What's insane to me is that fantano JUST released a commentary about ethel cain's recent post about the death of sincerity in how we interact with art and online content. He agreed that it's tiring, that it's much harder to have meaningful discussions online. And then he turns around and says halsey has main character syndrome for *checks notes* writing about their near-death experience and medical neglect. His review was so incredibly callous it's actually baffling. Let's all be more thoughtful and sincere except let me just dunk on this woman who's writing about how they almost died
no literally, he brought up his own frustration about his youtube comments being the same 5 dumb jokes but now this horrendous video is all serious commentary and criticism. he got what he wanted 🤷
fantano was probably just sucking up to a transgender because they're often higher up in the victimhood totem pole than real women. and leftists like fantano really have nasty and untimely habits of slipping up and being hypocrites
i do appreciate your unbiased perspective in this video. in the gentlest way i can possibly saying this: people are missing a very. big point. about this record, amongst others as well. firstly, this album is called The Great Impersonator *because that is the nickname of Lupus.* she was simultaneously diagnosed with Leukemia *and Lupus.* the impersonations were intended to add a positive element to an album that is lyrically uncomfortable to listen to while serving as marketing for the record and Halsey's makeup brand. this album's main priority is *not* to pay homage to icons of the past. it is a piece of art that was crafted during a time in someone's life after they were told they could very well be dead by the end of this year. the second priority in what this album is a story of Ashley Frangipane exploring what Halsey, their persona, would look like if she debuted in the 70s, 80s, 90s, and 00s. "would everything stay the same? would i still get sick?". everything else comes after that. that is all i will say for now.
Can we please stop using unbiased seriously? Not only is that impossible but bias isn’t inherently bad. Facts exist but you can’t do anything with them until you interpret them…that’s where bias comes in.
@@loadishstone you seem to misunderstand what having an “unbiased opinion” is. It means to look at something from all perspectives and angles, to give each of them the same amount of attention and careful thought. It does not mean “turn your brain off and consume uncritically”. Hope this helps!
@@GrimmRiot even then, bias is not an inherent negative -- and your condescension is both worse, and more unnecessary. you're not teaching anybody anything but a bad taste in the mouth.
It's also been really exhausting to see takes like "well just because someone's dying doesn't mean they deserve a high rating" as if that was an argument anyone was ever trying to make here.
I agree with this 100% He can totally give her props for going through what she did and still making art from it while acknowledging that he doesn't like it.
@@Casshio Fantano is absolutely in the wrong here but I can completely disagree with this. Someone going through an extremely hard time in their life making art does not mean that their art has a baseline level of 'good' to it. I agree with the OP though, this isn't really a useful discussion.
@@violetinreal8188 true, but though i havent listened to the album its hard to believe that it would deserve a 1, especially considering that katy perrys recent soulless abuser-produced album got a 4 from him. like thats just Wild
As far as I can tell the title is a play on the lupus nickname "The Great Imitator" Good idea for a title. Referring to the illness without being too on the nose.
Her first song on the track has the lyrics " but I know I'm not lucky and I wasn't chosen. The world keeps spinnong without me" That's the opposite of main character syndrome,
@@Uhohlisa how? are we not all the main characters of our own stories? if we don't care about our own life how can we ask anyone else to care? this critique is ridiculous. it's diaristic art, of course it's about her and how she feels, like literally almost all art, modern and classical. we literally expect pop stars to be larger than life, to be extremely confident, often sexy, to perform, dance, sing, do crowd work, we have an entire culture about putting divas on a pedestal, make any of this make any sense. this album had such a cool concept and story.
I've been a fantano supporter for a while now but everything you said here is just entirely correct. It's like he forgot there was a human on the other side of the creation of that album. His lack of response has been really disappointing. I know the "meta" for online drama right now is to just not comment on things but without a response, he's just standing by what he initially said in his review and saying there's no issue with it. It's been hard to watch any of his reviews since then because that review is just kind of sitting in the back of my mind making me wonder if maybe the review I'm currently listening to is laced with as much cynicism and lack of research as Halsey's review was.
It really felt like he went "I don't like Halsey" and decided to make his review from and revolved around that aspect. Zero research done, all the snark in the world and it just felt gross to watch.
I’d argue he’s smartly staying silent on TH-cam regarding his review, but he is very much dying on this hill on Twitter. He retweeted the Flynn Rider meme of “what musical opinion has you like this” around the same time clearly referring to his Halsey review, and he’s cherry picking irrelevant softball arguments to rebut, such as categorizing Halsey in the wrong genre, while ignoring the sea of reasonable criticisms. I hate to say this, but this seems like evidence that he 110% meant and stands by what he said.
Also I just wanna point out how he said her Springsteen inspired song sounds like what someone who’s only listened to Dancing In The Dark thinks Springsteen sounds like…when the song is clearly musically referencing I’m On Fire
I really don't like Halsey but I'm so glad Fantano is getting pushback... he is SO OFTEN wrong about things, like you just mentioned. He's also such a poser.
@@Uhohlisa you disagreeing with his music taste doesn't make him wrong. He was out of line in this case, but he's generally incredibly knowledgeable and consistent Also idk how you can call him a poser, the dude has been professionally listening to music and talking about music for so long that some of his audience probably wasn't even born when he started his channel
As an Anthony Fantano subscriber but a woman who loves Halsey, gets the historical context of the album's theme and hears your criticism, I really valued hearing this push back. You are punching up, but it was a fair sock to the face between gentle-peers. Thank you for saying it with your chest despite the apprehension you voiced.
@@Miragephan Well no, a peer is someone of an equal footing as yourself, not just someone who does the same thing. If she is a peer she is not punching up, which is fine, this whole idea of punching up/down is not that important anyway. She doesn't' need to be punching up to criticize him, she can just do it, she is allowed to.
@@cinemachronic I don't think it is though, because you are actually stating something specific when you use these words. I don't care for this argument that the words you use are trivial, when you say punch up you mean a very specific thing.
Depeche Mode's last record was very much about the band processing the passing of Andrew Fletcher and coming to terms with the fact that the remaining members of the band weren't exactly getting younger. I don't remember anyone accusing Martin Gore of having main character syndrome. (for what it's worth, Melon's review of that album was pretty shallow as well)
@@Synical02 By that logic, aren't all artists/bands "narcissistic" inherently for talking about their own personal feelings and troubles they've gone through? What the hell else are they gonna talk about?
@@alatsus I've seen this take a lot and it seems like such a back handed defense. cause like, plenty of artists are able to talk about things other than their personal lives, kate bush for example. i just don't know where this idea that artists only write about themselves came from, that's so limiting and sets the bar super low for creativity. i'm not here to bash halsey, i just don't get this argument at all.
I really disliked The Great Impersonator, and I think Fantano's video is an example of real criticism being lost with cynicism. I think a lot of reviewers have this issue, where after interacting with bad media for long enough, their reviews of it get harsher and harsher as they see the same issues over and over. When I compare Fantano's thoughts to my own, I see his complaints stem from the same issues, but are so extreme that they stop being reasonable.
Same, listened to it, didn't really like it save for 1-2 tracks, I wish he just focused on the quality of the music instead of the narrative which is objectively noble
@@333dae fantano has ego problem thats gotten significantly worse over the last 4 years, this whole debacle is a product of that. I truly do not see him returning to what he used to be, he's internet poisoned.
It's not my cup of tea either (and I'm a chronically ill genderqueer with a prior Tumblr phase, an appreciation for earnest pop and a past of medical sexism, so I could not be the target audience any harder) but I do know pop music and nothing on that album warranted the venom. The thing that I think is weirdest in all of this is that I don't think it warranted a review at all. From anyone. It's not bad enough to be an interesting topic for analysis and it's not good enough to have enthusiastic thoughts about. On a technical level it's the perfect 5/10 album, nothing offensive, nothing great, completely harmless, doesn't move the needle in either direction. The kind of album that most people will hear once and forget, but will mean the world to the handful of people it really resonates with. You know, like how most art does.
I like this take a lot. It reminds me of the 'How Did This Get Played' podcast that completely changed their format after they found out how exhausting and unsustainable to review a different bad video games every week.
@albertfanmingo see I can get that. But I saw maybe one sliver of genuine remotely on point criticism vs a full video of lambasting and hating Halsey as a person. Even if you dislike the album- I feel the 1 he gave it is absolutely unfair. A 1 is like an insult to art. It is an album that drags down the medium and is a crime to listen to. He gave Katy Perry's dumpster fire a higher score. And that's not saying Katy deserved a one either. But the production is good enough to not launch it at the bottom of the barrel- even if you hate her singing and lyrics. That coupled with him spending most of the review calling her a main character syndrome pick me when the lyrics clearly state how she thought she was going to die and leave her son alone.... what little criticism he put in I feel was an afterthought. Because it felt so wildly shallow.
Where were the “main character syndrome” criticisms when Phil Elverum made three Mount Eerie albums about losing Geneviève Castree to cancer? Or when David Bowie recorded Blackstar? Such a weird criticism.
@@lmaololroflcopter how is blackstarr main character??? First of all the lyrics are very abstract and is not completely about David bowie himself and 2nd of all I think a man is allowed to sing about being scared of death when he’s got cancer
@@LEMOnBRaINn i dont think they're saying that those albums are main character syndrome, just using some examples of Fantano's positively reviewed records with similar themes that he didn't say felt like "main character syndrome".
Why, if he listened to the album, the music was bad, the lyrics were bad, she didn't do a good job to connect her issues to the larger world around her, she didn't express her issues beyond shallow words like many people have expressed with such shallow words before, and he gave his impression as it being really bad, does her cancer make all that bad to take note of?
@@TrentYakleContext doesn't change an album, but it does change how you perceive it. A lot of now-acclaimed albums would probably be nothing without their context. For example: Spiderland, The Glow Pt 2, In the Aeroplane
@@Camreeyan I agree, but people are acting like you have to care about context or you are a bad person in this situation, which is dum dum, i don't have to learn anything about the artist behind a painting, dance, or song if I don't want to and nothing is wrong with that. a person who had cancer makes an album someone things is bad and gives off main character vibes, cool, so what, a lot of people need to touch grass and get their emotions offline into a therapist's office
@@TrentYakle in a professional/public setting, it is ideal to have a balanced mix between emotional intelligence and logical intelligence. You can critique someone’s work while still showing kindness towards their situation. People are disappointed with Anthony for his lack of etiquette as a critic in this regard which is a reasonable stance whether you agree with it or not.
It's absolutely wild how he made a cameo in Meatcanyon's video, which was about staying mindful of the emotionlal connection to art and music, and literally do what was parodied....
He also just had that video where he bemoaned the snark that clogs up every comment section online and society's aversion to sincerity. It's unfortunate, but hopefully he will reflect on this and take the criticism to heart.
As a woman dealing with chronic illness, this reeks of the combined ableism and sexism I get when I just happen to mention the realities of my life to the wrong person. I'm pissed that so much of both the Pitchfork review and Anthony Fantano's review focused on invalidating Halsey's lived experience but I'm not really surprised. I really appreciate you speaking up for us in this way
It totally is. I couldn't care less if he didn't like the album, he usually doesn't like what I like. But he spoke about Halsey the way every doctor has talked about me, about them, and about any woman that has had to fought doctors to get a bit of treatment,
Seriously when Halsey came out to say they had POTS/MCAS/EDS and Endo I thought…I’m not a fan myself but oh my god they have so many, and such a huge platform: finally our story might be told to a large, contemporary audience. I mean honestly to be so sick, yeah. We’re all actually crying for help and attention because we spend our whole lives getting gaslit by medicine and written off by everyone in our lives that just “don’t get” these syndromes and think we’re faking or heaven forbid trying to grasp the level of autonomy to even afford us the ~main character~ life we deserve.
How is he ableist, and sexist? Do you know if he knew she has cancer? There's nowhere in the review where's he's hating cripples or women. This is the type of overreaction that kills valid criticism, and just leads toward unfiltered hatred .
@@Synical02His job title is music reviewer. He could do the 2 seconds of research required to find out what the album is about and the context of its creation. It also costs $0 to be respectful or just not make a review of an album you can’t give a heavily biased review of.
@@Synical02 because women like Halsey deal with medical misogyny which delays diagnosis and in many cases has killed women. It’s a huge issue especially in the chronic illness community. Conditions like endometriosis take an average of I believe 10 years to diagnose. Women are often ignored when complaining about pain and seeking proper pain management. IUDs being placed without pain management is inhumane. Women die from medical misogyny while giving birth in the us, which has the worst healthcare for pregnant women out of all developed countries. Endometriosis is one of the top ten most physically debilitating conditions and otherwise meets all the criteria, yet isn’t classified as a disability. Women with lupus and other chronic illnesses are treated like they’re crazy or attention seeking. Come on now. Open your eyes to what women deal with on a regular basis. You can’t be that dense
halsey is the main character in her own art because it’s her art. i’m not a big halsey fan, but i can say that i do pick up on some misogyny when fantano gave her that criticism.
Very well put. I'm not a fan of Halsey's music myself, but making an album in the context of it possibly being yr last AND the gift you leave yr young child ?, that's about as deeply emotional as reasons to make music gets. When an album is made in those circumstances you cannot separate the music from the context and reasoning for its very existence. I won't lie and say i'm perfect and have never said a wrong word about a song or band/musician in my lifetime but when you have an audience as wide as Fantano's you really have to think very carefully on the choice of words you use.
i'm not the biggest Halsey fan myself but you're right, that review from melon was so off colour. i have seen some of his takes that i agree with and some.. not so much but goddamn the man truly gave into the dark side for that one
The fact that Fantano has not apologized or released any sort of statement about the response to the review is honestly disappointing, and I'm sure he's well aware of it, considering he's choosing to cherry pick the more aggressive reactions on twitter and respond to them in the most snarky and sarcastic way possible. The overt cruelty and dismissiveness of his review, coupled with his lack of response, made me lose a lot of respect for him, both as a critic and as a person, and I hope at the very least this was a wake up call for him to start treating artists with a bit more empathy.
@@tristanpflughoft8911 Who? Rappers often jokingly reference him in songs, and there’s been a few people who took his review badly. But in general artists don’t treat him any way, be it positive or negative.
not a classic rock fan but seems your video was recommended to me bc i’m a halsey fan, and i would just like to say thank you for making this video. halsey has been through some awful stuff and it’s nice to see non-fans sticking up for them 🖤
This is why I've been a huge fan ever since discovering your channel. You're very respectful to the material, you do your research and give meaningful opinions. I and among others are here to support you and your channel. I am glad to say this channel has been a place of comfort and has brought me much joy. Keep doing what you do best Abby!
Yeahhhhh I lost a lot of respect for Fantano after this. I'm not even someone who listens to Halsey's music, and it took me all of 2s to google what she was going through during the making of this album. I've seen bad reviews from Fantano before, (like the original one for Swimming), but this missed the mark to the point of leaving a bad taste in your mouth. Y'know it's serious when the upload doesn't have any meme comments on it
His The National review where he literally just slept for 10 minutes really pissed me off and I am not even a fan of them. They put work into making an album, either give an actual commentary review or don’t say anything. If he wants to do this meme thing then he shouldn’t expect to be treated like a respectable reviewer. Also, he made a disgusting tweet joking about metro boomins assault allegations. I don’t know how you can see something about a woman being assaulted and think “you know what the perfect joke to make right now is!!”
@@SuperNuclearUnicorn I don’t really think that’s comparable. A comment under a TH-cam video is not the same as a professional music reviewer. Some jokes are funny, an entire video with no meaningful commentary is not. Although I do find his comment section insufferable and unfunny.
For the boomers, this is like complaining that Cat Stevens got too caught up in himself after he released Tea for the Tillerman and Mona Bone Jakon after almost dying from tuberculosis.
The eternal comparison for Fantano with this record is A crow looked at me by Mount Eerie. One is fairly viewed as masterpiece in depicting grief whilst having weak vocals and sparse instrumentation. All Phil sings about on his album is his dead partner and the mother of their infant child, and how he is scared of raising that child alone, how he can't stand to stay in the home where she died anymore, how her cancer was clinical and cold and sapped both their lives yet he has to go on when he feels unable. Fantano could have called it self-indulgent, miserable, even boring at times - which it objectively is, if you don't engage with the lyrics and themes. But no, he showered respectful, empathetic praise upon it. If I recall correctly he couldn't bring himself to even rate it as it would feel wrong to ascribe a score to someone's grief. Which brings us to Halsey, which he takes entirely on face value, refuses to engage with except on the most surface level which he is forced to as a critic, he ignores context, he dismisses them entirely, he mocks the themes and music entirely. And what's more, he does it in the tone of a man who sees himself as above this. He is borderline spiteful about this album, and Halsey in general. He doesn't criticise the music, he criticises the person. He may not like the style, he may not like the indulgent lyrics, he may not like the vibe - but he liked Mount Eerie enough to come at it from a professional standpoint, he liked that enough to understand what Phil was going for, and lets face it - he liked it because it had indie cred and because he can identify with a man's pain more than he can empathise with a chronically ill mother. I subjectively do find A crow looked at me to be a much better album, as the Halsey record is just not what I'm into, but my god, I can objectively take a step back and see it for what it is and appreciate the effort and the craft, the vocals and the intent. Fantano can't. He eviscerated it, or rather, he eviscerated the idea of it in his head. He couldn't give Mount Eerie a score, but he could give Halsey the rating equivalent of dogshit. The rating of 'without any artistic merit at all, completely unenjoyable by anyone.' Really classless move. Really disappointing. Really shameful of him.
I also saw someone commenting that Lupus is also called the great impersonator or the great imitator or something, so I don't think the title of the album is necessarily about imitating the sound of those icons. ( unless she said it some where herself ofc ) Idk I kind of thought that she named the album because of lupus and did the photo shoots as a nod to the title not the music of the album which is why it doesn't sound like them as much as it could've because that's not the point. I could be wrong obviously.
I am old enough to be your grandfather, and I am impressed by your reviews, your presentation with the great wardrobe, and your snark. You do your homework, and as much of a fan I am of many of the records you review, I often learn something new. Your discussion of the cover art is fun, since I never paid much attention to cover art. I just wanted to hear it. Album covers were for de-seeding your weed. You also seem very honest and ethical. Your objection here to this guy seems sincere and from the heart. Perhaps he will realize the error and apologize. EDIT: Also, thanks for the distraction from all this election madness! lol
deseeding your weed on album covers! everytime i visit this chanel either Abigail or the comments section throw me back to the sixties. I agree- A"s blouses are wonderful but the books on the MC5 (i think) threw me for a loop.
fuck dude lol this is kind of a pattern with fantano im starting to realize, just this dismissal or at best ignorance of womens issues. i first saw it in his review of mitskis be the cowboy where he totally missed the dripping sarcasm of me and my husband, he took the song literally as mitski singing about getting through life with her husband by her side when shes not even married lmfao
@@mm-gk6xg sucks man. i only recently realised i don't even like fantano after watching myriad reviews where i couldn't understand what he was getting at, but since he's so respected i figured he had to be worth watching. as someone not educated in music i find him totally inaccessible but i just figured i was dumb. i'm not even dumb!
It’s genuinely baffling that he never once acknowledged them having a chronic fucking illness. He maybe could’ve pled ignorance but I seriously doubt he’s going to at this point. He was so weirdly aggressive and dismissive in ways that felt uncharacteristic. It’s also wild to see him throw out a weird zoomer buzzword like “main character syndrome”, like what do you even mean by that? What artist doesn’t write about themselves? He obviously doesn’t have to like it, but I think the score is the least important factor here. Thank you for making this 🙏🙏
@@derfgerps4016Learn to read. The OP didn't complain about the score or him disliking the album. They complained about him saying "main character syndrome", which is baffling to say about someone who has a chronic illness.
@@derfgerps4016true, but this comment clearly says that the problem is not the score, the problem is the reasons why he gave him that low score, so in that case Halsey’s illness is relevant, because Fantano decided to call her self absorbed and unrelatable because she wrote about her near death experience and that’s why are people mad about his review, if you watch it you can see that he barely talk about the music in the album so it’s fair to say that he gave it a 1 just because he doesn’t like Halsey as a person and that tainted his review
@@derfgerps4016 tired of these comments. Everyone is being very specific and clear in caveating that Halsey isn't entitled to positive reviews because of her suffering.
She has like 10 different chronic illnesses, not just one. Also, a lot of artists don't write about themselves, probably even most artists if you consider all of history.
7:41 "On top of all that, it sounds like he didn't really listen to the lyrics and sounds of the album" Honestly, this has been my view of Fantano for a while. I still haven't forgotten what he said about Agnes by Glass Animals
I am not a huge fan of Halsey or their discography, I knew nothing about her personal life or the marketing push. This album hit me super hard, I relate in different ways to a lot of their struggles and fears. I didn't love every song or the production and outright dislike one or two of the songs, but its a very very personal and emotional record and that is why overall I like it a lot. Watching Fantanos review honestly disgusted me, imo it is blatantly callous and cruel for the sake of appealing to the "edgy" side of the internet. It kinda became apparent to me that he is just another vaguely progressive man letting the mask slip to reveal that he doesn't care about women or fem people. Honestly he may be outright hateful. Thank you for making this response, It's been bothering me since I saw his review. I hope his siccophants don't harrass you.
i dont wanna speculate on how sexist he secretly is or isnt, i have no idea, but he 100% at the very least has a blindspot for sexism despite his progressivism and its slowly been getting more obvious
I have watched this man for 15 years, through all the positive and negative reviews, all of the controversies, this is the first instance I can genuinely say felt outside of the scope of a negative opinionated review into something oddly cruel and out of character. Who knows why but it was disheartening. Great video!
Don't worry Abigail. I think even most of his dedicated fanbase thought that review was unhinged when the context was pointed out by other people, to the point where you can barely find any of the usual jokes and memes in the comment section. I've been subscribed to him for a year or two, and I just... Silently unsubscribed after that. Unless it comes out that Halsey went to his house and kicked his dog or something, it's just strange and gross that he hates her on such a weirdly personal level, and I feel inclined to stay away from that kind of energy lol. I'm not even a fan of Halsey. The album aimed high, and missed. But it's not because of some inherent personality flaw of hers. Lupus is often called the great imitator since the symptoms are vague and it is hard to figure out that it's actually lupus. Several good ideas went in, but the result that came out was not that good. But you know, maybe it's okay that nothing good ended up coming out of fucking lupus. Fantano is a big name in music reviews, and I think that she unfortunately has probably seen his review. I hope she can take it in stride, because most of that review legitimately had nothing to do with anything within her control.
Thank yo SO FREAKING MUCH for posting this! Seeing fantanos lack of response or acknowledgment of his bad review has really made me upset and I’m happy someone with a platform is willing to hold him accountable.
Fantastic video! Personally, I feel like Fantano is usually very good at articulating his thoughts on albums he likes, and similarly good at roasting a universally panned album. But when he has to present his thinking on an album that has a more mixed reception (or, an acclaimed album that he doesn’t like), he has this weirdly defensive and prickly style that comes out, and he often fails to make “objective points” that he can back up with actual reasoning.
@ I never said “art was objective” here. I said he failed to make objective points. I’m being charitable in assuming that Fantano is usually an objective music critic. Can you imagine if Fantano had said that Danny Brown was displaying “main character syndrome” during Atrocity Exhibition? That would have been objective lol, but he would never do that (because it’s an asinine point). Other artists talking in a similar way about their own life were not subject to this same criticism; this isn’t being objective to your own barometer of what certain ideas and themes are and mean. Fantano was treating the album with pre conceived contempt because he doesn’t like Halsey, which is the move of a hack. How is this album any different conceptually to Bowie’s Black Star, which he loved? It’s a bollocks critique. Fantano had a preconceived idea of what Halsey says and does, and this bias led him to not give an objective review of what the album was saying and doing. I don’t know anything about Halsey, but I let the music and the lyrics speak for themselves. She’s obviously talking about very real, very human ideas and themes. Fantano let his subjective perspective and bias overpower his criticisms, and he treated this album in a very strange way because of this. Hence, he wasn’t being objective. If he had actually given a damn to give a respectable review, I think he would have been less spiteful and more “this album is going for and saying a lot, but it doesn’t land for me. 1/10”. But because he didn’t apply some objectively to what he was hearing, he FAILED spectacularly. For the record, I didn’t like the album that much either tbh. But not because she’s being an attention hog. And for the record, there is room for objectivity in art anyway, if that’s your subjective opinion. If you fail to use language or sound to accurately convey a story, a feeling, or a vibe, or whatever, then I think it’s fair game to call it objectively bad. I can “subjectively believe” that some art is good and some art is bad, and there’s nothing you can say or do about it lol. Every individual has their own creed and life story and perspective which is subjective to them, but objectivity in art isn’t about saying something is “definitively shit”. It’s about fairly applying critiques to art no matter what. If an artist I don’t like ticks all the boxes that I like out of nowhere, if I’m being objective, I’m going to give it a good review - not a bad one just because I usually find the artist annoying or unlikeable or whatever.
@ I’m not saying “Art is Objective” for everyone, you absolute plum. I’m saying to be a reviewer, you have to be objective in how you apply your opinion across every artist. Did you even read what I put? If you have a different set of standards for artists who are trying to make the same statements, then you suck as a reviewer.
@@Magic7ball I feel like you’re either deliberately misrepresenting my point, don’t understand what I’m saying at all, or are just trying to be annoying. Please state where I ever said “art is objective for everyone”. A reviewer needs to be objective in their analysis to avoid bias, this is a pretty normal thing that most people understand. If a reviewer treats two artists saying something differently, despite them saying the same things, you are failing to be objective - and failing as a reviewer.
Felt really similar when he reviewed Show Me the Body's album Dog Whistle and he said Camp Orchestra is about how the music industry sucks, when a 2s google shows you its about Auschwitz... Lost respect for him then and he's never earned it back. PS keep on punching up, you got yourself a new subscriber!
Ms. Devoe, Thank you for holding dignity as the line you defend. I concur with your comments on these issues. Mean spirited shit has no place in criticism of a serious work of art. You made solid and compassionate arguments that raises the level of music review in today’s digital world. Eons of critics should be grateful to you for taking the high road. Peace
i don't watch fantano, but i gotta say you make a lot of great points when it comes to how insincere mainstream critics can be when it comes to things they don't like. being somebody who writes reviews in an unbiased tone of voice, its easy to either overrely on or throw suspension of disbelief out the window. i write a lot of movie reviews, not music ones, but both are art forms at the end of the day, and people's dreams and passions are behind these productions, and it's important to try and factor that into your thoughts in some capacity, major or minor. you'd think all the online critics who'd wish death upon creatives they don't like would've faded away by now, but alas, given how much of a hellhole internet land can be sometimes, you can only wish that things will improve.
BEAUTIFULLY SAID! Cynicism is not only in the music critic sphere, but media critic sphere in general and it's horrible. It's like people forgot how to say things of substance and also give respect to ANY creation of art in favor of overexplaining basic or irrelevant things with a condescending tone whilst adding little to no value. I love listening to people who have different perspectives as I love learning and understanding viewpoints, but it's becoming harder and harder to find people who ACTUALLY have something to say regardless if I agree or disagree.
i am only a casual fantano watcher, but i do find myself respecting his opinion even when i disagree with it. i also respect when he simply chooses not to review an album because he acknowledges not finding an interest in or not connecting to it, and i wish he just did that with the halsey album. it is clear that he finds no interest in her music in general, there was no point in posting this review especially when the album tackles a sensitive topic. it also rubs me the wrong way that he went on to joke about the backlash on twitter instead of stepping back and thinking about what everyone has been saying, as it hasn't been some petty fans who believe it deserved a 10, but people who genuinely believe his review was in bad taste and poorly written, it's a really bad look for him.
The Great Impersonator is also a reference to her lupus diagnosis since lupus famously looks like other diseases and is difficult to diagnose. The Tav show House MD made it a running gag. "It's never lupus". So her album title is about several things at once. Halsey imitating herself to hide her sickness; Halsey putting on makeup of other stars and imagining what it would be like to live their lives; the lupus diagnosis. Fantano just isn't good at media criticism. I feel like I'm on a crusade for it now lol
i think he really doesn't care anymore. for some of us musicians music is something very personal, but to him music is just content for his channel, just money, just business
Fantano is SO good at totally missing any and every emotional beat in any song/album. Honestly after his review of Brakence - Hypochondriac it was clear that he just doesn't listen to lyrics, context, or emotion. He just listens to the instrumental and skims the lyrics, at best, and acts like he's musically intellectual. Its been years since he gave a shit about music, honestly.
That fantano review does give the vibe of Gordon Ramsay insulting a lemonade given by a kid with cancer. Which is especially mean, because even Gordon Ramsay wouldn't do all that because he's always nice to kids or less fortunate folks. And gordon ramsay is known for being mean.
@@muhammadrifqi7308 so you're basically saying that Halsey should be treated differently? That, for me, is worse. Im not being complacent of what Fantano said because i think some things, especially from people with visibility, should not be said. Your statement is diminishing Halsey just because she has a disease and i think thats awful
@@muhammadrifqi7308 yeah don't compare halsey as "a kid with cancer" because it's counterintuitive. if fantano said that halsey's lyrics sounded like childish angst, then further reinforcing that by comparing her to a child is just continuing to devalue her work. instead of her work being appreciated for its merit, it would be appreciated because she's sick, or pitiful, and as far as my own art goes id never want to be given fake praise bc someone felt bad for me
I’m really glad you made this video, because 1- This is not the first review of his that I found very dismissive, so I just tend to ignore his videos when they’re suggested to me, and 2- I found your channel through this video, and I’m loving it! I really like your energy, enthusiasm and lore research, and I’m currently binging your Beatles videos. Great work! PS: I would love to see a Quadrophenia review!
As someone who’s followed Fantano for some time, not necessarily with religious fever but enough to keep an eye on any albums that have earned that coveted yellow flannel and thus is probably worth further listening and hearing his passion for what’s new on the scene (an admittedly flawed way to seek out new exciting releases, sure, but I assure you Fantano’s not my only source of music discovery), what really rubbed me about this situation is that it seems inherent of the weaknesses in his daily cycle that crop up, namely in creating prejudices and ill-informed prognosis on artists like Halsey that haven’t hit any major home runs and putting less effort in giving something a chance, leading to major malfunctions of criticism that, as others have pointed out, are spelled out to such a degree that it shouldn’t have been possible to not even notice Halsey’s gone through real-life major crisis. I never bothered to listen to the album mainly because Halsey isn’t within the lane of artists I have any curiosity to check out, but as a critic I would think it at least mandatory to try and do some diligence in researching the project and its Genesis simply for the sake of filling the gap, reinforcing opinions, maybe even clarity such as is the case of The Great Impersonator having a double meaning towards both Halsey’s influences and illnesses. It’s like what you said, a review founded upon poor journalism towards an artist people associate as being a punching bag by virtue of mediocre pop hits (which is already a cruel assessment of artists as humans to begin with, but that’s a discussion that I think reaches further than this response’s scope), and while I don’t like how Fantano has brushed this negative response off like it’s nothing (nor do I like how some of the insults towards Fantano have grown to personal mockery as if this isn’t the issue people are wrinkled on in the first place), I just hope it’s only a misstep as opposed to future attitudes towards other artists similar to Halsey that are perhaps owed more flowers than they’re given. Also I completely side with you on the notion that people have taken the mere facet of snark from Fantano’s negative reviews and applied that to their whole structure of criticism (music especially, but this trend runs deep through other arts like movies and shows as well), it’s frustrating seeing the internet adopt a model that requires people attack and maim rather than curiously approach a project in earnest and how often this is rewarded compared to excellent videos like yours that dive headlong into the history, the ideas, and the execution of art itself and realize how important all these aspects are and how they should be thoughtfully explored without limitations towards how and why an album should be critiqued (there’s no right way to review a work of art, but boy has the internet shown how many lousy ways exist). I think it’s telling and concerning how once Fantano fumbled the bag so hard in reviewing Halsey that his comment section…actually engaged and talked about the album rather than repeating ad naseum the in-jokes that plague 90% of Fantano’s videos because pointing out flaws earned more social credit that providing quick laughs. As someone who used to write lengthy reviews on film before, well, life got in the way, the research and sincerity in finding out more about a film’s history was usually my favorite thing to talk about, simply because I had an honest drive to learn why something ended up as good or terrible as possible. With very rare exceptions, everything has a story behind it so it’s bothersome seeing not only people dismiss that fact, but even Fantano blanket that for the sake of a cheap review. It’s harder to put in effort and even harder to see it through towards a tangible reward, but you’ll get a lot more than fairweather friends and also something that can be proud to look back on years later (even with a critical eye that leaves some reviews looking worse for wear)
Between this and the Pitchfork review of this album, it feels like a lot of (predominantly male) critics are basing their critiques on their preconceived notions on her public persona rather than the actual content of her music. I'm mostly a casual Halsey fan (I usually prefer her earlier stuff, and I recognize she can be an acquired taste) but The Great Impersonator is the first one of hers I've listened to in full. Even if not all the influences presented come through in the music, I deeply respect the risk she took both in sound and lyric content, knowing that it was not likely to reach the same heights of her more commercial fare but instead reaching out to the fanbase she's cultivated from the beginning.
I honestly feel like in online culture, there's kind of these cycles, where certain buzz words get popular. "Main character syndrome" is just the latest in a string of them. They start out describing something specific, usually in a mocking way with very negative connotations. And, then people just start over-using them to the point where it almost becomes absurd. I really feel like if people were a little more careful with how they word things they post online, it would be a better world in this online sphere.
It's hard to believe that this is the same man who gave Lingua Ignota space on his platform to discuss the impacts of her horrific abuse at the hands of a prominent frontman and how she expressed that abuse on her album. I doubt he would say she has main character syndrome, why's he being so mean to halsey?
Thank you so much for this video. I'm also someone who has been inspired to write music reviews thanks to his videos, so it's not like I ever hated the guy. The way he handled this review was shameful on so many levels, and his unwillingness to own up to it has been even more so.
Great summary of the whole thing. I could understand Fantano possibly missing subtext in his research and analysis, but I find it super disappointing that he has seemingly nothing to say about the backlash and stands by the video despite how obviously gross its personal attacks are.
The truth is Fantano has admitted before that, when he finds an album annoying, sometimes he just listens to it one time, which seems to be the case. I wasn't blown away by the album, it was a good exercise, but the impending doom surrounding Halsey while making the project it's something that shouldn't be overlooked
There's a lot going on today but just wanted to say I really love your reviews and appreciate you standing up to Fantano like this. Needed saying and you said it well. Keep up the great work!
8:26 I paused and just said out loud - that's the point isn't it! It's not melodramatic or childish angst or whatever. Honestly how he treated her was disgusting
I'm pretty appalled by his lack of response. He's got a 13 year catalogue, and I haven't seen one where he really crosses this line. And i've watched the UV review, the FTBC review, I genuinely think they're not problematic. Now he says something really horrible, and doesn't have the self-consciousness or humility to admit it or even engage with it. Yk, I would have been very receptive and understanding of a big mistake that was acknowledged, but now every day that passes without a response is another huge f you to the whole thing :(
To be fair I agree with you but you got to note that Anthony does this with almost all of his reviews, he did the same to Mac miller before he passed because he lowkey thought Mac was lying about his addiction problems so he didn’t realize how touching that album process would have been for Mac until after he passed so it not just this album there a lot of them
Also, a context that nobody seems to be talking about is that the title "The great impersonator" is supposed to reference "The Great Imitator" aka Lupus, one of the diseases Halsey has. The concept of the album is not her impersonating the people that inspired her to make music, it's how Ashley is impersonating Halsey, and how the pop star lifestyle has led to the exacerbation of her diseases (Lupus can be caused by a stressful lifestyle, and her cancer is a byproduct of her Lupus). That's why the promotion of the album uses phrases like "A Lifelong performance by Halsey" and "Written by Ashley, Starring Halsey". She (the person) is impersonating herself (the persona) and now she has to deal with the consequences of this.
I unsubscribed from Fantano about 6 months ago after being subscribed for over a decade. I could tell he was really starting to phone it in with a lot of his reviews. I would notice things he would say that were flat out incorrect due to a lack of research, and I noticed the snark level was becoming too much to overlook. You were great in 500 Days of Summer, btw.
I recently lost interest on Fantano after watching this video, there aren’t any reviews I like from him. I always been checking some of Abby’s videos this year and I felt it was a better place to find something new every day!
I think Fantano's review is actually just a nerd rage caused by the fact that some "mediocre" pop artist dared to associate them with the mighy music lords from the past
Just found your channel because of this video and wow your channel is what i've been looking for in a reviewer: a young person who loves classic rock! i'm in my early 20s and have loved classic rock since a kid. Please keep doing classic rock stuff!!
I really loved that Halsey album, and feel that this album will be looked upon more favorably in the future and viewed as an influential album. That album hit me hard emotionally and I love music when has that kind of impact. With that said, Anthony Fantano's credibility as a music critic has took a big hit that he might never recover from that was from his own doing by trying to outdo the mean-spirited and misogynistic review of Pitchfork magazine.
I want to add that I've never heard of Halsey before, went and listened to her album and found it beautiful and thoroughly well crafted. I'm sad there's a lot of "I didn't like the album but..." when trying to *defend* Halsey. that people aren't seeing what I see in it but.... well, it's expressing a pretty specific collection of experiences that most people simply don't have. other folks with uteruses relate more, I notice, and that makes me feel better about the album's reception. just.... damn.
I’m pretty sure the whole point of being an impersonator is that you will never be that person and that gap that exists between you and them is where the artistic commentary halsey makes lies. the reaction, anger and disdain that he had that she didn’t litterally shapeshift into the people she’s channeling is so funny to me because that’s literally the point. the album is about her getting sick and feeling like she has to impersonate herself and she’s not doing a good enough job, the “great” impersonator. she’s physically incapable of being who she was before she was sick, she’s physically incapable of going back in time and being born as the great musicians. even if the music isn’t that great, the concept and idea is and his lacking the nuance and insight to see that is so disappointing
As someone who never heard of Halsey and who has never heard a single song of hers, this topic is wild to me. It's really weird how weirdly personal but how blind this reviewer seemed to be, with the context in mind. One thing that is interesting is Fantano wasn't the only one to do this to her. There was at least one other review outlet that also delivered this same sort of disingenuously respectful review too. I suggest people also check out D'Angelo Wallace's video on the topic too.
2:46 Interesting thing I learnt - the title may be a reference to 'The Great Imitator', a phrase used to describe various medical conditions with nonspecific symptoms that make them easy to be misdiagnosed. Several conditions Halsey has struggled with - cancer, lupus, endometriosis - have been termed as that, and given the themes and emotions fuelling the album, I think that was pretty intentional. On the review itself - I must be honest, this is his worst one. I left a comment under it that sums up how I felt: "Yeeeah something about this really doesn't hit right. It's not that he trashed the music, that basically never bothers me - it's more the way he handled the context the album was made in. It just reads as incredibly dismissive, needlessly personal and genuinely nasty - uncharacteristically so. I think it stems from him lacking knowledge of that context entirely, which is honestly pretty readily available information. If I had to guess, I think he was trying to get at the lyrics not coming across to him as communicating the emotions that fuel the album effectively, but that is absolutely not what ended up being said in the video. He could not have been further from that. I've watched this a few times mostly just because I'm in awe; I've never quite seen his reviews enter this sort of territory. I dunno man, feel free to hate the music all you want, but you may want to take this one back to the drawing board." I don't care that he thoroughly trashed the music. But everything else, from spending so much of the review on the marketing campaign (whilst not quite grasping the point of it) to the now infamous 'main character syndrome' line and related statements, just drowns all the actual criticism out in a wave of extreme, needless cynicism - as well as genuine disrespect, and cruelty. I don't think he intended to come off as disgusting as he did, I think it comes more from ignorance, but he just... did come across like that, regardless. I've never seen his work enter this sort of territory, and it was just... shocking. Ignorance is also no excuse either. It is his job as one of the most prominent online music reviewers to be reasonably clued up on music, certainly when it comes to what he covers. And this is not deep, secret lore; I'm not even that invested in Halsey's work or career and it takes all of a few minutes to read up about her various health struggles and what this album is all about. Like I said, his worst review. And I say that as someone who generally likes his work, even some of his more infamous 'missteps'. This was inexcusable though, I genuinely expect a lot better of him. It is so below his usual standard; I have *seen* him take a lot of care with deeply vulnerable and serious albums before, even when he wasn't in love with them... so why not here? I'd never even seen you around on YT before this video; I know this isn't your usual deal but, yeah. You're not even reviewing this album and it is outside of your lane as you say, but you grasp it better here than he did in his actual review of it. Your response here summed this all up better than I ever could have, and it needed to be said. Great work!
I honestly do not care about the lack of research. He's his own boss, he's allowed to set his own standard of quality. It doesn't earn him a shred of grace here. His review was just vile, research or no.
It should be said that he was more respectful toward AJR's "The Maybe Man," an album universally panned primarily focusing on the grief of losing their father, since his mini-review was a TH-cam short that focused on his experience with the album. That's in contrast to the armchair psychology that stains the Halsey review. This was callous, and it simply becomes more inexcusable the longer he refrains from formally apologizing.
This is what bothers me about Fantano. He performs criticism rather than engaging in it. But mostly, he seems unwilling to change his opinions over time, even when people educate him. It's difficult to take him seriously. Case in point: He did a cutting review of Hiatus Kaiyote's second album, Choose Your Weapon. Not everyone's cup of tea to be sure. Not liking it isn't a problem. But when he questioned the band's actual talent, their ability to compose and play their instruments, he invited the ire of literally thousands of professional musicians all of whom explained why he was wrong, while respecting his taste. He learned nothing. He said nearly exactly the same thing on their next album. All those musicians' comments fell on deaf ears.
@@tmountain1 ?????? That's not how it works bro, It doesn't matter how many directors you get to together to """"Educate"""" someone on their own opinions, If you don't like a movie then you don't like that movie and that's it lol
@kidguerrila It's ok to dislike something but if one of your criticisms is genuinely unfair or false then you should be open to acknowledging that you're wrong
kidguerilla It is how it works. Criticism is based on claims. If your claims don’t hold water then your criticism is bad. That is separate from liking or disliking something. Someone can dislike the Godfather while still respecting it for its craft.
That's totally it. It doesn't matter if he likes or doesn't like a band. It's possible to respect a musician's talent while not caring for their music. Like I don't care for Steely Dan. But if I said the same things about them Fantano said about HK, I'd be laughed out of the room. Steely Dan CLEARLY had enormous talent such that few people could hope to keep up with them. Their brilliance is a fact. But they're not my taste. If only Fantano could say something like that, I'd have zero issues with him. I have HUGE respect for a critic like Robert Christgau who had a tendency to shit all over bands I love but the difference is Christgau was completely open about his biases and dislikes. "I don't like this band so they get one star." Okay! Cool! That's not a problem. But hating a band because of personal taste while pretending to analyse their creative process is what teenagers do, not a 30-something supposedly professional critic.
Not the video I thought I would wake up to this morning. Well said, Abby!!!!!! I haven't listened to much of their music, but everyone deserves dignity. If it were a young male artist this would be treated as the ultimate statement on mortality.
I'm not one of the Boomers. I'm young enough to know who Halsey is, but old enough to appreciate your always thoughtful, well researched and humorous take on Classic Rock Abby. Thanks for the work you put in to always make your videos entertaining.
Excellent choice for outro music literally could not stop thinking of the line “I don’t know why you wanna impress christgau, let that shit die” i n lieu of anthony’s review. Starting to feel some parallels between them stronger than ever before
8:37 YOU SAID IT!!!!! Man not just music critics but critics in most artistic endeavors, ESPECIALLY FILM, are drenched in sarcasm and mean-spiritedness.
I like Fantano and have been watching his reviews for years, but one thing that's recently been driving me crazy and making it hard to watch his content is this weird thing I've noticed: whenever he's talking about a female/afab pop star and doesn't like the album, he starts talking about how the songwriting is super "narcissistic" when in reality it's like...just the singer talking about her own life? Lol. Being a songwriter who chooses to write songs about the things that are happening TO YOU does not give you a diagnosable personality disorder. It's fine to not like the new Taylor Swift or Sabrina Carpenter album, but just be a music critic and say WHY you didn't like it. Don't just cry "narcissist" and call it a day. (Sarah Z has a really good video about the "narcissist scare" if anyone is curious about it.) This Halsey review seems like the culmination of this really gross rhetoric he's been spewing all year.
I firmly believe that if a male musician of similar popularity made an album about illness, death, being a single father, and fears that his child would grow up without him - no one would be able to praise it fast enough. I feel like I shouldn’t have to explain to a critic that art can be deeply personal and you have to respect that.
still blows my mind that he hasn't responded/apologized yet, especially cause he made an apology video for tyler, the creator the DAY BEFORE HE DROPPED THE HALSEY REVIEW!!!!
I appreciate you making this video. I have been watching Fantano for a while and I’ve definitely disagreed with him strongly at times, but I’ve never thought he was outright cruel. I am not a Halsey fan by any means. I’ve liked a few of their songs in the past, but pop music isn’t my go to genre. That doesn’t mean I can’t have empathy for her and appreciate that she was able to put her art out there even if it’s not for me personally. Also, giving the album a lower score than Katy Perry’s last album is just objectively wrong. His review really bothered me, especially with this rise of misogynist behavior, I’ve been really particular about who I give my attention to. His callousness and failure to address it despite the overwhelming dissent from everyone including his fans, is just disappointing.
One of the funniest things was seeing the comments from all the people roasting him in the Chromakopia review for the review of The Great Impersonator among the other comments pointing out things he chose to complain about and ignore with Chromakopia
You’re in the right here Abby. It was an absolutely appalling review from Anthony Fantano, he needs to make a statement about this ASAP. You can have respect for him but that doesn’t mean putting him on a pedestal and thinking he can do no wrong.
@@ludvigholst4767 because it was a bad review? Why not ignore it and move on? Btw I quivered in my boots when you used the word “fucking”. It really showed how much of a no-nonsense badass you are
@@ludvigholst4767 there are some people who are absolutely braindead people in this comment section. These people have never heard of empathy or something
It wasn't some borderline unlistenable indsustrial/experimental hip hop with elements of harsh wall noise music... of course it was going to get a low score.
We are a community based on the love of music and we always can't agree on what moves us or gets us as music fans it's all about building a good conversation and making friends that's what this community is all about
I was hoping Anthony would address the criticism because 1. It's overwhelming, 2. He was objectively wrong, and 3. He's referred to reviews before where the majority of his audience disagreed with him. I'm just disappointed once again I allowed my parasocial relationship with someone to expect better from them. I know he's a critic but imo this occasion falls under the "If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all" rule.
As someone who is chronically ill, though not life threatening, I feel SO much empathy for Halsey in this album. I feel like taking into context a person's life outside of their work while critiquing their work isn't that strange to do. Especially when he JUST talked about agreeing with the lack of empathy when it comes to art. Humans are hypocritical, so I don't think he's a bad person for this, there just needs to be more empathy in so many spaces.
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You know we're in the weirdest timeline when Abby of all people is doing response videos to something that happened after 1969
@@josemaria8177 Man, do I have news for you about this timeline in the future, today, Nov. 6 2024.
55 years have passed since 1969 bro
@@angel_of_rust so, you don't know these things called jokes exist, right?..
@@angel_of_rust r/wooosh
What's insane to me is that fantano JUST released a commentary about ethel cain's recent post about the death of sincerity in how we interact with art and online content. He agreed that it's tiring, that it's much harder to have meaningful discussions online. And then he turns around and says halsey has main character syndrome for *checks notes* writing about their near-death experience and medical neglect. His review was so incredibly callous it's actually baffling. Let's all be more thoughtful and sincere except let me just dunk on this woman who's writing about how they almost died
no literally, he brought up his own frustration about his youtube comments being the same 5 dumb jokes but now this horrendous video is all serious commentary and criticism. he got what he wanted 🤷
@@herja8264 yes! That’s exactly what I thought too, you can’t criticize Halsey for the same point you praise Ethel for.
fantano was probably just sucking up to a transgender because they're often higher up in the victimhood totem pole than real women. and leftists like fantano really have nasty and untimely habits of slipping up and being hypocrites
About how she* almost died, not they
@@lightningmonky7674 This comment was so clearly only made because you know Halsey uses she/they pronouns. Stfu.
“Main character syndrome”
My brother in Christ it’s a solo album! Who else is gonna be the main character???
Real
God or a relative
we've gotten too comfortable with concept albums i fear (joking, i am a known sucker for a concept album)
the idea of main character syndrome is about being the main character of the entire world, not of a record
@@TheSuperMangler i'm so sick of that term. it's just become another way to bully people who are trying to express themselves and how they feel.
i do appreciate your unbiased perspective in this video. in the gentlest way i can possibly saying this: people are missing a very. big point. about this record, amongst others as well. firstly, this album is called The Great Impersonator *because that is the nickname of Lupus.* she was simultaneously diagnosed with Leukemia *and Lupus.* the impersonations were intended to add a positive element to an album that is lyrically uncomfortable to listen to while serving as marketing for the record and Halsey's makeup brand. this album's main priority is *not* to pay homage to icons of the past. it is a piece of art that was crafted during a time in someone's life after they were told they could very well be dead by the end of this year. the second priority in what this album is a story of Ashley Frangipane exploring what Halsey, their persona, would look like if she debuted in the 70s, 80s, 90s, and 00s. "would everything stay the same? would i still get sick?". everything else comes after that. that is all i will say for now.
@@brewofcalamity what unbiased opinion?
@@kostajovanovic3711 OP clearly stated that they found Fantano's remarks abhorrent and disgusting while not remotely liking the record sonically.
Can we please stop using unbiased seriously? Not only is that impossible but bias isn’t inherently bad. Facts exist but you can’t do anything with them until you interpret them…that’s where bias comes in.
@@loadishstone you seem to misunderstand what having an “unbiased opinion” is. It means to look at something from all perspectives and angles, to give each of them the same amount of attention and careful thought. It does not mean “turn your brain off and consume uncritically”. Hope this helps!
@@GrimmRiot even then, bias is not an inherent negative -- and your condescension is both worse, and more unnecessary. you're not teaching anybody anything but a bad taste in the mouth.
It's also been really exhausting to see takes like "well just because someone's dying doesn't mean they deserve a high rating" as if that was an argument anyone was ever trying to make here.
I agree with this 100% He can totally give her props for going through what she did and still making art from it while acknowledging that he doesn't like it.
It doesn't even have to be a good rating but giving it a 1? THat just implies that Halsey did not care about what she was making.
Remember that time he gave Lil Peep and Linkin Park NOT GOODs back-to-back and they both died?
@@Casshio Fantano is absolutely in the wrong here but I can completely disagree with this. Someone going through an extremely hard time in their life making art does not mean that their art has a baseline level of 'good' to it. I agree with the OP though, this isn't really a useful discussion.
@@violetinreal8188 true, but though i havent listened to the album its hard to believe that it would deserve a 1, especially considering that katy perrys recent soulless abuser-produced album got a 4 from him. like thats just Wild
As far as I can tell the title is a play on the lupus nickname "The Great Imitator"
Good idea for a title. Referring to the illness without being too on the nose.
100% correct!
i didn't know this!!! that makes me appreciate the album a lot more holy crap
Her first song on the track has the lyrics " but I know I'm not lucky and I wasn't chosen. The world keeps spinnong without me"
That's the opposite of main character syndrome,
Meh... I get what he's saying though. Like that's a single line.
@@Uhohlisa A single line that debunks his whole theory about main character syndrome...
fantano's whole thing is sounding superior so teenage boys will buy into his brand of music review
@@Uhohlisa how? are we not all the main characters of our own stories? if we don't care about our own life how can we ask anyone else to care? this critique is ridiculous. it's diaristic art, of course it's about her and how she feels, like literally almost all art, modern and classical.
we literally expect pop stars to be larger than life, to be extremely confident, often sexy, to perform, dance, sing, do crowd work, we have an entire culture about putting divas on a pedestal, make any of this make any sense. this album had such a cool concept and story.
@@jamsquan9415💯🛎️🛎️🛎️‼️‼️‼️
I've been a fantano supporter for a while now but everything you said here is just entirely correct. It's like he forgot there was a human on the other side of the creation of that album. His lack of response has been really disappointing. I know the "meta" for online drama right now is to just not comment on things but without a response, he's just standing by what he initially said in his review and saying there's no issue with it. It's been hard to watch any of his reviews since then because that review is just kind of sitting in the back of my mind making me wonder if maybe the review I'm currently listening to is laced with as much cynicism and lack of research as Halsey's review was.
It really felt like he went "I don't like Halsey" and decided to make his review from and revolved around that aspect. Zero research done, all the snark in the world and it just felt gross to watch.
@@ofanichanthat's how he does all his reviews 😕
I’d argue he’s smartly staying silent on TH-cam regarding his review, but he is very much dying on this hill on Twitter. He retweeted the Flynn Rider meme of “what musical opinion has you like this” around the same time clearly referring to his Halsey review, and he’s cherry picking irrelevant softball arguments to rebut, such as categorizing Halsey in the wrong genre, while ignoring the sea of reasonable criticisms. I hate to say this, but this seems like evidence that he 110% meant and stands by what he said.
Also I just wanna point out how he said her Springsteen inspired song sounds like what someone who’s only listened to Dancing In The Dark thinks Springsteen sounds like…when the song is clearly musically referencing I’m On Fire
as someone who’s reviewed born in the usa thank you for verbalizing something i somehow(??) couldn’t
I really don't like Halsey but I'm so glad Fantano is getting pushback... he is SO OFTEN wrong about things, like you just mentioned.
He's also such a poser.
@@Uhohlisa how is he a poser
@@Uhohlisa Didn't like this review, and though he was being an ass. Still, name a more consistent reviewer.
@@Uhohlisa you disagreeing with his music taste doesn't make him wrong. He was out of line in this case, but he's generally incredibly knowledgeable and consistent
Also idk how you can call him a poser, the dude has been professionally listening to music and talking about music for so long that some of his audience probably wasn't even born when he started his channel
As an Anthony Fantano subscriber but a woman who loves Halsey, gets the historical context of the album's theme and hears your criticism, I really valued hearing this push back. You are punching up, but it was a fair sock to the face between gentle-peers. Thank you for saying it with your chest despite the apprehension you voiced.
You can't be both a peer of someone and punching up at them, those are contradictory ideas.
@@Arian545 They're a peer that's of your same community/genre with a larger fanbase, how is the point not clear?
@@Miragephan Well no, a peer is someone of an equal footing as yourself, not just someone who does the same thing.
If she is a peer she is not punching up, which is fine, this whole idea of punching up/down is not that important anyway. She doesn't' need to be punching up to criticize him, she can just do it, she is allowed to.
@@Arian545 semantics tbh
@@cinemachronic I don't think it is though, because you are actually stating something specific when you use these words.
I don't care for this argument that the words you use are trivial, when you say punch up you mean a very specific thing.
Depeche Mode's last record was very much about the band processing the passing of Andrew Fletcher and coming to terms with the fact that the remaining members of the band weren't exactly getting younger. I don't remember anyone accusing Martin Gore of having main character syndrome.
(for what it's worth, Melon's review of that album was pretty shallow as well)
An artist being the main character in their own art is kind of expected. I don't really understand why anyone would complain about it.
@@OrgaNik_MusicMC syndrome is basically calling someone narcissistic or a dork
@@Synical02that's very ironic, because you're the one who's being narcissistic by dismissing other's feelings
@@Synical02 By that logic, aren't all artists/bands "narcissistic" inherently for talking about their own personal feelings and troubles they've gone through? What the hell else are they gonna talk about?
@@alatsus I've seen this take a lot and it seems like such a back handed defense. cause like, plenty of artists are able to talk about things other than their personal lives, kate bush for example. i just don't know where this idea that artists only write about themselves came from, that's so limiting and sets the bar super low for creativity. i'm not here to bash halsey, i just don't get this argument at all.
I really disliked The Great Impersonator, and I think Fantano's video is an example of real criticism being lost with cynicism. I think a lot of reviewers have this issue, where after interacting with bad media for long enough, their reviews of it get harsher and harsher as they see the same issues over and over. When I compare Fantano's thoughts to my own, I see his complaints stem from the same issues, but are so extreme that they stop being reasonable.
Same, listened to it, didn't really like it save for 1-2 tracks, I wish he just focused on the quality of the music instead of the narrative which is objectively noble
@@333dae fantano has ego problem thats gotten significantly worse over the last 4 years, this whole debacle is a product of that.
I truly do not see him returning to what he used to be, he's internet poisoned.
It's not my cup of tea either (and I'm a chronically ill genderqueer with a prior Tumblr phase, an appreciation for earnest pop and a past of medical sexism, so I could not be the target audience any harder) but I do know pop music and nothing on that album warranted the venom. The thing that I think is weirdest in all of this is that I don't think it warranted a review at all. From anyone. It's not bad enough to be an interesting topic for analysis and it's not good enough to have enthusiastic thoughts about. On a technical level it's the perfect 5/10 album, nothing offensive, nothing great, completely harmless, doesn't move the needle in either direction. The kind of album that most people will hear once and forget, but will mean the world to the handful of people it really resonates with. You know, like how most art does.
I like this take a lot. It reminds me of the 'How Did This Get Played' podcast that completely changed their format after they found out how exhausting and unsustainable to review a different bad video games every week.
@albertfanmingo see I can get that. But I saw maybe one sliver of genuine remotely on point criticism vs a full video of lambasting and hating Halsey as a person. Even if you dislike the album- I feel the 1 he gave it is absolutely unfair. A 1 is like an insult to art. It is an album that drags down the medium and is a crime to listen to. He gave Katy Perry's dumpster fire a higher score. And that's not saying Katy deserved a one either. But the production is good enough to not launch it at the bottom of the barrel- even if you hate her singing and lyrics. That coupled with him spending most of the review calling her a main character syndrome pick me when the lyrics clearly state how she thought she was going to die and leave her son alone.... what little criticism he put in I feel was an afterthought. Because it felt so wildly shallow.
Where were the “main character syndrome” criticisms when Phil Elverum made three Mount Eerie albums about losing Geneviève Castree to cancer? Or when David Bowie recorded Blackstar? Such a weird criticism.
@@lmaololroflcopter how is blackstarr main character??? First of all the lyrics are very abstract and is not completely about David bowie himself and 2nd of all I think a man is allowed to sing about being scared of death when he’s got cancer
@@LEMOnBRaINn i dont think they're saying that those albums are main character syndrome, just using some examples of Fantano's positively reviewed records with similar themes that he didn't say felt like "main character syndrome".
It’s misogyny
@@Sjood-qs8olfrfr I can smell it men loveeee to make fun of women’s emotions
he's given women amazing reviews, 10s too. don't be silly and try to make it about sexism.
Fantano having like 5 million subscribers combined makes proper research all the more important
Why, if he listened to the album, the music was bad, the lyrics were bad, she didn't do a good job to connect her issues to the larger world around her, she didn't express her issues beyond shallow words like many people have expressed with such shallow words before, and he gave his impression as it being really bad, does her cancer make all that bad to take note of?
@@TrentYakleContext doesn't change an album, but it does change how you perceive it. A lot of now-acclaimed albums would probably be nothing without their context. For example: Spiderland, The Glow Pt 2, In the Aeroplane
@@Camreeyan I agree, but people are acting like you have to care about context or you are a bad person in this situation, which is dum dum, i don't have to learn anything about the artist behind a painting, dance, or song if I don't want to and nothing is wrong with that. a person who had cancer makes an album someone things is bad and gives off main character vibes, cool, so what, a lot of people need to touch grass and get their emotions offline into a therapist's office
@@TrentYakle Fair enough
@@TrentYakle in a professional/public setting, it is ideal to have a balanced mix between emotional intelligence and logical intelligence. You can critique someone’s work while still showing kindness towards their situation. People are disappointed with Anthony for his lack of etiquette as a critic in this regard which is a reasonable stance whether you agree with it or not.
It's absolutely wild how he made a cameo in Meatcanyon's video, which was about staying mindful of the emotionlal connection to art and music, and literally do what was parodied....
He also just had that video where he bemoaned the snark that clogs up every comment section online and society's aversion to sincerity. It's unfortunate, but hopefully he will reflect on this and take the criticism to heart.
"Leading with empathy" is great advice. You have to give even the worst albums the chance to explain their mission statement.
His The National review where he literally sleeps for 10 minutes 😒
As a woman dealing with chronic illness, this reeks of the combined ableism and sexism I get when I just happen to mention the realities of my life to the wrong person. I'm pissed that so much of both the Pitchfork review and Anthony Fantano's review focused on invalidating Halsey's lived experience but I'm not really surprised. I really appreciate you speaking up for us in this way
It totally is. I couldn't care less if he didn't like the album, he usually doesn't like what I like. But he spoke about Halsey the way every doctor has talked about me, about them, and about any woman that has had to fought doctors to get a bit of treatment,
Seriously when Halsey came out to say they had POTS/MCAS/EDS and Endo I thought…I’m not a fan myself but oh my god they have so many, and such a huge platform: finally our story might be told to a large, contemporary audience. I mean honestly to be so sick, yeah. We’re all actually crying for help and attention because we spend our whole lives getting gaslit by medicine and written off by everyone in our lives that just “don’t get” these syndromes and think we’re faking or heaven forbid trying to grasp the level of autonomy to even afford us the ~main character~ life we deserve.
How is he ableist, and sexist?
Do you know if he knew she has cancer? There's nowhere in the review where's he's hating cripples or women.
This is the type of overreaction that kills valid criticism, and just leads toward unfiltered hatred .
@@Synical02His job title is music reviewer. He could do the 2 seconds of research required to find out what the album is about and the context of its creation. It also costs $0 to be respectful or just not make a review of an album you can’t give a heavily biased review of.
@@Synical02 because women like Halsey deal with medical misogyny which delays diagnosis and in many cases has killed women. It’s a huge issue especially in the chronic illness community. Conditions like endometriosis take an average of I believe 10 years to diagnose. Women are often ignored when complaining about pain and seeking proper pain management. IUDs being placed without pain management is inhumane. Women die from medical misogyny while giving birth in the us, which has the worst healthcare for pregnant women out of all developed countries. Endometriosis is one of the top ten most physically debilitating conditions and otherwise meets all the criteria, yet isn’t classified as a disability. Women with lupus and other chronic illnesses are treated like they’re crazy or attention seeking. Come on now. Open your eyes to what women deal with on a regular basis. You can’t be that dense
halsey is the main character in her own art because it’s her art. i’m not a big halsey fan, but i can say that i do pick up on some misogyny when fantano gave her that criticism.
If you're of the opinion that art is inherently self-centered then you're lost.
?????????
The best comments under His review was
"You could litteraly be dying and a Dude would still Claim that you're doing too much"
Very well put. I'm not a fan of Halsey's music myself, but making an album in the context of it possibly being yr last AND the gift you leave yr young child ?, that's about as deeply emotional as reasons to make music gets. When an album is made in those circumstances you cannot separate the music from the context and reasoning for its very existence.
I won't lie and say i'm perfect and have never said a wrong word about a song or band/musician in my lifetime but when you have an audience as wide as Fantano's you really have to think very carefully on the choice of words you use.
Nonsense. It's shit music.
Man that garbage album being the gift your mom gave you before she died would make it even worse
i'm not the biggest Halsey fan myself but you're right, that review from melon was so off colour. i have seen some of his takes that i agree with and some.. not so much but goddamn the man truly gave into the dark side for that one
Halsey's vocals are so annoying and the music she writes is mediocre
The fact that Fantano has not apologized or released any sort of statement about the response to the review is honestly disappointing, and I'm sure he's well aware of it, considering he's choosing to cherry pick the more aggressive reactions on twitter and respond to them in the most snarky and sarcastic way possible. The overt cruelty and dismissiveness of his review, coupled with his lack of response, made me lose a lot of respect for him, both as a critic and as a person, and I hope at the very least this was a wake up call for him to start treating artists with a bit more empathy.
What’s wild is he did a retraction video about noid like a week after he said it sucked. But he got ratio’d in the Halsey video and remains silent.
@@andreasencio3184he's full of himself lol
I mean, artists treat him like shit more often
@@tristanpflughoft8911 Who? Rappers often jokingly reference him in songs, and there’s been a few people who took his review badly. But in general artists don’t treat him any way, be it positive or negative.
not a classic rock fan but seems your video was recommended to me bc i’m a halsey fan, and i would just like to say thank you for making this video. halsey has been through some awful stuff and it’s nice to see non-fans sticking up for them 🖤
This is why I've been a huge fan ever since discovering your channel. You're very respectful to the material, you do your research and give meaningful opinions. I and among others are here to support you and your channel. I am glad to say this channel has been a place of comfort and has brought me much joy. Keep doing what you do best Abby!
Yeahhhhh I lost a lot of respect for Fantano after this. I'm not even someone who listens to Halsey's music, and it took me all of 2s to google what she was going through during the making of this album. I've seen bad reviews from Fantano before, (like the original one for Swimming), but this missed the mark to the point of leaving a bad taste in your mouth. Y'know it's serious when the upload doesn't have any meme comments on it
I never had any respect for Fantano.
His The National review where he literally just slept for 10 minutes really pissed me off and I am not even a fan of them. They put work into making an album, either give an actual commentary review or don’t say anything. If he wants to do this meme thing then he shouldn’t expect to be treated like a respectable reviewer.
Also, he made a disgusting tweet joking about metro boomins assault allegations. I don’t know how you can see something about a woman being assaulted and think “you know what the perfect joke to make right now is!!”
@@autumhughes553 does that mean that making a joke comment under a Fantano review is disrespectful to the work he puts in to his reviews?
@@SuperNuclearUnicorn I don’t really think that’s comparable. A comment under a TH-cam video is not the same as a professional music reviewer. Some jokes are funny, an entire video with no meaningful commentary is not. Although I do find his comment section insufferable and unfunny.
For the boomers, this is like complaining that Cat Stevens got too caught up in himself after he released Tea for the Tillerman and Mona Bone Jakon after almost dying from tuberculosis.
@@Plexxl EXACTLYYYYY
The eternal comparison for Fantano with this record is A crow looked at me by Mount Eerie. One is fairly viewed as masterpiece in depicting grief whilst having weak vocals and sparse instrumentation. All Phil sings about on his album is his dead partner and the mother of their infant child, and how he is scared of raising that child alone, how he can't stand to stay in the home where she died anymore, how her cancer was clinical and cold and sapped both their lives yet he has to go on when he feels unable. Fantano could have called it self-indulgent, miserable, even boring at times - which it objectively is, if you don't engage with the lyrics and themes. But no, he showered respectful, empathetic praise upon it. If I recall correctly he couldn't bring himself to even rate it as it would feel wrong to ascribe a score to someone's grief.
Which brings us to Halsey, which he takes entirely on face value, refuses to engage with except on the most surface level which he is forced to as a critic, he ignores context, he dismisses them entirely, he mocks the themes and music entirely. And what's more, he does it in the tone of a man who sees himself as above this. He is borderline spiteful about this album, and Halsey in general. He doesn't criticise the music, he criticises the person. He may not like the style, he may not like the indulgent lyrics, he may not like the vibe - but he liked Mount Eerie enough to come at it from a professional standpoint, he liked that enough to understand what Phil was going for, and lets face it - he liked it because it had indie cred and because he can identify with a man's pain more than he can empathise with a chronically ill mother.
I subjectively do find A crow looked at me to be a much better album, as the Halsey record is just not what I'm into, but my god, I can objectively take a step back and see it for what it is and appreciate the effort and the craft, the vocals and the intent.
Fantano can't. He eviscerated it, or rather, he eviscerated the idea of it in his head. He couldn't give Mount Eerie a score, but he could give Halsey the rating equivalent of dogshit. The rating of 'without any artistic merit at all, completely unenjoyable by anyone.'
Really classless move. Really disappointing. Really shameful of him.
I also saw someone commenting that Lupus is also called the great impersonator or the great imitator or something, so I don't think the title of the album is necessarily about imitating the sound of those icons. ( unless she said it some where herself ofc ) Idk I kind of thought that she named the album because of lupus and did the photo shoots as a nod to the title not the music of the album which is why it doesn't sound like them as much as it could've because that's not the point. I could be wrong obviously.
I am old enough to be your grandfather, and I am impressed by your reviews, your presentation with the great wardrobe, and your snark. You do your homework, and as much of a fan I am of many of the records you review, I often learn something new. Your discussion of the cover art is fun, since I never paid much attention to cover art. I just wanted to hear it. Album covers were for de-seeding your weed.
You also seem very honest and ethical. Your objection here to this guy seems sincere and from the heart.
Perhaps he will realize the error and apologize.
EDIT: Also, thanks for the distraction from all this election madness! lol
deseeding your weed on album covers! everytime i visit this chanel either Abigail or the comments section throw me back to the sixties. I agree- A"s blouses are wonderful but the books on the MC5 (i think) threw me for a loop.
Are you a social democrat
@@speedwagon1824 You mean the right wing of the Socialist Party of Canada or The Democratic Socialists of Canada
Love the iron front avatar. Especially from someone older than me, always nice to see
@@speedwagon1824 I don't think a social democrat would have an Iron Front profile picture.
it's actually really fitting this came out election night: man sees a womans life threatening pain, shrugs, laughs.
Stunning!
I'm starting to think it's just normal for men to hate women honestly.
fuck dude lol
this is kind of a pattern with fantano im starting to realize, just this dismissal or at best ignorance of womens issues. i first saw it in his review of mitskis be the cowboy where he totally missed the dripping sarcasm of me and my husband, he took the song literally as mitski singing about getting through life with her husband by her side when shes not even married lmfao
@@mm-gk6xg sucks man. i only recently realised i don't even like fantano after watching myriad reviews where i couldn't understand what he was getting at, but since he's so respected i figured he had to be worth watching. as someone not educated in music i find him totally inaccessible but i just figured i was dumb. i'm not even dumb!
@@januarymilk9347 with those conclusions, believe me, you are.
It’s genuinely baffling that he never once acknowledged them having a chronic fucking illness. He maybe could’ve pled ignorance but I seriously doubt he’s going to at this point. He was so weirdly aggressive and dismissive in ways that felt uncharacteristic. It’s also wild to see him throw out a weird zoomer buzzword like “main character syndrome”, like what do you even mean by that? What artist doesn’t write about themselves?
He obviously doesn’t have to like it, but I think the score is the least important factor here. Thank you for making this 🙏🙏
Because that’s irrelevant dude, having an illness doesn’t make you good at making music!
@@derfgerps4016Learn to read. The OP didn't complain about the score or him disliking the album. They complained about him saying "main character syndrome", which is baffling to say about someone who has a chronic illness.
@@derfgerps4016true, but this comment clearly says that the problem is not the score, the problem is the reasons why he gave him that low score, so in that case Halsey’s illness is relevant, because Fantano decided to call her self absorbed and unrelatable because she wrote about her near death experience and that’s why are people mad about his review, if you watch it you can see that he barely talk about the music in the album so it’s fair to say that he gave it a 1 just because he doesn’t like Halsey as a person and that tainted his review
@@derfgerps4016 tired of these comments. Everyone is being very specific and clear in caveating that Halsey isn't entitled to positive reviews because of her suffering.
She has like 10 different chronic illnesses, not just one. Also, a lot of artists don't write about themselves, probably even most artists if you consider all of history.
thank you!! you’re the type of musical critic that we need in this industry
7:41 "On top of all that, it sounds like he didn't really listen to the lyrics and sounds of the album" Honestly, this has been my view of Fantano for a while. I still haven't forgotten what he said about Agnes by Glass Animals
I am not a huge fan of Halsey or their discography, I knew nothing about her personal life or the marketing push.
This album hit me super hard, I relate in different ways to a lot of their struggles and fears. I didn't love every song or the production and outright dislike one or two of the songs, but its a very very personal and emotional record and that is why overall I like it a lot.
Watching Fantanos review honestly disgusted me, imo it is blatantly callous and cruel for the sake of appealing to the "edgy" side of the internet.
It kinda became apparent to me that he is just another vaguely progressive man letting the mask slip to reveal that he doesn't care about women or fem people. Honestly he may be outright hateful.
Thank you for making this response, It's been bothering me since I saw his review. I hope his siccophants don't harrass you.
i dont wanna speculate on how sexist he secretly is or isnt, i have no idea, but he 100% at the very least has a blindspot for sexism despite his progressivism and its slowly been getting more obvious
I have watched this man for 15 years, through all the positive and negative reviews, all of the controversies, this is the first instance I can genuinely say felt outside of the scope of a negative opinionated review into something oddly cruel and out of character. Who knows why but it was disheartening. Great video!
In the medical world, Lupus is referred to as "The Great Imitator", hence the name of Halsey's album which goes over so many people's heads.
Abbey you’re not a music critic. You’re a music lover! Thank you for spreading peace over hate!
Don't worry Abigail. I think even most of his dedicated fanbase thought that review was unhinged when the context was pointed out by other people, to the point where you can barely find any of the usual jokes and memes in the comment section. I've been subscribed to him for a year or two, and I just... Silently unsubscribed after that. Unless it comes out that Halsey went to his house and kicked his dog or something, it's just strange and gross that he hates her on such a weirdly personal level, and I feel inclined to stay away from that kind of energy lol.
I'm not even a fan of Halsey. The album aimed high, and missed. But it's not because of some inherent personality flaw of hers. Lupus is often called the great imitator since the symptoms are vague and it is hard to figure out that it's actually lupus. Several good ideas went in, but the result that came out was not that good. But you know, maybe it's okay that nothing good ended up coming out of fucking lupus.
Fantano is a big name in music reviews, and I think that she unfortunately has probably seen his review. I hope she can take it in stride, because most of that review legitimately had nothing to do with anything within her control.
Unsubscribed over this? Lmfao. Get a grip.
Thank yo SO FREAKING MUCH for posting this! Seeing fantanos lack of response or acknowledgment of his bad review has really made me upset and I’m happy someone with a platform is willing to hold him accountable.
Fantastic video! Personally, I feel like Fantano is usually very good at articulating his thoughts on albums he likes, and similarly good at roasting a universally panned album. But when he has to present his thinking on an album that has a more mixed reception (or, an acclaimed album that he doesn’t like), he has this weirdly defensive and prickly style that comes out, and he often fails to make “objective points” that he can back up with actual reasoning.
"objective points" art is not objective
@ I never said “art was objective” here. I said he failed to make objective points. I’m being charitable in assuming that Fantano is usually an objective music critic. Can you imagine if Fantano had said that Danny Brown was displaying “main character syndrome” during Atrocity Exhibition? That would have been objective lol, but he would never do that (because it’s an asinine point). Other artists talking in a similar way about their own life were not subject to this same criticism; this isn’t being objective to your own barometer of what certain ideas and themes are and mean. Fantano was treating the album with pre conceived contempt because he doesn’t like Halsey, which is the move of a hack. How is this album any different conceptually to Bowie’s Black Star, which he loved? It’s a bollocks critique.
Fantano had a preconceived idea of what Halsey says and does, and this bias led him to not give an objective review of what the album was saying and doing. I don’t know anything about Halsey, but I let the music and the lyrics speak for themselves. She’s obviously talking about very real, very human ideas and themes. Fantano let his subjective perspective and bias overpower his criticisms, and he treated this album in a very strange way because of this. Hence, he wasn’t being objective. If he had actually given a damn to give a respectable review, I think he would have been less spiteful and more “this album is going for and saying a lot, but it doesn’t land for me. 1/10”. But because he didn’t apply some objectively to what he was hearing, he FAILED spectacularly. For the record, I didn’t like the album that much either tbh. But not because she’s being an attention hog.
And for the record, there is room for objectivity in art anyway, if that’s your subjective opinion. If you fail to use language or sound to accurately convey a story, a feeling, or a vibe, or whatever, then I think it’s fair game to call it objectively bad. I can “subjectively believe” that some art is good and some art is bad, and there’s nothing you can say or do about it lol. Every individual has their own creed and life story and perspective which is subjective to them, but objectivity in art isn’t about saying something is “definitively shit”. It’s about fairly applying critiques to art no matter what. If an artist I don’t like ticks all the boxes that I like out of nowhere, if I’m being objective, I’m going to give it a good review - not a bad one just because I usually find the artist annoying or unlikeable or whatever.
@diabeetus_9837 art is not objective. Fantano does not make "objective points" because that does not exist.
@ I’m not saying “Art is Objective” for everyone, you absolute plum. I’m saying to be a reviewer, you have to be objective in how you apply your opinion across every artist. Did you even read what I put? If you have a different set of standards for artists who are trying to make the same statements, then you suck as a reviewer.
@@Magic7ball I feel like you’re either deliberately misrepresenting my point, don’t understand what I’m saying at all, or are just trying to be annoying. Please state where I ever said “art is objective for everyone”. A reviewer needs to be objective in their analysis to avoid bias, this is a pretty normal thing that most people understand. If a reviewer treats two artists saying something differently, despite them saying the same things, you are failing to be objective - and failing as a reviewer.
Ho-LEE SHIT What a teardown! And way overdue too, Fantano is sure getting shallower than ever in these last 2 years. Let's hope he takes note
Felt really similar when he reviewed Show Me the Body's album Dog Whistle and he said Camp Orchestra is about how the music industry sucks, when a 2s google shows you its about Auschwitz... Lost respect for him then and he's never earned it back. PS keep on punching up, you got yourself a new subscriber!
Ms. Devoe, Thank you for holding dignity as the line you defend. I concur with your comments on these issues. Mean spirited shit has no place in criticism of a serious work of art. You made solid and compassionate arguments that raises the level of music review in today’s digital world. Eons of critics should be grateful to you for taking the high road. Peace
i don't watch fantano, but i gotta say you make a lot of great points when it comes to how insincere mainstream critics can be when it comes to things they don't like. being somebody who writes reviews in an unbiased tone of voice, its easy to either overrely on or throw suspension of disbelief out the window. i write a lot of movie reviews, not music ones, but both are art forms at the end of the day, and people's dreams and passions are behind these productions, and it's important to try and factor that into your thoughts in some capacity, major or minor. you'd think all the online critics who'd wish death upon creatives they don't like would've faded away by now, but alas, given how much of a hellhole internet land can be sometimes, you can only wish that things will improve.
BEAUTIFULLY SAID! Cynicism is not only in the music critic sphere, but media critic sphere in general and it's horrible. It's like people forgot how to say things of substance and also give respect to ANY creation of art in favor of overexplaining basic or irrelevant things with a condescending tone whilst adding little to no value. I love listening to people who have different perspectives as I love learning and understanding viewpoints, but it's becoming harder and harder to find people who ACTUALLY have something to say regardless if I agree or disagree.
Fellas is it main character syndrome to make Blackstar?
Is it main character syndrome to literally be David Bowie?
@@3rdPersonProductions If there's one singular person I could plausibly accept as the protagonist of Earth...
bowie IS the main character and we are all just living in his world for sure
Fantano is one of the worst critics to ever live. And that's saying a LOT. He deserves no respect from anybody.
I think you've said what a lot of people were thinking. It's good for critics to have critics.
i am only a casual fantano watcher, but i do find myself respecting his opinion even when i disagree with it. i also respect when he simply chooses not to review an album because he acknowledges not finding an interest in or not connecting to it, and i wish he just did that with the halsey album. it is clear that he finds no interest in her music in general, there was no point in posting this review especially when the album tackles a sensitive topic.
it also rubs me the wrong way that he went on to joke about the backlash on twitter instead of stepping back and thinking about what everyone has been saying, as it hasn't been some petty fans who believe it deserved a 10, but people who genuinely believe his review was in bad taste and poorly written, it's a really bad look for him.
hold on he's addressed the audience response on twitter?
This is like if a book critic read someone’s diary and calling it trash writing
No, this is like if a book critic read a memoir and called it trash writing.
The Great Impersonator is also a reference to her lupus diagnosis since lupus famously looks like other diseases and is difficult to diagnose. The Tav show House MD made it a running gag. "It's never lupus". So her album title is about several things at once. Halsey imitating herself to hide her sickness; Halsey putting on makeup of other stars and imagining what it would be like to live their lives; the lupus diagnosis.
Fantano just isn't good at media criticism. I feel like I'm on a crusade for it now lol
i think he really doesn't care anymore. for some of us musicians music is something very personal, but to him music is just content for his channel, just money, just business
@@joaquinbaume1291 nah, that's not it bro
Fantano when he hears someone talking about their own issues on their own album: 😡
Fantano is SO good at totally missing any and every emotional beat in any song/album. Honestly after his review of Brakence - Hypochondriac it was clear that he just doesn't listen to lyrics, context, or emotion. He just listens to the instrumental and skims the lyrics, at best, and acts like he's musically intellectual. Its been years since he gave a shit about music, honestly.
That fantano review does give the vibe of Gordon Ramsay insulting a lemonade given by a kid with cancer. Which is especially mean, because even Gordon Ramsay wouldn't do all that because he's always nice to kids or less fortunate folks. And gordon ramsay is known for being mean.
@@muhammadrifqi7308 so you're basically saying that Halsey should be treated differently? That, for me, is worse.
Im not being complacent of what Fantano said because i think some things, especially from people with visibility, should not be said. Your statement is diminishing Halsey just because she has a disease and i think thats awful
@@xavier8262 @xavier8262 if you think showing more care for people with medical conditions than healthy people is bad, then to each us own.
@@muhammadrifqi7308 yeah don't compare halsey as "a kid with cancer" because it's counterintuitive. if fantano said that halsey's lyrics sounded like childish angst, then further reinforcing that by comparing her to a child is just continuing to devalue her work. instead of her work being appreciated for its merit, it would be appreciated because she's sick, or pitiful, and as far as my own art goes id never want to be given fake praise bc someone felt bad for me
@@muhammadrifqi7308 comparing Halsey to a child with cancer is certainly a choice
fantano should have given a solid 10 to any musician with cancer
I’m really glad you made this video, because 1- This is not the first review of his that I found very dismissive, so I just tend to ignore his videos when they’re suggested to me, and 2- I found your channel through this video, and I’m loving it! I really like your energy, enthusiasm and lore research, and I’m currently binging your Beatles videos. Great work!
PS: I would love to see a Quadrophenia review!
As someone who’s followed Fantano for some time, not necessarily with religious fever but enough to keep an eye on any albums that have earned that coveted yellow flannel and thus is probably worth further listening and hearing his passion for what’s new on the scene (an admittedly flawed way to seek out new exciting releases, sure, but I assure you Fantano’s not my only source of music discovery), what really rubbed me about this situation is that it seems inherent of the weaknesses in his daily cycle that crop up, namely in creating prejudices and ill-informed prognosis on artists like Halsey that haven’t hit any major home runs and putting less effort in giving something a chance, leading to major malfunctions of criticism that, as others have pointed out, are spelled out to such a degree that it shouldn’t have been possible to not even notice Halsey’s gone through real-life major crisis. I never bothered to listen to the album mainly because Halsey isn’t within the lane of artists I have any curiosity to check out, but as a critic I would think it at least mandatory to try and do some diligence in researching the project and its Genesis simply for the sake of filling the gap, reinforcing opinions, maybe even clarity such as is the case of The Great Impersonator having a double meaning towards both Halsey’s influences and illnesses. It’s like what you said, a review founded upon poor journalism towards an artist people associate as being a punching bag by virtue of mediocre pop hits (which is already a cruel assessment of artists as humans to begin with, but that’s a discussion that I think reaches further than this response’s scope), and while I don’t like how Fantano has brushed this negative response off like it’s nothing (nor do I like how some of the insults towards Fantano have grown to personal mockery as if this isn’t the issue people are wrinkled on in the first place), I just hope it’s only a misstep as opposed to future attitudes towards other artists similar to Halsey that are perhaps owed more flowers than they’re given.
Also I completely side with you on the notion that people have taken the mere facet of snark from Fantano’s negative reviews and applied that to their whole structure of criticism (music especially, but this trend runs deep through other arts like movies and shows as well), it’s frustrating seeing the internet adopt a model that requires people attack and maim rather than curiously approach a project in earnest and how often this is rewarded compared to excellent videos like yours that dive headlong into the history, the ideas, and the execution of art itself and realize how important all these aspects are and how they should be thoughtfully explored without limitations towards how and why an album should be critiqued (there’s no right way to review a work of art, but boy has the internet shown how many lousy ways exist). I think it’s telling and concerning how once Fantano fumbled the bag so hard in reviewing Halsey that his comment section…actually engaged and talked about the album rather than repeating ad naseum the in-jokes that plague 90% of Fantano’s videos because pointing out flaws earned more social credit that providing quick laughs. As someone who used to write lengthy reviews on film before, well, life got in the way, the research and sincerity in finding out more about a film’s history was usually my favorite thing to talk about, simply because I had an honest drive to learn why something ended up as good or terrible as possible. With very rare exceptions, everything has a story behind it so it’s bothersome seeing not only people dismiss that fact, but even Fantano blanket that for the sake of a cheap review. It’s harder to put in effort and even harder to see it through towards a tangible reward, but you’ll get a lot more than fairweather friends and also something that can be proud to look back on years later (even with a critical eye that leaves some reviews looking worse for wear)
@@FleetFaxes maaan, please write some smaller sentences
Between this and the Pitchfork review of this album, it feels like a lot of (predominantly male) critics are basing their critiques on their preconceived notions on her public persona rather than the actual content of her music. I'm mostly a casual Halsey fan (I usually prefer her earlier stuff, and I recognize she can be an acquired taste) but The Great Impersonator is the first one of hers I've listened to in full. Even if not all the influences presented come through in the music, I deeply respect the risk she took both in sound and lyric content, knowing that it was not likely to reach the same heights of her more commercial fare but instead reaching out to the fanbase she's cultivated from the beginning.
I honestly feel like in online culture, there's kind of these cycles, where certain buzz words get popular. "Main character syndrome" is just the latest in a string of them.
They start out describing something specific, usually in a mocking way with very negative connotations.
And, then people just start over-using them to the point where it almost becomes absurd.
I really feel like if people were a little more careful with how they word things they post online, it would be a better world in this online sphere.
It's hard to believe that this is the same man who gave Lingua Ignota space on his platform to discuss the impacts of her horrific abuse at the hands of a prominent frontman and how she expressed that abuse on her album. I doubt he would say she has main character syndrome, why's he being so mean to halsey?
maybe it's because her album sucked and he rated it accordingly. Trauma does not afford you elevated appreciation for your art.
@@BL00PZ64 oh grow up. Return to the discussion when you can stop strawmanning.
this is such a good video and i love that it's coming from another music critic
Thank you so much for this video. I'm also someone who has been inspired to write music reviews thanks to his videos, so it's not like I ever hated the guy. The way he handled this review was shameful on so many levels, and his unwillingness to own up to it has been even more so.
Thanks so much for making this. Hope he's wise enough to hear it.
Great summary of the whole thing. I could understand Fantano possibly missing subtext in his research and analysis, but I find it super disappointing that he has seemingly nothing to say about the backlash and stands by the video despite how obviously gross its personal attacks are.
The truth is Fantano has admitted before that, when he finds an album annoying, sometimes he just listens to it one time, which seems to be the case. I wasn't blown away by the album, it was a good exercise, but the impending doom surrounding Halsey while making the project it's something that shouldn't be overlooked
A thoughtful and balanced video. Goodness! We need some of that right now.
There's a lot going on today but just wanted to say I really love your reviews and appreciate you standing up to Fantano like this. Needed saying and you said it well. Keep up the great work!
8:26 I paused and just said out loud - that's the point isn't it! It's not melodramatic or childish angst or whatever. Honestly how he treated her was disgusting
I'm pretty appalled by his lack of response. He's got a 13 year catalogue, and I haven't seen one where he really crosses this line. And i've watched the UV review, the FTBC review, I genuinely think they're not problematic. Now he says something really horrible, and doesn't have the self-consciousness or humility to admit it or even engage with it. Yk, I would have been very receptive and understanding of a big mistake that was acknowledged, but now every day that passes without a response is another huge f you to the whole thing :(
To be fair I agree with you but you got to note that Anthony does this with almost all of his reviews, he did the same to Mac miller before he passed because he lowkey thought Mac was lying about his addiction problems so he didn’t realize how touching that album process would have been for Mac until after he passed so it not just this album there a lot of them
Also, a context that nobody seems to be talking about is that the title "The great impersonator" is supposed to reference "The Great Imitator" aka Lupus, one of the diseases Halsey has.
The concept of the album is not her impersonating the people that inspired her to make music, it's how Ashley is impersonating Halsey, and how the pop star lifestyle has led to the exacerbation of her diseases (Lupus can be caused by a stressful lifestyle, and her cancer is a byproduct of her Lupus). That's why the promotion of the album uses phrases like "A Lifelong performance by Halsey" and "Written by Ashley, Starring Halsey". She (the person) is impersonating herself (the persona) and now she has to deal with the consequences of this.
I unsubscribed from Fantano about 6 months ago after being subscribed for over a decade. I could tell he was really starting to phone it in with a lot of his reviews. I would notice things he would say that were flat out incorrect due to a lack of research, and I noticed the snark level was becoming too much to overlook.
You were great in 500 Days of Summer, btw.
I recently lost interest on Fantano after watching this video, there aren’t any reviews I like from him. I always been checking some of Abby’s videos this year and I felt it was a better place to find something new every day!
I think Fantano's review is actually just a nerd rage caused by the fact that some "mediocre" pop artist dared to associate them with the mighy music lords from the past
Honestly yeah, that's a really good point
Just found your channel because of this video and wow your channel is what i've been looking for in a reviewer: a young person who loves classic rock! i'm in my early 20s and have loved classic rock since a kid. Please keep doing classic rock stuff!!
I really loved that Halsey album, and feel that this album will be looked upon more favorably in the future and viewed as an influential album. That album hit me hard emotionally and I love music when has that kind of impact. With that said, Anthony Fantano's credibility as a music critic has took a big hit that he might never recover from that was from his own doing by trying to outdo the mean-spirited and misogynistic review of Pitchfork magazine.
I want to add that I've never heard of Halsey before, went and listened to her album and found it beautiful and thoroughly well crafted. I'm sad there's a lot of "I didn't like the album but..." when trying to *defend* Halsey. that people aren't seeing what I see in it but.... well, it's expressing a pretty specific collection of experiences that most people simply don't have. other folks with uteruses relate more, I notice, and that makes me feel better about the album's reception. just.... damn.
Snark over substance sadly seems to be the course of events today.
I’m pretty sure the whole point of being an impersonator is that you will never be that person and that gap that exists between you and them is where the artistic commentary halsey makes lies. the reaction, anger and disdain that he had that she didn’t litterally shapeshift into the people she’s channeling is so funny to me because that’s literally the point. the album is about her getting sick and feeling like she has to impersonate herself and she’s not doing a good enough job, the “great” impersonator. she’s physically incapable of being who she was before she was sick, she’s physically incapable of going back in time and being born as the great musicians. even if the music isn’t that great, the concept and idea is and his lacking the nuance and insight to see that is so disappointing
As someone who never heard of Halsey and who has never heard a single song of hers, this topic is wild to me. It's really weird how weirdly personal but how blind this reviewer seemed to be, with the context in mind.
One thing that is interesting is Fantano wasn't the only one to do this to her. There was at least one other review outlet that also delivered this same sort of disingenuously respectful review too.
I suggest people also check out D'Angelo Wallace's video on the topic too.
Melt Banana is one band that helped convince me that modern music can be just as wonderful, joyous and amazing and the classics of the 1960s and 70s.
melt-banana is so fucking good
Love them too
As an old fart, I say yay to that.
2:46 Interesting thing I learnt - the title may be a reference to 'The Great Imitator', a phrase used to describe various medical conditions with nonspecific symptoms that make them easy to be misdiagnosed. Several conditions Halsey has struggled with - cancer, lupus, endometriosis - have been termed as that, and given the themes and emotions fuelling the album, I think that was pretty intentional.
On the review itself - I must be honest, this is his worst one. I left a comment under it that sums up how I felt:
"Yeeeah something about this really doesn't hit right. It's not that he trashed the music, that basically never bothers me - it's more the way he handled the context the album was made in. It just reads as incredibly dismissive, needlessly personal and genuinely nasty - uncharacteristically so. I think it stems from him lacking knowledge of that context entirely, which is honestly pretty readily available information.
If I had to guess, I think he was trying to get at the lyrics not coming across to him as communicating the emotions that fuel the album effectively, but that is absolutely not what ended up being said in the video. He could not have been further from that.
I've watched this a few times mostly just because I'm in awe; I've never quite seen his reviews enter this sort of territory. I dunno man, feel free to hate the music all you want, but you may want to take this one back to the drawing board."
I don't care that he thoroughly trashed the music. But everything else, from spending so much of the review on the marketing campaign (whilst not quite grasping the point of it) to the now infamous 'main character syndrome' line and related statements, just drowns all the actual criticism out in a wave of extreme, needless cynicism - as well as genuine disrespect, and cruelty. I don't think he intended to come off as disgusting as he did, I think it comes more from ignorance, but he just... did come across like that, regardless. I've never seen his work enter this sort of territory, and it was just... shocking.
Ignorance is also no excuse either. It is his job as one of the most prominent online music reviewers to be reasonably clued up on music, certainly when it comes to what he covers. And this is not deep, secret lore; I'm not even that invested in Halsey's work or career and it takes all of a few minutes to read up about her various health struggles and what this album is all about.
Like I said, his worst review. And I say that as someone who generally likes his work, even some of his more infamous 'missteps'. This was inexcusable though, I genuinely expect a lot better of him. It is so below his usual standard; I have *seen* him take a lot of care with deeply vulnerable and serious albums before, even when he wasn't in love with them... so why not here?
I'd never even seen you around on YT before this video; I know this isn't your usual deal but, yeah. You're not even reviewing this album and it is outside of your lane as you say, but you grasp it better here than he did in his actual review of it. Your response here summed this all up better than I ever could have, and it needed to be said. Great work!
I honestly do not care about the lack of research. He's his own boss, he's allowed to set his own standard of quality. It doesn't earn him a shred of grace here. His review was just vile, research or no.
his review of the posthumous sophie album is also kind of crazy……
It should be said that he was more respectful toward AJR's "The Maybe Man," an album universally panned primarily focusing on the grief of losing their father, since his mini-review was a TH-cam short that focused on his experience with the album. That's in contrast to the armchair psychology that stains the Halsey review. This was callous, and it simply becomes more inexcusable the longer he refrains from formally apologizing.
This is what bothers me about Fantano. He performs criticism rather than engaging in it. But mostly, he seems unwilling to change his opinions over time, even when people educate him. It's difficult to take him seriously.
Case in point: He did a cutting review of Hiatus Kaiyote's second album, Choose Your Weapon. Not everyone's cup of tea to be sure. Not liking it isn't a problem. But when he questioned the band's actual talent, their ability to compose and play their instruments, he invited the ire of literally thousands of professional musicians all of whom explained why he was wrong, while respecting his taste.
He learned nothing. He said nearly exactly the same thing on their next album. All those musicians' comments fell on deaf ears.
@@tmountain1 ?????? That's not how it works bro, It doesn't matter how many directors you get to together to """"Educate"""" someone on their own opinions, If you don't like a movie then you don't like that movie and that's it lol
@kidguerrila It's ok to dislike something but if one of your criticisms is genuinely unfair or false then you should be open to acknowledging that you're wrong
@@tmountain1 TL;DR "I gave it a 5/10, ermmm it's still a 5/10 *pursed lips*"
kidguerilla It is how it works. Criticism is based on claims. If your claims don’t hold water then your criticism is bad. That is separate from liking or disliking something. Someone can dislike the Godfather while still respecting it for its craft.
That's totally it. It doesn't matter if he likes or doesn't like a band. It's possible to respect a musician's talent while not caring for their music. Like I don't care for Steely Dan. But if I said the same things about them Fantano said about HK, I'd be laughed out of the room. Steely Dan CLEARLY had enormous talent such that few people could hope to keep up with them. Their brilliance is a fact. But they're not my taste.
If only Fantano could say something like that, I'd have zero issues with him. I have HUGE respect for a critic like Robert Christgau who had a tendency to shit all over bands I love but the difference is Christgau was completely open about his biases and dislikes. "I don't like this band so they get one star." Okay! Cool! That's not a problem. But hating a band because of personal taste while pretending to analyse their creative process is what teenagers do, not a 30-something supposedly professional critic.
Not the video I thought I would wake up to this morning. Well said, Abby!!!!!! I haven't listened to much of their music, but everyone deserves dignity. If it were a young male artist this would be treated as the ultimate statement on mortality.
I'm not one of the Boomers. I'm young enough to know who Halsey is, but old enough to appreciate your always thoughtful, well researched and humorous take on Classic Rock Abby. Thanks for the work you put in to always make your videos entertaining.
Anthony Fantano is NOT the internet's busiest music nerd. Nardwaur is.
Excellent choice for outro music literally could not stop thinking of the line “I don’t know why you wanna impress christgau, let that shit die” i n lieu of anthony’s review. Starting to feel some parallels between them stronger than ever before
8:37 YOU SAID IT!!!!! Man not just music critics but critics in most artistic endeavors, ESPECIALLY FILM, are drenched in sarcasm and mean-spiritedness.
I like Fantano and have been watching his reviews for years, but one thing that's recently been driving me crazy and making it hard to watch his content is this weird thing I've noticed: whenever he's talking about a female/afab pop star and doesn't like the album, he starts talking about how the songwriting is super "narcissistic" when in reality it's like...just the singer talking about her own life? Lol. Being a songwriter who chooses to write songs about the things that are happening TO YOU does not give you a diagnosable personality disorder. It's fine to not like the new Taylor Swift or Sabrina Carpenter album, but just be a music critic and say WHY you didn't like it. Don't just cry "narcissist" and call it a day. (Sarah Z has a really good video about the "narcissist scare" if anyone is curious about it.) This Halsey review seems like the culmination of this really gross rhetoric he's been spewing all year.
I firmly believe that if a male musician of similar popularity made an album about illness, death, being a single father, and fears that his child would grow up without him - no one would be able to praise it fast enough. I feel like I shouldn’t have to explain to a critic that art can be deeply personal and you have to respect that.
still blows my mind that he hasn't responded/apologized yet, especially cause he made an apology video for tyler, the creator the DAY BEFORE HE DROPPED THE HALSEY REVIEW!!!!
If you watch it all the way thru, he only apologises for not recognising Ayo Edebiri
She would’ve give this review a ten if she had poor ethics
I appreciate you making this video. I have been watching Fantano for a while and I’ve definitely disagreed with him strongly at times, but I’ve never thought he was outright cruel. I am not a Halsey fan by any means. I’ve liked a few of their songs in the past, but pop music isn’t my go to genre. That doesn’t mean I can’t have empathy for her and appreciate that she was able to put her art out there even if it’s not for me personally. Also, giving the album a lower score than Katy Perry’s last album is just objectively wrong. His review really bothered me, especially with this rise of misogynist behavior, I’ve been really particular about who I give my attention to. His callousness and failure to address it despite the overwhelming dissent from everyone including his fans, is just disappointing.
One of the funniest things was seeing the comments from all the people roasting him in the Chromakopia review for the review of The Great Impersonator among the other comments pointing out things he chose to complain about and ignore with Chromakopia
You’re in the right here Abby. It was an absolutely appalling review from Anthony Fantano, he needs to make a statement about this ASAP. You can have respect for him but that doesn’t mean putting him on a pedestal and thinking he can do no wrong.
Why make a statement? To please you?
@@tommy_shooter632 why do you feel the need to respond, like actually why?
read the fucking comment, they explained why
@@ludvigholst4767 because it was a bad review? Why not ignore it and move on?
Btw I quivered in my boots when you used the word “fucking”. It really showed how much of a no-nonsense badass you are
@@ludvigholst4767 how about you fucking read you fucking fuck
@@ludvigholst4767 there are some people who are absolutely braindead people in this comment section. These people have never heard of empathy or something
It wasn't some borderline unlistenable indsustrial/experimental hip hop with elements of harsh wall noise music... of course it was going to get a low score.
album is trash, deal with it
@@Kabullo76you're trash
We are a community based on the love of music and we always can't agree on what moves us or gets us as music fans it's all about building a good conversation and making friends that's what this community is all about
I was hoping Anthony would address the criticism because 1. It's overwhelming, 2. He was objectively wrong, and 3. He's referred to reviews before where the majority of his audience disagreed with him. I'm just disappointed once again I allowed my parasocial relationship with someone to expect better from them. I know he's a critic but imo this occasion falls under the "If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all" rule.
As someone who is chronically ill, though not life threatening, I feel SO much empathy for Halsey in this album. I feel like taking into context a person's life outside of their work while critiquing their work isn't that strange to do. Especially when he JUST talked about agreeing with the lack of empathy when it comes to art. Humans are hypocritical, so I don't think he's a bad person for this, there just needs to be more empathy in so many spaces.
Also, 5 minutes of his video focused on the marketing for the album! His review of Halsey’s album was such a joke.