1. For the list itself, I will list the genre of each song and a link for each if you're brave enough to listen to it.
2. These are songs that ticked me off PERSONALLY. There's no generic rap like Drake because I ignored it. This stuff I actually had some form of expectation.
3. Only one song per album or EP. There can be two from the same artist, but it has to be a separate release. You will see one example of this.
4. The song has to be released in 2018. No songs that merely peaked in popularity in 2018.
With that being said, let's get started, shall we?
10. Fall Out Boy - Super Fade (Electro-pop)
Okay, I thought the Lake Effect Kid EP wasn't too bad, but that does not mean I will exclude this song because the other two songs were decent. This song is just a mess. It starts off questionable, with electronic noises backing up vocalist Patrick Stump as he sings. It gives me vibes from the awful M A N I A, which is not a good sign. It's fine until it reaches the chorus. Holy crap, the song from here on out is a hilarious disaster. The overblown horns and violin, Stump over-blowing his performance, and the beat drop all suck and the song is a disaster because of it. It's basically Young and Menace if it was hilariously bad and not just cringe-inducing. It's disappointing because the title track on the EP is legitimately great and the second track, City in a Garden, while not as good, was still fine and had some merit. This is entirely awful. The only reason this isn't higher is because it's at least entertaining to listen to because it's so messy. In fact, I actually encourage you to listen to it. It's viciously entertaining and I revisit it more often than I should. It's still terrible, though.
The Song: Super Fade - YouTube
9. The Smashing Pumpkins - Knights of Malta (Alternative Rock)
The new record by The Smashing Pumpkins was really bland and there wasn't much noteworthy on it, but this track is interesting. It's a similar case to Super Fade, where there's so many elements where it doesn't work. However, the difference here is that this is generic alternative rock with nothing else going on besides all the disjointed elements. The song's mixing doesn't really show off every instrument as well as it should, like the guitars and drums, and this is the main reason why it suffers. It focuses too much on this repetitive violin arrangement and the vocals, which repeat the chorus one too many times and they do get grading. The lyrics are also really pretentious to the point where I literally can't tell what this song is about. The chorus talks about riding forever and making it happen, but the verses are so confusing from a metaphorical and context perspective, which sort of connects with the whole "Making this happen" chorus, but they just seem like filler to get to the chorus. There are also these weird gospel background vocals which have no point of being in the song, but they're heard more than the guitar for some reason. All I can hear are those violins, the vocals, and the guitar ever so slightly come out of the shadow for a moment. The reason why this is so low is because it isn't as poorly produced and "why?" inducing as many of the other songs on this list. Still, definitely a bad, pretentious, disjointed song.
The Song: Knights of Malta - YouTube
8. From Ashes To New - Crazy (Nu-metal/rock)
UGH! This song annoys the crap out of me. The album this is on, The Future, wasn't great by any means, but it wasn't awful either and there were good songs on it. Why did they choose this one? Everything about this song annoys the crap out of me. While Super Fade was awful, at least it's enjoyable if you're in the mood for it. This is just bad. The keyboards effects give it a glossy pop feel, which make the song feel pandering to give it a radio play edge, the instrumentation is stock, and the lyrics are generic breakup, whiny material. What really kills me though are the vocals. Holy crap, singer Danny Case sounds like a whiny two year old here. Just pure generic radio rock which really showcases the state of mediocrity mainstream rock is in at the moment.
The Song: Crazy - YouTube
7. Disturbed - Hold Onto Memories (Acoustic Rock)
Talk about cliches. This just has to be the most cliched song I've heard all year. I did review the new Disturbed album, and it was terrible with plenty of overblown, generic Disturbed songs. However, no song on that record got under my skin as much as Hold Onto Memories did. When Disturbed were doing their new record, they must've had the success of their cover of Sound of Silence in their head, because almost half of the new record are slow, meandering, acoustic songs that felt like they were trying to do that Sound of Silence cover a million more times. This was the worst example of that. The themes of "live your life, but hold onto memories" are overdone enough, but the lyric writing does not bring any new perspective to the song. There is no way this is sincere because they would have tried bringing something to the table; If they did, I would at least give them credit, but they don't. I could write a song like this in 15 minutes, because I have done that before, it's really that easy. It's album filler that ticks me off. This has no reason to exist.
Okay, from this point on are the songs I REALLY HATE. I will still leave links for the songs, but really consider not listening to them.
Okay, here we go...
6. Paul McCartney - Fuh You (Electropop/Pop Rock)
Yes, this exists. Does this really need a paragraph explaining why it sucks? It's a song written and performed by a seventy-six year old man called "Fuh You". Fine, I will. Look, I have the utmost respect for The Beatles, Paul McCartney, and their effect on the music industry. However, this is a piece of pathetic garbage. He feels like he's trying to make a pop song from 2010 about feeling in love and wanting real love from a girl. This would just be a dated, generic pop song if it weren't for the fact that THIS IS A MEMBER OF THE BEATLES! He shouldn't be writing this crap. If he wants to add a modern twist to his music, that would be fine. However, this is embarrassing on all fronts. This is probably the worst song he's ever written. I know he's not getting any younger, but he comes off as creepy because he sounds so old. In reality, my opinion on this song can be summed up in one single word; WHY?
The only reason this isn't higher is because it comes off as bizarrely sincere. It has a weird charm to it that I can't deny. I would never listen to this again, but the sincerity is at least noteworthy.
5. Tom Morello ft. Vic Mensa - We Don't Need You (Rock/Hip-Hop)
Another why moment. UGH! Why Tom, WHY??? Whatever, let's get to it.
So this song starts out nice enough for the first nineteen seconds or so. Tom plays a riff that actually really nice and pretty... And then the rest of the song happens. Vic Mensa comes in with this terribly auto-tuned chorus that's supposed to have some sort of powerful political message behind it, but his delivery is so bad and it doesn't blend with the most half-assed Tom Morello riff I've ever heard. The verses have the same "wah-wah" background guitar that lost in the awful mix, one of the worst mixes of the year for sure (The entire record is like this). Theoretically, this could work; Tom Morello was in Rage Against the Machine, one of the most politically charged rock bands of all time, and vocalist Zack de la Rocha was a rapper more than anything. The problem is that Vic Mensa has no presence behind the mic and the lyrics aren't motivating as they are try-hard, and there isn't good riffs like in those Rage songs and no bass nor drums to back it up. Say what you want about Zack de la Rocha, but at least he had a distinct presence behind the mic, and you can't deny Rage could craft some killer instrumentals. This is an attempt to make both artists relevant again, and it's sad. The only reason this isn't higher is because it's great to laugh at, and even then, I hate laughing at it because, while I don't care for Vic Mensa, Tom Morello is one of my favorite guitarists of all time and he has shown time and time again he can do much better than this.
4. Imagine Dragons - Digital (Dubstep/Pop (THIS IS NOT ROCK!))
For some reason, Imagine Dragons decided to release another album less than a 18 months after Evolve, even after that album was universally hated by critics and even the fans were left divided. I will admit that I think Origins is ever so slightly better than Evolve, but it's still terrible, and this album is by far the worst on the record. There were a couple of other contenders from this record, but when it came down to it, there was no contest. This song is terrible on every level. It's not even laughably bad, it's just painful. It starts out with an acoustic guitar riff, and then it transitions to some of the worst production I've ever heard. It sounds like it wasn't completed, and released because they needed a quick follow-up to Evolve. It doesn't help that Dan Reynolds sounds like he's mimicking Taylor Swift's delivery on the song ...Ready For It? in the verses, which is face-palm worthy. The chorus is typical "We are strong together" Imagine Dragons lyrics which really aren't worth mentioning. The song becomes noteworthy again when the bridge comes in, where Dan Reynolds sounds like he's attempting a metal scream over the same crappy production, and he sounds terrible. I'm sorry, but whenever he sings with that kind of aggression on tracks like Natural, he sounds awful and grading. Basically everything is wrong about this track. A dumpster fire at its worst.
3. Fall Out Boy - Stay Frosty Royal Milk Tea (Dubstep/Pop Rock)
Hey, Fall Out Boy's back, and this time it's not so bad it's good. This is the opening cut on M A N I A, making it a legit contender for the list because it wasn't on the Lake Effect Kid EP, and it was the worst song on one of the worst albums of the decade. Holy crap, this song is so incoherent under three minutes it's impressive. It starts with this awful dubstep production with an occasional guitar thing thrown in there to say, "Hey, we still play instruments guys!". Well, you are, but barely. It doesn't make your song good. Anyway, it continues into the verses, in which Patrick Stump doesn't blend the production and vice versa. The pre-chorus contains the repeated line, "Are you smelling that poop?", albeit with more course language, and it's so random and weird, as the rest of this song is. It just does not blend with Fall Out Boy's sound and Pete Wentz's lyrics in particular, making it becomes this weird, disjointed track. I really don't know how to describe it probably. It's a weird feeling like it blended two bad songs together to make a Frankenstein monster of a bad song. I guess that's the best way to describe it? I did my best, I guess. I wish I could say more, but that's about it. It sucks, though.
2. Five Finger Death Punch - Sham Pain (Groove Metal)
You know thrash metal, right? You know, Metallica's first few records, Slayer, Megadeth, Etc.? Well, Five Finger Death Punch is what I refer to as "Trash Metal"; Metal that appeals only to the lowest level of metal fans. Whenever I listen to this band, I feel like I just got out of a gym where a bunch of Monster Energy-drinking self-centered "Tough guys" hang out. That's not a good thing. However, this song is even worse than normal. It's about how the band is "Living the good life" and how everyone's against them. It's pathetic and poorly done. Ivan Moody sounds like a whiny 10 year old who didn't get to go see the new Avengers movie with his lyrics calling out of these publications who have criticized him in the past and how his label tried to sue him. Well, this is not helping your case buddy. If you're going to whine and complain about how the world is against you, at least put effort into it and not just shout out people who hate you only to say you're living a good life. Nope, he doesn't and we're left with a ten year old stuck in the body of a man in his late 30s. The band doesn't put in any reall effort either; The guitar riff is stock, trash metal and the drums and bass just kind of go along with it and certainly don't add anything to the track. This is probably the worst song the band has recorded to date and it's not worth your time.
Here we go, number one. So, what can be worse than trash metal, dubstep Fall Out Boy, or a pathetic excuse to be relevant? Well, it's from an album that's critically acclaimed and has left me confused as to why. Well, here. We. Go.
Number one is...
1. The 1975 - The Man Who Married A Robot/Love Theme (Art Pop)
Screw. This. Song. Screw its message, screw its pretentious lyrics, name, and everything about it. This song ticked me off so much when I first heard it and it still does now. This song is a spoken word track about how a man spends all his time on the internet and dies alone. I get the message that life is sad when you're connected to electronics everyday, but this is done so poorly. I bet the band wrote these lyrics in ten minutes and said, "Yeah, that's good. The critics will love it". WHY? This is so forced and pretentious that I legitimately don't know what to say. Who thought this was good? I get you're trying to send a message, but can't you do it creatively instead of saying stuff over washed-out piano that's incredibly forced and cringy? Whatever. This song doesn't deserve anyone's time. Screw it.
Well, we've reached the end. While these songs are terrible on basically every level, there was still good this year. Plenty of it, as a matter of fact. These songs were just exceptions in a year of musical growth for me and the artists making the music. Hope you enjoyed this list, and thanks for reading. Bye.
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