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

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.

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?

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.

"need you now" is def instant classic

I'll defend the last Lady Antebellum album as pretty good. Second tune "Our Kind of Love" is awes.

"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.

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.

"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.

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

yeah 'need you now' is absolutely great, love the dual vocals

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?

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.

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...

and on "last kiss": i feel you forget me like i used to feel you breathe

(total heartbreak of a line)