The Fantano Project
By the end of January, I had a bit of list fatigue. Entering a new decade meant that every publication and website known to man was posting not only their “Best of Year” lists, but their “Best of Decade” lists as well. More than anything else, these lists reminded me just how vast ten years can be for things like film and music; certain things I felt were much older were part of the last decade, while other things that still felt recent were of the 00’s. But at the end of the month, I was tired of looking at lists, tired of retrospection, just kind of over the whole “new decade” thing. Fast forward two months, I’m sitting in my apartment in quarantine and suddenly lists sound pretty interesting.
In the weeks leading up to this pandemic crisis that has turned everyone’s life upside down, I had started to get really into Anthony Fantano, aka TheNeedleDrop, aka the Internet’s busiest music nerd, aka Melon. He’s a music reviewer on Youtube, well-known for his wide range of music genres covered and his flannel shirts. Now, I had first stumbled upon Mr. Fantano and his reviews back in 2014, but I took an initial disliking to him, probably because he negatively reviewed Childish Gambino’s first three major releases, which I happen to love unconditionally. Years later, I somehow found my way back to the Internet music nerd, who was still going strong with a cult following and a consistent outpouring of content. I don’t know the time or place, but I somehow found myself watching video after video. I still didn’t agree with all of his opinions, but I found his reviews way more engaging, more thoughtful, I began to get his strange sense of humor (which was totally lost on me as a seventeen year old). So when he published his Top 200 Albums of the Decade list, I took notice and watched his video where he briefly covers the top 100. I had heard of maybe 40% of the albums he was talking about and quickly found myself looking up album after album that had just been laid at my feet.
A few weeks later, a thought crossed my mind: wouldn’t it be fun if, during the summer after I graduated from college, I embarked on a journey through Fantano’s top 100 albums list and documented my experience? I decided I would do it. Now I’m here, still two months away from graduating, but stuck in my apartment with my classes having come to all but a halt. And I figure, 100 albums is a lot to get through. Even if I did two a week, it would take me almost a year to get through. So why not start early? I’m here to announce that I’m officially starting what I’m calling “The Fantano Project.”
The What
So, I will be listening, starting at number 100 and finishing at number 1, to all of Anthony Fantano’s best albums of the decade. Regardless of my familiarity with the album (I have already sunk many hours into some of these records) I will listen straight through every album at least twice, no matter what I think of it. I’ll look to see what Fantano liked about the album, why he felt it deserved a place on such a prestigious list, and compare it to what I think of the album. I won’t write a review of every album, per se, but I will write and post some kind of written response to each and every album.
The How
I feel like if I set some kind of goal to listen to x many albums per week, I’ll just fall behind and then get discouraged with the project and never finish. I’m not in any rush to get through all of these, so I’m just going to go at my own pace. But, I will not move on to the next album on the list until I have recorded my impressions. I’ll try to post every two albums, at least, to prevent an inundation of articles. I’ll keep a spreadsheet of quick data for all of the albums, just to give each one a quick, totally subjective and unscientific rating out of ten (which is what Fantano does at the end of every review). At the end, I’ll rank all 100 of the albums according to my preference and then possibly look at some albums of the past decade that I would have put on a top 100 list that Fantano left off.
The Why
This is where the project gets a little more interesting. The purpose in all this is not just to go on a musical adventure, listening to hours and hours of music that I never would have listened to on my own. That’s part of it, but not all. I’ve become interested in the idea of what goes into the formation of all our personal opinions, how deep and different they can be from everyone else, and I’m interested to see what such a deep dive into one person’s opinion, someone who isn’t me, will yield. I’m not really looking to make any judgments about Fantano as a musical listener, although I imagine that his preferences will become clear over the course of this project, but I am interested in taking as much interest in one individual’s set of opinions other than my own and seeing just how much we can differ, share common ground, and see something that we both care about deeply, music, in potentially vastly different ways. We see “Best of” lists and awards given out every year, but almost all of them, from the Nobel Prize to the New York Times to the Razzie’s, are based on committee decisions. Where will the opinions and whim of just one person lead me? Will I be looking at a field of musical offerings that is in stark contrast to anything a magazine or organization would put out? What happens to our opinions when they have to come together with others’ vs. when they remain independent?
If anyone would like to join me on this adventure, even if it’s just listening to one album at the same time I am, feel free. I’ll be posting my progress and whatever record I’m on here. If you have thoughts on any of the albums as we go, please contact me and share! I would love to discuss. See the list down below; it looks like I’ll be starting with Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories, an album I know and love, followed by a Bjork album, which I do not know or love (yet). Stay tuned for the first installment in this epic journey! (Sorry for the slightly weird formatting of the list below.)
