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Awesome / Todd in the Shadows

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    General 
  • Todd's resolute, unrepentant lack of forgiveness for Chris Brown's assault on Rihanna (and, tangentially, the music industry's apparent willingness to overlook it, as well as the fans who still support Brown) is nearly heroic. Todd is not going to let this go.
    • His words to Chris Brown while reviewing his atrocious single, "Deuces". While Todd says that a person shouldn't pay for one crime for their entire lives, he considers the subject matter of the song so vile that he can't help but get even more angry at Chris Brown.
    • His "review" of Chris Brown's "Turn Up The Music", in which he barely mentions the song itself and spends the rest of the video again explaining why Chris Brown is a terrible human being. The best part is that it's not just a "Chris Brown sucks" rant, but rather an eloquent yet enraged speech that discusses all the aspects that make Chris Brown's current presence in the media and so-called "forgiven" status by some fans (especially the more ardent defenders) completely unacceptable. It's truly a noteworthy video from Todd that shows he is intelligent and understands a large part of the general public's disgust with Brown.
      • What makes it even better is that his half-a-minute mention of the song itself is all he needed to do— there's nothing else to say about it, it's that pointless.
      • Which is overall his point about Chris Brown—there is nothing about him that stands out more than any other contemporary R&B singer. Todd mentions that while there was controversy with Michael Jackson, he at least had done landmark things that changed the music industry, whereas Brown is just generic for his chosen genre.
      • Also, he announces his tumblr—Trolling Chris Brown, where fan can submit trolls of their own (mostly mocking his twitter posts). On that tumblr is an even longer and stronger rant about the "Team Breezy" aka Chris' fans who not only have forgiven him but love to demonize Rhianna/say she deserved what she got, with references to the movie Mean Girls and why he hates when girls act like that to each other.
      • Todd weighs in on the scandal that caused Chris Brown to delete his Twitter account.
    • In his Top 10 Worst Hit Songs of 2011, he makes some scathing jokes towards Chris Brown.
      Chris Brown: I don't see how you can hate from outside of the club. You can't even get in! Haha!
      Todd: But I can hate you from outside the police station, you piece of shit!
      • Also:
        Chris Brown: I'm getting paper!
        Todd: What, arrest papers, you loathsome little toad?
    • In the review for "Freaky Friday" in 2018, even though Todd admits he's probably the only person left on the planet who still cares about Chris Brown's assault of Rihanna, he can't let the line Brown sings about "my controversial past" go, tearing Brown a new one again.
      Todd: This joke could have been made with anybody... But you had to go with one of the most horrific people in music! What, were Phil Spector and Charles Manson not available? What the hell is wrong with you?!
  • On Spoony's Vlog during MAGfest, you get to hear Todd sing "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" by Tears For Fears on Rock Band. And OWN it.
    • Todd himself said that the original singing over his voice made him sound better than he actually is. Not an excuse for the awesomeness of this cover, though.
    • There's a moment in the "Walking in Memphis" video where he comes up with a parody of the chorus on the spot, and not only make it funny, but also manages to sing it pretty good despite the fact that he isn't really trying to make it sound good.
  • Would it be cheating to say that whenever Todd plays a piano version of the song he's reviewing, it's a special moment altogether?
    • Don't forget the DuckTales (1987) theme.
    • He even managed to make "One Tin Soldier" sound haunting in his retrospective of the song, playing it in a minor key using the organ setting.
  • Real life example: Finding a way to happily date one of his co-workers, who travels the country on a regular basis and doesn't even live in the same state. For those of us who have tried long-distance relationships, this is definitely a Moment of Awesome for Todd.
  • Going to Washington, D.C. with The Nostalgia Chick to take on SOPA.
  • Whenever he mocked or was disappointed by an artist in an earlier video, only for them to turn around and make a song that Todd gushes over.
  • Considering how large a fanbase Wizards of Waverly Place has, Todd deserves props for being honest and to the point about his opinion on the show.
    • Doubly goes with his opinion on Glee.
  • Todd actually got mentioned and quoted in a Yahoo! article! Specifically, one about the 25th anniversary of U2's Rattle & Hum.
  • Similarly, this review of Zac Brown Band's "Jump Right In" name-drops both Todd and the term "white guy with acoustic guitar". (Bonus: It was written by a troper.)
  • In 2013, Todd created a second Twitter account called "MacklePhil", which retweeted examples of people claiming that praising Macklemore for his support of gay marriage doesn't make sense because Phil Robertson of "Duck Dynasty" was harshly criticized for saying his opinion about it. Because saying you support gay marriage and that you don't are the same thing. What makes it awesome is that Todd retweeted so many examples that, come the Grammies, the account reached its retweeting limit. Shortly afterward, "MacklePhil" was suspended for too many retweets. Todd couldn't stop laughing.
  • Todd's impressive string of tweets listing his favorite songs by numerous artists, especially ones that he has shown disdain for like Nickelback, Beyonce, and Bro Country bands.
  • You know who's a fan of Todd's dogs? Vincent D'Onofrio.
  • On January 23, 2020, Todd and his work got featured on Billboard's website. It's a hugely vindicating moment for Todd after the tireless work he's done over the past decade-plus.
  • Syncing up "WAP" by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion to:
  • "I Fact-Checked The Worst Video Essayist On YouTube", in which Todd debunks every bullshit claim (in his words) he could find from the disgraced gay video essayist James Somerton for over a whopping 100 minutes, and spotlights the horrendous messaging he spreads, particularly through his misogyny and his repeated emphasis on the physical attractiveness of Nazi soldiers.
    • A bit of background: The day before Todd released his video, H.Bomberguy released the nearly four-hour video "Plagiarism and You(Tube)," the second half of which was solely dedicated to a comprehensive and unforgiving takedown of Somerton's long history of plagiarizing other writers and video essayists, most of whom are also queer. Todd says in the introduction that after finding out Harry was making the video he started watching Somerton's content, noticed how much of what he said was lies, and asked Harry if it was okay to make a video about Somerton from this angle. With Harry's approval,note  Todd completed the video, and managed to thoroughly dissect Somerton's history of spreading damaging lies using incidents almost completely separate from what Harry covered.note 
    • Additionally, Todd ventures into one area Harry left untouchednote  by calling out Somerton's co-writer Nick Herrgott, who stated in Somerton's Patreon-exclusive Discord server that he made a lot of claims "on just raw observation" and, instead of research, would "take something and ruminate on it" because of self-admitted laziness. Todd included additional Discord screenshots of Herrgott stating there were claims where he had not found evidence to support them and, right before James deleted the server, stating that "I don't do research."
      Todd: That's funny, Nick. I do a lot of research, especially for this video because I didn't want to accuse you falsely. I poured blood, sweat, and tears into the research for this video, and you saw fit to just present your daydreams as reality. Gotta admit, I find it a little galling.
    • When he gets to the part where James claims that the SS, one of the most infamously and viciously homophobic institutions in history, was secretly "teeming" with gay men who would extort sexual favors from men in exchange for ignoring their crimes, it's one of the few times in the video where he sounds genuinely pissed, compared to the rest of the video where he's largely calm, at best nervous due to the subject matter of James's lies. As he points out, James is promoting an infamous conspiracy theory meant to discredit gay people as secretly complicit in the Nazi regime rather than as victims of the Holocaust.
      James: Leadership positions were teeming with homosexuals, and it was an open secret among many Germans that if a man were to offer sexual favors to an SS officer, most any crime could be forgiven.
      Todd: *Beat* No it wasn't. That isn't true.
      • Another claim James made was that the Hitler Youth leadership was mostly gay men, which has all sorts of obvious negative implications. Todd takes the opportunity to demonstrate that any time Somerton actually bothers to cite his sources, he clearly doesn't even read them, since they typically actively contradict what he says. His source on the subject, The Pink Triangle by Richard Plant, clearly states that a significant portion of teenage boys who were expelled from the Hitler Youth were gay, not the adult leadership, and there's no mention of any coverups. It also actively contests the notion he promoted that the SS contained any significant amount of gay people in the SS.
      • Relatedly, Todd expresses a mix of bafflement and rage when Somerton tries to argue that western male body standards came from Nazi Germany, that American fitness culture comes from Americans being jealous of how muscular German soldiers were and that the Soviets didn't contribute any such things because "they were too busy bundling up in giant coats". Todd points out how this is factually inaccurate, as Russian men at the time were always extremely open about their love of fitness.
      Todd: There's just so much going on in this video I don't know where to begin. First, what were you trying to say about the wars in Asia? Were the Asian armies not in shape? But more importantly, like... the Russians not being influential because they were always shown in winter jackets... ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? Was there any nation in history that has ever been more publicly, physically jacked than the Soviet fucking Union!? They were not shy about this! They made a big fucking deal about it all the damn time! If anyone was going to affect our psyches it was the goddamn Commies! (mockingly) "The Nazis were hot and sexy but the Russians were bundled up shapeless blobs", (normal tone) it's just the most preposterous observation!
    • In a similar vein, Todd dismantles James's claims that the gay survivors of the AIDS of the epidemic were category traitors who abandoned the community's activism for anti-employment discrimination laws and other similar causes in favor of trying to fit in with heteronormative culture by advocating for the right to join the army and "have big gay weddings", and that those who survived often did so because they were too boring to get laid and catch AIDS. Todd states that this claim in particular is what originally got his attention. It's well known that protected status for sexual orientations and anti-employment discrimination were the main battles of the nineties, and they managed to get protections for gay employees in seventeen states and an executive order from the president protecting them on a federal level. He goes on to state that it's ridiculous to claim that only rich conservative gay people wanted to get married and join the army since rich people barely join the army in the first place and have lawyers to draft civil union agreements in lieu of marriage, which poor people cannot afford.
    • And then we have the reason why Todd did this in the first place. In his own words: "The Truth Matters!" If Somerton had been working for a proper network or publication, with fact-checkers and editors, he'd have been fired immediately for making these claims. But Youtube has no such oversight, and seeing other content creators repeated Somerton's obviously false claims was something that Todd couldn't let stand.

    Todd's Pop Song Reviews (and Year-End Lists) 
  • Managing to rap the Preamble in his "Do You Remember" review.
  • His complete evisceration of "We Are The World" and other Charity Motivation Songs of the 80's as complete Glurgey mess that reeks of White Man's Burden and Condescending Compassion, with the 2010 version not being that much better. Albeit Todd does also note that while he thinks both versions of the song are terrible, he does call out those who try to discredit the celebrities involved saying "I will take an insincere display of charity over a genuine display of apathy every day of the week".
  • Blink and you'll miss it, but in his Best Hits Of 2010, he references 2010: The Year We Make Contact and Doctor Who. Despite the fact that he had a long diatribe about us and his fellows being nerds.
  • In the video for Taylor Swift's "Fifteen," Todd comments "A woman is more than her body, Taylor." No further explanation is needed.
    • In the same video, he displays to us how truly great of a critic he is by telling us a story about a girl he dated, and broke up with at a dance. The emotion in his voice is almost genuine and you really do believe him... then he reveals that that didn't happen to him at all, and he was describing an episode in Saved by the Bell. Which is why Todd hates the song: his revealing that his story happened to someone else made it lose all emotional impact it had, because Todd is telling you to feel sad because he feels sad that the kid in that episode felt sad. That's exactly what Taylor Swift herself is doing in that song, and it's hard to feel sad at all because Taylor is telling a different girl's story.
  • Todd calling out the pop music industry for forcing Cee Lo Green to only be able to hit the top ten using Glee, yet the horrible "Tonight I'm Loving/Fucking You" gets in without problem.
  • Todd figuring out how to play "Whip My Hair" on his piano by ear.note 
  • Calling out Bruno Mars on his opinions towards college in the review for "The Lazy Song".
  • After being persuaded by Kyle to continue his review of "Sexy and I Know It", Todd switches to Kyle's more academic, analytical style and gives an impressively solid critique of how insulting and damaging the underlying message of the song is (the idea of men being physically attractive is laughable). Todd eventually gives up again and declares that song "sucks because it sucks", but he carries on with the more analytical effort for five minutes, at least making it clear that his hatred for the song was more than just a knee-jerk response. Bonus points for contrasting "Sexy and I Know It" against Right Said Fred's "I'm Too Sexy", explaining in detail what that song did right, and how "Sexy and I Know It" fails in the same regard.
  • After a failed attempt to take the top spot on Todd's Top Songs of 2010 List, Todd rounds out his 2011 list with two simple words: FUCK YOU.
  • When he actually analyzes "Back In Time", and picks out a few really obscure references to Men in Black in the lyrics. Granted, one of them is a joke, but the fact that he was able to connect it to Men In Black is kind of awesome.
  • Calling out the mean-spirited "Want U Back" (a song in which the narrator actively tries to destroy her ex's happy relationship) as being about "a look into the mind of an immature little shit and her every ugly little thought, dressed up in a shiny pop package".
    Todd: This is probably the only kind of breakup song that a snotty, in-your-face teen like Cher Lloyd could've performed credibly, but just because she sounds believable doesn't make it any more listenable.
    • And from his Top Ten Worst Songs of 2012 list where this song ranks, he imitates Cher Lloyd: "(in a British accent) It's the sound of trying too hard. *blows raspberry*"
  • Flipping his shit while listening to "Why" by Jadakiss, which asks (among other things) why Bush 'knocked down the towers' and called Kobe Bryant's rape victim a whore.
  • Pointing out that the beloved 1980's movie Dirty Dancing is about a teenage girl losing her virginity to a womanizing older man.
  • The "Little Things" review is one long Take That! to One Direction for writing songs that sound like they're trying to be romantic and supportive, but will in reality only make their listeners feel worse about themselves.
  • Calling out Dr. Dre for his use of a homophobic slur. Also became a Funny Moment when he pointed out that some of the lyrics made it sound like he and Eminem were hot for each other.
    Todd: Also, you know what they say about glass houses...
  • Calling out the sexism of Beyoncé's "If I Were A Boy" in his Worst of 2009 list. To elaborate:
    Todd: The real tragedy here is that most of Beyoncé's songs annoy me because they don't have a tune, but the tune here is fine; and usually Beyoncé's singing makes me feel like I'm being hit with a brick, but her singing here is fine. No, the problem is with the moronically sexist lyrics!
    Todd: Yeah, see, Beyoncé thinks that only guys hurt the ones that love them.
    Beyoncé: And chase after girls...
    Todd: Only guys cheat.
    Beyoncé: And I'd never get confronted for it 'cause they'd stick up for me...
    Todd: And girls never have their friends stick up for them when they screw around. Guys never get taken for granted. Yeah, that's the way it works, all right. (pause) No, I'm not bitter.
    Beyoncé: When you lose the one you wanted...
    Todd: I mean, I've had my heart stomped on before, but I don't go around saying, "All girls are the same, they'll try and take your money, blah blah blah...". I'm not saying that to be congratulated, I'm just saying I'm not a 13-year-old who just got dumped for the first time, and neither is Beyonce! What possible excuse is there for this?!
    Beyoncé: But you're just a boy...
    Todd: And you're just an overrated pop singer. Next!
  • In his review of "Feel This Moment", calling out Pitbull's blatant sampling, and countering by sampling himself. The best thing? Most of his sampled insults still feel like they're relevant to the review.
    • Also in regards this review, the fact that he was able to make a 15 minute review out of a song he felt there was nothing to say about is pretty awesome. In fact, at 15:50, for three years it was his longest review to date of a video covering one song, even though the first minute or so is him pondering the charts before the prelude. And its script was of the same quality as those of his other reviews. But that was surpassed by his review of "7 Years" in 2016, which is 18 minutes long.
  • In his "Cruise" review, he calls out Florida Georgia Line for not stopping at Stop Signs
  • Todd explaining why "Blurred Lines" is a bad song, in particular his rant about how the video is degrading towards women.
  • Calling out Alicia Keys for stealing the phrase "Girl on Fire" from The Hunger Games.
  • Having many times expressed his utter disdain for One Direction as a group, being able to admit how much he liked "Best Song Ever" was very big of him.
    • He later went on record to say that not only are they nice people, but he had "Best Song Ever" on his Top 10 List that year.
  • The Ten Worst Songs of 2013, as he declares once and for all that it was one of the worst music years ever, and even talks about how he wanted to do a full video on his #1 pick, Katy Perry's "Roar", but it doesn't even give him anything to talk about.
    • After years of being impressed and annoyed by Drake, him finally coming out and calling Drake "the most inconsistent waste of talent."
  • His review of Jason Derulo's abysmal and sexist single "Talk Dirty". Among the highlights:
    • Calling out Jason on his mentality of "seeing the world as a Baskin-Robbins menu of flavors of different girls, which is mild-to-moderately offensive".
    • And for visiting Rio de Janeiro and not noticing the anti-government riots there.
    • And for visiting Haiti, one of the most desperately needy nations in the western hemisphere, just to score chicks.
    • Calling out the racism of having an Asian stereotype - even better, Todd was ready to leave before then, and when he hears it, he dashes into the room.
  • Despite feeling 2013 was a VERY weak year for pop music, it's quite impressive that he was able to put together a best list of 10 songs he really liked with no filler picks. Other music reviewers weren't able to pull that off.
  • Calling out Iggy Azalea for her appropriation of hip hop culture when she's not even Black or American (she's white and Australian) and also for being repeatedly insensitive.
  • The review of Magic!'s "Rude" has a great ending. When Todd hears the line "but no still means no", he goes on a rant about how awful the narrator of the song is, and how he just can't take no for an answer. Todd says something akin to "who can't understand that 'no means no'", pauses, then leaves the room in disgust. It possibly implies that Todd just compared the narrator to Robin Thicke and the controversy over Thicke's song "Blurred Lines," which had lyrics that suggested rape. That takes a lot of courage, consider how big "Rude" was at the time and how it didn't get half the controversy that "Blurred Lines" did.
  • In the "Shake It Off" video, Todd calling Taylor Swift out yet again for her inability to take criticism.
  • His Top 10 Worst Songs of 2014 video, where he declares it a year even worse than 2013 for music, despite trying to be more positive, having lots to say about every song on his list. And his #1 pick, Jason Derulo's "Wiggle", he had set at #1 since the first hearing of it.
  • Once again being able to compile a Top 10 list of songs in a bad year, though he admitted on Twitter that he almost couldn't come up with ten.
    • Also admitting that he was wrong to criticize "Call Me Maybe" for being too "girly" and that there was nothing wrong in a song being that. And he proves that by putting Charlie XCX's "Boom Clap" at #2, saying he loved the song and praised it for being so good. He even admits that had "Uptown Funk" not come out, it would have been at the top of the list.
  • Slamming Nick Jonas in "Jealous" for the line "It's my right to be hellish." Up until then he was kind of on the guy's side but that line makes him turn the whole review around and smack the guy for his entitlement.
  • Todd's righteous fury at discovering Bryan Adams forced AllMusic.com to delete any and all references to him and his career. He gets so disgusted and offended that he just ends the 1991 retrospective right there.
  • Calling out the sexism in Meghan Trainor's "Dear Future Husband" and how even if were meant to be ironic (like a certain Shania Twain song, which he also references), it'd still fail terribly due to the gender roles being so outdated.
  • Him calling out "Girl Crush" by Little Big Town in his Top Ten Worst Hit Songs of 2015 for pulling Bait-and-Switch Lesbians.
    Todd: I didn't think they could make a song about girl-on-girl that was more horseshit than "I Kissed a Girl", but Little Big Town pulled it off.
  • Todd demonstrating the awesome instrumental break in Major Lazer and DJ Snake's "Lean On" by showing it intercut with his own piano cover of it, only for the two to eventually coalesce in perfect harmony. It really needs to be heard to be believed. No doubt about it, "the finest twenty seconds in pop music of [2015]" done great justice.
  • His epic "The Reason You Suck" Speech about Jason Derulo at the beginning of his review of "Wiggle"...
  • ...which was then topped by his take-down of Justin Bieber in the "Sorry" review, where he states that he doesn't accept Bieber's insincere apology and goes on to criticize the general public for turning a blind eye to the horrible things artists like R. Kelly and Chris Brown did just to endorse their music without guilt.
  • His calling out Lukas Graham in his review of "7 Years", for taking what could have been a decent Growing Up Sucks song and using it as an excuse to fuel his ego. He actually sounds legitimately frustrated and even goes so far as to say he's amazed that the lyrics aren't just Lukas repeating his name over and over and over.
  • Todd using his "Scars for Your Beautiful" review to sum up his problems with the self-empowerment tracks he's had to cover: oftentimes, they're bland platitudes more beneficial to the singer than to the people they're trying to reach. Topping it off is how guilty he feels, knowing how many people find genuine inspiration in these songs. He thinks they deserve better than what they're getting.
  • Todd's mostly confused rather than angered by "Bad and Boujee" ... up until Quavo uses the word "dyke." (And Quavo is a man, so N-Word Privileges, or rather, D-Word Privileges are very much not in effect here.) At that point, Todd bluntly says, "Go fuck yourself."
  • While admitting that he probably waited too long to review Taylor Swift's "Look What You Made Me Do" and at this point there's nothing left to say about it, he still goes all in while accusing Taylor of desperately trying to take back control of the narrative of her career by pretending she was moving toward her current bad girl image all along, which no one is buying.
    • Then, when going back to the song during his "Worst Songs of 2017" list, he points out that the song makes Taylor come off as insecure, defensive, and confused, like most real-life bullies. He also compares the song to Taylor showing people her "Burn Book" and expecting them to be impressed...which nobody is.
  • His long, rather justified attack on the major overuse of indie rock in commercials in his "Thunder"/"Feel It Still" review.
    • To a lesser extent, calling out Portugal. The Man for the lyrics making light of being a rebel in the style of those from The '60s, as the current political climate is way too turbulent to make light of. He then caps it off by putting "Feel It Still" over that infamous Kendall Jenner Pepsi ad.
  • Todd rapping Drake's "Nice For What" at a karaoke party in his "Top 10 Best Songs of 2018" video. He kills it.
    • Todd is very complimentary of "Chun-Li," proclaiming that this is the song that should have made Nicki Minaj the undisputed queen of hip-hop... but he's also willing to point out that the main reason Nicki didn't become that was because of her causing a bunch of pointless feuds, as well as her overall attitude throughout 2018.
      Nicki Minaj: They pinnin' me out to be the bad guy!
      Todd: No, they weren't doing that, Nicki. You did that.
  • His review of "ME!" by Taylor Swift has two moments:
    • First, he both felt and noticed less hype for this single because it wasn't a leap forward like the other lead singles off her new albums were. Even if Todd didn't like "Look What You Made Me Do", he acknowledged it still accomplished that. Instead, he felt "ME!" was meaningless and self-indulgent. "It's the Glee version of itself."
    • Second, he threw down a gauntlet and acknowledged a harsh truth; since Brendon Urie is the only original member of Panic! at the Disco left, he's taken a sharp turn into pure, empty pop. He's become the new Adam Levine. The saddest part? Several people in the comments (many of them big Panic! fans) couldn't find it in them to disagree.
  • Todd has to jump back on the Taylor Swift horse quicker than he thought when she released "You Need To Calm Down", but in spite of the time crunch he makes two incisive points:
    • One, the feeling that Taylor took one of her anti-haters songs and conflated it with the oppression of queer people. Todd says that not only is it supremely narcissistic to conflate one's personal e-drama with active oppression of an entire class of people, but also misses how oppressive homophobia actually works. Todd also takes exception with Taylor giving Katy Perry a cameo in the video, suddenly making the song more about their tabloid drama than gay rights.
    • Throughout the video, Todd casually mentioned brands like McDonald's and the Los Angeles Rams showing rainbow logos and support to LGBT people. Not only does this show how Taylor's anti-homophobia stance isn't as brave as she thinks it is if major corporations are willing to show support for the same thing, but also casually showing how overly-commercialized Gay Pride has become.
    • At the same time, he recognizes and denounces another phenomenon that can come from the most well-meaning sources, but accidentally feel like harassment: speculating if public figures are queer, as many interpreted this song as a vague coming-out story upon release. As Todd makes clear, that's nobody's business, and whether or not it would potentially be important for the community is still secondary compared to an actual human being's privacy.
      Todd: Is she deliberately teasing at it for publicity, like some people think? Uh, I don't see it, but I'm pretty dense about these things; the more important thing is, I don't care. Unless something concrete pops up — like she says something, or paparazzi snag some secret hot photos of her and another woman adopting a child together — I'm not gonna think much about it, and I don't think anyone really should. I understand she'd be a really big name signing in the Gay Draft, but there's already a bunch of other big pot divas out there representing; one stranger's orientation does not matter this much. Y'all do need to calm down.
  • Todd's masterful dissection of Lil Dicky's "Earth", picking apart how it fails as both a comedy song and a charity single. Special note goes to how he walks back what he said in the aforementioned "We Are the World" review, pointing out:
    Todd: But you know who actually got the money for that song? The Red Cross, who did diddly-dick with it, and Wyclef Jean's charity, which we know now to be a complete fucking scam! So maybe, that actually was worse than apathy!
  • Todd's review of "Someone You Loved" by Lewis Capaldi, a song he admits right at the start is his pick for the worst number-one single not just of the year 2019, but the worst number-one single of the entire 2010s decade. The video brings out some old-school Todd rage in him, as he spares no effort in detailing how bad he thinks the song is. It's probably Todd's most brutal review since maybe "Drive By" or "Wiggle," yet he attacks it from all angles with the in-depth style analysis he's gotten better at over the years. It shows how much his style has evolved as a reviewer, since it's not entirely played up for comedy the way his videos ten years ago were (when he was still very much playing into the typical Channel Awesome review style) but it's not just straightforward musical analysis either. As one commenter put it:
    He really took this one to town from every angle: music theory, composition, cultural context, historical context, lyrics. It was like watching Muhammad Ali take down some rando in a bar.
    • When discussing Lewis' Nice Guy public persona:
      Todd: Right now he's in a feud with Noel Gallagher, and boy doesn't that just say it all. Of course they don't like each other, Noel Gallagher is his polar opposite. He's a charmless asshole who still made more great music in two years than Capaldi will in his entire life. Like, I'm sure Capaldi is more fun at parties and he'll be a great judge on season ten of The Masked Singer some day, but I know which of them deserves to be famous.
  • His review of Justin Bieber's "Yummy" doesn't just look at how weak a single it is or how unscrupulous Bieber is for trying to astro-turf the song to success on streaming services, it also shows Todd Cutting the Knot after ten years of hindsight: "Maybe Justin Bieber is just a bad artist."
    "Ten years ago, saying Justin Bieber sucks would not exactly be a ground-breaking take. He was the most hated human being on Earth, and there was a really nasty under-current to it. Smarter critics than me have pointed out that only things teenage girls like get that kind of hate, and I think there was a backlash to the backlash for that reason. At least some critics started cutting him some slack, honestly I think a bit too much. Personally, I think I like enough thing that teenage girls like where I can say that, yes, he did actually suck. Really, really hard."
  • Todd has two incisive takes on "Trollz" by 6ix9ine and Nicki Minaj.
    • He's not surprised that 6ix9ine still has fans, despite all the horrible things he's done and serving jail time. Todd knows this all too well from his ongoing frustration that Chris Brown is still successful. Turns out cancelling problematic artists is way harder than we're willing to admit.
      Todd: The only real abuser who's been booted out of music is R. Kelly, and he had to be an active practicing pedophile for twenty years! And, more importantly, stop having hits.
    • That said, he's not too down on 6ix9ine and Nicki Minaj reaching #1 on the Billboard charts...because that single plummeted off the Top 40 in less than two weeks. Todd even double-checked the current position before filming his review, and the song was at #83. And for an extra kicker, the song ended up being out of the Billboard Hot 100 after the release of his video!
    • In the entire 20 minute video, Todd spends about two minutes actually talking about the song. He spends the rest of the run time analyzing both 6ix9ine and Nicki Minaj, seeming to highlight that people are only interested in the song because of the performers being highly controversial individuals as opposed to any merits in the song itself.
  • Todd's choice for Worst Song of 2020; "Yummy" by Justin Bieber. Nobody expected that, least of all Todd. It was a relic of life before the pandemic, why even bother? But then the song got nominated for a Grammy Award, and Todd had to finally take a stand.
    Todd: (laughs angrily) ...Burn the Grammies to the fucking ground.
  • It's brief, but Todd calling out Jason Derulo for plagiarizing the beat for "Savage Love" from a young Polynesian artist.
  • While Dua Lipa only gets an honorable mention on the best of 2020 he make it clear it's only that 2020 was that good and on another year the highlighted song would be about a 4 and of all the notable artists to release music that year she definitely dropped the most great music.
  • Crossing over with Tearjerker and Nightmare Fuel, during his Top 10 Songs of 2020, his recap of Lil Baby's "The Bigger Picture" escalated to the point that viewers speculated that his scream of anguish was unscripted.
    Todd: Every fuckin' thing that happened these last few years, including this last week where I was supposed to be trying to make this God damn video, but I kept getting distracted by more horrible fucking news! THIS SHIT FUCKIN' SUCKS, AND IT'S GOTTA FUCKIN' STOP!!!
  • It might be a minor thing, but Todd doing a review of "I Hope" by Gabby Barrett without bringing up her political opinions (despite bringing up the 2020 election) is kind of impressive on its own. Although Todd stated on Patreon that was the intent:
    Francisco G: Honestly, when Toby Keith showed up and THEN you brought up the election, I really thought you were gonna bring up what people found in her Twitter likes.......
    Todd: I know what you're talking about, and I consciously didn't include it. I don't know why I feel this way and I'm not sure it stands up to scrutiny but part of me just feels that it's not fair game. Seems invasive to me; I don't know, I'm not Perez Hilton or anything. I could hear a case otherwise though
  • Todd's piano version of Astronaut in the Ocean at the beginning of that song's review was quite well praised by commenters for managing to sound fairly badass, especially when compared to the fairly dull original song.
  • Todd goes right for the jugular with Aaron Lewis and his song "Am I The Only One".
    • Todd outright calls Aaron Lewis racist for decrying the removal of Confederate monuments note . He also calls Lewis a hypocrite because those Confederate monuments were mostly built in the South, and Lewis is from Vermont (he even wrote a song titled "Northern Redneck" defending his country cred), so racism is the only reason he'd want them to stay up.
      Todd: "Oh, they're taking down Old Glory!" You're literally crying over statues of men who killed the men who carried Old Glory!
    • While trying to find common ground with Lewis and his country career, Todd actually manages to find some notable qualities Lewis has that make him an interesting country artist: the fact that he's a Northern country star, which helps dispel the idea that "Country = Southern", and for actively refusing modern country's "parties and girls" image in exchange for trying to bring back the harder outlaw style of the genre. While Todd goes on to absolutely decimate both the song, its message, and Aaron Lewis' whole career, bringing up the man's positive (or at least unique) qualities shows that he's not doing this review because he disagrees with Lewis or even that disagreeing with Lewis necessarily means he'll hate the song — he points out that he enjoys "Sweet Home Alabama" despite the Values Dissonance inevitable in a song celebrating one of the most conservative states in the Union. He's doing it because Aaron Lewis can't even make a good version of what he's trying to accomplish.
    • On top of not showing his face, Todd also doesn't give many specifics about his family's background in his videos. Here though, he reveals his family are immigrants (refugees, no less) and that he grew up listening to country, so he feels especially qualified to call Lewis a phony.
      Todd: I like America! I'm second-generation! My family didn't come here, they fled here. So I think I got a better understanding of America's positives than most! I certainly know it more than Aaron Lewis!
    • He also outright scoffs at Lewis taking digs at Bruce Springsteen, because implying that Springsteen is un-American is just patently untrue.
      Todd: Did you just find out that Springsteen is a Democrat?? 'Cause it's not a secret! It hasn't been for forty fuckin' years!
    • To top it all off, Todd draws a comparison between Lewis and Toby Keith that makes the song and its message even more pathetic:
      Todd: Like, I didn't like that Toby Keith bullshit either, but I get why people did. America was heading to war, and Toby Keith was out there playing the role of the high-spirited, smug cowboy singing about kickin' ass. If I was going into battle, that's who I'd want to imagine myself as! Just, like, a strutting arrogant dick who's not bothered by anything. I guess that's a sign of modern conservativism's shrinking self image: We went from confident, barrel-chested baritone Toby Keith "gonna put a boot in bin Laden's ass," and now we just have this bitter, shrieking lump of dough who sounds like he's shitting pinecones, screaming profanities at his television. It's more true to life, I guess, but who would want to admit that that's who they actually are?
  • The "Fancy Like" review starts off with Todd explaining why he listened to more country in 2020. ("Hot take: there's a lot of good country music out there. Eat me.") When he gets to mentioning that his 2020 year-end best list had a country song ("More Than My Hometown" by Morgan Wallen) at the top, the tone... changes:
    Todd: I even made a country song my #1 favorite song of that year. And I felt really good about that. I thought that was a good bold pick, and I just felt good. I felt really, really good. And then just a couple weeks after that, that stupid motherfucker started screaming the N-word on fucking camera! Are you fucking kidding me, you stupid piece of— (inhale) Still quite bitter about that. Thanks for ruining my list, jackass. Where's my apology? I'm the real victim here. No, it's really amazing when you look at it. He had just released the biggest and most anticipated country album in ages. So right when he got into position when he could do maximum damage, he immediately did it. Incredible. I can't believe that only happened this year.
    • This then leads into a digression about how "Nashville seems like it's tearing itself apart" while showing various clips of hot-button country music issues of 2021 (such as TJ Osborne coming out as gay, Travis Tritt cancelling shows at venues that require vaccine mandates, Mickey Guyton and Maren Morris speaking out against racism, Jason Aldean's family wearing anti-Joe Biden clothing, and Florida Georgia Line going on hiatus due to political disputes). His conclusion: "It's a shockingly fraught time for country." Even though Todd is mainly a pop critic, he clearly knows country music and seems to have no issue discussing it.
  • Todd's pick for Worst Hit Song of 2021 was Aaron Lewis' "Am I The Only One?". As if the scathing review he gave it (see above) wasn't enough, he managed to elaborate further.
  • The intro to Todd's #5 pick for his "Best Hit Songs of 2021" list.
    Politician in music video: [typing at his computer] Stupid...progressive...whores. Good job, Senator.
    Todd: Ha, I wonder what this could be a reference to.
    [a clip plays of conservative commentator Ben Shapiro discussing "WAP" by Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion]
    Ben Shapiro: Stripper behavior. I mean, this is stripper behavior on stage with music. I mean, that's what it is.
    Todd: Pancake that motherfucker.
    [back to the music video, the politician is run over by a garbage truck driven by...]
    Megan Thee Stallion: Hands on my knees, shakin' ass on my thot shit [text on screen: #5: "Thot Shit", Megan Thee Stallion] Post me a pic, finna make me a profit
  • Mixed with Funny, but Todd starts his Worst Hits Song of 2022 list by reiterating a point he's expressed in multiple prior lists: that he feels that the Worst lists are often too negative and he's thought about ending them to be more positive. He then gives the reason he decided not to end it at least for this year, however: He was watching the Grammy Awards, and while doing so realized that the Rolling Stone Twitter account was writing insipid "YASS QUEEN"-style live-tweets to fluff up popular artists, and digging up discovered that apparently the person in charge of the account was Rolling Stone writer Rob Sheffield, whose negative reviews inspired him back in the day. It was at that moment that Todd decided that if his only options are being negative like always and fluffing up the egos of millionaires, then he is not changing one bit.
  • Todd remaining perfectly calm and collected while ripping apart his pick for Worst Hit Song of 2022, "I'm Good (Blue)" by David Guetta and Bebe Rexha, which he calls out for its laziness and complete lack of creativity. A particular highlight is this scorcher of a Pretender Diss aimed at the latter:
    Todd: Bebe Rexha has only ever been a clip art stock photo of a pop star: a shallow facsimile of the real thing with no fan base, identity or memorable songs.
  • In his Best Hit Songs of 2022 he uses Spotify and other online services to expand on what constitutes a hit this year. One of his honorable mentions is "Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)" by Kate Bushnote . He says he didn't count it for the official list since it was released in 1985.
    Todd: And if I did count it, it would have crushed the competition. That's just not fair.
  • After coming back from summer vacation, Todd took the time to review "Rich Men North of Richmond" by Oliver Anthony, and since Todd is from Richmond, it ends up being one of his most personal videos because he knows the area and its history so well, particularly local politics and the racist past of the local Board of Education (something he had to teach when he was still working as a substitute)note . His summation of the song, however, is pretty concise.
    Todd: As it is, it's just another artifact of the culture war that I'm tired of and embarrassed for participating in.
    • Todd hears a line from the song shaming overweight people on welfare for buying junk food with their money, and it seriously rubs him the wrong way. He points out how disingenuous it was for Oliver Anthony to be surprised that his song became a conservative anthem after including lines like that, among other things, but tries to make a point of analyzing the song primarily on its musical merits rather than the politics surrounding it and makes a point that you shouldn't necessarily base your opinion on a song solely on its politics... and yet the line continues to weigh on him as numerous clips of the line being sang over and over again in videos and concerts and even once in traffic, and he just can't get past it. At first, he feels it's simply the message he feels the line conveys and he's just unable to professionally analyze the song... then it hits him, the line completely derails the whole song! The song's supposed to be about the wealthy upper class taking advantage of American rural communities, but after that line, the lyrics constantly bring up completely unrelated issues that don't tie into the main point of the song!
      • Rather than assuming the worst, Todd offered an alternate explanation for why Oliver Anthony claims to be a liberal-leaning centrist but wrote a song with so many conservative talking points. Having grown up in a rural community, he knows firsthand that a lot of people in more conservative areas are progressive by the standards of their hometowns/states, but only have that as a reference point for politics, and often retain a lot of conservative positions without realizing this is the case. Even if you disagree with his own politics, it's a refreshingly nuanced take on the subject.
  • In his Worst Songs of 2023 list, Jason Aldean's infamous "Try That in a Small Town" is at number 2. Todd begins by contrasting the song with the aforementioned "Rich Men North of Richmond," which was at number 5 on his list. While Todd felt sympathy for Oliver Anthony getting caught up in controversy that he didn't seem to want to be a part of and for the fact that he genuinely wanted to say something meaningful about the struggles of working class people, he has none whatsoever for Aldean, who seemed to know exactly what he was doing with his song. Therefore, Todd gives him no quarter as he tears the song to shreds.
    Todd: It's obviously a response to the BLM protests, and... yeah. If you, a white guy, see a bunch of black protesters and fantasize about you and your buddies chasing them down the road and beating the shit out of them... I mean, there's a word for that.
    Todd: Aldean lives in a fantasy world where the cities are all Death Wish 3 and small towns are Mayberry. No, not even Mayberry! Andy Griffith didn't threaten to pistol-whip anybody! Even if Aldean's small town was real, I wouldn't want to live there. Sounds way more dangerous, honestly! Sounds like there's a bunch of drunk, violent rednecks there!
    Todd: I'm not saying anyone has to love riots or violence, but, like, why did you think that shit was happening? Why do you think people are "spitting on cops?"
    Todd: He doesn't actually disagree with the reasons behind the protests because he doesn't know those reasons even exist! As far as he knows, people are out in the streets entirely because they wanted to mug your grandma!
    Todd: It's not just that he's stupid, he's stupid on purpose. He doesn't want to know why the cities have protests, he doesn't want to know why small Southern towns don't look like safety if you're a certain skin color. This is not just a racist song, it's a song about the right to be a fuckin' moron. You're not a defender of decency, you're a fuckin' thug.
    • Todd also calls out Aldean, country fans, and people who live in red states by pointing out small towns have just as much crime, homelessness, and drug addiction as cities do, if not more so.
    "Try that in a small town? Try that in a city, shit-kicker!"

    One Hit Wonderland 
  • EMF actually wrote to Todd saying they liked his "One Hit Wonderland" episode of their hit, "Unbelievable". Todd was admittedly confused, but even so.
  • In his episode of One Hit Wonderland on Snow's "Informer", even though he admits he doesn't really like the guy, Todd thinks the In Living Color! skit on him was way too harsh, especially in comparison to their gentler skits on Milli Vanilli and Vanilla Ice.
  • Calling out Crazy Town for using the suicides of "recently deceased, beloved celebrities" as cheap analogies in their rhymes.
  • During his review of Alien Ant Farm's "Smooth Criminal", Todd calls out the world on how Dead Artists Are Better, saying that Alien Ant Farm covered one of Michael Jackson's songs when he wasn't extremely popular. Furthermore, he mentions they looked past his reputation to cover one of his better songs.
  • Despite his extreme distaste for "One Tin Soldier", he admits that he really likes the chorus, a bitterly sarcastic recitation of people using religion to justify hatred, which then turns to the poignant image of a single toy soldier being all that's left of humanity.
  • The twist ending to the story of The Buggles: frontman Trevor Horn moved into producing for other bands, where he's become one of the biggest names in the business with a career that's going strong to this day.
    • Todd also brings to light that not only did Trevor Horn and Geoffrey Downes wind up joining Yes, but also that Downes was one of the founders of Asia.
  • The "Scatman" episode of One Hit Wonderland, as Todd tells the story, turns into an entire success story of awesome. Scatman John, aka John Larkin, took a lifelong problem with stuttering, and turned it into an incredible jazz scatting ability. Through a twist of fate, he then turned that into an improbable combination of jazz vocal and 90s eurodance, and became an international phenomenon. Combine that story with the positive messages the Scatman gave in his music, and Todd just can't help but love the guy.
    • It gets better. By the time we go through his follow-up songs after "Scatman", you think this flash-in-the-pan is over, but then we get the big twist - Scatman John became incredibly Big in Japan. As in, "one of the best-selling albums by a foreign artist in Japanese history" big in Japan. It didn't last, due to tragic circumstance, but it's still an incredible story that Todd obviously enjoyed telling (he once said on his Twitter that researching this episode was "one of the most fascinating journeys I've ever gone on").
  • The One Hit Wonderland episode on Loreena McKennitt's "The Mummer's Dance" is a notable achievement - Todd confesses right from the start that he is tackling a song he didn't really remember, from a style of music he has little to no familiarity with, and he still pulled off a reasonably informative and enjoyable episode. It was particularly well-received by his fans, too.
  • Similar to the above example, Todd shows that he did his homework for his episode on "Beds Are Burning" by Midnight Oil. Because he is aware of how little most people know of Australian history outside of Australia, and because Midnight Oil is rather intensely political, Todd delivers a staggering amount of context for several of Midnight Oil's songs, not just their big Stateside hit.
  • Todd calls out S Club 7 for calling Hanson talentless.
    Tina: (while explaining American terminology to the other S Club members, pointing to a drawing of an elevator on a whiteboard) This is a lift; over here, they call it an "elevator". (points to a drawing of three long haired teen-aged boys) This is Hanson; over here, they call them "talented".
    Todd: FUCK YOU! FUCK! YOU! HOW DARE YOU! (restraining himself) Hanson became a really good band when they got older! Yeah, I know it was the 90s and everyone clowned on Hanson, me included, but if there's one group of people who weren't allowed to diss them...
    (shows S Club 7 singing one of their teeny-bopper songs, "Reach")
    Todd: I'm just saying.
    (shows caption covering most of the screen saying "Hanson rules!")
  • Todd's rapid rapping of "Jump Around" by House of Pain in the One-Hit Wonderland episode covering the song.
  • The review portion of "Face Down" by The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus has Todd genuinely praise the Anvilicious nature of the song and how it covers Domestic Abuse. Whereas Todd thinks that most emo/nu-metal stuff is overly self-indulgent and whiny, "Face Down" covers a serious topic with the blunt nature it deserves: "Ooh, fuckin' big man, hitting a woman. Fuck you, dude." Todd even highlights how the band walked the walk, first pushing it as their first ever single, then filming anti-domestic abuse PSAs while the song was popular. At the end of the video, while Todd admits that most Christian rock irks him, this is one song that broke through the mold for a good reason, and he lavishes praise on The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus for helping abuse victims.
  • Todd once again goes above and beyond researching the history of Los del Río and "Macarena", to the point that he hired a Spanish translator to help him get context. While trying to trace the origins of the accompanying Macarena dance, Todd cites and shows several early 1990s regional newspaper articles that he tracked down.
  • In his OHW of White Town's "Your Woman", Todd notes that Jyoti Mishra (the man for whom White Town was essentialy a one-man project) kept doing increasingly lesser appearances (and eventually stopped appearing) in the music videos for later White Town releases due to being self-conscious about his image, at which point Todd notes that, despite this meaning that he only has a handful of photos of Mishra to work with, this includes one photo taken by papparazzi that he outright refuses to show, only showing the headline it came with to launch onto a brillantly scathing attack against British tabloid media.
    Todd: [while showing article that starts with the line "CHUBBY Jyoti Mishra is TUB of the pops"] Fuck off, UK tabloids! "Tub of the Pops". Oh, the biting wit.
    • Similar to the EMF example above, Mishra was such a fan of Todd's video that he not only left a comment on Todd's video, he edited the description of his official upload of "Your Woman"'s music video to welcome Todd in the Shadows fans.
  • Todd compliments Skee-lo and "I Wish" for the simple fact, unlike many other modern artists, despite the song being about how uncool and how nothing is going Skee-lo's way, he doesn't come across as trying to hard to push the narrative he's a loser or as if he whining about how life is unfair and he deserves better.

    Cinemadonna 
  • Determining to review every movie Madonna has been in. To specify, this doesn't just include her numerous star vehicles, but even ones where she had a supporting role. Including her Old Shame appearance in the no budget (and no talent) film A Certain Sacrifice, and the documentary Truth or Dare.
  • His absolute rage over how The Next Best Thing takes what could have been a great story far ahead of its time about gay rights, and wastes it on a horribly contrived Conflict Ball situation, with a protagonist that does some truly reprehensible things (essentially kidnapping her son away from his surrogate father, then hiring a lawyer that plays on the jury's homophobia to shame and belittle Robert in court) yet is somehow forgiven by the end. He ends up declaring this the first time throughout the numerous terrible films he's sat through for Cinemadonna that he's genuinely gotten angry at Madonna herself.
  • His review of Madonna's Swept Away remake is a very thoughtful — compare and contrast with the original Italian film, showing how despite near-identical plot beats the remake is far worse, and completely lacks the level of irony the original had to make its offensive subject matter worth the effort of defending.

    Trainwreckords 
  • Todd manages to give a pretty concise explanation as to what "cyberpunk" is in the Trainwreckords episode on "Cyberpunk".
  • In the Trainwreckords episode about Unplugged 2.0, he doesn't let Lauryn Hill off the hook for her pretensions and lack of professionalism; but he also doesn't let MTV and her record label off the hook either for releasing a low-quality performance of unfinished songs from an artist clearly in the midst of an emotional meltdown.
    Todd: Watching this, I felt like an enabler. And being forced to listen to this, I also felt insulted by her personally.
    • A small moment, but Todd is also willing to point out that once you get past the upbeat, genuinely good music on The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, a lot of the lyrics are actually (as he puts it) preachy and conservative. He says this as he highlights a line Lauryn is singing that, at face value, can be easy to assume the worst.
    Lauryn: Drifting from the way, [Eve] got turned down one day, and now she thinks that she's bisexual.
    (Beat)
    Todd: What's wrong with that, Lauryn?
  • His Trainwreckords episode on American Life by Madonna, arguably the epilogue of his Cinemadonna series. Cinemadonna was about Madonna's failures in film; American Life is about the end of her relevancy as a pop star.
  • His Trainwreckords episode about Robin Thicke's Paula is almost completely serious and sober, showing he doesn't need constant jokes or quips to make entertaining content. Todd admitted he didn't mean to do this going into it, and there are a few chuckle-worthy moments ("heh heh, in the Thicke of it"), but as a straight retrospective and review, the video stands on its own without the typical Caustic Critic style. It really puts into perspective how much Todd grew the beard during the 2010s.
    • Todd also mentions that, in hindsight, calling "Blurred Lines" a date-rape anthem was a bit of an overreaction on the part of critics, and he himself regretted throwing his hat into that discourse. That said, he doesn't blame people if they still don't like the song because of its smug, perverted tone.
      Todd: But there's no denying it's a skeevy, pushy song. And If it reminded people of every dipshit who wouldn't leave them alone at the bar, I don't blame them..
    • While Todd still has his problems with Robin Thicke (he flat-out admits that he hates looking at Thicke's face), he does concede that he likes the song "Living in New York City" - a surprisingly entertaining James Brown-homage - and the music from Thicke's previous albums, which show that Thicke does indeed have genuine talent as a musician and an appreciation for the classics.
  • The thorough research he did on the Trainwreckords episode about Cut the Crap by The Clash. This is notable because the album is in such firm Canon Discontinuity, from both the band and its fans, it borders on Orwellian Retcon; it's not included in box sets, most compilations don't have the singles (As Todd notes, only "This Is England" appears on any compilations), and most documentaries/books about the band barely mention it if at all. The fact Todd found any info or footage of The Clash from this time period is miraculous.
  • Much like Cut the Crap, Todd did a considerable amount of research into The Beach Boys' Summer in Paradise for Trainwreckords, despite the album being long out-of-print and considered Canon Discontinuity, even to the point of reading Mike Love's memoir.
    • Similarly, he lays into Mike Love throughout the review, but one standout example is calling out Mike Love's Dirty Old Man tendencies (especially during the video for "Summer of Love") as dirtier than the music of the 80s that sparked Tipper Gore's infamous music censorship campaign (which Mike Love supported).
  • Similar to the Mike Love example above, Todd doesn't hold back when the Arrested Development song "Warm Sentiments" turns out to be just as if not more sexist than the Gangsta Rap that the band decried as trash.
    • Fans also praised Todd for making an interesting episode out of such a thoroughly forgotten group like Arrested Development. Todd even said up top that more people associate the name "Arrested Development" with the TV show and not a rap group, so this might be a Trainwreckord that's under the radar. One commenter compared it to solving a mystery rather than bashing an obvious failure.
  • Similarly to Cut the Crap and Summer in Paradise, Todd manages to uncover enough pieces of information about Liz Phair's Funstyle to actually provide some adequate backstory despite how hard everyone tried to forget about it.
  • Todd's episode on Metallica's St. Anger has a few of these...
  • The Carpenters' song Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft was a very out-of-left-field choice for the group. One of the most straitlaced, whitebread acts in American pop music decided to cover a song by an obscure Canadian prog-rock group about contacting aliens. And it worked. Todd considered it not only the best song on the album Passages, he considered it to be one of the best songs in the Carpenters' catalogue, in no small part because Karen Carpenter can sell the role of goodwill ambassador for the planet Earth like nobody else.
  • The absolute commitment and dedication Todd had when making the episode on the definitely not a Scientology album note  Mission Earth by respected multi-instrumentalist Edgar Winter and the actual Goddamn L. Ron Hubbard; the video is about twice as long as an average episode of any of his series, involves a rare instance of shooting outdoors, required him reading the first volume and multiple independant summaries of the objectively too long Mission Earth saga to gain an idea of what the book the album is based on is like, had him buy two physical copies of the album because it is that obscurenote , and on top of all of that actually bought and read multiple books about Hubbard released by the Church and comparing it with obscure interviews of former members of the Church and his Inner Circle just to gain an inkling of the type of guy Hubbard was like! Trainwreckords was already becoming known by fans for its deep research on obscure topics but this video really shows just how far Todd can go when he really sets his mind to it.
  • In the Trainwreckords video on Katy Perry's Witness, Todd does a good job articulating his theory on pop star categories, which he's previously mentioned in the "Cyberpunk" episode with Katy as an example. Todd posits that some stars will always have fans even if they have a song or album that flops, and some stars will only have fans while they make successful hits, suggesting Katy Perry is in the latter category. Not only does he provide evidence of Katy's tracks falling off in popularity and hurting her image, but he also provides a direct counterpoint with Taylor Swift. On the same day Katy released her poorly-written diss track against Taylor, "Swish Swish" (paired with a highly cringeworthy video), he notes that Taylor released "Look What You Made Me Do", a song that at the time and in hindsight, many saw as embarrassing, inauthentic, and the starter of a poorly-received edgy image-obsessed phase for the album reputation. However, Todd notes that despite "LWYMMD" being the worse song musically in his eyes, it absolutely buried "Swish Swish" because Taylor had the fanbase to back her up through her most awkward and messy releases. Also near the beginning of the video? Todd speculates that Katy Perry's stan community never existed because he never received huge backlash for critiquing her throughout his career as a reviewer. It's a tragic but brutally insightful look at what makes certain careers crash and others weather lows.
    • The lead single, "Chained to the Rhythm", is a pop song about how pop music is stupid and distracts us from bigger issues going on in the world. It's not only Katy putting herself on blast for being part of the problem, but her fanbase for mindlessly going along with it. Todd rightfully points out fans were probably turned off to Witness because that's a really insulting position to take. And bear in mind, Todd doesn't even begrudge Katy for getting political. She did a lot of good for Hillary Clinton's Presidential campaign and joined the Women's March. But none of those women were wallowing in self-pity like Perry was.
      Katy Perry (singing): We're all chained to the rhythm, to the rhythm...
      Todd: Who's we Katy? Like, it's one thing if Katy doesn't feel good personally about her success. But saying we're all stupid for listening to her? Okay, screw you too! Listening to Katy Perry does not mean you were unaware of issues of the world. For a lot of people, Katy Perry was a relief from those problems! And even if you wanted Katy Perry to get deeper, is this the direction you really wanted her to go? Is this what people were crying out for, a song about the vacuousness of pop culture? Katy Perry was at the Women's March, surrounded by furious people ready to fight the power! How could she have missed that no one there wanted to wallow? They certainly didn't want to talk about how stupid pop culture brought us to this point. It's just pop music, who fucking cares? We have actual issues to worry about! Not everything's about you, Katy Perry!
    • In general, Todd's decision to examine Witness's poorly-received political bent as a matter of Katy failing her message, rather than, as some have claimed, an effective message that was doomed to fail because of the political zeitgeist. Todd points out how Katy herself is not the kind of person people expect "wokeness" from, making for a steep hill to climb, and, as mentioned above, "Chained to the Rhythm" disdains what made her famous and popular while missing the value of escapism. Furthermore, he notes how this "purposeful pop" album doesn't contain a whole lot of purpose: Multiple songs come across as purposeless and vapid without even having the appeal Katy could bring to that tone to make them worthwhile, and in some of the more meaningful songs, Katy didn't actually take any really bold, specific political stances, leaving her music vague in its advocacy. He also notes that her musical sound was out of step with the time and that her messages didn't work as well with the sound she paired with them. The failure of Witness was sad, as acknowledged in the video, but Todd also makes a compelling case that the "wokeness" wasn't the issue, but rather, that Katy failed to execute it properly.
  • From his Trainwreckords on Lost and Found by Will Smith:
    • Todd purposefully avoids talking about "The Slap" at the 2022 Academy Awards, where Will Smith slapped Chris Rock in the face. But considering he wrote and filmed his review less than a month after The Slap originally occurred, Todd sure deserves credit for his quick turnaround, especially since he's usually hard on himself for Schedule Slip. If nothing else, unlike most other commentators, he actually adds to the discussion by showing Will Smith had more anger brewing for longer than we realized.
      Todd: For the sake of my own safety and sanity, I will keep myself restricted to a single observation. [...] Maybe we did not know Will Smith as well as we thought we did.
    • While discussing Will's demeanor on his album track "I Wish I Made That", Todd points to one specific incident that really underlines the bitter, jealous and entitled attitude inherent in the lyrics: Will, while on BET's 106 & Park, started rapping the song to the beat of "How We Do"... essentially, ranting about how no-one in the African-American community will play his music, despite being on a platform organized by the same for the benefit of artists like him.
      Todd: [While clutching his head in disbelief] I cannot believe he's up there in front of a Black crowd lecturing them for not supporting him enough. You're already on 106 & Park, man! Rap about something else! This is like when I call home and my mom complains that I don't call home enough. It doesn't make me want to call home more! This crowd is not feeling it!
  • While it did contribute to some of the problems on "Crown Royal", (although Todd is skeptical his cooperation would've helped much) D.M.C. saw the direction Rev and Clive Davis wanted to take the album — load it with guest stars and chase the hot current trends. D.M.C., recently recovered from throat surgery that diminished his vocal range after years of yelling at the top of it, and by nature a quiet, conflict-averse man who'd been letting Run, a loud stubborn guy, walk all over him for years, didn't think that was the direction the group should be going. So, for once, D.M.C. stood his ground, stuck to his principles, and walked off the album entirely, refusing to be bullied or steamrolled into doing something he didn't agree with. The folk-rap album he made instead wasn't exactly great either, but he'd gotten big enough to do what he wanted and did.
  • For No Fixed Address, despite still being of the opinion that Nickelback is an awful band, he also points out that potshots at them are largely played out and tired. He even takes the time to defend them after Only Murders in the Building took a rather nonsensical potshot at them, calling them a "one hit wonder" when the key complaint about the band most people had was the exact opposite.

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