Epotty: Hi, I'm Epotty, and I'm here with Anthony Fantano, also known as The Needle Drop, and I'm here to talk about some strange opinions happening on his channel this year. Anthony? Would you like to address some of these?

Anthony Fantano: Yes?

Would you like to address some of these? Do you feel like you're in a place to do that?

I feel like I've had some pretty good and agreeable opinions this year, actually, on my YouTube channel. I actually don't know what you're talking about.

We looked at the Twitter, we looked at the fans, and we have some things to confront today. I think you need to sit down and listen to some of what we have to say here.

Oh, okay. Well, what are you disagreeing with? What are people taking issue with?

Let's start with America's darling, Slayyyter.

Alright.

How could you do this to us?

The Six?

The Six.

Uh-huh. Well, what was wrong with that? What am I missing with the Slayyyter that's so wrong, if that's so bad?

You know, for me it's an eight because it's just filled with feminine rage in the most fun way possible. You weren't moved by that?

I guess I'm having a hard time getting tapped in with the feminine rage.

Come on, all you gotta do is go to the gym, pump some iron, and you run to yes, God! That doesn't warrant an eight for you?

It just felt like I'm hearing similar things in the water already. Post-Brat, it just felt a little familiar already. I was hoping for something a little fresher, I guess, but I guess I'm out of touch.

You know, I won't disagree with you there. I think Brat ran so that Slayyyter could also run, okay? We're not really pushing new boundaries, but what I think she brought to the table really warranted, I think, maybe more reward.

And it's a little more rock-flavored, too. I feel like if you are going to be doing kind of like this rough, aggressive, almost kind of club-centric banger type stuff, Slayyyter does, have, I think, more of a, almost like something that's going to get more of the mosh pit going than the dance floor. And I can appreciate that element of it, but yeah, maybe, maybe I'm wrong there. Maybe I'm wrong.

Okay, well, let's move on then.

Okay.

Another six. Steve Lacy? Oh, yeah? Oh, no. What are you?

Okay, I'm sorry, but I'm going to dig my heels in on this one. I just don't see how it was, what, an eight?

An eight or a nine.

Better than Gemini Rights?

Better than Gemini Rights, by far.

By far?

Every single song was catchy, every single song.

Every single song was not catchy, I'm sorry.

What song was not catchy?

Closing track wasn't catchy; that little forgettable acoustic cut was not catchy; the intro was not that catchy, just kind of felt like some Flaming Lips stuff. There are some tracks on there I like, for sure. I'm feeling the feeling, getting in my feelings over the feelings, with the feeling. But I don't know. I don't know.

You didn't think it was catchy when he sang coochie stuck in my teeth? Answer that.

Um, you know, not a top five Steve Lacy lyric for me, not a top five lyric for me personally, you know?

What about the thought of us holding hands gets me hard again?

Oh, I can identify with that one a little bit more, a little bit more. That we're a little bit closer to where I need to be for a good Steve Lacy lyric.

He's saying the things that a lot of us are afraid to say.

You know, there's a point there. There's a point there. He's willing to do lyrically what others will not.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, and he's really exploring whimsy through being a little raunchy.

True, true. That's a fair point. And you know, I've always felt for a long time, sexually speaking, a lot of newer, younger, pop-centric music. It's a little repressed sometimes? I feel like Gen Z needs to embrace their freak side a little bit more. Maybe Steve Lacy was inviting all of us to do that, and I just did not heed the call. I missed on that. Yeah, I missed on that one.

You gotta get your freak on, man.

It's true. I was a Puritan. I was puritanical on that one. I was too puritanical.

I think "The Feeling" is probably one of the best songs I've heard in ten years.

It's one of his best songs. Powerful ballad. It's great. It's not, I think, as energetic as some of his past hits. But I feel like there are more people that need to give it a shot. I feel like it should be bigger than it is, even if I didn't love the entire record.

Let me give you a suggestion. You find a sunny day, a nice rolling hill. Dandelions. Run through it with the album playing.

With the album playing?

And then I think that score will go up.

Okay, alright, okay.

Alright, well I'm still not done with you yet.

Not yet? I've had more than two bad takes this year?

Oh, pff. We're not even cracking the surface here, buddy. Okay. I told you to sit down.

Okay, I'm sat. I'm totally sat.

Ryan Beatty?

Ryan... Ryan Boring? Sorry. Uh...

Now you said one of the most offensive things to me that I've heard in one of your reviews.

Okay.

Of all time.

Alright, okay.

You said this album was made for people who think that they're listening to interesting music.

I may have said something to the note of that.

When was the last time you felt joy?

When I was, you know, listening to the Charli [XCX] album? Which there are some pretty depressive parts on that, so I mean, maybe that's that's just me? I'm just miserable; I'm just a miserable, unhappy person. You know, I also loved hearing my name on The Strokes album. I felt joy when I heard that.

Okay.

I was pretty joyful over that, you know?

I'm seeing a trend here. Okay, you want a brood, an auto-tune, and music, fashion, film.

Ryan, he didn't bring enough auto-tune to the record.

Well, of course.

Right, if he brought more auto-tune, more woe-is-me lyrics, I would have been completely locked in.

If it was called Depressing Fortune. You would have liked it.

Right, yeah.

But you didn't like those melodies with Claro in the mix - how sweet those were?

Not, not really. I mean, okay, I will say, on the songwriting front, I feel like Ryan Beatty and his collaborations show this. He, he can write a tune. But he, but as a singer, he just doesn't jump off the page for me. As a vocalist, as a performer, he just doesn't, doesn't jump off the page for me.

I've seen him live a few times, and I will say he has the voice of an angel.

Very, very boyish, very sweet, very, you know, like, approachable and friendly, you know? But I'm looking for some, you know? I feel like if him and Slayyyter could, like, switch a little bit. If he could write the tunes, and Slayyyter could do the performances, you know? There would be a dream; that would be a dream team. You know? Like, get the melodies in there, but then give him a bit of an oomph. And then it could, you know, be closer to something, maybe.

He's got soul. I gotta tell you, you know? It's all about coming of age, discovering who you are.

And I'm old, you know? It's like, I'm so disconnected from that at this point, you know?

Unc. Unc.

Okay, you said it two times.

Unc.

Three times is enough. Three times, it's drilled in there.

Well, maybe I'll say it six times. Because you gave this next album a six. And I'm a little, you know, I'm at a loss here.

Uh-huh.

Peggy.

Yeah.

How, how, how could you do that to our community?

What, oh, okay. So just because I've liked previous albums, I have to love all of his albums? I have to love every single one?

After everything he's done for us. The music nerds. That's how you repay him.

Yep, yeah, no, you're making some fair points, maybe? It's a betrayal. It's a betrayal of the highest order. I was out of line.

Me and all the other inside freaks are just, are gonna rally against you. They're ready with their pitchforks.

You weren't tired of that kind of buzzing, distorted, triplet flow, vocal mix after it didn't start to just fall into the background for you a little bit?

I will say the flow at some points, maybe where it was like a little derivative, but I loved the sampling that he'd done on the album and all the distortion and how it's kind of like a comodulation of all the sounds he listened to growing up that got him to this place. And honestly, when it comes down to proclaiming himself as the king of experimental rap, he kind of did pave that way. He really did make that possible for all these other people. And so on an album where he's really professing that as loudly and boldly and as ugly as he wants to, I was kind of there for it.

Okay. All right. And you felt like he was, like, living up to the experimental rap title?

I think he wrapped it up nicely with a bow.

Okay. All right.

I would have said maybe a strong seven. Maybe a light eight. Still not done with you because our biggest atrocity is up next. Don Toliver's Octane.

Biggest atrocity? My largest crime this year?

This year. Okay. This year. Because not only did you give it a three. You gave it a red flannel.

Yeah, I did.

Explain to me how you can't get down to the sound of "on the highway, and I'm thinking about my lover." That doesn't make your soul move?

Not really. Especially when I think there were some like, misphrased words in that lyric too. That felt weird to me. I just, I didn't get it.

That's funny as fuck. He's pronouncing the words wrong. It's hysterical.

And also, I felt like for him to be almost like doing this atmospheric, dystopian, auto-tuned biker rap. I feel like he did that with his last record, and it just felt more interesting by comparison. This felt like it kind of paled in comparison to that a little bit, in my view.

This one is so much better. I'm so sorry.

You just want to be going down the road with your lover?

Always down the highway with my lover. And the see-through rumpa.

I hate driving, so maybe that's where I'm missing out on it.

Maybe you just need to see the see-through rumpa to know exactly what he's talking about, you know, but honestly, I thought that it was like a really cool exploration, again, of sampling, taking different tracks, you know, from different time periods to kind of create something new, put you into this whole space that is octane. And, and aside from that, I thought a lot of the songs went really hard. Gemstone, Excavator, Body is like a crazy track to play at the gym.

And I famously hate working out and going to the gym. It's, I just like to sit still and just be, just be very still. You know, anything that requires me moving, it's just...

I mean, that Don't Tap the Glass album then wasn't for you, too. Can't even get into that. Well, you also made some people upset with the Boards of Canada review; another six- we're living in six land,

I'm kind of famous for the six, I feel like.

You should call up Drake.

I feel like, you know, six is like my calling card at this point; just drop a six on something. I feel like a six is, it's a great score; it's anybody who hates something, it's too positive. Anybody who loves something, it's too negative; it's, it's, it's just, there's something for everybody in it, in a six.

It's so almost at the cusp of greatness, and that's what you take away from people when you do that - you know?

I'm stealing, yeah, no, for sure.

And that's where I feel like you get the biggest points of contention is with the six, you know, because it's almost good, but not quite. But not quite, yeah. So what wasn't quite right with the Boards of Canada album?

I just didn't like all those vocal samples in there; it just felt very awkward to me, and to me, it felt like it wasn't even really kind of like living up with the expectations and sort of like sounds set by previous records, by whatever people sort of expect from an IDM album, as it were. It just felt like a progressive electronic kind of drone-y synth project to me, almost like kind of soundtrack-y, which is why I think some of the music landed in that Backrooms soundtrack and certainly sounded appropriate there, but honestly, like just as an album on its own, I just wasn't as crazy about it, okay?

Or maybe you just didn't get it.

Yeah, maybe I just didn't get it.

Talking about things that you just never seem to get.

What do I not always seem to get?

We had three- not one, not two, but three albums from Champagne Papi himself, Drake. You couldn't find a single one that you liked?

I mean, Maid of Honor was okay?

That's because you're going through a hoe phase.

Well, I mean, you tell me to figure it out. I'm going through a hoe phase here, but I don't get Don Toliver; I don't get Slayyyter; I don't get Steve Lacy. When am I hoeing, and when am I not hoeing?

You're all over the place. You don't know where to put the hoe; that's what the problem is here.

I don't know when to be a hoe, when not to be a hoe.

You're a hoe at the wrong times.

I'm picking the wrong hoe music. I should be a hoe when Slayyyter is on and not a hoe when Drake is on.

Right, exactly. And that's, I think that's your problem.

That's, I'm spiritually misaligned.

Right, and you're hoeing to Charli XCX when she's crying about being insecure and about her marriage and all these things. That's when you're hoeing out.

You should be hoeing out to some of this Drake because, honestly, not all of it's that bad. "Beep, beep, baby. Right. Call my phone and say, you need me, baby." That doesn't move you?

Not as much as "going to make that ass rotate"; that gets me going a little bit.

I think there's some misses on that Drake album, especially Iceman; it's every here and there. But there's a couple that are good that all those features on Run to Atlanta.

I was not running to Atlanta on that one.

You were running to Alpharetta. I don't know where you're running to. Running away from home, which is Drake. Let's set the record straight about that. Then, lastly, Bruno Mars.

Bruno Mars?

Do you feel whimsy?

Maybe when Silk Sonic is on.

You didn't feel the joy of romance on this album. You didn't feel wined and dined by Bruno Mars' lustful voice that he swoons over on each track, and some has mariachi on it, and others, you know, are really a callback to that sound from the 70s. Has none of that really, really got you in your feelings?

Not really. It's like the Target, sort of commercial version of all that stuff. Die with a Smile should have been on that album. Save the [Lady] Gaga album from Die with a Smile. Let it be the Nine Inch Nails-sounding electro-pop record it was meant to be. Put Die with a Smile on the Bruno Mars album, you know? That's where it should have landed.

That was a fat L on her part. I don't know what she was doing on that one. At least we can find some common ground here.

I have one correct take in this video, you know?

Yeah, at least one. I mean, Bruno Mars, I just might.

You just might? You did. You didn't even might. You actually did.

I just might kick you to the curb and let it be known here and now that this taste, what's happening here this year, has to turn around.

Yeah, I got to start putting out better takes; it's true.

I don't want to see another Drake album below a five. All right?

That's pretty low. I could do a five. You might want to bump that up.

I'm setting the bar low for him, okay. And my expectations are also on the floor. Don't be fooled. And I think that wraps it.

I... Well, I'm sorry. First off, I apologize. You know, I'm sorry you had to go through all that, but we'll get through it together.

We always will. It's gonna be okay. You got this. Only up from here. You hear me?

Only up.

Only up.