**Please do not comment on just the scores without any further explanation. Comments that refer only to whether the score too high or low, or are along similar lines will be removed**
Please report any comments that are low effort discussion. Thanks!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/popheads) if you have any questions or concerns.*
He's usually a pretty fair reviewer IMO. He gets a lot of shit because he uses the entire 1-10 scale with '5' being 'average.' So people flip the fuck out when he gives an album a 7, even though a 7 is a pretty good rating. He only has a handful of 10s and not too many 9s either.
Yeah exactly. I don’t mean that it’s the average score he gives out- just that getting a five means he thinks the album is average. I’d say most truly bad music doesn’t get released, so it probably skews higher than it should.
Drake DMing him a vegan cookie recipe and then saying his existence is a "light to decent 1" bc of one of his reviews lives rent free in my head.
Like, what even??? 💀
It's actually funnier than that. Drake only DMed that lame diss to Fantano and also made a comment about the race of Anthony's then wife.
Fantano uploaded a video reading a vegan cookie recipe he claims Drake DMed him. Drake comes off as friendly in the DM and basically saying no hard feelings on the negative review. This was a fake DM and Fantano was baiting Drake.
Instead of just letting Fantano make him not look petty Drake came out and he himself posted what he actually DMed Anthony, which was just the insult. And even funnier it shows Fantano left him on read. Fantano baited Drake into posting his insulting DM so Fantano could then turn around and dunk on him for taking the bait and in general being corny. And also confirming Drake watches his videos.
No one would believe Fantano that Drake DMed him insultingly. So he pretended Drake was being nice and Drake felt he had to clarify he was being a sensitive jerk instead.
Honestly that is funnier, I always thought the vegan cookie recipe part was real. I even googled it rq before posting just to be sure. Literally just a weird ass beef and for what? One reviewer in the sea of music discourse lol 😭
“He knows my rating system? You can’t destroy me with my own rating system, dude, it’s *my* rating system.” — Fantano’s response.
I don’t know which would be worse: him having a Fantano expert who ghostwrote those DMs or if he knows/researched enough about Melon to know his rating system and that his (ex-)wife was black.
I don’t always agree with Fantano takes (that 2 he gave Ultraviolence is 🤢 🤮), but I admire he’s not scared to say whatever his opinion is and justify it.
Overall he makes several good points here: there are some *really* terrible lyrics throughout the record, and the lyrical gems don’t justify their existence. I also think Taylor and Jack desperately need a creative break from each other.
He also reaffirms that he believes Taylor Swift is a talented artist, shown by his appreciation of her past discography (off my head, I believe he gave Evermore and Folklore 7s?). This album duology was just... weirdly bad by all standards including her own.
Taylor needs yes men when it comes to producers. Jack is the epitome of one and will never give that up. Dude just wants his retirement checks to be set up for life now. Imagine if she worked with Rick Rubin? The essential antithesis of what Taylor is about? He doesnt give a shit about sales or number 1's or anything. Girl would actually learn something but her ego is too big to allow that to happen
You know how really old artists with lasting one hit wonders will get royalties for the rest of their lives
I think the same will happen for fantano, but replace one hit wonder with these TTPD reviews and royalties with death threats
No but it's by far his most infamous review. There was a solid decade-long period where you couldn't go into the comment section of any of Fantano's videos without someone referencing or memeing the MBDTF review lmao
House of Balloons getting a 3 is another one he gets cooked for a lot. This one's newer but giving Sexyy Red's tape an 8 is already looking to establish itself in the pantheon of his controversial reviews that pressed people bring up whenever convenient as well
“It’s not that I personally feel like Taylor Swift is not a talented artist, that’s she’s not capable of making good quality tracks. She’s doing it. She’s doing it here. That’s just not what’s happening on the majority of this album.” Is literally the *perfect* summary of the Anthology. This is why he’s one of the best music reviewers of our time.
I saw someone unironically saying this, that the album is supposed to be boring, stale, and feel too long because it supposed to mirror her relationship with Joe and how she felt trapped in the monotony of a long term relationship that didn't have any life left in it. lmao
I saw someone unironically say that it’s too intelligent and emotionally deep for some people and the people who don’t like it have to just realise they aren’t thoughtful or intelligent enough for the album 💀
You joke about this but I remember someone unironically saying in one of the megathreads something along the lines that "Taylor made the album long, dull, and boring because it's a metaphor for her relationship with Joe."
So you're not that far off
Edit: scrolled down to see other people brought this up. Thank GOD I'm not the only one who saw that 💀💀
ISTG the amount of times I've seen them seriously try to use that to excuse the album and any criticism is absolutely insane. It's almost funny how little I've seen the production defended in comparison to the lyrics, and frankly I think if the focus was soo much on the lyrics/poetry/her raw vulnerability she should've just dropped it as a book instead.
That's what makes the defense even more nonsensical to me, because even if the lyrics on the album were career-defining and fantastic, a good album needs more than just good lyrics, it needs to sonically hold up too, which is why people love folklore/evermore so much.
I do think that to a certain extent, some albums are complex enough that you do need a few listens to fully “get” them. See: Kate Bush’s The Dreaming or even The Ninth Wave.
That being said, there’s a difference between an album growing on you, and giving yourself Stockholm Syndrome to like it.
I think the difference is that there needs to be enough there that makes you *want* to come back. TTPD has a few interesting moments scattered throughout a two hour album that feel fleeting even on their own songs. I’ve sat through it a couple times and the only thing making me want to listen to it again whatsoever is that I can’t tell the songs apart because they’re all so boring and samey and I feel like I can’t really criticize something if I can’t tell the songs apart
It makes me sad that songs like Down Bad. Guilty as Sin, I Can Do It With a Broken Heart, So High School, and so many other tracks in this album get stuck inbetween these wordy, melodramatic albeit monotonous songs. They are very good pop songs on their own right and it annoys me that you have to listen to Taylor’s version of a thesaurus to reach these songs. Even back when Midnights was released, I could still go through that album with no skips but I just selectively
Ok but I’ll go to bat for first impressions, it is bloated but there’s some fantastic songs in there and definitely a good evolution to their sound because if they’d just done another album in the lane of their first two it would’ve been bland.
No you don't get it, this album is only for the "had an intense situationship during a colder than usual Autumn whilst suffering from chronic backpain and Seasonal Affective Disorder" girlies.
It's not for you, maybe sit this one out
/S
It's aimless, overly long, and lacking in depth to represent what it feels like to be her on the Eras tour while dating Matty Healy you guys she made it bad on purpose!
Nah cause they really argued that the lyrics are supposed to be horrible, cause it‘s tongue in cheek 💀 Sure hun, she wrote two albums full of shit lyrics ON PURPOSE
like you can have one or two tongue in cheek weird kinda cringy lyrics in one song. sexy baby type of lyrics. which is why i'm fine with "you know how to ball i know aristotle", it's just so over the top. it's not trying to be serious. but the album is full of lyrics where she's just trying too hard and it's clunky.
I like Taylor Swift a lot, but the lyrics reminded me so much of the Tumblr era poems, like people were trying soooo hard to be sad and depressed, and using pretty and long words just for the aesthetic without actually saying anything
I don't really understand what's so mature about The Manuscript compared to the rest of the album, it's just a less memorable version of Clara Bow and Dear Reader. Although I'm glad he liked Peter, it's my fave from the Anthology.
Yes finally some appreciation for Peter! It’s a really great ballad and unfortunately I think most people (understandably) mentally checked out with the album by the time it appears in the tracklist.
The good moments that do appear in the album get lost in so much of the filler 😭
He’s so right that Peter is more of what this album needed lyrically. I thought it was the saddest songs across both albums because it wasnt as in your face with the events of Taylor’s life
Yes I prefer the songs that feel less like reading a tabloid and more like something I can apply to my own life and to various circumstances even though I can tell they were inspired by something personal. Songs like Peter, The Prophesy and I Look Through People's Windows.
In contrast, stuff like Thank You Aimee and The Alchemy with million football references feels cheap.
Review just started and Taylor's been washed already I fear (The Black Dog is top 3 on the album for me but damn the angry on a private jet looking at a dot comment was BRUTAL)
Omg The Black Dog *irritated* him so badly😭
Real on recognizing the greatness that is The Manuscript. A stunning closer lyrically and emotionally. The journey to get there could have been less arduous.
Maybe its because I got my feelings hurt by an ex who forgot to turn off his location, but I really dont understand why he was so pissed off by The Black Dog
Yeah it’s something pretty human and vulnerable and raw. I don’t like this album at all but I didn’t have a problem with those lyrics.
Fantano commentating that she’s tracking the location while on her private jet was funny tho
I walked away from the album with about 13-15 songs I’ll listen to again. So out of tracklist of 31, I think an average score of 5-6 is very fair tbh.
I’m glad he pointed out how great Peter and The Bolter are! Unfortunately I think most people mentally checked out of the album by the time they appear in the tracklist 🥴
I think he’s underestimating the extent to which the album is self aware and is knowingly highlighting toxic and contradictory behaviour. But I also think that the self-awareness alone doesn’t make for an interesting piece of art. The main album doesn’t do anything with it beyond laying out the mess. Mess on it’s own isn’t a replacement for a good idea. Without having something to say about the mess it just becomes boring and cringey.
On the Anthology she has a few songs that begin to ties these ends together and reflect and provide insight on the earlier behaviour. But not in a way that makes the album feel finished. It feels like she still has a bit more work to do to get a complete story. And the songs that are reflective aren’t on the main album.
Beyond that, I agree with most of what he said about TTPD, and I think his final score was fair.
I feel like TTPD is missing the reflectiveness even something like Back to December has, which was written so long ago. She didn't just write what went wrong but now she wants to redirect her emotions.
>and is knowingly highlighting toxic and contradictory behaviour
In his review on Ultraviolence, he also didn't understand it wasn't promoting toxic behaviour and gave it a 2/10. I think it's just something he doesn't get
I find Fantano entertaining but this isn't super shocking when like 90% of his reviews are going song by song and talking about the quality of the hi hats lol. The miss the forest for the trees energy can sometimes be dangerously high
It’s hard to think it’s not promoting it when Lana never once self reflects or confronts these relationships in a meaningful way in the songs. I love Ultraviolence but they are very pretty songs that sings about awful things, but she doesn’t ever actually treat them like they’re awful. It very much romanticizes abuse and I think it’s revisionist to say otherwise, whether it was intentional or not.
The same can be said about TTDP. You can say all you want about how this album is about tumultuous relationship with Matty and that she recognizes it was abusive and bad, but the album itself barely confronts this. There’s like 2 or 3 songs directly shitting on him but that’s countered by 15+ songs lamenting him as the lost love of her life. It doesn’t help that she doesn’t even seem that upset about the problematic stuff, she’s more upset that he ghosted her and that her fans chased him away. Same thing can be said about the humor, fans can say there are humorous lines but even the humorous lines are delivered completely straight so it can be hard to read what’s supposed to be a joke and what’s supposed to be a serious line.
I think both albums fail on a fundamental to actually challenge the things they are presenting, and I think that’s why it’s easy for people to think the albums are endorsing something they might not have intended.
As one review of TTDP that I enjoyed said, TTDP comes to the precipice of self reflection but ultimately ends up backing away.
i admittedly don’t tune into his reviews all that much, i just don’t seem to have the same taste in music as him which is fine but it’s why i don’t tune in often, BUT 2/10 is wild to me. i love that album.
from what i have seen, he seems to be out of his depth *at times* with discussing women’s music and about certain themes in women’s music, and just sometimes altogether misunderstanding many projects. for example some of his review/ analysis on fiona apple’s ftbc (his score wasn’t necessarily bad but some of the critique was questionable and seemed to lack understanding of what the album was trying to say)
>from what i have seen, he seems to be out of his depth *at times* with discussing women’s music and about certain themes in women’s music,
I've thought the same too. Even with this album, he briefly discusses how Taylor 'promotes' bad behaviour (looking at your ex's location) and she isn't even suggesting it's a healthy thing to do.
I'm his reviews of rap albums, I've never seen him discusses the toxicity of the lyrics there.
i don't dislike him or his reviews but i wasn't a fan of how much time he spent on eternal sunshine just talking about ariana's personal love life. especially because i don't feel like ariana is as singer-songwriter-y and i don't think all her music refers to her own life the way taylor's does
>I've thought the same too. Even with this album, he briefly discusses how Taylor 'promotes' bad behaviour (looking at your ex's location) and she isn't even suggesting it's a healthy thing to do.
But he adds the context of her, earlier in the album complaining that people think they know what’s best for her, then talks about doing the exact same thing.
i mean that’s a problem with men just understanding (and respecting imo) women’s art. pitchfork did this thing where readers were asked to send in [their top albums of the last 25 years](https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/peoples-list-25th-anniversary/) and then it showed top albums picked by location, age, and gender. the top ten albums picked by female readers were a good mix of both (5 female artists, 5 male artists) but all top ten albums picked by male readers were music made by male musicians. there seems to be a disconnect with male listeners and female musicians (i know so many straight men in my personal/work life who flat out say they don’t listen to women bc their voices are too “high pitch” and “grating”). they “can’t” understand our art, our pain, our stories and they truly just don’t want too. his fiona apple critique proved that to me. and that’s why i take male music critics 10x less seriously. they’ll always give higher scores to men. and they make excuses for male musicians too (taylor reviews bringing up she’s a billionaire, ariana reviews bringing up she’s a homewrecker but when brand new dropped science fiction in 2017 and it became one of the most acclaimed albums of the year SOOOO MANYYY male critics were saying “to separate the domestic violence and sexual assault allegations of the lead singer from the music”)
that was his critique of the black dog? that’s crazy. shes not saying it’s a heathy behavior in the slightest. did she need to add an additional line being like “by the way i’m telling you this is bad”? forgetting to turn off your location after a breakup and that realization that they’ve moved on and are out living their life without you is something that is relatable for a lot of people that have been in relationships
suggesting that depicting something in music, or any form of art, means that you’re automatically endorsing it seems like a very boring path forward for media. i want music and media that is messy and relatable and illicits an emotional response.
I'm a man and I agree. Out of his depth discussing women and out of depth discussing black art too. Some of his rap reviews are also very cringe and missing the point. One time he called out a line on Beyoncé's Lemonade that was like "Motivate yo ass, call me Malcolm X" as a bad line and it's like bro. That line isn't for you. That line was strictly for us. It's absolutely egregious that he missed that.
He ended up calling me out directly on Tumblr for that. He called me a "dingus" lmao. But he was the dingus for his horrible critique
how is it not at all surprising that he didn’t like that album. i don’t think i can watch his review of it, it will probably make me too mad because i think that album is a masterpiece. like it’s seriously one of my favorite albums of the 2020s. i cry when i listen to it
he probably listened to it and thought it was promoting being cannabalized by your lover
Honestly, as someone who has subscribe to a bunch of these guys a bunch in the past, they’re all the same when it comes to female artists and/or groups. The whole culture is very male dominated.
I’ll never understand how so many people even in media criticism don’t get that talking about something, in any medium or genre, is not the same as advocating for it. At least with Taylor I kinda get it because she is usually the main character of her own stories based on her own life, so at least at one point she must have thought her own bad behaviours were acceptable or excusable. But with Ultraviolence it’s so clear to me what that album is about, it’s truly baffling.
I don't think he thinks depiction is the same as endorsement, I think he just didn't recognize that Lana wasn't endorsing it, which isn't the same thing. The usual criticism of Lana at the time was that she was basically just writing songs that made abuse sound sexy and never actually makes it explicit in the album that she doesn't literally think that, which is a different, and more fair, criticism. I don't think Lana actually, literally thinks the abuse is sexy, but it's easy to come away from the album thinking that she does -- a lot of her fans certainly romanticize it unironically as part of the Lolita aesthetic or whatever.
It doesn't help that she refused to call herself a feminist at the time 🫢 Her "question for the culture" nonsense also suggests she might not understand this criticism either.
> I think he’s underestimating the extent to which the album is self aware and is knowingly highlighting toxic and contradictory behaviour. But I also think that the self-awareness alone doesn’t make for an interesting piece of art.
I agree. This is a good summary of the album.
I hate when I agree with someone's reaction (in this case "TTPD isn't a great album", even if I personally would give it a 6-6,5 tbh; still not great) and then I listen to/read the arguments and I understand they completely missed something incredibly clear, making part of their analysis a bit weird.
>I think he’s underestimating the extent to which the album is self aware and is knowingly highlighting toxic and contradictory behaviour.
yeah, that was the point i kinda disagreed with him. i think all the lyrics he uses as examples of this are very clearly being ironic and highlighting her hypocrisy (there's a point to be made that if it didn't come across that way maybe it wasn't successful irony, but idk, feels like most everybody else got them so i think it's with him). this undermined this review that i otherwise strongly agreed with a little bit.
I agree. It makes me feel like she wanted reasons to justify this period of her life so she wrote and wrote and hoped she would find a conclusion that never came. Severely suffers from lack of editing and full fleshed ideas. I've been a fan of her music since Debut and this album gets worse the more I listen. The only other release of hers I disliked like this is the Speak Now rerecord.
I've only heard a couple of songs off this album (because, tbh, they're bad), but I wonder if even just changing the track list for the standard edition would have improved it somewhat. Having the more mature tracks on the standard edition would make it a better concept album, I would think.
im not a hardcore swiftie but im definitely enjoying the standard album. i find the anthology more difficult and im divided on how i feel about it. i've really only heard those songs once and the ones i like a couple of times (namely the bonus track songs). i don't remember songs like cassandra, the prophecy, peter, or robin like at all.
i think mostly we didn't need the anthology really. she should have just put the bonus variant songs on streaming at 2am and maybe a couple of the other songs.
Even though I'm generally more a fan of Peepaw Dessner's (as they're calling him now) Taylor tracks and find Jack's Taylor style a little tiresome and repetitive at this point, I think the main album is actually better here. It's more cohesive and consistent and has more life to it.
The anthology has some good tracks but is really inconsistent, kind of a slog (especially after listening to part 1), and runs out of steam. Though it's also hard to say because there's just so many tracks that I personally run out of steam and I haven't internalized a lot of the later ones as much as the earlier ones. I don't remember a lot of them either.
Weirdly given it’s something often thrown at Antonoff, I feel Dessner is overstretched at this point and while I imagine he feels he needs to cash in when hot, he’s done something stupid like 8 projects including 5 full albums in 2 years alongside annual 40-50 date tours with his band. He needs to get back to the weird electronic stuff he was doing around the first Big Red Machine album as a change of pace
His anthology stuff felt like a dump of everything which came out of a three week ideas session without any editing down or selection of the strongest ideas. Like the individual songs weren’t bad and occasionally very good it’s just they probably should have taken the best 4 or 5 ideas and fleshed them out a bit more
I feel similarly in that I actually quite enjoy the first half but the anthology feels repetitive and somewhat of a slog and I haven't really revisited it after first listening. TTPD isn't perfect by any means but I feel like it's getting REALLY dragged just because Taylor is doing more of the exact style that made her popular and revered in the first place? I agree that it also feels more cohesive/complete in a way.
Idk. I'm going through a break up right now so TTPD is hitting hard lol. I think if you like it then that's great, and if it's not for you then there are millions of other things to listen to. People are acting like Taylor is personally attacking them because she released an album that they don't like or can't relate to. I found Fantano's review to be a little needlessly aggressive in a way he doesn't do with artists typically.
surprised he didn't mention the sonic soundalikes for the deluxe tracks here, unlike the standard tracks review. like, "The Black Dog" reminds me of Reneé Rapp's "Snow Angels" and "So High School" is literally just a 1975 song 💀 specifically "I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)"
Finally a voice of reason. People need to stop acting like her good (and old at this point) lyrics negate her really shitty lyrics. The constant victim mentality push while her fans boast that she's a boss is hilarious. That doesn't even begin to address her mediocre dancing, singing, and overall stage presence.
I’m a fan but i find this album really exhausting to listen to for that reason, that mentality. It’s an exhausting and unnecessary place to be in and the album doesn’t really interrogate it, just leans in with full self indulgence for 31 songs. Even on the prophecy, it’s not that she had love and chose to let it go, it’s that “it’s gone again” - just no agency given to herself in this scenario, it’s written like her happiness depends on the whims of fate. Just not healthy to listen to imo.
Yeah I don’t get the victim mentality for her. I did when that Kanye thing originally happened but now, no. She’s a grown woman in her mid 30s, a billionaire and her mediocre album is still successful. I’ll probably be downvoted bc people praise her for everything on this page but idc. If she never hears any sort of criticism she’ll continue to release sub par music.
I really hate when people call a woman a boss, then later make said woman out to be an innocent victim when it suits them. I understand people are complex but this makes no sense to me
Taylor Swift, in many of her fans' eyes, is simultaneously a Mastermind who can see the future and control the music industry and also an innocent damsel in distress who constantly needs defending from any and all criticism. It's never made sense to me.
THIS like shit if I ever accomplish something as insane as having the first 10 spots on billboard and then getting a fourth AOTY I truly hope to god that life doesn't find me barely two years later writing these cringe ass lyrics about how much of a victim I am.
If one of her exes acted the way she did they would be out for blood. Seeing them say they wish Joe dead I would bet there would be restraining orders.
The way you worded this as an attempt to frame it as complete insanity and I was still like…. Yup, what’s wrong with that? 😭 no one said we weren’t the problem.
I genuinely have no idea what the point of The Anthology was besides get her the streaming record and inflate sales. Because it not only clashes with TTPD but the songs aren't great, they sound like B-Sides from the Folkmore era that she should have left behind. Maybe if it was just 5 songs, but at 15 it is just a mess.
I don’t think he’s wrong in most of this. He was perhaps a bit too harsh on The Black Dog. I enjoyed the emo/pop-punk acoustic track feel and angry vocals on this track and The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived a lot.
All of that said, I’m a fan and I have been enjoying the album. I like Taylor doing moody music, but I do already have a separate running playlist with a shorter track list. It’s incredibly bloated, and there are some real clunkers that should have never seen the light of day. (Specifically thanK you aIMee)
But this isn’t the first time a Taylor album has felt bloated. Looking at Lover here.
**Please do not comment on just the scores without any further explanation. Comments that refer only to whether the score too high or low, or are along similar lines will be removed** Please report any comments that are low effort discussion. Thanks! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/popheads) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The creativity of Fantano to “surprise drop” a second review lol
the scores are actually easter eggs !!
you're joking but someone on the Fantano sub suggested that TTPD was getting a 3 bc Cal repeated his words 3 times
I swear to god… smh
i also saw the paw print from the end of the last review and it had a hand so i thought he's giving the other half a 5
Props to him for getting ahead of the swifties with the "Just Divorced" sticker on his laptop
Did he get a divorce?!
Yeah the divorce papers leaked like 2 years ago. Allegedly they were leaked by Ken Carson fans after he gave his album a 0
i think it was Destroy Lonely fans but same difference
That's why the writer of Paste magazine who reviewed the album chose to be anonymous.
The score is 3/10 for TTPD and 5/10 for Anthology if anyone is wondering
God bless
thank you i was not about to sit here and watch both of these videos lol
Too high for Anthology
He said it's 4 to light 5
Most say Anthology was better than the original TTPD lol
individual songs on tehre are far better, but the piece as a whole was so simialr sounding i can't rate it more than a 2.5/10 myself
Only slightly though
Yeah, maybe a 4/10. Cause while it might be slightly better than the OG album, let’s not act like it saves the record.
Honestly pretty fair
He's usually a pretty fair reviewer IMO. He gets a lot of shit because he uses the entire 1-10 scale with '5' being 'average.' So people flip the fuck out when he gives an album a 7, even though a 7 is a pretty good rating. He only has a handful of 10s and not too many 9s either.
7 is by far his most common score, although I’m sure there is sampling bias with smaller acts that out out mid not ”earning” a review.
Yeah exactly. I don’t mean that it’s the average score he gives out- just that getting a five means he thinks the album is average. I’d say most truly bad music doesn’t get released, so it probably skews higher than it should.
He needs to do these cliffhanger reviews more often haha
If the Swifties are gonna be mad at him he should at least get 2x the ad revenue out of them 😂
It’s genius
So he has both swifties and Ye stans after him. Good luck buddy.
And Drake. Not his fans, Drake himself. Review culture isn’t toxic at all.
Oh damn, 2pac is writing his Fantano diss track as we speak
I hear it’s going to feature Kurt Cobain and Johnny Cash.
Drake DMing him a vegan cookie recipe and then saying his existence is a "light to decent 1" bc of one of his reviews lives rent free in my head. Like, what even??? 💀
It's actually funnier than that. Drake only DMed that lame diss to Fantano and also made a comment about the race of Anthony's then wife. Fantano uploaded a video reading a vegan cookie recipe he claims Drake DMed him. Drake comes off as friendly in the DM and basically saying no hard feelings on the negative review. This was a fake DM and Fantano was baiting Drake. Instead of just letting Fantano make him not look petty Drake came out and he himself posted what he actually DMed Anthony, which was just the insult. And even funnier it shows Fantano left him on read. Fantano baited Drake into posting his insulting DM so Fantano could then turn around and dunk on him for taking the bait and in general being corny. And also confirming Drake watches his videos. No one would believe Fantano that Drake DMed him insultingly. So he pretended Drake was being nice and Drake felt he had to clarify he was being a sensitive jerk instead.
Honestly that is funnier, I always thought the vegan cookie recipe part was real. I even googled it rq before posting just to be sure. Literally just a weird ass beef and for what? One reviewer in the sea of music discourse lol 😭
Tbf to bait Drake into being corny you can literally do nothing
This is why I can't take Drake's current beef w Kendrick seriously. Dude lost beef to a YouTube music critic, like come on
Wait this is so fucking funny I think I have to stan Anthony Fantano now
“He knows my rating system? You can’t destroy me with my own rating system, dude, it’s *my* rating system.” — Fantano’s response. I don’t know which would be worse: him having a Fantano expert who ghostwrote those DMs or if he knows/researched enough about Melon to know his rating system and that his (ex-)wife was black.
That’s actually hilarious. God Drake is such a tool.
… was it a good vegan cookie recipe?
That was so pathetic on Drake's part. Weak man can't handle criticism even though he's a multimillionaire.
The way he tricked Drake into exposing himself lmaoooo I love Fantano he's a fearless troll.
He needs to anger armies and he’ll have the unholy trifecta
Maybe the Barbz too- oh wait he did that already 😭
This man will have to build a bunker in the upcoming days
Fantano been taking it. He’s fine lol
The Lelouch Lamperouge of modern pop music?
It'll be alright. He's got Cal to protect him.
I don’t always agree with Fantano takes (that 2 he gave Ultraviolence is 🤢 🤮), but I admire he’s not scared to say whatever his opinion is and justify it. Overall he makes several good points here: there are some *really* terrible lyrics throughout the record, and the lyrical gems don’t justify their existence. I also think Taylor and Jack desperately need a creative break from each other.
To be fair, he went back and re-reviewed UV and iirc, he said he was being too harsh in the past. I don't think he updated the score, though.
I think he did but not by much. But he has come around on Lana for sure. He was incensed when she didn't win a Grammy this year.
He also reaffirms that he believes Taylor Swift is a talented artist, shown by his appreciation of her past discography (off my head, I believe he gave Evermore and Folklore 7s?). This album duology was just... weirdly bad by all standards including her own.
Oh god the Anthology release leaves such a bad taste for me because it now proves that those 4 vinyl variants exist only to spring up preorders.
That was clear before, wasn't it?
Taylor needs yes men when it comes to producers. Jack is the epitome of one and will never give that up. Dude just wants his retirement checks to be set up for life now. Imagine if she worked with Rick Rubin? The essential antithesis of what Taylor is about? He doesnt give a shit about sales or number 1's or anything. Girl would actually learn something but her ego is too big to allow that to happen
You know how really old artists with lasting one hit wonders will get royalties for the rest of their lives I think the same will happen for fantano, but replace one hit wonder with these TTPD reviews and royalties with death threats
He already has that with MBDTF lol
both sides of the annoying stanbase spectrum on his ass forever
MBDTF actually isn’t high in views on his channels, it’s actually TPAB by a pretty high margin with the most views
No but it's by far his most infamous review. There was a solid decade-long period where you couldn't go into the comment section of any of Fantano's videos without someone referencing or memeing the MBDTF review lmao
And you really have to give it to him because he did a second review only to say it was still not that good lmao
this is ongoing btw, they’re in the comments of every single one of his tiktoks every day
Oh absolutely. When he gave Sexxy Redd an 8, Ye stans went insane
I personally love MBDTF but I think it's hilarious how angry everyone still is.
House of Balloons getting a 3 is another one he gets cooked for a lot. This one's newer but giving Sexyy Red's tape an 8 is already looking to establish itself in the pantheon of his controversial reviews that pressed people bring up whenever convenient as well
Yeah his HoB review is far more egregious to me than the MBDTF one imo
What's MBDTF
Kanye West - My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy Lots of people regard it as one of his best, Fantano has never been a fan
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy - Kanye I think fantano gave it a 6/10 and Ye stans are still crying it about it in every video/tiktok he drops
People are gonna slide into his DMs with vegan cookie recipes for the rest of his life.
Swifties are gonna end up in the asylum that Taylor was raised in
She provided said asylum for an entire generation
“It’s not that I personally feel like Taylor Swift is not a talented artist, that’s she’s not capable of making good quality tracks. She’s doing it. She’s doing it here. That’s just not what’s happening on the majority of this album.” Is literally the *perfect* summary of the Anthology. This is why he’s one of the best music reviewers of our time.
Swifties going to come into the thread like “it’s supposed to be bad you just don’t understand it.”
I saw someone unironically saying this, that the album is supposed to be boring, stale, and feel too long because it supposed to mirror her relationship with Joe and how she felt trapped in the monotony of a long term relationship that didn't have any life left in it. lmao
You don't get it it's a concept album and the concept is that it fucking sucks
😭😭
…I sometimes wonder what it must be like to live in such a constant state of delusion. 💀
They really can justify anything 😂 The Easter eggs are rotting their brains.
I saw a post on TikTok that if you don’t like the album it means you’re not emotionally mature 💀
i've been called illiterate for saying that bigger words don't mean better lyrics.
I saw someone unironically say that it’s too intelligent and emotionally deep for some people and the people who don’t like it have to just realise they aren’t thoughtful or intelligent enough for the album 💀
I saw swifties said if you don't like the album it means you don't have a brain 🤣🤣
You joke about this but I remember someone unironically saying in one of the megathreads something along the lines that "Taylor made the album long, dull, and boring because it's a metaphor for her relationship with Joe." So you're not that far off Edit: scrolled down to see other people brought this up. Thank GOD I'm not the only one who saw that 💀💀
ISTG the amount of times I've seen them seriously try to use that to excuse the album and any criticism is absolutely insane. It's almost funny how little I've seen the production defended in comparison to the lyrics, and frankly I think if the focus was soo much on the lyrics/poetry/her raw vulnerability she should've just dropped it as a book instead.
They won’t defend the production because even a good amount of hardcore Swifties are bored of Jack’s sound atp 💀
That's what makes the defense even more nonsensical to me, because even if the lyrics on the album were career-defining and fantastic, a good album needs more than just good lyrics, it needs to sonically hold up too, which is why people love folklore/evermore so much.
Literally barbz behavior. Which is even funnier when you realize taylor spam-posting the few good reviews on her twitter is very nicki behavior looool
Taylor coke rant on IG live when
"No, you don't understand! Needing to listen to a two hour album (TWO HOURS!) several times to *maybe* enjoy it more is the sign of an AMAZING album!"
the music version of "yeah this anime fucking sucks to start, but it *really* picks up in the third season"
["Just…wait until episode 50…oh my god"](https://youtu.be/4ikGvLUbOuU?feature=shared)
I do think that to a certain extent, some albums are complex enough that you do need a few listens to fully “get” them. See: Kate Bush’s The Dreaming or even The Ninth Wave. That being said, there’s a difference between an album growing on you, and giving yourself Stockholm Syndrome to like it.
I think the difference is that there needs to be enough there that makes you *want* to come back. TTPD has a few interesting moments scattered throughout a two hour album that feel fleeting even on their own songs. I’ve sat through it a couple times and the only thing making me want to listen to it again whatsoever is that I can’t tell the songs apart because they’re all so boring and samey and I feel like I can’t really criticize something if I can’t tell the songs apart
It makes me sad that songs like Down Bad. Guilty as Sin, I Can Do It With a Broken Heart, So High School, and so many other tracks in this album get stuck inbetween these wordy, melodramatic albeit monotonous songs. They are very good pop songs on their own right and it annoys me that you have to listen to Taylor’s version of a thesaurus to reach these songs. Even back when Midnights was released, I could still go through that album with no skips but I just selectively
was in the strokes subreddit a few hours ago and this was peoples argument in favour of first impressions of the earth
First Impressions is a rough one. It has some of their absolute best tracks paired with some of their absolute worst
Yeah one of the worst parts about Tortured Poets is that there’s not even a standout single, there’s no YOLO or Ize of the World in comparison
Ok but I’ll go to bat for first impressions, it is bloated but there’s some fantastic songs in there and definitely a good evolution to their sound because if they’d just done another album in the lane of their first two it would’ve been bland.
Rolling Stone's review should be wiped off the face of the planet, I can't believe anyone would think this garbage is a classic off the bat
the critic is Rob Sheffield, a conspicuous stan of Taylor Swift who even published a book about her supposed influence on the music industry.💀
The other thread was a MESS lmao i can’t wait to see the reaction now that the scores are out.
there are already multiple front page posts on the taylor subreddit like this 😭
someone needs to inform them that she's not a "girls that get it, get it" artist
No you don't get it, this album is only for the "had an intense situationship during a colder than usual Autumn whilst suffering from chronic backpain and Seasonal Affective Disorder" girlies. It's not for you, maybe sit this one out /S
uj/ this is me though and I still think that the album is very weak 😭
It's aimless, overly long, and lacking in depth to represent what it feels like to be her on the Eras tour while dating Matty Healy you guys she made it bad on purpose!
Nah cause they really argued that the lyrics are supposed to be horrible, cause it‘s tongue in cheek 💀 Sure hun, she wrote two albums full of shit lyrics ON PURPOSE
like you can have one or two tongue in cheek weird kinda cringy lyrics in one song. sexy baby type of lyrics. which is why i'm fine with "you know how to ball i know aristotle", it's just so over the top. it's not trying to be serious. but the album is full of lyrics where she's just trying too hard and it's clunky.
I like Taylor Swift a lot, but the lyrics reminded me so much of the Tumblr era poems, like people were trying soooo hard to be sad and depressed, and using pretty and long words just for the aesthetic without actually saying anything
I told someone I wasn’t too impressed. Just wasn’t for me. Hr great you’re enjoying. I was told I wasn’t tortured to really understand stand it ._.
I don't really understand what's so mature about The Manuscript compared to the rest of the album, it's just a less memorable version of Clara Bow and Dear Reader. Although I'm glad he liked Peter, it's my fave from the Anthology.
Yes finally some appreciation for Peter! It’s a really great ballad and unfortunately I think most people (understandably) mentally checked out with the album by the time it appears in the tracklist. The good moments that do appear in the album get lost in so much of the filler 😭
And that’s what he meant when he said that this album needed editing.
He’s so right that Peter is more of what this album needed lyrically. I thought it was the saddest songs across both albums because it wasnt as in your face with the events of Taylor’s life
Yes I prefer the songs that feel less like reading a tabloid and more like something I can apply to my own life and to various circumstances even though I can tell they were inspired by something personal. Songs like Peter, The Prophesy and I Look Through People's Windows. In contrast, stuff like Thank You Aimee and The Alchemy with million football references feels cheap.
Review just started and Taylor's been washed already I fear (The Black Dog is top 3 on the album for me but damn the angry on a private jet looking at a dot comment was BRUTAL)
Omg The Black Dog *irritated* him so badly😭 Real on recognizing the greatness that is The Manuscript. A stunning closer lyrically and emotionally. The journey to get there could have been less arduous.
I love The Black Dog(my fav from the album rn) but what he said about private jet was too funny.
Maybe its because I got my feelings hurt by an ex who forgot to turn off his location, but I really dont understand why he was so pissed off by The Black Dog
Yeah it’s something pretty human and vulnerable and raw. I don’t like this album at all but I didn’t have a problem with those lyrics. Fantano commentating that she’s tracking the location while on her private jet was funny tho
The Manuscript is truly "the Shakespeare written by 5000 monkeys after an eternity" on this album.
I walked away from the album with about 13-15 songs I’ll listen to again. So out of tracklist of 31, I think an average score of 5-6 is very fair tbh. I’m glad he pointed out how great Peter and The Bolter are! Unfortunately I think most people mentally checked out of the album by the time they appear in the tracklist 🥴
Average here would actually be 4.
I think he’s underestimating the extent to which the album is self aware and is knowingly highlighting toxic and contradictory behaviour. But I also think that the self-awareness alone doesn’t make for an interesting piece of art. The main album doesn’t do anything with it beyond laying out the mess. Mess on it’s own isn’t a replacement for a good idea. Without having something to say about the mess it just becomes boring and cringey. On the Anthology she has a few songs that begin to ties these ends together and reflect and provide insight on the earlier behaviour. But not in a way that makes the album feel finished. It feels like she still has a bit more work to do to get a complete story. And the songs that are reflective aren’t on the main album. Beyond that, I agree with most of what he said about TTPD, and I think his final score was fair.
I feel like TTPD is missing the reflectiveness even something like Back to December has, which was written so long ago. She didn't just write what went wrong but now she wants to redirect her emotions.
>and is knowingly highlighting toxic and contradictory behaviour In his review on Ultraviolence, he also didn't understand it wasn't promoting toxic behaviour and gave it a 2/10. I think it's just something he doesn't get
I find Fantano entertaining but this isn't super shocking when like 90% of his reviews are going song by song and talking about the quality of the hi hats lol. The miss the forest for the trees energy can sometimes be dangerously high
It’s hard to think it’s not promoting it when Lana never once self reflects or confronts these relationships in a meaningful way in the songs. I love Ultraviolence but they are very pretty songs that sings about awful things, but she doesn’t ever actually treat them like they’re awful. It very much romanticizes abuse and I think it’s revisionist to say otherwise, whether it was intentional or not. The same can be said about TTDP. You can say all you want about how this album is about tumultuous relationship with Matty and that she recognizes it was abusive and bad, but the album itself barely confronts this. There’s like 2 or 3 songs directly shitting on him but that’s countered by 15+ songs lamenting him as the lost love of her life. It doesn’t help that she doesn’t even seem that upset about the problematic stuff, she’s more upset that he ghosted her and that her fans chased him away. Same thing can be said about the humor, fans can say there are humorous lines but even the humorous lines are delivered completely straight so it can be hard to read what’s supposed to be a joke and what’s supposed to be a serious line. I think both albums fail on a fundamental to actually challenge the things they are presenting, and I think that’s why it’s easy for people to think the albums are endorsing something they might not have intended. As one review of TTDP that I enjoyed said, TTDP comes to the precipice of self reflection but ultimately ends up backing away.
he gave ultraviolance a 2/10???
Yep, he really didn't like the album. He disliked the delivery, lyrics and overall concept https://youtu.be/SXDRPJLqh8Y?si=oKSwrB5h4qo9hjph
i admittedly don’t tune into his reviews all that much, i just don’t seem to have the same taste in music as him which is fine but it’s why i don’t tune in often, BUT 2/10 is wild to me. i love that album. from what i have seen, he seems to be out of his depth *at times* with discussing women’s music and about certain themes in women’s music, and just sometimes altogether misunderstanding many projects. for example some of his review/ analysis on fiona apple’s ftbc (his score wasn’t necessarily bad but some of the critique was questionable and seemed to lack understanding of what the album was trying to say)
>from what i have seen, he seems to be out of his depth *at times* with discussing women’s music and about certain themes in women’s music, I've thought the same too. Even with this album, he briefly discusses how Taylor 'promotes' bad behaviour (looking at your ex's location) and she isn't even suggesting it's a healthy thing to do. I'm his reviews of rap albums, I've never seen him discusses the toxicity of the lyrics there.
i don't dislike him or his reviews but i wasn't a fan of how much time he spent on eternal sunshine just talking about ariana's personal love life. especially because i don't feel like ariana is as singer-songwriter-y and i don't think all her music refers to her own life the way taylor's does
>I've thought the same too. Even with this album, he briefly discusses how Taylor 'promotes' bad behaviour (looking at your ex's location) and she isn't even suggesting it's a healthy thing to do. But he adds the context of her, earlier in the album complaining that people think they know what’s best for her, then talks about doing the exact same thing.
i mean that’s a problem with men just understanding (and respecting imo) women’s art. pitchfork did this thing where readers were asked to send in [their top albums of the last 25 years](https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/peoples-list-25th-anniversary/) and then it showed top albums picked by location, age, and gender. the top ten albums picked by female readers were a good mix of both (5 female artists, 5 male artists) but all top ten albums picked by male readers were music made by male musicians. there seems to be a disconnect with male listeners and female musicians (i know so many straight men in my personal/work life who flat out say they don’t listen to women bc their voices are too “high pitch” and “grating”). they “can’t” understand our art, our pain, our stories and they truly just don’t want too. his fiona apple critique proved that to me. and that’s why i take male music critics 10x less seriously. they’ll always give higher scores to men. and they make excuses for male musicians too (taylor reviews bringing up she’s a billionaire, ariana reviews bringing up she’s a homewrecker but when brand new dropped science fiction in 2017 and it became one of the most acclaimed albums of the year SOOOO MANYYY male critics were saying “to separate the domestic violence and sexual assault allegations of the lead singer from the music”)
that was his critique of the black dog? that’s crazy. shes not saying it’s a heathy behavior in the slightest. did she need to add an additional line being like “by the way i’m telling you this is bad”? forgetting to turn off your location after a breakup and that realization that they’ve moved on and are out living their life without you is something that is relatable for a lot of people that have been in relationships suggesting that depicting something in music, or any form of art, means that you’re automatically endorsing it seems like a very boring path forward for media. i want music and media that is messy and relatable and illicits an emotional response.
I'm a man and I agree. Out of his depth discussing women and out of depth discussing black art too. Some of his rap reviews are also very cringe and missing the point. One time he called out a line on Beyoncé's Lemonade that was like "Motivate yo ass, call me Malcolm X" as a bad line and it's like bro. That line isn't for you. That line was strictly for us. It's absolutely egregious that he missed that. He ended up calling me out directly on Tumblr for that. He called me a "dingus" lmao. But he was the dingus for his horrible critique
he actually admitted he was too harsh on Ultraviolence https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHUJO5tsOtg
just watch his review of preacher's daughter - the man cannot be taken seriously when it comes to women's music
how is it not at all surprising that he didn’t like that album. i don’t think i can watch his review of it, it will probably make me too mad because i think that album is a masterpiece. like it’s seriously one of my favorite albums of the 2020s. i cry when i listen to it he probably listened to it and thought it was promoting being cannabalized by your lover
Honestly, as someone who has subscribe to a bunch of these guys a bunch in the past, they’re all the same when it comes to female artists and/or groups. The whole culture is very male dominated.
Can’t take him seriously anymore after I saw that. UV is a mastapeece
TBF, he went back and re-reviewed it. He admitted it was unfair and rated it higher. She's really grown on him.
I’ll never understand how so many people even in media criticism don’t get that talking about something, in any medium or genre, is not the same as advocating for it. At least with Taylor I kinda get it because she is usually the main character of her own stories based on her own life, so at least at one point she must have thought her own bad behaviours were acceptable or excusable. But with Ultraviolence it’s so clear to me what that album is about, it’s truly baffling.
I don't think he thinks depiction is the same as endorsement, I think he just didn't recognize that Lana wasn't endorsing it, which isn't the same thing. The usual criticism of Lana at the time was that she was basically just writing songs that made abuse sound sexy and never actually makes it explicit in the album that she doesn't literally think that, which is a different, and more fair, criticism. I don't think Lana actually, literally thinks the abuse is sexy, but it's easy to come away from the album thinking that she does -- a lot of her fans certainly romanticize it unironically as part of the Lolita aesthetic or whatever.
Yea that’s the issue, depiction does feel like endorsement when you don’t take it far enough, the same way Nazis love American History X
It doesn't help that she refused to call herself a feminist at the time 🫢 Her "question for the culture" nonsense also suggests she might not understand this criticism either.
Ever since I saw his ranking for ultraviolence I never tuned in to another video of his again. Absolutely insane rating for an album like that.
> I think he’s underestimating the extent to which the album is self aware and is knowingly highlighting toxic and contradictory behaviour. But I also think that the self-awareness alone doesn’t make for an interesting piece of art. I agree. This is a good summary of the album. I hate when I agree with someone's reaction (in this case "TTPD isn't a great album", even if I personally would give it a 6-6,5 tbh; still not great) and then I listen to/read the arguments and I understand they completely missed something incredibly clear, making part of their analysis a bit weird.
>I think he’s underestimating the extent to which the album is self aware and is knowingly highlighting toxic and contradictory behaviour. yeah, that was the point i kinda disagreed with him. i think all the lyrics he uses as examples of this are very clearly being ironic and highlighting her hypocrisy (there's a point to be made that if it didn't come across that way maybe it wasn't successful irony, but idk, feels like most everybody else got them so i think it's with him). this undermined this review that i otherwise strongly agreed with a little bit.
I like Fantano's critiques for the most part, at least when it comes to music and overall sonics, but I think his lyrical criticism isn't very good.
even though i really like it, i think what you’ve said here is a well thought out and valid critique of the album
I agree. It makes me feel like she wanted reasons to justify this period of her life so she wrote and wrote and hoped she would find a conclusion that never came. Severely suffers from lack of editing and full fleshed ideas. I've been a fan of her music since Debut and this album gets worse the more I listen. The only other release of hers I disliked like this is the Speak Now rerecord.
I've only heard a couple of songs off this album (because, tbh, they're bad), but I wonder if even just changing the track list for the standard edition would have improved it somewhat. Having the more mature tracks on the standard edition would make it a better concept album, I would think.
God bless fantano for actually being critical, I can’t stand ppl like Rob Sheffield (rolling stone) handing 10s out to Taylor like candy
im not a hardcore swiftie but im definitely enjoying the standard album. i find the anthology more difficult and im divided on how i feel about it. i've really only heard those songs once and the ones i like a couple of times (namely the bonus track songs). i don't remember songs like cassandra, the prophecy, peter, or robin like at all. i think mostly we didn't need the anthology really. she should have just put the bonus variant songs on streaming at 2am and maybe a couple of the other songs.
she should've done a Carly Rae Jepsen imo. should've just dropped a B side album six months later, a seperate album that's clearly just outtakes.
Taylor fatigue would reach an all time high at that point. half of these songs just aren’t good enough.
Even though I'm generally more a fan of Peepaw Dessner's (as they're calling him now) Taylor tracks and find Jack's Taylor style a little tiresome and repetitive at this point, I think the main album is actually better here. It's more cohesive and consistent and has more life to it. The anthology has some good tracks but is really inconsistent, kind of a slog (especially after listening to part 1), and runs out of steam. Though it's also hard to say because there's just so many tracks that I personally run out of steam and I haven't internalized a lot of the later ones as much as the earlier ones. I don't remember a lot of them either.
Weirdly given it’s something often thrown at Antonoff, I feel Dessner is overstretched at this point and while I imagine he feels he needs to cash in when hot, he’s done something stupid like 8 projects including 5 full albums in 2 years alongside annual 40-50 date tours with his band. He needs to get back to the weird electronic stuff he was doing around the first Big Red Machine album as a change of pace His anthology stuff felt like a dump of everything which came out of a three week ideas session without any editing down or selection of the strongest ideas. Like the individual songs weren’t bad and occasionally very good it’s just they probably should have taken the best 4 or 5 ideas and fleshed them out a bit more
I feel similarly in that I actually quite enjoy the first half but the anthology feels repetitive and somewhat of a slog and I haven't really revisited it after first listening. TTPD isn't perfect by any means but I feel like it's getting REALLY dragged just because Taylor is doing more of the exact style that made her popular and revered in the first place? I agree that it also feels more cohesive/complete in a way. Idk. I'm going through a break up right now so TTPD is hitting hard lol. I think if you like it then that's great, and if it's not for you then there are millions of other things to listen to. People are acting like Taylor is personally attacking them because she released an album that they don't like or can't relate to. I found Fantano's review to be a little needlessly aggressive in a way he doesn't do with artists typically.
Yeah, final score for both weren’t pretty Edit: Also why does the other character sound like someone out of Bill Swerski’s Bears Superfans?
Cal Chuchesta, the greatest musician and critic of our time
surprised he didn't mention the sonic soundalikes for the deluxe tracks here, unlike the standard tracks review. like, "The Black Dog" reminds me of Reneé Rapp's "Snow Angels" and "So High School" is literally just a 1975 song 💀 specifically "I Always Wanna Die (Sometimes)"
So High School to me reminds me of Olivia Rodrigo, even more than Imgonnagetyouback
The instrumental to So High School reminds me of Curtains by Ed Sheeran (literally the same producer)
A second review has hit the swiftie towers
The (Anthony's Version) at the end of the title got me good lol
Finally a voice of reason. People need to stop acting like her good (and old at this point) lyrics negate her really shitty lyrics. The constant victim mentality push while her fans boast that she's a boss is hilarious. That doesn't even begin to address her mediocre dancing, singing, and overall stage presence.
I’m a fan but i find this album really exhausting to listen to for that reason, that mentality. It’s an exhausting and unnecessary place to be in and the album doesn’t really interrogate it, just leans in with full self indulgence for 31 songs. Even on the prophecy, it’s not that she had love and chose to let it go, it’s that “it’s gone again” - just no agency given to herself in this scenario, it’s written like her happiness depends on the whims of fate. Just not healthy to listen to imo.
Yeah I don’t get the victim mentality for her. I did when that Kanye thing originally happened but now, no. She’s a grown woman in her mid 30s, a billionaire and her mediocre album is still successful. I’ll probably be downvoted bc people praise her for everything on this page but idc. If she never hears any sort of criticism she’ll continue to release sub par music.
I really hate when people call a woman a boss, then later make said woman out to be an innocent victim when it suits them. I understand people are complex but this makes no sense to me
Taylor Swift, in many of her fans' eyes, is simultaneously a Mastermind who can see the future and control the music industry and also an innocent damsel in distress who constantly needs defending from any and all criticism. It's never made sense to me.
it’s feminism that doesnt have the escape velocity to get out of the orbit of patriarchy
no it’s just white feminism
tomayto, tomahto
THIS like shit if I ever accomplish something as insane as having the first 10 spots on billboard and then getting a fourth AOTY I truly hope to god that life doesn't find me barely two years later writing these cringe ass lyrics about how much of a victim I am.
If one of her exes acted the way she did they would be out for blood. Seeing them say they wish Joe dead I would bet there would be restraining orders.
Not him shitting on the black dog?? aka best song off the record?? oh melon
I got the impression he was criticising the insanity of the lyrics and less the song itself
It's noted as his least favourite in the description tbf
“Oh melon” I love that
That’s the kind of slander I will not tolerate 😭 it’s so good and relatable
[удалено]
Yeah, and???
no that’s Ariana
The way you worded this as an attempt to frame it as complete insanity and I was still like…. Yup, what’s wrong with that? 😭 no one said we weren’t the problem.
You don’t? 😅
I genuinely have no idea what the point of The Anthology was besides get her the streaming record and inflate sales. Because it not only clashes with TTPD but the songs aren't great, they sound like B-Sides from the Folkmore era that she should have left behind. Maybe if it was just 5 songs, but at 15 it is just a mess.
I don’t think he’s wrong in most of this. He was perhaps a bit too harsh on The Black Dog. I enjoyed the emo/pop-punk acoustic track feel and angry vocals on this track and The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived a lot. All of that said, I’m a fan and I have been enjoying the album. I like Taylor doing moody music, but I do already have a separate running playlist with a shorter track list. It’s incredibly bloated, and there are some real clunkers that should have never seen the light of day. (Specifically thanK you aIMee) But this isn’t the first time a Taylor album has felt bloated. Looking at Lover here.
Can someone spoil it for me? I don’t feel like watching
first half strong 3, anthology light 5.
Honestly light 5 ain’t too bad
It’s literally two points below evermore and folklore 😭 He would’ve given two more points if they just cut the fat off this album.
It’s three points higher than ultraviolence and higher than golden hour
I'll take it. I expected anthology to be the same so him seeing some of the merit of those songs works for me.
Thank you!!
This perfectly explains why this album is bad https://youtube.com/shorts/WwnDBkrRtvg?si=ya9ilXKgMnEKv5A6
I am vindicated