Taylor Swift - Speak Now (Oct 2010) - hype, anticipation &c

it is selling shit-tons pretty much instantly, btw, like very very likely going to be a #1 record just based on early sales.

read something about how it was rush-released after the leak, and it took six hours to get to no 1 on itunes.

they didn't bother putting it up on uk itunes. i hate this country.

what i love about the song is that it feels like she has to be convinced again and again, like the first rush of optimism doesn't quite take properly, which rings v true w/r/t the character. the second iteration of the chorus ("you saw me start to believe for the first time") is clearly some time after "you put your arms around me for the first time", and THEN comes the big fight at the climax of the song. it's love as an adult process rather than love as a high school dream.

also "there's a drawer of my things at your place" is such a fantastically casual way to put those purity ring accusations to rest.

One of the things I like about it, at least like to think about while listening to it, is that this guy who's "the best thing that's ever been mine" is, even so, now DUMPED.

what i love about the song is that it feels like she has to be convinced again and again, like the first rush of optimism doesn't quite take properly, which rings v true w/r/t the character. the second iteration of the chorus ("you saw me start to believe for the first time") is clearly some time after "you put your arms around me for the first time", and THEN comes the big fight at the climax of the song. it's love as an adult process rather than love as a high school dream.

Haven't heard this yet but really like this description lex.

this would make more sense as an album track than a single to me tbh, but i think it's just the right amount of maturing from fearless

"Mine" is great -- seems a bit like Taylor on autopilot, though.

Looking fwd to the album!

― ilxor has truly been got at and become an ILXor (ilxor), Thursday, August 5, 2010 3:19 PM (Yesterday)

lol did you purposefully try to hit on all the consensus points in the ten posts before yours? not picking on you or anything

yep, this is pretty much exactly what i want to hear right now

lol did you purposefully try to hit on all the consensus points in the ten posts before yours?

Nope, I actually didn't read those posted before mine, just listened to the song and posted my thoughts. Pretty simple. I take it others said the same thing, then?

Taylor is ALMOST ready to write Degrassi episodes

Don't we need to wait for the songs about lesbianism and abortion first?

(I mean. Don't really keep up with anything post-80s incarnation of Degrassi, but last I checked we Canucks still made our corny teen soaps with extra 'controversy'.)

yeah, Taylor is tackling divorce right now. She'll get to diet pills on the next single.

"you made a rebel of a careless man's careful daughter" made me gasp.

no clue how this rings as profound, haven't you seen a teen film?

this song's narrative = the narrative of claire and eli on degrassi as of last thursday's episode, fyi (and it was a narrative of, like, every teen soap ever)

Tape Store has exposed a tragic gap in ILX's familiarity with Degrassi story arcs!

stfu, i'm just using degrassi as a v current example

lol, no, it's fine, and totally appropriate for the Taylor Swift thread (she's pretty clearly mining similar material since she has a similar audience), but i'm not surprised that people aren't super familiar with what constitutes a tired trope in teen dramas.

lmfaoooo i think i watched ~4.5 consecutive hours of back-to-back degrassi a few weeks ago. i felt like i'd just had unprotected sex w/ an hiv+ hooker or something (probably because that was somewhat similar to the plot of at least 3 episodes i had just seen).

I was just looking at the Amazon.com Top 100 CDs and noticed this:

67.

Fearless ~ Taylor Swift
4.3 out of 5 stars (274 customer reviews) | 10 customer discussions
In Stock
List Price: $18.98
Price: $9.99
You Save: $8.99 (47%)
64 used & new from $7.83

666 days in the top 100

http://i742.photobucket.com/albums/xx61/NateSuxx/30ble6h.png

YESSSSSSSS

will buy

That is like the greatest Stevie Nicks cover that never was.

i love how the swooping dress connects back to the swooping hair of the 'fearless' cover

swoop there it is

ok, so are we buying the glitter package, the sparkle package or the diamond package?

wilco never offered me a glitter package ;_;

seriously considering watching her cmt special tonight. if the kids will tolerate it...

i dont even know if i get cmt but that sounds dope

Holy moly thanks for the CMT update, that sounds awesome.

Oh wait, it's just a video premiere. Meh...

From EW interview:

The title track, indeed, is about “the moment in a wedding where you speak now or forever hold your peace.

+

The last two years of your life have been so nuts. Is there a song that reflects the business and change of your last two years?
There is, actually. The last song on the album is about looking back on the last two years and how I feel when I do that.

Expectations for that one^

The reporter actually goes into 'critical' mode as well and asks whether Mine is just a Fearless rehash: http://music-mix.ew.com/2010/08/27/taylor-swift-speak-now-new-album/

Oh wait, it's just a video premiere. Meh...

it's a half-hour live video premiere. when your friday night prospects are yo gabba gabba or half of monsters inc. for the 6th time this week, that's exciting enough.

Watched this video on my local mtv site, and it's a de-countrified version! Ridiculous, considering how mild the country touches are on the original.

Video's pretty good, I think:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27Dje28sFeY

Can someone make a looping .jpg of the ridiculously cute Taylor head-bob thing from 1:52-1:53 btw??

i wonder if the other artists in the country music world are viewing this CMT special like lebron's "the decision"

video taken down

Video's on the front page of her website. Doesn't seem attached to any "de-countrified" mix either.

Oh shit I totally didn't know they shot videos for "Fearless" and "White Horse." Rest of night: planned.

fyi both of those songs are only like 4 mins long

ah cool, i'll have to check out her site

fyi both of those songs are only like 4 mins long

― J0rdan S., Sunday, August 29, 2010 3:46 PM

haaaa!

fyi both of those songs are only like 4 mins long

planning to pass out drunk afterward, always be livin' the fearless life.

Actually I think I could seriously watch the "White Horse" video for hours because I am killed by the moments when Taylor stops lip-syncing. The song alone already sailed me into nervous-breakdown-territory.

http://29.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l52cavwcj11qcsy9co1_500.jpg

that is not disturbing at all

this chorus is a rush

"mine" btw don't want to freak anyone out like there is a new song or something

yeah, and it's even more of a rush every time she switches it up

this bridge is a rush

i thought her current production impulses/standards sounded absolutely great all over it (agree that this is not true of red), so i've rly been looking forward to this one

turns out i have mixed feelings but in a way that confirms what a "pop move" this album already was: the new tasteful pandemic spaciousness is imo a real problem on stuff like "sparks fly", in the original a beautiful collapsing star as reliant on density as any max martin track; agree w ivy re: haunted strings (dig the drums tho) and would add that the fiddle on mean has had its attack nerfed; also she seems embarrassed by better than revenge from beginning to end while simultaneously more exposed in its mix than ever. but the long ballads sound absolutely fantastic: "enchanted" suddenly has muscles, "innocent" sounds like big-budget carissa's wierd, etc.. she really knows how to manage the build on one of those things these days: spaces that tighten.

("etc" there means "last kiss sounds like a bang bang bar performance")

Justice is better than revenge. You may not be Superman, but you can help the #FBI protect the country. If you have information about a federal crime, speak now. Call 1-800-225-5324 or visit https://t.co/t8G7LO4hxu to submit a tip. pic.twitter.com/kn9QhlNhGx

— FBI Washington Field (@FBIWFO) July 10, 2023

civil rights (fbi's version) :(

Wire Tap At Home

https://exclaim.ca/music/article/taylor_swift_fan_discovers_cabaret_voltaire_thanks_to_speak_now_taylors_version_vinyl_mispress

amazing

holy shit

lol i was like “this one is for Ivy” when I saw this headline

it’s entirely possible i’m just hearing things, and i haven’t given every song this close a reading, but going back and forth between “back to december” old and new i feel like the strings are less fanciful & playful on the new version, they seem more mournful to me, letting out long sighs instead of darting around like fireflies. the guitars also sound more prominent in the mix, and heavier — the final chorus after the bridge in particular feels far less disney climax to me and more stadium rock. i don’t know if there is more drama exactly — it’s such a good final flurry regardless — but tonally the arrangement feels more mature & less childlike to me. which i think actually flatters the song! going back to december, as it were, carries even more weight when you’re older imo. it’s such a great song regardless

it also only dawned on me today that one of the key lyrics in "back to december" -- "it turns out freedom ain't nothin but missing you / wishing i realized what i had when you were mine" -- is in direct conversation with my favorite miranda lambert lyric, from "runnin just in case" (which of course came after), when she sings "happiness ain't prison / but there's freedom in a broken heart." playing w/ the same idea, and the same language, but from different sides of the coin

great pick-up

Yeah very well put. The difference in maturity levels is most interesting on this one of the re-recordings so far, I think. The mature adult revisiting the young adult, seeing things they got right or wrong, shifting the emphasis a little here and there. "Back to December" is really probably my favorite song of hers, and she gets to sing it now like it's already a classic.

It fascinates me how Lambert and Swift's public images inform their postures in their most rueful songs yet their hellion images still dominate.

my daughter is 6: she has been very into Robyn, Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Kylie, Pink, dua Lipa, ariana grande and Olivia Rodrigo via me, but Taylor is the one she wants to go deep with, to the extent that she wants physical media associated with Taylor… unlike the preceding save for Rodrigo and Lipa, Swift's imperial phase is showing no signs of abating, and my daughter identifies with her in ways that I didn't with an music artist at her age; I guess the Bee Gees were dominant in 1977, but Michael Jackson is the all frequency mass media presence that I think Alfred posited as a useful parallel… I am thrilled that TS is my daughter's choice for who she wants to pursue as an artist, and while she likes what she wears and likes the videos, it's the music she responds to (I am so fucking sick of the lesser songs on Red that it beggars belief; and for that matter, she should upgrade "the Last time," the worst TS song I have heard, by replacing Chris Martin for Gary Lightbody; she couldn't afford the former in 2011 and so she got the bargain basement latter,; now Martin would probly do it for free)…

Yesterday we went to the record store where we picked up Taylor's version CDs of Speak now and Fearless, and I do not know the original other than the singles, alongside Midnights and PJ Harvey's new record…I generally don't want to listen to newly recorded versions of music wrenched from its context… like, a parallel is Jojo, who re-recorded her hits for identical reasons as Swift, and I couldn't take listening to that music defined by its teenage turbulence redone by an adult…but since I don't know this music, and my daughter's enthusiasm, I am looking forward to listening to these records unencumbered by previous impressions…although based on what I've heard, she can't or hasn't done anything to address the difference between her teenage and adult voices…

this is taylor’s most shocking, jaw-dropping, devastatingly-beautiful surprise song performance yet. i wish i was there. 🥺 pic.twitter.com/2IHFVpBSm0

— k.⸆⸉ ✉️ (tortured poet era) (@kiralovestaylor) February 8, 2024