yes
― k*r*n koltrane (Simon H.), Friday, 24 July 2020 13:45 (three years ago) link
for some reason LDR can hold my attention for an hour of dirges where Taylor can't, tho
This seems much less dirgy than LDR to me.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 24 July 2020 13:48 (three years ago) link
"Cardigan" is a little more revved-up than LDR, but the structure/rhyme scheme feels similar to me, and it almost sounds like Swift is singing in a slightly lower register than usual, but that may be my relative ignorance of her catalog talking.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Friday, 24 July 2020 13:50 (three years ago) link
re "August", it's very "Here's Where The Story Ends" or "Homeward" from The Sundays, but the chorus also has overtones of 90s Cocteau Twins.
sounds like she's been listening to Hatchie...
― Number None, Friday, 24 July 2020 13:52 (three years ago) link
― k*r*n koltrane (Simon H.), Friday, July 24, 2020 6:45 AM (seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink
you're playing yourself here
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 24 July 2020 13:54 (three years ago) link
if I knew how to play anyone else I would!
― k*r*n koltrane (Simon H.), Friday, 24 July 2020 13:55 (three years ago) link
take it to the gay thread, sailor
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 24 July 2020 13:55 (three years ago) link
i don't really hear ldr but maybe that's because the piano parts on this are soooo national-y (for the obvious reason) so that's all i can think about
― ufo, Friday, 24 July 2020 13:58 (three years ago) link
again, i understand that taylor is obsessed with ldr, but my mind immediately skips to references beyond her e.g. ... tori, "seven" even manages to have a kind of sarah mclachlan feel. feel like ldr would never make a record this lilith fair imo. which is not me dissing ldr but is def me praising this album
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 24 July 2020 14:01 (three years ago) link
also to ufo's point, some of these songs would sound exactly like national songs with berninger singing over them. taylor manages to take them somewhere else though
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 24 July 2020 14:02 (three years ago) link
ldr would never make a record this lilith fair
dangerous to say this so close to her long-dreaded spoken word release
― k*r*n koltrane (Simon H.), Friday, 24 July 2020 14:04 (three years ago) link
I've never heard the National or Tori Amos. So I'll trust Brad on those affinities.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Friday, 24 July 2020 14:05 (three years ago) link
Brad otm there. A lot of these songs, you can totally hear the National, but listening to Swift sing then really underscores what she brings to the table. And Berninger, too, respectively.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 24 July 2020 14:07 (three years ago) link
rather spookily this and I am Easy to Find are both 16 tracks and almost exactly the same length
― k*r*n koltrane (Simon H.), Friday, 24 July 2020 14:08 (three years ago) link
I don't hear LDR much; there's a lightness of being with which TS is imbued even at her most introspective.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 24 July 2020 14:10 (three years ago) link
not a band i'd compare the sound of the record to at all, but the verses of "the 1" are *very* the 1975
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 24 July 2020 14:11 (three years ago) link
lol i hear it
― ufo, Friday, 24 July 2020 14:12 (three years ago) link
I had this dream you're doing cool shitHaving adventures on your ownYou meet some woman on the internet and take her home
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 24 July 2020 14:15 (three years ago) link
the lyrics on this record are so fucking GOOD which is another reason i can't compare it to ldr
their lyrical approaches have almost nothing in common but I'll stop myself there lol
― k*r*n koltrane (Simon H.), Friday, 24 July 2020 14:18 (three years ago) link
sorry 4 giving in to the irresistible diss simon
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 24 July 2020 14:20 (three years ago) link
if I was going to get upset I wouldn't love utterly dissable artists
― k*r*n koltrane (Simon H.), Friday, 24 July 2020 14:22 (three years ago) link
I know I'm obsessed with The 1975, but the beginning of 'mirrorball' is almost exactly the same as The 1975's 'medicine'.
― Nourry, Friday, 24 July 2020 14:39 (three years ago) link
I want you to knowI'm a mirrorballI can change everything about me to fit inYou are not like the regularsThe masquerade revelersDrunk as they watch my shattered edges glisten
fuckin slaps!!!!
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 24 July 2020 14:42 (three years ago) link
The overall mood definitely feels Lilith Fair without sounding a lot like anyone in particular, tho the piano production does evoke Sarah Mclachlan (more than Tori, I think, whose piano attack is sharper). Also obviously all the '70s women-piano-pop that Lilith Fair itself evoked, Carole King and Carly Simon etc.
And agreed about the lyrics. One of my FB friends just complimented the gauche/goes slant rhyme. I've always liked the craftsman side of Taylor, the obvious pleasure she gets in putting things together just the way she wants them.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Friday, 24 July 2020 14:46 (three years ago) link
lovely, mature album with especially vivid lyrics for swift. generally liked the Antonoff tracks more than the Dessner ones (and I'm a National fan, though more in the 00s than the 10s). early favorites are "Mirrorball" and "Epiphany" - both have really gauzy, light production that elevate swift in a way that feels like new territory for her, though maybe bits of 1989 sounded like this?
― Indexed, Friday, 24 July 2020 14:46 (three years ago) link
Hmm, I typically can't stand Swift's music but I may check this out based on the Sarah McLachlan comparisons.
― pomenitul, Friday, 24 July 2020 14:48 (three years ago) link
"mirrorball" is like a more self-aware "enchanted," like it has all the same totally-gone falling-for-someone swoonings but it's also like "what am i doing, am i losing myself in trying so hard to appeal to this person and reflect their interests?"
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 24 July 2020 14:49 (three years ago) link
though maybe bits of 1989 sounded like this?
― Indexed, Friday, July 24, 2020 7:46 AM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink
i was expecting this record to sound like "safe & sound" but, surprisingly, "this love" seems to be the actual touchstone
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 24 July 2020 14:50 (three years ago) link
I was gonna say "Clean," but yeah.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Friday, 24 July 2020 14:52 (three years ago) link
it can be both!!!!
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 24 July 2020 14:52 (three years ago) link
every time i look up the lyrics to one of these songs i see a line or a verse that kicks my ass. all of "seven" is amazing, the second verse is i think trying to portray a greater adult darkness as viewed from the eyes of a child, cf. "i think your house is haunted / your dad is always mad and that must be why / and i think you should come live with me / and we can be pirates / then you won't have to cry," which is staggering on its *own*, and then the bridge is
please picture me in the weedsbefore i learned civilityi used to scream ferociouslyany time i wanted
fuck
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 24 July 2020 14:55 (three years ago) link
Kinda sad about matty because he had come up with the "taylor nebraska" whole thing in an interview and how he would be glad to produce it and now this thing comes up and that box has obviously been ticked now.
― cpl593H, Friday, 24 July 2020 14:55 (three years ago) link
"This love" was great
― cpl593H, Friday, 24 July 2020 14:56 (three years ago) link
the lyrics of "this is me trying" are very reputation-y (cf. how "adjusting" rhymes with "rusting") but i really love "i was so ahead of the curve, the curve became a sphere / fell behind all my classmates and i ended up here"
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 24 July 2020 15:06 (three years ago) link
ha -- I noted that line/image too.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 24 July 2020 15:06 (three years ago) link
and i love pretty much every line in "illicit affairs," i think it's just great writing. "what started in beautiful rooms / ends with meetings in parking lots"; "take the words for what they are / a dwindling, mercurial high / a drug that only worked / the first few hundred times"; "and you wanna scream 'don't call me kid, don't call me baby' / look at this godforsaken mess that you made me"
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 24 July 2020 15:11 (three years ago) link
Do any of you know if she is a reader, or if she's ever recommended or mentioned any books she's reading? I'd be curious.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 24 July 2020 15:14 (three years ago) link
It's obvious her sense of metaphor has expanded in the last decade, which means she no doubt reads or is at least sponging from the right sources.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 24 July 2020 15:15 (three years ago) link
I think a key thing I like about this album was that it *isn't* a "Taylor Nebraska" thing, or rather, that what I kinda figured might be the case -- some sort of vocal/guitar only thing -- wasn't. (And I know that while his pseudo-Walden days were long ago, the announced presence of Bon Iver also had me wondering.) As I muttered I really don't think about the National at all so if this is what they sound like then I'm perfectly content to listen to this rather than them, honestly. Alfred's point about Taylor's 'lightness of being' strikes me, and could also possibly explain why I'd find this much more interesting a prospect all around than the National straight up or LDR, the truest of blank zones. But to get back to the sense of sound beyond all these other points raised -- it's not a 'return' to a past so much as a comfortable shift, one which underscores the argument I've had (in my head only, maybe) for years that 'roots music' is a fetishized and misunderstood concept, given that our collective memories shift more and more to a point where it's been electronically mediated and supported as much as 'really' played by someone.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 24 July 2020 15:16 (three years ago) link
xxp She's a fan of Sally Rooney, which makes sense:https://lithub.com/sally-rooney-is-trending-again-and-this-time-its-because-of-taylor-swift/
― jaymc, Friday, 24 July 2020 15:17 (three years ago) link
Yeah the Rooney connection makes sense. They're both very good at taking stock situations -- boy-girl, misunderstanding, mixed feelings, etc. -- and peeling back clichés to get to the underlying messiness.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Friday, 24 July 2020 15:21 (three years ago) link
I am surprised by how much I'm enjoying this album
― shout-out to his family (DJP), Friday, 24 July 2020 15:22 (three years ago) link
And speaking of her metaphors, I was just appreciating this one: "You're a flashback in a film reel on the one screen in my town."
You get this sense of her really working to get to the specifics of the feeling.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Friday, 24 July 2020 15:22 (three years ago) link
t's not a 'return' to a past so much as a comfortable shift, one which underscores the argument I've had (in my head only, maybe) for years that 'roots music' is a fetishized and misunderstood concept, given that our collective memories shift more and more to a point where it's been electronically mediated and supported as much as 'really' played by someone.
This is a great point.
If anything, this album reminds me aesthetically -- not sonically -- of something like Blood on the Tracks, on which a decade of rummaging for cool sounds to complement the increasingly sophisticated songwriting strengthens a suite of ostensibly acoustic tunes. Think also of Tunnel of Love or Sleater-Kinney's No Cities to Love.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 24 July 2020 15:25 (three years ago) link
a comfortable shift
Yeah, Ned, this that you wrote jumped out at me, too. She adapts so well to this shift it doesn't even sound like an adaptation.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 24 July 2020 15:30 (three years ago) link
Thanks to you both -- your comparisons there, Alfred, are striking.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 24 July 2020 15:46 (three years ago) link
Yes to the "This Love" comparison
― Indexed, Friday, 24 July 2020 16:06 (three years ago) link
didn't read this thread but this is a good album, the first one I've liked since 1989 (ok I never really gave the last one a shot)
― akm, Friday, 24 July 2020 16:21 (three years ago) link