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

I think her appeal is based on "songwriting" (which encompasses tonal elements to some extent) rather than "lyrics" per se.

Yeah. For me her vocal confidence made this album stand out above the others. The lyrics are sharp and full of wordplay, but I wouldn't have noticed if it wasn't for how fully she invests herself in their ambiguities.

― Gus Van Sotosyn (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, January 13, 2011 10:50 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

my current fave is the last 'you shoulda known' at the end of 'dear john', where after all the prior accusations towards him she is perhaps addressing herself, flipping over the point of view and opening the song up to the possibility of regret at her own actions.

of course she may not have intended that, but it's there nonetheless.

thanks j0rdan for the link above. forwarded it to my daughter who loved it but asked if they had autotuned it :(

my kiddo & i listened to Speak Now on the way to school this week, wed-fri. totally great album. her favorite is "why you gotta be so mean?!?"

that samba "you belong to me" is one of my fave tracks of the year.

my kiddo & i listened to Speak Now on the way to school this week, wed-fri. totally great album. her favorite is "why you gotta be so mean?!?"

― ilxor, Friday, January 14, 2011 12:39 PM

:D :D :D

samba?

er bossa nova? I forget.

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

she gets in this phase where she only likes 1-2 songs on a new album -- first it was "mean" and "mine" -- always wanted to turn it to one of those two. but now that she's had a couple months to live w/ the album & played it in her room a bit, without feeling the need to always ask to hear her favorite 2 songs on a 15-minute car ride, she's come around to loving most everything on it. her current obsession is "sparks fly" -- luckily the subtext about t.swift wanting to hook up w/ a boy flies over her head (i think???) and she's still an innocent

xp to markers

back to december is so beautiful

i'm not sure what's going on in the video for 'back to december'. what's with the letter she stuffs in the jacket pocket? is she wishing it had been the lyrics of the song she couldn't have written unless she'd written a goodbye note in the first place that she now regrets?

i wonder if it's all going to get so convoluted that she one day in ten years time writes a song made completely of bridges. no verses, no choruses.

my current fave is the last 'you shoulda known' at the end of 'dear john', where after all the prior accusations towards him she is perhaps addressing herself, flipping over the point of view and opening the song up to the possibility of regret at her own actions.

of course she may not have intended that, but it's there nonetheless.

isn't it the other way round? all the other, earlier 'shoulda known' lines are actually "i shoulda known", like she is cursing herself for falling for him; then the last one is "the girl in the dress wrote you a song / you shoulda known", as in "you shoulda known better than to dump a songwriter".

so that "flipping over the point of view" definitely happens, just the other way

yes i've just reread the lyrics and you're right on the sequencing. there are several 'I shoulda known' throughout and then she brings down 'the girl in the dress wrote you a song' at the end.

i think what i meant - and couldn't type it right - was that the final 'you shoulda known' is her addressing herself. it echoes the previous instances of 'i shoulda known' but she's now looking in on herself from outside. i think that's what i meant to say, rather than flipping the perspective from him to her.

fck it's late and i'm rambling but i think i've said what i mean.

so it's not 'i shoulda known' but another part of her saying to herself 'you stupid ass'

http://blog.koda.us/2011/01/07/taylor-swift-cant-get-hired/

That article is pretty much the opposite of correct and i'm not saying that to defend taylor - it's hard to think of another singer where the fan base is more invested in the backstories behind the songs.

I rather suspect that the reason Rolling Stone, Glamour and Elle don't sell well when Taylor is on the cover is that the magazine-buying portion of her fanbase are buying, like, Disney Magazine with her on the cover instead.

that article is so wrong-headed - taylor swift can get herself hired in her actual line of work more than anyone else right now!

i agree totally; thought it was a boneheaded piece.

the last chorus in "back to december"

♪ youuuuu go back (to the last chorus in back) to december all the time ♫

looking forward hugely to seeing her in concert again.

^^ i concur!

yes please

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zmv26eqduSg

fuck you if you don't fuck w/ "sparks fly"

havent stopped listening to sparks fly, speak now, back to dec, story of us & better than revenge since this came out

all i do nowadays is listen to ginuwine & the first half of this album

the climax of "dear john" really feels like something that a career builds up to

DROP
EVERYTHING
NOW

NEXT CHAPTER

The Strokes have already covered "Story of Us."

Wait what?

please tell me yr joking

http://files.sharenator.com/justkidding_demotivational_posters_Michael_Jackson-s440x352-26284.jpg

lol

let's not sully a t-swift thread with mention of the str*kes, even in jest (also lest i discover any of you are actually fans of them, in which case i may kiss my teeth right out of my mouth in horror)

fuck you if you don't fuck w/ "sparks fly"

i agree with this

i never got into "the story of us" though

"haunted" is a surprise keeper!

C'MON C'MON DON'T LEAVE ME LIKE THIS

how's it a surprise? it's always been so so awesome

it felt a bit like a sore thumb on the first few listens - like, good and catchy but a bit jarring in album context

still not feeling "the story of us" tbh, it's that kind of song that tries ever so hard to act like it's catchy by being loud and fast but doesn't actually have any particularly good hooks - easily the worst on the album

I think Story of Us is a highlight and have been hoping for Story of Us to be released as a single, with video and all. The two first singles were very much in the Fearless vein, would be nice with a different sounding thing on the radio.

has a post-"back to december" single even been announced? i thought it'd be "haunted" for some reason.

I'd have thought "Sparks Fly" would be a single---agreed on how hot a song that is. I've been listening to Swift since the debut & "Sparks Fly" is the first song where she's overtly sexual, or at least where I can hear her that way & not feel icky about it...that "I'm even better than you imagined I would be" line, with her jump at "better", how she rushes out "imagined I would be", so beguiling.

yeah, sparks fly is not only about sex but about unrecommended and not all that serious-relationship-sounding sex, which was cool after all that autopilot SHE HATES SEX SHE NEVER HAS SEX SHE WANTS NOBODY EVER TO HAVE SEX "criticism".

yeah but it didn't actually stop that "criticism" did it

not that that was ever based on anything as sensible as listening to taylor swift's music or indeed paying attention to anything taylor swift has said

yeah, sparks fly is not only about sex but about unrecommended and not all that serious-relationship-sounding sex, which was cool after all that autopilot SHE HATES SEX SHE NEVER HAS SEX SHE WANTS NOBODY EVER TO HAVE SEX "criticism".

even more interesting, perhaps, that it doesn't seem to have been written in response to the press around Fearless re: her clean and s3xless image in 2008-09-10 etc. -- there's a live recording of "Sparks Fly" going back to 2007 or so

Right well like Lex says, it's not like sex has ever been absent. She was in a pickup truck with a boy out in the middle of a field on her very first single. (She spends lots of time with boys in cars on those first two albums.) But yeah "Sparks Fly" is her frankest and most grown-up lust song. Plus, it rocks.

Ok, "stuck on backroads," not out in a field. Still. I don't think they're doing Bible study.

they're probably reading FAIRY TALES and talking about what she's going to COOK later

^^^ also very hot