It's been popular to rank the songs season by season, but I decided to wait for the whole thing and try to come up with a list. I ranked this on a combination of could I still remember the song, did the song offer some sort of useful commentary and surprise, as well as being fun to couch dance too. Okay, some of these are not couch dancers. Some of them are super weird and that's what makes them great.
-A Boy Band Made Up of Four Joshes - This song is just pure joy in it's
-A Diagnosis - It's a great song, and a song that survives outside the context of the show, and yet is more meaningful if you've been on this journey with Rebecca.
- Don't Be A Lawyer - This one falls into the mostly fun side. It's also the culmination of a journey for Rebecca as we've been watching her struggle to like this job she clearly hates.
- Dream Ghost - Dream Ghost hits on multiple levels. It's a fun tune, it pokes fun at a common method of change for fictional characters, and the dream ghost also has great advice.
-Face Your Fears - This song remains the moment I went from cautiously interested in the show to fully on board. Much like the "Sexy Getting Ready Song" it makes use of challenging the text within the song to make sure you understand that the metaphor is terrible, but also involves a back up children's choir because why wouldn't it.
-First Penis I Saw - It's a catchy tune about a moment we all come to recognize has special significance and yet also maybe shouldn't.
-Friendtopia - It's hard for me to choose between "Friendtopia" and "Let's Generalize About Men" but to me both fall into girl group bonding stuff, and yet, this one is just a little more of a bop.
-Gettin' Bi - This was a delightful song, and also did a thing that is sadly unexpected it network TV right now. Darryl realized he was attracted to someone of the same gender and didn't decide he was gay, he decided he was bisexual. Obviously, all paths are valid, but it was so nice to see a show represent bisexuality as even an option. Plus it is fun to couch dance too.
-The Group Mind Has Decided You're in Love - Again I think this works on many levels, although I have some friends who disagree with me. I think the send up of shipping along with the typical declaration of group peer pressure towards a specific coupling in musicals, the we won't be falling in love (followed of course by the couple always falling in love).
-How to Clean Up - Cracked me up in it's brief simplicity.
-I Hate Everything But You - It is a delightful song. Yes, I love snarky dude, as established, but this song is great.
-I've Always Never Believed in You - I do love a Paula song, but also, I love a song about how you might not really have known if your kid was going to be great, but are glad they kind of did.
-JAP Battle and the JAP Battle Reprise - Both delightful. The songs both thread a very careful line of acknowledging and yet not playing into stereotypes. Besides we all need a good frenemy song.
-One Indescribable Instant - I swear it's not the Lea Salonga of it all. Okay, it's totally the Lea Salonga of it, but still, this song again captures these songs that outlast the movies they are from such that you can still hum the song even when your memory of the characters is muddled.
- Remember That We Suffered - I know there's a lot of love for "Where's the Bathroom?" but for me "Remember That We Suffered" manged to be both funny and poignant in equal measure.
-Settle for Me - This song was an early entry, demonstrating character notes, as well as a willingness to use multiple styles.
-Sex With a Stranger - This song demonstrated some wonderful sex positivity as well as nice balance of concern and excitement, in other ways it felt very real.
-The Buzzing From the Bathroom - This is one of those things where if I told you there was a "Les Miserables" style song about realizing your spouse has not been getting orgasms from sex with you, but this worked and managed to be funny and tragic. Well, tragic for Tim. And his wife.
-The Moment is Me - Heather hated all of this, but the song rolled on regardless of her feeling about songs about realizing she had everything she needed to move on.
-The Sexy Getting Ready Song - It's just amazing. It showed the layered, knowing, and quirky vibe the show was going for. And captured a very real thing.