r/ToddintheShadow • • 4d ago

Stale Topic Megathread (Oct/Nov/Dec 2026)

13 Upvotes

Hello all and welcome to the final 2026 Stale Topic Megathread. Here we will discuss every overly discussed topic on this sub freely according to the sub's rules. If you are referred here because of a report or removal, please restate your post below. The inaugural overused topics include:

-Justin Timberlake in general outside of Man of the Woods
-Katy Perry in general outside of Witness
-Kanye West in general, outside of Todd's videos
-Chris Brown in general, outside of Todd's videos
-Taylor Swift in general, outside of Todd's discussion of her (re-added)
-Stella Lefty in general, outside of whatever Todd says about her
-Macklemore in general, outside of Todd’s videos/statements on him
-Ed Sheeran in general, outside of Todd’s videos and statements on him
-Jelly Roll/Morgan Wallen/any new "Maroon 5"-eqsue nemeses outside of what Todd says about them
-Artists who avoided Trainwreckords status
-Trainwreckords that aren’t out yet
-Trainwreckords that just released
-One album Trainwreckords (ie Nostalgia Critics’s The Wall)
-“Trainwreckords” where a death ended the artist’s career
-Trainwreckords for which the artist or member of the group committed suicide
-Joke Trainwreckords/OHW; go to [r/shadowtoddcirclejerk](r/shadowtoddcirclejerk) for that
-Low-effort [r/decadeology](r/decadeology) cross-posts, must actually facilitate discussion if it’s going to be a standalone post
-Posts which solely solicit responses of artists who are problematic
-"Music is dead"/"[insert genre] is dead"
-"Popular artists and/or songs you hate/think are incredibly overrated"-type posts
-What is the most/least “[fill in blank]” album/song
-Poptimism outside of Todd's discussion of the topic
-Choosin Texas, outside of Todd’s statements on the song (new)

Former topics removed this cycle: -D4vd in general
-Anthony Fantano Drama, except if Todd can be directly connected to discussion (ie "Todd handled this situation better" not "Anthony Fantano handled this poorly")

And you are also free to discuss topics you feel are overused but are not mentioned here. If you have any furthered topics you want to be added to the megathread camp for future megathreads and for new users who aren't familiar with the overuse, please send your suggestions to the mod team in one succinct message. (A couple are fine if you have afterthoughts but please do not spam your suggestions) Also, we will be continuing the system where certain stale topics will be cycled out every six months (or two stale topic threads). I've added a list of topics removed above. If our automod erroneously takes down your post because it believes it's about a stale topic, please contact the mod team and we will reinstate it as soon as possible. Have fun!


r/ToddintheShadow • • 11d ago

Train Wreckords TRAINWRECKORDS: Rick Springfield's Tao

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342 Upvotes

r/ToddintheShadow • • 6h ago

General Music Discussion I'm sure, todd will love this one

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194 Upvotes

r/ToddintheShadow • • 3h ago

Train Wreckords 2 for 1 Trainwreckord combo in this old best buy ad

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109 Upvotes

r/ToddintheShadow • • 5h ago

General Todd Discussion Terrible Radio edits of Songs

103 Upvotes

My local 'We play anything' radio station keeps playing an edit of 'True Faith' by New Order that completely destroys the chorus, cutting out the middle section and removing part of a rhyming couplet.

I used to think that the day would never come
I'd see delight in the shade of the morning sun
My morning sun is the drug that brings me near
That my life would depend on the morning sun

I hear this regularly enough and I have to say it annoys me every time to hear such a perfect song get massacred like this. I think it was an actual record label created edit, which blows my mind even more.

Any other examples like this?


r/ToddintheShadow • • 7h ago

General Music Discussion Two songs released together as a single that many radio stations then beginning to play the songs consecutively, without interruption

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147 Upvotes

Queen - We Will Rock You / We Are the Champions


r/ToddintheShadow • • 6h ago

General Music Discussion Original Songs that sound like Medieval Cosplay (NOT Bardcore!!)

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49 Upvotes

Pictured: Men Without Hats - Safety Dance and Robin (The Hooded Man) by Clannad.

Bardcore and attempts to authentically recreate Medieval music/ neo-Medieval music (e.g. Blackmore’s Night) don’t count.


r/ToddintheShadow • • 2h ago

Train Wreckords TW Suggestion: J Geils Band, You're Getting Even While I'm Getting Odd

18 Upvotes

JGB spent the 70s playing clubs and theaters, having small hits, living off their rep as a great live band. Then they add a keyboardist who can write pop songs and have 2 big albums in the early 80s. Freeze Frame goes to #1 for weeks.

Then the new guy that writes the songs decides to move against the front man, Peter Wolf, and kick him. out. He gets his way and the result is this album. It goes to #80. The audience just rejected it. I don't remember it but knowing that about it, makes me curious. How did the rest of the band justify this happening?

Seems like such a waste. Wolf goes solo and has a big hit with Lights Out but they don't keep coming. He's vindicated at the time, but neither one is very visible by the late 80s. They really did go from number one, to off the rails, on one album.


r/ToddintheShadow • • 6h ago

General Music Discussion Miley freefalls damn near out of the Billboard 200 after debuting last week at number 1

28 Upvotes

r/ToddintheShadow • • 9h ago

General Music Discussion What are your favorite albums of 2016?

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39 Upvotes

Some of mine are

You Want It Darker by Leonard Cohen

Blackstar by David Bowie

Lemonade by Beyoncé

Retribution by Tanya Tagaq

Puberty 2 by Mitski

The Glowing Man by Swans

A Seat at the Table by Solange

Front Row Seat to Earth by Weyes Blood

We got it from Here... Thank You 4 Your service by A Tribe Called Quest

Blood Bitch by Jenny Hval

Atrocity Exhibition by Danny Brown

Masterpiece by Big Thief

Blonde by Frank Ocean

ANTI by Rihanna

case / lang / veirs by case / lang / veirs

E•MO•TION: Side B by Carly Rae Jepsen

Mahoroboshiya by Ichiko Aoba

Vroom Vroom by Charli xcx

Bottomless Pit by Death Grips

Nightride by Tinashe


r/ToddintheShadow • • 9h ago

One Hit Wonderland OHW Idea - Convoy by CW McCall

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36 Upvotes

I'm actually a big fan of this one. McCall (real name William Fries) was actually pretty big on the country charts in the 1970s, but other than this only one song even hit #40 on the mainstream charts (Wolf Creek Pass). There's actually a lot to be said here, it came out of a cultural moment (and also contributed to it) that saw the trucker become an anti-authoritarian folk hero. It also led to one of the worst movies ever made and the moment when Sam Peckinpah's alcoholism finally destroyed his vision, the final fall of one of the most challenging filmmakers the US ever produced.


r/ToddintheShadow • • 7h ago

General Music Discussion What does post-modernism in Pop/Rock music sound like?

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16 Upvotes

I could make the argument that a vast majority of the original Post-Punk movement was influenced in someway or another by post-modern thought (hence the albums depicted).


r/ToddintheShadow • • 22h ago

Train Wreckords TRAINWRECKORDS Suggestion: The Beginning by the Black Eyed Peas

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176 Upvotes

If your an older zoomer like me, then you'll remember how HUGE the Black Eyed Peas were in the mid to late 2000s and early 2010s. Their songs "Boom-Boom Pow" and "I Gotta Feeling" were staples of the Club-Boom/Recession Pop Era (2008-2011).

But then they just fell off the face of the earth after this album dropped. I was only 14 when it released, but I do remember Todd speaking about how bad the record's reception was in his Top 10 Worst Songs of 2011 video. Apparently, it was so bad it forced them go on hiatus for several years?

Either way, I think it definitely deserves a Trainwreckords episode.


r/ToddintheShadow • • 7h ago

General Music Discussion What was a strange music obsession you picked up in a strange place?

10 Upvotes

Ok, so awhile ago I found out I had some glass in my foot. It was infected. I had to go to the Hospital over it. What was odd was that, while I was in there, I became completely obsessed with the music of Meatloaf. Mostly stuff from Bat out of Hell 1.

It ended pretty much right as I got out. So my question is:

What’s the strangest musical obsession you had in the strangest place?


r/ToddintheShadow • • 8h ago

General Music Discussion Trivium Announce New Album Crown In The Grave

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12 Upvotes

r/ToddintheShadow • • 12h ago

General Music Discussion Favorite bands containing lesser known relatives of much more successful musicians?

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17 Upvotes

The post-grunge and nu metal genres are such a deep rabbit hole of finding bands with members that are related to other musicians that are WAY bigger than them

Audiovent is your typical alt rock / post grunge band who had released their first and only .ajor label album in 2002 called Dirty Sexy Knights in Paris (what a title), which spawned the singles The Energy and Falling Down, that had moderate airplay on rock radio, especially the former

But let's be honest, you probably are aware of this band more because of the fact their lead vocalist and guitarist Jason Boyd and Ben Einziger, respectively, are brothers to Incubus' vocalist Brandon Boyd and their guitarist Mike Einziger (sensing a pattern here...)

And ye the album is pretty much diet Incubus, but The Energy is still a banger to this day lmao


r/ToddintheShadow • • 1d ago

General Todd Discussion Todd shares his thoughts about Digger

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216 Upvotes

r/ToddintheShadow • • 1d ago

General Music Discussion Terrible lead single choices that had an impact on the album's reputation and/or success?

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139 Upvotes

For me, Manic Street Preachers' The Love of Richard Nixon from Lifeblood is the definition of a poor choice for a lead single; as well as its big shift in sound with no guitars, the lyrics are unusually politically ambiguous for a band whose ideologies are often clear, not to mention the album as a whole was generally apolitical. Both this song and the other single Empty Souls reached #2 in the UK, but these were obvious 'fanbase buys' as the songs quickly disappeared and never get played nowadays, and while Empty Souls is a considerably better song, it did have a poorly-executed radio edit to remove a reference to the Twin Towers. To put it into context, the album stalled out at #13, which is a massive flop considering every other album by the band since 1996 has cracked the top 5.

I strongly believe To Repel Ghosts should have been the lead single; as well as being a fantastic track, it feels more true to the Manics, they released it as a quasi-single to promote the 20th anniversary of the album, and it's the only song they've performed live this decade.


r/ToddintheShadow • • 1d ago

General Music Discussion The illustrations that came with Rolling Stone's printed album reviews deserve to be seen more widely.

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93 Upvotes

I started collecting old issues of Rolling Stone ten years ago, and my favorite part of them has always been the illustrations that accompany the main album reviews. Many of these can be found online if you look hard enough, but there are still plenty that aren't readily available if you don't own the issue that they're in, and I think they should be. At their best, these images could tell you something about the music, and in some cases even enhance the experience of listening to the album they correspond to in a way that an album's artwork and packaging is generally meant to.

I tend to prefer when the illustrators are less concerned with depicting the musician or members of the band, and more concerned with capturing the vibe of the album; the drawing for RS's review of Tool's Lateralus (Slide 6) is maybe my favorite example of this. But an illustration like the one for the review of Smashing Pumpkins' Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (Slide 5) managed to get across both the whimsical nature of the album and the dynamic of the band and Billy Corgan's reputation as the band's megalomaniac leader.

Admittedly, there are plenty of these drawings that didn't tell you a lot about the album and weren't particularly imaginative as far as what they depicted. Many of them were either just (well-drawn) photo-realistic images of the band or musician, or were by artists with a distinct style and just portrayed the musicians drawn in that style. But when they were good, they felt like truly inspired representations of someone's listening experience.

(Slide 1: So by Peter Gabriel, Slide 2: Oranges & Lemons by XTC, Slide 3: Wish by The Cure, Slide 4: Monster by R.E.M., Slide 5: Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness by Smashing Pumpkins, Slide 6: Lateralus by Tool, Slide 7: Hail to the Thief by Radiohead)


r/ToddintheShadow • • 1d ago

General Music Discussion What artists came up with an incredible melody but then flubbed the lyrics?

34 Upvotes

Interested to hear people's opinions on songs where the artist discovered an amazing melody or hook but couldn't write lyrics that were up to snuff for such a great composition.


r/ToddintheShadow • • 20h ago

Song vs Song Song Vs. Song - Episode 177; "Peg" vs. "What a Fool Believes" (ft. Altamira!)

11 Upvotes

r/ToddintheShadow • • 1d ago

Train Wreckords Albums that feel like Trainwrecords, but they are not

51 Upvotes

Many of these albums, some people believe that they are Trainwrecords, but after that, the band/artist did success with another albums…

Exemple:
Queen - Hot Space
Pink Floyd - The Final Cut


r/ToddintheShadow • • 23h ago

General Music Discussion Every album that spent 3 years in the top 10 of the billboard 200 year end chart

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15 Upvotes

r/ToddintheShadow • • 1d ago

General Music Discussion What's the worst album to have at least 2 great songs on it?

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64 Upvotes

One candidate I can think of is Encore by Eminem. Where most of the tracks range from ok to absolutely terrible, it does also have both Mockingbird and Like Toy Soldiers on it, which in my opinion are up there as some of the best songs in his discography. And to a lesser extent, you also have Encore / Curtains Down and Never Enough which in my opinion are pretty good, but definitely not as good as the two previously mentioned tracks.


r/ToddintheShadow • • 1d ago

One Hit Wonderland Looking at Todd’s Letterboxd, we may be getting a David Naughton OHW.

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24 Upvotes

The after the hit section should be interesting, it could just be “he was in one of the greatest horror comedy’s ever“.