I'm just filled with rage! I'm filled with so much rage because I hate music, and I hate music opinions, and I hate people with music opinions so much. It makes me so mad.

No, I have to bottle it up. I have to stop the monster from coming out! Ahhh! No more arguments. I have to... Agree. Yes, I have to agree with everyone – agree with the things people are saying. I must support the subjective opinion of my fellow music fans.

The award goes to... Anthony Fantano. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Yeah, it's time for a Let's Agree. Going to get on the internet with you and agree. Austen and I took your not-so-hot takes and your popular opinions. Let's see how agreeable they are.

Sorry for not specifying. We asked what your favorite albums of the year were – what's the best album of the year? Hopefully, you made some good picks, or else I'm going to have a hard time agreeing with you.

"In my opinion, it's Chromakopia. This is Tyler's version of Mr. Morrell, and I've been in love with this project since it came out." - @JesusSanches-l1d

Would the whole like, fucking part at the end of "Judge Judy" be the "We cry Together" bit of the record?

I love Chromakopia, but I'm a little split on Chromakopia, too, because I do feel like its concept and its instrumentals are not as cohesive and as exciting as Igor was on its first listen. But with that being said, I do really respect and love the fact that Tyler truly went in personally and emotionally on this record with its lyrical content. I do think he does continue to put out great material. I mean, even a record for Tyler that I feel comparatively speaking is maybe not up to the level of Igor, his peak, is still like times and times over better than the average shit you're getting out there.

"The best album of the year was the joy and laughter of my friends. Nothing better than seeing all my friends happy." - @lonesometroll621

Honestly, I heard your friends laughing and experiencing joy, and going to be honest, the recording on that, was pretty shoddy. The production was not good. Song structure, underwhelming. Little to no lyrical depth to your friend's laughter, sorry to say. If you like that shit, if you like hearing that, if that's the thing you enjoy hearing, that's your choice. That's on you. But I've heard better, I'm going to be honest.

"I think Imaginal Disk is the AOTY. I love how it blends so many of their influences together into one sound that sounds retro and futuristic. I think the deeper you dive into the songwriting, there's a really fun story to put together about being human that I still haven't fully dissected. I think it has insane replay value because of all of that and the instrumentation. I just have never heard a pop record that I found to be as complex as this sonically. I also love how drum and bass-heavy so many of the songs are and how a lot of them transition together on the album." - @lCash1229

No, it is a very good quality, well-thought-out pop album. Maybe a level of effort and artistry that some listeners are not used to hearing in their pop music, but I assure you it's most definitely there, especially in 2024, which has been such a strong year for pop music, in part because of this record. I mean, there are some points where I do wish Imaginal Disk was a bit more upfront with the meanings behind its tracks, and also maybe that it could be a bit more bold and out there esthetically, because Magdalena Bay, even going back to their first record, is a duo that is very indebted to their retro influences, like you point out here. But still, the production, the songwriting, the compositional elements on this record are fantastic. The flow is great. It is a very holistic and cohesive and cinematic type of pop record, and it's it's argumentable as an album of the year. I'm not going to disagree I agree. In fact, I'm going to agree for the most part. That's the point of this video.

"I'll throw you a curveball."

Okay, let's go.

"The Dune Part 2 Soundtrack is the best album of the year. The music truly transports you to other worlds, heightening powerful emotions evoked by the movie. Not super complex, but it is so hard-hitting." - @SamsClub973

I feel like such a thing is difficult to advocate for in terms of being album of the year per se. But I mean, that is literally the point, what you would ultimately hope for a movie soundtrack to do. Look, there are so many movie soundtracks that don't do that all that well, or they just hang generically in the background. If in fact, what you say is true, that the Dune soundtrack makes you feel like you are more there where the film is taking place with the story that it is telling you. I mean, that's what it should be doing. That's the power of the soundtrack.

"Cold Visions is personally my favorite for album of the year. I've never been super into the rage sound or Bladee, older music, so it was a huge surprise to me. I've been listening to it on a regular basis since it was released, and even though I don't love every track, the album just has so much going on. I think the raw (mostly) negative emotion just resounds so clearly with my mental state this year, and it just feels like something I can keep going back to, not to mention the constant barrage of SFX and ad-libs, which make it feel like this chaotic mess of anger and discontent." - @bigultrafunny9751

No, I mean, as far as Bladee goes and as far as rage is concerned, I do feel like Cold Visions is one of the better and most interesting albums out there. It's certainly better and more intriguing and bolder and more genuinely thrilling and visceral and exciting than anything Opium has been putting out as of late. While I do feel like there are some finer details that are underwhelming on the album, clearly it's a very raw, thrown together mixtape type of vibe, not as refined as some other projects that Blade has come out with over the years. The chaos is the point, I suppose. I see the vision, the cold vision, but in part, it does leave me cold. I'm going to delete my whole YouTube channel. I'm going to end my whole music reviewing career. I'm sorry.

"Knocked Loose - You Won't Go Before You're Supposed To. Heavy music had its best year in a while to begin with, but for an album this short, heavy, and nasty, to receive the widespread attention it did was something really special." - @phil_k_96

I mean, how could you not, man? How could you not love the fuck out of this album? The mixes are fucking insane. Not only are they crushing, they're still pretty easy to listen to. There's a lot of loud music out there that honestly is very punishing to listen to. While the Knocked Loose record has its moments like that, I found it to actually be very easy to work through and digest. It is heavy, it is pulverizing, but it's also instantaneous and just all around enjoyable. On top of that, the breakdowns are insane, the vocals are insane, the flow of the record is great. When you really dig into it, the lyrical concepts are there, too. There's clearly a lot of thought going into the lyrical meaning of the album. And I think all of these things add up into a record that I feel like if you really care about music, generally speaking, it's going to transcend across fans of different genres.

"GNX. It dropped when I was in the hospital, and especially heart pt 6 was exactly what I needed to hear. Genuinely, one of the sweetest songs I've ever heard." - @zomtron

Yeah, I mean, at the end of the day, "Heart Part 6" is essentially about just having sick ass friends. What's better than that?

"JPEGMAFIA - I Lay Down My Life For You. Ngl I just love Peggy so I'm extremely biased, but I love the rap rock direction he went in, and I think it fits his vibe, and it's a refreshing change of pace from his previous projects while still sounding uniquely JPEG. The calmer sound toward the end was nice, too."

Yeah, the closer's amazing, honestly, and it did genuinely make me a little sad.

"I've always loved his calmer tracks like Free the Frail."

Also EP2! - love EP2! and the calmer tracks on that. I'm interjecting.

"As usual, he offers a nice mixture of sounds in his projects that, albeit varied, still all sound good and feels very cohesive to pack together. I think this album is his greatest example of that." - @vazu8479

Yeah, I think this is one of his most versatile records as well, even though it is shorter than LP!, which is pretty interesting. But yeah, the rock tracks go off, the moments that sound like typical Peggy are good, low-key moments solid that "Depend on Other Men" track is a total fucking banger. I love the way he improved and fixed that track from the original version, really escalating it so well in its final moments with the spring section, which was amazing. I mean, what else can be said from me or anybody about Peggy at this point? He just continues to put out killer work.

"Got to be Night Palace, even though it was a bit of a chore to get through." - @owl

Yeah, Phil Elvrum did really give us, I will say, a bit of homework on this album, and I feel like to truly appreciate it for what it is, you have to have been doing your homework for a minute on his stuff for some of the lyrical revelations that arrived toward the end of the album to really hit you as hard as they did me. But I do think it is an album that rewards with deeper listens, focused listens, and listens that appreciate the greater context that this album is arriving in. It would be interesting down the road to hear Phil go in a direction that feels a bit more general and less self-referential. I guess we'll see if we get there. I think at this point in his career, Phil has done and accomplished so much. He has a lot to reflect on. He has a big body of work to pull back from. He just got, obviously, through the whole MicroMicrophones in 2020 thing and has seen a lot of success off of some recent albums that dive into very personal and dark experiences and stuff like that. I feel like this record is definitely representative of a new chapter, though, because it feels like a positivity and a brightness, even a rock and visceral feeling on some of the more indie rock, slacker rock-oriented tracks. It's really coming back into his stuff in a new way. It'll be interesting to see if that continues or evolves into something else on his next album, next project, next anything.

But yeah, that is going to be it, and you guys are awesome.

Anthony Fantano. Agree 2024. Music, Forever.