The second volume of music from Bob’s Burgers is another massive collection of original songs interspersed with some deliberately bad covers. Like the first volume it is full of catchy stuff performed extremely campily. It’s more evidence that this show has about the best use of music of any similar “sitcom” since The Simpsons.

There are more suites here and it’s clear that the ambition has gotten grander since the earlier seasons. If you haven’t seen those particular episodes, it can be a little less appealing, at least for me. I have seen far fewer episodes from these seasons than those of the first volume and I definitely didn’t know most of these songs. I will say that this means there are some jokes that surprise, though, which is a good thing. And as I’ve listened more the suites I don’t know have worked better.

Bob’s Burgers has long been a great example of combining humour with empathy and gentleness. It’s a model of comedy that is endearing rather than cruel. And the songs, like those in Vol. 1, do a good job of showing off everything that makes the show one of the best animated sitcoms of its era. I haven’t listened to Vol. 1 in forever so I can’t say which I prefer.

I definitely know more of the songs on the first collection and so I am inclined to prefer that one in the moment, but there’s enough great stuff here that I’m sure I’ll come around to liking this one just as much. I’d definitely recommend it if you like musical comedy even if you haven’t seen most of these episodes. Even most of the briefer songs work pretty well.

8/10

PS I do think that, like the first collection, I’m not sure every single track used for the end-credits is here. So that is one very minor criticism. (That would be a massive collection, I suspect.)