Hey, everyone. Anthony Fancrypto here, the Internet's Bitcoin-iest music nerd, here with a brand new announcement. Going up on the internet tomorrow, ready for you to buy, buy, buy. It's the one and only Fantano Let's Argue Coin. Always hodel, diamond hands, never sell. For a limited time only, spend all your money on this coin and give it to me. You only get rich if I get rich through some crazy internet voodoo money magic. Yeah, buy the coin, buy the money, the stock will rise, the money will rise today.

Yeah. I'm just kidding. Don't do any of that stuff. You do that stuff, you're an idiot. Let's argue. It's time to argue.

End of the year.

Let's talk about some Worst Albums. Maybe argue about a few of them.

Austen and I hopped onto the internet and asked you guys what the worst album of the year was. Let's see what you said and I don't know, see if I have any arguments against what you're arguing.

"Vultures 2 somehow makes Vultures 1 look like a masterpiece." - @Lankyman33

Yeah, you know Kanye really put together a totally invalid piece of shit album when it is so bad, it somehow caused his psychotic cult-like fan base to have some disillusionment. You mean Kanye has made an album so bad and so thrown together and so low effort that even the fans are noticing? We're talking about people who liked Vultures 1, which was also so packed with bullshit and tossed together and lazy that it made Donda 2 look almost finished. Just make a bit of a big bit of a big bit of a picture, don't just fall out of the sky, you know? Trash album, Gar Which album, Vultures 2, even worse. Worst album of the year, there's an argument.

"im so serious, it has to be tortured poets department for the line, "you wouldn't last an hour in the asylum where they raised me" and the absurd consumerism of the variants/multiple releases/edits....just miserable for the state of pop." - @utopiancast

I agree, and I actually do think that there would be an argument to be made for Tortured Poets Department as far as worst album of the year during many other years in pop music's recent past. But this has actually been a pretty saturated year for shit albums. I mean, the Katy Perry album, measurably, is worse than this record. Also, the Tones and I record. Also, the Meghan Trainor album. So I mean, look, you've seen my reviews of Taylor Swift's recent work. I am no fan. I am by means no fan. But somehow multiple records like, dipped in and were like, 'Nope, sorry, Taylor, you're not having the worst album of the year.' However, I guess if you're arguing this purely from the standpoint of the amount of time wasted for all of us hearing this album, maybe Taylor is the one who eeks it out because there was absolutely no reason to take a boring album and then pile another boring album on top of it and then release a bunch of boring variations. Maybe while Taylor Swift didn't write the worst music and the worst album of the year, she certainly created one of the biggest, most thankless experiences in popular music in 2024.

"Peppa pig- peppa pig party deluxe was a bit of a let down considering the masterpiece that the original was although I still have a lot of the new songs on repeat every day." - @azraelmortis62

Well, then make up your fucking mind. Like, oh, it's disappointment. It's terrible. But I still listen to a bunch of the songs. Like, what the fuck is wrong with you?

"Everybody forgot Lil Dicky dropped one of the most painful pieces of music I've had to sit through before." - @bradleybsides

Yeah, a Lil Dicky did have a very disappointing drop this year. But the thing is, it wasn't so bad. I continued to remember it, and I feel like that's really truly the mark of an awful album. It's so bad. It keeps you awake at night and you have nightmares about it.

"Popular Monster by Falling in Reverse is so bad I actually started crying cuz on the second song I realized I was going to have to sit through the whole shitshow that the album was. And I couldn't turn it off because I have to finish what I started, I guess." - @PSYCHO_THUG\

I will say as a critic, somebody who often has to finish albums, even if I don't like them because I've got to do content, I've got to do a review, it's my job, there are a lot of albums and there's a lot of shit I don't listen to, I decided to pass on. As just a casual music fan, somebody who just listens to music because they want to listen to music, you don't have to do that shit, man. Don't subject yourself to that. But yeah, the new Falling In Reverse record is pretty shit. I don't really have anything else to add here other than I'm going to do a terrible impression of Ronnie Radke singing and rapping one of the worst songs on this album.

"Pardon me if that came off rude, I just have a bad attitude / With the world and not just with you, It's a side effect of abuse / I admit I'm a little strange, I don't think that'll ever change / I survived this whole life of pain, You could say I escape my fate / I'm cynical, egotistical, unpredictable, hard and criminal / And I could be a little hypocritical, but I'll admit it straight to your face."

Grow up!

"I will have to pick a song because we need to discuss how terrible "The Heart Pt. 6" by Drake really was. I was stunned you put it in the E row when tiering diss tracks because that song was dreadfully embarrassing it really has to be the worst diss song of all time, and deserve to be beneath the F row. I'm especially confident in my choice after seeing Drake completely malfunction and turn to filing frivolous lawsuits and acting preposterously defensive on podcasts while moving seemingly further each day from ever releasing another actual song..." - @Danhumphrey5886

I don't disagree. "The Heart Pt. 6" is the biggest stinker of diss tracks out of all of the diss tracks dropped between Kendrick and Drake. I don't feel like it was the worst diss track of the year. I feel like Nicki's was far worse in terms of bar to bar arguments. And also just what you could say is, I guess, the musicality of it, production was terrible, flow was terrible. The biggest issue about "The Heart Pt. 6" for me was that Drake's heart did not sound in it, and it just illuminated stupid arguments and weird inconsistencies with what he was saying. Especially, again, in light of these lawsuits, it's like, 'Oh, Kendrick said all this crazy stuff about me', but simultaneously, he's like, 'Oh, yeah, we fed you the information, bro. We tricked you.' Okay, man, make up your fucking mind. When talking about the worst music of the year, I am strictly talking about, or at least trying to really dig into whether or not something was an awful, truly awful listening experience. My biggest issues with "The Heart Pt. 6" was just a lack of effort. It really just made Drake look stupid at the end of the day. It kind of makes it the worst by diss track standards, maybe not just general music standards, standards, but definitely diss track standards.

"Everyone raving about the Magdalena Bay album so I had a listen and it turns out to be the most amount of nothing I've heard since Death Magnetic. What an absolute unmemorable snooze." - @yllekjs

Wow. Old take there. I mean, I will say in the current field of pop releases, it's maybe not the most wild or eccentric or experimental record out there, but the production is mega lush, the songwriting is quality, the the melodies are there. There's also cool thematic concepts across the record dealing in the self and the digital age. I don't know. It's a very catchy, thoughtful pop album. I was a little underwhelmed by some of the singles, and it took me a minute for the entire album to really grow on me when I heard it in full. I understand maybe your first impression being like, 'Eh, it's okay.' I don't know. It's a great album. It's a really good album.

"Lifestyle by Yeet. I've been a Yeat fan since 2021. My favorite album from him was 2023 because it showed him admitting his weakness with his addiction and ego. Lifestyle feels like it was rushed to be made. When I heard Lifestyle, I was extremely disappointed that the opium fans finally got their way and made Yeat sound like opium. Honestly, bring it back the 2093 Yeat." - @Ved_Overclocked

Yeah, it feels like Yeat's trying to have his cake and eat it, too, in terms of progressing in certain ways on 2093, but simultaneously making a regressive hunk of crap on lifestyle that will satisfy the fans who are like, Oh, we don't want this Yeat. 'We just want Yeat to be high out of his mind and just making dumb rage tracks.' Is there room for artists to do that thing in the current social media age where you can a la carte every single one of your favorite genres and trends and artists, and you don't even really need to consume their entire albums or bodies of work. You just pick and choose the moments and certain sounds or vibes they cater to whenever they feel like it. I don't know. It could work, but it is very clear that Yeat was gearing the sound of lifestyle to an audience who wanted a certain thing that they were not getting on 2093. I guess from here, we'll just have to see whether or not he continues to push some of the boundaries and ideas that he had on 2093 or just continues further down a rabbit hole that is more reminiscent of what he did. I don't really know. I mean, I will say, I don't think it's the worst album of the year, but he really didn't put that much effort into it, and it was just very wash, rinse, repeat, and not as ambitious as what he was trying on 2023.

"Worst song? Houdini by Eminem. His flow is uninspired and his jokes are stale and bad. I haven't been so embarrassed to share a home state with a musician since Ted Nugent." - @BubblesTheBard

I'm going to play devil's advocate Eminem fan here and just say, 'You just don't get it. You just don't get it. If only you would get it, then maybe you'd get it.'

"Symbolically, it has to be 143 by Katy Perry. A failure earlier in every step of the way: Marketing, creative input, visuals, and of course, the actual music. It's bankrupt and grey without offering anything new lyric or production wise. It is ironically the perfect example of when you don't actually do it for love." - @jorgeortego6806

Damn, that comment goes hard. I will say I do feel like the Katy Perry album, the negative reception it received, is really a prime example of how hard people will collectively go in on an album when it feels like there is greater permission to do so and they understand that there's not going to be any heat or blowback for hating on something. When there's this wider awareness that hating on a certain thing is okay, people will go fucking in on it, regardless of how bad that actual thing is. While the Katy Perry album is certainly not good, I do think there are worse pop albums that dropped this year, namely the Meghan Trainor record. But the thing with that is no discerning pop or music fan of any stripe is sitting there waiting for the Meghan Trainor album to drop because their hopes are really high for the Meghan Trainor album or even the Tones And I album, another record that by many measures, I think, is a lot worse than the Katy Perry record. Because those albums are shit, the prior albums were shit, and people anticipated they would be crap. There's no love loss, there's no real disappointment. But with Katy Perry, there's stakes involved. She actually used to put out some fire fucking pop, but now she's fallen off so hard, she can't stir together a great track. So I sort of understand why it's a phenomenon. I understand why it happens, but I just want to say I do feel like the hate is a little outsized with Katy Perry when there are much worse pop records out there.

I think that's going to be it for this Let's Argue episode. You guys are the best.

Anthony Fantano. Argue. Forever.