It’s such a generic, dull club song about how hard it is to live in LA, but how it’s also, presumably, worth the hustle for the glamor of the lifestyle. “LA’s got me on my knees / Hustling so hard I can barely breatheįake smiles, fake mirth / Fake deaths, fake births It sounds like ITSYL guest star Conner O’Malley, because when he yells “Los Angeles” it sounds pretty close to his videos as the Howard Schultz fan. So, please enjoy my rankings, and if you disagree, hit me with the comments. No, I’m not “watching that fucking show again,” I am doing research for WORK*. It also just gave me yet another excuse to rewatch. So, with that, I thought it’d be fun to rank the original songs from “I Think You Should Leave.” Thankfully, I’ve seen it all recently (and repeatedly) enough that I could kind of skim through the episodes to remind myself of the music from each one.

More than bits and jokes and lines popping in my head, I’ve been catching myself with songs from the show landing and staying in my head, which speaks a lot to the creators’ abilities to make a product that resonates beyond just Tim Robinson screaming about something awkward. The two songs most often used, “Big Flame (Is Gonna Break My Heart in Two)” by Doris Williams and “Baby Bay” by John Lewis, sort of make the whole thing feel timeless and, by using these particular snippets, add to the jarring nature of the show but in an endearing and familiar way. Each sketch is tied together with ‘60s doo-wop music, adding another texture to the very retro-variety-show graphics of multicolored lines coursing throughout the screen like a $1,000 Dan Flashes shirt. It’s not a musical show, but the music is an integral part of it. There’s already been enough written and said about “I Think You Should Leave,” and I’m neither going to dissect the comedy ( which apparently its creator/star Tim Robinson hates to do ), nor am I going to even really get into analyzing the sketches themselves, because more reputable publications with more seasoned entertainment critics have already done that plenty.īut one aspect of the show hasn’t been put under the microscope on its own as much, and that’s the music.

It’s a huge universe that you can bop around from song to song – or, in this instance, sketch to sketch. And then their existence is the whole catalog as one giant, ever-expanding canon, rather than a bunch of insular albums with very particular aesthetics and personalities. It feels like when a great band keeps making really good albums that sound pretty similar. I don’t re-watch all in one sitting, mind you, and not usually whole episodes back to back, but sketches here and there. Now that the second season is out, I’ve already watched it multiple times.

I’m not the Blues Brothers” popping into my head. If you couldn’t tell, I’m in the camp that wakes up in the middle of the night with things like “It’s just me, Barbie. I haven’t met a single person who just thinks it’s OK. People are either totally consumed by it or they don’t know what it is/hate it. With others, you mention it and they have no idea what you’re talking about, or they just say “I watched a minute or two but didn’t get it. Sometimes you drop a reference around someone, and suddenly you’re trading non sequiturs back and forth. There hasn’t been any show that I’ve been so sure is a total monoculture, where everyone I speak to is up to date with and wholly obsessed with, but that simultaneously feels so foreign to some people.

“I Think You Should Leave” on Netflix is a special kind of brain poison.

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