Taylor Swift - Speak Now (Oct 2010) - hype, anticipation &c

http://i51.tinypic.com/o6kzft.jpg

just listened all the way through for the first time. my list of outright winners: mine, sparks fly, back to december, dear john, mean, the story of us, never grow up, better than revenge, last kiss. songs i like and might get to like more: enchanted, innocent, haunted. songs i feel pretty eh about: speak now, long live. and there's a good chance of upward revisions of at least a few of those. good record. now i'm going to listen again.

xpost: really? "long live" feels pretty victory lap-ish to me, and not just in its lyrics. it's ok, but reminds me of "change" in being a sort of empty, crowd-pleasing closer.

it is a total victory rap! and it's not empty at all to my ears! it's triumphant!

uh, victory lap

would buy a Taylor Swift rap record tho

it'll sound good in stadiums, for sure.

the timpani drums on 'enchanted' are a great touch

I adore "Change" too, fwiw

How could you not want to smash

http://www.drfunkenberry.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/john1.jpg

He's okay from the neck up, honestly.

oh man "enchanted", holy shit

holy shit holy shit

that kelly shit in the chorus - tay how long have you been able to do that, what the fuck

who is "long live" to, anyway? all i can think is maybe hayley williams?

and i have thought this about her before, but the new album reinforces that she could really teach a master class in bridge-writing. even the weaker songs have great bridges.

i'm never gonna finish this album if i keep repeating "enchanted"

god she fucking goes for it all here huh

"never grow up" i think is a pretty sophisticated piece of writing, the way it slowly reveals that she's talking to/about herself. and, i mean, it ends pretty darkly otm: "i just realized everything i have is someday gonna be gone." word.

OTM about "Never Grow Up" except the chorus is a bit too one note and the production on the entire song feels very thin compared with its surroundings. I dunno. It's not bad, it just doesn't entirely work. Haunted is another grower. Otherwise, this is all leaps and bounds, pretty much.

i like how "story of us" steals all the good parts from "mr. brightside." (which is mostly the chorus. her verses are better.)

(predict eventual massive-hit status for that song, btw.)

Um...also

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvRq_bbgmWg

The O.G. version of Sparks Fly is apparently a bit more risque? Noticed a comment somewhere about how she'd rewritten the lyrics, and the original seems to be about a hotel bar hook up? The writing and imagery on this version are probably stronger - not sure why it got rewritten, but nonetheless, an interesting look at her creative process either way.

"dear john" is just...

But I took your matches before fire could catch me so don't look now.
I'm shining like fireworks over your sad, empty town.

^^the drawing out of the last syllable & the rest of the song is the mot wrenching thing she's ever written

"never grow up" pretty much nullifies that slant article completely

But I took your matches before fire could catch me so don't look now.
I'm shining like fireworks over your sad, empty town.

^^the drawing out of the last syllable & the rest of the song is the mot wrenching thing she's ever written

This, but also that blues guitar line that tears it up underneath this entire last bit, which reminds me of...well...Try/Continuum-era Mayer, tbqfh, but actually emotionally affecting.

"better than revenge" reminds me of fall out boy

you guys, taylor swift is coming to hong kong!

guess I need to find someone to go with me so that it doesn't seem I'm being a perv by going alone

On the season premiere of The Simpsons, there was a gag where surly, misanthropic bartender Moe shows up at a coffeehouse open mic night. Taking the stage right after the Flight of the Conchords guys, he strolls out with a guitar and says, "If you have kids, you may want to take them out. I'm going to be getting into some very dark areas here." That's kind of what the songs I've heard here remind me of, not in a jokey way, but this young woman is clearly working through some very personal shit on this record, in ways that are sometimes profoundly uncomfortable to listen to! "Dear John" and "Never Grow Up," you almost need a double shot of whiskey while you're listening to those, because holy crap.

Title track, though, is -- to me, a very casual listener of her stuff prior to now -- a pretty great lyrical and musical leap for her! It's almost a Merseybeat song. I could see The Bangles circa 1984 doing that song.

But I took your matches before fire could catch me so don't look now.
I'm shining like fireworks over your sad, empty town.

^^the drawing out of the last syllable & the rest of the song is the mot wrenching thing she's ever written

^^^^^^so otm. voice rising like a firework - aargh what is this device called, it's on the tip of my tongue. not quite onomatopoeia - where the voice mimics the meaning of the word. aargh.

noticed that the average song length on this album is a lot longer than on her previous albums - need to listen to it more to see if she's using the extra time effectively

what if she isn't. what then.

burn her at the stake I guess

you almost need a double shot of whiskey

lifted right now and this album sounds pretty damn fucking good tbh

this is making my day which was going badly feel a lot better. sure to be end of year top 5.

i haven't been able to listen to the whole album yet; keep hitting songs that just end up on repeat.

so finally listened to this thru. when this album is good, it's great (echo'ing other Dear John praises specifically), but sometimes it really feels same'y. more of the same from taylor swift is not necessarily a bad thing, but it definitely seems like the kind of album whose sound i'll get burnt out on in a few weeks.

trying to work up a coherent thought on the rhythm of her words. i think it's one of the hidden keys to her songs, why they hook and snag the way they do. she's very good at pacing and spacing and rhythmic dynamics, she does a lot of things like run a couple syllable-heavy lines together and then stretch out the melody over the next one or two lines. in the chorus of "back to december," there's this very deliberate dah-dah-dah/dah-dah-dah 16th-note rhythm in the first lines but then "back to de-cem-ber" is played as an 8th-note triplet that completely interrupts the flow and emphasizes the sadness of the lyric. anyway, i think it's something she does really well, it's one of the ways she builds tension and release in her songs.

in retrospect mine kinda blows, but all the songs after it are great

*thinks*

I still like "Mine," but I might like "Long Live" more

in retrospect mine kinda blows

whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

i never minded it before, heard it on the radio a bunch, acknowledged it was worse than previous singles but still good enough

now that the album is out and has really great songs that are way better its like, i just dont need it anymore

ice cold

i think it's her best single after "love story" & "teardrops on my guitar"

"Last Kiss" and "Long Live" are a stupendous finale.

yeah i'm warming up to "long live." it's hard to resist. and "last kiss" is going to be cried to in the dark all over america.

you can plan for a change in the weather and time / but i never planned on you changing your mind

and then that long, drawn-out pause

and no way is 'mine' her third-best single, j0rdan.

it's not bad, it's just such a throwback compared to the other stuff on here. it's kind of taylor-by-the-numbers, signs of maturity and drawers-at-his-place aside.