😤 LET’S ARGUE! 😤 (October 2020 Thread)

What is your favorite band in the big 4 of grunge?

The Alice In Chains self-titled is criminally underrated. The band found the perfect balance of heaviness and softness on this project, and has some of the band's most strange and unique sounds, with lots of variety throughout the record as well. While it's definitely not as consistent in some spots as Jar of Flies or Dirt, I don't think it deserves to be as dismissed as it is when discussing the best moments in the Alice In Chains discography.

Music has a much bigger impact on politics than most people think.

Rolling Stone putting "Master of Puppets" as 97 on their 500 Greatest Album list is kinda weird considering that it is the highest metal album placement on the list. Feels like the genre deserves at least a 50+ max ranking or something.

Daniel DeGeorges

Coming in at the buzzer to hope you review this hot take - Most people will agree that Donald Trump is a terrible president, but I think he's the worst of all time. He has the negligence of Buchanan, the abuse of power from Andrew Johnson, the racism of the founding fathers, and is all around a shitty human being who is in it only for himself.

Paul Prete

People who hate on ska are worse than ska fans

Alfredo for best rap album of 2020

Michaela Janicki

Whether or not you’re an anime fan, I think it would be interesting you to rate the localized stand names from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. One example would be how Limp Bizkit in the Japanese had to be renamed to Flaccid Pancake in the English for copyright reasons.

Christian Harwick

NFR was a good album but Lana's lyrics are not very good and people praise her like some kind of poet. Joanna Newsom, Julia Holter and Angel Olsen have much better lyrics from a "poetic" perspective

Ben Sparks

Modest mouse seems to have been somewhat forgotten in the modern music community. They released some of the best rock albums of the 2000s and deserve more recognition.

Cal hasn’t been in enough videos lately

I can't seem to figure out what kind of album the new Tkay Maidza "EP" is. Somewhere it says LP, other places it's EP, album, studio album, mixtape or project. Spotify even categorizes it as an album. Wat?

Trym Sørsdal

60s rock wouldn't exist without 80s rock. Think about it

I know you've said that doing classics week isn't as fun because you feel like too much has been said about classic albums. Would you ever doing a "hidden classics" week where you find underrated gems or albums that in retrospect have been very influential?

Wow, I'll take it

Vincent Petersen

Who’s scarier: MC Ride or Michael Gira?

Stefan Lal

Canibus’s Poet Laureate infinity is the crowning achievement of hiphop. It’s by far the most impressive showmanship of writing ability ever and there will never be anything like it again.

well i think his delivery/cadence can be a little one-dimensional. But that's the same with rappers like Ka, which is also one of my current favs. I can see why that style of rapping can be ofputting or 'boring' to some people.

Just wanted to ask what your thoughts were on Everywhere at the End of Time, couple months back you said you were meaning to listen to it and not so long later you mentioned you were half-way through.

You should do a Beastie Boys Worst to Best or a Strokes Worst to Best.

Vincent Petersen

Streetlight Manifesto is the best band to come from Ska.

What is the best metal album of the 2000's and why is it Mastodon's Leviathan?

Abe Froman

Often. But there are also acts that you think - why are these people not a household name, when more rubbish contemporaries are? If I said "Sonics" to most people I know, they'd go - " ".

Jac

The title song on that album is one of the best of all time

based

The New Wave Rush era is as good as the Prog Rock Rush era

I will add also Björk: Post, Homogenic, Vespertine, Medúlla (yes I think Medúlla is great)

Did you feel bad when people get mad at you for your controversial reviews? I honestly feel sad when I see that a lot of people fail at understanding what this is all about, just get mad, don't try to understand different points of view, and start a conversation. I always find on the "different" reviews (yours and from everybody, including oneself) the points that characterize our musical taste and understanding about this communication form.

Genesis' post-Gabriel era music was still formidable and important for prog/pop.

Would you ever consider reviewing classical music? Do you enjoy music in the classical world?

Texture and Timbre > Personality > Songwriting > Musicianship

beammeupjosi

Which of these songs works better in the bedroom? Get Got by DG or Azúcar by Earl?

oscos

Blonde’s highs are higher than Endless’, but Endless is the more consistent album. Endless is the more “beautiful” album out of the two. The atmosphere of that record can really put you to sleep in the best way possible. Endless feels like a long song rather than an album. Blonde doesn’t have a song as beautiful as Higgs. Blonde is still an incredible record but it doesn’t compete with Endless (sonically-speaking).

oscos

People slander MF DOOM a lot for being “boring”. I don’t personally think his music is boring, but I wanna try to understand why others think he might be boring. What aspects of his music would you say can be perceived as boring to the average listener?

oscos

how can you even compare the two

hot take, do more madness brackets

Corey Taylor is the most overrated artist of the 21st century. Granted, I’m a huge fan of Slipknot’s early work, but they have Shawn Crahan who does a lot of the writing. Stone Sour is just generic rock music and his solo album is one of the worst records to come out this year.

DO MORE ITS FOOD

If there were ever to be an OddFuture reunion, Earl would be best off not being apart of it. He’s just on a totally different wave musically and personally than everyone else in the group. I love him, but It wouldn’t look right.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers album Californication, while not being the greatest album ever deserves some credit for being ahead of the game when considering it was strongly influenced and brought sounds from Post-Punk, Post-Hardcore and other genres that would be revived by indie bands in the coming years. The fact that a band of the Red Hot Chili Peppers magnitude chose you work in that lane at a time when they weren’t being championed as hard after One Hot Minute and a bunch of lineup drama definitely showed that the world was ready for the 2000s indie explosion that was to come.

Jack Bayley

Portuguese Rap music is way to "off-scene". Even if the language barrier is very hard to pass, I believe that Portugal's rap scene is one of the most original and beautiful types of rap. Sam The Kid per example has for me one of the best artists of our generation primarily because of is genius capabilities on production, even making great albums only with beats. Another example is ProfJam, having great djs behind him, he raps with amazing flows and awesome lyrics. The great producers that Portugal grows are just now becoming just a tad recognized by the North American rappers, FRANKIE ON THE GUITAR having made beats for Lil Tecca and Trippie Redd. Even if I think this won't be showed in the video, I really really want you to listen to some Portuguese Rap because I really love hearing it and I think it deserves much recognition!

I like it when you sleep for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it was a much better album than you said it was. It wasn’t perfect at all but I’d say the music itself was pretty consistently great. I mean, tracks like lostmyhead and the title track are damn good, and This Must Be My Dream was euphoric as hell.

Honestly, I second this

AJR isn't as bad as you say they are. Admittedly, I did have to Stockholm Syndrome myself into liking them by listening to Neotheater daily for a week, but their production is really inventive and if you don't think too hard about the lyrics, a lot of their songs are pretty infectious and anthemic. "Karma" is one that proves they're more than just another boy band.

Louis Herrera

Not enough people are talking about Conan Gray. And by that I mean how bad he is. His album is in the top 50 on Spotify and I can’t believe no one is talking about how bad it is. Generic ass lyrics and production, boring songwriting, and every song sounds exactly the same. Light 2 .

Separating subjective preference from objective criticism is really difficult for many people. Do you ever find you appreciate the technical and artistic merit of a project or track, even the talent of the artist, but wouldn't really listen to it because it's not really your thing? (Kind of like appreciating a great artwork but not wanting it on your living room wall.) How do you rate things like that?

Jac

Joni Mitchell is a better storyteller than Bob Dylan

There is too much passive Asian racism in hip hop music but it gets largely ignored for some reason

Minyoung Kim

Coil is one of the most vastly underrated and innovative groups to come out of industrial music. They were always constantly pushing the boundaries of sound and technology in experimental and electronic music pretty early on and they need to be brought up more in discussions.

Doku

John Henry is They Might Be Giants best album.

Neal Garbenis

Post > Vespertine

Triple 9

If you had to pick the four most influential albums of the 2010s across any genre (not the best albums but the ones that have had the most cultural power) what would you pick?

Paul Mccartney‘s best album without the Beatles is his collaboration album with the Wings „Band On The Run“

Lauch1337

Morgan Freeman > Neil Degrasse Tyson when it comes to narrating hip hop records. or maybe it’s just that Savage Mode II is better than Everybody.

logan rowan

the three top tens being True Opera, Circuit City, and Irreversible Live in Italy

Diego Martinez

Fang Island was an amazing band because they made happy, ecstatic post-rock which is something that I haven’t seen any other artist do. I miss them.

tryhard

There is a major difference between having a raw and natural sounding recoding/production style and just having something sound really lazy and tasteless and genres with heavy DIY backgrounds like black metal, hardcore/punk, screamo, hip hop ect. need to stop using this as a crutch for shitty production

Devin

Do you have much appreciation for film music? Out of the hours of content of yours I've watched, I find it interesting that I've never heard you mention a name like "Hans Zimmer", given how impactful and important he is to modern film scoring.

While far from a perfect record, I think Humanz by Gorillaz really aged well. The whole album was basically about feeling like the world is ending and that’s pretty much the situation we are all in right now. The album is the most enjoyable to listen to now than it was back in 2017.

PC music Vol 1 and Vroom Vroom was the birth of hyperpop.

Clipping. Is just death grips but good

Ascension by Sufjan Stevens was a decent 5 at best.

Most 'quarantine' albums from this year have done very little to reflect on the actual impact that pandemic has had/ is having on society. I mean, I think 'how i'm feeling now' is a lot of fun, but it's quarantine commentary just boils down to 'I miss going out'

https://youtu.be/bMgfRyK7ikY https://youtu.be/2ADxX13pFhU Those videos are the best you've ever made.

Alive 2007 is the best Daft Punk release to play at a party

"Teen Age Riot" by Sonic Youth is boring as hell

Arnarok

There have not been enough Let's Agree videos lately. I want positivity, dammit

Matt Dorrell

Philip Glass and Steve Reich don't get enough respect from new listeners. I worry that modern appreciation of artist like Glass, Reich, or even Eno come from those who have barely listened, but know of them. I feel that Contemporary Classical is looked at in 2 extremes; Either you are pretentious for liking it, or it doesn't compare to traditional Classical. Also Solo Piano > Glassworks.

I was about to ask him that same question!

Coheed and Cambria is one of the most underappreciated bands of the 21st century. Sure, they can be a bit off-putting and somewhat cheesy to some people but they're all extremely talented musicians and their music strikes a good balance between technical and soulful. Just don't think they get the credit they deserve man

CONSPIRACY THEORY TIME: You gave A Crow Looked at Me a 9 only because you knew it would be featured in countless memes if you gave it a 10, and you wanted to spare it from that fate. (Not judging btw, it was a noble cause)

Caden Meyer

Although Tom McDonald deserves to be clowned on, your consistent negative coverage of him is only further growing his audience—it kinda reminds me of how MSM constantly dunking on Trump gave him so much free publicity that he ended up winning the presidency. Although I'm sure he gets you views, I don't think promoting troll bait is the best use of your platform; as you said, you can break an artist, and the best way to ensure "artists" like him never break out is to ignore them and not legitimize them with coverage.

What’s your thoughts on the new Rolling Stone 500 best albums list?

lowkeymatt

Calling something "overrated" or "underrated" is the warning shot for an incoming lack of actual critical conversation; among hot-takes, its the most lukewarm and boring thesis statement and means basically nothing aside from "I feel my opinion is both against the mainstream and also correct."

1917 has one of the best sondtracks of all time

Vipul Konnur

The Downward Spiral and The Fragile are absolutely on par but they emit such different emotions that one of the 2 often gets overlooked if you're not a big fan of one of them or Nine Inch Nails in general. Also, the soundtrack to The Social Network is a 10/10

Scavenger of Human Sorrow by Death is the closest thing to a perfect Death Metal song and I doubt anything will be able to beat its perfection

Omar AlHashmi

My cousin says Drake is a better artist than Michael Jackson.

Why did Instant Gratification not make your worst albums of the decade list? As one of your few 1's, it seems like it would have its spot on lock.

Owen W

Tears for Fears is easily a top 3 synth pop group of the 80s.

Considering how much talent exists in the band, Muse makes pretty bad music

Andrew Shaktah

I really do believe that Troye Sivan has the potential to make a fully realized/quality project one day, he just needs better production surrounding his tracks, or maybe a new producer lol

Joseph J

An artist that “rips off of their contemporaries” shouldn’t be seen as a con in your reviews. Half of the time we can’t be so certain of who is ripping off of who, and maybe they just had similar ideas that ultimately came off as one “ripping them off”. It’s also interesting to see what the “copying” artist can do with that inspired idea. All and all, it just sounds a little unfair to discredit an artist for that

Drake Parker

Father John Misty dosent get the mainstream credit he deserves

Anthony Fantano is to music what Anthony Bourdain was to travel/food

Trevor Young

Why do you think some amazing rappers like Rapsody, Noname, or Tierra Whack have failed to make much of an impact with black audiences?

I’m pretty sure she’s a terrible performer and also believes some weird ass conspiracy theories.

Love this take yes love this album!!!

Falling for you with Justin Bieber sounds like, "We wanted change" by Corey Feldman.

Matthew Ricker

The doors were much more of an entertaining and innovative bands than their psychedelic contemporaries such as the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane

Lochlan Bailey

U have one of the hardest jobs cause ur fan base is hostile towards u more than most on the net on top of dealin with hate from non fans. Melon heads are whack hate to say it

American Football or Modern Baseball?

Nav is to hip hop what Breaking Benjamin is to hard rock

bressig

Say Anything's second album, ...Is A Real Boy, is an important staple in Emo-Pop and should be noticed as such. Its verbose, sarcastic lyrics coupled with the anthemic vocals by Max Bemis are wonderful, and the progression within their songs is amazing especially with the playful melodies.

WAP is a cultural reset, and it is 2020's Old Town Road. The only difference is that WAP is not going to get old.

Atrocity Exhibition is the best hip hop record of the 2010s. It’s use of samples was genius and Danny Brown’s lyrics and vocal delivery was fantastic. The features were also really well handled. There was not a single dud on that record and pretty much everything about it is perfect.

Jay Electronica is the most overrated rapper in hip hop history and possibly the most overrated musician in all of popular music. How a Written Testimony rolled out was one thing, but Act II being sold off for $9k and then leaked online by die hard fans is the straw that broke the 10 year old camel's back for me personally

unknowngeek777

She Is Coming by Miley Cyrus isn’t that bad. Besides the atrocity that is a Cattitude, it has some solid tracks on it. Mothers Daughter and The Most are really good songs IMO. Also, Slide Away is a great song.

Green Day were never good.

Froggoking

Is there an age where rappers should drop the “Lil” or “Young” in their name like Jeezy? Because who wants to be the 65 year old retired rapper being called Young in a sea full of primarily teenage and young adult rappers

Drake Parker

Roy Harper is the most underrated artist of all time. He's got some really good material, but never got any real mainstream success despite being well known by other huge musicians (Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Bill Bruford, etc.).

GRFalk

Miracle by Madeon is by far the best electronic track of 2019

Saweetie is just a cover hip hop artist. All of her biggest hits are just covers of old songs. They are dope tho.

Love It If We Made It is this generation’s We Didn’t Start The Fire.

People discrediting artists because they sound like another artist without understanding the history of the artists / genre is getting out of hand, I saw someone call A. G. Cook a "100 gecs ripoff" when they were listening to Apple and I was gonna lose my mind

Nicolas Babick

i love both bands but this is just not true 😕

Riley Schmedeman

I’ve tried many times to comprehend how you hear lil baby as a young thug clone. I understand that he comes from the scene that thug inspired, but thug is just such a different voice. Lil baby is as much or more a wayne/future clone rather than thug.

The synthpop/new wave/post punk of the 80s was easily one of the best movements in music history. Everything from the production style to the rudimentary synths and the emotional vocal performances influenced so many modern pop tropes. All along with being incredibly enjoyable. Even the gated drums sound which i know is kind of tacky now but it’s actually fucking sick

Riley Schmedeman

Thoughts on the updated Rolling Stone top 500 albums list?

Señor C

M.I.A. is the most criminally underrated Hip Hop artist of all time, not only did she get she gain underground success and respect by rappers like Nas with Arula, she followed through with a successful sophomore release with Kala which is a certified 2000s Hip Hop classic, gaining commercial and critical success and releasing one of the greatest Political Hip Hop songs of all time with Paper Planes. Not only that, but /\/\ /\ Y /\ was so horribly misunderstood, people have forgotten about it. The album was so ahead of its time, in an age where bombastic and experimental elements are much more common in underground Pop and Rap music in the internet age, /\/\ /\ Y /\ is the unsung hero, and deserves to be revisited. If Yeezus was “5 years too early”, /\/\ /\ Y /\ is a decade too early. AIM was certainly not great but with all of that beforehand, M.I.A. is never placed on the list of Top Female Rappers, not mentioned in Experimental Hip Hop conversation, and overall desperately needs the praise she deserves.

Pvzuzu

Muse is just a better Radiohead 😏

Benjamin Lisboa

Pink Floyd have one of the best if not the best album runs in history with dark side, wish you were here, animals, walls.

La La Land has one of the best movie soundtracks ever

Alberto Satta

Drinking 12 cups of water a day can be hard on a lot of people (me included) , but swapping out a few cups for tea, coffee or even a fizzy drink, can still count towards your daily dose of liquid intake, just over doing on those drinks will make you fat because of the sugar

lo_scoop

Moor Mother has been killing it in music this year. She has been in at least 3 top ten albums for this year

Diego Martinez

Even when their feud is over, I still think Robert Smith could beat Morrissey’s ass

Swimming is at the exact midpoint of being as good as fans say and as bad as you say

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is a top 5 anime of all time.

Tyler Craig

adele’s 21 is top ten albums of the decade in terms of numbers and popularity

Ken_Broth

Run the Jewels are no question one of the greatest rap duos ever and they have a real shot at the #1 spot

asking for hot takes, not facts

Diego Martinez

Big l is a talented and underrated mc who mastered the art of punchlines. If he hadn't been murdered, he was put along with the greats in the g.o.a.t discussion.

RTJ is this generation’s Rage Against the Machine