Hey, everyone. Anthony Fantano here, Internet's busiest music nerd. Sometimes I'd forget how much people care about what I do and presenting it in a very specific way because I recently soft-launched a change that I might be doing to the reviews in 2026, based off of interactions I've been getting for years from viewers, but especially lately, I've gotten a handful of notable ones.

As you guys know, in my reviews, in the description box, I will often put there not just the score for the album itself, but also what end up being my favorite and least favorite tracks on the record. A tradition I long thought was mostly uncontroversial and just whatever, not that significant. That is, until I noticed there's been an increasing amount of people just getting really unrealistically angry and irrational over what tracks I list as my least favorite. Even though listing a least favorite isn't necessarily to say it's terrible or bad or awful. Like, even in the description box for my 10 out of 10 review for Kendrick Lamar's, To Pimp a Butterfly, there is a least favorite listed track because I've tried to keep up the tradition of doing that regardless of whether or not I think the album is nearly perfect. It shouldn't be that hard to figure out that a least favorite song on an album, I've given a nine or a 10, even an eight, isn't necessarily a song that I think is terrible or garbage or a song I would never go back to in my life. And in fact, if that is actually how I feel about a given track, a track is just so bad and so awful that I hit skip every single time it comes up, I will usually go out of my way to explicitly say that in the review so that distaste is communicated. I will also go out of my way to explain why I don't like the track, too.

I mean, these reviews do often go on for 10 minutes or so and change. I'm usually going into detail as to what my preferences are and why, but so often that ends up getting lost in translation, especially with these people who are obsessed with least favorite track, to the degree that if I do something as crazy and as irrational as, I don't know, share a little bit of promo or that song in a music video clip or something like that, that an artist has posted to their Instagram, their whatever. I will often get responses of people just being like, "Wasn't this your least favorite track?" I'm sorry. Shut the fuck up. Because let me get this straight. You think the song is good, obviously, and you're angry, or you're pissed that I'm sharing it with more people to hear it and potentially enjoy it, that's somehow aggravating to you. Because if you actually liked the song that much and you liked the idea of more people being exposed to it, you would think that you'd just be quiet.

I'm sorry for coming on here and complaining and making it seem like I have more problems than I actually do. Because in the grander scheme, this is obviously not the end of the world. This is not the most terrible discourse trend going on around my videos or in my comments, of course. But repeatedly seeing replies like this has just caused me to think, what really does telling people explicitly what my least favorite track is in the description box really add to what people take away from my videos? And honestly, I'm not really sure. Nothing positive, at least from what I can see. Because again, most of the discussion that I see seems to center around people just getting mad because they presume that because I've listed something as my least favorite, it's the worst thing I've ever heard, and I couldn't have possibly committed a greater sin.

Either that or I'm being repeatedly checked on it in instances where I'm not even being negative or hostile toward the song or the artist in question. I'm sorry, what would you prefer to be happening? If an artist decides to do some visual or some promo behind a song that I'm maybe not crazy about, should I be in there in the comments?

"Fuck you. What the fuck were you thinking, you idiot? I hate this song. You should have never done a music video around this song. You're a loser. Your career is going to be in a fucking toilet."

I'm sorry. Would that make more sense? Is that more what you would expect of me?

Either way, if putting this in the description box is adding anything positive to the review experience, I haven't seen I mean, in announcing, I may actually remove a least favorite track from the reviews in 2026 in an Instagram story. I have gotten some responses from people saying, "No, keep it in. I like that it's in there. Please keep doing that." But again, what net positive it is adding by virtue of it being in there, nobody's explicitly explained. Maybe right now underneath this article in the comments at this very moment is the opportunity to do exactly that. And honestly, if I am going to be motivated to not do this in 2026, I'm going to need something a little more than, "Well, it's just something I like to know." Because the truth is, more often than not, I am actually telling you guys what my least favorite track or tracks are on any given album when I review it because I will literally say it in the review. I do go out of my way to explain what the low points of any given album are for the most part.

Sometimes throwing out my favorites makes a little bit more sense because there may be many, and there might be songs here and I don't necessarily touch down upon, specifically because maybe they share elements with other tracks that I've already highlighted for being important, being special, being superior, or standing out in some way. If you have three, four, five songs that all share very much the same great positive qualities, I may not go over every single one of them in detail because I would mostly be describing a lot of the same elements and characteristics over and over. Again, I feel like favorite tracks continues to make sense.

So, yeah, I mean, I apologize on one level because I'm sorry I didn't have this whole music review thing figured out point-blank period from the second I started doing it in terms of how I wanted to approach it, perform it, write it, deliver it. Getting these videos to where I want them to be and getting my music content to where it makes the most sense and does the most good and has the most positive impact for the artist I care most about, that's always been an ongoing process. I'm just failing to see what this little tiny element or aspect of it really adds all that much going forward.

Maybe there's something about this I'm overlooking and not fully understanding. If there's a perspective that I am not considering here, please let it be known, and I will read it and rethink my position if a sensible argument is made. And please don't hit me in the comments with a stupid argument like, "Well, if you're going to take that out, why don't you take the scores out of the description box?" Which, I mean, I don't know, wouldn't rule that out. But part of the reason I leave them there is, one, for convenience's sake for you. And two, I don't repeatedly see people vastly misinterpreting the purpose or the meaning of the score that I give to a given album on any given day.

I think most viewers who come across what I do, both young and old, understand the range of enjoyment or positivity there, even with the number being out of context. I'm not against getting or actively trying to avoid getting flak or guff from my viewers over an album I've given a three out of 10 because there isn't a misinterpretation or a misunderstanding there. I don't like this. I'm communicating that I don't like this. You may be mad about that, and I've accepted this. Meanwhile, if I give another record a glowing review and even think my least favorite track on it isn't that bad, I've got people jumping down my throat acting like I've told the world that very song is one of the worst of the year.

So yeah, in the comments, let me know, and I'll talk to you soon.

Anthony Fantano, least favorite video forever.