new romantics.
― campreverb, Saturday, 26 March 2016 19:06 (eight years ago) link
I guess you're forgetting songs like 'the last time' and 'everything has changed'.
"everything has changed" is a good song! "the last time" would be a all right if someone had written a bridge
― HYPERLINK TO RAP GENIUS (BradNelson), Saturday, 26 March 2016 19:22 (eight years ago) link
I was agreeing with Jordan's comment about emotional intimacy, rather than any implicit suggestion that 1989 is her worst album (it might be! but I go back and forth on the relative greatness of her albums quite a lot). I think she gains as well as loses things in the exchange. There's a kind of monumentality to "Style" and "Wish You Would" and some of the other tracks that benefits from the diamond-like hardness. Funnily enough the path these songs follow was laid down not by the previous Max Martin collabs but "Treacherous", which I would say in some ways is her most polished song before 1989 (give or take "Tim McGraw" obv). But "Treacherous" wouldn't make sense as a Martin co-write because it still covers too much vocal/emotional range, whereas all the Martin tunes operate within a fairly narrow field of declamatory vocal intensity - like you could imagine a Martin co-write capturing the bridge of "Treacherous" (which is the best part!) but not the verses, he'd think they were too tentative. On all of 1989 I'd say only "Clean" bucks that trend; even the Antanoff tracks start at 8 and then push forward relentlessly to 10.
There's also other lines of possibility that are open for her to pick up on: the irrepressible rush of "State of Grace" and "Holy Ground", for instance. But again, I think the closest she can come to capturing the feel of that material while working with Max Martin is something like "New Romantics", which captures that sense of gallop but never feels at risk of stumbling (which is one of the more endearing qualities of the earlier tunes).
If I had to guess I'd say the next album will sound more soundscapey - more 1975 lolwave basically - at least outside the singles. When I saw her in December the middle section where she performed on a high platform with a keyboard, and it was both the best part of the show and the part that she seemed most into - especially the new version of "Love Story" which was a lot like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glx_kpo3wAI
― Tim F, Sunday, 27 March 2016 01:48 (eight years ago) link
the synth version of love story is better than nearly all of 1989
― ufo, Sunday, 27 March 2016 03:25 (eight years ago) link
surely calvin harris will have a hand in some of the new stuff
― art baengels (monotony), Sunday, 27 March 2016 03:28 (eight years ago) link
uuughhyyhhghhhhhhh
― HYPERLINK TO RAP GENIUS (BradNelson), Sunday, 27 March 2016 03:39 (eight years ago) link
"Calvin Harris will have a hand in this": most chilling phrase since "Ed Sheeran duet"
― dc, Sunday, 27 March 2016 03:43 (eight years ago) link
Let's just hope that whatever she does next, it isn't a Bubblegum Bass album.
― MarkoP, Sunday, 27 March 2016 05:00 (eight years ago) link
― dc, Saturday, March 26, 2016 11:43 PM (
"ft. The Weeknd"
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 27 March 2016 11:32 (eight years ago) link
i mean...yeah, but the last time calvin made music with his gf we got "i will never let you down" sooooooo
― art baengels (monotony), Sunday, 27 March 2016 13:01 (eight years ago) link
clinging to those tabloid reports a few weeks ago about harris refusing to work with her
― cher guevara (lex pretend), Sunday, 27 March 2016 13:13 (eight years ago) link
do i want to know what "1975 lolwave" is :/
― cher guevara (lex pretend), Sunday, 27 March 2016 13:15 (eight years ago) link
imo 'style' could perfectly be a 1975 song, so...
― Nourry, Sunday, 27 March 2016 13:35 (eight years ago) link
i do not like that synthy vers of lvoe story
― johnny crunch, Sunday, 27 March 2016 14:09 (eight years ago) link
I find things to enjoy in every album of hers, even in S/T, but to me Speak Now > Fearless >> Red >> 1989 > S/T.
I voted for "You are in love", which is, to me, clearly the one single track in 1989 that builds upon the songwriting she's been developing since Fearless (the intimacy, the attention to detail, the level of care shown for her characters, the surprising shifts in POVs, etc).
I'd rather see her going in a different direction for her next album; maybe going back to the Speak Now country-pop or improving the Red-era arena rock. I liked 1989; I find intriguing that she's learned to work more with sound and less with words (as Ann Powers said, I think), and the fact that she managed to pull this experiment off so well, considering it pushed her far, far away from where her real strenghts are, is an achievement on itself. But still, nothing in it was as dazzling as "Fifteen", "Never grow up" or "All too well"; that, to me, is where the meat of her songwriting is. Nobody else can write songs quite like those.
― cpl593H, Wednesday, 30 March 2016 16:40 (eight years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Thursday, 31 March 2016 00:01 (eight years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Friday, 1 April 2016 00:01 (eight years ago) link
This is obv her worst single to date.
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 9 April 2018 01:44 (six years ago) link
Alfred, do you like “Reputation”?
― absorbed carol channing's powers & psyche (morrisp), Monday, 9 April 2018 01:48 (six years ago) link
In toto? No.
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 9 April 2018 01:57 (six years ago) link
Style still rips
― Its big ball chunky time (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Friday, 1 November 2019 13:45 (four years ago) link
I love "I Wish You Would". It has always reminded me of "Dancing in the dark" with all that late-night pent-up angst.
― cpl593H, Monday, 4 November 2019 12:51 (four years ago) link
I listened this SO much in the year or so after it came out, it's kind of hard to revisit it... but the songs that still sound fresh (and slap) for me are "All You Had to Do Is Stay," "Out of the Woods" (surprisingly!), and "How You Get the Girl." Also, I'll always love "Shake It Off" - but when the movie Sing! has screened in your house a dozen or so times, you don't need to hear that again for a while.
Btw, "Wildest Dreams (Taylor's Version)" is featured in a trailer for a new animated horse movie.
― take it to the pre-chorus (morrisp), Saturday, 3 April 2021 17:27 (three years ago) link
“style” is rather silly but I really love the palm muted guitar chugging, it reminds me of Lindsey buckingham for some reason.
― brimstead, Saturday, 24 June 2023 16:26 (eleven months ago) link
Amusing to see all of our predictions from 2016 as to what Taylor might do next, none of which really were on point - though it's possible that the direction for Reputation didn't really start to coalesce until later (Kim Kardashian posted the conversation with Taylor in... July 2016 I think?) .
― Tim F, Sunday, 25 June 2023 06:51 (eleven months ago) link
you at least raised the possibility of a new jersey, which i guess maybe not quite but close enough
no one would have really expected or wanted "bad blood" to be the 1989 track she tripled down on - it was a hit but not the biggest from the album and certainly not the best
― ufo, Sunday, 25 June 2023 13:29 (eleven months ago) link
Arguably Midnights is her "1975 lolwave" album I guess.
I don't think anyone really anticipated the Folklore/Evermore switch, though in fairness her trajectory had been leaning into harder/sharper for so long (and Lover was less a reversal of that than a pause in place) that it was difficult for anyone to anticipate that she would hard turn into moody singer-songwriter material.
It's weird to think that (say) "Me!" and (say) "Happiness" are the work of the same artist and were released within 2 years of each other.
― Tim F, Sunday, 25 June 2023 14:13 (eleven months ago) link
some sort of return to more stripped down singer-songwriter material was definitely anticipated (though in this thread it was mostly speculation about a return to country) though i don't anyone quite expected 'piano-driven indie folk with aaron dessner'
― ufo, Sunday, 25 June 2023 21:21 (eleven months ago) link
Yeah that is what I meant - a leftfield turn rather than a reversion to a previous style.
― Tim F, Monday, 26 June 2023 00:09 (eleven months ago) link