Top 10 Hazbin Hotel Songs.

There are a lot of opinions out there about Hazbin Hotel.
Some love it, others hate it.
However, I think that even those who dislike the show have to admit the songs are the best part of it.
After loving the Season Two musical numbers so much, I decided to rank my Top Ten favourites.
Before beginning this list, though, I have to say that this ranking is from someone who has zero music experience or expertise.
This list is not based upon any understanding of musicals, but upon my personal opinion of the songs.
Quick honourable mentions go to, “More than Anything,” “Sera’s Confession” and “Love in a Bottle.”
With those disclaimers out of the way, let’s start this list with number 10, which is…

10. Clean It Up, Season Two, Episode Four.

Ah, Nifty, you adorable little murder gremlin, you.
She is not only one of my favourite characters in the series, but also the one I believe to be the funniest.
Leave it to the song’s writers to make her musical number just as chaotic and hilarious as she is.
“Clean It Up” sees Nifty proclaim her love for the hotel in the niftiest way possible, singing of disgusting floors and rat murders.
Horrified, Charlie asks Nifty to help “differently”, and she interprets this as singing in Japanese.
Hilariously and ironically, it is at this point that Nifty starts singing about thing most people would consider to be good about the hotel, not just her, like that Charlie is a good boss and that she believes in her dream.
The style also changes from that of an American cartoon to anime, all of this hinting to Nifty’s Japanese roots, which I am sure will be touched upon in a later season.
Although short, “Clean It Up” is a great song, delivering a lot of laughs and further insight into Nifty’s chaotic mind.
More murder gremlin songs next season, please.

9. Respectless, Season One, Episode Three.

A positive of Hazbin Hotel is that their villains have fantastic songs.
You will see many of these songs throughout the list, the first of which being Respectless, sung mostly by Velvette.
Carmilla Carmine starts the song and gets a few words in but, come on, this song is clearly Velevette’s.
As the only Vee without a connection to the main cast, she needed a moment to make her truly stand out.
Boy, did Respectless make her stand out, with Velvette using her time to completely diss Carmilla and the other Overlords.
On top of that, a lot of the rhymes in this song are really catchy like, “Why are you afraid of war? That’s what the guns you sell are for.”
The song even ends on a funny note, with Alastor declaring, “That was a productive meeting,” after Carmilla cancels it.
Respectless does a fantastic job of making Velvette stand out, along with having great rhymes and disses, so it more than earned its spot on this list.

8. Finale, Season One, Episode Eight.

The two season finale’s of Hazbin Hotel both have their cast deliver a big ensemble musical number.
“Finale” was the first song to set this trend and sets up the events of Season Two nicely.
We see our main characters rebuilding the hotel to be better than ever, mourning Sir Pentious, and see both the Vees and Alastor plan to take over it all.
Alastor’s solo moment in the song is especially great, with Amir Talai doing a great job showing his desperation to escape his deal, after almost being killed by Adam.
His return to the hotel also gets a laugh, when Lucifer declares, “Not this guy.”
Their rivalry will never not be funny.
The first of Hazbin Hotel’s big ensemble musical numbers, “Finale” does a good job of setting a trend that would later be continued with “Hear My Hope.”
Personally, I hope it is a trend that continues with every season finale.

7. Hazbin Guarantee (Trust Us), Season Two, Episode One.

The first song of Season Two, “Hazbin Guarantee (Trust Us)” set the stage for the many excellent musical numbers which would follow.
For the first half of the number, it is very similar to “Finale”, in that it sees Charlie and the rest of the cast singing about the hotel, before the second half depicts the Vees singing about their business.
Both haves of the song do an excellent job of showing the difference between our heroes and villains.
Charlie sings of redemption and hope, while Vox and the rest of the Vees draw in a sinner with promises of success, only to throw her in the gutter once everyone loses interest.
And, honestly, with how catchy the Vees part of the song is, I can see how they draw many people into their clutches.
It also speaks a lot about the modern entertainment industry.
Providing a great contrast between our heroes and villains, “Hazbin Guarantee (Trust Us)” was an excellent way to kickstart Season Two.

6. Vox Dei, Season Two, Episode Five.

When Season Two started, I did not think Vox’s plan to take over Heaven had much of a chance of working.
This was the guy who got easily clowned by Alastor back in Season One, after all.
Well, “Vox Dei” was the song that made me rethink this.
Vox rolls a nat 20 on charisma and intimidation, declaring war on the angels, while pretty much aura farming with his pet shark, Shok.wav.
Had I been Sera, I too would have fled in fear, what with the fantastic visuals and vocals.
Speaking of the vocals, Christian Borle nails it as Vox, delivering intimidating line after intimidating line of Vox hyping himself up.
However, pay close attention to the lyrics and you will notice Vox borrowed the flow of the song from Lucifer in “Vox Populi”, foreshadowing just how unoriginal he is.
Brief but epic, “Vox Dei” was the song that convinced me he might actually succeed in taking over Heaven.

5. Stayed Gone, Season One, Episode Two.

Just above the song that proved Vox’s worth, we have the song which showed his one weakness to be Alastor.
After learning of the Radio Demon’s return, Vox takes to airwaves to insult his obsession, only to be made a fool of in front of all of Hell.
Vox’s first part of the song is fast paced and also foreshadows all of the roles he stole in life, including that of a talk show host and TV Chef.
He tries to make it seem like he does not care about Alastor, despite constantly insulting him, only for the Radio Demon to join in on the song and basically bully him into self-destruction.
Just as “Stayed Gone” foreshadows Vox’s past, it also foreshadows his defeat, signifying that Alastor will use the TV Demon’s obsession with him to spark his downfall.
With Vox losing his signal, it is Alastor’s turn to intimidate, morphing into a grotesque, eldritch form, and promising Vox to make him, “wish I’d stayed gone.”
Given what happened at the end of Season Two, I can say Alastor definitely lived up to that promise.
Stayed Gone set up the rivalry between Alastor and Vox perfectly, and for that it reaches the halfway mark on this list.

4. Hear My Hope, Season Two, Episode Eight.

Continuing the trend of the season finale’s final song being an ensemble, “Hear My Hope” pulls out all the stops.
What first looks like it is going to be a self-sacrifice from Emily, eventually turns into an epic chorus, with most of the cast joining in to unite under the power of friendship, stopping Vox’s weapon.
And, no, when I say “power of friendship” I do not mean it sarcastically.
I would say that the song pulls that trope off flawlessly.
What is less than flawless is Abel and Lute’s part in the song.
Their section is definitely well sung but, at the same time, it feels rushed writing-wise, and pretty much ends Lute’s Season Two storyline with a whimper.
Alastor and Rosie’s following part of the song, more than makes up for this though, raising more interesting questions about Rosie, and showing how truly manipulative Alastor can be.
Of the two finale songs, “Hear my Hope” is definitely the better.
Although the Lute and Abel part brings it down somewhat, Alastor’s moment and the magnificent chorus brings it up significantly.

3. Gravity, Season Two, Episode Two.

If someone were to ask me what an example of a good revenge song is, I would immediately point them in the direction of “Gravity.”
This was one of the songs used to tease Season Two, and this was a great marketing decision, considering it is one of the best songs of the season.
Following Adam’s death, Lute begins hallucinating him and swears vengeance in rock ballad, while destroying his room.
The lyrics for this song are incredible, being stuck in my head for weeks after I first heard it.
Jessica Vosk does an amazing job of portraying Lute’s rage and grief, directing her to a downward spiral of revenge, with Alex Brightman’s Adam egging her on.
The only thing stopping this song from being higher is that Lute’s revenge did not turn out to be inevitable, like gravity.
In the end, she barely does anything in Season Two, so it is disappointing to see such an incredible song amount to so little.
I wish it had been saved for a season where Lute actually does something.
Despite this issue, “Gravity” is still an incredible song of revenge, but it is not the best of Season Two.
No, that title goes to…

2. Brighter, Season Two, Episode Seven.

Vox has a lot of excellent songs in Season Two, but by far his best, and the best song of the season, is “Brighter.”
This is the musical number that details his backstory, from small beginnings as a weatherman, to his death as a serial killer, cult leader.
This journey Vox (Or Vincent as he was known in life) goes on pays off the setup from “Stayed Gone,” showing him kill a news anchor, a talk show host, a TV Chef, and just about anyone who he sees as standing in his way to reach the top.
In the end, this suitably brings about his downfall, with his head being crushed by a falling TV, electrocuting him and his followers because he stupidly decided to hold his cult meeting in an indoor pool.
Although this probably explains how Vox became an Overlord in Hell, since he already had followers when he arrived.
The song also does a great job at how Vox’s ambition to be “Brighter” will eventually ruin him, with his defeat being delivered in the very next episode.
Backed up by Christian Borle’s as always fantastic singing voice, “Brighter” is an amazing song that shows us Vox’s past, pays off then unknown setup, and foreshadows his fall from grace.
It is the best song Season Two has to offer, but not the best song of the series.
My favourite song of Hazbin Hotel is…

1. Loser, Baby, Season One, Episode Four.

“Masquerade” is the most depressing episode of Hazbin Hotel so far.
The episode is centered around showcasing Angel Dust’s abuse at the hands of Valentino and the mental trauma this has caused him.
So, it was a very much needed relief to reach the end of the episode and get the most uplifting song of the entire series, and my pick for the best song of Hazbin Hotel, “Loser, Baby.”
After chasing Angel Dust down and confronting him, Husk realizes they are not so different.
Instead of trying to cheer Angel up by singing about how his life can be better, Husk sings about being a loser.
The touching message at the core of “Loser, Baby” is that things may be bad, and you might not see a way out, but there are many other people in the same boat, so embrace those parts of yourself you may not like and show them proudly.
Keith David and Black Roman deliver this message with their fantastic singing voices, and I listen to the song often (with headphones of course because, come on, I obviously don’t want people overhearing lyrics about sex toys and misinterpreting what I’m listening to).
The song even ends on a humorous note, with Angel and Husk’s romantic moment being cut off mid-sentence by a bunch of angered gang members.
After such a depressing episode, “Loser, Baby” was the uplifting musical number we needed.
Whenever I feel down, I find myself listening to it to remind myself I am not alone and, to quote the song, play my card, be who I am, a loser, just like-
HEY, THERE HE IS! HE’S FUCKING SINGING! GET HIM!
Joking aside, it is for this, and many other reasons that “Loser, Baby” is my favourite Hazbin Hotel song, and I am interested to see if it can be beaten one day.
Thank you for reading and have a Merry Christmas.

Hazbin Hotel Episodes Seven and Eight Review: The Radio Demon’s Master Plan.

My biggest issue with the first season of Hazbin Hotel was the pacing.
It often felt like important events and character moments were skipped or rushed because of the limited eight-episode runtime.
So, after learning the second season was also eight episodes, I was concerned the issue would repeat itself.
Well, after seeing the final two episodes of Hazbin Hotel Season Two, I can happily say that I was wrong because the pacing this season has been great.
The penultimate episode, “Weapons of Mass Distraction”, follows up from where “Scream Rain” left off, with Lucifer being lured into a trap set by Vox.
Lucifer is immediately captured with the use of Angelic weaponry, but he is more antagonized by Alastor than Vox.
It is quite humorous to watch Vox’s captives have more beef with each other than their literal captor.
Not only that, but it leads to one of my favorite songs of Hazbin Hotel, “Brighter”, which fully reveals Vox’s backstory.
In life, Vox was named Vincent Whittman, a weatherman so envious of those around him that he killed again and again to reach the top.
Eventually earned a cult-like following, this all culminated with him giving a speech in a pool, ranting about being “baptized into a new era of entertainment.”
Overlooking the pool are dozens of suspended TVs, which turns out to be a rather poor decision design wise because one of these TVs falls and crashes onto Vox’s head, killing him and sending him to hell for his murders.
Vox’s death is both gruesome and ironic, considering his hell-form has a TV for a head.

It is also a deserving end considering all the murders he committed in life.

It also may explain how Vox became so powerful in Hell because, when the TV kills him, it also electrocutes all of his followers standing in the pool as well.
So, when Vox arrived in Hell, he already had a group of loyal followers to use.
Through this, we can see that Alastor is actually right in his understanding of Vox.
He always has a desire to be “brighter,” never satisfied with what he has, but relies on others to gain his power, whether that be his followers or the Vees.
We see this with him hypnotizing Angel Dust into publicly bad mouthing the hotel and supporting the Vees.
He uses this event to unveil his weapon, powered by Lucifer, which he fires at Heaven, destroying Sera’s barrier.
Although terrifying for Heaven, it was funny for me, what with the shot of Peter being spun around when Vox’s weapon punches through the pearly gates.

This moment got a good chuckle out of me.

Vox gives Heaven 24 hours to surrender, and the turmoil this causes leads into the episode’s second song, “Live to Live”, where Pentious advises Sera on her next move, with a great callback to last season’s “It Starts with Sorry.”
While this is happening, Vox continues to fall into Alastor’s trap, further distancing himself from the Vees, and is also manipulated into inviting Charlie to his party.
Following Vox’s invitation, Emily arrives to help Charlie, and the group formulate a plan to rescue Angel Dust and stop Vox.
Baxter is key to this plan, and more than willing to help, showing his role in the season.

I think Baxter’s characterization is a little wonky, since his initial goal of proving the hotel wrong has been completely brushed aside, but it is not a big deal.

The newfound confidence of the hotel results in the final song of the episode, “When I Think About the Future”, which calls back to multiple songs sung previously in the season, before setting up the big finale.
That finale, “Curtain Call”, kicks off with the hotel crew going through their plan to stop Vox, free Angel from mind control, and show everyone that Pentious was redeemed.
Two things, though.
First, it feels like a scene was skipped over where the characters realize Angel was brainwashed, since in the final scene of Episode Nine they were confused about him siding with the Vees.
Second, I still find it pretty convenient that Pentious is not allowed to leave Heaven.
They just say he is not allowed to leave and provide no reason why.

I just wish they would explain *why* Sir Pentious cannot leave Heaven.

At Vox’s party, Baxter attempts to provide a connection with Heaven to show Sir Pentious’ redemption, while Cherry and Husk go to save Angel Dust, and Charlie distracts Vox.
The plan quickly goes awry because, although Baxter is hilariously able to silence Vox, Velvette and Nifty fight around him, while Cherry and Angel Dust are ambushed by Valentino.
The fight quickly grows, and Charlie is unable to get a signal to prove her point, leading to the best scene of the finale.
Vox mocks her and, in his moment of triumph, orders her to admit his power.
Unexpectedly for Charlie, Alastor chimes in, using their deal to force her to admit that Vox is the strongest sinner in Hell.
This breaks Alastor’s contract with Rosie and, to top it all off, Vox celebrates his victory by landing his hands on Charlie, breaking his contract with Al.
Alastor’s laughter as Vox falls right into his trap was great to see.
You can see how he perfectly planned all this right from Episode Four and it went off without a hitch.

Vox and Alastor’s rivalry has been a highlight this season.

And if you thought the fight between Alastor and Vox in that episode was hype, you have not seen anything yet.
Watching the two old friends turned rivals fight at full strength is greatly improved by some top-notch animation.
The budget for Season Two clearly went up after Season One’s success.
Vox predictably needs help from his giant robot shark, but this allows him to get back to his weapon and shoot wildly at Alastor.
This has the unfortunate side effect of decimating Pentagram City with an angelic blast, killing many sinners for good.
So, Hell’s entire population just saw their supposed savior annihilating a bunch of them.
Yeah, there is no coming back for Vox’s reputation after this.

As Alastor predicted, Vox really did lose his marbles in Act Three.

Even the Vees are sick of Vox’s antics because, after their respective fights, they stop him from blowing them all up just to kill Alastor.
Valentino rips off Vox’s head before attempting and failing to leave with him and Velvette.
Say what you want about the Vees, but they do care about each other.
Well, Valentino and Velvette do at least; not sure about Vox at this point.
However, while Vox is finished, his weapon remains.
For a moment, it looks like Emily is going to sacrifice herself to save Hell, but this is thankfully instead used to build into the final song of the season, “Hear my Hope,” where all of Hell’s overlords band together to stop the explosion.

Admit it, we all thought Emily was going to self-sacrifice at first.

“Hear My Hope” is a hopeful, and emotional song with two interludes.
The first sees Lute and Abel arrive, and the former attempt to get her revenge, only to be stopped by Abel in a moment of character growth.
While this moment is well sung, I kind of feel like it needed a little more build up, and it kinds of just feels thrown in there.
The second interlude of the song is far better, and sees Rosie confront Alastor, who threatens to let everyone die unless she fixes his staff.
What is interesting to me about this part is how Alastor says, “You’ll watch them die, unless you do,” making it seem like Rosie cares for Charlie and the others.
This adds more layers of mystery to Rosie, of which I have seen a few theories about.
One such theory is that Rosie is Lillith in disguise, which would retroactively make her talk with Charlie about Vaggie in Season One a lot more emotional.
Although, if Rosie is Lillith, then that raises the question of who the Lillith in Heaven is?
But that is just a theory.

Rosie fixes Alastor’s staff, and the two join the circle, along with Velvette and Valentino, much to Vox’s dismay.
The power of friendship puts an end to the explosion, saving Hell.
From here, Lucifer pulls himself from the remains of the weapon, Sir Pentious proves his redemption to Hell, and Angel Dust decides to go back with the Vees because he believes he is a danger to the hotel and his friends.
I originally did not like how Angel was playing very little role in his own rescue, but it seems like they are setting up an arc for Season Three here, so I will reserve judgement on that.
As for the Vees, Valentino has had to become the face of the organization.
Speaking of face, Vox is still just a head, and I think it would be pretty funny for him to remain that way for the foreseeable future.
He has had his time in the spotlight, but man did he ever shine brighter.
The writing team quickly proved me wrong with how much of a convincing threat Vox would prove to be.
For next season’s antagonist, I am pretty confident it is going to be Alastor, based on things Viziepop has said.
It makes sense too, what with Alastor having no more strings, and being free to do whatever he wants.

Alastor’s official villain arc may be about to begin.

Back at the hotel, it sees even more success, but for the right reasons this time.
Surprise, surprise, Vaggie has also kept her name but dropped the E.
Blitzo would approve.
Still, I am glad that this storyline did not take up as much time as I thought it would back in Episode One.
The final scene of the season sees Lillith finally call Charlie back, ending on yet another Lillith cliffhanger.
Hopefully, Season Three will arrive sooner than Season Two did, and keep up the quality.
Overall, Season Two was a vast improvement over the first.
The pacing, animation and songs were so much better.
Speaking of the songs, I am currently planning to do a top ten list of my favorite Hazbin Hotel songs.
So, you can expect to see that in the next few weeks or so.

Hazbin Hotel Season One Review: One Helluva Musical.

I first became aware of Vivienne Medrano (Viziepop) when YouTube recommended me the Helluva Boss pilot.
After binging the web series, I moved onto the Hazbin Hotel pilot and was surprised by the fanbase it had amassed, despite only having a single episode.
Due to the pilot’s popularity, Viziepop was able to get the series picked up by A24, with it eventually airing on Amazon Prime; the final two episodes having aired yesterday.
I have to admit, it is quite inspiring to hear of all the hard work it took to get Hazbin Hotel to the point it is now, and Viziepop and her team have definitely earned the show’s success.

It took over four years for the show to air after the pilot released.

But, after so much hype for it, how is the actual series?
Hazbin Hotel follows the Princess of Hell, Charlie Morningstar (Erika Henningsen), who wants to stop Heaven’s yearly Extermination of sinners.
Her plan is to start the titular Hazbin Hotel, a place dedicated to redeeming sinners so that the Angels will not have to kill them.
Helping Charlie is her girlfriend Vaggie (Stephanie Beatriz), Hell’s biggest porn star Angel Dust (Blake Roman), the mysterious Radio Demon Alastor (Amir Talai), his servants Husk (Keith David) and Nifty (Kimiko Glenn), and the snake demon Sir Pentious (Alex Brightman).
The story follows these and many other characters in Hell’s misadventures, and almost each and every one of them are well designed and interesting.
My favorites of the bunch is definitely Alastor as, just like in the pilot, his sketchy nature and unclear motives mix excellently with his entertaining personality.

I look forward to finally knowing what Alastor’s motives are in future seasons.

But by far the best part of Hazbin Hotel are the musical numbers.
Yes, the series is a musical and pretty much every number is a hit.
Songs like “Happy Day in Hell”, “Stayed Gone”, and my personal favorite “Loser” are all excellent and they played in my head for days after first hearing them.
It got to the point that, every time an episode was about to air, I looked forward to hearing what the next musical number would be.

“Loser” is very catchy with a great message about accepting yourself.

These vibrant characters and fun musical numbers are aided by mostly solid animation throughout.
There are a few dips in quality, like in the first episode where Vaggie disappears from where she was standing beside Charlie.
Aside from this and a few other issues, the animation is quite well done, especially in Episode Eight when the action pops off.
One thing I was worried about going into Hazbin Hotel was the humor.
Although I laughed at a few of the jokes in the first couple Helluva Boss episodes, it has been a long time since I laughed at any of the humor in recent episodes.
It just felt most of the jokes just boiled down to demons swearing and saying sexual things, so I was worried Hazbin Hotel’s humor would be the same.
Thankfully, the comedy in the series mostly lands, with the jokes surrounding Nifty’s craziness always making me bust a gut laughing.

Nifty creeping out everyone around her will never not be funny.

Unfortunately, even though the humor works, this does not mean Hazbin Hotel is without its issues, especially when it comes to the pacing.
I would argue that the first season’s eight-episode length is its biggest issue.
Because of this short time to tell the story, it feels like we are missing multiple moments of character development.
Angel’s self-improvement mostly happens off screen, and Charlie acts like she trusts Alastor one episode and distrusts him the next.
Along with this, characters like Carmilla Carmine (Daphne Rubin-Vega) and Emily (Shoba Narayan) get these big emotional beats when we are just getting to know them and don’t have time to adjust.

The pacing of the show often feels rushed.

If Hazbin Hotel had got twelve or thirteen episodes, like most animated shows these days, I think the quality of the story could have been a lot better.
Hopefully with the series’ impressive success, it will convince A24 and Amazon Prime to greenlight more episodes for Season Two so this problem will not be repeated.
Other than the pacing, I quite enjoyed Hazbin Hotel.
The characters are great, the humor usually lands and, of course, the musical numbers are catchy as all hell, pun intended.
I’m already looking forward to Season Two and hope it can improve upon the issues of the first.