the grammy criticisms may have triggered "mean" but everything about the actual song refers to stuff from much earlier - the overt country feel (and gauche language) acting as a throwback to a younger taylor, the lyric about "someday i'll be living in a big city" (like, by the grammys she already was).
― lex lex lex lex lex on the track BOW (lex pretend), Monday, 1 November 2010 20:39 (thirteen years ago) link
this album is kind of like love king in that objectively i have a ton of complaints and reasons why i prefer older albums, but in practice i just keep on listening to them over and over again - it was a real shock to me when i checked last.fm and found that i'd listened to love king WAY more than any other album this year, as i'd assumed it'd wind up as, like, my no 5 album of the year or something. same thing happening here.
― lex lex lex lex lex on the track BOW (lex pretend), Monday, 1 November 2010 20:41 (thirteen years ago) link
On "Better Than Revenge" she pretty obviously wants to be Hayley Williams (via Misery Business), but she comes off more like someone's mom.
― kkvgz, Monday, 1 November 2010 21:13 (thirteen years ago) link
Last Kiss is dope as fuck imo, but those processed echoes on the snare are really unnecessary.
― kkvgz, Monday, 1 November 2010 21:22 (thirteen years ago) link
How does living in a big old city solve the problem of the person being mean? Is there a moat around the city or something?
― Jake Brown, Monday, 1 November 2010 22:44 (thirteen years ago) link
Ask iatee.
― sandra lee, gimme your alcohol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 1 November 2010 22:46 (thirteen years ago) link
the last three songs are really opening up for me, haunted last kiss and long live...
still can't really get into innocent
― dayo, Monday, 1 November 2010 23:51 (thirteen years ago) link
its okay, life is a tough crowd :-(
― markers, Monday, 1 November 2010 23:53 (thirteen years ago) link
officially sold 1,047,000 copies this week - the largest in 5 yrs.
― prolego, Wednesday, 3 November 2010 15:22 (thirteen years ago) link
talk about "Back To December," and the album as a whole, here:
http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=2894
― xhuxk, Wednesday, 3 November 2010 15:37 (thirteen years ago) link
the first time I have ever seen Alfred give a song higher than a 6 on TSJ
― dayo, Wednesday, 3 November 2010 23:23 (thirteen years ago) link
woulda given it a 9 but i been busy
― a pun based on a popular ilx meme (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 4 November 2010 01:19 (thirteen years ago) link
I think David is a bit too hard on the lyrics in his review - partly by comparing the song to what remains Taylor's best song from a lyrical perspective ("Tim McGraw"), and partly because that comparison focuses so much on their relative accumulations of specific, scene-setting details.
Whereas I think the better connection between the songs is the sense in which Taylor looks back on a past relationship from a somewhat ambivalent or ambiguous position (as opposed to just being angry or sad about it).
In "Tim McGraw" she hopes her ex still thinks of her (and maybe misses her) but it's not clear whether she actually wants to resume the relationship or just hopes she comes out of the story-in-her-ex's-mind looking good. The ambiguity is in her current perspective, which is (deliberately?) left vague (as is the relationship's aftermath) while the reverie, and the intended outcome, are sharp. But we don't even know whether Taylor shares the associations that she invokes.
"Back to December" is the opposite in some ways - or rather, it's the answer song, the answer being "I do think of you, constantly" This time the details of the relationship are vague, a bare recitation, while her perspective on it is sharp. The ambiguity is not what she thinks but whether what she thinks will make a difference, and Taylor is too humbled even to suggest a resolution.
It seems counter-intuitive that a song called "Back to December" would paint December itself in such vague terms, but I think this works within the structure of the song, which is less about what actually happened in December (in some senses, irrelevant, other than that Taylor feels guilty and regretful about it) than the ceaseless revisiting of it, the compulsive retreading of old ground. Taylor doesn't bother to attempt to explain or contextualise her actions, but makes a bare plea of guilty with her subsequent remorse as mitigation. And something feels right about this approach to me: a memory that is so haunting that it takes on a life of its own detached from the real events that gave life to it, until you're living in a constant memory-of-the-memory, less bothered by the specifics than by the lurches of guilt and remorse and wishful thinking to which its rumblings in the unconscious give rise.
If "Tim McGraw" is the casting of a spell, "Back to December" speaks from inside the spell.
― Tim F, Thursday, 4 November 2010 03:36 (thirteen years ago) link
I haven't read this thread, or even listened to the album yet, because I feel like it's an album I need to Pay Attention To and not just put on while reading or whatever, like I use most music in my life. But! Theon Weber's Village Voice review is really good.
― jaymc, Thursday, 4 November 2010 13:41 (thirteen years ago) link
That piece is excellent.
It's kind of like a better version of the review I would write.
― Tim F, Thursday, 4 November 2010 13:47 (thirteen years ago) link
Best thing I've read on the album.
― sandra lee, gimme your alcohol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 4 November 2010 13:49 (thirteen years ago) link
Untrue!
haha it seems most of the songs you review fall into the 4-6 range ghetto
― dayo, Thursday, 4 November 2010 13:50 (thirteen years ago) link
I imagine you give most of your students b- to b+'s too
xp I really the analysis of the 'mean' lyrics in that piece
^^^ already I feel like I like the song more than I did fifteen minutes ago.
― Tim F, Thursday, 4 November 2010 13:51 (thirteen years ago) link
Most experiences, like songs, are pretty good to okay.
― sandra lee, gimme your alcohol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 4 November 2010 13:52 (thirteen years ago) link
there should be a 'like' in that sentence xp
― dayo, Thursday, 4 November 2010 13:52 (thirteen years ago) link
the way she says "the end" at the end of the story of us is so heart-rending. I want to pat her on the back and go 'there there.'
― dayo, Thursday, 4 November 2010 14:04 (thirteen years ago) link
was not aware this was a thing, but at 1.19, Ellen frightens Taylor enough she falls over in a bathroomhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmEEy88bEIg
― a pun based on a popular ilx meme (forksclovetofu), Thursday, 4 November 2010 18:25 (thirteen years ago) link
lol
― What if mod was one of us? (kkvgz), Thursday, 4 November 2010 18:27 (thirteen years ago) link
ok lol
― markers, Thursday, 4 November 2010 18:30 (thirteen years ago) link
i don't really understand this, i guess it's a quirk of how they count digital downloads as singles or something? anyway, she has 11 songs in the top 100.
― a tenth level which features a single castle (tipsy mothra), Friday, 5 November 2010 03:07 (thirteen years ago) link
It's not really a quirk anymore: it's been like that for a few years now. Everything's a single.
― jaymc, Friday, 5 November 2010 22:18 (thirteen years ago) link
taylor got me interested in contemporary country. can anyone recommend me stuff similar to taylor? so far i like the song "the house that built me" by miranda lambert.
― Death Cab for Kuti (Durrr Durrr Durrrrrr), Sunday, 7 November 2010 00:42 (thirteen years ago) link
Some suggestions:
Jerrod NiemannLeeann WomackCarrie UnderwoodBrad Paisley
― sandra lee, gimme your alcohol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 7 November 2010 02:37 (thirteen years ago) link
i really should buy a miranda lambert record
― markers, Sunday, 7 November 2010 02:41 (thirteen years ago) link
that way you'll stop wasting time on Arcade Fire.
― sandra lee, gimme your alcohol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 7 November 2010 02:45 (thirteen years ago) link
I'm not a country fan, but Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is one of my favorite albums of the last decade. All her stuff is worth hearing, but I was kind of disappointed with Kerosene when I finally heard it, and Revolution was a different kind of disappointment. Still, I like songs from both.
x-post
Maybe LeAnn Rimes (not that I know this area of music much at all)?
― _Rudipherous_, Sunday, 7 November 2010 02:46 (thirteen years ago) link
I haven't gotten through Speak Now yet. It's not what I'm in the mood for at the moment, but I also have a feeling I'm not going to end up liking it as much as Fearless. It's much too early to know for certain, however.
― _Rudipherous_, Sunday, 7 November 2010 03:14 (thirteen years ago) link
defly go for it marks xxp
― bear, bear, bear, Sunday, 7 November 2010 03:16 (thirteen years ago) link
ok! which record of hers would you recommend i start with?
― markers, Sunday, 7 November 2010 03:42 (thirteen years ago) link
look to rudipherous
― whiney trollins vs. hipsters (dayo), Sunday, 7 November 2010 03:44 (thirteen years ago) link
This one, markers!
― sandra lee, gimme your alcohol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 7 November 2010 03:45 (thirteen years ago) link
Oh -- Miranda. Any one of them. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is probably the best.
alfred did you dig the jamey johnson
― odd future tea party kill them all (J0rdan S.), Sunday, 7 November 2010 03:46 (thirteen years ago) link
thanks, Alfred! that one sounds good. (as far as Taylor goes, I like Fearless and the new one; haven't heard her first)
― markers, Sunday, 7 November 2010 03:50 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah seconding Alfred's rec
― bear, bear, bear, Sunday, 7 November 2010 03:52 (thirteen years ago) link
awesome. thank you!
― markers, Sunday, 7 November 2010 03:57 (thirteen years ago) link
Haven't heard it, J. Should I?
― sandra lee, gimme your alcohol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 7 November 2010 04:00 (thirteen years ago) link
i don't know, neither have i
― odd future tea party kill them all (J0rdan S.), Sunday, 7 November 2010 04:00 (thirteen years ago) link
i'd recommend the Dixie Chicks too.
― prolego, Sunday, 7 November 2010 09:05 (thirteen years ago) link
don't forget shania.
― a tenth level which features a single castle (tipsy mothra), Sunday, 7 November 2010 12:36 (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.
― kkvgz, Sunday, 7 November 2010 13:50 (thirteen years ago) link
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