Forgive me for saying this, but Anthony Fantano is the coolest dude in the realm of independent music criticism nowadays (especially on YouTube, setting aside completely written reviews, and concentrating on video [although he has done written reviews in the past]). I don’t really see his videos very often – I would be lying if I said the contrary –, and sometimes, when I do, it’s more out of curiosity about his preferences and his descriptive devices. Nevertheless, I think he is intelligent, quite enthusiastic, he really understands music, mainstream and underground, has a vast degree of knowledge about the subject – his descriptions and interesting evaluations about music proves that – and, c’mon, he’s the coolest guy ever, “the internet’s busiest music nerd”. I really don’t know the vast majority of the bands and albums he analyzes, but I really like his style, his “post-erudite” vocabulary, his overall analysis are exceedingly eccentric, but competent and skilled, his process of rationalization when talking about music are inadvertently curious, and he seems to be primarily a self-taught dude. Definitely, I’m curious about his personal tastes, why he does what he does, his personal choices in what concerns albums to review and artists to evaluate, and his general positions about certain genres, groups and bands. I think he is way more clever than what it seems, and he definitely has a natural authority for talking about music. He has enough, correct knowledge, derived from study and practice. You may not like, you may not agree with everything he says, but you definitely has to give this guy a credit: his YouTube channel keeps growing, he definitely has some interesting points and The Needle Drop has become a reference in music criticism.
Of course, he’s not a musical version of Roger Ebert, but he is definitely capable of doing direct, pungent and intelligent analysis on various musical subjects and topics, with interesting density, precision, cohesion and consistence. And I don’t even will debate about his musical eruditeness, he has a formidable degree of knowledge about several distinct genres of music, and he proves that by delivering with mordacity and sagacity intelligent commentaries, concerning the vast majority of the musical subjects he evaluates. But at this point you may ask “why the hell do we need musical critics, anyway”? I agree with you. Why? Music wouldn’t be the same without them? It probably would. But since this job exists, why not give to it its fullest appreciation? After all, there are some very good, talented music critics out there, that knows how to capture precisely and translate into words the technical and artistic features of an album, an EP, a song or a single. And I sincerely think Anthony Fantano do this work with a formidable amount of competence. So – contrary to “popular opinion” (who cares, anyway) – I think Anthony Fantano really deserves the success he has been achieving so far, and I wish his channel to grow more and more as the years pass by. I will also try to accompany his work more frequently, despite the fact that every review he does has something to be appreciated. Like I wrote some lines above, I don’t know a certain amount of the artists he covers, so I cannot really agree nor disagree with most of the reviews I watch, but I really like his style, which I think is very personal, fluid, spontaneous and delivered with a natural glamour.
Of course, he’s not a musical version of Roger Ebert, but he is definitely capable of doing direct, pungent and intelligent analysis on various musical subjects and topics, with interesting density, precision, cohesion and consistence. And I don’t even will debate about his musical eruditeness, he has a formidable degree of knowledge about several distinct genres of music, and he proves that by delivering with mordacity and sagacity intelligent commentaries, concerning the vast majority of the musical subjects he evaluates. But at this point you may ask “why the hell do we need musical critics, anyway”? I agree with you. Why? Music wouldn’t be the same without them? It probably would. But since this job exists, why not give to it its fullest appreciation? After all, there are some very good, talented music critics out there, that knows how to capture precisely and translate into words the technical and artistic features of an album, an EP, a song or a single. And I sincerely think Anthony Fantano do this work with a formidable amount of competence. So – contrary to “popular opinion” (who cares, anyway) – I think Anthony Fantano really deserves the success he has been achieving so far, and I wish his channel to grow more and more as the years pass by. I will also try to accompany his work more frequently, despite the fact that every review he does has something to be appreciated. Like I wrote some lines above, I don’t know a certain amount of the artists he covers, so I cannot really agree nor disagree with most of the reviews I watch, but I really like his style, which I think is very personal, fluid, spontaneous and delivered with a natural glamour.
Fantano has a bonus: he’s also a very irreverent and funny guy! He has developed a character who appears sometimes, called Cal Chuchesta, which is, basically, a retarded version of himself.
The reviews of Fantano are delivered with humor, soul, sagacity and commitment. He really knows what he is talking about. Look at this awesome review he has done about the album New Levels New Devils, by Polyphia: he describes the sound as “ultrasanitized” and “elevator music for metalheads”.
The reviews of Fantano are delivered with humor, soul, sagacity and commitment. He really knows what he is talking about. Look at this awesome review he has done about the album New Levels New Devils, by Polyphia: he describes the sound as “ultrasanitized” and “elevator music for metalheads”.
The review he has done on Idol, the latest album on American death metal act Horrendous, was absolutely sensational. It leaves anyone curious enough to listen to this album.
I have never been a fan of Muse, – although they have their share of relatively decent songs – and I wasn’t aware that they have released a new album this year. Fantano already reviewed the record. The result was something I already expected. Just a more flavored, hyperbolic and high-tech version of their past albums. Of course, the correct move would be verifying this personally, but like I’ve mentioned, I never liked Muse anyway. I always found their sound to be predictable, commercial and conventional pop rock for teenagers. After the review, evidently, I haven’t became excited to personally check it out.
A review I personally really liked was Random Access Memories, by French electronic legendary act Daft Punk, which was simply a lucid, proverbial and terrific analysis, proportional to the monumental status the duo still enjoys on the house, retro, electronica and disco scenes.
I personally have a preference to see reviews he does on artists, musicians and bands that I somehow follow the career, more or less. I have seen practically all the reviews Fantano has done for albums of infamous Atlanta rapper Gucci Mane, probably the most prolific rapper in history.
El Gato: The Human Glacier is an album Gucci Mane – whose real name is Radric Davis – has released last year, and has achieved a high score among music critics and the musical mainstream media in general, and proved he’s still relevant in the hip hop scene. For some time, Gucci Mane hasn’t had the respectable amount of attention he gained, when he released this album, which is very concise. Only thirty minutes long, it is definitely a more moderate effort, compared to other Gucci Mane’s releases, that are generally hour-long albums, sometimes being much more extensive than that.
This very brief review – only four minutes long, which is something unusual for Fantano – was a more unfavorable evaluation on Gucci Mane’s album Mr. Davis, which was also released last year, in October, two months before El Gato. Mr. Davis is, indeed, a more ordinary, generic and formulaic record.
The review he has done on Gemini, the second solo album released by American rapper Macklemore – whose real name is Benjamin Haggerty – is also very enlightening, and tells a lot about the musical direction the artist is going to, which is, unfortunately, pretty much common ground, simplistic and predictable. Macklemore is best known for his partnership with record producer and DJ Ryan Lewis, under the label Macklemore & Ryan Lewis.
This is one of his most recent reviews, The Sunset Tapes: A Cool Tape Story, by Jaden Smith. Besides the awesome analysis Fantano does describing the album, this work draws attention by the terrible evaluation: light 2 (Oh, yes, I forgot to mention; Fantano has a score he applies to each album, in the end of a review). This one, though, was somewhat predictable. Everybody knows that Jaden Smith is not a real singer or actor. He is just following the steps of his famous parents, actor Will Smith and actress Jada Pinkett Smith.
Will Smith was a rapper before he ventured into acting. He continued his career well long into the 2000’s, releasing his last album in 2005. Nevertheless, while he became famous as an actor, his career as a rapper never really launched, and eventually went into a permanently dormant state. His son Jaden, on the contrary, seems incapable of doing both. He just achieved celebrity status because of his parents, and works occasionally as an “actor” and “singer” because he is rich enough – and has the influence of his deservingly famous and hard working parents – to buy all the connections, logistic and support one must have, in order to pretend to be an artist.
Will Smith was a rapper before he ventured into acting. He continued his career well long into the 2000’s, releasing his last album in 2005. Nevertheless, while he became famous as an actor, his career as a rapper never really launched, and eventually went into a permanently dormant state. His son Jaden, on the contrary, seems incapable of doing both. He just achieved celebrity status because of his parents, and works occasionally as an “actor” and “singer” because he is rich enough – and has the influence of his deservingly famous and hard working parents – to buy all the connections, logistic and support one must have, in order to pretend to be an artist.
The last review I will highlight here is What Happens When I Try to Relax, by American rapper Open Mike Eagle, an underground artist from Chicago, who is growing in the taste of the rap-consuming public.
I really don’t know what the future has reserved for our guy and most clever musical analyst Anthony Fantano, though I must say that I wish him the best. He certainly deserves success, and he has the intelligence and the knowledge to describe in words the gracious magnificence or the mediocre insignificance of an album. He does the cleverest, intense, meticulous, acerbic, punctual and detailed evaluations one can possibly imagine, and his competent work is proportional to the growth of his channel, that has new subscribers every day. In a few months, he will definitely achieve two million followers, and all of this is the result of a solid and cohesive work, from someone who understands profoundly almost everything from all musical genres and categories, and not only has acquired a personal taste for doing what he does, but has elaborated an inimitable personal style. Spontaneous, genuine, sarcastic and comic enough to please the audience, and yet, coherent compromised, technical and consistent enough for being taken seriously.
So, Anthony Fantano is on the crest of the wave, surfing on the victories of his audacity working as a professional music critic, as well as the success of his channel. He certainly deserves, and I wish his success to keep growing, more and more, as the years pass by.
Wagner
So, Anthony Fantano is on the crest of the wave, surfing on the victories of his audacity working as a professional music critic, as well as the success of his channel. He certainly deserves, and I wish his success to keep growing, more and more, as the years pass by.
Wagner
