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
This is reminding me a lot of the second half of Rilo Kiley's More Adventurous, right down to the unwelcome vocals of a guy on a solitary track
― boxedjoy, Friday, 24 July 2020 16:37 (three years ago) link
So is there an actual Varg connection or…?
― pomenitul, Friday, 24 July 2020 16:37 (three years ago) link
similar love of knitwear?
― k*r*n koltrane (Simon H.), Friday, 24 July 2020 16:38 (three years ago) link
me after I’ve left the neon lights of the city behind to get back to the land and listen to Folklore, but there’s some part of me that just can’t let go of who I used to be pic.twitter.com/nxzWsgRP0e— Sam Lansky (@samlansky) July 24, 2020
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Friday, 24 July 2020 16:49 (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.
Still see this poster hanging in public libraries:
https://www.walden.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/taylor-swift-768-1.jpg
― "...And the Gods Socially Distanced" (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 24 July 2020 17:22 (three years ago) link
can someone shop White Fragility in there
― k*r*n koltrane (Simon H.), Friday, 24 July 2020 17:22 (three years ago) link
Women like hunting witches tooDoing your dirtiest work for you too
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 24 July 2020 17:34 (three years ago) link
tbh She's in the movie version of "The Giver," so there's a bit of what's good for the goose in there. And to go full tin-hat, that was at the end of the promotional cycle for "Red," and seeing her in a bright red dress with bright red lipstick next to the word "READ" kills a few more birds with one stone too. She's a clever one, that Taylor Swift.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 24 July 2020 17:36 (three years ago) link
i cannOT stop crying to "mirrorball"
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 24 July 2020 17:50 (three years ago) link
think a key thing I like about this album was that it *isn't* a "Taylor Nebraska" thing
Yeah, it's not really a Taylor Nebraska! But it checks all the marks Healy seemed to suggest when he mentioned the concept.
― cpl593H, Friday, 24 July 2020 18:11 (three years ago) link
I'd be interested in seeing more of those pop star library posters. I know the one with Bowie is totally classic.
― cpl593H, Friday, 24 July 2020 18:12 (three years ago) link
I had the R.E.M. one for a while:
https://www.hakes.com/Image/MediumRes/96585/1/image.jpg
― Your dream has symbolic content (morrisp), Friday, 24 July 2020 18:15 (three years ago) link
(mine was not signed, it was taped slightly askew on my door room wall)
― Your dream has symbolic content (morrisp), Friday, 24 July 2020 18:16 (three years ago) link
xp I remember seeing that Healy comment at the time and thinking, "You can't really produce a Nebraska for someone else; if you want Taylor to make a Nebraska you'll just have to find some way to lock her in her house for a year with a guitar and a harmonica."
― Lily Dale, Friday, 24 July 2020 18:16 (three years ago) link
Just ordered the vinyl and they were like "this ships in 16 fucking weeks", which is kinda perfect because although yes, this is a melancholy summer album, it will slot in really nicely with my fall and winter and winter favorites as well.
― peace, man, Friday, 24 July 2020 18:23 (three years ago) link
just saw a headline declaring this "the perfect quar album," and now I have a new abbreviation to loathe
― Your dream has symbolic content (morrisp), Friday, 24 July 2020 18:29 (three years ago) link
idk I think it's kinda cool
― the quar on drugs (Simon H.), Friday, 24 July 2020 18:30 (three years ago) link
weren't Quar the worst band of all time at one point
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 24 July 2020 18:32 (three years ago) link
This Taylort Earth
― peace, man, Friday, 24 July 2020 18:33 (three years ago) link
'fraid of the 'rona, gotta quar
― Your dream has symbolic content (morrisp), Friday, 24 July 2020 18:35 (three years ago) link
james is totally a girl btw
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 24 July 2020 19:00 (three years ago) link
pretty good album but man, it's kind of a bummer, isn't it? like i'm trying to get ready for the weekend and now i'm kind of sad.
― call all destroyer, Friday, 24 July 2020 19:01 (three years ago) link
Yeah - it's both very good, and not the kind of territory that I think I will want to revisit too often.
(btw - the vocal melody at the beginning of "Seven" reminds me of Big Thief's "Cattails.")
― Your dream has symbolic content (morrisp), Friday, 24 July 2020 19:08 (three years ago) link
It's not outright depressing, it's more like sweetly melancholic, which of course makes it even worse.
― cpl593H, Friday, 24 July 2020 19:09 (three years ago) link
I hadn't looked up which tracks Antonoff worked on, but when that final section of "August" hits - like, he may as well have signed it in Sharpie.
― Your dream has symbolic content (morrisp), Friday, 24 July 2020 19:17 (three years ago) link
xp: I listened to it twice this morning and it inspired me to listen to more sad albums. So I reached for Get Lonely and this is kinda a rough way to usher in the weekend.
― peace, man, Friday, 24 July 2020 19:21 (three years ago) link
Definitely overshot my target.
― peace, man, Friday, 24 July 2020 19:27 (three years ago) link
Once you get deep into the stretch starting with Track 9, it feels like any sense of momentum has been lost.
― Your dream has symbolic content (morrisp), Friday, 24 July 2020 19:35 (three years ago) link
idk "invisible string" is track 11, it's pretty buoyant
but also it's a sustained mood, the momentum is by nature unhurried throughout, patient and observational in a way that a late injection of energy would absolutely undermine
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 24 July 2020 19:39 (three years ago) link
the sequencing makes me feel like i'm wandering through some feverish cloudy interzone that connects all the regions of these songs, her best sequencing ever incidentally
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 24 July 2020 19:40 (three years ago) link
I do like "Invisible String" a lot. But the 2nd half of the album hits me as a bunch of slow, pretty songs strung together, without enough variation; maybe I'm just not in the right headspace for that mood.
― Your dream has symbolic content (morrisp), Friday, 24 July 2020 19:42 (three years ago) link
(or it worked better on a Thursday night than a Friday morning)
― Your dream has symbolic content (morrisp), Friday, 24 July 2020 19:43 (three years ago) link
"it's obvious that wanting me dead has really brought you two together" - lyric of the decade
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 24 July 2020 19:44 (three years ago) link
i get it, part of me keeps starting the record over again after i hit "august," mostly because i want to hear "the 1" all the time. but i really value how much of this album takes place in a unified sonic world because hybrid-country-pop and post-country taylor swift only made one other album like that and it's reputation xp
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 24 July 2020 19:47 (three years ago) link
long suite of slow atmospheric songs is a feature it shares with the last national record too so it's possible i prepared myself for this by falling really hard for i am easy to find. but though they're the same length taylor's record feels shorter
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 24 July 2020 19:48 (three years ago) link
Sounds like this is her Sea Change.
― pomenitul, Friday, 24 July 2020 19:50 (three years ago) link
oh dear lord no
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 24 July 2020 19:50 (three years ago) link
The last National album is the only one in their storied catalog I loved, in part because of crucial female support.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 24 July 2020 19:51 (three years ago) link
i'm enjoying this v much. if i was going thru a breakup this album would be a real kick in the nuts
― Its big ball chunky time (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Friday, 24 July 2020 20:35 (three years ago) link
So apparently “Cardigan”, “August” and “Betty” are all about the same situation from the different perspectives of the people involved?
― Tim F, Friday, 24 July 2020 20:45 (three years ago) link
That's what I learned from Wilson and Rosen's reviews
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 24 July 2020 20:46 (three years ago) link