Season 9 Song Rankings (From Worst to Best)

The final season of the show certainly gave us some more songs to talk about, some of which even managed to make it into my Top Thirty Five Songs ranking list. But what about the songs as a whole, just the ones Season 9 treated us to? Which ones left a lasting impression and which ones (if any) fell flat? Well, let's find out. There's a total of seven songs to consider for this list, and remember that it is purely the result of my personal opinion.

7. The Place Where We Belong (From: Uprooted)
Why it's on the bottom: This song just further demonstrated how "Uprooted" was a poor man's rehash of "Castle, Sweet Castle" just swap the rest of the mane six for the student six. And considering I didn't like "Make This Castle a Home" from the original, a rehash of that was going to guarantee this song wouldn't leave kind of lasting impression. It's not even good at being a student six song because they got actual songs in "School of Friendship" and "Friendship Always Win", songs that were original and not rehashing other songs.

6. Fit Right In (From: She's All Yak)
Why it's not on the bottom: It feels like they just did this to give Kazumi Evans one last solo song as Rarity. I'll admit the reprise isn't half bad, but the song itself is just bland and forgettable. Outside of the "Too X" lines, which included "Too Twilight" there wasn't much that really stood out. It's really saying something when other songs about Rarity changing appearances were done better, even "It's Gonna Work" when she was preaching conformity to bad standards.

5. Being Big is All It Takes (From: Growing Up is Hard to Do)
Why it's in the bottom three: The CMC have had much better songs than this, especially from Ed Valentine. Everything about this song hammers home the same point: "We're big now and we can do whatever we want!" which we all know the episode is going to be about them learning that's not the case. And at this point it's obvious to tell that Scootaloo has a new singing double (Madeline Peters apparently moved to the U.S. recently and records her lines separately like Tara Strong does). As for the line about how "Facts are wrong", maybe when this script was originally written it was harmless (2014 or 2015 might have been passable) but in this day and age there is no reason at all to include them other than because you haven't been paying attention to the world!

4. A Better Way to Be Bad (From: Frenemies)
Why it's in the middle: It does start out a little bit weirdly, with Cozy Glow just going from frustrated with her fellow villains to trying to control them. But it does pick up once Chrysalis and Tirek start singing. Interestingly, you could say that this is the villain song for Cozy Glow, explaining her motivations. But even then she seems to be actually using friendship, meaning she actually has learned something about it even if the episode doesn't seem to acknowledge that fact. It set the bar that all songs onward in Season 9 would more or less follow, but it would be eclipsed quite a few times. Gotta give it props for having tango elements to it, tango is a genre you don't see much of anymore.

3. The Last Laugh Song a.k.a Stick With Cheese (From: The Last Laugh)
Why it's in the top three: Weird Al gets to show off his musical talents once again here, and much like when he voiced Cheese Sandwich he also shows off his vocal range to great display. The accompanying visuals are fantastic, especially when he dons that yellow top hat and suit (wish he'd kept it). It truly feels like "Pure Imagination" ponyfied. And you could also call this song: "How Cheese Sandwich Got His Groove Back". But I'll admit it has a weird start to it, the first part of it feels like a song conversation rather than an actual song, and that kind of breaks the immersion.

2. The Magic of Friendship Grows (From: The Last Problem)
Why it's not on the top: Some fans mentioned how this is similar to "Embrace the magic" just with slightly reworked lyrics, and I can kind of see the resembelence. At first it starts off a little unsure of itself and awkwardly delivered, but once we get to Ponyville and the chours starts getting repeated it grows and builds into something truly grand. The accompanying visuals, especially towards the end take you on a feels trip. The part where each mane six member jumps through a color stream as a slew of characters appear behind them really feels like they're channeling an anime opening/ending (group shots showing each member in their daily lives, a quick panning shot of all the major and minor characters, ending with the group all together and looking triumphant). The show couldn't have asked for a better way to close it out the last episode, and if not for how it starts it probably would've been able to take the number one spot.

1. Lotta Little Things to Do (From: Between Dark and Dawn)
Why it's on the top: Aloma Steele greatly improved as the singing voice of Princess Luna here, she sounded much more polished and well accquinted with the role compared to "Luna's Future". Maybe it was just the direction and the intent they were going for, but there she came across as a little bit awkwardly stilted and overly dramatic, a voice that sounded better fit for someone like Zecora. Here though, she is able to add a bit more emotion to her voice and it sounds almost like Tabitha St. Germain herself. Of course, she can't take all the credit, Nicole Oliver rocks it as Princess Celestia and plays off of Aloma Steele so well for the duet. Think of it as an improved take on "We're Friendship Bound", no awkward start or odd details at the beginning to throw you off. So for all those reasons, I'm happy to put it at number one.

And there you have it, come back tomorrow when we'll rank the writers of Season 9 from worst to best.

Comments

[superfun]

Here's how I rank them:
The Magic of Friendship Grows: It brings me to tears everytime I hear it
Better Way to Be Bad: It's the most fun song of the entire series
The Last Laugh
Being Big is All it Takes
Lotta Little Things
Fit Right In
The Place Where We Belong