Ranking the Songs of Make Your Mark Chapters 5 and 6 (From Worst to Best)

We only got two new songs for Chapter 5 of Make Your Mark, so making a list ranking them was pointless. If not for "Secrets of Starlight" we'd only have had two more songs for Chapter 6, but that special bumps the total for Chapter 6 to four, or technically five depending on how you wanna count two versions of one song. In any case, with a wider amount of songs, I can officially do a ranking for them. I'll probably do a top ten songs for Make Your Mark in the near future, but for now let's just focus on the songs from Chapters 5 and 6. Which ones will stand the test of time, whereas which ones deserve to be forgotten? Let's find out. As always, this is just my personal opinion so please respect it.

7. It All Takes Time (From "Cutie Blossom Bash")
Why it's on the bottom: This song is a very poorly mixed take on modern pop. It's bland, uninspiring, tone deaf and just isn't memorable at all. Misty's first big song with the group (in fact, probably the first song she ever sings period), and it's probably one of the worst things Make Your Mark ever did on the music front. It really conveys the feeling that Chapter 5 of Make Your Mark was not a top priority: Aside from the little sub-arc with Misty, nothing of substance really happened in it, and nothing that turned out to really be significant to the overall plot: Outside of Misty planting a unity tree in Zephyr Heights, which we could've gotten at any point.

6. With A Little Creativity (From "Secrets of Starlight")
Why it's not on the bottom: At least I get the feeling this song is trying to be memorable, trying to be catchy. Izzy certainly needed a good solo song for Make Your Mark. But sadly, this is leagues below what "Fit Right In" in "A New Generation" did for her. The lyrics are very basic, and the song doesn't have the kind of energy it should have. It's too fast paced, which really hurts it. Perhaps that's why we got a reprise of another song in "Secrets of Starlight", as if they knew this song wasn't going to be good? But if that's the case, why leak it ahead of time?

5. Villain (From "The Isle of Scaly")
Why it's in the bottom three: As far as villain songs go, this one is very basic. Like Opaline herself, the lyrics and overall tone convey the most basic of villany: Mwhahaha, evil. And by itself, that's not a good template for a villain. Yes, I know that old villains didn't necessarily have a lot of depth to them. But why do you think we remember villains like the Wicked Witch of the West, or Disney villains like Captain Hook and Cruella De Vile, but we don't really remember the wicked stepmother from Cinderella or the evil queen in her queen form in Snow White? Because the villains I mentioned had a personality, a certain charm to them. Opaline doesn't have that. And this song tells us nothing about her, and isn't paced or visualized well enough to make us fear her. I get the feeling that those manequins of the mane five are meant to convey what Opaline is going to do to them, but there's no intensity or feeling of threat. You can have a villain that's evil and irredeemable and knows it, you just need to give them an enjoyable personality and make them actually competent. With Opaline, it seems they forgot all of that.

4. We've Got the Magic - Pipp's Version (From "Roots of All Evil, Part 2")
Why it's in the middle: We'd get a reprise (they call it a remix) of this song later on, and that one was longer and carried more stakes with it. Here, this is just Pipp singing as a distraction. I do like that she intended for this song to go viral to inspire ponies, though again I'm not exactly thrilled with the Pippsqueaks being the ones to take it to heart. If the Pippsqueaks had more personality and character on their own, maybe I would care about them more. Still, as far as distractions go, this one is fairly tame. I've seen songs where in-universe they're just meant to distract someone, and they carry more weight to them. Still, it's probably one of the better pop songs Pipp has sung, not that that's saying much.

3. We've Got the Magic - Remix (From "Roots of All Evil, Part 2")
Why it's in the top three: Once it stops just being the Pippsqueaks singing this song, it becomes much better. A song of unison and unity among the three pony tribes is nice, and the visuals certainly carry it. However, there is one thing I notice that I can't help but wonder if it's intentional: We don't see Phyilis among the ponies of Maretime Bay singing, even Sprout and Posey join in. This isn't like her cameo in "With Each Other" from "Top Remodel". Regardless of what she might personally feel, you'd think this would be the point where she would cement her redemption that we must assume happened off-screen. We also have two stallions with a colt that's meant to be their child, though at first glance I actually mistook it for Sprout because it has a very similar coat color to his. This remix ends up being better than the original, not a lot of songs can claim that honor.

2. Mane Family (From "Family Trees, Part 2")
Why it's not on the top: First time I heard this song, Misty's singing voice really threw me off with how deep it sounded. She gets better as the song goes along, mostly by blending in and harmonizing with Hitch's voice, but that first impression is still a bit steep. Was she just out of practice given that she only got one song prior to sing as Misty? Or was that just direction? That aside, this song is good, but the lyrics get repetitive fast: Your friends are your family, remember them. It really does give me Phil Collins from Disney's Tarzan vibes, particularly "Two Worlds, One Family" which has a similar message: Family can come in many different forms, not just a conventional family. However, I feel like that message gets kind of undercut because of the visuals: Sunny does nothing of substance during the song, and Zipp goes off alone to look for the door. Pipp and Izzy also do something that feels rather condescending: They see a stuffed dragon and show it to Sparky, thinking that'll make him feel better. The song itself is great, but the visuals could've been better. In fact, it feels like aside from a couple of songs, Make Your Mark didn't really try in the visuals department for their songs.

1. Starshine Time (From "Secrets of Starlight")
Why it's on the top: Aside from the noticeable bits of autotuning from Violet Frost, this song is catchy and enjoyable. I really love the worked in flute that accompanies the other instruments. And you know this song is good when they insist on having a reprise during the climax of "Secrets of Starlight". It's even taking place in-universe given that the mane six applaud when they hear it, and Aurora in the reprise tells the ponies to "stop singing". Since hearing this song in the special, I've been listening to a lot, and I daresay it might just be my new personal favorite song for all of Make Your Mark, dethroning "Portrait Day". It's easily the best song of the past two chapters, and signifies an attempt by the last two chapters of Make Your Mark to have the songs branch out, be something other than modern pop.

And there you have it, come back tomorrow when we'll update the villains ranking to incorporate Twitch and Aurora.