taylor swift iridescent smoke bombs thread 2019 - lover

Something for everyone I guess, Miss Americana might actually be my favorite. Best lyric on the whole album: “You play stupid games, you win stupid prizes”

the chorus melody of "the man" sounds like it was thought up by danielle haim. that's about its only redeeming feature.

^^

i uniformly hate the joel little songs on here... me, you need to calm down, miss americana, the man... all terrible. there's something really chintzy and cloying in all those productions. if i'm cutting ones i'm starting there.

"it's nice to have a friend" makes me wonder what the frank dukes/louis bell sessions sounded like when they weren't doing stuff bland spotify pop like "i forgot that you existed"

i need to see if i can get into "afterglow" and "daylight"... it feels like there's one too many songs on this album that remind me of "wildest dreams"

if i'm recutting this album i'm going

1. lover
2. cruel summer
3. the archer
4. i think he knows
5. paper rings
6. cornelia street
7. death by a thousand cuts
8. soon you'll get better
9. false god
10. it's nice to have a friend

still a little too short to be called a properly good album by her standards... maybe if i come around on those other two songs tho

I’ve taken my own stab at an ideal alternate sequence:

1. The Archer
2. Death By A Thousand Cuts
3. I Think He Knows
4. Cruel Summer
5. Cornelia Street
6. False God
7. Soon You’ll Get Better (ft. Dixie Chicks)
8. Daylight
9. Lover

It’s pretty leaned out, but all in all, you have a dreamier, moodier, more focused and more potent record. There’s the Dixie Chicks track cutting through the fog, and then there’s “Lover” serving as the closer that brings everything back down to blissful reality.

“Afterglow” would be the B-side

I'm listening to this album now and i have news:

it's good

extremely benoit & sergio vibes from much of it!

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i mean this as the highest compliment: “afterglow” would be a killer amy grant album track

I'm finding "I forgot that you existed" somewhat hard to swallow. It's probably her weakest album opener to date... I suppose I've never been a fan of WANEGBT.

But everything from Cruel Summer up to Afterglow really rolls; "London Boy" and "You Need to Calm Down" just a couple bumps in the road. I'd even defend "London Boy" as a kind of companion to "Welcome to NY", another widely ridiculed song portraying a rose-tinted view of a big city. But it's a feeling me, as a tourist, can really relate to. And Xgau pretty much nailed it for me in his 1989 review; all he said about "Welcome" there kind of applies here, to me (though I can concede "London" is weaker than "Welcome")

"The Man" is much better than I expected it to be, and "I Think He Knows" is really great, though it's somewhat buried among the other standouts in a first listen. And "Paper Rings", is it "Stay Stay Stay" part 2?

Production's probably not as...resourceful? than in 1989/Rep. In the sense that it's very clear Antonoff's is not the provider of ideas than Max Martin was. He's less of a source. But he does seem to provide a lot more room for her songwriting to breath here. I've always considered "Speak Now" her strongest and I'm always hoping she, at some point, will go back to fully writing on herself (as she is obviously a better songwriter than all the partners she's had), so this is a welcome change.

i put it on shuffle and it went archer - cornelia st - death by a thousand cuts - and i am currently an emotional mess

"Death by a thousand cuts" - in my mind is the closest thing she'll ever have to a Mike Garson moment.

I don’t think “London Boy” requires elaborate defenses; it’s a fine song.

There was a trending “Twitter Moment” over the weekend in which Londoners were making fun of it — hanging their hats on the idea that she claims to visit various, far-flung neighborhoods all in the same day, via a circuitous route. Since she never says that in the song, I can only conclude that Londoners need something to complain about!

it's definitely worth making fun of, but yeah, the song is fine. it sounds more like a Reputation track than this album, but that's part of the sprawl here. at least she doesn't try to pull off an accent.

"london boy" would still be pretty bad if the lyrics weren't as embarrassing as they are

Why are they embarrassing?

This 4-different-deluxe-editions-each-with-different-pages-of-diary-entries is one of the great formatting wheezes of recent years. ZTT would be proud

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D9R3rLQWwAAWlkt.jpg

in order to go to the Paris show in a couple of weeks I bought a different deluxe edition that comes with a tote bag, a phone grip, some temporary tattoos based on images from the "You Need To Calm Down" video, and four pretty big post cards. it cost 40 € but with a ticket to the show included, I'm ok having this goofy junk.

https://www.difymusic.com/taylorswift

in case anyone cares.

40€ only for a CD+show ticket ?? That's very cheap !

yes ! at the Olympia

I don't even care about her but I may get it just for the opportunity !

Oh, of course, it's sold out...

I'm suprised she plays at the Olympia : shouldn't she play Bercy or even Stade de France or is she not that big in France ?

she played the Zenith in 2011 but it didn't sell out and she's not played France since. This show is mostly for promotion; there are 200 tickets being sold along with those boxes, and there's a loterie for some other tickets; but I think it'll be a lot of radio people there who she's trying to charm into playing her stuff & breaking her here. I don't think she's yet very popular here; the review in Libération yesterday was characteristically blasé.

Bizarre.
Ariana is playing at Bercy tonight... and tomorrow !

looking at her previous chart positions the best she's ever charted in France was #9 with 1989 (Red was 30, Reputation was 16), so yeah she doesn't seem to be very popular in France, at least not compared to most of the world which wpuld make touring there not a good prospect for her. it seems like the only time she's really toured Europe was the Speak Now tour - more recently she's only played the UK and Ireland consistently, with some dates in Germany and the Netherlands but nowhere else.

Beyoncé played the Stade de France with Jay-Z last summer. it's not like American music is unpopular here. & yet Swift struggles. I reckon it's that Swift was a country artist, and there's absolutely no interest in that here (and not much elsewhere in Europe either).

yeah that's my guess too - not much appetite for country in Europe and then probably didn't have the resources put into really trying to breakthrough in Europe when she did go pop due to the existing lack of interest - some of her pop singles seem to have been hits in France though but not to the same degree as elsewhere

Why are they embarrassing?

Americans are not permitted to say they "fancy" someone

To my ears, she comes across as playful rather than fake.

playful but still deeply embarrassing

"paper rings" kinda sounds like it was made to soundtrack a target commercial - i'm still on the fence about it

well you are talking about an artist who released 4 different versions of the album at target...

Ha, that reminds me that, er, "Me" is being used by the ABC network in Fall preview commercials.

Can't spell ABC without ME.

there's a capital one commercial where taylor plays a diner waitress and "me!" plays in the background... it sounds prefect in that setting

I'm listening to this album now and i have news:

it's good

― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, August 27, 2019 4:00 AM (thirteen hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

extremely benoit & sergio vibes from much of it!

― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, August 27, 2019 4:13 AM (thirteen hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

what the? i wish there were these vibes, pls explain

i most enjoy cruel summer & the more ballad leaning songs -- soon youll get better is great & just endlessly, universally relatable; lover is like 90% great but is slightly off somehow

lover is like 90% great but is slightly off somehow

Yeah, it's the bridge! It just kills me... this could have been an almost perfect song.

I'm no songwriter, but I feel like they could have even somehow segued right from the 2nd chorus into the the final two lines of the bridge ("And you'll save all your dirties jokes for me...") -- that section works fine melodically, it's the rest of it that sticks out like a sore thumb. Of course, that would mean losing lyrical content.

it's not a very sophisticated comparison, I'm just talking about the slow synthy moody ones like the archer, cornelia street..

xpost

ok now i like “miss americana” lol

I really like "Lover"; I love when she's able to turn the broad, generic statements around into the brutally specific, like in "Your are in love", and I can feel it happening here in the "guitar scars" line.

i know this’ll wear off eventually but i’m pretty sure “death by a thousand cuts” and “afterglow” are my favorite taylor swift songs

"Death By A Thousand Cuts" is mostly v good but the bit about getting lost in a "haunted club" (?) and "our songs, our films, united we stand" etc is very odd to me

I agree those lyrics are odd, but I like the "wtf" aspect; the way everything gets kicked up a notch into this heightened register, and suddenly she's not just singing about a failed relationship anymore.

Btw (to balance my picking apart the bridge of "Lover" above) -- this is an example of the kind of bridge that really works for me, melodically -- it effortlessly flows from the section that preceded it, feels like a "natural part of the song," and even elevates the song / makes you go "yeah!". I love when bridges do that. And those weird lyrics are part of the overall effect... I get a scalp tingle when she launches into, "Our songs, our films...."

this is our house, these are our rules..

I had more trouble with the "Went home and tried to stalk you on the internet/Now I've read all of the books beside your bed" on "Paper Rings" -- the latter too incongruously weird for the persona she's created.

im not sure if that one is supposed to be taken as "i stalked you on the internet so well that i read the books you own" or "we have spent so much time together that i've read the books next to your bed"... either way i don't mind that one but there are def some lyrics that don't really track for me even on like "the archer"

I wake in the night, I pace like a ghost
The room is on fire, invisible smoke
And all of my heroes die all alone
Help me hold onto you

pacing like a ghost (?) and the room is on fire but the smoke is invisible ... wha

Taylor swift who can recall her past lives

im not sure if that one is supposed to be taken as "i stalked you on the internet so well that i read the books you own" or "we have spent so much time together that i've read the books next to your bed".

It's the latter; same with the next verse:

Like the shoulder that I gave you in the street
Cat and mouse for a month or two or three
Now I wake up in the night and watch you breathe

“room is on fire / invisible smoke” is taylor pulling apart a metaphor for an anxiety attack imo