pitchfork is dumb (#34985859340293849494 in a series.)

she's not at the level of a professional lyric coloratura (and while it's transposed down), it is still very good for someone who was not trained as an opera singer

uh, she actually did have professional training at points in time.

don't worry omar, it will pass within 30 seconds of hearing a note of it

xp

but she is a great singer -- G&S is a bit closer to musical theater than "opera" when it comes to performance aesthetics (ime) -- so it's kinda a weird statement to make in the context of a G&S play.

god dammit Brad, what's up with making me interested in listening to a Taylor Swift album, what the hell

― omar little, Tuesday, August 20, 2019 9:40 AM (thirty-seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

it's what i was born to do

"What's New" was one of three tapes my parents had in the car when I was a kid and we would go on road trips, so I am very fond of it.

these days i'm kind of a fan of Taylor Swift the person, having come around on her a bit due to her catching a lot of undue flak and also her being hassled by deeply terrible celebrities. i haven't really liked the hits but then again lots of cuts fall into context for me when i listen to an album.

Phew I'm relieved that we got the late review of 1989 that we did instead of whatever Meghan Garvey refused to write.

And yeah Brad your write-up on "Red" is terrific, it's my favourite of her albums-- not the Max Martin-produced 1989-anticipating singles, not the weird misfires by guest producers, but the core eight Nathan Chapman-produced tracks on it that perfectly hybridize modern country music with "The Joshua Tree". "State Of Grace" is one of the best opening tracks I've ever heard.

i didn't know she turned in 20 chapman produced songs for red and now i need to fast forward 20 years to the box set

Ya I didn't know that either and same

not the weird misfires by guest producers

Which traxx do you consider to fall in this category? Just curious

uh, she actually did have professional training at points in time.

― sarahell, Tuesday, August 20, 2019 1:03 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

didn't know that! does check out though

Which traxx do you consider to fall in this category? Just curious

Ed Sheeran, Gary Lightbody. I was a fan of the Max Martin stuff too, when it came out, because I thought it was a detour, not a pivot. I am not fond of 1989 onward.

same tbh

i didn't know she turned in 20 chapman produced songs for red and now i need to fast forward 20 years to the box set

― J0rdan S., Tuesday, August 20, 2019 10:51 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Ya I didn't know that either and same

― flamboyant goon tie included, Tuesday, August 20, 2019 10:56 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

it was news to me too! and this is the second time i've done research on this record lol

I also... idk, I don't love the stuff I've heard from 1989-onward, and there is a part of me that feels like I've been bullied by her (as a listener) and I can't describe why, and I feel like I'm in mourning for a songwriter that I once loved and is now gone, I don't even really like the "good" tracks like "Blank Space", but yet, still, I don't think that this new direction deserves some of the vitriol I've observed in this corner or that... there's a craftsmanship to what she's doing now that I appreciate, even if I have no interest in listening to it.

uh, she actually did have professional training at points in time.

― sarahell, Tuesday, August 20, 2019 1:03 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

didn't know that! does check out though

― like, I’m eating an elephant head (katherine), Tuesday, August 20, 2019 11:28 AM (fifty-four minutes ago)

my voice teacher had worked with her at one point. that's the only reason i know lol

Are you having opera training? Cool!

https://pitchfork.com/news/bon-iver-justin-vernon-talks-about-his-critical-eminem-tweets/

TAGS IN THIS STORY
Interviews, Video, Beef

BTW Meaghan Garvey did end up writing about 1989 for Pitchfork - in the end of year list that year: https://pitchfork.com/features/lists-and-guides/9558-the-50-best-albums-of-2014/?page=2

i'm not really a fan of the Martin tracks on Red (they feel awkwardly between worlds, the choruses are underwritten & they feel out of place on the album) but the tracks she did with Dan Wilson and Jeff Bhasker are some of her very best, "Treacherous" is probably my all-time favourite TS track and "Holy Ground" is wonderful too

Yeah both those songs are great. The bridge on “Treacherous” is tremendous; and “Holy Ground” may be my favorite cut on the LP.

Oh yeah Holy Ground is so great

And that Garvey write-up of 1989 is totally good, too!

Brad is right to single out “Treacherous” as (and i’m paraphrasing here) maybe the pinnacle of her songwriting craft while simultaneously singling out “All Too Well” as the pinnacle of her songbook.

and the pinnacle of “All Too Well” is the 3rd chorus, when she sings — It was rare, I was there...

(subscribe to my blog, Plaid Shirt Days, for more insights on “All Too Well”)

ugh ugh ugh @ the first paragraph of this

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/elvis-presley-live-1969/

Lana Del Rey
Norman Fucking Rockwell!

POLYDOR / INTERSCOPE • 2019

9.4
BEST NEW MUSIC

I don't know if I've ever heard more than a song or two by her, but in the first two paragraphs of that review she's compared to Springsteen, Lou Reed, the Beach Boys, Elvis, and Dylan and Hemingway, Whitman, and Fitzgerald. Later, Portishead, Carole King and Joni Mitchell. And Elton John. And it's also produced by Jack Antonoff. So ... sure, BNM.

I almost broke my brain wondering which one would rang most true to me. Springsteen, maybe circa Darkness on the Edge of Town.

legit great album

that linda ronstadt retrospective really primed the pump for today's LDR rave

Heart Like a Fucking Wheel

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRIEY7S5RTWOJ093a6VWHvwEaqI1X-RvpQG3vS8U94Re5P6eo-eMQ

Normal Fucking Rockcrit

I was kinda glad to see P4K reviewing those Swift albums? And they were pretty great reads, all of them. Though I remember the pre-1989 days when you'd go into PK4, search for Taylor Swift, and no results came out. Kind of a crown achievement.

P4K sorry ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Tropical Fuck Storm are the latest sufferers of the "your lyrics aren't good enough essays" school of music criticism

Oh? I thought it was a good review, myself. I had a joke about how I wished all bad lyricists were consumed in a tropical fuck storm but I guess it’s a nice image rather than a funny joke

i think the criticism of the lyrics of "the happiest guy around" and "the planet of straw men" is fair if a bit harsh, but the real issue i have is it only spends a paragraph actually discussing the music - ideally a review should engage substantially with both words and music rather than one or the other.

yeah we've kind of been over this already but "punk quartet" and a Beefheart reference fall significantly short of even basically describing their sound, and not even mentioning the male/female vocal interplay is a crime

Between granting nearly full marks to Lana Del Rey, underselling the HTRK album, refusing to engage with Tropical Fuck Storm the band rather than just Gareth Liddiard the poet and panning the new Tool simply because lol Tool, I suppose the Fork is just e-zining as it has always done.

The Tool review contains my favorite jerk move of theirs, where they pan a band they've always hated while praising albums they previously slated even harder

That Tool review falls into one of the most common Tool traps, namely "Keenan is stupid, therefore Tool is stupid." Keenan *is* stupid, but that is as irrelevant to the band imo as any of the stupid vocalists King Crimson has had over the years.

At least it talks about the music.

Won’t somebody please think of the music

I think about it all the time

i love it

the first sentence is pretty great

i don't really think tool sound or operate much like king crimson ever did but it's the only band anyone brings up for comparison

But they shared a producer brad, that makes them the same band

looking over david bottrill's production credits: hey this guy made a lot of records i like! and one king crimson record i don't like very much