Shawn Cee and Anthony Fantano DISAGREE?? 

How DARE they have a respectful discussion!!!!!

I definitely started listening to music the way Anthony is describing, just cherry picking my favorite songs and creating a medley playlist. I think streaming services definitely motivate that with a “liked songs” system. But, as soon as I started watching the melon, I realized I was missing out on a lot of the experience of a whole album. And once I started listening that way, I could actually form more cohesive opinions on artists I like and dislike, mainly because I feel I gained a more holistic perspective on the artist. It’s like actually sitting down to watch a movie from beginning to end instead of just your favorite clips. So yeah, the album might be dead but I really hope artists like BROCKHAMPTON (rip) can keep coming up with great concepts for album experiences.

Love Shawn's face when he tries to get Fantano to call Future a legend.

I hope that the album format doesn't die. Streaming any song you want at any moment is fine, but most of the time it ends up with mashing bunch of favorite high energy songs with no room to breathe. Filler songs although hated are necessary. They really help appreciate the highlights, especially when artist actually sits down and thinks about tracklist for more than 2 minutes.

I don't think the album format, or whatever the core essence of the album format is, will die. Because artists (as in actual artists) love that method of communication too much. People like kendrick, Tyler, saba etc will always want to communicate a bigger story / concept than can be told in one song. Hence why I think the album format will continue, just maybe not in the mainstream.

Another reason why I love doing full album listens: songs that have a seamless transition into another song. When I listened to Abbey Road, no one ever told me it had a 3 song epic medley and it blew me away. Or when Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness has the last and the first song create a perfect loop that seems to bring you back in time 2 hours before you went on that crazy ride. Little things like that are what make me love connecting with artists. Had I cherry picked songs and lazily skimmed through the album, I would have missed something so awesome. A lot of artists still care about the album experience they deliver to their audience and as listeners I feel like we should not take it for granted (even if the length appears to be overwhelming)

I listen to a whole album front to back a few times, then I pick my favorites and put them in a playlist. That way I get the whole album experience, but don’t have to go through the whole album again if I don’t like a few songs. After I’ve experienced the album I just go with what I’m in the mood for. But if I love the whole album, then I’ll go back for another front to back listen.

I've personally always been torn on this debate. On one hand I love it when artists give their listeners a perfectly concise album that flows from one track to the next beautifully with little to no filler. Like Brockhampton albums, Kanye's run in 2018, Igor, Yeezus, etc. But while I love when artists do that, I can't help but think about all the tracks that were cut and scrapped and how I could have actually loved a lot of those songs. So it's this weird push and pull between giving the fans all of the music vs giving the fans what you consider to be the best, but what you consider to be the best might not have been what the fans would have preferred if those scrapped songs had dropped.

I feel like the best solution is to release a pack of stuff that was scrapped from the album as a separate project later on and encourage people to mix and match, essentially making their own version that they consider the best. It makes listening to albums a more interactive experience where there's no real right answer so it encourages you to critically evaluate all the tracks instead of just making a blanket statement off a couple.

The reason I love listening to full albums is the experience an album can give me. Listening to albums like TPAB, GKMC, Blond or Some Rap Songs makes all the songs in the album better, because they have a reason to be on there. Sadly most people listen to the easiest songs to listen to, so the best songs doesn`t get the praise they deserve in the mainstream. Just look at the individual streams on Kendrick`s albums.

3:00 totally agree. I haven't made a playlists in years. I just listen to albums

Some albums can definitely justify the length TPaB was 80 minutes iirc Random Access Memories was like 70 minutes College dropout 73 minutes But you really have to give me an album with a truly next level experience for me to be that Invested for over 70 minutes of listening. 45-50 is usually a nice spot

“who cares about the best track i’m way too sexy” 😭😭

I agree with both, Shawn just argued his point a little better. Neither one is “wrong”. It honestly just depends on the artist. If the artist generally puts the art first, I have no problem listening to the entire project, no matter the length. It’s when artist pump out mediocre project with 18 tracks that I pick and choose. I can definitely see Shawn’s frustration. Imagine having to ACTUALLY listen to a lot of these shitty projects. Like… you couldn’t pay me enough to listen to a duluxe album from future lmao

I always listen to an entire album front to back a few times before I decide to pick out tracks that I love and put them on my "everyday casual listen" playlist. If I have free time, and if I really dig an album, I'll occasionally spend the time to listen to it front to back again. It really depends on the artist and how much I've enjoyed the flow of an album listening to it in order from start to finish.

They should drop a collab album

I agree with Shawn, there’s absolutely no reason these albums need to be this long. I definitely don’t think they know for sure which songs will be chart toppers, but I do think they have a pretty good idea of what will be popular and what is filler. Hell, even on a first listen, a lot of people can probably guess with around 70% accuracy what songs in an album will be hot. Obviously there will anomalies and I also don’t think they need to go nuclear and go as short as something like ye, but for sure all of these long albums have songs that are very obviously a cut below the rest and could easily be trimmed off.

The final battle of music reviews

I actually agree with both takes. It depends on how you yourself approach an album. You can see the album as a whole and say this album overall is underwhelming but I like this and this track, or you can just pick and choose by listening to each track a little bit and deciding if it's for you or not, which is something you can decide rather quickly, you either fuck with it or you don't, that's not rocket science.

I'm with Melon on this one. Yeah, albums are bloated, but I just pick the songs I like and I can usually tell if I don't like a song if I listen to the instrumental, the vibe, a little bit of the verse and the hook. So like 20 seconds. While Shawn is right about the time thing, he is an album listener/reviewer so maybe it's his job that's making him weary of these long albums? Cuz he's kinda obligated to listen to them. I just sift thru for my favorites and having a lot of options is nice.

I’m always going to prefer shorter albums to longer albums, but that’s mainly because the way I consume music is on my commute. Both are great albums, but I’ll take an “Illmatic” over a “Life After Death” any day. I don’t think there’s really a right answer and people’s takes are entirely dependent on how they consume music. But in either case, the album has to be good or there’s no point in even having the debate.

Nails' "Unsilent Death" is 13 minutes, Swans' "The Seer" is 2 hours. Kids See Ghosts S/T is like 24 minutes, Death Grips "Powers That B" An hour twenty. But they're all BRILLIANT. The lack of storage limitations for audio have really pushed the album away from say, vinyl limitations. ie.), It has to be short enough to fit, but the customer needs to feel like they got their money's worth, so it has to be at least so long. Also, compared relatively to Hollywood cinema, there's really no "adult movies are 2 hours, kids movies are an hour thirty" standard that albums are required to meet. To me, this will always be the greatest tool if the album as a format; it's really obvious when an album is padded with filler, and it's also really obvious when the album needed to be something more than it is. That's because the freedom from time constraints let's the music speak for itself. If I see a hour-plus album, Im personally saying to myself, "okay, we'll see". But if it's paced well, I'll forget I ever thought that shit in the first place. The best albums to me, feel just like turning the last page on a good book, or watching the credits roll on the big screen. This sense of fulfillment and completion. It's obvious that this isn't what Shawn is talking about when he talks about too-long albums. I think he just engages with albums differently than Melon, but that's fine. I think I engage with albums more like Fantano than Shawn, though. If something wants my attention for fuckin' FIVE HOURS, fine! Maybe I'll check it out. But it better be good. But man, in the end, if it actually is THAT GOOD, I'd be singing its praises like anything else.

I think the issue with releases today is that artists will drop an album pretty much just as a "batch" rather than a concise body of work. Sure not every album has to have a theme but the streaming Era really has pushed a lot of artist to not trim off the fat but rather bloat their own releases because they know the more tracks are on the record the more streams they'll receive. Just receit that Cole 95 South line.

i will always listen to the whole album from artists before picking singles off. sequencing in albums is a skill in itself and there's always an intent or a reason for tracks being placed at certain points. for some artists, this is likely no longer the case, but for artists like kendrick, there tends to be a meaning behind how an album is constructed.

Shawn Cee pretending to recognize Madvilliany samples is still one of the most hilarious and cringe things I’ve ever seen

nah albums ain't dead I NEED them, I zone out listening to them as a whole, whether that's commuting, working out or something else, I REALLY don't like playlists of random things, some can be good but they are the ones that have a certain mood and put songs in a certain order just like, you guessed it, ALBUMS

I think the album format is dead in terms of the experience, but I don’t think the album format will go away. The album format is way to profitable, tours are centered around them, more streams for a bunch of singles is possible, and it gives breathing room for the audience in terms of releases. If every artist switched to releasing singles, the merchandising, touring, and cashe of an artists and their songs would disappear. The market would be flooded with a ton of singles from everyone all the time. At least with the album format I get a break in between big releases. All in all, I think the album format is way to profitable and integral to the music industry that it won’t go away m

I'd like them to split up compilation records and concept albums, so you have songs that are arranged in concept or form for artistic purpose in an album that is intended to be taken in it's entirety, and then later or maybe at the same time you have a compilation record of all the songs that are intended to be taken apart for playlists and such. That way we can serve both listening communities, those seeking more out of an album as an artform, and those listening casually.

There are some songs that artists choose as 'singles', but we've seen a good amount of times, where it's not chosen correctly. Especially in the U.S., in hip-hop, when the gatekeeping of the IN 'sound' of a given year/season is narrow. We've seen in interviews, when artists are generally surprised when certain tracks popped off. Lastly, [Way 2 sexy] is just terrible.

Long albums are only really a problem for the small minority who actually still listen to music in album form. For the vast majority, it feels like big albums are just more options that you might like. Or a different way to describe it is that for the artist, its more pulls on a slot machine to hopefully get a hit

🍉 da 🐐 no 🧢

This feels like when Myke C Town and Feefo have their friendly disagreements on DEHH😂

I'm still an album listener. I only listen to albums from front to back and don't listen to a singlr playlist

i think they're both kinda right. I don't think Drake released CLB for the sake of making a dope album, but I also don't really think he's throwing shit at the wall either. I think he just felt pressure from the industry that has been leaning long lately. I think what's missing here is albums are released for critical clout and academy-type notoriety. I think talking about music and debating who the best rapper is for example is still a crucial part of music consumption and what is gonna come up in those debates is which reviewer gave what album what, what albums are some of the best in recent years.

so i think this is a tough discussion to have, because it's involving the two extreme examples of music listeners. Single listeners vs. album listeners. I'm the person that knows singles are coming and gets the hype for the album, then i burn that album out in the following month or two to really experience it. Then there's the single listeners who go "yeah i love those guys" but know five or ten songs. But the thing is, those single listeners already exist while albums are the main format at the moment, and have before this conversation existed. So i think if artists stop dropping full albums, the hardcores and the people who listen to those full albums will drop off completely because that's not what they're here for, and casual fans/singles listeners are fickle anyways, so catering to them could be detrimental to their revenue and relevance.

Love when 2 of my favorite You tubers cross over! 🔥🔥

I'm moreso with Shawn on this one being honest. sometimes I like to listen to albums the whole way through as their own albums, and even if some people are looking for the tracks they like in one, I feel that having a smaller size can allocate for people picking out who's gonna like what.

I am turning 40 soon and I aways find 1 1/2 hours to listen to an album if I want to. Hell, I had the time to watch the freaking Zach Snyder cut of Justice League...

We need a podcast with these two legends debating music

Well but look at KSG for example. Thats a 20 min album full of bangers. Ye and Cudi knew 'yeah these are the best of the full batch of songs we made' and released those 7 songs

If the album is more than 45 mins there are really only 2 ways it goes Amazing and quality and effort shine through and it stands the test of time It has 1-2 really solid songs and the rest of it is just for money and we can all tell its BS

The boys are debating and I'm loving it

These 18+ track hip hop albums are fine with me long as they have enough variety. When an album goes past the 45min/10-12 track format you know there's probably no interconnected tracklist or concept to be found in it, but i liked Drake's More Life, because it flowed pretty well, the production felt and sounded consistent, and it didn't hit too many terrible low spots. it's great for a ride, a road trip, a vacation, it's not supposed to do more. Tory Lanez' Memories Don't Die is my guilty pleasure in this same lane. Some similar but better thought-out or more conceptual examples of this are TLOP and Donda, or G Herbo's 28-track long deluxe version of PTSD. The problem with CLB or Culture 2 and 3 is that there's nothing holding the album together, and a lot of the tracks themselves are simply terrible. I don't think any possible 10-track trim of CLB would improve the album much. Also, this is all mostly happening in Hip Hop. In other genres, albums haven't changed much really (unless you wanna bring up the neighboring R&B or the influx of clearly hip hop-inspired viral pop artists). I hope this problem which isn't that big to begin with, doesn't translate into the demise of the album format with labels or streaming services leading us into a world where playlists replace albums forever. Albums, however long or loose and unfocused, still bear a hint of their creator's personality or mindset at the time of creation, even if it's greed or creative drought.

i still like the album format and hate playlists put together of different albums or artists. what i do though (with donda for example) when the album is too long i make my own version of it and throw away songs i dont like. so it is a better listening experience for me

Honestly I don't think there's a single double album I've ever listened to that I can enjoy all the way through without getting fatigued. I'm talking Beatles white album, Mellon Collie, Skinny Fists, Electric Ladyland, various Swans releases. If I actually average out my enjoyment, not a single one of them is stronger than like a 7/10 purely because the listening experience is not enjoyable as a whole, despite the fact that I like these artists a lot.

That’s why mixtapes are a priority to me take those songs that people loved and put it on a whole tape like chief keef did before because most people aren’t going to listen to a whole album if they only like 4 songs or 5 songs out of 25 songs just take them 4 songs scratch that bs ass album add 5 more songs and drop a tape to test what people will love and what they would hate so now you know what to do on your album to make it one of the best you dropped or atleast put more thought into it now a days they just drop albums like it’s a just a comp of songs I’m not gonna listen to 20+ songs just for me to like 3 and the majority likes 5

I'm the type of guy to just: - Listen to an album; - Pick out my Favourite songs from the album and just put them on my playlists; - Listen to those songs; - Go back to the album, listen to the least favourites and see if they grow on me; And that's it. I just not the type of person to sit through an entire project multiple times In order to get the the song I like. But If ya do like sitting through album's that's completely okay 👍

For a lot of the long hour+ albums I make my own cut in playlist to try to cut out the filler and fix the sequencing

I find the genre or subject matter to be a major factor in the length of the album along with your fanbase knowing how different demographics and age groups digest music.

"My two favorite African-American creators"

I used to listen to my own big ass playlists. Then I started just putting on a song and letting the algorithm choose. Now I pretty much just listen to albums

Make an album cohesive, independently of how many songs has. Put your best songs only. 20 minutes. 40 minutes. 80 minutes. Cohesive.

They’re not even disagreeing. It’s 2 different perspectives that I know too well. This should’ve been more like a “Yes and/ but…” kind of conversation.

Is this a taste of a future Fantano/shawncee podcast 🤔. I’d listen.

The insanity of viewing art as product never ceases to amaze me. Shawn refers to them as "artists" while talking about music as if people were picking their favourite cereal flavours.

Artists need to identify whether they're singles artists or album artists. If you're a singles artist, go for a lower quantity album 10 tracks, 11 max. If you're an album artist don't go past 15-16.

I like to listen to albums I love from front to back but there's also tracks I bump regularly from for example Pegasus by Trippie Redd, which is an extremely overbloated and painful experience if you listen to the whole thing.

It’s intresting bc I remember in the culture III review I think where Fantano was basically saying Shawn cees perspective. Recorded music really hasn’t been around that long in comparison to the entire history of music, and streaming just being a fraction of that. The landscape for music and our culture is constantly and rapidly changing.

And I definitely disagree with cee cuz it's so many one hit wonders you can go off of two songs for songs now people arguing and fighting you can't be that individual and plus you can have a name like Chance the rapper you got to have a niece in a market for that type of music so once it first album came out and nobody was feeling it cuz there's no type of genre for it his name made it go down even harder so I disagree just because you can name drop somebody doesn't mean it makes that album or song incredible or bad so saying just because the name makes it popular I disagree the market for it and the people behind it what makes it

Maybe I need to change because I'm the guy who listen to the whole album, I ain't a guy who picks out the songs and put em on my playlist I don't have that. I pick an album I want to listen and then I'll listen to it Front to back.

It really fucking depends maaaaaaaan, I don't need a 17 song trap album, it's fucking trap music. lower it to 7, 8, or 9 and I might listen through the whole thing but other wise its fatiguing. Metal often falls into this category for me. Too similar a song, Drake isn't far off. For an artist who has a deeper talent pool of sounds i'd say 11-12 is my perfect amount on an album, maybe 13.

Just do bonus tracks or a throwaway album simple tings

The immovable object and unstoppable train collide in an 8 minute video

The only album that was hard for me to finsh was Indigo by chris brown back in 2019

By "the people" he meant the bots. I doubt more than 2/3 of listeners in any streaming app are actual human beings. Great discussion by the way

I don't ever listen to long albums unless I'm at work trying to pass the time. Nothing makes time go faster than doing mindless work while listening to an album and when it ends, realizing you've gotten through an entire hour in the blink of an eye

I try to make my playlists sound like an album. There’s interludes between the songs but from different artists.

at this point i listen to albums exclusively, and 95% of the time they're all albums i havent heard before

i think this is why kanye hated showing features in his recent album, even opt out from streaming service all together since he thinks that streaming services destroying the art of music album in the first place when the listener just listen to the most popular song in that album. i don't blame both parties but it is a sad truth about it. it destroys album integrity and art, but the feature is also needed in streaming services.

Some people like the "unnecesary" songs. Extra songs are not a detriment to you because you don't have to listen to them and those who want to listen to them do exactly that.

Albums can be as long as they justify themselves to be. Does anyone really wish that To Be Kind or TPAB or The Epic were shorter? If you put a bunch of unfinished bullshit on your album it's a whole other story.

Give me the longest album, if it’s consistent and it’s a consistent artist, fuck it. To be a fan, you gotta jam it out and feel it out. 🤷🏼‍♂️

I agree with a bunch of things here but if as an artist you are telling yourself that I can't release a long record cause I'm not Kanye(or any one who's had a really successful career till that point) you are practically attacking your own self confidence and that just sucks. Also I don't think artist expect everyone to listen to an album in a single sitting either, that's a choice we (a minority) has made for ourselves.

Good and bad points from both yinz imo. I hard disagree on “the album is dead”. For more mainstream artists, and maybe a massive part of the mainstream music consuming public, it’s maybe dead? Or at least I struggle with calling a lot of that crap a “work of art” and/or a “genuine” “artistic statement”. Ok, maybe that’s the death of the album in some way, but “the album is dead”, writ large? Hell no, that’s some silly ass sh!t, and Tony knows it’s bologna. I get albums from indie and underground artists from Bandcamp or wherever, and it’s clear that the album is a labor of love, and that fans love it (and yeah, some more mainstream artists still believe in that too, and not just mo trax mo munee, hashtag not all ffs). That said, I’m not down with all out denouncing longer albums. It can get frustrating when it’s over an hour, especially when we’re talking 80+ minutes, but also many of my FOAT albums are over 70 minutes. If it fits the artistic statement, and there’s not a whole ton of filler, then I think it’s not only okay, but can be necessary in making that album truly great. Sure, what’s filler is subjective, but let’s be serious, we can damn near call a lot of trax damn near objectively filler, especially when you’re talking the most mainstream artists going for the extra album length to pad out for contractural obligations, or for the “mo monee” approach on streaming platforms. It really depends on the situation, but I don’t buy the, “you’re making me do labor” thing, even if it can feel like work on some albums. ✌️

I think if you're going to rate an album, you have to listen to the full fucking album, I've had so many conversations with people about albums, and people form such strong opinions on them without even actually listening to them. Besides that, I don't think a listener has any obligation to listen to an album in it's entirety.

this was scary and intense

NIN's The Fragile is 103 minutes , and that's without bonus tracks. One of the best albums ever created.

Love listening to entire 1 hour + albums on my walks if they’re good consistently through. Gives a ton of variety and I always find a new favorite every time I listen

Why don't we just let artists release what they want and how they want then we can either listen or not listen... people make shit too complicated and it doesn't need to be

Weeknd’s last two albums had amazing album formats in my opinion and they were both short 14 to 13 songs

I loved this and need a love button.

Video summed up: long albums are good if they’re good and they’re bad if they’re bad

TNDstreams Could someone ask melon to review (any of) the following? I live in the Netherlands, so I cannot watch the stream. Thanks in advance

6:24 - MEEEEGOS

Why are long albums bad now? I understand a lot of filler songs can stink, or listening to an album for an hour might take too much time, but then split it up.....I still listen to albums in full if I'm in the mood or a long drive, take a day and a half if it first releases and I'm low on time initially. The album format isn't dying the people appreciating the art of music is dying for whatever reason. GOOD albums are meant to tell a somewhat collective story or vibes of the songs. From rock to rap, alternative, pop, punk etc, full albums have transitions interludes and connective tissues to all the tracks. It's all important. Just haven't been many good albums lately. My opinion thou!!

Imagine if debating politics went this well

Idk the only drop I look foreward to from Future is which baby mama and child he is dropping.

I wanna see Shawn listen to a 3-hour drone album lol

Simple solution, if you don't want the full album because it's "too long", buy the individual tracks you like. 🤷🏿‍♂️

Do what Kendrick did and drop a throwaways album

it's quite simple, some albums are intended as an experience and can be listened to in one go. other albums are not designed as such and can't really be viewed the same way.

Idk what Anthony is talking about, the album format is not dying. People want album drops, people look forward to album drops, vinyl records are booming, people are discovering great albums all the time now w the help of tik tok/spotify. Me personally i love listening to entire albums in one sitting and hopping on the next album, whether if it’s just in the background, or i’m letting it consume me.

Fantano is kinda correct tho. I think a majority of people don’t always go back and replay a full album but instead pick the songs they like and add to a playlist. Like me for example I don’t go back to CLB and listen to it I just go to my drake playlist and listen to the songs I like from him which includes songs from CLB. Albums aren’t the same as they used to be now it really is a bunch of songs dropped together there’s only a few albums like Dawn FM that actually have a theme to them.

To me the older the person is the more likely they’re gonna listen to the whole album. They will make time out of their day to actually experience the album. Because if you’re in your late 20s and in your 30s you were from the album where you you can appreciate an album Older demographics are more selective in what they listen to because their ear has matured (usually) and they have knowledge of discographies to compare to new artists. That happens every generation Also let’s consider artists still want to make music and not just put out a few tracks of great records. I never heard of listening to music being labor. Like all you have to do is listen or not. The artist is the actual person doing the labor of giving you a project to actually listen to. Whether or not that’s too much music for you is your opinion but how many songs they make isn’t your choice. Honestly Kanye’s best albums were shorter than what he’s put out lately. Regardless of tier or status of the artist if the album is an hour long but good to that listener who cares?

Man, not gonna lie, it kinda makes me sad that prominent music journalists on youtube are trying to say long albums are bad from every perspective. Art is art, let the artist release what they want to. I loved the FUCK outta Donda and it was very long. But guess what? I wasn't just checked out after 12 songs, I was engaged the whole time because I needed to experience what Ye was putting out sonically. I CRIED during come to life, whereas I saw streamers pass over it and then only give it another chance when reddit and twitter praised the song as an underrated gem. Now I get it, Shawn is right, not everyone is Kanye, but we need to allow the space to be open to longer albums so we can get more Tyler the Creators, more JPEGMAFIAs. Allow these artists who are true artists and not radio shills to pack their albums with whatever they please.

1 big thing that needs to be mentioned relates to attention span and experience. I have been obsessed with music for 2 decades and in all that time I've learned the majority of albums are between 6-7 and almost all of modern music heavily cannibalizes itself. Most albums might give you a few good songs and half a record you'll never listen to again. Its hard to get somebody who has grown confident in the mediocrity of most albums and is used to the sounds and tropes of their favourite genres, to sit down and pay attention to every single thing, especially a double album. Artists with crazy hype, coming off of classics, or my personal favs, I'll def comb the whole thing, but if I don't know you, you sound too much like someone else, or you were great but have fallen off, I'm skipping round that bitch lookin for those couple of tracks.

music critics are the most stupid people to exist cuz everyone responds different music in different ways, you can't nah, you SHOULDN'T put it on an objective scale and give it ratings, that makes no sense, we don't want thematically perfect songs every time, we don't want melodies perfect in respect to the instrumental every time, we don't need an album to be conceptual for it to be good, sometimes people relate more to corny lines, sometimes people just want bangers that don't have substance, sometimes people want to listen to sth deep and don't care if the instrumental is that, sometimes people just wanna vibe and dance to sth like panda by desiigner, I feel like every piece of music serves a purpose and if one person that is not the artist at least likes the song genuinely from the bottom of their heart, that makes it a good song. If someone likes friday, then that's a good song, nothing more needs to be said

These guys are great

Only the real music heads still listen to whole albums

i totally agree with Shawn tbh do that but will a a 10 song album not 20 it really ain't that complicated 🤷🏻‍♂️ you just KNOW what the best songs are balancing quality and commercial appeal