Taylor Swift - RED - October 22

now* instead of not

Agreed. Future literature students will study Taylor's scarf.

extended bridge in 'holy ground' sounds exactly like "to call for hands above to lean on, wouldn't be good enough for me no"

just read your piece lex, super stuff. would be nice if the haters could find another thread to hang out on but yknowitsilm.

the what

A+, lex

"haters"

"Starlight" is proof that Taylor is from an advanced civilization in the future, and has been sent back in time to teach us how to perfect popular music.

"Starlight" X-post with the Segue thread--

Oh my, what a marvelous tune
It was the best night, never would forget how we moved
The whole place was dressed to the nines
And we were dancin, Dancin' with Mr. D

Great interview/analysis, Lex. The closing bit about the car is great.

it's cool how incestuous this place is that nobody even bothers to link to the piece

What's it going to take for TS to listen to and love this album before she starts writing her next release?
http://991.com/gallery_180x180/Rickie-Lee-Jones-Pirates-298551-991.jpg

what's this lex's article you guys are talking about?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/oct/18/taylor-swift-want-believe-pretty-lies

enjoyed it, nice job lex.

thanks y'all

do i school the commenters who are going on about slut-shaming and virginal images? can't be bovd tbh

just don't even fucking go there. guardian comments are such a cesspit of fat middle aged men in offices swinging their tiny dicks around.

there are always a couple of really nice ones though!

really i don't scan the "i don't even like pop music" ones any more (like wtf are you doing commenting on an article ABOUT POP MUSIC then), but the ongoing "TS is feminism's worst nightmare" beef is just based in so many outright inaccuracies that it annoys me particularly. just wanna thoroughly fisk those arguments

you should!

Good piece, The Lex. So happy I can't see the comments from here.

speaking as a noncommittal non-close reading average-ass listener, this is a v good album and i thoroughly enjoyed it. (apart from when snow patrol dude showed up). (also maybe a couple songs too long, not that the songs are bad).

congrats to the lex first and foremost for introducing the guardian to "throwing shade"

Irl fistpump when that wasn't subbed out

really enjoyed the piece lex. can't wait to hear this.

Um. Confession. The Ed Sheeran track is really growing on me. Alot. I was skipping it but then I wasn't paying attention and I've heard it three or four times now and I kind of like it a lot.

Not as much as my new favourite 'Stay Stay Stay' but still.

AND I GUESS WE FELL APART IN THE USUAL WAY
AND THE STORY'S GOT DUST ON EVERY PAGE

stay stay stay for real is taylor effortlessly doing what she does best. like 'ours' it's not super ponderous or deep or whatever. it's a trifle.

but it's the kind of thing that delights and is delightfully crafted and that she could probably write in her sleep in 2012.

it's also the only thing that has the pure joy of something like 'hey stephen'. nuTaylor joyousness is A++ wonderful, but her ability to convey it without the big sweep of strings is fun too.

(see also: the piss-take joyful relishing of stealing a man at the altar in 'speak now')

anyway, i was wrong about it. it's not cutesy. it's funny.

i'm pretty sure we almost broke up last night / i threw my phone across the room at you / i was expecting some dramatic turn away but youuuuuuuu / stayed.

this morning i said we should talk about it / because i heard you should never leave a fight unresolved / that's when you came in wearing a football helmet / and said "okay, let's talk"

oh my god the football helmet line totally passed me by until now

that

wow

i really don't get the criticism that the lyrics aren't as special. there are so many perfectly judged lines on this album, so many passing details that you almost miss and so many elegant ways of putting things.

"all we know / is touch and go / we are alone with our changing minds" - and then you remember that the casual, low-key "changing minds" is one of those swiftian motifs, not as obvious as tuesday nights or kissing in the rain, but her way of conveying how heartbreak is so easily and thoughtlessly inflicted, and the line becomes devastating. and then what she changes it to a verse later! "all we know / is don't let go / we are alone, just you and me / up in your room and our slates are clean" - forgiveness of the previous verse, redemption of it.

"put your lips close to mine, as long as they don't touch / out of focus, eye to eye til the gravity's too much" - and they say she presents herself as virginal. L-O-L.

recurrence of traffic lights throughout this!

interesting angle on the album, and taylor generally: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/oct/18/taylor-swift-red-review

real pity it was just a capsule review, b/c there are some things to unpack in there! impressive that at this point anyone can come up with a really original angle on taylor that i've never seen before.

also i'm kind of impressed that "the lucky one" continues to go undiscussed considering how baity it is (and as a song it's getting kinda underrated! the twist is awesome!)

Although the real killer is "After plaid shirt days and nights when you made me your own /
Now you mail back my things and I walk home alone."

so true - but it's all about the sudden lightness in her voice when she sings "walk home alone" - the line has such pathos on paper but that's not the way she sings it, that line is the hinge for the...forgiveness? acceptance? of the situation. i mean the song's conclusion is almost celebratory - glorying in all those feelings the song's taken you through, and the fact that they existed at all.

"all too well" might be her actual masterpiece. along with all the other ones.

so true - but it's all about the sudden lightness in her voice when she sings "walk home alone" - the line has such pathos on paper but that's not the way she sings it, that line is the hinge for the...forgiveness? acceptance? of the situation.

Well said. So many people knock her singing, but she is the greatest singer when it comes to the way she can use the subtlest change of inflection on one word to shift a lyric's meaning, as you point out.

The other example of that on this album that kills me is the way she emphasizes the word "listen" the following lines from "Sad Beautiful Tragic": "Kiss me / Try to fix it / Could you just try to listen."

Also the way that the timbre of her voice shifts in "State of Grace" when she transitions from the breathy verses to the bridge lines "So you were a never a saint / And loved in shades of wrong / We learned to live with the pain / Mostly broken hearts."

have played '22' & 'starlight' like twenty times each today

One of the (many) things i love about 'Begin Again' is the fact that when she sings 'i watched it begin again' she still sounds slightly unconvinced that this time is going to be any different

lol @ her pronunciation of 'foyer' in the lucky one except i guess that is how you americans say it huh?

living in french-language-places is confusing because us anglophones incorporate so many french words into our english i don't know when people are mispronouncing things.

"you look like bad news, i've gotta have you, I'VE GOTTA HAVE YOU!"

love this lyric, assuming it's extremely self-aware

Keepers:

Starlight
Holy Ground
Red
State of Grace
Stay Stay Stay
I Almost Do
Begin Again

those + All Too Well + I Knew You Were Trouble + 22+ maybe Treacherous

"red" is so, so good, good in a way that for some dumb reason i never even expected from or wanted out of her

I'm listening to the album whilst purposely skipping the snow patrol and sheeran tracks, is there a reason to change that

Le1f is doing a set on pitchfork as we speak

The people watching him are dead

i just tweeted that, but why are you writing about it in the taylor swift thread?

the back half of this album is kinda -_-

hmmm not sure about that. stay, holy ground, sad beautiful tragic, lucky one, and starlight are pretty strong.

I mean. The back half is more -_- than the first half, like Speak Now, but I stand by Stay x3, Holy Ground, Starlight and Begin Again.

Speak Now had Never Grow Up/Innocent/Haunted which weren't the greatest.