taylor swift iridescent smoke bombs thread 2019 - lover

She has been named Woman of the Decade.

uh oh Soros mentions now

"Woman" of the Decade is a qualified, bullshit distinction imo. how bout just "Artist of the Decade"?

Will they have a Man of the Decade too?

this is tied to billboard's women in music event that happens every year... they normally do "woman of the year." you could do a "people in music" event but there's already lots of those (several of them put on by the same company that owns billboard)

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/taylor-swift-songs-ranked-rob-sheffield-201800/?list_page=1#list-item-153

I kind of value the enthusiasm Sheffield has for Swift, though he usually gives value to things I find trivial, and overlooks her true strenghts.

E.g. Long Live might probably make my top 10, but to pick the "I had the time of my life fighting dragons with you" line when you could choose springsteenian gems such as " a band of thieves in ripped up jeans got to rule the world" or the true emotional gut punch of the song, which is "If you have children some day/When they point to the pictures/Please tell 'em my name"...IDK what to think.

Anyway, No 1 is really worth it.

Clicked away as soon as I saw “Bad Blood” came in dead last.

"Never Grow Up" at 124 is nuts. "Don't make her drop you off around the block/Remember that she's getting older too", "Take pictures in your mind
Of your childhood room/Memorize what it sounded like/When your dad gets home", for christ's sake!

Clicked away as soon as I saw “Bad Blood” came in dead last.

― Inapt Authority (morrisp), Friday, December 13, 2019 1:09 PM (four days ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is one of the ways rob is correct

anyway i came here to talk about how good "death by a thousand cuts" is

Isn't it? I just blasted it before reading this thread.

How good this album ended up being? To me it's really high in her list.

I still skip around a lot, but it boasts more songs I love on a Taylor Swift album than any since Red if not Speak Now.

if the album had 12/13 songs it would be really really fantastic.

this is my second favorite swift record. as with red, my favorite, i made and listened to my own edit for a few weeks, but it ended up being less charming than the complete sprawl (even when it sprawls into something bad)

"afterglow," "false god," "death by a thousand cuts," "cornelia street," "paper rings," "i think he knows," "the archer," title track, "cruel summer" all all-time swift songs imo

Agreed with the praise in the last few posts

Still puzzled by how "Cruel Summer" wasn't the lead single

I was never much of a Swiftie before, but I really like this album. It feels much more mature and nuanced about relationships than her earlier albums; even in the breakup songs, she's less inclined to assign blame, more willing to take a hard look at her own weaknesses.

"The Archer," in particular, blows me away, esp. the moment when "They see right through me/do you see right through me/ I see right through me" feeds into "All of my enemies started out friends."

I’m convinced there’s an early draft/diary/back of the napkin version of the archer where the lyric is “couldn’t put Taylor together again”

I still can’t quite wrap my head around what she’s trying to say in “Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince,” though. I know it’s supposed to be political, but it just reminds me of the bit in Pogo where a character claims to have been shouting “Down with the gummint” for years, but on closer examination he’s actually been shouting, “1-2-3-4, who are we for, Saint Paul High School, rah rah rah.”

don't understand how anyone could possibly think this is a better version of Pop Taylor than 1989

I mean, I've never actively listened to her much before, so I've clearly missed a lot of good stuff on her earlier albums. But what put me off before was a general impression of a very black-and-white, winners-and-losers vision of relationships, where she's always determined to get the last word. I'm seeing more maturity and self-examination on this album, which is why I like it. And I like the way the completely all-in, over-the-top "I'm in LUV" stuff is shot through with fear that she's going to screw it all up.

"afterglow," "false god," "death by a thousand cuts," "cornelia street," "paper rings," "i think he knows," "the archer," title track, "cruel summer" all all-time swift songs imo

― american bradass (BradNelson)

i agree completely. i would just replace "i think he knows" for "it's nice to have a friend", which is so so lovely.
and i quite enjoy "Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince", but i know i'm one of the few that like when taylor tries to pretend she's lana.

don't understand how anyone could possibly think this is a better version of Pop Taylor than 1989

― ufo,
Firstly, she's just flat out a better singer now. I also think the highs are higher this time and no song actively bugs me (lookin' atchoo bad blood)
xxp

I agree with most of the positive stuff said above. I think it's also at #2 for me tied with Red and below Speak Now.

"afterglow," "false god," "death by a thousand cuts," "cornelia street," "paper rings," "i think he knows," "the archer," title track, "cruel summer"

These are my favorites too, I'm also 1000% sure "The Man" is as good as them, and there are at least 4 more deserving of being in the same album (I mean "Daylight", "Miss Americana","Soon you'll get better" and "It's nice to have a friend")

And I second the opinion about the charms of its failures and its range.

don't understand how anyone could possibly think this is a better version of Pop Taylor than 1989

I'm not sure this is really a better version of the same thing. I do believe "Lover" plays better to the strengths of her songwriting by finding a way to work more of her diaristic/narrative impulses into her pop songs and production. I suppose 1989 is more of a proper pop album, while Lover is more of a Taylor Swift album (as defined by Fearless, Speak Now and Red)

"afterglow," "false god," "death by a thousand cuts," "cornelia street," "paper rings," "i think he knows," "the archer," title track, "cruel summer" all all-time swift songs imo

― american bradass (BradNelson), Wednesday, December 18, 2019 1:01 PM (two days ago)

this is completely otm except almost literally every other song on the album is a dud

brad's underrating "soon you'll get better" and somewhat overrating the title track, "afterglow", and "the archer"

xp to outdoor_miner: "me!" and "you need to calm down" are even worse than "bad blood" and "welcome to new york" were, while the highs on lover don't quite match say "i wish you would" or "style"

i love "soon you'll get better" it's just hard to listen to. there is absolutely no way i'm overrating "afterglow"

i also don't really think every other song on the album is a dud. "miss americana" grew on me, it's taylor's best lana song. "london boy" is so obviously ridiculous that after first finding it radioactively embarrassing i came right back around to enjoying it. as established itt i have always loved "the man" and "you need to calm down". "me!" remains an abomination and is possibly self-aware of this cf. "one of these things is not like the others"

reputation is better than 1989 anyway

“Me!” is the only dud. 1989 only had one dud, too (“I Know Places”) – but Lover is a better album all around. (And yes, so was Reputation, for that matter.)

(this is all in my humble opinion, of course)

reputation is better than 1989 anyway

― american bradass (BradNelson)

for me this is so strange to think about. like, now i can see that 'reputation' is a little bit better than i thought back then, but i can't see where's even one song on reputation that matches all the highs from '1989'. from style to new romantics, clean, i know places, blank space, wildest dreams, etc.
maybe one day i'll get 'reputation'.

one way to get reputation: listen to the "i get so high - OH!" part of "don't blame me"

i think it's her most consistent album this side of speak now. after three years with it i realized everything kind of works, it's so fun and theatrical, my favorite songs' individual parts feel like they fit together jaggedly like the glass of a smashed mirror (cf. "so it goes" (sorry i lied this is the superior taylor del rey song), "king of my heart," "dancing with our hands tied," "dress" (the best song ever made))

it's weird that 1989 is her shortest record and yet i feel like i skate through way more moods on it than in either of the follow-ups, "I wish you would" -> "bad blood" -> "wildest dreams" causes real bad whiplash. much as i like it on its own, "shake it off" also seems to derail the album. this is very hard to prove but i feel like it's missing the focus and confidence of her best records, like it's trying to distract me with shiny or fast-moving new toys throughout. i still love like 90 percent of the songs don't get me wrong

er i guess it's only been two years

“Call It What You Want” alone beats almost any track on 1989 (and 1989 is a really good album!)

I also luv Swedish trap, so

one way to get reputation: listen to the "i get so high - OH!" part of "don't blame me"

― american bradass (BradNelson), Saturday, December 21, 2019 9:13 AM (eighteen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

this song justifies hozier's entire existence imo

i agree that "dress" is like one of the best songs ever and "shake it off" is probably the worse one that taylor made. still, there's at least 4/5 songs on 'reputation' that i really dislike: ready for it, i did something bad, look what you made me do, this is why we can't have nice things...

"this is why we can't have nice things" really pushes it, but i also love the melody

because you break them
i had to take them
awayayayayay

"i did something bad" is very obviously awesome to me though ("and i'd do it overandoverandoveragain if iiiiiii could") so we may not be able to meet in the middle on this

maybe one day. because i get the theatricality of it. it will be my 2020 goal, to give it one more chance.

I REALLY love « I Did Something Bad »

"shake it off" is probably the worse one that taylor made

o_O

I can’t even with some of these opinions!

my ranking of the last 3 albums is def: reputation > lover > 1989

reputation has some duds but is pretty easily the best listen front to back to me... also i find the perspective she writes from on that album -- conniving, reckless, lonely, conducting all her relationships in secret -- far more believable than the starry eyed lovebird of lover. my one knock on reputation as i've said before is that the production is sort of stuck in the mud.

lover adds some badly needed new textures to this super pop era of hers, but also a fair amount of duds that make it hard to listen to front to back. if she had made the album entirely w/ antonoff i'm confident it would've been the best of the three. someone should delete joel little's number from her phone.

1989 has some of her best songs but is kinda cold and very corny. i'll dance to "shake it off" at a wedding but 1989's singles are mostly dreadful. this album really ends with a whimper for me too... style -> out of the woods -> all you had to do -> [skip] -> i wish you would is a great run tho.

Really? I'll take "Blank Space" and "Style" as singles over, to look at the list, "Lover," "...Ready for It?," and "Me!"

the sequencing on all three albums is pretty bad imo so my preference is more about which ones have the most to work with to turn into a great front-to-back listen, but 1989 has the least duds of the three as well

quickly ranking her 1989 and onwards singles:
style
out of the woods
blank space

delicate
wildest dreams
new romantics
look what you made me do
lover
shake it off

ready for it
you need to calm down
bad blood
end game
me!

Really? I'll take "Blank Space" and "Style" as singles over, to look at the list, "Lover," "...Ready for It?," and "Me!"

― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, December 21, 2019 10:45 PM (yesterday)bookmarkflaglink

i do love style... blank space is pretty good too. bad blood and shake it off.... woof. maybe it's not the quality of those singles i resent as much as the ubiquity... look what you made me do etc are about as bad or worse but didn't hit like those others.