taylor swift iridescent smoke bombs thread 2019 - lover

I wish Taylor Swift had covered the Killers' "The Man."

Fuck me if this lump in the throat I get from "Cornelia Street" doesn't get bigger every time.

haven't messed with sequencing but my abridged version is almost the exact same song selection (just minus the man) xxp

"the man" has been stuck in my head since friday i think it's undeniable

the verses & bridge on the man don't really work for me :/ at least not yet

Having trouble tracking the political metaphor in “Miss Americana...”. Who exactly is the “Heartbreak Prince” – is it, like, America itself?

HE LOOKS UP, GRINNING LIKE A DEVIL

Re: Miss Americana, that one confuses me too. It seems to switch back and forth between being about America - "crazier for you than I was at sixteen," "I think you should come home" - and being about someone specific - "you are the only one who seems to care."

I like that she calls herself "Miss Americana," though, it's clever.

“Daylight” kind of uses the same closing-track trick as “Clean” (from 1989)... it’s a good song, though, I like the bridge with that warbly background vocal.

Some of these songs reach for the same “refined ‘80s pop” sound as 1989, maybe even to better results. I can’t get over how good “False God” is, both the music and lyric — it’s like the coolest song playing in a late-night, uptown NYC sushi bar / disco in the late Eighties.

the chorus melody of "the man" sounds like it was thought up by danielle haim. that's about its only redeeming feature.

"i think he knows" would've been my pick for the first single, but i think "false god" is my firm favourite. a subtle sophistipop song possibly about cunnilingus on a taylor swift album? loving that concept!

also really like "it's nice to have a friend"

"paper rings" is perfect imo

i just caught the line "i used to think love would be burning red" in "daylight" and got v emotional

the 80s pop sound was way better on 1989, like 1989 wasn't the best sounding pop album or anything but it still has much richer sounding production than this album

1989 had the benefit of Martin/Shellback; but it also didn’t have anything like “False God.”

"you are in love" wasn't too far off and better at the specific thing it does than "false god" is at its sophisti sound

not enough love for "Soon You'll Get Better" and "Death by a Thousand Cuts."

"you are in love" wasn't too far off and better at the specific thing it does than "false god" is at its sophisti sound

― ufo, Monday, August 26, 2019 6:31 PM (two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

"you are in love" sounds like "secret garden" by bruce springsteen, i think they're different targets

"death by a thousand cuts" may be my favorite pop taylor swift song, feels like she mastered something there

the slightly off-rhythm guitar!

not enough love for "Soon You'll Get Better" and "Death by a Thousand Cuts."

"Soon You'll Get Better" is well done, but a little hard to discuss/evaluate (due to lyrical content).

on the contrary it's for her a model of restraint, even the Jesus mention

"Death By A Thousand Cuts" is mostly v good but the bit about getting lost in a "haunted club" (?) and "our songs, our films, united we stand" etc is very odd to me

Something for everyone I guess, Miss Americana might actually be my favorite. Best lyric on the whole album: “You play stupid games, you win stupid prizes”

the chorus melody of "the man" sounds like it was thought up by danielle haim. that's about its only redeeming feature.

^^

i uniformly hate the joel little songs on here... me, you need to calm down, miss americana, the man... all terrible. there's something really chintzy and cloying in all those productions. if i'm cutting ones i'm starting there.

"it's nice to have a friend" makes me wonder what the frank dukes/louis bell sessions sounded like when they weren't doing stuff bland spotify pop like "i forgot that you existed"

i need to see if i can get into "afterglow" and "daylight"... it feels like there's one too many songs on this album that remind me of "wildest dreams"

if i'm recutting this album i'm going

1. lover
2. cruel summer
3. the archer
4. i think he knows
5. paper rings
6. cornelia street
7. death by a thousand cuts
8. soon you'll get better
9. false god
10. it's nice to have a friend

still a little too short to be called a properly good album by her standards... maybe if i come around on those other two songs tho

I’ve taken my own stab at an ideal alternate sequence:

1. The Archer
2. Death By A Thousand Cuts
3. I Think He Knows
4. Cruel Summer
5. Cornelia Street
6. False God
7. Soon You’ll Get Better (ft. Dixie Chicks)
8. Daylight
9. Lover

It’s pretty leaned out, but all in all, you have a dreamier, moodier, more focused and more potent record. There’s the Dixie Chicks track cutting through the fog, and then there’s “Lover” serving as the closer that brings everything back down to blissful reality.

“Afterglow” would be the B-side

I'm listening to this album now and i have news:

it's good

extremely benoit & sergio vibes from much of it!

subscribe to my blog for further sneak previews

i mean this as the highest compliment: “afterglow” would be a killer amy grant album track

I'm finding "I forgot that you existed" somewhat hard to swallow. It's probably her weakest album opener to date... I suppose I've never been a fan of WANEGBT.

But everything from Cruel Summer up to Afterglow really rolls; "London Boy" and "You Need to Calm Down" just a couple bumps in the road. I'd even defend "London Boy" as a kind of companion to "Welcome to NY", another widely ridiculed song portraying a rose-tinted view of a big city. But it's a feeling me, as a tourist, can really relate to. And Xgau pretty much nailed it for me in his 1989 review; all he said about "Welcome" there kind of applies here, to me (though I can concede "London" is weaker than "Welcome")

"The Man" is much better than I expected it to be, and "I Think He Knows" is really great, though it's somewhat buried among the other standouts in a first listen. And "Paper Rings", is it "Stay Stay Stay" part 2?

Production's probably not as...resourceful? than in 1989/Rep. In the sense that it's very clear Antonoff's is not the provider of ideas than Max Martin was. He's less of a source. But he does seem to provide a lot more room for her songwriting to breath here. I've always considered "Speak Now" her strongest and I'm always hoping she, at some point, will go back to fully writing on herself (as she is obviously a better songwriter than all the partners she's had), so this is a welcome change.

i put it on shuffle and it went archer - cornelia st - death by a thousand cuts - and i am currently an emotional mess

"Death by a thousand cuts" - in my mind is the closest thing she'll ever have to a Mike Garson moment.

I don’t think “London Boy” requires elaborate defenses; it’s a fine song.

There was a trending “Twitter Moment” over the weekend in which Londoners were making fun of it — hanging their hats on the idea that she claims to visit various, far-flung neighborhoods all in the same day, via a circuitous route. Since she never says that in the song, I can only conclude that Londoners need something to complain about!

it's definitely worth making fun of, but yeah, the song is fine. it sounds more like a Reputation track than this album, but that's part of the sprawl here. at least she doesn't try to pull off an accent.

"london boy" would still be pretty bad if the lyrics weren't as embarrassing as they are

Why are they embarrassing?

This 4-different-deluxe-editions-each-with-different-pages-of-diary-entries is one of the great formatting wheezes of recent years. ZTT would be proud

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D9R3rLQWwAAWlkt.jpg

in order to go to the Paris show in a couple of weeks I bought a different deluxe edition that comes with a tote bag, a phone grip, some temporary tattoos based on images from the "You Need To Calm Down" video, and four pretty big post cards. it cost 40 € but with a ticket to the show included, I'm ok having this goofy junk.

https://www.difymusic.com/taylorswift

in case anyone cares.

40€ only for a CD+show ticket ?? That's very cheap !

yes ! at the Olympia

I don't even care about her but I may get it just for the opportunity !

Oh, of course, it's sold out...

I'm suprised she plays at the Olympia : shouldn't she play Bercy or even Stade de France or is she not that big in France ?

she played the Zenith in 2011 but it didn't sell out and she's not played France since. This show is mostly for promotion; there are 200 tickets being sold along with those boxes, and there's a loterie for some other tickets; but I think it'll be a lot of radio people there who she's trying to charm into playing her stuff & breaking her here. I don't think she's yet very popular here; the review in Libération yesterday was characteristically blasé.

Bizarre.
Ariana is playing at Bercy tonight... and tomorrow !

looking at her previous chart positions the best she's ever charted in France was #9 with 1989 (Red was 30, Reputation was 16), so yeah she doesn't seem to be very popular in France, at least not compared to most of the world which wpuld make touring there not a good prospect for her. it seems like the only time she's really toured Europe was the Speak Now tour - more recently she's only played the UK and Ireland consistently, with some dates in Germany and the Netherlands but nowhere else.

Beyoncé played the Stade de France with Jay-Z last summer. it's not like American music is unpopular here. & yet Swift struggles. I reckon it's that Swift was a country artist, and there's absolutely no interest in that here (and not much elsewhere in Europe either).