10 Worst Albums of 2018

Oh God hi everyone Anthony Fantana here internet's busiest music nerd and it's time for another edition of 2018 list week list we continues with the top 10 worst albums of 2018 yes and 2018 thousands of albums dropped across the internet from these huge viral sensations mainstream cultural events and some really lowly records some people didn't hear at all and I didn't hear all of it I didn't hear everything that came out in 2018 which on some level does disappoint me but I can't at least say the 10 albums list that I have prepared for you here this is at least the worst stuff that I heard at number 10 on this list I have placed the Godsmack album when legends rise a record that pretty much serves as a reminder as to why new metal and alternative metal are currently in the dire straits that they are now Godsmack was not the only artist to do that this year disturbed also came out with an album in 2018 but in my opinion the Godsmack record was significantly worse I mean not only were there tons of riffs and ideas on this thing that for some reason sounded ripped off straight out of a Metallica record but this record easily featured some of the Bands worse lyrics weakest songs and I guess corniest production ideas in a long time and we are talking Godsmack here so safe to say a lot of the sounds and ideas that groups like Godsmack broke onto the scene with years and years and years ago they're not aging all that well when imagines rise and number 9 on my worst albums list is the new Russ record zu zu is essentially a generic uninspired pop rap album that under any other circumstance would most likely just be easy to listen to just sort of basic something that I guess I would just be indifferent toward but what makes this album so difficult to stand and unpalatable for me is just Russ's horrific attitude which is really only something that in the past has been grading for me if I've ever caught Russ saying something in an interview or on social media or something like that I mean even though his tracks and his records in the past didn't exactly blow me away I could say they were at least agreeable but now with his new record Russ has seen fit to pack his songs with the same annoying indignance that a lot of his public statements are - I mean granted there are a few tracks on here where Russ does hit a legitimately inspired point of emotion or maybe he goes a little hard or aggressive and it's kind of easy as the listener to get into that aggression but mostly a lot of what he's saying and doing on this record either comes off as really corny really simpie sort of like on the emotional love song side or he is displaying just this general unlikable bossiness this pretentiousness and this demand to be thought of and considered in great rapper conversations even though he hasn't come out with any groundbreaking or truly amazing music yet so yeah there are cuts on this thing that do feel like a temper tantrum stemming from those feelings and when Russ isn't doing that he's just pretty much coming out with tepid pop rap that pretty much disproves any argument that he's making that he's great at number eight on this list is an album that I was really hoping I would like an album that I had my fingers crossed for a little bit and that is the little yachty album nothing2prove as I said in my review of this thing unfortunately this is a project that really does live up to its title and that little yachty really sounds like he doesn't have anything to prove on this thing like he's putting in as little effort as possible and I don't know exactly what the cocktail of context is that leads to a record like this is it because there are so many opportunities and demands on new and young artists these days to come out with as much music as possible preventing them from being able to sort of disappear and invent and craft and evolve new sounds is it because the audiences of these artists aren't really demanding of them music that is a cut above this quality level is it because nobody cares anymore and we're just all depressed yeah I really truly don't know what it is all I can really say is that yeah it sounded like little yadi just really phoned everything in on this album and I mean everything from the beat choices to the lyricism to the flows so many songs on this thing even lack thoughtful choruses anything remotely sticky or memorable and unfortunately this is kind of an ongoing trend that I'm seeing in a lot of popular trap music at the moment because there there's just so much saturation in the scene right now it doesn't really matter whether or not your new record is good or bad as long as you're putting out something and putting out as much as possible and that's something we're seeing at almost all popularity levels whether you're talking about Drake or migos dropping these incredibly bloated new records with so many unnecessary songs or just one more uninspired generic formulaic by-the-numbers Underground mixtape to throw into the ever-growing ocean of generic by-the-numbers formulaic underground mixtapes so yeah you could say this new little yadi was definitely a contribution to to that this growing sense of a lack of ideas and effort on the part of these artists who just a few years ago burst out of the trap and soundcloud scene with fresh faces and cool sounds yeah it's just disappointing at number 7 on my list over here is one of the more awkward musical crossovers that an artist has made in 2018 and I'm talking about the new Justin Timberlake record man of the woods unlike some other releases in the list over here I can't really say I dislike this album because Justin didn't try no Justin and his producer certainly did try but I think all of them were maybe so gassed up in the process of making this record they sort of let a lot of ill-conceived ideas slip through the cracks which is maybe the most polite way I can put it to put it simply a great majority of this record is essentially Justin Timberlake transitioning into country music a little bit of folk music on the side too and yeah it's it's it's like a totally unlikable bone Iver with a pop and R&B twist not to mention there are other cuts on here that genre wise don't even really fit into that category like supplies which are still utterly terrible is the whole concept of that song the apocalypse the romance that it's it's really just a mess it's records like this that come from artists with extremely high budgets and profiles that really just make me sit and scratch my head at how the music industry functions like how many people did this album have to go through and nobody said like you know what no this is a bad idea Justin Timberlake trying to fuse the sounds of trap and country over a series of really uninspired and boring and unlikable songs yeah I think I think we're gonna do a pass on that so yeah in short I will say Justin Timberlake trying to make the genre crossover that he did on this record one of the hottest messes of the year at number six is an album whose popularity still perplexes me to this day and that is the new little baby and gonna record drip harder there are very few auto-tune trap records this year that I could say were as uninspired as this one completely lacking on the lyrical front on the instrumental front on the melodic front too because many of these records do involve singing and little baby and gonna certainly do attempt that although their voices on this thing are so drenched in auto-tune any humanity or personality to come out of their vocals is really sapped out of the mix on top of that vocally speaking neither of them really have a distinct style or personality either as both of them sound like they're doing their own variation on young thug's whole shtick which mind you it's a good stick I do like thugger vocally I think he's pretty dynamic and I think he's come out with some good tracks over the years but vocally and lyrically neither of them are so interesting I would rather listen to one of them over young thug not to mention that listening to two dudes rip off young thug for one track after another track after another track gets a bit redundant if you're a solo artist I guess that's one thing and gonna does have the thugger seal of approval by being on his label not to mention thugger has an appearance on this record so I guess he's aware of how much these guys are copying him and he's fine with it but to put out a collaborative record by two artists whose popularity is mostly predicated on their similarity to another popular artist yeah there's nothing really kind of thrilling about that for me and also again if I have not mentioned on the songwriting front of this thing there's not really much to it at all I mean the only track on this thing that's remotely memorable or even has a chance of lasting into 2019 is the title track and that's it so yes another uninspired auto-tune trap record to you know be completely forgotten within the next 365 days at number 5 is an album that also kind of fits into this auto-tune trap field but sort of landed at this point on my list not because I felt it was generic but because it stood out as being uniquely difficult to sit through and that is the new blade record red light now blade is a northern European artist who's connected to young leans sadboy crews so you know if you're familiar with that sound that style that aesthetic blade very much sits into it pretty snugly and if that's a sound and that's a style that you love you may in fact love this record you may have already heard this record it may be one of your favorite records of the year and I can't deny that blade has had a pretty decent 2018 he's gotten a lot of big endorsements he's been on some big playlists I'm a little bit of an odd man out in not liking this album as much as I do but god I just don't see what's so goddamn appealing about it I my review of this LP I did compliment the instrumentals quite a bit I liked how futuristic and glossy and almost vapor wave ish they sounded definitely sounded like I was listening to some auto-tune track from the year 2084 but I just I could not get past the lackluster songwriting and the vocals on this record at all I mean not only is the auto-tune on this record lazily applied completely uninspired and actually grating to the ear but it does absolutely nothing to cover up blades obnoxiously horrendous vocals all over this thing as many of his vocalizations on this thing are kind of lazy or sloppy very out of tune and very messy and needless to say vocally he's pretty one-dimensional too again I could see how this record would appeal to some people it sounds quite postmodern in some respects and I don't think there's a lot out there the sounds exactly like it and that alone is going to create an attraction of some sort in that in its own weird way I think this album does have some unique qualities to it but for me personally everything that makes this record stand out in a positive way for other people sort of works against it for me at number four on my list over here is a record that really hurts to place on this list because this is a guy I see as immensely talented and played a pivotal role in what I thought was one of the best bands of the 90s and the 2000s I'm talking of course about the new Tom Morello record guitarist Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine Fame he has dropped this new record called the Atlas underground and it's a total frigging mess Tom Morello here essentially trying to come through with his own brand of like guitar driven rock and hip-hop and EDM with like woke lyrics and a lot of guest rappers and singers the only common thread linking a lot of these songs together is just Tom Morello's guitar because this thing switches up stylistically that often you have kind of these glassy female pop singers on this thing rappers like vic mensa dude's like steve aoki people who you would never think would cross paths with Tom Morello and yet here they are Oh God and the songs are so bad god they're so bad and Tom's playing is applied into these super glossy pristine sanitary instrumentals in like the tackiest most unlikable way the rawness and the revolutionary ideas and sounds that were so exciting in his and rages early music is just not here on this record at all and he's really just like boiling his talents down in the most reductive and unlikable way what's amazing is how top-to-bottom bad this record is even tracks that you would think that you know could go over pretty well especially given that Tom Morello is no stranger to hip-hop he's worked with hip-hop artists in the past the lead poisoning clothes are on this thing with RZA and GZA names that I think back in the 90s you would have been excited to hear on the same record RZA and GZA and Tom Morello working on a track together would have been amazing but in 2018 it's enough to make you go back in question whether or not any of the music you listen to and your childhood was it really ever good god and marcus mumford is on this thing too just just so many guests and so many sounds that really just should have never should have never been on this thing should have never been pursued yeah I don't think I have anything else to say about this other than that at number three on my list is the new nav record wreckless an album that I'm not really sure what I can say about it as some of my critiques of a few records previous in this list like the little yachty album nothing2prove also apply to this as this album is not only totally unoriginal from a pop rap and a trap standpoint but it is blatantly uninspired at all levels of music and music production from the vocal melodies to the offensively dumb and basic lyrics to the instrumentals on this thing not only that but nav has one of the most boring and vanilla and forgettable and totally just why do we even need this how did this man get a record contract voices I've ever heard in hip-hop period in the whole history of the genre I mean I guess I could say I know an AB song or an Ave verse when I hear it but really the only defining quality of NAB's anything is just how robotic and lifeless and just not human it sounds whatever NAV appears on a track or is doing his own song it's like I'm listening to lyrics that were created by just a trap lyric generator just randomly pulling together popular phrases that you would typically hear in a song in this genre but somehow slipping in some painfully annoyingly stupid ideas here and there when I hear his voice it's like I'm listening to an old-school PC based text-to-speech prompt that essentially has had some auto-tune thrown on top of it dude sounds like a cyborg not even like a convincing cyborg look a human robot hybrid that you're like wow I can't even like tell that you're you're actually part robot you feel that human no it's it's kind of like the you know the like the beta version that they haven't quite worked out all of the the humanity kinks yet so he still just is operating like this hello fellow rappers I will do a verse on this song god it's it's terrible it's really bad at number two on my list is the new Jaden Smith sunset tapes project a cool tape story that is completely devoid of a story yeah I'm just confused as to why this tape exists I mean Jaden as much as I didn't really like his sire project from a while back I can't at least say it sounded like he was really putting in a lot of effort into that project and there were some ambitious moments on that record maybe some of them went really haywire but still ambitious all the same and there were some tracks on there where you know it sounded like his sound it sounded like his direction maybe he still needed to kind of get past his influences being warned so boldly on his sleeve but I guess you kind of knew Jaden verse or a Jaden song when you heard it however sunset tapes is the complete opposite the budget that went into this project sounded incredibly low the mix was muddy these song ideas were scan Jaden sounded like he was ripping off even more from his influences than he was previously their tracks on this thing that pretty much just sound like Brockhampton songs pretty much just sound like Drake songs what whiffs of originality there were on sire are completely gone on this project they're non-existent not only that but a lot of the songs on this thing are either incredibly redundant or brief to the point where you can tell he didn't really put any effort into the songwriting you just wanted to capture a vibe and throw a few bars out there and then just like dip which is a really awful way of going about crafting your mixtape you're pretty much guaranteeing that your songs are gonna be uninteresting and dime a dozen so if offensively low effort projects were the plague of 2018 this is one of the most prime examples but maybe serving as an even more prime example is the album in my number one spot here and that is the new little Xan record totals anarchy yes our good friend Diego here came out with in my opinion the worst record of 2018 and the criticisms I've had for many of the album's earlier on this list also applied to this one but almost like tenfold the beats on this record are boring and generic the lyrics are annoyingly repetitive mind-numbing ly repetitive and dumb not only that but lil Zan's talent for rapping is like nowhere to be found on this record I'm not even sure it exists as the flows on this thing are either awful or uninspired or non-existent as many of little zann's performances on this thing just sound zombified and linked out to the point where he's just like sloppily creaking all over the mix yeah his voice gets pretty creaky on this record really creaky if there's one record that I can say from this year that I will at all costs avoid a full listen of it's it's this one for sure hands down no doubt and I think that's everything I have to say about these albums thank you guys very much for watching and writing a lot of this music out with me through 2018 if I had to do it all alone I would probably be a just a broken person right now a totally broken person hopefully 2019 shines even brighter with better releases for us to listen to and transition have you given any of these albums a listen did you love him - J hate him what would you rate him you're the best you're the best what should I review next hit the like if you like please subscribe and please don't cry hit the bell as well over here next to my head is a another video that you can check out hit that up or the link to subscribe to the channel Anthony Fantana worst albums list forever

Channel: theneedledrop

Views: 1,625,152

Keywords: album, review, music, reviews, indie, underground, new, latest, lyrics, full song, listen, track, concert, live, performance, update, the needle drop, anthony fantano, vlog, talk, discussion, music nerd, bladee, red light, godsmack, lil baby, gunna, drip harder, lil xan, total xanarchy, lil yachty, nuthin 2 prove, tom morello, atlas underground, nav, reckless, russ, zoo, jaden smith, sunset tapes, justin timberlake, man of the woods, rock, pop, rap, hip hop, when legends rise

Id: DniRzLNzxcc

Length: 19min 45sec (1185 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 21 2018