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

the chorus of 'eyes open' is so wooden and un-taylor like

"Ours" is all over my local country station & ah ha I see why! it's #1 on the country charts this week. I thought it was slight on first listens but like e.g. New Order the melody won't leave me alone & now the words don't seem so slight either.

Always thought "Ours" was slight as well, but that it had unbelievable charm (see also: "Stay Beautiful"), and after "Mean" it seemed like the only truly twang-ish song for country radio. But even slight Swift means a lovely melody and deceptively simple words that accrue resonance as the song's narrative progresses ("People throw rocks at things that shine" shouldn't work, but it really devastates me). Also the video w/ Matt Saracen melts me even though the end feels like pandering.

Re: "Safe & Sound": it's a good look on her I think, and while it may be more tone than tune, the tone is lovely and, as Lex said, really devastating in the right moment.

I've been struggling with "Eyes Open" because it feels so obviously like The Song That Tells The Movie's Story, Possibly While The End Credits Roll, and I haven't felt her music to be this rote since "Change," but I think she sings it very well, and I guess it's a little interesting how the lyric can double as "cautionary tale of fame."

http://taylorswift.com/media/photos/17363/650551

had no idea there was a deluxe edition

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9W-4PMngAU

http://www.avclub.com/articles/taylor-swift-may-play-joni-mitchell-finally-kill-t,72806/

http://i.imgur.com/yxkFw.jpg

dan lacey strikes again

her track w/ civil wars on the hunger games sdtrk is pretty okay

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/john-mayer-taylor-swifts-dear-john-song-humiliated-me-20120606

that poor poor man

dude gets caught up in the dumbest feuds.

oh j mayer i think that was the point

shut it down

shut it all down

http://www.viddy.com/video/591db795-cf0c-4232-b116-16621bd94861

idgi

The comments on that RS post are things of wonder.

idgi

ed sheeran is collaborating with ed sheeran :)

http://i.imgur.com/fqKq3.jpg

disappointing single tho

Hahah fuck is that a joke or is that seriously the name of the next single?

Serious. New thread here folks:

Taylor Swift - RED - Octobert 22

'CAUSE FOR A MOMENT A BAND OF THIEVES IN RIPPED UP JEANS GOT TO RUUUUUUUULE THE WORLD

BRING ON ALL THE PRETENDERS, I'M NOT AFRAID

feel like i overrated this album initially then underrated it for two years but i listened to it again recently and damn

still her best imo

"better than revenge" really sticks out and kinda throws the second half of the album off but the run from the start through "enchanted" might be her best stretch of music

agreeing this is likely her best album; i think i don't care for Red when everything's said and done

Better than Fearless? Come on.

I think "Dear John" is my only real keeper from this... I just don't like most the songs that much, including the string of hits at the beginning (though I do like "Mean"). I feel like this album was sort of a stylistic dead-end for her(?), although obviously it was a huge success.

But then I only became a fan with Red, so I don't have much of a context for the earlier albums beyond knowing the hits.

(and now listening to them in toto every so often, as I've been doing lately)

Oh, I like "Last Kiss" too!

one of my students wrote her analysis essay about "dear john" and i wasn't familiar with the song but i like it -- so anthemic and also so relatable. the paper was top notch.

Tribute to Imran Khan on his 70th Birthday. The legend! #HappyBirthdayImranKhan pic.twitter.com/i58oNHo99v

— PTI (@PTIofficial) October 4, 2022

Taylor’s Version out in early July…

Cool. I'll look forward to it partly just for refocusing attention on what I think is one of her best albums.

I would suggest John Mayer’s publicist should get ready

"Timeless," the final (vault) track on the new version, is a very nice Swift tune.

I'm a little Taylor-ed out these days; I feel like something's shifted slightly, no doubt due to the tour, where various folks you encounter on social media etc. are So Serious about their deep/committed Taylor fandom (and I mean lawyers, academics, etc.; not "stan accounts" or even ppl who seem to focus on music otherwise)... it's a little off-putting.

(no shade, it's good to see folks positive & passionate about what they love, but the scope of it feels a little bizarre to me lately)

I feel that a bit, but to me it’s more like I can kinda let go of being a Taylor stan, lord knows she doesn’t need boosters of any kind anymore. But as a Speak Now fan I’ll definitely listen to this.

this is the best taylor's version yet imo. the rerecordings sound good, much less of an uncanny effect than either fearless or red. there aren't as many devastating new classics in the vault tracks as red (tv) but god, "i can see you," can't believe she had that one in her pocket

I see she changed the mattress line in Better Than Revenge

oh yes, i don't approve (my friend said if swift really wanted to edit the misogyny out of this record she should've deleted the title track), but i figure she did it bc she anticipated how much shit she'd get if she didn't? idk

anyway this album fucking rules!!!!

i had the same thought about this sounding the best of the re-recordings… thought that might be the case given the sound of the record. one day i’ll go thru all the vault tracks from these records cuz i’ve been taylor’d out too… i need a guide from someone i trust

oh damn crafting a lost taylor album out of all the vault tracks sounds fun, brb

So do you guys listen to these new versions instead of the original ones? I see people on twitter calling the originals (Stolen Version) or (Scotter's Version). Seems a tenet of fandom to reject the old recordings.

It's interesting to me because there's a pretty long history in Country music of re-recordings. You'd often find them on the cheap tapes available at truck stops. But most people thought of them as inferior to the originals.

on the red re-recording the martin/shellback songs sound wrong and i can’t stand it. fearless is fine, but i agree with a point i’ve seen made elsewhere: it’s an album of youthful exuberance and i prefer hearing young taylor sing it. this one is the closest to an improvement and i’ve actually listened to the re-recordings twice through. every problem i have is a nitpick (strings on “haunted” sit too far back), but the overall sound is an upgrade. “innocent,” a song i did not really rate at the time, sounds fantastic to me now

swifties are extremely delusional and the less i know about their antics the more i like this artist

i've noticed the radio stations that would still play "i knew you were trouble" every now and again are recently quietly switching to the re-recording

morris i can understand the taylor exhaustion and how just... omnipresent the fandom seems to be. this very otherwise-prim-n-proper museum tour guide recently asked the ppl in my tour group if any of us were 'taylor swifties', apropos of nothing (well, i guess her ongoing tour is an 'event' basically everywhere) -____-

Yes, perfect example. I am coming to understand that for a certain segment of the population of US folks in their 30s, Taylor is a central figure in a way that I can't think of an immediate analogue for (in past decades), though I'm sure it exists.

Michael Jackson.