Taylor Swift -- Evermore

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Ten minutes to go and counting

Ned Raggett, Friday, 11 December 2020 04:50 (three years ago) link

Looking forward to her follow ups Pinafore, Semaphore, and Abbatoir

DJP, Friday, 11 December 2020 04:53 (three years ago) link

That last one would have been Coil's best remix album.

Ned Raggett, Friday, 11 December 2020 04:53 (three years ago) link

Listening on YT Music, cuz it's not on Tidal for some reason.

good karma, my aesthetic (morrisp), Friday, 11 December 2020 05:03 (three years ago) link

(ok, it finally showed up, in time for Track 3)

good karma, my aesthetic (morrisp), Friday, 11 December 2020 05:10 (three years ago) link

It's good

Guayaquil (eephus!), Friday, 11 December 2020 05:16 (three years ago) link

It is really nice, and "unassuming" / relaxed.

good karma, my aesthetic (morrisp), Friday, 11 December 2020 05:39 (three years ago) link

Vintage tee, brand new phone
Pigs gush blood, cattle groan

I'm sorry

cerebral halsey (rip van wanko), Friday, 11 December 2020 05:53 (three years ago) link

I feel like this is the acoustic-y singer-songwriter album that lots of ppl have been waiting for her to make, without the indie affectations (er, enhancements) of Folklore.

good karma, my aesthetic (morrisp), Friday, 11 December 2020 05:56 (three years ago) link

This also has a few of her most straight-up country songs since, when - before Red?

good karma, my aesthetic (morrisp), Friday, 11 December 2020 05:58 (three years ago) link

This sounds exactly as indie as Folklore to me (I'm not complaining, I like it that way)

Guayaquil (eephus!), Friday, 11 December 2020 06:01 (three years ago) link

“ivy” is the standout to me on first listen

winters (josh), Friday, 11 December 2020 06:05 (three years ago) link

ok, this song "Long Story Short" is pretty indie; but it's a jam

good karma, my aesthetic (morrisp), Friday, 11 December 2020 06:08 (three years ago) link

aw, this final track is beautiful

good karma, my aesthetic (morrisp), Friday, 11 December 2020 06:18 (three years ago) link

Wikipedia says that all of the songs except one (that one is Antonoff obv) are produced by Dessner? Wow

self-clowning oven (Murgatroid), Friday, 11 December 2020 06:24 (three years ago) link

on first listen this is good but it doesn't have the standouts that folklore did

ufo, Friday, 11 December 2020 06:32 (three years ago) link

Same, I prefer folklore to this but it’s still good

That being said I’d be surprised if this split the Taylor vote on the year end poll

self-clowning oven (Murgatroid), Friday, 11 December 2020 06:37 (three years ago) link

on my 2nd time through now... "'Tis the Damn Season" is really a jam ("damn"!)

good karma, my aesthetic (morrisp), Friday, 11 December 2020 06:43 (three years ago) link

Pretty sure I prefer this album to Folklore, for various reasons (none of them interesting enough to dwell on).

good karma, my aesthetic (morrisp), Friday, 11 December 2020 06:51 (three years ago) link

wish there were more of the distorted drums on "closure" elsewhere, i'd been thinking that sort of thing would have worked quite nicely on some of folklore

ufo, Friday, 11 December 2020 07:04 (three years ago) link

evermore feels more like a collection of B-sides than a proper album to me

winters (josh), Friday, 11 December 2020 07:07 (three years ago) link

i think the title track is my favourite on first listen

ufo, Friday, 11 December 2020 07:09 (three years ago) link

Yeah this is very much an outtakes album, but it's quite pleasant.

a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Friday, 11 December 2020 07:11 (three years ago) link

It’s definitely looser, like a lot of quick follow ups to creative breakthroughs. The For The Roses to Folklore’s Blue, perhaps (and it shares with that album the sense that the song melodies bend to fit in all the words).

Tim F, Friday, 11 December 2020 07:32 (three years ago) link

Folklore’s Blue

omg the audacity

imago, Friday, 11 December 2020 08:10 (three years ago) link

Yeah on first listen I much prefer Folklore. Still I like that she released two (surprise) albums in a year. It’s refreshing especially for such a big act.

AlXTC from Paris, Friday, 11 December 2020 08:19 (three years ago) link

omfg “tis the damn season”

mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 11 December 2020 09:02 (three years ago) link

seven tracks in and i could not disagree more dramatically with the assertion that this is obviously a b-sides or an outtakes record

“happiness” ;_;

mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 11 December 2020 09:16 (three years ago) link

no one tell lj that taylor swift is exploring new time signatures

mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 11 December 2020 09:23 (three years ago) link

you could not make a song more tailored to my sensibilities than “long story short”

feeling some certainty after my first listen that this is going to be my favorite taylor record, every track blew me away and the sequencing kept me locked in (folklore has mostly great sequencing but it gets a little misty at the end imo)

mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 11 December 2020 09:40 (three years ago) link

that is ludicrously vmic lol but fine haha

I actually didn't hate folklore, is my horrid little secret here, so I probably will listen to this at some point

imago, Friday, 11 December 2020 09:48 (three years ago) link

title track is her best closer by a mile

mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 11 December 2020 09:49 (three years ago) link

while it's not quite as immediately great as folklore there's still plenty to love here. i do wish there were more antonoff tracks to balance things out though. i agree the title track is her best closer, it's so good

one thing though is i quite like "champagne problems" but i swear the melody is pieced together from three or four different other of her songs?

ufo, Friday, 11 December 2020 10:02 (three years ago) link

and i take back it not having the sort of standouts that folklore did, "long story short" and "evermore" are just as great as the best moments from folklore

ufo, Friday, 11 December 2020 10:22 (three years ago) link

one thing though is i quite like "champagne problems" but i swear the melody is pieced together from three or four different other of her songs?

maybe this is intentional? the lyric's another look at the scenario of "Speak Now" too.

I can't help but hear these new songs in the light of her revisiting her past albums for the rerecording project.

All cars are bad (Euler), Friday, 11 December 2020 10:44 (three years ago) link

I had the same impression about "Champagne Problems."

This is solid. "No Body, No Crime" sounds like normal times, i.e. Swift jamming with a skeleton of a song as she tosses lyrics to the Haim sisters.

I'll resist the hot takes, though. I need an album to crunch on next week.

Patriotic Goiter (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 11 December 2020 10:50 (three years ago) link

xp like

"Time flies, messy as the mud on your truck tires"

sung with country inflections, amidst other singing in the more pop/r&b register of the 1989/Reputation era (or even "the 1")

these are songs as commentary on where she's at in her life, while at the same time being songs standing on their own

which is what she's always doing anyway, it all spirals, a mis en abyme

All cars are bad (Euler), Friday, 11 December 2020 10:52 (three years ago) link

one of the tracks she's reused melodic phrases from in "champagne problems" is "all too well" but i haven't managed to place the others yet

ufo, Friday, 11 December 2020 12:45 (three years ago) link

there’ll be happiness after you
but there was happiness because of you
both of these things can be true

mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 11 December 2020 14:53 (three years ago) link

haha I'm listening to that tune as I type

Patriotic Goiter (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 11 December 2020 14:56 (three years ago) link

"Evermore" is really gorgeous, and it's hard not to take for granted that she's singing with Vernon instead of the Panic at the Disco guy or Ed Sheeran.

Indexed, Friday, 11 December 2020 15:20 (three years ago) link

He is absolutely her best-ever duet partner.

a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Friday, 11 December 2020 15:26 (three years ago) link

"Happiness" and "Marjorie" are my initial high points.

Ned Raggett, Friday, 11 December 2020 16:22 (three years ago) link

you booked the night train for a reason
so you could sit there in this hurt
bustling crowds or silent sleepers
you're not sure which is worse

the lyrics are so. good

mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 11 December 2020 17:17 (three years ago) link

"No Body No Crime" reminds me of something circa 1995 or so that I can't place

Indexed, Friday, 11 December 2020 17:26 (three years ago) link

"happiness" has to be the most she's ever devastated me as a songwriter

mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 11 December 2020 17:38 (three years ago) link

Baba O'Marjorie

biped, artisan, (Sufjan Grafton), Friday, 11 December 2020 17:51 (three years ago) link

"No Body No Crime" reminds me of something circa 1995 or so that I can't place

“Sunny Came Home”?

good karma, my aesthetic (morrisp), Friday, 11 December 2020 18:20 (three years ago) link

shouldn't have said anything

Indexed, Friday, 11 December 2020 18:49 (three years ago) link

why, was that it(?)

good karma, my aesthetic (morrisp), Friday, 11 December 2020 18:51 (three years ago) link

i am unsure why i love "cowboy like me" as much as i do (maybe because it reminds me of "papa was a rodeo" if covered by emmylou harris) but it is full of some terrific and realized writing, including "some tent like thing", it really nails down the protagonist's vernacular. amy hempel could've written it. unshowy and minor as referenced above, but no less striking. actually even more impressive than the knockout one-liners she's proven capable of.

billy, Sunday, 20 December 2020 18:09 (three years ago) link

That line reminds me of Connie Converse's "some sort of a squirrel thing"
I've found myself starting the record at "ivy" and then just letting that last stretch play. "cowboy like me" my fave though

bunny slopes, Sunday, 20 December 2020 18:17 (three years ago) link

yeah "ivy" --> "evermore" is her best ever stretch of songs

billy, Sunday, 20 December 2020 18:21 (three years ago) link

"papa was a rodeo" if covered by emmylou harris

^nice! it also makes me think of "papa was a rodeo" (but I shied away from mentioning that, as it felt too indie-schmindie a reference).

good karma, my aesthetic (morrisp), Sunday, 20 December 2020 18:23 (three years ago) link

need more stately songs about reckless swindlers meeting their match tbh

billy, Sunday, 20 December 2020 18:31 (three years ago) link

i was talking to tim about this record yesterday and he pointed out that "cowboy like me" features one of her favorite lyrical tricks (which is all over this record), the repeated phrase that is altered by its new context each time it recurs, cf. "i haven't met the new me yet" in "happiness." "cowboy like me"'s is "i could be the way forward / only if they pay for it" which curdles into "we could be the way forward / and i know i'll pay for it." i keep thinking that insecurity and melancholy are the driving emotions of that song even though on the surface it is about finding love in your chosen field if that field happens to be con artistry, because it's a relationship where you're never certain if the person you're falling for is the real one, and you never know if they're ever being truly honest with you. and this is never stated outright, it just works through the song ambiguously, compromising every declaration of certainty, subtly poisoning lines like "i'm never gonna love again" from the very roots. it's great writing

mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Sunday, 20 December 2020 18:38 (three years ago) link

song feels bottomless both in its sound and vision

mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Sunday, 20 December 2020 18:40 (three years ago) link

we also talked about "ivy," i am sort of struck every time i hear it that it's the apotheosis of her career's worth of themes, the pull of an imaginary fairytale universe somehow unlocked by true love b/w the overdriven romantic and sexual tensions of songs like "treacherous," except in this song the latter so darkens and confuses the former that it feels like you're wandering through the ruins of a castle or a magical forest full of dead trees. it is so lost in this effect that lyrically she gives almost nothing away, there's so much allusion and incident that only sort of indirectly tells you what's going on ("and the old widow goes to the stone every day / but i don't, i just sit here and wait / grieving for the living"). it's like the song is wreathed in a fog. so often her successful writing is rooted in the specificity and resonance of her details so "ivy" really does feel like it has its foot in another world where nothing resolves so easily. so like while it's the apotheosis of her themes it delivers them with what feels like a new obliqueness and mystery

at least half of these ideas are copyright tim f btw

mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Sunday, 20 December 2020 18:52 (three years ago) link

I also like the "tent-like thing" line a lot, but I wish she'd kept up that voice all the way through the song. The "gardens of Babylon" line sounds more like Taylor Swift to me, less like something that character would say.

Lily Dale, Sunday, 20 December 2020 21:48 (three years ago) link

I'm sorry, the old Taylor can't come to the phone right now

good karma, my aesthetic (morrisp), Monday, 21 December 2020 23:50 (three years ago) link

i was talking to tim about this record yesterday and he pointed out that "cowboy like me" features one of her favorite lyrical tricks (which is all over this record), the repeated phrase that is altered by its new context each time it recurs, cf. "i haven't met the new me yet" in "happiness." "cowboy like me"'s is "i could be the way forward / only if they pay for it" which curdles into "we could be the way forward / and i know i'll pay for it."

Totally. She does this elsewhere in "Cowboy" with "I've got some tricks up my sleeve" then "You had some tricks up your sleeve" then "I've had some tricks up my sleeve," which seems simple enough but is a subtle and clever way to tell stories with the chorus not just the verses.

Indexed, Tuesday, 22 December 2020 14:39 (three years ago) link

Probably stating the obvious (and previously stated), but this feels like the "10 years later" version of Folklore: the high-school drama has turned into adult relationships and regrets. Today it's "happiness" that's hitting me hardest.

timber euros (seandalai), Friday, 25 December 2020 01:59 (three years ago) link

"the lakes" is the only folklore track i don't really care for so i am really surprised at how great the evermore bonus tracks are

mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Sunday, 27 December 2020 18:51 (three years ago) link

"great" may be overstating it, i wouldn't swap them for anything on the record, and "it's time to go" sort of confirms this is her joni mitchell record, taylor just had the good sense to cut "the windfall (everything for nothing)" from the official tracklist

mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Sunday, 27 December 2020 19:02 (three years ago) link

I think my CD is scheduled to arrive tmrrw. Looking forward to it

Qui-Gon's Noble End (morrisp), Sunday, 27 December 2020 19:12 (three years ago) link

lol I haven’t heard these yet but I still get the windfall joke

Tim F, Sunday, 27 December 2020 22:14 (three years ago) link

but which is 'Ray's Dad's Cadillac'?

kniphofia face (Sufjan Grafton), Monday, 28 December 2020 08:11 (three years ago) link

closure sounds like casiontone for the painfully alone imo, i like its sentiment but it doesnt work for me

johnny crunch, Wednesday, 30 December 2020 19:36 (three years ago) link

Really nice songs, IMO

Four Jacks and a Jill (morrisp), Thursday, 7 January 2021 21:53 (three years ago) link

girl... enough

J0rdan S., Thursday, 7 January 2021 22:04 (three years ago) link

I guess “Right Where You Left Me” sounds a little like “You Belong to Me”... which is not an unwelcome callback, for a post-breakup song years later.

Such good lyrics—

I’m sure that you got a wife out there
Kids and Christmas

Four Jacks and a Jill (morrisp), Saturday, 9 January 2021 21:44 (three years ago) link

Wow, just listened to "Tolerate It" and "closure": p cool; 5/4 grooves were not what I expected from her.

Inside there's a box and that box has another box within (Sund4r), Saturday, 23 January 2021 16:56 (three years ago) link

I find “Tolerate It” pops into my head a lot.

one of the only artist who is genuine (morrisp), Saturday, 23 January 2021 18:56 (three years ago) link

One of several remarkable things about "Cowboy Like Me" is how it kicks off with what turns out to essentially be the bridge melody, when it returns around 2:50. Can anyone think of another example of a song that does that? (I'm a connoisseur of bridges in songs, I can't off the top of my head.)

I love how this song floats along, stately & serene, lightly touching down every time it shifts from section to section.

Home Pong (morrisp), Friday, 29 January 2021 02:25 (three years ago) link

It’s easy to imagine a Matrix-produced version of “Long Story Short” being a hit for an Avril or Michelle Branch in the early ‘00s (this is a virtue, btw).

Home Pong (morrisp), Friday, 29 January 2021 02:36 (three years ago) link

I feel like "Ivy" through "Long Story Short" is her finest 3 song run ever.

Tim F, Friday, 29 January 2021 03:03 (three years ago) link

Yes! (That’s the run I just experienced in the car.)

Home Pong (morrisp), Friday, 29 January 2021 03:05 (three years ago) link

i wish to know
the fatal flaw that makes you long to be
magnificently cursed

mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 5 February 2021 21:20 (three years ago) link

the "lay the table with the fancy shit" chapter

babe for the weekend (morrisp), Saturday, 6 February 2021 01:07 (three years ago) link

the AND NOW! backing vocals in "long story short" are so deliriously infectious

uberweiss, Saturday, 6 February 2021 10:53 (three years ago) link

Ftr, I was wrong about “Cowboy” kicking off with the bridge melody (don’t know why I heard it that way earlier).

babe for the weekend (morrisp), Saturday, 6 February 2021 23:16 (three years ago) link

Maybe not the thread for this I don't know

I’m thrilled to tell you that my new version of Fearless (Taylor’s Version) is done and will be with you soon. It has 26 songs including 6 never before released songs from the vault. Love Story (Taylor’s Version) will be out tonight. Pre-order now at https://t.co/NqBDS6cGFl 💛💛 pic.twitter.com/Vjyy2gA72O

— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) February 11, 2021

abcfsk, Thursday, 11 February 2021 14:18 (three years ago) link

I thought the old Taylor was dead?

Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 11 February 2021 14:25 (three years ago) link

one month passes...

Thought this 1989-esque cover of "Champagne Problems" was alright

https://open.spotify.com/track/6RhtrocZlbccSXo80rfAyN?si=6bebef75a8184836

Indexed, Friday, 26 March 2021 14:31 (three years ago) link

i put this on last night while enduring a few vaccine side effects and i cried through every song that doesn't feature haim

mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 9 April 2021 14:04 (three years ago) link

how's one to know
i'd live and die for moments that we stole
on begged and borrowed time

so tell me to run
or dare to sit and watch what we'll become
and drink my husband's wine

mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Friday, 9 April 2021 14:16 (three years ago) link

two months pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_wr-9X47ao

oh this is wonderful

ufo, Friday, 2 July 2021 04:35 (three years ago) link

It’s great - feels of a piece with “long story short”

Tim F, Friday, 2 July 2021 05:50 (three years ago) link

Distracting band name, in a Taylor Swift context.

delta variant blues (morrisp), Friday, 2 July 2021 07:03 (three years ago) link

i would love a whole taylor album in the vein of this & "long story short"

ufo, Friday, 2 July 2021 07:12 (three years ago) link

five months pass...

fuck this is a good record. happy melancholidays y'all!

poster of sparks (rogermexico.), Tuesday, 21 December 2021 23:00 (two years ago) link

Yeah, I don't think many ppl "get" how good it is. Like forget everything about Taylor Swift (if you want); don't think of it as "Folklore's fun little sister" (or whatever her line is)... this album is something else altogther.

Texas Medicine v. Railroad Gin (morrisp), Tuesday, 21 December 2021 23:07 (two years ago) link

i think it might be her best album, though I need to revisit red. It's got the strangest, most complex songs she's ever released, but it's still very much a taylor swift record. it's also a lot less corny than folklore, which blew me away at first but just sounds a tad cliched now

josh az (2011nostalgia), Wednesday, 22 December 2021 01:25 (two years ago) link

like it still blows my mind that there are TWO songs on this record in 5/4 time

josh az (2011nostalgia), Wednesday, 22 December 2021 01:26 (two years ago) link

how’s one to know

STOCK FIST-PUMPER BRAD (BradNelson), Wednesday, 22 December 2021 01:31 (two years ago) link

one year passes...

I'm probably the only one that didn't know this about "Marjorie" but posting since I didn't find anything else in the thread...

The experience writing that song was really surreal, because I was kind of a wreck at times writing it, and I’d sort of breakdown sometimes. It was really hard to actually even sing it in the vocal booth without sounding like I had sort of a break [in my voice], because it just was really emotional. I think that one of the hardest forms of regret to sort of work through is the regret of being so young when you lost someone that you didn’t have the perspective to learn and appreciate who they were fully. I’d open up my grandmother’s closet and she had beautiful dresses from the 60s, I wish I’d asked her where she wore every single one of them, things like that. She was a singer and my mom would look at me so many times a year and say, ‘God, you’re just like her,’ when I’ll do some manners that I don’t recognize as being anyone other than mine. She died when I was 13, and she died, I think, when I was on a trip to Nashville to try and make it, to try to hand out my demos and CDs to record labels and things like that, so there were pretty insane coincidences like that, and I’ve always felt that thing like she was seeing this, because we have sort of to do that. One of the things on this song that still rips me apart when I listen to it is that she’s singing with me on this song. My mum found a bunch of her old records, a bunch of old vinyls of her singing opera, and I sent them to Aaron and he added them to the song. It says ‘If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were singing to me now’, and then you actually hear Marjorie, my grandmother, actually sing. And it’s moments like that on the record that just make you feel like your whole heart is in this whole thing that you’re doing. Is all of you that you put into these things.

from this interview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQacWbsLbS4

Indexed, Wednesday, 1 November 2023 13:51 (one year ago) link

I have come to the better-late-than-never conclusion over the last two days that "Marjorie" is one of her best songs. A brilliant mix of internal dialogue, concise storytelling, creative song structure, and magical lyricism. It deserves someone more knowledgeable and articulate than me to unpack, but a few things I love:

- how she anchors the song in these initial "advice" verses that are universal -- they could be interpreted as messages to her fans, reminders to herself, and/or values she believes her grandmother imparted on her
- the way she alters each pre-chorus ("If I didn't know better, I'd think you were...") to shift from just hearing her grandmother's voice in her head to being in conversation with one another: "Talking to me now"/"Listening to me now"/"Singing to me now"
- the way the song builds to that "Singing to me now" moment when Dessner adds Marjorie's vocals -- got choked up listening to this yesterday -- and how he brings these back in the outro
- how unlike most of her songs, which revolve around the chorus, that build in momentum is driven entirely by the bridge where the entire song's story is told in 16 utterly devastating lines that weave a specific narrative story, internal rhyming ("long limbs and frozen swims"), relatable emotions of regret and grief ("I should have asked you questions"/"I should have asked you how to be" !!!!) that then intersect back into specifics ("Watched as you signed your name Marjorie")...
- the way she ends the song returning to the pre-chorus instead of the chorus
- Dessner's production here is so light yet pretty complex:

That’s a track that actually existed for a while, and you can hear elements of it behind the song ‘peace.’ This weird drone that you hear on ‘peace,’ if you pay attention to the bridge of ‘marjorie,’ you’ll hear a little bit of that in the distance. Some of what you hear is from my friend Jason Treuting playing percussion, playing these chord sticks, that he actually made for a piece that my brother wrote called ‘Music for Wooden Strings.’ […] I collect a lot of rhythmic elements like that, and all kinds of other sounds, and I give them to my friend Ryan Olson, who’s a producer from Minnesota and has been developing this crazy software called Allovers Hi-Hat Generator. It can take sounds, any sounds, and split them into identifiable sound samples, and then regenerate them in randomized patterns that are weirdly very musical. […] That’s how I made the backing rhythm of ‘marjorie.’ Then I wrote a song to it, and Taylor wrote to that. In a weird way, it’s one of the most experimental songs on the album — it doesn’t sound that way, but when you pick apart the layers underneath it, it’s pretty interesting.

Indexed, Friday, 3 November 2023 16:27 (one year ago) link

one year passes...

it's evermore season

ivy., Friday, 22 November 2024 18:18 (two weeks ago) link

"she would've made such a lovely bride
what a shame she's fucked in the head," they said

ivy., Friday, 22 November 2024 18:20 (two weeks ago) link


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