Yeah, I'm going to be the very best music reviewer there ever was. I'm going to collect all the albums and all the opinions. Black Country, New Road, I choose you. Oh my God, is that what I think it is? Is that a Danny Brown 30? Go! You can do it, Black Country, New Road. I believe in you. Oh my God, we got the 32. Wooo!

What is wrong with me?

Okay, hey, everyone. It's a Let's Argue video. I'm here to respond to your hot takes after I've taken them and received them from the internet. Your unpopular opinions, your tough questions. We're responding to the best ones in this video. Let's do it.

"Anxiety (by Doechii) is actually a good song. Yes, it's overplayed, which therefore causes people to hate the song because of that. But rappers making their own song over an already existing beat is not a new thing. I think Doche nails it with the Somebody I used to know instrumental really displaying the feelings of anxiety with the overwhelming chorus, people calling her a bad artist who have heard this song and nothing else is just unwarranted. She has worse songs." - georgeandfriendsadventures5073

No, that is true. She actually does have worse songs, and she has far better songs. You cannot base your thoughts on this woman's talents and artistic abilities on this one single track, especially since I think it's only seeing the light of day because she's gotten so popular off of much better songs that were released previously. I really do think the track is, in my opinion, a bit of a Rorschach test these days. How somebody reacts to the track and what opinions they voice on it, and whether or not they go the extra mile to attack Doechii herself personally for making the song tells you so much about the person who is voicing the opinion.

I get that it's not the greatest song of all time, and as I have said before, packing a topic as needley and divisive and personal as anxiety into a widely played pop song isn't necessarily going to be for everybody. Obviously, there are also a lot of music fans that have a lot of love for somebody that I used to know and don't want to hear it in a different context. But as you said, rapping over different instrumentals, instrumentals that are familiar to a lot of people on some level, is a thing that rappers do. That's the rap thing.

I think it's a pretty good track. The singing is solid, the rapping is good, the lyricism is focused and on for the most part. They're definitely far worse popular viral mainstream songs for sure. Just the music video is a bit cringe though, but whatever.

"Benson Boone makes some of the worst, most generic music we've seen in years, and he really is the living embodiment of a generic top 100 hit. His music is torturous and plain, and I feel extremely bad for all the retail employees that will be forced to hear him over and over for months. It has already started.. His music is nearly as soulless as something generated by AI, and he has no real artistic integrity. There is no way to be sure if he has AI write his songs for sure, but if he doesn't, he certainly does write like one." - @fallencharlie12

Man, you're coming for the Boone! There's been a lot of people negatively comparing Benson Boone to bands like Imagine Dragons and stuff like that. He's this generation's Imagine Dragons. I don't think he's quite there, honestly. I don't think his music is obnoxious enough. If you want a point of comparison, I feel like he's this Megan Trainor. He just makes painfully boring, inoffensive, and uninspired pop that you could play in the morning on The Today Show and the hosts and the audience would just be vibing into it.

I feel like, again, every generation has that artist or that handful of artists whose music fits into that context. You know what? In that world, for the most part, it's fine. But whenever you're experiencing or hearing that music outside of that context, text, you would just much rather be listening to something else.

I don't even know if this is a hot take. You're just saying the truth.

"Looking back, Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites was an insane EP for its time and essentially morphed how EDM sounded and definitely deserves more credit." - @shruumy09

This is what I have been saying. A lot of people go back into my catalog, and they cite My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy as one of those early reviews where I got a super negative reception and a lot of hate and so on and so forth. But one of the instances in which I got a super negative response for an opinion, my mind goes back to that EP because the flood of comments and people, and you can still look at those comments to this day that were jumping in there to be like, 'You're crazy for liking this. This is shit. This is the worst thing that ever happened to electronic music. This isn't even dubstep. What is wrong with you?' It's just nuts.

To me, it just reads as one of those things where I feel like a lot of hate is being logged toward a record, a song, an artist because of how it's being labeled or categorized. If that project was being labeled as some other totally different genre and was not called dubstep in any way, shape, or form, would the dubstep community even care about it? Would they even think to wonder about what the hell Skrillex is doing? I don't know. All I know is that it's very bright, jumpy, fun, eventful, jittery electronic music that is over the top. It's bombastic. It really gets you hyped. It's energetic. It's entertaining. It's detailed. It's zany. It's just looking to have some fun.

On top of it, aesthetically, I think it's interesting. It sounds like a lot of effort and detail was put into it, honestly. There's far more generic and plain and average music out there as far as composition goes. And yeah, at the time, I don't think the EP should have gotten the amount of hate that it did. I think it's a really enjoyable ERP. Maybe I should even revisit it and talk about it again at some point. I don't know.

"So many people know Rick Astley as that meme singer from the '80s that they forget he was among the most talented male vocalists of his generation." - @eulailady491

Cites some songs as well. Says that he set the tone for '90s and singer-songwriter music, too. And he does get bonus points for really taking that legacy in stride, though, while still putting out good work to this day.

Yeah, I mean, that is the downside sometimes to meme culture. I mean, while I did definitely participate and was thoroughly entertained at the point in time in internet history where, yeah, if you're young, believe it or not, there was a moment where we all had a lot of fun tricking each other into looking at a music video from the '80s. It is a jammer.

But yeah, while the memes and the links and the jokes and all of that can be fun, sometimes whatever cultural thing or person or a component is attached to that joke, after all is said and done, the association with that joke, with that moment in time, with that viral boost, doesn't necessarily go away and people just remember it for that thing.

Now, I would argue that Rick Astley, while he doesn't have other great songs that people should be appreciating, his album catalog is not as impressive as a lot of his pop and songwriter competitors in the '80s, for sure. But with that said, still great singer, so much so that there was a lot of skepticism around the time when he was popular and after about whether or not, man, is that really the dude's voice? Because keep in mind, late '80s, early '90s, this was the era where Milli Vanilli got found out. There was a lot of people wondering, 'Oh, is the singer that I'm listening to that I'm a fan of actually the person that I'm hearing?' But no, Ricky is in fact, the real deal. Yes, one of the best male singers of the '80s for sure.

If JID doesn't take Kendrick's crown, no one will. - @LilSebastian13

I don't know if that's true. I mean, look, I think the world of JID, I think he's an amazing rapper, fantastic artist, ultra-talented. But I feel like at this point, with the way people perceive Kendrick's success and prominence in hip hop, you'd have to be talking about an artist who's not only taking him lyrically, but taking him commercially. I feel like Kendrick's success and his influence is just honestly far too entrenched at this point.

Now, with that being said, that's not to say that he's unbeatable or he's unthronable or that he'll be at this point of prominence for the rest of his life in popular music. Of course, nobody stays at the peak forever. But I think right now in this moment, if Kendrick is unseated, I think it's going to be a generational thing.

I think at some point there will be some new young artist who hopefully is also in their own way speaking to something of substance. It'll be less like a coup or like, I'm taking your seat, more like maybe, hopefully, a passing of the mantle possibly. Or maybe I'm entirely wrong. JID could be working on a Kendrick dis at this moment and is going to tear off dude's head tomorrow. I guess we'll just have to see.

"Young by Little Simz gives off the same vibes as Twenties by Ghost" - @strangeradios

No, stop. No, no, no. I do not vibe with that opinion at all. I mean, I guess I could see what you're saying in terms of both tracks trying to adopt a bit of silliness and campiness in what they do. But I think the Little Simz track does a much better job of actually pulling off being funny. Everything about the song in many ways sounds like it's taking the piss outside of that baseline. That baseline is quite fun.

Meanwhile, I think Ghost is trying to package something similar into their normal creepy metal vibe, and maybe it's not quite working. On top of it, I think Simz lyrically pulls off satire better than Ghost does on "Twenties". I will try to be charitable and see where you're coming from here, though, because I do think both tracks stand out in both artists' discographies as being like, 'Oh, they're going out there on this one. They're doing it a little crazy.'

As a result of that, fans are maybe slightly disillusioned or feeling disappointed or the bubbles pop. Like, 'Oh, you're not always this creepy metal band who's super mysterious. You're getting a little silly. You're not always going to be the most intensely dour and aspirational, hopeful, woke rapper of all time, you're going to get a little goofy.' No, I don't want you to be goofy. No, Goofy. No, Goofy.

I think at the end of the day, when it comes to popular music, cool music, that thing, I think a lot of audiences just are not that receptive to artists trying to be funny or silly sometimes. That is unless they make being funny their entire fucking brand.

If you do that, for the most part, you're not going to be taken as seriously as some of your other contemporaries, but you will be accepted on some level. But super serious, deep, significant, important, generational, critically acclaimed artist, getting a little crazy and goofy, it seems like it's against the law sometimes.

"2025 has been the best year of the decade for music, and it's only May." - @donovanmarsh-x3s

I would need to do a side-by-side comparison month-to-month in terms of releases. I had quite a few albums last year that I loved. I will say this – I feel like 2025 so far has given us a lot of fantastic and great underground releases. The mainstream and popular releases so far have been underwhelming.

I mean, there have been some great ones. So far, when it comes to more left-field acts and that thing, I'm hearing just great records left and right. I'm finding and stumbling across a lot of obscure artists who have some awesome things going on, which I'm very happy about.

But we'll just have to see at the end of the year, at the end of the year, how 2025 measures up. So far, I'm not disappointed. There's not a lack of interesting stuff to talk about.

"If a rapper doesn't produce their own beats, production should not be considered an upside of the album. Like saying, nah, the lyrics are trash, but the production is good. Saying the artist is horrible, but this producer is awesome." - @Slagroot

I don't agree with that whatsoever. I mean, obviously, if somebody else is producing the beats, I don't think you should attribute the greatness of the beats to the rapper, obviously, because they're not the one making the beats. That should be given to the producer, that credit.

But still, the rapper is choosing the beats. They're picking the beats. Certain rappers sound great over certain beats. Certain rappers favor certain beats. Some rappers have entirely new, different refreshing album cycles because they decide 'Okay, I've done these kinds of instrumentals before. Now I'm going to favor maybe these types of instrumentals.'

I mean, Kendrick, for example, isn't world famous for his production, bona fides, but just think about how significant and great album cycles like GNX, but also Good Kid, Mad City are not just for the artistry going into those records, but the differences between the two albums in terms of how they sound and what is dictating the ways in which both of those albums sound. For the most part, it's the production. It's the production choices.

By all means, if the production is great on a record, but the rapper isn't doing the production, I mean, go out of your way to look up who the producer is and give flowers to that producer. Shout that producer out. But that doesn't mean an album in a review or whatever shouldn't be praised because the rapper is the one doing the beats. Praise the beats. Give the album credit for having great beats.

"The National deserve to be more mainstream." - @crimsonmoon8649

I feel like as far as a mainstream indie crossover, that thing, with some pretty big press and attention on what they do, the National is there, or at least was there for a time. They had their moment for sure. There was a point where the National was that go-to rock band for not only indie heads, but NPR listeners.

I'm sorry, am I the only one who remembers all the positive pitchfork reviews and all the glowing coverage of the band's work in the early and mid-2010s? How so many listeners were constantly talking about what a classic Boxer is, for example. And look, as generally unimpressed with a lot of that stuff, I was.

There were even some moments here and there where I thought, Okay, the band killed it on this one. Like Sleep Well Beast, I think, is a very good record. Also, isn't Aaron Dessner one of Taylor Swift's go-to dudes for production? I feel like the band is in a pretty decent spot as far as their popularity, their exposure. If they deserve to be more mainstream, for what reason?

I mean, while I think the band's music is agreeable and it's fine and it's listenable much of the time, it's not like they write super big pop hits. In fact, I'm surprised at how well the band's music typically scales, considering how super low-key and breezy much of it is. I don't know. Maybe you disagree. I feel like all I've done here is expose myself for not really being much of a national fan.

"'Queen is a singles band' is an objectively wrong opinion. News of the World alone has enough memorable deep cuts to counter that take." - @jesicae5975

Also, Night at the Opera. Also, freaking Sheer Heart Attack. That is untrue. Queen is not a singles band. I just feel like they're a band that wrote some incredibly great singles that are so good, their popularity transcends the band itself and just leads to there being a lot of super, super hyper casual knowledge of the group and casual fandom of the I think, sadly, there are a lot of maybe music nerd types that maybe pooh-pooh Queen, or don't necessarily find themselves eagerly jumping into the band's discography because they think, 'Oh, well, that's just a group where maybe only the singles are good because all I've ever heard is the singles. It just seems like a band that only normies are into. Why would I dive that deep into their stuff?' When in fact, Queen was a great pioneering force in popular music in the '80s, and they deserve their respect.

"Albums that you could smell would be horrible." - @archologyzero

Yeah, there's a lot of albums that I don't think I would want to smell. I would want to hear, but I wouldn't want to smell. Like Pig Destroyer's Terrorizer, for example. I wouldn't want to smell that. I don't want to smell that at all. I don't want to smell whatever that smells like. Plantasia or any number of ambient albums. I feel like smells are very ambient in a way, depending on the smell, like a piece of ambient music can be. I feel like I'd want to smell ambient music if I could smell any music at all. I suppose one other counterpoint to what you're saying here is that there's one album I think does have a smell, and that's Kid Rock's Devil Without A Cause, because that shit smells like light beer and old cigarettes.

"Morgan Wallen has become a country cliché who sounds like AI." - @alixrose2024

I'll echo this, but also say I'm disappointed with the direction mainstream country has been going in as of late, with artists like Morgan Wallen and even Post Malone being as dominant as they have been. I mean, for sure, you do have surprises and very great quality albums in the underground and in the mainstream sometimes, too, like the Beyoncé, Cowboy Carter project.

But with that being said, country having this really big mainstream push in recent years for a moment, I think was actually providing in a way some much needed versatility in the genre with a lot of cool and left field and alternative artists in the scene, like actually making some waves and getting some attention because you had Sturgill Simpson making noise, Jason Isbell, who's still doing his thing and thriving, though he runs a little more Americana in a lot of respects. Zack Bryan, unfortunately, was pretty much a bust.

Yeah, for a moment, it seemed like we were drifting away from the horrible pop fusions and the snap beats and just the bro country blandness. Now that's just being replaced with just another wave, a different wave of blandness that guys like Wallen are helping to reinforce. What are we doing? What are we freaking doing? It's so boring. It's so formulaic, and it feels like we've started back at square one in a way.

Again, that's not to say that there aren't interesting things going on in country music, broadly speaking, right now. For sure, there are. All I'm saying is that it seemed like in the mainstream for a moment there, it felt like we were having a moment where the clouds were finally parting and some sunshine was breaking through and we were like, 'Oh, man, the industry might actually change up a little bit and go back to to its roots,' when, in fact, no, it doesn't seem like we're going there. It doesn't seem like that's the thing that's happening.

But yeah, there you go. I'm going to leave it there. Thank you very much for watching. This has been another Let's Argue, I argued with youou, and now in the comments, let me know how I did.

Anthony Fantano. Argue, music, takes, opinions, forever.