The Fairly KickAss Podcast

We regret to inform you, KickAss Faithful, that there were gremlins afoot. The previous episode, as you may already know, was either posted, or maybe was unposted, or there was a glitch in the matrix... I don't know. It's weird. It's all weird. This episode - our November 2025 album and charting single reviews - was also probably impacted by gremlins, and definitely not by just being late to post...

We regret to inform you, KickAss Faithful, that there are gremlins afoot. (No, unfortunately this isn't how we tell all of you that we somehow secured a partnership with Chris Columbus, Steven Spielberg, and Warner Bros., for the upcoming Gremlins movie, releasing November 19th, at a theater near you!) (Yes, we are actively trying to pursue this very partnership.) (No, it's not going well.) You mi...

We confessed again! Musically!! That's right, our critically-unacclaimed episode type, Musical Confessions, is getting another go-round. For those who didn't catch the first one from back in July of 2025, let me paint the scene for you: each of us poop-for-brains hosts went around and told a music-y thing. A statement, a story... anything. The rub: it may or may not have been true. It was up to th...

BOO!!!! Did I sc-oh heck, it's November now. Plus we did that same thing last week. Going to the well too many times? Can't be us. I digress. This is the Unsung, where we talk about folks that don't typically get talked about. We discuss influential people in the music industry whose popularity and acknowledgement doesn't always match their accomplishments and contributions. And Maestro David Kyle...

BOO!!!! Did I scare ya? I don't need to ask, of course I didn't. I'm sorry for wasting your time trying to tie this review to a nearby holiday. It was a mistake, and I regret the error. You know what I DON'T regret? These October reviews. That's not to say that things was great though. It was a solid, if mostly unimpressive, month on the album front. And the newly-charting singles were nearly all...

Over 75 million record sales worldwide. 32 total awards spread out across the biggest of 'em all in the UK - the Brit awards - as well as yearlies handed out on behalf of UK music magazines NME and Q. 10 successful tours, spanning the world over several times - including tour dates every year between 1994 and 2009 (with the execptions of 2004 and 2007). Responsible for the first billion-stream son...

I'm keeping this description short, because no matter how many words, or how big of language I use, I could never be as grandiose and over-the-top as hair metal is. It was a huge sound, made by huge personas, and delivered to huge audiences. We may be a few decades removed here in 2025, but the music still rings true - and we give it the ol' Mt. Rushmore treatment. It was one of the more interesti...

So we did a Billboard Rerank episode, where we reranked the Billboard End-of-Year chart to be more accurate to what is objectively correct. Because we know these things. We did 1990. Holy moly, 1990 was a year. Bangers, ballads, unexpected tracks from all genres. It truly was the sort of crossroads for the end of the 1980s, and what would come years later in the 90s. You know a lot of these songs,...

Oh hey! It's a little something I like to call "The Fairly KickAss Podcast". Ever heard of it? And to that end, have you ever heard of Max Martin? You may not realize that you are already acutely familiar of him, at least through his songwriting and production work. Early 2000s darlings like The Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, Britney Spears, Celine Dion, and Bon Jovi? Check. Big artists of today, like A...

It's the "30 Days" month! You know the rhyme. You've recited the rhyme to yourself, perhaps during the month of September. Does it have anything to do with music? Does it ever ? As usual, I digress. It's best albums. It's newly-charting singles. It's a LOT of Sabrina Carpenter. It's the hand that was dealt, as most of her most recent album, Man's Best Friend, charted. Is that a good thing or a bad...

Oh heck, the game is on! I better make this quick. Which game, you ask? Any of them! Take your pick. With so many beloved sports, that have been around for so long, fandom is a time-honored tradition. And a time-honored sort of sub-tradition is that of the tailgate. The literal meaning evokes imagery of the open tailgate of a pickup truck, playing the part of buffet table much better than anything...

To say that Joni Mitchell is one of the most influential songwriters, singers, and guitarists in the history of modern music is not hyperbolic. In fact, it's among the most truthful and least BS-based things we've said on this show. I believe we've said this about others before, but it applies here as well: Joni Mitchell recorded standards, sure, but she herself IS a standard. Legend. 1 of 1. Folk...

Is three too many new episode types for one year? Because that's what we're bringing to the table. Two words: Greatest Sh**s . (You can fill in the blanks. I believe in you.) The premise is this: we take an artist that is seen by a wide group of people - including some or all of us jerk hosts - as not being great. Critically panned. Goofed on. You can certainly think of some immediately, as could...

I apparently love August, at least inasmuch as what the "food months" are for August, according to Wikipedia. I haven't looked at other months, so I may love them all - food do be like that, after all. But here's what we were working with in August: National Catfish Month, National Dippin' Dots Month, Family Meals Month, National Goat Cheese Month, National Panini Month, Peach Month, Sandwich Mont...

When we write up these descriptions, we love to give you some funny insight, some witty repartee, some... something . However, when the thing does exactly what it says on the tin, it's tough. Enter: this week's REWIND episode, straight out of our vault, originally posted on September 27, 2023. The episode title is "Top 5 Happy-Sounding Sad Songs". And... yeah. That's pretty much it right there. Th...

John, Paul, George, and Ringo? Not today. Instead, let's go with John Paul (that's one guy), John, Jimmy, and Robert. We One Song'd the HELL out of one of the most legendary bands of all time. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? First ballot, of course. An entry on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list, from 2003? Try five... along with six songs on the Greatest Songs list from 2004. GQ Men...

Ah, SomeOnes. That time-honored tradition that we have tradished only once before, but traditions gotta start somewhere, right? ...right? The premise is simple in its complexity: each of us (Dan, J, and Zack, your KickAss Krew) get a randomly-generated year before the show. We then have to find a song that hit #1 on a chart (thus the name!), and write about it. That's it. That's the sum total of t...

I feel like, the more we do this podcast, the quicker things come back around. Like Monthly Reviews: we just did those a few days ago! Or so it seems. In reality, the reviews for June were posted on July 9th, which is about a month ago, which makes perfect sense. And yet... it feels so recent. Maybe this podcast is aging, right alongside us. Maybe this podcast is no longer "hip" with all the "ling...

Beats? Beats?? BEATS??? Beats. Beats is good. [nods] Yes, I ripped that dumb bit off of The Road to El Dorado... because it's a good bit! And it describes perfectly what we're talking about today, being beats. We listened to them... we istened to a LOT of them, in fact... and then we ranked them, in our usual way. It was one of the more fun listening journeys that we've been down, and the outcome...

2001: a year where a LOT of stuff changed. A year that we could talk about, for hours on end, and never once scratch the surface of music. But, despite how important the other historical things were, we absolutely have to scratch. Because our random number generator fell here, and we can't say no to a good ol' RNG. Specifically, that RNG gave us the year to take the year-end Billboard chart, and t...

**NEW EPISODE TYPE ALERT** **NEW EPISODE TYPE ALERT** Tell all your friends! The KickAss Krew is back with another pilot episode. We're calling this one Musical Confessions, and the concept is simple: each host comes to the show with an odd, interesting, or generally against-the-grain take in the world of music. It's something that they feel is true... unless it isn't, and it's a total lie. Who ca...

Yikes. Big yikes. Let it be known that we tried to make something out of June for these here monthly reviews, but it was tough . For once, all three of us had a super-mid month, with very few great newly-charting singles or albums to speak of. Not much more to say about it... at least not for us. But perhaps YOU have something to say! Maybe? Possibly? Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/fairlykickas...

OMG! Over here, over here! It's another FKA Rewind, where we take an episode that we already posted and repost it for all of you non-Spotify folk! It's a chance for you to experience new (to you) content without having to move away from your pod provider of choice. And let's just call it what it is: we basically get a week off. So without further ado's or adon't's, here is what we wrote when this...

Ass-Kickers, meet Sir Elton Hercules John. Sir Elton, Ass-Kickers. Now that we're properly introduced, let's get to the music! And there is a TON of it. You see, this is one of our One Song episodes, where we pick the best song of an artist's entire catalog. Thing is, this particular catalog is 31 FREAKING ALBUMS long. That's [counts on fingers] A LOT OF ALBUMS. But, faithful listeners, we don't s...

Ass-Kickers! We're back with a brand-new-old episode. You see, back in December of last year, we did our first Top 5 Redraft. "What's that?", you all say on cue because I mailed each and every one of you cue cards before writing this, and let's not talk about the shipping costs, okay? Anydangway, we took our Top 5 Songs to Ring in the New Year ep, originally posted in 2021, and put a fresh coat of...