Taylor Swift - RED - October 22

The highs are high but I'm less able to stomach the weaker tracks on this one.

There are, what, 3 Max Martin collabs? Even if you remove those and the duets you still have tons of amazing songs!

I'd also eliminate Snow Patrol and Sheeran collabs, "22," "Red." That's what, seven tracks? I know I"m missing a couple That's a B or B- record.

(I have 100% come over to We Are Never..., such a year-defining song with the lyric of 2012. On board for the Swift culture warz, on board for her Mean Girl-ing indie boys)

Xp how do you even get rid of the flawless "Red"

yeah i think it's a patchy record... the coffee/coke thing is a good analogy but i think the max collabs work. personally i think it's the more bread & butter taylor songs that just aren't as good as the last few albums (with a few exceptions)

"red" would be the best song on the album but that synth tone is so cheap & bad i can never get over it

this is not a front-to-back record, even speak now reached that level on some days

have you ever given a highstrung person bread and butter?

that synth tone is so cheap & bad i can never get over it

^^^^^

this is not a front-to-back record, even speak now reached that level on some days

― 乒乓, Thursday, December 6, 2012 1:18 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark

this too

I don't think any of her albums are front-to-back in their entirety, and with all of them I tend to fixate on the flawless tracks even at the expense of the merely very good ones, and I don't think any of those ratios are much different on Red to her other albums. The opening run of nine is unfuckwithable

fearless is front-to-back killer, speak now is insanely good for a while but then begins to tail off but i think this one is totally all over the place in terms of slotting

yeah fearless is still the banner.

lex, Speak Now is front to back.

'we are never ever getting back together' and '22' stand out as such gear shifts

if you listen to "Red" and "Starlight" back to back, the latter sounds like an improved version of the former (same chords, similar melody).

i was just completely stunned to discover speak now was longer than this one

this one feels like melon collie

hay everybody i had no idea this happened

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taylor_Swift_and_Def_Leppard

yup. and i love RED more than these guys, but the hit to miss ratio is certainly different here.

fearless is perfect, pretty much. maybe one song i don't ~love~.

speak now has Innocent/Haunted which I don't love but they're two tracks in a pretty killer back half.

Holy Ground/Starlight/Begin Again are the only ones in the back 7 that stand up against anything else off Speak Now (and I actually kind of like the Ed Sheeran duet :S )

i was just completely stunned to discover speak now was longer than this one

― difficult listening hour, Thursday, December 6, 2012 1:25 PM (38 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this one feels like melon collie

― difficult listening hour, Thursday, December 6, 2012 1:25 PM (25 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

truth

lex, "melon collie" is a smashing pumpkins album

Not with Better Than Revenge and The Story Of Us it's not

I find it really difficult to compare what she's doing now to Fearless, for several reasons

Xps

like. i dunno. if you put 'Sad Beautiful Tragic' against either heartbreak waltz on Speak Now it just seems so obvious? the chorus alone is just....limp.

compare that to last kiss which is over a minute longer but sustains the narrative tension allll the way through.

in ways that are maybe even better than All Too Well?

I find it really difficult to compare what she's doing now to Fearless, for several reasons

this is fair, too

i still think it's a step down from speak now tho

Story of Us is a perfect Taylor power-pop song. Right up there with I'm Only Me When I'm With You.

Better Than Revenge is... uncomfortable... for a variety of reasons, but re: her delivery and musically it's pretty great.

anyway, this is a narcissism of small differences for me. I'm with you re: the first 9. I just think Speak Now didn't drop off nearly as starkly as this does.

you know what, I'm fine with taylor being a great singles artist from now on as opposed to a great albums artist. the highs are just as high

you guys know a Swift cover of "Bodies" would so rock

I think I came to this realization after her hunger games singles dropped.

i think this album will end up being a pretty minor footnote in her career... mostly it just made me very interested in what she does w/ her music in the next 5 or so years. she tries out a whole bunch of new sounds (the few tracks that sound like snow patrol but don't have the snow patrol dude are awesome) but on this album in particular i think it's really jarring. her next one tho could be a monster if everything clicks, or the one after that.

It's even gotten so I think "Stay Stay Stay," which I once liked, is cloying as fuck.

Tbh any album with an opening NINE as strong as Red - and a closer like Begin Again - can drop off however much it likes in between and I wouldn't care; the highs are as high as I expect of Taylor, and plentiful too, is what I'm arguing. Just delete the duets, who cares

I've come around to 'sad, beautiful, tragic,' it's taylor getting her sadsack indie mope on

<I>i think this album will end up being a pretty minor footnote in her career...</i>

Pretty sure it's taken her to a new level commercially (internationally)

right i just meant musically

xp

And not just internationally, but generationally -- I know people in their 30s and 50s who have just discovered her with this album.

On the Max Martin stuff, the only one I don't like is "22," which to me feels more like a forced merger of their sensibilities than a collaboration. "Trouble" is one of the best things on the album, and "We Are Never" has really grown on me, too.

After a few weeks of driving around with it on shuffle (which I prefer to the actual album sequencing), the only songs I routinely skip are "22," "The Last Time" and "Sad Beautiful Tragic."

And even my Taylor-skeptic girlfriend has come around to grudging respect. She especially likes "I Almost Do."

'begin again' still gives me ashlee flashbacks

i almost sent "all too well" to my taylor-skeptic on-good-but-distant-terms ex, and then i was like wait no, don't do that

lmao does she have a scarf of yours that you want back

she made me one actually i still have it it's my primary scarf :/ song gets me

yes the first 9 tracks are ludicrously good but the drop-off doesn't seem severe to me... "holy ground" and "begin again" are among my favourite things she's ever done. in previous years 'i guess we fell apart in the usual way / and the story's got dust on every page' would be the basis of the entire song, i love how her relationship themes have developed

"sad beautiful tragic" is nice and moody, "starlight" would be the most incredible thing ever at a cheesy club at 4am, the duets and "the lucky one" are a bit whatever but not actively awful.

"treacherous" => "i knew you were trouble" => "all too well" is the best 3-track run in the history of music i'm pretty sure

I don't like "22" *ducks*

where's the synth sound on Red?

I think "Red" is the best song on the album, love love love her voice on it, the most country singing on the album

& is that banjo throughout? it's such a cluttered production & I love it for that

Several of her songs use that trick of having burbling banjo that you only really register if you listen for it. ("You Belong With Me," e.g.) I sort of think Mutt Lange pioneered that with Shania, but I haven't actually traced its genesis. It gives enough of a "country" gloss to pass muster at country radio, but not enough to put off the non-country contingent.

Iirc that's what you thought about her past albums too so whatevz

Not really. For the first time I really like what she as a singer and/or lyricist is bringing here, like, I dunno, a PG Ke$ha of intriguing quirks and ticks. I think she makes the music better. But the music doesn't do too much for me, which may be what I said before. Though it is definitely still full of some distinctive highs. I vote for the album as interesting transition that makes me excited about what she does next.

Production-wise, it really does float in that purgatory between pop and country "remixed" to be poppier, a la Shania. Maybe Taylor Swift will release an "international" version, like "Come On Over."

She's had pop mixes of a bunch of her singles, going back at least to "Love Story."