Dear Ben Platt, please always Sing to Me Instead

By: Grace S.

Sing to me Instead, Ben Platt’s debut album, was released March 29, 2019. This album had the Broadway community buzzing for months before its release and now that it’s out, the community is bopping along to these songs. It is the first opportunity Platt has to tell his own stories and not play the role of someone else.

To those not familiar with Broadway, Ben Platt’s most recognized mainstream role was Benji Applebaum in Pitch Perfect and Pitch Perfect 2. More recently, he originated the role of Evan Hansen in the Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen.

The first four tracks-- “Bad Habit”, “Ease My Mind”, “Temporary Love”, and “Grow as We Go”-- were released prior to the album coming out, all accompanied with music videos. The first two videos also serve another purpose: Platt coming out as gay. He did not make a big announcement about it, just merely had male love interests in his videos. In an interview with Ellen Degeneres, Platt disclosed “I think, hopefully, we’re past the time where it’s going to be this whole giant announcement and it can just be part of who you are and part of the work.”

The first song and music video released was “Bad Habit”. It details a co-dependent on-again-off-again relationship Platt was in as a “bad habit”. The title of the album appears in the lyrics, “'Cause everybody needs a friend, it's true/ Someone to quiet the voices in my head/Make 'em sing to me instead, it's you.” There are nine instances of Platt singing “Can I lean on you?” and five singing “Can you help me out?”, further showcasing his bad habit of codependency.

“Share Your Address” is a highlight on the album. The lyrics are reminiscent of a crazy, obsessed boyfriend, but they come of as sweet and caring. “Darling, you might think it's too soon/But I can't get you out of my head now/Picturing myself in your room/And I wanna be with you 'til I'm dead now.” Platt’s vocals and runs are ever-impressive. This song lends itself to a dance party. It is the lightest song on the album, not taking itself too seriously, but still being honest.

“Hurt Me Once” chronicles the slow decline of interest in a relationship, eventually leading to its resolution. Going through your camera roll after a breakup is nothing less than painful. It is a scrapbook of prominent memories that have lost relevancy. Platt details this with the lines, “If you keep it going/Then one by one, the memories will start to blur/You'll ruin the good ones/But I guess my photo album's none of your concern.” His voice in this song sounds like Brandon Flowers from The Killers, and pain resounds with every lyric.

An underwhelming song is “Older”. Platt’s theatre background was sure to shine through on this album, but this song sounds like it came straight out of a musical. I have no beef with the lyrics; they are wise and insightful. I just question the song’s place on a pop album. It would fit as one of the finale songs in a musical, when the main character had a hard time finding his/her way, and the unsuspecting old person in the ensemble recites these words and the main character is put back on the straight and narrow. Similar songs are “Cecily Smith” from Fly by Night or “Take It from an Old Man” from Waitress.

This album is simply a good time. Some of the songs, like “Grow As We Go” and “In Case You Don’t Live Forever” have the capacity to produce tears. Some songs, like “Share Your Address” and “Temporary Love” will cause impromptu dance parties. Some songs, like “Better”, “Bad Habit”, and “Hurt Me Once” show the difficult parts of relationships. It is 44 minutes and 49 seconds of pure enjoyment, and every single person I even remotely like will be receiving a copy for Christmas and/or Hanukkah.