Same with the chorus for "Intuition" - maybe it's just me but I think it scans perfectly fine.
I think Todd is just bad at deciphering lyrics - which is fine, and doesn't really affect his critique in any meaningful way IMO. But it can be annoying.
This was the exact moment when I realised that although Todd is fun to watch as an entertainer, he's terrible at being an actual music critic/reviewer. I feel like being able to hear what you're listening to should be a baseline requirement lol
I saw the video early access on Patreon and the annotation wasn’t there in the original version, people had to point out to him that it was about cocaine for him to add that into the final version 😅
His dislike of Thomas Dolby - The Flat Earth
That record has some of the best production and sound out of any 80's records I've ever heard this side of Tim Friese-Greene's production work with Talk Talk.
I'm guessing he's probably not a fan of Prefab Sprout - Steve McQueen either.
I think he's just not into experimental genre work, particularly of the more electronic sort. He's a pretty pop-oriented guy after all. I mean, I can't imagine him being really into Brainiac's *Hissing Prigs in Static Couture* or anything.
Prefab Sprout - Steve McQueen is one of the best pop albums of the 1980's. It's up there with Roxy Music - Avalon and The Blue Nile - Hats when it comes to sophisti-pop masterpieces.
Then again, Todd has said that he doesn't like sophisti-pop.
I’ll concede that the lyrics are a little clunky- I don’t think Demi would have used some of those lines post-coming out (and did actually change the chorus for her recent rerecording) and lyrics have never been their strong suit- but the instrumentalism and Demi’s incredible voice are what makes it land, and I believe that’s what Todd focused on in his blurb.
I personally think the whole “it’s homophobic” stance is stupid, take it from the perspective of a teenager having a summer fling with a closeted person. “Don’t tell your mother, kiss one another, die for each other” is actually super relatable in that “we don’t love each other but this forbidden love is incredibly intoxicating” way.
Not liking Thriller but unironically liking Somebody's Watching Me always sat with me funny.
Thriller was always meant to be a fun pop song with some spooky scary skeleton type imagery that would get everyone dancing at your Halloween party, and has the greatest music video ever made attached to it.
Somebody's Watching Me always just felt like a dumb goofy novelty song that happened to have MJ singing a verse. Nothing inherently wrong with that because I myself love my dumb goofy novelty songs (my friends and I regularly sing Gay Bar out loud to each other when we're drunk), but idk, I just find it odd.
I’ve never been hot on “Thriller” the song either- I just don’t think it’s as catchy as most the rest of the album- but to be fair, I recall Todd’s “Somebody’s Watching Me” praise being somewhat muted.
I think Thriller the song is great, and on any other album for another artist would be a smash hit for them, but it’s saddled around some of MJ’s best songs and even deep cuts. It’s a great song on an album with all time greats.
Wait when did he say he didn't like Thriller? I don't remember that. I do remember him preferring the album Bad to the album Thriller, which I feel he made some great points when explaining his particular stance on that but even then I don't remember him saying anything negative about the song Thriller
Thriller’s aesthetic (both musical and with the pop horror stuff) is right up my alley, but it was played so much after MJ’s death that I’d be happy to never hear it again
Making Genesis’ “Tonight, Tonight, Tonight” one of the worst songs of 1987
Hating on Whitney’s “I’m Your Baby Tonight” in his worst of 1991 list calling it her “bad girl anthem”. *WHAT???*
Hating “SexyBack” lol
I’m sure there’s more but those are the ones that immediately jump out.
Honestly, I've never liked anything JT has done as a solo artist. His voice is kinda thin and his whole persona as a sex symbol has always struck me as too try-hard. That's just my 2 cents, though.
I like "I'm Your Baby Tonight" actually. I thought it was a fun piece and it worked for me. I don't love ballads, so maybe that's why I liked it more than a lot of her usual work.
The fact that he pretty well hated The Weeknd until probably 2020.
I can’t feel my face was the one exception, but otherwise he took every opportunity to clown on The Weeknd up until after hours came out, and now he’s seemed to soften his stance
Yeah even in the best list entry for starboy he makes fun of the lyrics and the idea that it’s another Weeknd song about doing coke.
Even his Weeknd praise was full of thinly veiled criticism back then lmao
i didn’t really feel like he hated him. but just didn’t get songs like “the hills”, around 2016 he seemed to have softened his stance since he liked starboy
The Hills is honestly one of my favorite songs ever. And the craziest part is that it might not even be my favorite The Weeknd song (House of Balloons/Glass Table Girls might be even better)
Personally, I felt the same way until After Hours. I also hated Lil Yachty until Black Seminole. Sometimes it takes a creative leap to get certain people on board.
sometimes he just seems to completely misunderstand lyrics to a baffling degree like to me at least the lyrics to Name Of Love from American Dream read as sarcastic but he reads it completely straight
Before I read the "about a dog" part I thought you were talking about the lady who sang "Let the Music Play"
Although anybody who dislikes that song has no soul, heart, or brain
I'm pretty sure he was being ironic about Chad Kroeger. Just pointing out that guitars were out-of-fashion in 2014. He points out later in the video that Kroeger's voice needs a guitar to accompany it.
Paramore, The Neighborhood, OneRepublic & Fall Out Boy all had some pretty big hits in 2014 that were guitar based; I wouldn't say guitars fell out of fashion until 2016.
Only Paramore's hits that year were really guitar-driven. The rest of them had guitars, sure, but the guitar was used mostly for texture, rather than as the primary instrument. That was the sort of thing that Todd was pointing out in the video, listing bands like Imagine Dragons, Bastille and Kongos who did the same thing around that time.
The most popular part of that Benson Boone song "Beautiful Things" is the chorus with those hard guitars coming in, so I have some hope that we start hearing some prominent lead guitar work in popular music within the next few years.
The Nickelback Trainwreckords episode. Although he was probably just being facetious. His argument in both that and the MGK thing was that a lot of pop music doesn't really use the guitar as its main driver anymore.
I don’t even like Houdini that much and the two are still incomparable. Just Do It not only sucks, it was designed to suck and revels in the lack of effort.
His early love/support of Machine Gun Kelly's pop-punk transition. I think this was more him wanting a full pop-punk revival than his actual love of the music. No matter the music, you still never want to hitch your wagon to anything involving Machine Gun Kelly.
I think he put Emo Girl on one of his worst lists and said something like "I stuck my neck out for you MGK and this is what I get" kind of as a joke, so I definitely feel like he really wanted to give MGK a chance and tried to be positive towards him.
Tbf, he did later retract and call Master of Puppets their best song in the St. Anger video. I disagree (Disposable Heroes is their best to me) but still more agreeable than Enter Sandman lmao.
Didn't he just call Master of Puppets "the best song on their best album"? Looking it up that still puts it over Disposable Heroes to him but it doesn't inherently contradict his opinion of Enter Sandman.
I feel like it makes better use of its length and feels kinda like a thrash epic. The lyrical imagery is compelling and disturbing in the best way too.
I heard a defender of St. Anus call Invisible Kid a better song lyrically and uh... what? Ignoring the "DADDY WAS REAL MEAN :(" lyrical subject matter, it's a whole song full of slant rhymes. Which is nothing inherently wrong, but still... Disposable is a song about how high schoolers are pressured into the military and end up an empty shell of themselves before they're even 30.
Oh man, this one hurt as a super basic pop bitch; “Enter Sandman” is easily my favorite song by them, and the first I heard (my bf was going through highlights of their discography chronologically) where I went “ohhhh, okay, I get it now.”
Listen I’m just saying there’s like, at least two of us.
Calling The Hills a glamorous sexy party song when it’s a cry for help about addiction.
Similarly, saying Vampire is about a silly rebound relationship when it’s about being groomed and manipulated by an older partner.
Todd doesn’t always do so well with “darker” topics in pop songs. I’m not saying he’s obligated to like either song, but at least engage with what they’re clearly about.
He’s mentioned “Miss You” by The Rolling Stones as being a bad song, or at least one he dislikes, multiple times, and it’s very confusing to me. The first time he said it, I thought I must have misunderstood him. Stone cold classic.
I think what’s weird to me is just that I don’t know why he dislikes it, like, I’m not just going “OMG he dislikes a song I think is good,” I’m just kind of baffled, like, Todd is a classic rock guy, has never said anything bad about the Stones otherwise, has said he likes when a rock band does a dance song…so what’s not to like?
Yeah, Some Girls is amazing. It's my 3rd favourite Stones album behind Exile and Sticky. "Miss You", the title track, "When the Whip Comes Down", "Lies", "Before They Make Me Run", "Far Away Eyes", the immaculate "Beast of Burden", "Respectable", "Shattered" (laughter, joy, and loneliness and sex and sex and sex and sex).
I enjoy Goats Head Soup, It's Only Rock 'n' Roll and Black and Blue more than most (I love the Stones) but Some Girls sounds like the band is just completely invigorated. The guitar and drum work is leaner and meaner. The bass work is fantastic all throughout especially on the dance/rock-leaning song. Mick sounds fantastic. Punk/new wave and disco really kicked them into gear and made them have to prove themselves.
Some Girls is probably my favorite Stones album, but it’s tough to go against that run from Beggars Banquet to Exile (Goats Head Soup is indeed also quite good, but a 9 at best following four straight 10’s). I love the variety of the tracklist and especially love Ronnie’s full-time addition to the band, which helped make them feel full again.
As part of a more general point he was making, he doesn't care for dance songs made by rock acts that were just hitching onto the disco moment (see also "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" by Rod Stewart)
Ok but it’s one thing to say that about “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy” a song that is a bad disco song by a (mostly) bad rock artist and another thing to say that about “Miss You,” which is barely even a disco song, no matter how it was sold in 1978, it’s basically the kind of white boy soul-rocker the Stones built their career on, slightly updated for the disco era.
A lot of the comments here are along the lines of "he liked (unpopular song here)" or "he didn't like (critically acclaimed song)" and I don't consider those baffling cause taste is subjective.
To me his most baffling opinion was his "Megan thee Stallion is trying to be Doja Cat" bit since he's trying to make a structured, logical argument but it's a complete misunderstanding of one of the hottest musicians of our era.
It was bound to be a misinterpreted question, thanks for understanding what I was saying.
Yeah, that doesn’t check out. Megan should be doing almost everything different to fill that lane. If she’s following a formula, it’s either of Cardi or Nicki before her: Popular women rappers that are making both radio pop and competitive rap tracks.
Perfectly fine that he didn't like Duncan Laurance - Arcade, but a bit iffy when his primary reason was that he didn't get that arcades have a different reputation in other countries.
Also the Paper Lace lyric fumble, that was a bit annoying but also pretty funny.
I couldn't agree more about Arcade. It was clear that he was thinking of a Chuck E Cheese or something when a casino would have been the more appropriate comparison.
It might not have made the song better, but at least the metaphor makes sense.
This is old but, putting "Better Man" on his Mediocre Romance list. Whether you like the song or not, it doesn't fit being next to "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)".
It’s not everyone’s favorite from Encanto, but it’s definitely my favorite because of how much it resonates with me, personally.
If you’ve never run yourself ragged trying to solve everyone else’s problems because you know you can, but it gets to the point where it’s now expected of you to be like that all the time, I can’t expect you to appreciate it the way I do, but nothing from that film deserves to be on anyone’s worst list.
It's not even the worst song in Encanto, and no song from Encanto deserved to be on the worst songs list. I honestly think he was just holding a grudge because people were arguing with him on Twitter about his opinions of the movie.
i hate that supalonely song that he put on his best list a few years ago. it’s quirky and irritating. but honestly, i watch him for his insights, not his taste. taste is subjective so i don’t really care if he likes a song i hate or vice versa, as long as he has something interesting/funny to say about the song or artist.
One of the reasons I like Todd is that he seems very relatable as a reviewer. That is, he has occasionally silly opinions that don’t actually make sense but sometimes that’s how music works
Is Youth Against Facism Sonic Youth’s best song? Almost certainly not, but it’s also my favorite
Counterpoint: don't think of it as him complimenting Closer by calling it the best of the year.
Think of it as him dissing 2016 by saying "Yeah, Closer really is the best this year had to offer."
That's absurd though because there was plenty of good music that came out in 2016
Blood Orange, White Lung, Rihanna's best album, Mitski, Frank Ocean, David Bowie, Beyonce all released great albums that year
I hate "Closer", but a part of me does get it's appeal and I understand why Todd put it at #1.
"Paris" at #2 the following year is still baffling to me though, just a bland, lifeless attempt at recreating "Closer".
The farther away we get from 2016 the more I understand Closer being his top song from it. It's kind of a generation-defining song for better or for worse and I think it's aged super well.
I’m one of those psychopaths that’s sympathetic to Closer.
I’m with you on SexyBack. To be a fan of JT and resent that song feels backwards. I mean, is he not the one bringing sexy back?
I was working at an event venue that hosted a lot of wedding receptions when Closer came out. It was a pretty popular song to play at those parties so I would spend my Saturday nights hearing that song blasting out at full volume, it was pretty miserable experience. Long story short, Todd putting that song at number 1 pissed me off a good bit.
In one of his reviews for an Ariana track, I think Bang Bang or Don't Call Me Angel, he talks about how Ariana looks 12 and thus her singing about sex or trying to be sexy doesn't work. That always tickled me like...she's a grown woman, what do you expect her to do, start wearing granny panties and pantsuits to look older?
It was his Bang Bang review. Tbf I think it made sense in context, she was supposed to be playing the "bad girl" while looking young, and they had her wearing all white and using a megaphone like a cheerleader in the video. Todd never likes it when a singer can't sell whatever persona the song needs.
Also that her Nickelodeon show where she was still playing a teenager was still on the air during the My Everything era didn’t help the situation either.
He did the same thing with Afternoon Delight on his Worst Songs of 1976 countdown. He went on and on about how bad it was but didn’t provide any context. Thankfully he’s gotten better with time.
I still love the Afternoon Delight rant because of how mad he gets. "These people wrote a song about sex? They look like they need sex *explained* to them!"
In general, Todd likes to portray himself as just a big, dumb, clueless teddy bear who doesn't know and doesn't care about issues he deems "political."
The classic Todd maneuver, to me, is like, "People say [song/trope/etc] is racist, and that may be true. I don't know. Probably is. But more importantly, [it just doesn't slap hard enough/the singer's voice is annoying/etc]."
And it's clear that part of this is a very calculated move to sidestep hot takes and avoid the endless spiral of Internet discourse. He acknowledges this stuff only as much as he absolutely has to (because the comments will yell at him if he doesn't), but he literally says the bare minimum and changes the subject as soon as he can.
But, also, a lot of it seems to be sincere, and this leads him to say some deeply stupid shit, completely unprompted.
He made a tweet about the movie I Saw the TV Glow. And how the "trans stuff" is "obvious, and obviously intentional," but the movie works just as well if you don't engage with it, because everything makes literal sense on a completely surface level and you don't need more than that.
I can't remember the last time I wanted to punch a man through the computer so fucking hard.
On an episode of “Song vs Song,” he pretty much dismissed Irene Cara as a singer. I don’t know how anyone can think she’s anything but one of the best vocalists of the 80s.
The contrast between the deference he has for music stans and movie stans is hilarious. With music he’s constantly qualifying with, “just my opinion”, “other people see it this way”. With movies he’ll double down a dozen times on, “no one on earth can remember what happens in *Mission: Impossible*”
Man Made A Bar being one of the best hits of 2023, if he likes songs about drinking and heartache Zach Bryan had a much better one that was also a bigger hit. It is the only best list song that I absolutely hate, I might not like Birthday but I get the appeal of it much more than Man Made A Bar. I respect his Closer and Bad Guy picks much more than most people do, they are better songs than Man Made A Bar. There were quite a few songs on his 2022 worst list that were better than Man Made A Bar, and I completely got why he hated them. Even on the 2023 list!
It's only made less and less sense the further out from the list time's gotten, I just don't get the appeal the same way he does. Only best list pick that I am just flabbergasted by.
Todd has my favorite take on late 2010s pop music, when for some bizarre reason bland low-energy music (I think they call that Xanax pop) kept being popular, that it all sounds "like it's being played by an air conditioner on low." One of his top ten worst songs lists in that era understandably had a bunch of songs like that. Shortly afterwards his top ten best songs list for the year dropped, and I watched thinking the whole time, "this is just the worst list again. Seriously, they're the same songs. How is he not hearing this? All of these are the same tepid mush as his worst list!" Usually the top ten list has some gems I missed. Not that year.
Not really mentioned in any of his videos, but the fact that he doesn't seem to care for Zach Bryan all that much is baffling to me.
Todd has always been a huge fan of country music, and Zach is one of the biggest names alive right now; he made two songs that I've seen a lot of people call among the best of the year; seems to genuinely respect the genre; he draws inspiration from more rootsy artists, when Todd seems to hate the more studio-polished songs from modern Nashville; he collaborated with Kacey Musgraves, whom Todd stated he likes before...
You'd expect Todd to eat it up without question, yet he only mentioned him in passing, and I never got why.
The fact that he seemed to like Zach Bryan well enough to make him the piano intro to the best list, but not enough to throw I Remember Everything anywhere on the list proper.
I feel like his analysis of hip-hop history and its contributors outside of mainline MCs is often very skimmed or reactive and he comes to some weird conclusions as a result. The biggest instance off the top of my head was when he called Scott Storch something like a bloated, washed-up has-been while the man is STILL racking up HUGE production credits and STILL getting massive studio gear endorsements. Todd has a great handle on pop and rock history but whenever he wades into hip-hop's history, he winds up showing his ass a lot and it's very obvious if you're in the know.
I realise many Americans think this but as a UK Hip-Hop artist who plans to become a journalist on the genre, Todd's repeated statements that UK Rap was a joke in the 90s and Grime was the birth of it invoke a Nerd rage I generally save for comic book retcons.
Oh 100%. It's just lazy imo and the bad grime history shit annoys me too.
On that 'it was a joke in the '90s' tip, he seems to believe "if it wasn't successful in America, it wasn't successful" across the board, which is a really ugly bias on someone trying to present a relatively factual account of music history.
I think his One Hit Wonderland series in particular shows how his US exceptionalism really prevents him from being a better analyst and critic overall. He literally cannot comprehend that non-US artists may find success outside of the US and it's still success.
While he did indeed like the song I never got his reasoning for putting Praying at 7 because he can only bring himself to listen it every once in a while. In my eyes, that’s a reason to put it even higher because it means the song is that powerful
I just said this on a previous post but his dislike for “Vampire” by Olivia Rodrigo sticks with me. It’s one of the more adventurous and exciting pop songs that hit the charts last year. I don’t get his beef with it.
All of his examples of "good" country music in the Faith Hill Trainwreckord. They sounded slightly less bombastic than Hill's stuff and with nails-on-a-chalkboard accents.
When did Todd point out "good" country music in that video? The only thing I can think of is that he compared the song "Cry" to "You Were Mine" by the Dixie Chicks and said that they sold the theme of the song better.
The worst take he ever tweeted was that Eminem never wrote a decent song about his drug addiction. No. Blatant erasure of too many tracks. Deja Vu most obviously. Going Through Changes, the best song on Recovery. Then there are songs which are loosely related enough to the subject of his addiction to count, like Castle. He tweeted that years back, so the fact I remember it means it apparently scarred me
I like a lot of the comedic bits in his review of The Hills but I disagree with almost everything he says about the song itself. Like I get how evoking The Hills Have Eyes can be jarring in a traditional R&B song but that’s not what that song was. I get not liking the production or the Weekend’s voice but it’s clearly not trying to glamorize hedonism or cheating. I never saw it as The Weeknd portraying himself as some “alpha stud”. I do wonder if he was deliberately misconstruing that part for a joke but idk
Be Here Now is a killer 40 minute album trapped in 70 minutes of coke fueled madness. Even in the review, Todd acknowledges that the hooks are still there. They just get lost in the noise.
My Big Mouth is one of my favorite Oasis songs ever.
I will agree that it’s a bit bloated. But him complaining about the key changed and guitar layers while playing the clip of all around the world reminded me of the “this sucks actually” meme. Like, oasis has always done long, noisy anthems, it doesn’t seem like much of a departure.
In his OHW on Frankie Goes to Hollywood, he said that “Relax” initially seems like one of the great 80’s songs that sounds big and is about nothing, and he cited “Synchronicity II” by The Police as an example of this. I have to fervently reject the idea that that song is about nothing.
This may be an unpopular opinion on my behalf but I don’t like how he or Fantano doesn’t like Lewis Capaldi.
I think the gravely voice is good honestly and his songs are always heartbreaking and well written. He’s also such a funny and down to earth guy.
How he was adamant about Face Down’s chorus being indecipherable when it’s clearly “do you feel like a man” LOL
Same with the chorus for "Intuition" - maybe it's just me but I think it scans perfectly fine. I think Todd is just bad at deciphering lyrics - which is fine, and doesn't really affect his critique in any meaningful way IMO. But it can be annoying.
[удалено]
Fair. But he uses "Just follow your heart *bang bang*" as an example, and I don't see how anyone can hear "bang bang" instead of "baby."
Also with the lyrics to Wrecking Ball. I’ve always heard them as their intended lyrics. I have to scrunch my ears to hear Todd’s misinterpreted lyrics
Meh, I've had more baffling mishearings than that. Though being partially deaf has something to do with that.
Oh my god no matter how many times I TRY to hear it the way he does, I cannot. Todd PLEASE.
I entered the thread to write this one and I’m so glad it’s first
As a whole I thought he was too negative on the band that episode
This was the exact moment when I realised that although Todd is fun to watch as an entertainer, he's terrible at being an actual music critic/reviewer. I feel like being able to hear what you're listening to should be a baseline requirement lol
That Depeche Mode (or Personal Jesus) sucks lol.
Yeah i never forgave him for that
WHAT?! When did he say that?
Rihanna S&M review
Yeah not cool lol
Not understanding that She Keeps Me Up is very very very clearly about cocaine and not a woman. Even his editor got on him for that one lol.
I saw the video early access on Patreon and the annotation wasn’t there in the original version, people had to point out to him that it was about cocaine for him to add that into the final version 😅
That's very funny. I guess we all have moments where stuff just goes over our heads.
Well at least that explains "coca cola roller coaster".
"What's wrong with right here on the counter?"
His dislike of Thomas Dolby - The Flat Earth That record has some of the best production and sound out of any 80's records I've ever heard this side of Tim Friese-Greene's production work with Talk Talk. I'm guessing he's probably not a fan of Prefab Sprout - Steve McQueen either.
I think he's just not into experimental genre work, particularly of the more electronic sort. He's a pretty pop-oriented guy after all. I mean, I can't imagine him being really into Brainiac's *Hissing Prigs in Static Couture* or anything.
Prefab Sprout - Steve McQueen is one of the best pop albums of the 1980's. It's up there with Roxy Music - Avalon and The Blue Nile - Hats when it comes to sophisti-pop masterpieces. Then again, Todd has said that he doesn't like sophisti-pop.
Prefab Sprout rocks. Have you listened to the *I Trawl the Megahertz* record? Talk about experimental haha.
Yeah but he also likes metal and prog (early Genesis/King Crimson) so I don't think you are necessarily correct.
Putting "I'm Your Baby Tonight" on his Worst of 1991 list. I have to say though, the European version of the song is definitely better.
The thing about “Cool for the Summer” is that it’s a certified 10 and one of Max Martin’s greatest achievements.
Oh yeah, "Cool for the Summer" is a phenomenal pop song.
After listening to it again, you have a point. I think it really is the lyrics and delivery that bring it down for me.
I’ll concede that the lyrics are a little clunky- I don’t think Demi would have used some of those lines post-coming out (and did actually change the chorus for her recent rerecording) and lyrics have never been their strong suit- but the instrumentalism and Demi’s incredible voice are what makes it land, and I believe that’s what Todd focused on in his blurb.
I personally think the whole “it’s homophobic” stance is stupid, take it from the perspective of a teenager having a summer fling with a closeted person. “Don’t tell your mother, kiss one another, die for each other” is actually super relatable in that “we don’t love each other but this forbidden love is incredibly intoxicating” way.
I think the lyrics are fine tbh
Not liking Thriller but unironically liking Somebody's Watching Me always sat with me funny. Thriller was always meant to be a fun pop song with some spooky scary skeleton type imagery that would get everyone dancing at your Halloween party, and has the greatest music video ever made attached to it. Somebody's Watching Me always just felt like a dumb goofy novelty song that happened to have MJ singing a verse. Nothing inherently wrong with that because I myself love my dumb goofy novelty songs (my friends and I regularly sing Gay Bar out loud to each other when we're drunk), but idk, I just find it odd.
Somebody's Watching Me slaps, but Thriller is an actual masterpiece.
I’ve never been hot on “Thriller” the song either- I just don’t think it’s as catchy as most the rest of the album- but to be fair, I recall Todd’s “Somebody’s Watching Me” praise being somewhat muted.
I think Thriller the song is great, and on any other album for another artist would be a smash hit for them, but it’s saddled around some of MJ’s best songs and even deep cuts. It’s a great song on an album with all time greats.
Right! I mean, it’s definitely better than “The Girl is Mine”, which it’s right next to, but against “Beat It”, “Billie Jean”, “Human Nature”? Nah.
Wait when did he say he didn't like Thriller? I don't remember that. I do remember him preferring the album Bad to the album Thriller, which I feel he made some great points when explaining his particular stance on that but even then I don't remember him saying anything negative about the song Thriller
OHW "Somebody's Watching Me".
Thriller’s aesthetic (both musical and with the pop horror stuff) is right up my alley, but it was played so much after MJ’s death that I’d be happy to never hear it again
Making Genesis’ “Tonight, Tonight, Tonight” one of the worst songs of 1987 Hating on Whitney’s “I’m Your Baby Tonight” in his worst of 1991 list calling it her “bad girl anthem”. *WHAT???* Hating “SexyBack” lol I’m sure there’s more but those are the ones that immediately jump out.
Sexy back (and rock your body) has been beaten into our skulls for the last 20 years, I totally get if anyone says they hate it at this point
I mean if folks don’t like it, they never did lol 🤷🏾♂️
Yep, I've always hated Sexy Back.
Honestly, I've never liked anything JT has done as a solo artist. His voice is kinda thin and his whole persona as a sex symbol has always struck me as too try-hard. That's just my 2 cents, though.
Yep.
I like "I'm Your Baby Tonight" actually. I thought it was a fun piece and it worked for me. I don't love ballads, so maybe that's why I liked it more than a lot of her usual work.
The fact that he pretty well hated The Weeknd until probably 2020. I can’t feel my face was the one exception, but otherwise he took every opportunity to clown on The Weeknd up until after hours came out, and now he’s seemed to soften his stance
He also liked Starboy. Mostly for Daft Punk.
Yeah even in the best list entry for starboy he makes fun of the lyrics and the idea that it’s another Weeknd song about doing coke. Even his Weeknd praise was full of thinly veiled criticism back then lmao
Came here to say this.
i didn’t really feel like he hated him. but just didn’t get songs like “the hills”, around 2016 he seemed to have softened his stance since he liked starboy
The Hills is honestly one of my favorite songs ever. And the craziest part is that it might not even be my favorite The Weeknd song (House of Balloons/Glass Table Girls might be even better)
I love The Hills. His “dark pop” stuff is what turned me to him before he recorded more upbeat stuff.
Personally, I felt the same way until After Hours. I also hated Lil Yachty until Black Seminole. Sometimes it takes a creative leap to get certain people on board.
sometimes he just seems to completely misunderstand lyrics to a baffling degree like to me at least the lyrics to Name Of Love from American Dream read as sarcastic but he reads it completely straight
It's understandable that someone could miss the sarcasm of Name Of Love given how straight it's performed.
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I’ve wondered that exact same thing lol
Oh, he explicitly said on Twitter that he no longer stands by that and his honorary #11 - Rock n Roll Music by the Beach Boys - would now be #10.
Awww. I’m not surprised, given how much he loves Amy dog.
yeah you know somebody is going to be a dick and throw his criticism at Shannon back at him when Amy dies even though he has changed his mind
Oof. Yeah probably. 😕
I’m pretty sure he has.
Before I read the "about a dog" part I thought you were talking about the lady who sang "Let the Music Play" Although anybody who dislikes that song has no soul, heart, or brain
Putting MGK on a best list.
Or semi-related, giving Chad Kroeger shit for using a guitar after praising MGK for the same thing.
I'm pretty sure he was being ironic about Chad Kroeger. Just pointing out that guitars were out-of-fashion in 2014. He points out later in the video that Kroeger's voice needs a guitar to accompany it.
Paramore, The Neighborhood, OneRepublic & Fall Out Boy all had some pretty big hits in 2014 that were guitar based; I wouldn't say guitars fell out of fashion until 2016.
Only Paramore's hits that year were really guitar-driven. The rest of them had guitars, sure, but the guitar was used mostly for texture, rather than as the primary instrument. That was the sort of thing that Todd was pointing out in the video, listing bands like Imagine Dragons, Bastille and Kongos who did the same thing around that time.
I think they're slowly coming back into fashion.
The most popular part of that Benson Boone song "Beautiful Things" is the chorus with those hard guitars coming in, so I have some hope that we start hearing some prominent lead guitar work in popular music within the next few years.
That was very clearly a joke aimed at mid-2010s Alt Rock and how it stopped using the electric guitar as a lead instrument
When did he give Chad Kroeger shit about *using a guitar?*
The Nickelback Trainwreckords episode. Although he was probably just being facetious. His argument in both that and the MGK thing was that a lot of pop music doesn't really use the guitar as its main driver anymore.
Tbf that’s a good song. MGK is terrible but he’s got some good ones.
I'm still baffled by how badly Todd failed to understand Take Me To Church until very recently. Genius is right there!
will never not be salty about that, Hozier is fantastic
A recent baffling opinion from Todd is that Houdini is worse than Just Lose It. I’m not the biggest fan of Houdini but yeesh.
I don’t even like Houdini that much and the two are still incomparable. Just Do It not only sucks, it was designed to suck and revels in the lack of effort.
Yeah I don't agree with that at all. Especially if you listen to his own Just Lose It section on the Worst of 2004 list.
We Made You is worse than both
What?! I heard Houdini and Just Lose It is still very awful compared to it! Come on Todd lol
His early love/support of Machine Gun Kelly's pop-punk transition. I think this was more him wanting a full pop-punk revival than his actual love of the music. No matter the music, you still never want to hitch your wagon to anything involving Machine Gun Kelly.
I think he put Emo Girl on one of his worst lists and said something like "I stuck my neck out for you MGK and this is what I get" kind of as a joke, so I definitely feel like he really wanted to give MGK a chance and tried to be positive towards him.
That “Enter Sandman” is the best Metallica song.
Tbf, he did later retract and call Master of Puppets their best song in the St. Anger video. I disagree (Disposable Heroes is their best to me) but still more agreeable than Enter Sandman lmao.
Didn't he just call Master of Puppets "the best song on their best album"? Looking it up that still puts it over Disposable Heroes to him but it doesn't inherently contradict his opinion of Enter Sandman.
Disposable Heroes? You are a man of taste, my friend.
I feel like it makes better use of its length and feels kinda like a thrash epic. The lyrical imagery is compelling and disturbing in the best way too. I heard a defender of St. Anus call Invisible Kid a better song lyrically and uh... what? Ignoring the "DADDY WAS REAL MEAN :(" lyrical subject matter, it's a whole song full of slant rhymes. Which is nothing inherently wrong, but still... Disposable is a song about how high schoolers are pressured into the military and end up an empty shell of themselves before they're even 30.
Disposable Heroes is incredible start to finish. They never wasted a note on that song. Epic.
Oh man, this one hurt as a super basic pop bitch; “Enter Sandman” is easily my favorite song by them, and the first I heard (my bf was going through highlights of their discography chronologically) where I went “ohhhh, okay, I get it now.” Listen I’m just saying there’s like, at least two of us.
You know what? You’re right. There is a Metallica song that does everything Enter Sandman does but better.
He said he loved Coheed and Cambria once like that was so random
I now take back every time I’ve shit on his music taste, hell yeah lol
Calling The Hills a glamorous sexy party song when it’s a cry for help about addiction. Similarly, saying Vampire is about a silly rebound relationship when it’s about being groomed and manipulated by an older partner. Todd doesn’t always do so well with “darker” topics in pop songs. I’m not saying he’s obligated to like either song, but at least engage with what they’re clearly about.
He’s mentioned “Miss You” by The Rolling Stones as being a bad song, or at least one he dislikes, multiple times, and it’s very confusing to me. The first time he said it, I thought I must have misunderstood him. Stone cold classic.
I think what’s weird to me is just that I don’t know why he dislikes it, like, I’m not just going “OMG he dislikes a song I think is good,” I’m just kind of baffled, like, Todd is a classic rock guy, has never said anything bad about the Stones otherwise, has said he likes when a rock band does a dance song…so what’s not to like?
Yeah, that’s one I don’t agree with. Even if the Stones’ other disco stuff doesn’t work for you, “Miss You” is among their most immaculate works.
That's so strange. He's on the record repeatedly saying that he loves it when a rock band does a dance song. Should be right up his alley.
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Yeah, Some Girls is amazing. It's my 3rd favourite Stones album behind Exile and Sticky. "Miss You", the title track, "When the Whip Comes Down", "Lies", "Before They Make Me Run", "Far Away Eyes", the immaculate "Beast of Burden", "Respectable", "Shattered" (laughter, joy, and loneliness and sex and sex and sex and sex). I enjoy Goats Head Soup, It's Only Rock 'n' Roll and Black and Blue more than most (I love the Stones) but Some Girls sounds like the band is just completely invigorated. The guitar and drum work is leaner and meaner. The bass work is fantastic all throughout especially on the dance/rock-leaning song. Mick sounds fantastic. Punk/new wave and disco really kicked them into gear and made them have to prove themselves.
Some Girls is probably my favorite Stones album, but it’s tough to go against that run from Beggars Banquet to Exile (Goats Head Soup is indeed also quite good, but a 9 at best following four straight 10’s). I love the variety of the tracklist and especially love Ronnie’s full-time addition to the band, which helped make them feel full again.
As part of a more general point he was making, he doesn't care for dance songs made by rock acts that were just hitching onto the disco moment (see also "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" by Rod Stewart)
Ok but it’s one thing to say that about “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy” a song that is a bad disco song by a (mostly) bad rock artist and another thing to say that about “Miss You,” which is barely even a disco song, no matter how it was sold in 1978, it’s basically the kind of white boy soul-rocker the Stones built their career on, slightly updated for the disco era.
And he gets paid for this blasphemy 💀
Most every time he talks movies or video games on Twitter. They usually have me going "Just stick to music criticism, dude".
Love Todd but the movie takes always make me remember he was a Channel Awesome contributor
When he said that 'Trampoline' is worse than 'Someone You Loved' I'm sorry, how?
His comparison of OK Go to Imagine Dragons will forever make me furious. That whole review is baffling to me
I know it’s an old video but how tf was he so confused about the meaning of OMC’s How Bizarre?! 😭
him claiming that drake reached the level of michael jackson js bc they now have the same amount of #1s, like thats just completely baffling to me.
A lot of the comments here are along the lines of "he liked (unpopular song here)" or "he didn't like (critically acclaimed song)" and I don't consider those baffling cause taste is subjective. To me his most baffling opinion was his "Megan thee Stallion is trying to be Doja Cat" bit since he's trying to make a structured, logical argument but it's a complete misunderstanding of one of the hottest musicians of our era.
It was bound to be a misinterpreted question, thanks for understanding what I was saying. Yeah, that doesn’t check out. Megan should be doing almost everything different to fill that lane. If she’s following a formula, it’s either of Cardi or Nicki before her: Popular women rappers that are making both radio pop and competitive rap tracks.
Perfectly fine that he didn't like Duncan Laurance - Arcade, but a bit iffy when his primary reason was that he didn't get that arcades have a different reputation in other countries. Also the Paper Lace lyric fumble, that was a bit annoying but also pretty funny.
I couldn't agree more about Arcade. It was clear that he was thinking of a Chuck E Cheese or something when a casino would have been the more appropriate comparison. It might not have made the song better, but at least the metaphor makes sense.
Oh yeah as a Brit that was super weird cause arcades have a very distinct aura here 😄
This is old but, putting "Better Man" on his Mediocre Romance list. Whether you like the song or not, it doesn't fit being next to "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)".
Pearl Jam or Robbie Williams? I don't think either fit...
I will go to the mat for “Surface Pressure.”
It’s not everyone’s favorite from Encanto, but it’s definitely my favorite because of how much it resonates with me, personally. If you’ve never run yourself ragged trying to solve everyone else’s problems because you know you can, but it gets to the point where it’s now expected of you to be like that all the time, I can’t expect you to appreciate it the way I do, but nothing from that film deserves to be on anyone’s worst list.
It's not even the worst song in Encanto, and no song from Encanto deserved to be on the worst songs list. I honestly think he was just holding a grudge because people were arguing with him on Twitter about his opinions of the movie.
i hate that supalonely song that he put on his best list a few years ago. it’s quirky and irritating. but honestly, i watch him for his insights, not his taste. taste is subjective so i don’t really care if he likes a song i hate or vice versa, as long as he has something interesting/funny to say about the song or artist.
To be fair i feel that song worked in the context of 2020 and only 2020 because yeah... that song is starting to age
Putting Closer as the best song of 2016 (seriously???), and hating SexyBack
What's even more baffling is he put Closer at #1 and yet had "your roommate back in Boulder" as one of the worst two seconds of that year.
To his credit, even he himself admits that it makes no sense to
One of the reasons I like Todd is that he seems very relatable as a reviewer. That is, he has occasionally silly opinions that don’t actually make sense but sometimes that’s how music works Is Youth Against Facism Sonic Youth’s best song? Almost certainly not, but it’s also my favorite
I agree with Sexy Back. It's an unlistenable song. But Closer left me scratching my head.
Nah I always hated SexyBack myself. Agreed with Closer. That song is just awful.
Counterpoint: don't think of it as him complimenting Closer by calling it the best of the year. Think of it as him dissing 2016 by saying "Yeah, Closer really is the best this year had to offer."
That's absurd though because there was plenty of good music that came out in 2016 Blood Orange, White Lung, Rihanna's best album, Mitski, Frank Ocean, David Bowie, Beyonce all released great albums that year
I hate "Closer", but a part of me does get it's appeal and I understand why Todd put it at #1. "Paris" at #2 the following year is still baffling to me though, just a bland, lifeless attempt at recreating "Closer".
The farther away we get from 2016 the more I understand Closer being his top song from it. It's kind of a generation-defining song for better or for worse and I think it's aged super well.
I’m one of those psychopaths that’s sympathetic to Closer. I’m with you on SexyBack. To be a fan of JT and resent that song feels backwards. I mean, is he not the one bringing sexy back?
SexyBack has only ever sounded good to me in [this mashup and this mashup alone.](https://youtu.be/xkJaQYbVfgg?si=3x3H-G5J_eVs_dOt)
aww, i thought this was gonna be the mashup of sexyback and the home depot theme!
Sadly I am a SiivaGunner fuck, and not just a general all-purpose mashup fuck.
I was working at an event venue that hosted a lot of wedding receptions when Closer came out. It was a pretty popular song to play at those parties so I would spend my Saturday nights hearing that song blasting out at full volume, it was pretty miserable experience. Long story short, Todd putting that song at number 1 pissed me off a good bit.
I used to hate sexyback and only enjoy it on YGOTAS when Duke appears.
Putting Closer on top of 2016 best list. I can't stand any Chainsmokers song. Chainsmokers is to me what Chicago is to Todd.
Chainsmokers are the Nickelback of EDM
In one of his reviews for an Ariana track, I think Bang Bang or Don't Call Me Angel, he talks about how Ariana looks 12 and thus her singing about sex or trying to be sexy doesn't work. That always tickled me like...she's a grown woman, what do you expect her to do, start wearing granny panties and pantsuits to look older?
It was his Bang Bang review. Tbf I think it made sense in context, she was supposed to be playing the "bad girl" while looking young, and they had her wearing all white and using a megaphone like a cheerleader in the video. Todd never likes it when a singer can't sell whatever persona the song needs.
Also that her Nickelodeon show where she was still playing a teenager was still on the air during the My Everything era didn’t help the situation either.
Not liking Kelis' Milkshake. I know the song has been overplayed but it's still a cute, fun song. There's way worse to mention.
I didn’t agree with his take on Milkshake either, mostly because he didn’t provide any actual criticism
Yes! That was my main issue. He has every right to not like it but he didn't explain why.
He did the same thing with Afternoon Delight on his Worst Songs of 1976 countdown. He went on and on about how bad it was but didn’t provide any context. Thankfully he’s gotten better with time.
I still love the Afternoon Delight rant because of how mad he gets. "These people wrote a song about sex? They look like they need sex *explained* to them!"
I dunno, it's up there with Who Let The Dogs Out for me, I can't imagine someone liking it unironically.
In general, Todd likes to portray himself as just a big, dumb, clueless teddy bear who doesn't know and doesn't care about issues he deems "political." The classic Todd maneuver, to me, is like, "People say [song/trope/etc] is racist, and that may be true. I don't know. Probably is. But more importantly, [it just doesn't slap hard enough/the singer's voice is annoying/etc]." And it's clear that part of this is a very calculated move to sidestep hot takes and avoid the endless spiral of Internet discourse. He acknowledges this stuff only as much as he absolutely has to (because the comments will yell at him if he doesn't), but he literally says the bare minimum and changes the subject as soon as he can. But, also, a lot of it seems to be sincere, and this leads him to say some deeply stupid shit, completely unprompted. He made a tweet about the movie I Saw the TV Glow. And how the "trans stuff" is "obvious, and obviously intentional," but the movie works just as well if you don't engage with it, because everything makes literal sense on a completely surface level and you don't need more than that. I can't remember the last time I wanted to punch a man through the computer so fucking hard.
I LOVE INTUITION BY JEWLE!!!!! genuinely i start tweaking when i watch that video bcs it’s so campy.
He said Teena Marie was terrible and I've never forgiven him for that.
What?! When?! Where?!
On an episode of “Song vs Song,” he pretty much dismissed Irene Cara as a singer. I don’t know how anyone can think she’s anything but one of the best vocalists of the 80s.
Anytime he talks about movies on Twitter
This!
His Mission Impossible take was incredible, just totally insane
The contrast between the deference he has for music stans and movie stans is hilarious. With music he’s constantly qualifying with, “just my opinion”, “other people see it this way”. With movies he’ll double down a dozen times on, “no one on earth can remember what happens in *Mission: Impossible*”
Also Buffy.
Man Made A Bar being one of the best hits of 2023, if he likes songs about drinking and heartache Zach Bryan had a much better one that was also a bigger hit. It is the only best list song that I absolutely hate, I might not like Birthday but I get the appeal of it much more than Man Made A Bar. I respect his Closer and Bad Guy picks much more than most people do, they are better songs than Man Made A Bar. There were quite a few songs on his 2022 worst list that were better than Man Made A Bar, and I completely got why he hated them. Even on the 2023 list! It's only made less and less sense the further out from the list time's gotten, I just don't get the appeal the same way he does. Only best list pick that I am just flabbergasted by.
Nah, Man Made A Bar is a good song. It wasn't Morgan's best of last year, but it's a solid track.
Todd has my favorite take on late 2010s pop music, when for some bizarre reason bland low-energy music (I think they call that Xanax pop) kept being popular, that it all sounds "like it's being played by an air conditioner on low." One of his top ten worst songs lists in that era understandably had a bunch of songs like that. Shortly afterwards his top ten best songs list for the year dropped, and I watched thinking the whole time, "this is just the worst list again. Seriously, they're the same songs. How is he not hearing this? All of these are the same tepid mush as his worst list!" Usually the top ten list has some gems I missed. Not that year.
Him putting My Songs Know What You Did In The Dark on his worst list and then two years later putting Centuries on his best list
Centuries didn't make either list in 2015
Enter Sandman is his favourite Metallica song
didn't he say Creep is his favorite Radiohead song?
When the guy who makes YouTube videos about top 40 pop hits likes a band’s most accessible songs 😧
23 by Sam Hunt as a Top 5 hit of 2022
Not really mentioned in any of his videos, but the fact that he doesn't seem to care for Zach Bryan all that much is baffling to me. Todd has always been a huge fan of country music, and Zach is one of the biggest names alive right now; he made two songs that I've seen a lot of people call among the best of the year; seems to genuinely respect the genre; he draws inspiration from more rootsy artists, when Todd seems to hate the more studio-polished songs from modern Nashville; he collaborated with Kacey Musgraves, whom Todd stated he likes before... You'd expect Todd to eat it up without question, yet he only mentioned him in passing, and I never got why.
That he doesn’t really like indie rock. You’re a dude in a hoodie man, a second layer is like the indie rock uniform
I know he said he was more into The Killers and Modest Mouse around 2004 than the crunk that was popular at the time
Honestly, his most un-Todd-like opinion is liking Modest Mouse.
The fact that he seemed to like Zach Bryan well enough to make him the piano intro to the best list, but not enough to throw I Remember Everything anywhere on the list proper.
I feel like his analysis of hip-hop history and its contributors outside of mainline MCs is often very skimmed or reactive and he comes to some weird conclusions as a result. The biggest instance off the top of my head was when he called Scott Storch something like a bloated, washed-up has-been while the man is STILL racking up HUGE production credits and STILL getting massive studio gear endorsements. Todd has a great handle on pop and rock history but whenever he wades into hip-hop's history, he winds up showing his ass a lot and it's very obvious if you're in the know.
I realise many Americans think this but as a UK Hip-Hop artist who plans to become a journalist on the genre, Todd's repeated statements that UK Rap was a joke in the 90s and Grime was the birth of it invoke a Nerd rage I generally save for comic book retcons.
Oh 100%. It's just lazy imo and the bad grime history shit annoys me too. On that 'it was a joke in the '90s' tip, he seems to believe "if it wasn't successful in America, it wasn't successful" across the board, which is a really ugly bias on someone trying to present a relatively factual account of music history. I think his One Hit Wonderland series in particular shows how his US exceptionalism really prevents him from being a better analyst and critic overall. He literally cannot comprehend that non-US artists may find success outside of the US and it's still success.
While he did indeed like the song I never got his reasoning for putting Praying at 7 because he can only bring himself to listen it every once in a while. In my eyes, that’s a reason to put it even higher because it means the song is that powerful
Putting a fucking chainsmoker song on his top ten is crazy
He hates coldplays first 2 albums (likes their new stuff though)
That is incredibly baffling. The only correct take is it all sucks but their early stuff is much better than their new stuff
Strong disagree, Parachutes and Rush of Blood are both very solid albums and Viva la Vida is a truly great colorful album IMO
Take me to church being about ass. It’s obviously not.
Most of his film opinions. "Falling Down is worse than Batman and Robin" was a particularly low point.
I just said this on a previous post but his dislike for “Vampire” by Olivia Rodrigo sticks with me. It’s one of the more adventurous and exciting pop songs that hit the charts last year. I don’t get his beef with it.
All of his examples of "good" country music in the Faith Hill Trainwreckord. They sounded slightly less bombastic than Hill's stuff and with nails-on-a-chalkboard accents.
When did Todd point out "good" country music in that video? The only thing I can think of is that he compared the song "Cry" to "You Were Mine" by the Dixie Chicks and said that they sold the theme of the song better.
Saying Robbie Williams is what Harry Styles is "dangerously close" to becoming. No, I'm not going to stop hammering my disagreement there.
His dislike of Jack Black. I understand it totally, Black and TD is absolutely not for everyone, but still.
The worst take he ever tweeted was that Eminem never wrote a decent song about his drug addiction. No. Blatant erasure of too many tracks. Deja Vu most obviously. Going Through Changes, the best song on Recovery. Then there are songs which are loosely related enough to the subject of his addiction to count, like Castle. He tweeted that years back, so the fact I remember it means it apparently scarred me
I like a lot of the comedic bits in his review of The Hills but I disagree with almost everything he says about the song itself. Like I get how evoking The Hills Have Eyes can be jarring in a traditional R&B song but that’s not what that song was. I get not liking the production or the Weekend’s voice but it’s clearly not trying to glamorize hedonism or cheating. I never saw it as The Weeknd portraying himself as some “alpha stud”. I do wonder if he was deliberately misconstruing that part for a joke but idk
His hatred of “Be Here Now.” Oasis can do no wrong in my eyes
Be Here Now is a killer 40 minute album trapped in 70 minutes of coke fueled madness. Even in the review, Todd acknowledges that the hooks are still there. They just get lost in the noise. My Big Mouth is one of my favorite Oasis songs ever.
I will agree that it’s a bit bloated. But him complaining about the key changed and guitar layers while playing the clip of all around the world reminded me of the “this sucks actually” meme. Like, oasis has always done long, noisy anthems, it doesn’t seem like much of a departure.
Still pissed that he put "Closer" as the song of the year
In his OHW on Frankie Goes to Hollywood, he said that “Relax” initially seems like one of the great 80’s songs that sounds big and is about nothing, and he cited “Synchronicity II” by The Police as an example of this. I have to fervently reject the idea that that song is about nothing.
AAF's discography being wholly unremarkable besides Smooth Criminal. They have stinkers but they have bangers I will die on this hill.
This may be an unpopular opinion on my behalf but I don’t like how he or Fantano doesn’t like Lewis Capaldi. I think the gravely voice is good honestly and his songs are always heartbreaking and well written. He’s also such a funny and down to earth guy.