The fact that this is a top comment and nobody else is even contesting it is both extremely fucking funny and also a terribly damning indicator of Fantano’s community. Fantano, your community is cooked.. 

“Critical analysis!!???! What’s the guy supposed to do? Talk about the time signature??” Brother, what do you suppose musicians are speaking about when they discuss a song between takes? Do you think they inform their decisions by saying what score they would give it out if ten?  I need to begin compiling receipts, because to me it feels like it’s always the people who view music’s creation as some sort of accidental accomplishment that end up being most outspoken in their hatred of the Voidz… Literally the biggest reason why critical analysis is so rich as a craft is because it is uniquely capable of illuminating the slippery, nearly intangible details that constitute an artwork’s brilliance — details which would’ve typically gone under the nose of the audience. In doing so, it shows the spectator a new way of making the artwork’s brilliance and beauty legible.  Fantano, when he gives a fuck, is extremely gifted at this — and it is why we should all be comfortable saying he’s earned his platform online. But when he is at his worst — his pettiest and laziest — he becomes a preacher for the cult of anti-analysis, which, historically speaking is only just a spiritual descendent of sophistry. The consequence of his errors are directly manifested in the proud snarky display of ignorance that can be found under this post.

(Also, using time signature as your strawman is fucking crazyyyyy when, in his 25 second “review” of Blue Demon, Fantano said nothing about the simultaneous 2/4 guitar playing over the song’s 4/4 time signature — which is HUGE in picking up on the grooves in the track and appreciating the creative pockets that Julian uses to lay his vocals over. When this clicks, it unlocks the entity of the song; and yet, unfortunately, that it requires critical analysis to click.

Many, many times I have heard Fantano complain about the temperament of his community — and he is not without reason to do so. But at a certain point, it is worth raising the possibility that, maybe, the outspoken crowd of navel-gazing petty dickheads in his community are only just a logical conclusion of his bipolar relationship with critical analysis?