https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEVq7Gji744
― a pun based on a popular ilx meme (forksclovetofu), Sunday, 7 November 2010 15:30 (thirteen years ago) link
Check out the Gloriana album from last year. Very country-pop.
― Mordy, Sunday, 7 November 2010 15:53 (thirteen years ago) link
I'm not feeling the same strong emotional response to anything on the new album as I did to at least a few songs on Fearless, and her overall sound has never been a draw for me. Like somehow I liked the other things I liked in spite of the sound, or in spite of not being into it very much musically. Maybe once I start hearing these songs in other contexts, rather than just listening to the whole album, it will make a difference.
― _Rudipherous_, Sunday, 7 November 2010 16:09 (thirteen years ago) link
You've got your pick of singles.
― sandra lee, gimme your alcohol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 7 November 2010 16:11 (thirteen years ago) link
Deana Carter does some nice female county-pop also.
― Moreno, Sunday, 7 November 2010 19:04 (thirteen years ago) link
Yeah, I was going to say that, as far as I can tell, nobody in country has ever really done what Taylor is doing now (or sounded the way her new album does, especially), but if you want something in the general neighborhood Carter's Did I Shave...?, I'm Just A Girl, and The Story Of My Life might not be bad places to start. Also, there were definite attempts at teen-pop (or at least early '20s) girl-country in the '00s (Jessica Andrews, Alecia Elliott, Rebecca Lynn Howard, Cyndi Thompson), though those albums were all a lot spottier than any of Taylor's. Martina McBride (best on Martina and Greatest Hits) has some great songs. Love & Theft (featuring Stephen from the Taylor song)'s "Runaway" and Mallary Hope's "Blossom In The Dust" are best non-Taylor teen-country of the past couple years to my ears. Laura Bell Bundy and Chely Wright put out really good (if kinda uneven) albums this year. Sunny Sweeney's "From A Table Away" is one of the best singles of 2010 period (and lots of people on Singles Jukebox agree with me on that.) Kellie Pickler's Small Town Girl and Ashton Sheppherd's Sounds So Good are good albums from a couple years back; and also, yeah, all three Miranda Lamberts but especially her first two. ("Mean" to me basically sounds like a Miranda Lambert song.) And there's always the Dixie Chicks. And maybe Michelle Branch's country group the Wreckers, who I've never really gotten into, but obviously she was doing teen confessional stuff as a solo artist a few years before Taylor was. Etc.
― xhuxk, Sunday, 7 November 2010 19:26 (thirteen years ago) link
Also, lots of people around here seem to like Little Big Town, who basically sound like minor league Fleetwod Mac, though their new album is really bleh beyond the single "Little White Church." Previous two -- A Place To Land and The Road To Here -- were pretty great, though.
― xhuxk, Sunday, 7 November 2010 19:30 (thirteen years ago) link
As for Jamey Johnson, his new album will probably make my Top 10, though probably lower than Taylor's, and he doesn't really have anything in common with her. Though he does do a lullaby to his daughter that has fairy tale-ish stuff in it. Anyway, his album had its own thread, too:
Who wants to talk about Jamey Johnson's new double album, The Guitar Song?
― xhuxk, Sunday, 7 November 2010 19:49 (thirteen years ago) link
I haven't listened to an entire album from them, so I can't speak to their quality, but Sugarland seems to fall pretty squarely into this category.
New album's awful, though in a theoretically interesting (on paper) way -- somebody on Rolling Country called it Melissa Etheridge fronting Coldplay, which sounds about right. Best albums are their first and third, Twice The Speed Of Life and Love On The Inside, which both have some really good pop-country songs and a bunch you'll probably want to skip over.
And a lot of people here and on the Jukebox also swear by Lady Antebellum's huge drunk dialing song "Need You Now" from late last year. Both of their albums have other worthwhile moments, but not a lot.
― xhuxk, Sunday, 7 November 2010 20:07 (thirteen years ago) link
"need you now" is def instant classic
― odd future tea party kill them all (J0rdan S.), Sunday, 7 November 2010 20:09 (thirteen years ago) link
I'll defend the last Lady Antebellum album as pretty good. Second tune "Our Kind of Love" is awes.
― Tim F, Sunday, 7 November 2010 22:00 (thirteen years ago) link
"Our Kind of Love" is the only non-"Need You Now" track that's even memorable. I guess I'm disappointed because of how great "Need You Now" is; most of the album aims at okay.
― sandra lee, gimme your alcohol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 7 November 2010 22:08 (thirteen years ago) link
Eh, I actually like "Stars Tonight" (just a really catchy hard pop-rock song with a good tough riff, basically) almost as much as "Need You Now" these days. And "American Honey" always sounds good to me on the radio. But given the choice overall, I'd still take their debut, I think.
― xhuxk, Sunday, 7 November 2010 22:37 (thirteen years ago) link
agree w/this apart from not even remembering that other one - was so disappointed with the lady anteb album, though "need you now" is and will remain classic 4eva
― lex lex lex lex lex on the track BOW (lex pretend), Monday, 8 November 2010 02:36 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah 'need you now' is absolutely great, love the dual vocals
― whiney trollins vs. hipsters (dayo), Monday, 8 November 2010 02:38 (thirteen years ago) link
I'm really growing into the last third/quarter of this album - they did feel same-y as Alfred noted at first, but they're really coming into their own.
also finding "story of us" quite interesting because it may be the most explicit song yet w/r/t to Taylor's authorial instinct. seems everything she experiences is mediated through an authorial, narrative lens. really like how she signposts the narrative with spoken snippets like "next chapter" and "the end". are any of her songs written in the present tense?
― dayo, Tuesday, 9 November 2010 13:33 (thirteen years ago) link
i like how "story of us" is all rooted in one small experience -- being in a crowd with an ex (or soon-to-be-ex) and not knowing how to act -- and builds the narrative of the relationship from there, but keeps coming back to the details of the moment. the same way "enchanted" is built around the specific feeling of having just met someone and not yet knowing whether they have a girlfriend (or boyfriend, or whatever). she's really good at identifying particular feelings and moments, which i think is what sets her songwriting apart, lyrically. a lot of pop songwriting rests on sort of generic universalisms ("love," "want," "need," "hate," etc), but she's more show-don't-tell. or at least, show-and-tell.
― a tenth level which features a single castle (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, 9 November 2010 13:46 (thirteen years ago) link
When I haven't listened to this album for a day or two I catch myself thinking it's not what it could be, but then when I actually listen to it I'm thrilled, joyful, singing along. I may come to conclude that the lyrics here, on the whole, won't enthrall me like nearly every single line on 'Fearless', but the songs are just too damn good to really feel any sort of disappointment.
Speaking of Story of Us, another Taylor trope, going from the abstract to the physical in one line:"you held your pride like you should have held me". As in Our Song (on hand on the wheel, other on her heart), I'd Lie ("He looks around the room, innocently overlooks the truth") and others...
― abcfsk, Tuesday, 9 November 2010 13:52 (thirteen years ago) link
and on "last kiss": i feel you forget me like i used to feel you breathe
(total heartbreak of a line)
― a tenth level which features a single castle (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, 9 November 2010 14:39 (thirteen years ago) link
This is a really excellent album; can't add much to what's been said on this thread, & I feel so tardy in hearing it but I guess it's only been out a couple of weeks? The first five songs are really stellar: I love the rough theme of protection, of putting up walls; these are surely comments on stardom but don't require being a star. I'm less enchanted by the middle third of the album but like with Fearless's second half it'll grow on me after the 100 listens it'll be getting. I'm delighted at how huge this album sounds: phalanxes of Taylors fleetly pulling off contemporary country's Mac fix; she's singing the hell out of these songs.
― Euler, Saturday, 13 November 2010 22:05 (thirteen years ago) link
It's so good!!!! RT @matsoR: I just bought Taylor Swift's new album. I'll let you know what I think. about 3 hours ago via Echofon Retweeted by 4 people
bestycoastyyBEST COAST
― markers, Sunday, 14 November 2010 21:27 (thirteen years ago) link
@matsoR = Rostam from Vampire Weekend
has TaySwift gone viral [via buzzbands]?
― Gukbe, Sunday, 14 November 2010 21:39 (thirteen years ago) link
lol
― markers, Sunday, 14 November 2010 21:44 (thirteen years ago) link
please please please taylor no weezer collab
― reallysmoothmusic (Jamie_ATP), Sunday, 14 November 2010 21:44 (thirteen years ago) link
weasler
― forksclovetofu, Sunday, 14 November 2010 21:55 (thirteen years ago) link
I'm not willing to listen enough to be able to express this more specifically, but there's not much for here musically. Yes, maybe some of these songs will grow on me with more exposure, but I'm not going to turn that into some sort of assignment.
― _Rudipherous_, Monday, 15 November 2010 00:14 (thirteen years ago) link
do report back
― overtheseas aeroplanes I have flown (k3vin k.), Monday, 15 November 2010 00:48 (thirteen years ago) link
Thanks for your interest.
― _Rudipherous_, Monday, 15 November 2010 00:54 (thirteen years ago) link
We'll wait all night if we must.
― otherwise, and twat (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 15 November 2010 00:59 (thirteen years ago) link
http://www.movimento.biz/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/ShiningFrozenJack.jpg
― Gukbe, Monday, 15 November 2010 01:02 (thirteen years ago) link
http://www.bestweekever.tv/2010-11-16/the-taylor-swift-being-surprised-megamix/
― forksclovetofu, Wednesday, 17 November 2010 04:38 (thirteen years ago) link
haaa <3
― markers, Wednesday, 17 November 2010 04:46 (thirteen years ago) link
i mean she just WOW what REALLY? me? ME?
― forksclovetofu, Wednesday, 17 November 2010 04:47 (thirteen years ago) link
ol girl straightened her hair for the AMAs, i didn't even recognize her
― J0rdan S., Monday, 22 November 2010 05:51 (thirteen years ago) link
thought it was hillary duff O_O
― J0rdan S., Monday, 22 November 2010 05:55 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah i was watching in a laundromat. i heard the announcer say 'taylor swift' and then some machines turned on and i couldn't hear the music anymore. i looked up a minute later and i didn't think it was her, thought "o shit that's a huge fuckup"
― goole, Monday, 22 November 2010 05:56 (thirteen years ago) link
and she was wearing all black, dark eyeshadow -- in fact it looks like a form fitting suit of some sort? very un-taylor but i really dig it
― J0rdan S., Monday, 22 November 2010 06:00 (thirteen years ago) link
btw thxgiving special on thursday night!!
i won't be able to see it tho u_u
― J0rdan S., Monday, 22 November 2010 09:28 (thirteen years ago) link
ol girl straightened her hair for the AMAs
like on the "back to december" cover?
― lex lex lex lex lex on the track BOW (lex pretend), Monday, 22 November 2010 09:29 (thirteen years ago) link
http://cdn.buzznet.com/media-cdn/jj1/headlines/2010/10/taylor-swift-back-to-december.jpg
― lex lex lex lex lex on the track BOW (lex pretend), Monday, 22 November 2010 09:30 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah, but it was pulled back, so it looked much better -- she looks a bit too much like sandra lee on that cover for my tastes
― J0rdan S., Monday, 22 November 2010 09:31 (thirteen years ago) link
WTF, she looks like a cross between Alicia Silverstone (in Clueless days) and Dolores O'Riordan there.
― Tim F, Monday, 22 November 2010 09:31 (thirteen years ago) link
much better here -- altho i gotta say that interpolating "apologize" is about as NAGL as she could ever get in my book
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WmssboWDMw
― J0rdan S., Monday, 22 November 2010 09:32 (thirteen years ago) link
comparing her to dolores o'riordan, even just visually, might be the worst thing i have seen anyone write about taylor, even the feminists :o
― lex lex lex lex lex on the track BOW (lex pretend), Monday, 22 November 2010 09:33 (thirteen years ago) link
actually interpolating "apologize" falls behind dating taylor lautner, and just in front of falling for the dude from owl city
just keep your recorded music away from ryan tedder and we'll be aight
― J0rdan S., Monday, 22 November 2010 09:34 (thirteen years ago) link
fair point, never tell her I said that.
― Tim F, Monday, 22 November 2010 09:35 (thirteen years ago) link
Ouch at the flatness in that youtube. Don't get why she does this on the big events, both times I've seen her live she was totally on pitch.
Really over the new definition of "mash-ups" as a thing in 2010.
― Tim F, Monday, 22 November 2010 09:38 (thirteen years ago) link
both times I've seen her live she was totally on pitch
tim f otm ^^
i've only seen her once but she was v much on pitch all night
― ilxor, Monday, 22 November 2010 16:31 (thirteen years ago) link
i dont think shes actually playing that piano
― markers, Monday, 22 November 2010 16:38 (thirteen years ago) link