Top (Ten) Songs: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend – Season 2

Although I’m getting to this a bit late, that doesn’t mean Crazy Ex-Girlfriend was lacking in the music department this past year.  On the contrary – the show brought it tremendously, and I’ll probably have to wait until I pick up the season 2 soundtrack and listen to it nonstop before I really figure out how it compares to season 1.  In the meantime, here are my favorites of the season!

“Ping Pong Girl” – Oh my gosh, I love this song so much.  The early-2000s pop-punk style is a perfect match for every song I loved in high school, and Josh even nails that really specific tone of voice found in all those bands.  Thematically, it’s really neat, too – a great satire of every “Cool Girl” trope in the book, and extra points for Rebecca’s silly ideas about dude-speak.

Best lyric:  “She’s so indifferent, / It makes me want / A tangible commitment! / She and I should give / A thirty-year mortgage a whirl!”

“The Math of Love Triangles” – Great parody of Marilyn Monroe-style “babygirl sexpot” numbers.  Rachel Bloom does a great job imitating that style as she breathily tries to comprehend love triangles, blithely oblivious to the actual triangle facts her chorus of male professors are telling her.  The triangle puns come fast and furious, and I love how Rebecca gets dumber and dumber throughout the song, leading the chorus to genuinely worry about her and all-around shredding the whole “sexy baby” idea.

Best lyric:  “This triangle’s scalene.” – “That’s astute. / So I need to decide which man’s more a-cute.”

“It Was a Shit Show” – This is an excellent capper to the Rebecca/Greg relationship as well as Santino Fontana’s gorgeous singing.  Done in the style of a classic crooner number, Greg delivers this heartfelt song about the reasons he and Rebecca shouldn’t be together with brutal honesty.  It’s an interesting device, because the ultra-romantic-sounding melody and vocals literally play on the idea of romanticizing self-destructive relationships, while the lyrics lay bare the real problems between them.  Really well done!

Best lyric:  “We can’t undo, can’t make amends. / Dysfunction is our lingua franca. / We can’t unscrew each other’s friends. / We’re Jerry Springer, not Casablanca.”

“Thought Bubbles” – Wow, I love this song.  Musically, it’s a great send-up of laidback singer-songwriters of the Jason Mraz/Jack Johnson variety, which makes for a perfect comedic blend with the song’s theme:  the usually-chill Josh starting to freak out (in a sweetly hilarious way) when left alone with his thoughts.  I love the craziness of Josh’s fears, there are some fun rhymes here, and Vincent Rodriguez III sounds great.

Best lyric:  “I used to like guacamole, now I don’t like guacamole. / What if I stop liking other things I like? / Like, what if I stopped liking my mom? / If it worked on guacamole, it could work on my mom!”

“Friendtopia” – So much fun.  A portrait of a dystopian hellscape coupled with Spice Girl sensibilities – it’s everything you didn’t know you wanted!  Taking the “there’s nothing the power of friendship can’t do” platitude to the absurd lengths of “literally take over the world and establish a ruthless dictatorship” is such a Crazy Ex-Girlfriend thing to do.  Rebecca, Heather, and Valencia have the best squad goals.

Best lyric:  “Now that we have total control, / Get ready for what’s in store. / Our reign will be like / Sweet Valley High meets 1984!”

“You Go First” – This is a pitch-perfect ‘80s power ballad (complete with wigs that get increasingly bigger over the course of the song and a random classically-trained dancer,) and Rachel Bloom and Donna Lynn Champlin both kill it.  More than that, though, it’s a great articulation of two friends playing chicken with their feelings, both desperately wanting to make up but unwilling to be the bigger woman and make the first move.  I’m sure the romance stuff will always be a big part of the show, but in many ways, Rebecca and Paula’s friendship is the real OTP.

Best lyric:  “I mean, / This is almost entirely all my fault here, / But you gotta admit it’s just a tiny bit / Your fault too.”

“You’re My Best Friend (and I Know I’m Not Yours)” – Really cute, fun song.  You wouldn’t think it would be, since it’s all about Darryl admitting that he’s better friends with Paula than she is with him, but I like the jaunty melody paired with how gently playful he is throughout.  He’s all about reassuring Paula that he doesn’t need more than she has to give, “and that’s okay.”  For someone who can be as needy as Darryl, that’s a big step.

Best lyric:  “A little from you is like a lot from someone else. / Six of yours beats anyone’s dozen. / That’s why I love you like a sister, / And you love me like a second cousin!”

“Let’s Have Intercourse” – This is a pretty perfect song for Nathaniel at this point in the season.  It’s so him, with the lazy “just pretend I’m seducing you” air and the way he’s negging Rebecca through the whole thing.  It’s also so Rebecca, because you can see how disgusted she is by Nathaniel’s attitude but how drawn she is to him at the same time.  She’s all about the unhealthy behavior, and at this moment, Nathaniel is basically a neon sign reading “bad decision.”

Best lyric:  “I won’t be back to normal till / I see what your nipples look like. / They’re probably straightforward nipples - / I won’t know for sure…”

“Santa Ana Winds” – Anthropomorphizing the Santa Ana winds (a.ka. the “devil winds”) as a cheerful prankster wreaking havoc is a neat idea, and giving him a Frankie Valli-esque number with which to introduce himself makes it even better.  I love the mix of magic and destruction in this song, and the vocals really are a great parallel for the sounds of the wind.

Best lyric:  “A little bit about me: / I’m a hot, hot breeze / That originates from high-pressure air masses. / Technically, I’m known as a katabatic wind - / That’s science for ‘a pain in your asses.’”

“Rebecca’s Reprise” – What an emotional masterpiece.  This is Rebecca at her most heartbreakingly delusional, and setting her hopeful lyrics against the backdrop of the melodies from “You Stupid Bitch” and “The Villain in My Own Story” is just brilliant.  Those songs provided Rebecca’s darkest moments in season 1, and hearing those melodies again here makes you brace yourself for how Rebecca’s hopes are going to be shattered.  For me, though, the most painful part of the reprise is actually from a song that was hilarious the first time around, “I Love My Daughter (But Not in a Creepy Way)” – Rebecca plaintively pinning all her self-worth on a father who clearly isn’t worth it is so, so sad, and it breaks my heart to see her so happy when I know it can never turn out that way she wants it to.

Best lyric:  “My daddy will love me, / And my mommy will love me, / And Josh will love me, and then / I’ll never have problems again.”