One of my favourite things about Anthony Fantano’s The Needle Drop youtube channel is the weekly roundups. Now a veteran in his music reviewing craft, Anthony takes a look at the singles of the week in a recap (yes, you guessed it – every week) and ranks them in the categories: Worst, Meh and Best.
The Needle Drop continues to review many different styles of music but Anthony’s weekly takes on the Worst tracks of the week really have to be seen to be appreciated. I’ll save his favourite best tracks for another article (if ever) but these tracks below are some of my favourite Anthony Fantano roasts of music tracks by well known, moderately likeable and mundane bands/artists.
One does wonder how they became famous in the first place…
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Music Roasted by Anthony Fantano (theneedledrop)
6ix9ine’s Giné – “Annoying and trash. One of his worst vocal performances to date and this weird fucking John Carpenter piano part is just really not the vibe for a 6ix9ine song in my opinion.”
Bia’s LONDON ft. J. Cole – “It has some cute little lines here and there but for the most part it feels like a dud to me.”
Calvin Harris’ Potion ft. Dua Lipa & Young Thug – “It sounds like generic dressing room music. It’s totally bland, totally flavourless and not really an ideal Young Thug feature either. It’s very unimaginative.”
Central Cee’s Doja – “This track is gross and mediocre as fuck and the whole first batch of bars are weirdly homophobic and sexually insecure. It’s kind of weird and gross and I never want to hear it again.”
Chance the Rapper’s A Bar About a Bar – “There are some aspects about this track that are cute but it’s not enough.”
Charlie Puth’s Left and Right ft. Jung Kook – “Corney and cheap little pop song which you will forget about in a few weeks. It’s also annoying as well. Let’s move on.
Charlie Puth’s That’s Hilarious – “Vocal manipulations on this one are kind of annoying. The hook is not all that cute. The instrumental sounds really thin. It’s just generally a really unappealing song.”
Demi Lovato’s Skin of My Teeth – “Man, the very tortured addiction narrative being thrown together with this really snotty almost butt-rock style is just a really tacky clash of vibes that I’m really just not quite getting honestly.”
Drake’s Falling Back – “This song, I do not care for.”
EDEN’s Modern Warfare – “The beat is half-baked, the vocal performance is rough as hell, it kind of sounds like a dollar store Joji. I don’t get it. I’m not into it. Let’s move on.”
Ed Sheeran’s 2step ft. Lil Baby – “Who the hell decided to put Lil Baby on an Ed Sheeran track? Who was behind that decision? Who did that? Who in corporate okayed that? Whoever did that needs to stand trial for crimes against humanity.”
Eminem & Snoop Dogg’s From the D to the LBC – “They are essentially hawking their bored ape NFT bullshit. Please stop taking the crypto dark money and shilling this stuff to your fans. It’s awful. It’s trash. It’s garbage. It’s the worst thing ever. It’s cringe. Please stop. It doesn’t matter how much money you’ve been paid – it’s not good. And the song pretty much reflects that.”
Everything Everything’s I Want a Love Like This – This is a single I’m not really that crazy about. Production wise it’s very bland dance pop. The vocals are wild and out there as they tend to be on an Everything Everything record.
Fivio Foreign & The Kid LAROI’s Paris to Tokyo – “It’s a kind of a generic pop drill fusion where Fivio’s not even sounding like he’s rapping on the track as much as he’s quickly ranting on it with no regard for rhythm or tempo whatsoever. So it’s not all that listenable.”
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Foals’ Wake Me Up – “The squeaky lead vocals synced up with the guitars on this track are absolutely annoying. Cannot bear it. Although, the chorus does go hard but barely a consolation prize.”
Interpol’s Something Changed – “Why are the drums and vocals and pianos so sloppy and so ill-performed? And in some cases, just not mixed all that well either. Why does it sound like a mess?”
Interpol’s Toni – “Instrumentally it’s extremely sloppy. Really sloppy for Interpol honestly. Don’t really see what the appeal of this one is because the bass sounds like it’s dragging and then it’s speeding and it’s not like the pianos and drums sound that much tighter. It’s just kind of a mess.”
Jack Harlow’s First Class – “I guess he’s interpolating Fergie’s glamorous for some reason? With some really mid and boring bars. First Class is the title and it’s dreadfully boring.”
Justin Bieber’s Honest ft. Don Toliver / I Feel Funny – “It’s bland, it’s boring, it’s forgettable.”
Khalid’s Skyline – “Holy cow! This is the blandest and most forgettable dressing room in the mall jam I’ve heard this year. This one has really got nothing going for it. Well, it has something going for it. You can listen to it in a dressing room in a mall.”
Lady Gaga’s Hold My Hand – “This song just sounds like a really awful 80s hard rock piece of trash that would’ve been on the original Top Cow soundtrack or some crap like that.”
Lizzo’s Grrrls – “The annoying lyrics. The obnoxious hook where the vocals are just really overdone on top of it we have a shout out to some male genital mutilation… It’s weird. It’s not a great track. Very unfortunate in my opinion.”
Machine Gun Kelly & Glaive’s More Than Life – “I feel like their styles clash on this one. Frankly I’m not feeling it at all.”
Megadeth’s Night Stalkers ft Ice-T – “It is long and annoying. It features Ice-T as well, although Ice-T’s feature isn’t really utilised in a way that makes it anymore exciting. It’s like a long drawn out mess and Dave’s vocals are quite a bit less on point than the last single from this record.”
M.I.A.’s The One – “Vocally, it’s half-assed. Flow wise, it’s half-assed. Production, it’s a dime a dozen. M.I.A. used to be such a unique and exciting artist but this track isn’t a reflection of that in any way whatsoever. Sad.”
Muse’s Will of the People – “Sounds like a cringey political version of Marilyn Manson’s The Beautiful People. This was a headache. This was offensive to listen to. I’m done with this.”
Noah Cyrus’ I Burned LA Down – “Really dramatic folk cut with a lot of layered vocals. Over-produced. Kind of obnoxious to listen to. Not all that appealing.”
Pale Waves’s Reasons to Live – “Sounds like a bad piece of pop rock from some 2000’s coming of age high school movie. Not great.”
Rae Sremmurd’s Denial – “Generic, bland, boring and unimaginative. Just really sad that the duo has painted themselves into a corner with this new track.
Rico Nasty’s Vaderz ft. Bktherula – “Where is the flow on this track? It’s super short. The instrumentals are loud and in your face as are the vocal performances but there needed to be some kind of flow – and there’s not really a flow. It kind of ruined it for me.”
Santigold’s Ain’t Ready – “I was not ready for how not good the vocals were on this track. Santi’s vocals were usually a lot more on than this. I don’t quite know what’s going on for this track with the vocals to be this off and this sloppy. In fact, they are and it’s not flattering.”
St. Vincent’s Funkytown – “You don’t get the sense that St. Vincent is taking this cover too seriously or anything like that but the grooves are a little off and the vocoder vocals are a bit too heavy handed. It’s a little obnoxious too. It’s probably cooky and clever or whatever in the context of the Minions movie.”
Superorganism’s It’s Raining ft. Dylan Cartlidge & Stephen Malkmus – “Man this track is a bit of a mess. The rap verses are really odd and ultimately the track sounds like a Gorillaz song produced by Avalanches but with this very weirdo difficult to digest acid production Black Moth Super Rainbow tinge to it. And again the vocals are a little abnoxious. It’s tough.”
Tegan & Sara’s Fucking Up What Matters – “Man, this track really takes you on a roller coaster. You have vocal passages which are grating and annoying then you have driving soft indie rock bits which are forgettable and don’t really bring much personality to the table. It’s kind of all over the place.”
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The Chainsmokers’s Riptide – “Kinda sounds like a Lovesick postal service rip-off.”
The Kid LAROI’s Thousand Miles – “There certainly is an appeal to Kid Laroi but that appeal is not for me. The very boyish vocals with that Post-Malone vibrato on them. The corny acoustic guitar chords. It’s just very bland and not all that imaginative in my opinion. Not memorable at all. Nor is this song that striking but it’s very of the time. Of the moment.”
The Notorious B.I.G.’s G.O.A.T. ft. Dy Dolla $ign & Bella Alubo – “It’s a mess. Big’s vocals sound like they’re a different audio quality to the rest of the instrumentals. Like they ripped it off a youtube or something. This is not Big’s beat. This is a bastardisation here. It’s unflattering to the man’s memory. Please let the man rest. This is disrespectful and aesthetically horrendous. Let’s not do this anymore.”
Yo Yo Honey Singh, Lil Pump & DJ Shadow Dubai’s Casanova ft. Simar Kaur – “I have no idea how this meeting of the minds occurred but it is annoying, obnoxious and mediocre. You should avoid it at all costs.”
YUNGBLUD & WILLOW’s Memories – “How is this portrayed as so edgy and then it’s just some radio Disney pop bs if you actually listen to it crap? Get out of here.”
YUNGBLUD’s The Funeral – “Sounds like a bad Billy Idol rip-off. Let’s not. Please.”
Yung Lean’s Trip – “The singing is very much off. Painfully off. There are other aspects of the track that I think are pretty good but leaving the singing here in the state that it is – is not the best.”
What are your favourite Anthony Fantano roasts from The Needle Drop?
We hope you enjoy these Anthony Fantano roasts on some of the worst tracks in the world. Do you agree with any of them? Let us know below in comments.
