T5W#235-Top 5 Songs from K-ON!! (Season 2)

 

One of the most nervous aspects of going into K-ON!! was the idea of having to judge the next wave of musical numbers against the stellar setlist of Season One.  Those songs might’ve been few in number but they helped make the first season the legend that it is…you know along with the every infectious fun loving adventures of Yui, Mio, Ritsu, Mugi and Azusa.  Hoping a Sophomore Album lives up to the debut is never easy but it’s so worth it if you have a little faith.  And K-ON has never been one to let me down.  Sure enough, Season Two definitely delivered music worthy of standing toe to toe, if not above, the successes of Season One’s tunes and I have five songs to submit as evidence.  As we close out the series (and The Movie, wow it’s a busy Wednesday), let’s look back at the musical triumphs of K-ON’s sequel season.  These are my Top 5 Songs from K-ON!! (Season 2)

#5-Pure Pure Heart

The very first new song of the new Season, Pure Pure Heart gives us a strong new kind of sound to the Light Music Club.  It shows growth and maturity, showing that these girls have grown as individual artists and as a band altogether.  It might not sound as cutesy as Cakeyake Girls of Fuwa Fuwa Time but that’s not a slide against it.  It’s an evolution of sound and a solid track to kick off the second seasonal album of After School Tea Time (or third I guess, did they have enough tunes in their first year to make a full album?).

#4-Go! Go! Maniac

Doing new opening for K-ON that wasn’t Cageyake Girls wasn’t going to be easy.  Many associate that Season One intro with the show as a whole and with good reason, it’s perfect.  With the task of producing a new intro in mind, Go! Go! Maniac enters the scene sounding just as crazy as the title suggests.  Helped by visuals involving a camera spinning continuously around the five girls and rapid fire editing, this is basically the sugar rush of the Light Music Club in song form. Not quite Cageyake Girls but a very strong follow up nonetheless.

#3-Gohan wa Okazu

Now this is classic Season One tuneage.  Zany lyrics, quick and energetic beat and the lyrics also talk about rice…yep it’s an After School Tea Time jam.  Like so many of their earliest tracks, Gohan wa Okazu is meant to get you into the middle of the crowd going nuts and having a grand old time with friends and large group of fellow fans.  Never since “Peace is Nice” from Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus has a song featuring Rice sounded so freaking epic.

#2-Tenshi ni Fureta yo! 

If it weren’t for my #1 choice, I’d say this was the culmination of the powers of the original four members of the Light Music Club.  Not only do Yui, Mio, Ritsu and Mugi sound so in sync and stronger than they ever have before, but it’s the reason this song exists that makes it so special.  This is the groups farewell to the beloved underclassman, Azusa and it is beautiful, tear jerking and loaded with so many feels.  It’s a special song for a very important part of the Light Music Club and earns all the emotions its trying to invoke.

#1-U&I

And then there’s this song which could be both about Azusa as well as the girl who inspired it, Yui’s little sister Ui.  This is the Fuwa Fuwa time of Season Two, the LMC’s most performed song.  What really puts this song at the top of my list is because…well while Tenshi ni Fureta yo! is a labor of love from the original four members of the LMC (Yui, Mio, Ritsu and Mugi) for Azusa, U&I is by Yui herself, written for her sister.  Yui may be a scatterbrained but loveable clutz but nothing shows how much she’s truly grown over the course of two seasons than this song that she wrote on her own without any assistance from the others.  For that alone, U&I takes my #1 spot.