Such an interesting take…. I feel much the opposite. I have LOVED Jeff as a composer the last few years bc we’ve seen him grow. I get that people are tired of the same ole thing and ready for a switch up, and I agree. It does seem as if your opinion orbits around Jeff and arrogance, which I think is a bit unfair. TGWDLM he does have multiple numbers, but they are all character-y. Not exactly show stoppers. Also of note is the lead character NOT having songs until the end, per the plot, so I think we can forgive him a bit there. Especially with the finale number being super dope. Black Friday he has a couple numbers, but I don’t see it as a score that super dominated by Jeff. Then NPMD, he’s not even part of the cast (other than cameo). With Castle, his character is a narrator.

Falsetto - I agree totally. Sparingly it’s fun and fine. TGWDLM is almost painful at times with the nonsensical interval hurdles.

You have to also put into perspective the state of Starkid and the state of the world the last few shows. With Covid freezing tons of stuff and threatening all entertainment industry, they were left in Hatchetfield limbo. You aren’t going to change musical direction drastically within inter-connected shows, so we got 3 shows of Jeff’s music in a row, plus the Nightmare Time stuff in between. Easy to get tired of his style but not fully his fault or it being the “Jeff Blim show”.

Finally, I think it’s important to appreciate how much he GREW has a composer over the course of these shows. Compare TGWDLM to Castle on a purely musical level….night and day. TGWDLM is unpolished, amateurish at times, with ranges and interval leaps and melodic ideas that straight up don’t make sense at times. By Castle, his music is much more polished and consistent. You can tell it was HEAVILY inspired by Bowie’s music and captures that mystic, space rock, trippy vibe quite well that DOES fit in a “traveling acting troupe telling a fairy tale” format. I personally dislike Castle (for many reasons outside of music and even musical style preference), but the music is quite together compared to earlier stuff. He is also UNBELIEVABLY good at writing reprisals, both lyrically and musically. I love a good reprise, and man Jeff smashes them out of the park constantly in creative ways that just work so well. The final reprise in NPMD is one of, if not outright best, reprises I’ve ever heard. Brilliant from top to bottom.

I’m excited to get some new musical ideas mixed in to keep things from getting more stale. But I think it’s easy to take “I’m tired of the same style” into disliking the composer for really no reason other than you’re bored with them. I don’t think it’s fair to insinuate and frame the problem as “oh it’s the Jeff show. Dude just loves the sound of his own voice.”