Top Five Best AND Worst Equestria Girls Songs (Including Rainbow Rocks and Friendship Games) · 5:26am Dec 23rd, 2015
I haven't really done much in regards to stuff involving Equestria Girls, let's do something about that. This is a list of the top five best songs from the franchise so far, as well as the top five worst. The overall quality of the movie doesn't affect where the songs will end, the movie could be really bad but have a good song, or be really good but have a bad song. And remember, as always, this is just my opinion, and I mean no disrespect to the DHX staff.
Let's begin with the best songs:
5. Helping Twilight Win The Crown a.k.a Cafeteria Song (From: "Equestria Girls")
Kicking off this list is the longest of all the songs in the first "Equestria Girls", and probably the only one to leave any sort of lasting impression. The first "Equestria Girls" movie isn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be, it's better than a lot of episodes from Season 1, and a few of the clunkers from Seasons 2 and 3, it's probably about on par with Season 2 in terms of writing. This song is also the one song that feels natural in the movie, whereas all the other musical numbers feel like they were tacked on for lack of a better term. It properly conveys the message it's trying to get across, without bashing you over the head with it excessively. It's so catchy that even Snips and Snails couldn't resist dancing to it.
4. Let's Have A Battle (Of The Bands) (From: "Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks")
With "Rainbow Rocks" being a musical, it offered more songs than its predecessor, and ultimately its successor. But as it tends to be the case with musicals, some songs outshine the others. Quantity does not always mean quality. This song allows Kazumi Evans to properly showcase her skills as Adagio Dazzle, and the lead into the song is really good. Some of the lyrics also convey how The Dazzlings view the world, with lines such as "Are you a loser, or a fighter?" and "It doesn't matter who you hurt." it's obvious that to the trio of sirens, it's a dog eat dog world out there, and if you don't have the skills to fight back, you won't survive. Sure, The Dazzlings may have occasionally been held back by forced comedic moments from Sonata Dusk or Aria Blaze, but in these moments it's easy to look past that and see them for the cunning manipulists that they are.
3. What More Is Out There? (From: "Equestria Girls: Friendship Games")
While both "Rainbow Rocks" and "Friendship Games" had impressive intros (which cannot be said for the first "Equestria Girls" movie which just settled on a dubstep remix of the parent show's theme song), they largely just set the bar for what was to come. "Friendship Games" had probably the greatest level of good songs, even "Rainbow Rocks" had a few subpar songs slip in amongst the gems. But in the end, the three songs everyone remembers are this, "ACADECA", and a song that we'll get to soon. And although I like "ACADECA" and think it's a great montage song that allows for the progression of time without bogging us down in unnecessary details, I wanted to include one song from each film, so it had to go. This song certainly feels like a Disney Princess song, particularly from a princess like Belle or Rapunzel who feel there's more to life than what they've seen, and they long for something greater. This song was originally going to be a duet between Twilight and Sunset Shimmer, as part of the scrapped subplot of Sunset Shimmer growing home sick. And while that would've been cool to see, I feel like "Friendship Games" was crammed enough as it was, since The Shadowbolts never really got a chance to shine (except for Sugarcoat, Sour Sweet, and debatedly Indigo Zap). Adding in the Sunset Shimmer subplot would've left the movie juggling too many things. For what it's worth, the song as we saw it is really good, and establishes human Twilight quite nicely.
2. Unleash The Magic (From: "Equestria Girls: Friendship Games")
If "What More Is Out There?" felt like a Disney Princess song, then this feels a lot like a Disney Villan song, particularly in the vein of villans like Judge Frollo and Mother Gothel, who try to manipulate the protagonist into listening to them through peer pressure or even just convincing them that the world is out to get them. The chanting gives this song a creepy vibe that most other villan songs in all of FiM lack. And the buildup at the very end as Twilight gives into the tempetation is done really well. But there is one problem that holds this song back, Prinicpal Cinch already knows Twilight can't control the magic inside the locket, and saw first hand what said magic could do if set free. So why she tells Twilight to use it, just in case Canterlot High pony's up doesn't make much sense, and unfortunately costs her all credibility as an antagonist. Even Sunset Shimmer wasn't that stupid as a villan.
1. Under Our Spell (From: "Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks")
Although the cameo appearances from several of the background and secondary characters largely felt like glorified fan service intended to cover up the movie's flaws and choppy pacing, this song was the definitive highlight of "Rainbow Rocks", at least for its villans. The song is esentially The Dazzlings rubbing their apparent victory in the faces of everyone, because they know no one can stop them. It's always an interesting change of pace to see villans who know they can win, or know the hero/heroes can't beat them anytime soon, as opposed to villans who either bide their time for longer than they should, or never learn when to back off. In a musical of any sort, a good song is one that helps the story and narrative to flow in a faster time frame, while making sure not to glance over something the audience needs to see to understand things. "Rainbow Rocks" may have had really wonky pacing outside of its climax, but this song managed to work pretty well despite that glaring flaw. Now, if only the rest of the movie could've flowed as well as this montage.
And now for the worst:
5. CHS Rally Song (From: "Equestria Girls: Friendship Games")
I don't think this is really a bad song, in fact I kind of like it. But it pretty much just tells us what we already know, not that they didn't do a good job of justifying why this needed to happen. It's largely on here because I want to make sure each movie has at least one song appear on both lists, so it doesn't seem like I'm favoring one over the others, and refuse to accept that one film could have a weak song. "Friendship Games" may have had the best overall quality of songs, but compared to all the other songs in the film, this one just didn't do much to stand out.
4. Shake Your Tail (From: "Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks")
The music video for this song was a lot better, even though this song was intentionally supposed to be bad because The Rainbooms are being sabotaged. The problem is, the sabotage isn't very enjoyable, and it's way too obvious. And yet, The Rainbooms seem to think everyone is being a jerk for no good reason. Regardless of whether or not its The Dazzlings influence, I fail to see how they could not notice the giant magnets, or the stage light suddenly shining down. It seems like when FiM tries to go for a "So bad it's good" vibe, it usually doesn't do very well. At least when that trope is a crucial part of the story.
3. This is Our Big Night (From: "Equestria Girls")
This song just feels like an unnecessary inclusion to make the movie run longer, nothing of substance happens and the song become repetitive really fast. It just involves the human five and Twilight dressing up for a few minutes, before they go to the dance so Twilight can be crowned. You can skip over this song and not miss anything of substance, especially since Twilight confessed to the human five her secret in the scene before. I understand that sometimes you need something to lighten the mood so your story doesn't suddenly become too serious, but this probably isn't the way to do it. I know movies should usually avoid cutting out songs if they can help it, but why this was kept on television broadcasts on The Hub and Discovery Family while other filler scenes that were at least enjoyable got cut I'll never know. If you're going to have filler, you need to make sure it doesn't detract from the story, kill the mood, or seem too obvious.
2. Awesome As I Wanna Be (From: "Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks")
You know, it's a really bad thing when your hero is egotistical that everyone hates them, because chances are your audience will too. This is part of what really hurt "Rainbow Rocks", they give Rainbow Dash WAY too much screen time, as if to make up for the fact that the fandom criticized "Equestria Girls" for not having a lot of Rainbow Dash, even though it wasn't necessary for her to have a big role in the film. This is the kind of behavior that people specifically don't like to see in Rainbow Dash, pony or not. She can have an ego, but no one likes to see someone who's stuck up that they think they can do anything and still be loved. The fact that only Rainbow Dash begins to transform in this song only adds to the confusion of the transformations, and by the end it's actually a relief when Sunset Shimmer tackles Rainbow Dash to make her stop singing. "I'll Fly" was a much better character song for Rainbow Dash than this one, which blantantly strokes her ego to the point where it could burst.
1. Tricks Up My Sleeve (From: "Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks")
I really hate to do this to "Rainbow Rocks", especially since it has the best song of the entire franchise so far. But this song is just really weak, and its only purpose is to give Trixie more screen time, even though she really doesn't do anything other than trap The Rainbooms per The Dazzlings influence. But what really warrants this song being the worst is that we never get to hear the full version in the movie, they just repeat the same verse three times, as if they thought no one would notice. If you want to hear the full version of the song, you've got to buy the album or download it. That's got to be one of the worst ways to motivate people to buy your movie's soundtrack album. If people really like your movie, or at least the music in it, that should be incentive enough for them to pick up the album. Intentionally excluding songs or only playing one part of a song over and over again in a movie, so that people will have to buy your album to listen to the rest is bad and makes you look desperate attention or profit. I'm sure that wasn't Daniel Ingram's intent, since he's a great composer, and the same holds true for his buddy William Anderson. But Meghan McCarthy really hurt them by not letting more of this song play. Even if we don't get to hear the full version of it in the movie, at least don't repeat the same exact verse three times.
And there you have it.
I completely disagree with "Awesome as I Wanna Be" being a bad song.
Remember, in terms of development with the characters, EQG!RD is still practically her season 1 self, so it would make sense for her to be as egotistical as she is in it.
Plus, let's face it, both versions of RD WOULD write a song about how awesome they are.
In fact, here are my personal top five songs from the EQG franchise:
5. Strange New World: I actually think that THIS is the catchiest song from the first EQG movie. And, it does for me what "Under Our Spell" did for you.
4. Acadeca: This is essentially "Mundane Made Awesome: The Song". And it is awesome to listen to.
3. Welcome to the Show: Mainly, the reason I like it so much is Sunset Shimmer's part. The Dazzlings' part of it was good, and the back and forth between them and the Rainbooms was fun, but it was during that last section of the song that it goes from "great" to "Amazing". Plus, it ends with probably one of the best guitar riffs I've ever heard.
2. Awesome as I Wanna Be: Not only do I think it would be completely in character for both versions of RD to write a song about how awesome she is, but it's arguably the catchiest song related to G4 period.
1. Unleash the Magic: It did the one single thing in a 3 minute song that the Sirens failed to do over the course of a 73 minute movie: Creep me out. Plus, I can actually defend Cinch thinking that SciTwi would be able to control the magic at that moment: She would be releasing it all at once, willingly, instead of trying to keep the magic contained when it was trying to get out of the container.
Now, I don't really think any of the songs from the three movies are bad... but for me the weakest ones are:
5. Right There In Front of Me: Same problem as the credits songs for EQG and Rainbow Rocks, but it IS getting better. Plus, I like the chorus of it a lot. It's just that the rest of it is still a BIT too slow.
4. Tricks Up My Sleeve: I just consider this one to be bland.
3. This Is Our Big Night: This is probably the most repetitive song in the entire EQG franchise. But I give it a slight pass in that it IS catchy.
2. Shine Like Rainbows: A bit faster than A Friend For Life, but still too slow for me.
1. A Friend For Life: It's WAY too slow for me. And it's kind of bland.
Very happy to see more love for Twilight's song in 'Friendship Games.' Probably the strongest part of the film for me. That being said, my actual favorite bit of the music in that film comes right at the beginning. As the opening credits start and the bit of magic flies along Twilight's board, the way the music and choral sounds build and build are simply goose-bump inducing. And then it crescendos with the best opening credits sequence of the series. Felt like a real, honest to goodness movie.
But as much as I love the Dazzling's songs in 'Rainbow Rocks,' the musical dual in the climax blows everything before it out of the water. When Sunset comes in, it's as fist-pumpingly awesome as you can get.