her songs are indicative of this. When she sings the world stops to watch her, the entire world becomes hers to command. Characters freeze in music video-esque sequences and only move when she wishes it so. Background girls provide her backing vocals and even the protagonist of the story is her puppet during “Someone Gets Hurt.” Rapp is my favorite in this whole thing, both her character and her songs. This is just good alt-pop with huge moments and compelling but discreet guitar performances. My only real criticism here would be her lyrics are the most steeped in her character and it's hard for me to enjoy a song like “Meet the Plastics” by itself because it's a little silly out of context.
Bebe Wood and Avantika play the other two Plastics, Gretchen and Karen respectively, and get one song each back to back. Grethcen sings a short, devastating ballad about wanting Regina’s approval and attention so bad it makes it feel like somethings missing in absence of it. Karen sings a dance pop anthem about engrossing yourself in Halloween's traditions of being someone you’re not for a single day. She also, in a single song, makes the point of who her own character is and does it with some really funny take-aways and quips. Both of these songs serve in very good contrast. Karen is so lost in her own popularity and vanity, no one can hurt her anymore, no one can tell her anything, not even Regina can stop her from having fun. Gretchen only follows her friend like a servant because she’s so, heartbreakingly in love with her and she feels closeted, silenced and totally lost. And Regina, for all her power, has no idea this is going on because she doesn’t have to.
I can be a sexy doctor and cure some sexy cancer.
That’s not right is it? (No.)
I can sexy cure some cancer! (No!)
I can cure sex cancer! (Sex cancer doesn’t exist!)
I did it.
Prior to watching the film I was told of “Revenge Party,” a sequence which took weeks to create on set. This was quite apparent in the film, it looks fantastic with several set and costume changes spanning months within the story of the movie. It also sounds fantastic and is absolutely my pick for favorite track here. The track turns the universal obsession with Regina, negative or otherwise, as well as the frustration of living in her shadow into a celebration of the idea of overthrowing her. But for all the justification anyone has of “getting rid of” the school bully, the thing is, the main trio is just as culpable. They’re having a great time envisioning turning a girl's friends against her, breaking up her relationship and ruining everything she currently has. They become just like her, it’s a perfect encapsulation of the story’s message.
Regardless, it's also the place where Damian and Janis have the most chemistry and the composers seem to make things the grandest. The reality bending I mentioned previously is in full effect on this one. Choral lines narrate the time skips in the track and seem to, based on one joke in the film, be an actual in-canon phenomena. It’s also such a pay off to have all this narration coalesce in Cady’s reading of her fake candy-cane gram. Not just in-plot either, there’s incredible musicianship going on, the horns are huge, the vocal melodies across the board are all really strong. There’s really cool and quaint piano parts representing time passing on screen which are just as compelling in a few seconds as the whole thing.
I will admit going into the movie itself I expected a level of reference to be annoying but honestly it was handled really well. “What Ifs” makes reference to the classic “the limit doesn’t exist” line from the movie, turning it into a line of self-motivation for the protagonist and goes off really well. There’s quite a few examples of this, cameos by actors from the original film, various in-jokes which are the right level of subtle. (i.e. “you go Glenn Coco!”) I also thought the movie would be very teen but the music and film proved to me they’d make this work with an opening line in its opening song. And, yes, there are some songs which can’t exist outside the context of the story and now having seen both I can see the film really tried to make it so they could.
You can buy integrity at the mall; it's not for sale. (True.)
I want to address a criticism I’ve seen of there being too many songs and I strongly disagree. There are fourteen songs cut from the original, some of the ones left have been cut in length. They add two, yes, the aforementioned “What Ifs” and the end credits modern pop cut “Not My Fault” by Renee Rapp and Megan Thee Stallion, which I mean you had to see coming, right? There are five songs I didn’t review from the deluxe but all but two of them don’t actually contribute to the narrative and sort of serve as fun surprises when watching.
This review took a while, it’s the longest one this year so far and it’s coming out pretty much under the wire as I want to have it up on Friday. (Today now!) I think I’m going to choose not to edit in my experiences having now seen a stage performance of this. I didn’t want to make another AsterTracks length review about a studio movie but, to be honest? This movie has led to AsterTracks level realizations. On the trip to see the actual play my girlfriend and I talked a lot. We talked about crushes, concerns, where we want to be, both literally and figuratively. We also talked, amongst a lot of other things, dreams and goals we’d left behind. She put together a review explaining her side of this on her Letterboxd and all I can say is I definitely feel closer and more in love with her than ever before. My dream I let go was being a musician. I tried to learn guitar for a couple of years but could never get my fingers right. Then I met my ex and she snuffed out any hobbies I had which could take time away from her. I sang, in high school choir, on covers you’ll never hear and in a post-hardcore band for a very short stint. They changed their name and became an Avenged Sevenfold cover act after I quit. The point is, I always wanted to be the artist myself, it’s probably why my reviews started out so confessional. My partner helped me realize it isn’t too late.
This isn’t me saying “big things coming” or even announcing anything. This also is not me declaring the end of my review career, though, I do need a couple of weeks to get some more reviews together. I have a lot of obstacles to tackle, but I also have some song ideas. So, who knows, maybe if I’ve even steered you in the direction of a good sad girl album you could listen to mine one day.
Our score of Mean Girls is 8/10.
Our favorite track is track nine, Revenge Party.
Mean Girls is currently in theaters but also streaming on Paramount+
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