Hey, everyone. Anthony Fantano here, the Internet's busiest music nerd. If you didn't notice, I'm sounding very serious and sad. Right now, Americans trust in the system, the government, and its elected officials is at an all-time low. The story I'm here to talk about today is one of the key reasons why.

Enter Josh Gotheimer, Congressional Representative for New Jersey's Fifth district, who is currently running to be the governor of that state. Josh may be a politician, but he's just like any other guy. He likes diners, he likes Halloween, and like other normal humans, he enjoys some music, too. But what music he specifically enjoys is important because Josh, he's a Jersey boy. He's not just going to listen to any old artist. You've got to be listening to those true blue Jersey bangers. And sadly, I'm not talking about famed Jersey Club producer DJ Jayhood. No, I'm talking about the boss himself, Mr. Bruce Springsteen, who Josh wanted to make sure that we knew he listened to a lot of this past year with the Spotify Wrapped he posted to social media.

Now, Josh puts this up on Twitter like it's a bit of a humble brag saying, 'No surprises here... Fun fact: My first ever concert was at the Meadowlands to see The Boss!" Then he proceeds to post a picture of his Spotify Wrapped, which the framing is a bit odd because these are just the top songs. Usually, your entire Spotify Wrapped encompasses more than just the five songs you listen to the most over the course of a year. But these songs, they really cover a range of classic records in the Bruce catalog.

We have at number one, "Thunder Road". Josh truly is about the Born to Run era, it seems. We have "Because the Night" at number two, then "Glory Days" from Born in the USA, "Badlands" at number four, and then "The Rising" at number five.

Now, this Spotify Wrapped gets posted, and some people who are eagle-eyed music fans start to notice that there are some discrepancies between the fonts and the letter spacing being used in this image when you compare it side to side with other Spotify Wrappeds that are screenshotted from the Spotify platform or from your phone.

Now, you might be thinking, Anthony, is it really this serious? Aren't we getting a little conspiratorial and over the top here? But you might actually be surprised. Photoshopping, faking your Spotify wrapped is actually more common of a practice than you might think. After all, the Wrapped is one of the most beloved and talked about events in the world of music toward the end of the year. And there's mountains of evidence to show that there are average everyday people doing exactly this thing all the time because they want to make it seem like they're into a certain music or artist or sound to look cooler than they actually are or prevent people from coming to understand just how whack their music taste truly is. That might not be the worst crime on planet Earth, but still, let's be honest, there's a sanctity to the Spotify Wrapped process. If you can't admit to me what music you're actually, actually into, and actually, truly listening to, I can't trust you.

Now, these font and spacing discrepancies are maybe something that Josh could have just let blow over if he ignored these claims names and these accusations. But I got to give the guy some credit. He actually did come forward and admit to faking his Spotify Wrapped on an interview via NJ.com. The unfortunate part of this admission, though, is that it involves Josh throwing his children under the bus, throwing them under the bus and then driving over them and then backing up and driving forward again

“This would be my Spotify Wrapped if I didn’t share my account with my 12 and 15-year-old kids. While it’s Springsteen all day for me — don’t get me wrong, I still love listening to Taylor Swift!”

Okay, but regardless of whether you enjoy Taylor Swift more than Springsteen, and I have no doubt that Josh does, those are the listens the account logged, and no doubt a great deal of that Taylor Swift listening that his kids did, he did along with them. Also, if Josh's whole plan here was to come across to the average American voter as relatable, what's more relatable than being a family man who has kids that also listen to music and also listen to artists as big and popular and well-loved as Taylor Swift?

If Josh actually did listen to as much Springsteen as he's claiming to, then he most definitely would have turned up in the top five artists somewhere along with Taylor, and he just would have been like, 'Hey, I share my account with my kids, and I listen to Springsteen, they listen to Taylor, and this is our Spotify Wrapped together.' That's infinitely more relatable than just being that one guy who only apparently listens to Bruce Springsteen, and that's it.

I have to assume, I have to guess on some level that the only reason that you want to make us all aware of how much Bruce Springsteen you listen to is because you're running for office in New Jersey. Yeah, how do I make myself relatable to New Jersey voters? Just listen to nothing but the most famous artist from New Jersey. Again, I don't know if that's as cool or relatable to the average person as 'Yeah, my kids listen to Taylor Swift and share a Spotify account with me.'

Shifting gears in this conversation, though, if Josh really wanted to be about that Bruce Springsteen shit and also flex his rep as a true blue family man, he would do what I do, I'm also a family man, I have seven kids, and my children are not allowed to listen to anything that I'm not listening to on any streaming platforms.

In fact, I force my kids to only listen to things that I like. No variations, no deviations, no personal listening time ever. You're only listening to my music when I say so. That way, my kids are still allowed to listen to music, and they're listening to music with me. But then at the end of the year, I don't have to deal with the indignity of people being like, 'Oh, Anthony, here's your Spotify Wrapped. Why did you listen to a bunch of songs from the Despicable Me soundtrack over and over and over? Why is your Apple Replay filled with songs from the Frozen and Encanto soundtrack? Well, it's because when my oldest daughter, Anthony Jr, asks me to play "Let It Go", I ignore it.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you have a cool Spotify Wrapped but also have seven kids. It's really that easy, and you don't have to fake a Spotify Wrapped using Photoshop at the end of the year to do it. So there you go. Thank you to Josh. Thank you to all of you for watching. And also a big thank you to Bruce Springsteen. Let me know what you guys think about all this down in the comments. I'm sure you will.

Anthony Fantano. The Boss. Forever.