taylor swift - rePOLLtation

dresss

1. "getaway car" (like "style" in that i love when she lands on a metaphor and decides to triple-down and just keep expounding, expansive and ludicrously over-dramatic but that's when i like her best [see also: "enchanted"], which is also why this is my fave album she's made, final 30 secs are victorious)
2. "i did something bad" ("if i man talks shit then i owe him nothing" alone makes it top-tier, live version is somehow even better)
3. "don't blame me" (those notes she hits in the back half, live version is also transcendent)
4. "delicate" (how she manages to make an anxious track that sounds like it but somehow also the remedy, esp when it hits that "'cause i liiiiike you" into the final chorus, making it sound like the answer to her questions is a resounding yes. her most perfectly titled song ever, and yes it pairs/mirrors so well with "ootw" except it's in the moment rather than rueful about the past)
5. "this is why we can't have nice things" (extremely petty and revels in it, which is my 2nd fave taylor mode, an obnoxious/hilarious over-the-top showtune)

all the rest are great to good, my bottom three ("end game"/"gorgeous"/"so it goes") have their moments. the "big reputation" hook is the album's best, too bad she decided to have those dudes on the rest of the song.

"Those dudes"' contributions make the song - I can quote lyrixx too!:

Knew her when I was young
Reconnected when we were little bit older, both sprung
I got issues and chips on both of my shoulders
Reputation precedes me, in rumors, I'm knee-deep
The truth is, it's easier to ignore it, believe me
Even when we’d argue, we'd not do it for long
And you understand the good and bad end up in the song
For all your beautiful traits, and the way you do it with ease
For all my flaws, paranoia, and insecurities
I've made mistakes and made some choices, that's hard to deny
After the storm, something was born on the 4th of July
I've passed days without fun, this end game is the one
With four words on the tip of my tongue, I'll never say it

(I thought I was mishearing "Fourth of July" - why would a Brit sing that? - but Genius sez it refers to Swift's big summer bash with "famous friends," lol)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

1. new year's day
2. delicate
3. end game
4. dancing with our hands tied
5. don't blame me
6. call it what you want
7. dress
8. i did something bad
9. king of my heart
10. getaway car
11. ready for it?

(i stop liking this album)

12. gorgeous
13. so it goes...
14. this is why we can't have nice things
15. look what you made me do

"new year's day" feels like a cop out pick since it stands aside the album sonically but whatever. canon classic taylor song to me. "delicate" is the one that feels like she actually wrote a pop song that sounds like modern pop instead of pop from 6 years ago, but i fuck heavily with everything thru about no. 9 on my list and the other two i def mostly like.

this album was not as bad as the initial songs made it seem, and i think i rate it above 1989 so at least there's that. she is still an incredible songwriter but i really really really hope she moves on from her normie into "dubstep" phase with her next album.

I love all the little background vocal interjections — the “Oh!”s and “Ah!”s and “Hmm”s — on “Gorgeous” and throughout much of the album (or at least the Max M. tracks)?

It's a toss up between "New Year's Day", "Dress", "Getaway Car" and "Delicate". "Call It What You Want" would be at #5. Most of the rest I've not listened to voluntarily since the album was released.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

...Ready For It? 0

this is a travesty

^agreed (plus, I was the only one who voted for “Endgame”? Lol)

I like “Getaway Car,” tho I feel it maybe pushes its central metaphor one or two clicks too far... and the bridge sticks out in a way I don’t love. It’s very “songwriter”-y to me — impressive in a craft-appreciation way, but you can see the work in every line.

“I knew it from the first Old Fashioned, we were cursed” is a Good Line

Delicate is nice

"Getaway Car" and "Gorgeous" are the only ones that stuck for me from this, I have never found myself wanting to go back to it tbh

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09xzV_r3Mco

...Ready For It? 0

this is a travesty

― josh az (2011nostalgia), Monday, November 26, 2018 9:40 PM (one week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I didn't see this poll so pretend there's a vote for it