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

Ask iatee.

the last three songs are really opening up for me, haunted last kiss and long live...

still can't really get into innocent

its okay, life is a tough crowd :-(

officially sold 1,047,000 copies this week - the largest in 5 yrs.

talk about "Back To December," and the album as a whole, here:

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=2894

the first time I have ever seen Alfred give a song higher than a 6 on TSJ

woulda given it a 9 but i been busy

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.

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.

That piece is excellent.

It's kind of like a better version of the review I would write.

Best thing I've read on the album.

the first time I have ever seen Alfred give a song higher than a 6 on TSJ

Untrue!

haha it seems most of the songs you review fall into the 4-6 range ghetto

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.

Most experiences, like songs, are pretty good to okay.

there should be a 'like' in that sentence xp

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.'

was not aware this was a thing, but at 1.19, Ellen frightens Taylor enough she falls over in a bathroom
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmEEy88bEIg

lol

ok lol

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.

It's not really a quirk anymore: it's been like that for a few years now. Everything's a single.

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.

Some suggestions:

Jerrod Niemann
Leeann Womack
Carrie Underwood
Brad Paisley

i really should buy a miranda lambert record

that way you'll stop wasting time on Arcade Fire.

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)?

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.

defly go for it marks xxp

ok! which record of hers would you recommend i start with?

look to rudipherous

This one, markers!

Oh -- Miranda. Any one of them. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is probably the best.

alfred did you dig the jamey johnson

thanks, Alfred! that one sounds good. (as far as Taylor goes, I like Fearless and the new one; haven't heard her first)

yeah seconding Alfred's rec

awesome. thank you!

Haven't heard it, J. Should I?

i don't know, neither have i

i'd recommend the Dixie Chicks too.

don't forget shania.

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEVq7Gji744

Check out the Gloriana album from last year. Very country-pop.

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.

You've got your pick of singles.

Deana Carter does some nice female county-pop also.

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.

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.