Lindsay Zoladz

Thanks for having me back.

I'll take the flip side of that.

I'll try to spin it more optimistically.

Thank you.

Just so we're not stuck in the mud here.

Everyone's going to get mad at me.

No, but I don't think you're wrong.

I think in terms of the mainstream, it was a very stagnant year.

And I think some of the biggest blockbusters of the year, you know, were huge in a commercial sense, but I found lacking artistically.

But the flip side of that is that I, you know, had some time and space in my year-end list to pay attention to things that were going on, like, under the radar, which I always am as a critic.

But I think because there was such a void of the big marquee names this year, it really...

presented an opportunity to dig a little deeper, find some new things that were unexpected, and come up with a list that felt a little more personal.

I think it was a year where there was not a big consensus pick or even a few consensus picks of the album of the year.

So I think out of that void and disappointment, if you will, there can also be a bright side.

I love it.

I consider it in the league of what Beyonce has been doing recently, where it's an album that is very informed by musical history and certain musical lineages.

You know, Beyonce in the Renaissance album and Cowboy Carter.

These two records that she's put out recently that feel, you know, very curated and like a conversation with the history of dance music, the history of country music.

I hear Bad Bunny doing that with the history of Puerto Rican music on this record.

It's really mining the past in this way that feels very personal but also very contemporary.