Entertainment

Lin-Manuel's 'Moana' Outtake = Your New Fave Song

by S. Atkinson

Have you been procrastinating forever on that thing? You know, your thing: your unfinished novel languishing in your desk, your promise to your mother that you'd run a marathon together, your bright idea for a web-series that hasn't yet been put into execution? Your generous fairy godfather Lin-Manuel Miranda has a solution. The Hamilton composer is a man of such singular talent that even his outtakes are goddamn hits. Thus, I present to you, Miranda's Moana outtake "Unstoppable" aka your new motivational anthem. While, yes, on the surface, this song appears to have been written to detail the backstory of a Hawaiian deity featured in the new Disney movie, the sentiments are too universal to not get you stomping 'round your bedroom punching the air. (Just me?)

As everyone from Vulture to the New York Times has already observed, this track is all sorts of Hamilton -esque, with its historical backstory and rousing themes: “Abandoned by his parents and raised by the gods / Who could see he was destined for greatness.” But it is not just applicable to Hawaiian deities, but you, too: you, with your infinite potential to run a marathon in record time, or finally write your novel, or get Lena Dunham shaking in her boots with your impeccably astute web-series.

Unbelievably, this track is one of the few songs Miranda composed for the film that didn't make the final cut, which may serve as a kick up your butt to give the Moana soundtrack a listen, because if this is the chaff, what is the audio wheat like? But it did make it onto the deluxe edition of the motion picture soundtrack, so thankfully for us, it hasn't been lost to history forever.

If the Hawaiian demigod can raise the sky to give us a little more room, you can finally learn how to play blues on the guitar. So get this bad boy onto your next motivational Spotify playlist and crank the volume up to the max — with its soaring chorus and frenetic drum beat, what can't you do after listening to this song? Well, probably not compose songs as well as Miranda, who appears to just think up hits while brushing his teeth or waiting for the bus. But listen to this on loop enough times and maybe that, too, won't lie in the realm of the impossible anymore.