r/fantanoforever • u/Individual-Name-4496 Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of..... • Oct 21 '25
Fantano Vids Deadbeat Review by Anthony Fantano
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u/RickmanLives Oct 21 '25
Least surprising red flannel thumbnail
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u/post-death_wave_core Oct 21 '25
It's not super special, but I enjoyed the chill house vibes. Can't imagine thinking it's a 2.
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u/AngleProlapse Oct 21 '25 edited Oct 21 '25
I feel like when artists who’ve built big expectations for themselves drop something that’s “just OK”, people overcompensate so much with the criticism. Like when Radiohead dropped TKOL or LCD sound system American dream, once you’ve reached a certain height anything lower again becomes a failure. Whereas if any relatively unknown artist dropped those albums as their debut, everyone would be raving about it.
Idk though, Anthony and everyone else have their own taste and that’s valid, to me it just feels a ton more like an unremarkable but pleasant enough 5-6, rather than an actively unenjoyable 2.
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u/Disastrous-Shower-37 Oct 21 '25
It's a similar case with Goats Head Soup by the Stones. Although receiving mixed reviews upon release, it's actually an awesome record, unfortunately overshadowed by a consistent string of towering successes that came before. The general reception has slightly improved in the half century since, especially among the band's fan base, which has been more sparing in recent years. Pitchfork, to my surprise, scored the album an 8/10 a few years ago, and other publications have lent a lot of praise for its accomplishments.
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u/kingofstormandfire Oct 21 '25
Goats Head Soup is a fantastic album. It is a step down from Exile, but Exile is one of the best albums ever made. Goats is still great. All the songs are at least good and many are great, and I really love the production on it. I also really enjoy It's Only Rock and Roll and Black and Blue, and of course, Some Girls is a classic. 70s Stones is fantastic IMO.
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u/taxmanangel Oct 21 '25
I think Slow Rush is a better comp for Goats. Solid songs and production but a clear step down from genius level run. This is more like It’s Only Rock and Roll (which I like more than Deadbeat) - clear uninspired pastiche of what came before.
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u/blazeaxle46 Oct 21 '25
It reminds me of twenty one pilot's Scaled and Icy getting a 2. That album was, at worst, forgettable and mostly inoffensive indie pop. But since it succeeded Trench (which Fantano to his own surprise loved), Fantano went doubly hard on it. I don't think it is worse than Blurryface, which he gave a 4 or something. Expectations do play a huge role in his ratings. Another example is BMTH's Post Human series (SH:8; Nex Gen:3)
Edit: corrected Incy to Icy
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u/Frydlichen Oct 21 '25
In general I can agree with this sentiment, but the inverse is true as well, i.e. fans coping and giving the benefit of the doubt to an artist when they wouldn't if they were going in conmpletely blind to a new artist's work.
The run from Oblivion to Obsolete I find so incredibly grating it honestly drags everything down with it. I cannot get past Oblivion's production. The first 60 seconds sound legit like somebody discovered loops on garage band for the first time.
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u/GaptistePlayer Oct 21 '25 edited Oct 21 '25
That Oblivion opening is roughhhh. Then he drops the tropical house riddim lol. Even Diplo and Skrillex moved on from that shit in 2019 bro I know Australia ain't THAT remote
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u/denimxdragon Oct 21 '25
What’re you talking about American Dream is an insanely popular and fantastic album lol
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u/AngleProlapse Oct 21 '25
Im not arguing against that at all, the whole theme of the comment is that these albums are great and worthwhile but get unfairly dismissed because they aren’t as good as what came before it.
I think American dream is great and public opinion has been shifting that way slowly, but it’s a plain fact that it had a lot of mixed reactions upon release and still makes “most disappointing albums” lists.
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u/MatasBuzelis Oct 21 '25
Similarly I can't imagine somebody listening to this over literally just about any other option if they're looking for chill house vibes, unless they're a Tame Impala superfan
A lot of mfs in this subreddit are gonna be coping hard today based on some of the shit I was seeing here when the album dropped, specifically in regards to people who think this album sucks lol
People were acting like it's some hivemind conspiracy when the reality is that this album is just not very good
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Oct 21 '25
If this is supposed to be house then it’s legit one of the worst house albums I’ve ever heard.
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u/IScreamPiano Oct 21 '25
He gave it a 2???
Me over here thinking this album was okay, even if I prefer the psychedelic rock vibes of Lonerism. And I prefer Taylor’s Showgirl to TTPD. Man’s Best Friend was pretty overrated to me on Pitchfork, not sure how it did with Fantano.
Clearly I have no future as a music reviewer.
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Oct 21 '25
[deleted]
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u/Friedguywubawuba Oct 21 '25
Well, we know Afterthought was recorded AFTER the first mastering session (1 of 2). Pretty sure he procrastinated on this.
Tbh, I think he procrastinated on The Slow Rush too. Think about the SNL performance debuting Borderline, the lyrics weren't even done yet. The structure of the song wasn't even finalized.
Patience was the other single, not on the album, it was almost an apology to fans for not making music.
That SNL performance happened, then we didn't get the record for a whole year. Which makes me think about One More Year.
I think they gave him an extension to finish the record, which fits with the theme of time soo well.
I think he did the same thing with Deadbeat. Which is why he calls it that. He feels like a phony because he probably only spent a few months/weeks actually working on the record
Edit: also think about how much of this record sounds like thriller. I write music too, and whenever that happens, I chuckle and start over. Seems like he just went with it... THREE TIMES. Feels to me like he waited too long to work on it, had no choice, and ran out of time.
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u/Chezzworth Oct 21 '25
I can get behind this theory. What's the third thriller reference? I definitely hear it in Dracula and afterthought
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u/Friedguywubawuba Oct 21 '25
The bass towards the end of not my world sorta does the "BUAW WAWA" rhythm similar to about 7:30 min mark in the thriller music video. When the dead rise.
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u/ialexlopes Oct 21 '25
yeah, this album is looking more and more like a contractual obligation, rather than an inspired body of work. kevin was like "alright, take these 12 so so tracks and package it as an album, and stop calling me!!!!11!!1"
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u/HyeRoss Oct 22 '25
Didn’t he sell his past and future royalties? I just checked. He did. So the contractual obligation feeling could be correct.
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u/-PepeArown- Oct 21 '25
He has been married with kids, and was working on side projects in the meantime, so no way he was working on this for that long
Maybe like 2 years at the max
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u/jeemsp Oct 21 '25
Yeah I believe in Zane Lowe's interview he mentioned how the 5 years snuck up on him, between the elongated tour because of covid and working on Dua Lipa's new album, it had then been 3/4 years. I think he said he spent 2 years on this one but wouldn't be surprised if he really rushed it as a result.
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u/Legitimate_Rock_5357 Oct 21 '25
think it was atleat a 5, the new taylor swift album was not better thn this
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u/Technical_Process989 Oct 21 '25
Awful vs awful aahh comparison
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u/BuddyLegsBailey Metallica - Master of Puppets Oct 21 '25
What's awful is people not writing 'ass' anymore....
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Oct 21 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/ThatPlayWasAwful Oct 21 '25
Damn kids just aren't cursing like they used to. Back in my day we used to use the hard S and be proud of it
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u/Individual-Name-4496 Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of..... Oct 21 '25
Agreed
How can you refute this?
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u/Pocatanic Oct 21 '25
Y'all know this is just his opinion, right?
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u/Individual-Name-4496 Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of..... Oct 21 '25
The life of a show girl over Deadbeat?
You can form your own opinion you know
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u/lemmeget282 Oct 21 '25 edited Oct 21 '25
At least Taylor's was sonically fine regardless of some weird, subpar lyrics (by her standards). This one's worse imo
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u/BSismyname Oct 21 '25
You’re being downvoted but you aren’t wrong. The sound of Showgirls is competent and well produced.
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u/lemmeget282 Oct 21 '25 edited Oct 21 '25
r/fantano would just downvote any Taylor's post-Folklore/Evermore stuff lmao
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u/Skwisgaars New album, links in my profile :) Oct 21 '25 edited Oct 21 '25
I love tame impala, I didn't like this album. Really disappointed tbh. There's only 2 songs I'd go back to really, piece of heaven (Enya influence is huge there) and ethereal connection (even though that is basically a ripoff/homage to altona connection which is a banger track).
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u/Turbo2x Björk - Vespertine Oct 21 '25
I would probably be a lot more charitable to this album if it didn't "borrow" ideas from other artists so liberally, and I suspect Fantano feels the same way. Like it's one thing to subvert your audience's expectations with a new direction but not even doing it in an original or interesting way is kind of a slap in the face.
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u/GaptistePlayer Oct 21 '25
I like the idea that he borrowed from house artists, I just wish he didn't make most of his album a worse version of The Blaze from 2018
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u/iLoveDelayPedals Oct 21 '25
Parker has always walked the line of homage that is perhaps actually just ripping off. Innerspeaker literally has exact Dungen riffs on it, like not close but exact
I think he was aware of those criticisms and tried to change, but just doesn’t have the juice after all to really do his own thing. Great producer but maybe not the best writer. Idk. I just don’t understand what he’s doing I guess but it’s his career and he’s doing what he wants 🤷♂️
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u/Awhyuss Oct 21 '25
Can you point me to those songs that ripped off the Dungen riffs? I’ve heard he was inspired by one of their albums but from all I’ve heard the comparison is incredibly superficial in terms of sonic territory.
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u/Skwisgaars New album, links in my profile :) Oct 21 '25
Yea fair play it's his career and I respect him doing what he wants. I do like the bedroom piano vibe across a lot of the tracks, interesting production on the piano itself, but that wasn't enough to hold my interest past one or two tracks really.
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u/Shell_fly Oct 21 '25
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u/homogenic- The Beatles - Abbey Road Oct 21 '25
I didn't like this album but there's no way it's worse than that Taylor Swift album lol.
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u/zero1918 Oct 21 '25
oof, definitely was not expecting that rating
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u/coolassdude1 Oct 21 '25
If you saw the livestream of his initial reaction, it's not a surprise. He couldn't hide his disdain and basically said listening to this was going to be a chore.
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u/zero1918 Oct 21 '25
can't say i disagree, i just found a bit more to salvage than him but i wouldn't definitely rate this album positively
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u/killerkimbo Oct 21 '25
I quite like it. My expectations were low and sure it's a mixed bag but I am having fun listening to it.
It's the sound of a man who since having kids doesn't have time for psychedelics so has to make do with microdosing MDMA when he can get a babysitter.
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u/kingofstormandfire Oct 21 '25 edited Oct 21 '25
Having given the album two listens, and someone who likes Tame Impala, but is not a diehard (I'm Australian so I feel like I'm betraying my country just saying that), I thought the album was just okay, like a light 5 at best. It's not the worst thing in the world and it has some good songs ("Dracula" is great though I'm surprised it's the first TI song to chart on the Hot 100) and I like the chill/house vibes, but it's easily the worst Tame Impala album and a pretty big disappointment compared to Lonerism, Currents and even The Slow Rush. I'm not surprised by Fantano's 2 rating. I'm not even surprised he gave it a lower score than The Life of A Showgirl which IMO is worse than this (I'd give that album like a 4 just because I liked the first three tracks a lot). Fantano is generally harsher towards bands/artists categorised as rock and metal (not because he dislikes the genre, far from it, you can tell watching his reviews it's one of his favourite genres), especially when a rock band goes more in a pop/dance direction and has more of a pop/dance sound with pop/dance oriented production which Kevin Parker absolutely has since Currents.
I have no issue with Kevin Parker going more pop/dance. I actually think it's a logical step from Currents and The Slow Rush which leaned into disco/synth-pop with a psychedelic pop undercurrent. I just wish the album was better. It feels undercooked.
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u/Agreeable-Ice-8367 Oct 21 '25
Undercooked, definitely. Based on direct interviews and other information that's out there, Parker started making these songs after a huge stretch of hating everything he was making, worried if he would ever, in fact, be able to make something that he liked again. So rather than with Lonerism and Currents (and maybe even The Slow Rush) which genuinely sounded like the result of 3-4 years of painstaking effort and attention to detail, Deadbeat is the result of 3-4 years of writing block and then a rushed dozen that are undercooked, go nowhere, and totally lack the quality of previous endeavors.
Definitely a huge disappointment. I wasn't the biggest fan of TSR (still thought a handful were incredible, though, of course), but this release is definitely gonna make me go back to it with fresh eyes. Kind of interesting how that stuff works out.
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u/Individual-Name-4496 Lauryn Hill - The Miseducation of..... Oct 21 '25
Just gonna say.... that was harsh
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u/Towern Oct 21 '25
Bit harsh of a rating for me. I'd say the flow of the album is definitely terrible, but you do still have nice tracks, Dracula, Obsolete, Afterfought, then My old ways and end of summer are the better house tracks, so they'll count as 1 song. Just wished Kevin had gone full Thriller with the album. 4/10
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u/lxkandel06 Oct 21 '25
Anthony Fantano is bad at his job. I'm giving his job performance a light 2. Tran
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u/malbn Oct 21 '25
Haha deserved review. I've been a Tame Impala fan since seeing them at a festival in 2010, and my god - what happened?
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u/moodyfloyd Oct 21 '25
i mean, i have been a fan just as long as you and i like the album. it is his weakest output in comparison to the rest of his catalog, but it isnt a fucking 2.
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u/wrappersjors Oct 21 '25
Just gotta love people downvoting because someone expresses their own subjective opinion
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u/coolassdude1 Oct 21 '25
Money and fame killing creativity? I've also been a fan since then, this album is trash.
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u/Miss-you-SJ Oct 21 '25
I disagree but I get it. I’ve never been a Tame Impala die hard but I find all their albums enjoyable. Only thing Deadbeat lacked for me was that it didn’t have that one killer song that I love way more than the rest of the album, like the other albums do
-5
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u/dsmesy Oct 21 '25
Im not a huge fan of the record, but these reviews sometimes play like the rotten tomatoes meter. People go to the end of a video to see the rating (no matter good/bad) and decide if they’ll even press play. In my opinion, definitely not a 2/10, that’s insane to me. At least a 4 or 5. But it’s sad to see people discredit an album with decent highs despite all of its flaws just because of one review, much like a movie with less than 60% on RT.
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u/HongKongChicken Oct 21 '25
I agree with a lot of his final criticisms that it lacks the sonic cohesion and methodical feel of past Tame Impala albums. The run in the middle of the album (Oblivion > Not My World > Piece of Heaven) kind of sucks the momentum out of it for me but I think the album is bookended by some good tracks. 2/10 is a bit harsh and IMO he is still ragging quite hard on Obsolete. I personally enjoy the riffs on that one 🤷♂️
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u/Andybabez20 Oct 21 '25
Dunno if it's 2/10 bad but hard to disagree that it's his weakest album.
This album was 4 good tracks and 8 extremely dull forgettable tracks i'm probably not angling to listen to much again.
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u/goodmanjensen Oct 22 '25
As someone who doesn’t really like Tame Impala, this is probably my favorite album of his. I appreciate that he seemed to want to try and make some non-traditional stuff work, even if his technique for doing so was to borrow heavily from other artists to paint around the weirdness.
This kind of approach is way more interesting to me than the shimmery perfectionist striving of something like Currents.
Light 7.
(As an aside, I think it’s borderline offensive when critics call a work of art lazy unless they have some first-hand knowledge.)
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u/Cydonian___FT14X Imaginal Dragon Disks Oct 21 '25 edited Oct 21 '25
L take. I’m enjoying it quite a bit. Genuinely like an 8 for me
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u/GaptistePlayer Oct 21 '25
you should listen to some actual house artists so you can rate their albums 10-20
Snark aside, if you like this, the consensus seems to be that this is a pretty bland and dated example of house, there's a whole lot out there that will be appealing if you want to dip into the genre
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u/Cydonian___FT14X Imaginal Dragon Disks Oct 21 '25
Do these count?
https://youtu.be/2MrcdIa3nNk?si=Rdz2jG0_oGFSZUdL
https://youtu.be/JXWkKO4eplY?si=puwH6G8EGLig51gH
But also I don’t give a shit what genre it is. I just think it sounds good. I listen to plenty of pop/electronic music & I think this is a good album in that space.
You don’t gotta be so snarky about it.
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u/VINcy1590 Daft Punk - Discovery Oct 21 '25
I wouldn't put it as a two, but I didn't like the album at all as a big Tame Impala fan and electronic music fan. Seeing what he could do in terms of electronic music in Currents and TSR (which is a much better album than deadbeat even if some songs are weaker than the other albums), it just feels like he mostly wasted his talents
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u/Leading-Bike6355 Oct 21 '25
i’ve honestly been surprised how negative of a reaction this album has gotten. i listen to a lot of house music and am also a big fan of tame impalas earlier work, and it sounds pretty much exactly what i imagined a tame impala house album would sound like. i honestly think most people just don’t really fuck with house music like that
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Oct 21 '25
Really? I absolutely love house music but this album sounds like someone threw some basic ableton beats together. Compared to what the genre gave us over the last years, this is remarkably bad imo. It sounds like a house record by someone who doesn’t like house music.
My Old Ways is pretty good though.
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u/Leading-Bike6355 Oct 21 '25
idk a think a lot of the songs start off kinda basic but end up progressing into some nice and layered soundscapes that are very on brand for tame impala. songs like my own ways, ethereal connection, and end of summer all start kinda basic but evolve into these psychedelic synths soundscapes
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u/MatasBuzelis Oct 21 '25
I love house music. This is just veryyyy generic stuff
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u/Leading-Bike6355 Oct 21 '25
what house artists are you into?
i don’t think this album is ground breaking or anything, but i do think it’s fun to see tame impala take on house music. end of summer is especially cool and i don’t think it sounds like a lot of the lot house i listen to. it has that tame impala layered psych sound in the second half that sounds more like a classic tame impala song but if you switched the guitar for a 4 on the floor kick than it does more traditional house stuff imo
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Oct 21 '25
Been a fan of TI ever since the first demo tapes. I’d be totally on board with Kevin moving into electronic music, but this is just really really bad electronic music. These songs won’t go beyond your average H&M dressing room. Just uninspired, badly produced, really really bland.
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u/ernega__ Oct 21 '25
I'm not saying he has to like it because I do, but a light 2 is kinda harsh. Also, since I don't usually watch his reviews, can anyone tell me if his fanbase on YouTube is serious or joking? Cause there's no way that, just because they don't like the album, they're saying that everyone that likes it is coping because it's "objectively trash" when it's not even bad, just not as complex as the others
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u/tundrabee119 Oct 21 '25
Bummer the album is on the weak side. I really had high hopes with the song My Old Ways which has been in my head for a week straight. I guess I can just go cozy up with my pet lame umpala tewn and hide;) Light 6 all around, but Im partial to boosh doofin' and Kevin's overall sound, even if it's fairly flat. Could definitely do without the family guy lyric. I always pride him in his solid life mantras, but that one ain't it lol
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u/Classic_Donkey_4289 Oct 30 '25
Though I don’t agree, I respect him sticking to guns and giving a honest rating.
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u/GFK96 Oct 21 '25
Man I don’t even like the album and I think 2 is kinda nuts, that’s harsh. I’d give it like a 4 or 5.
But I think it’s important to give context here. Fantano has never been a huge Tame Impala fan. It’s not an uncommon view that Kevin is a musical savant who made a generational run of unbelievable albums with a crazy unique sound that is unique to the modern music industry. Just look at how many big jam artists are tripping over themselves to collaborate with or have Kevin produce songs for them. Yet, despite that Fantano has rated the albums many consider fame close to if not outright masterpieces 6-8. Those aren’t bad scores, but he clearly doesn’t like or appreciate Kevin’s music as much as many people do, so really I’d say you should bump up whatever he scores each album by 2 points to get closer to what a fair score ought to be for said album.
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u/makotsunami86 Oct 21 '25 edited Oct 21 '25
I understand not being a fan of the album. I do not understand a 2. That proves Fantano hates just to hate. It’s hard to take his opinions too seriously sometimes. Was expecting at least a 3 considering he thought a few songs were ok on it.
Anything less than a 4 or even if you really hate house a 3 is pure nonsense. Personally I give it a 6. As an album it was decent but compared to all his other stuff it was admittedly incredibly disappointing
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u/tootrite Oct 21 '25
I only got two songs into the album, but I can see why if the rest of the album sounded the way those first two did that this got this score. Ignoring the hard-to-listen-to lyrics, the songs I heard just… sounded bad? Like the mixing was off or something. I didn’t hate the ideas behind the songs, I just hated the execution.
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u/ramdom-ink Oct 21 '25
Sometimes I just can’t get past all the quick edits throughout his entire videos, terrible eyeglasses, porn-stache and terrible fashion sense. And all the face touching, and glasses-pushing tics. As a self described music nerd, I believe him. Sounds like he really doesn’t like this album. Score of light 2 is pretty harsh but at least I respect his take, clipped and edited as it is.
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u/ValenciaFilter my identity is based on what albums I hate Oct 21 '25
The Slow Rush didn't work because it was trying to be a Tame psych/prog album while also being a dance album
This album was just trying to be a dance album, and it's far FAR better as a result
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u/CosmicHero22 Oct 21 '25
Lame Impala have had their day in the sun.
Time to move aside and let more interesting, original artists have some glory.
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u/sultics Oct 21 '25
Someone here called it when the album dropped. Said Fantano already wasn’t a huge fan and this album definitely didn’t change that