The ceremonial first Monthly Reviews ep of the year! It's like a first pitch in baseball, only there's no baseball... or home plate... or field you know what, I miscalculated, that was on me.
But a Monthly Reviews ep by any other name would smell as sweet, as the great William Shakespeare said, or - if you're tight with him like I am - Willy Shakes. He likes that name. Give it a try next time you see him.
It's the usual drill: J and Zack go over their top three albums of the month, Dan hits all the best and worst newly charting singles in the Billboard Top 40, we talk about some outliers, and call it a day.
It's fun! Oh please let it be fun, otherwise I don't know what we're even doing here. I guess that one is up to all of you though... is it fun? Are WE fun? Did you have fun with any new music in January? Let us know in the usual ways:
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/fairlykickass.bsky.social
Instagram: https://instagram.com/fairlykickass
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fairlykickass
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@fairlykickass
Website (for Ride-Along Playlists): https://fairlykickass.com/

Next week: A perhaps slightly-late discussion of those music awards. You know the ones. They come along every year, and yet somehow, someway, we forgot about them this time around. We'll make up for it and move on though!
And we hope all of you move on to Keep. Kicking. Ass.

Ugh.
We listened to a LOT of Maroon 5 for this episode.
We listened to TOO MUCH Maroon 5 for this episode.
We made it out the other end, but definitely worse for wear. And yet, these are the lengths that we will go to for all of you, dear listeners.
It's our second-ever Greatest Sh**s episode, where we take an oft-panned band and put together a sort of "greatest hits" release, consisting of one song from each of their albums.
In the process, we try to determine if they deserve the ire that they've received over time. Nickelback was first, because of course they were, but Maroon 5 felt like a good follow-up. Which... I guess it kinda was?
We regretted our choice immediately, but we pushed through 8 albums and 99 tracks - along with another 11 songs on their first album, when they were known as Kara's Flowers. We talked about all of this, with the energy of a halibut that somehow found its way into a non-Newtonian fluid.
(Trust me, that sentence was the most interesting part of this discography, and by extension, this episode.)
So I guess if you really want to, you can let us know on the socials whether our picks were proper, or if there are other songs that you would go with instead for these albums:
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/fairlykickass.bsky.social
Instagram: https://instagram.com/fairlykickass
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fairlykickass
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@fairlykickass
Website (for Ride-Along Playlists): https://fairlykickass.com/

Next week: Something much, MUCH more exciting. We're still working on what that is, and as soon as we know, you'll know. You know?
Until then, Keep. Kicking. Ass.

On today's episode, we're gonna talk about a band that has went through several bad band names (shout-out Tom McGovern) in their early years, including Sigma 6, The Meggadeaths, The Abdabs, The Screaming Abdabs, The Spectrum Five, Tea Set, and Leonard's Lodgers (the band lived in a flat owned by Mike Leonard in their early years).
Thank goodness founding member and initial frontman Syd Barrett had two specific Blues albums in his collection: one by South Carolina's Pink Anderson, and the other from North Carolina's own Floyd Council.
What followed was 15 studio albums, spanning nearly fifty years from 1967 to 2014, as well as 250 million claimed record sales worldwide. Finally, a good band name for legendary English band, and the subject of this here One Song, Pink Floyd.
For those who don't know the drill yet, here it is: we get a discography. We pick the best song in the discography. We have two minutes to convince all of you that each of us is correct.
Easy, right? Well, sometimes it's easier than others, but this wasn't one of those times. There was a LOT of meat on this particular bone, and all of it was succulent and well-seasoned. (I'm hungry, sorry.)
But we still have to do The Thing™, and do The Thing™ we did! Come join us in our quest to find One Pink Floyd song to rule them all, one song to find them, one song that had roast beef, one song that... wait, I got off track. How about some socials instead, if you would like to tell us what you think the One Song truly is for Pink Floyd?
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/fairlykickass.bsky.social
Instagram: https://instagram.com/fairlykickass
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fairlykickass
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@fairlykickass
Website (for Ride-Along Playlists): https://fairlykickass.com/

Next week: A lot of Adam Levine. Some of y'all may have feelings about his body of work. We do for sure, and we're excited to share those feelings.
And we hope that all of your are excited to share some Ass Kickings with the world, and then to Keep doing it.

Remember when Henry is doing all the intros in Goodfellas, and he comes across Jimmy Two-Times? The guy who says "I'm gonna get the papers, get the papers"? That guy.
This episode is basically that guy. Lemme explain.
To kick off the year properly, we're taking a time-honored theme - one-hit wonders - and adding MOAR. One MOAR, to be exact, to bring the number of hits to two (ahh-ahh-ahhhh).
There are a million-billion-fufillion examples of one hit wonders, so two-hit wonders should be just as easy... right? Well, about that: it wasn't. We had some guardrails in place to make sure we stayed on-course, which some of us followed more faithfully than others... but ultimately, we did come up with three solid lists.
But what about all of you? Do you have a wonder of two hits that you would like to share with the class? (if it wasn't clear, WE are the class)
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/fairlykickass.bsky.social
Instagram: https://instagram.com/fairlykickass
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fairlykickass
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@fairlykickass
Website (for Ride-Along Playlists): https://fairlykickass.com/

Next week: One Song to rule them all! And considering that we're talking about a sort of prog band from the 1960s/1970s, it's a fair analogy to use. Altho it's not that band... it's the other one. That should be a dead giveaway.
You know what YOU should give away? Your Ass Kickings. And then Keep doing it. Hell yeah.

That's it for 2025. Anotehr year of Kicking Ass in the books. This episode gives it a nice little bow on top, as we cover our favorite albums and songs from the entire year. And then we wipe the slate clean and do it all over again!
It was a fantastic year in music, and a fantastic year to be a steward of this Good Ship KickAss. All of you make this awesome, every single year, and we want to say thank you! Serioualy, all of you are the very best listeners we could ask for.
How was the year in music for all of you? What did you like? Artists, albums, songs, events? Let us know in all the usual ways:
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/fairlykickass.bsky.social
Instagram: https://instagram.com/fairlykickass
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fairlykickass
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@fairlykickass
Website (for Ride-Along Playlists): https://fairlykickass.com/

Next week: A break. We'll be back the following week with our first episode of 2026. Big things on the horizon from us. Very exciting stuff.
And for one more time as 2025 ends around the world, we remind you, this coming year, and in every year, to Keep. Kicking. Ass.

Happy Holidays, Ass-Kickers! This is an episode that we originally released in December of 2022... over three years ago, sheesh. We gave you our work-up on holiday standards last week (go check it out if you haven't yet), and this week we're going more modern. These are ones that you probably won't find playing at your local department store, or on the tinny speakers at the family get-together that you're taking in. But they're all lovely jams all the same.
We'll keep this brief and let you get to the episode - but as always, let us know what you think in all the usual ways:
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/fairlykickass.bsky.social
Instagram: https://instagram.com/fairlykickass
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fairlykickass
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@fairlykickass
Website (for Ride-Along Playlists): https://fairlykickass.com/

Next week: Say goodby to 2025! It's our End-of-Year-Stravaganza, with a special guest host to boot. You can't be mad at that.
You know what else you can't be mad at? Kicking. Ass. That's what.

There's no place like KickAss for the holidays - and that's exactly what we're gonna be talking about here. Specifically, those standards that you hear - on the radio, in the supermarket, walking down the street in some cases. How did those songs come to be "standards", anyway? Which ones were written in the 19th century - or earlier - and which are less than 100 years old? And what does the future hold for holiday standards?
Thankfully, we have answers to all those questions and more in this Vibes episode. We vibe. We talk. We chat. No structure, no lists, no BS. Just vibes.
Did you vibe with the episode? Let us know in all the usual ways:
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/fairlykickass.bsky.social
Instagram: https://instagram.com/fairlykickass
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fairlykickass
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@fairlykickass
Website (for Ride-Along Playlists): https://fairlykickass.com/
Next week: An FKA rewind! We gave you the holiday standards, and next week we'll give you the unique, the weird, the fun.
You know what else is fun? YOU are. Keep being fun, and Keep. Kicking. Ass.

Hi! KickAss here. This is our Billboard Rerank/Rerack/Reorder episode type... call it any/all of the above, or anything else that you'd like!
The premise is simple: we take the Billboard Year-End chart for a given year - this episode was 2003, which was admittedly less than ideal - and we update the ranking to what is correct. And by "correct", we mean each of our three hosts' versions of correct. That's a lot of correctness, I tell you hwhat.
TBut enough about us! It's time to talk about you. Namely, how you can talk to us - preferably about us:
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/fairlykickass.bsky.social
Instagram: https://instagram.com/fairlykickass
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fairlykickass
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@fairlykickass
Website (for Ride-Along Playlists): https://fairlykickass.com/

Next week: We finally kick off our holiday episodes, starting with a discussion on what makes a holiday standard. Old? New? Borrowed or blue? We'll cover a great many of them.
But until then, we will be sure to cover when you Keep. Kicking. Ass.

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 it. That would be weird. Blame the gremlins, please.
While you're at it, drop us a line and tell us how much you hate those pesky buggers for messing with this lovely podcast
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/fairlykickass.bsky.social
Instagram: https://instagram.com/fairlykickass
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fairlykickass
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@fairlykickass
Website (for Ride-Along Playlists): https://fairlykickass.com/
Next week: Billboard. Rerank. 2023. It was a rough year for the charts, and we'll tell you all about it. Right after we tell you to Keep. Kicking. Ass.

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 might have seen this episode out in the wild already, because, as far as we know, it was already posted. Whyfore is it not posted now? Please see above for discussion of gremlins. But all that matters is that it's here now, for as long as it's here, before it's not. If it ever was. Ugh, maybe we'll have to cut down on the late night McDonald's runs for the lil guys.
Since this is a sort of repost, I'll keep it brief: each of us takes a #1 song and talks about it. #1 on any chart, in any country, on any planet. It's been Earth so far, but will it always be Earth? Hard to say.
What's much easier to say is the names of all of these social media accounts, since it's the same exact name for each, that being @fairlykickass! Seriously, check out how good we did with our brand synergy:
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/fairlykickass.bsky.social
Instagram: https://instagram.com/fairlykickass
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fairlykickass
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@fairlykickass
Website (for Ride-Along Playlists): https://fairlykickass.com/
Next week: Last review of the year! Only a month or so of Kicking. Ass. left for 2025, but you can't stop now: you gotta Keep. doing it.