Finally
getting around to a Top Ten Songs for Crazy
Ex-Girlfriend’s final season. I thought the season 4 songs were a little
all over the place (lots of numbers for more minor characters, quite a few
gimmicky songs, not as many slam dunks for Rebecca,) but even though,
musically, it’s not my favorite season, there are still some top-notch songs in
here (including a few from those more minor characters!) Here are my favorites.
“No One Else is Singing My Song” – Great song for
Rebecca, Nathaniel, and Josh to separately wallow in their self-pity of all
feeling “uniquely” lonely in the exact same song. The joke is an obvious one,
but the song does it well. I especially like how the rhythm on “No one knows
the rhythm enough to sing along” really does change with every chorus, and the
“entire company” part at the end is terrific. Not to mention, everyone sounds awesome here.
Best
lyric: “It’s late and getting colder.” – “You’re only getting older.” – “And
you’re next to someone who is fast asleep.” – “That’s so specific!”
“Don’t Be a Lawyer” – I can’t believe Jim
has been an office character this whole time and only now in season 4 shows off
his pipes and his moves in this killer number. Rocking a Bel Biv Devoe beat and
Bobby Brown dance moves, this song enumerates all the reasons why becoming a
lawyer is is a horrible decision. It’s full of clever rhymes (“Your only
expertise / Is runnin’ up fees, / Speakin’ legalese like a dick”) and harsh
truths about the profession (there’s no money to be had in any discipline of
law that isn’t completely soulless,) and the whole thing is beautifully topped
off when the CW lawyer who interrupts the song to issue a disclaimer swandives
out the window in despair.
Best
lyric: God, there are so many! I’m gonna have to go with, “Sure, your parents
might think you’re a failure, / But no one’s ever said, ‘First, let’s kills all
the tailors.’”
“I Want to Be a Child Star” – Although Rebecca’s
half brother Tucker only appears in a single episode, this song makes it a
memorable one. The show nails the look and feel of a preteen pop star, and
Tucker’s enthusiasm for the inevitable spiral that’s sure to accompany his
desired fame really sells the dark humor. The lines describing a child star’s
rise and subsequent flameout are just too real (hang in there, kids from A Series of Unfortunate Events! Stay
grounded and stay safe.)
Best
lyric: “I want to sue my parents for emancipation / After they get caught
stealing from me. / I want to be on the set / Of The Walking Dead / When I lose my virginity.”
“Trapped in a Car with Someone You Don’t Want
to Be Trapped in a Car With” – This is a song that, while amusing, didn’t
strike me too much when the episode first aired. However, the soundtrack has
made me fall in love with it. I love the peppy Beach Boys-style number about
dealing with an annoying car-ride companion, especially how the song shifts
through a few different genres (because the car ride “goes on so long” that the
“group” evolves from ‘60s pop to experimental hippie stuff to more commercial
fare.) Also, like “Maybe She’s Not Such a Heinous Bitch After All” from season
3, there are some fantastic jokes in the background lines.
Best
lyric: From the hippie section – “Why do we even have cars at all? / In the
scheme of things, this Earth is small. / Or do I really need to travel
somewhere / Or can I get there in my mind?”
“What U Missed While U Were PopUlar” – So fun and so true. At
their high school reunion, George schools Josh on what all the nerdy kids were
up to while Josh was busy being prom king. From the morning news team’s
“hardcore” reporting to the band kids’ makeout sessions, the song covers
various nerdy-kid niches and really celebrates that plenty of kids who aren’t
popular still have plenty of their own kind of fun in high school. I also like
the point it brings up that these kids also developed resilience, while Josh,
who had it easy in high school, has been struggling more in adulthood.
Best
lyric: “You were cool while we were not, / But our massage circles were
super-hot. / We massaged while you were popular / And got massaged while you
were popular.”
“Hello, Nice to Meet You” – First of all, even
though I enjoy Skylar Astin, new!Greg remained odd for me, and I never thought
he really felt like Greg. That said,
I do like this song, a cute bouncy
number in which Rebecca and Greg try to put their old baggage aside and pretend
they’re meeting for the first time. The juxtaposition between the sweet
meetcutes and the frank references to their checkered past together is done
really well.
Best
lyric: “I mean, is anyone we meet / Really that new to us? / We’re all the same
species / That grew in a uterus.”
“Sports Analogies” – Oh, I love this one!
A Rat Pack-style number of Josh and Nathaniel getting past their differences
through the universal male language of sports analogies. Lots of terrific
tidbits here. I always laugh when we cut to them in the big-band setting for
the second chorus and both of them now have a scotch and a cigarette in each hand, and the jump from the sad
bridge back into the peppy final chorus is a delight. It’s a song that makes me
wish Nathaniel and Josh had more opportunities to sing together.
Best
lyric: “Sports analogies, sports analogies.” – “We found the common ground in
all men’s personalities.”
“Real Life Fighting is Awkward” – I almost forgot
about this one, since it isn’t on the season 4 soundtrack. It’s in the
background rather than being sung by any actual character, but it’s too much
fun to be left out! The “Kung Fu Fighting”-esque ditty provides a perfect
backdrop to Josh and Greg’s awkward fight. I love the intercut fantasy
sequences of them fighting in an action film, kung fu film, musical, and sci-fi
film, juxtaposing the slick, stylized moves with their clumsy grappling in real
life.
Best
lyric: “Real life fighting is awkward. / There are no cool side effects. /
Punching doesn’t sound like anything. / You often hurt yourself / More than you
hurt the other guy!”
“Love’s Not a Game” – Nice old-fashioned
ensemble showstopper, not to mention a rare chance for White Josh to take
center stage. His feigned outrage at the group betting on Rebecca’s “Three
Guys, Three Dates” situation is just a fakeout, and he instead leads a peppy
number a la Guys and Dolls. The
melody is catchy, the lyrics are fun, the costumes are vibrant, and the dancing
is terrific. But the irony is great too, the repeated repetitions that they’d never be so callous as to bet on their
friends’ love lives, when of course they’re doing just that.
Best
lyric: “Love’s not a game, / Love’s not a game. / That being said, let’s make
it rain!”
“Eleven O’Clock” – This is, of course,
Rebecca’s “eleven o’clock” number in the series finale. While I think
“Rebecca’s Reprise” at the end of season 2 has a bit more of an emotional
punch, this is still neat, cycling through snippets of a number of songs from
Rebecca’s journey over the course of the series. I especially love the slide
into “You Stupid Bitch,” and the conceit with the various costumes from earlier
numbers is cool.
Best
lyric: “It’s eleven o’clock, / And by eleven o’clock, / Shouldn’t I have earned
a frickin’ ever after? / I’ve done the workbooks, taken the pills, / What more
could I do? / How do I still not know myself / After all that I’ve been
through?”
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