Taylor Swift - Folklore

singing about homeland is always a bit dicey.

IMO it’s a better line for the metaphor than any alternative I can think of — “You’re not my country anymore”? My “nation”? Those don’t really work for a relationship (which can actually feel like a “homeland”).

"polycule" would have been more au courant

The clunky metaphor is actually the next line — “You were my town, now I’m in exile...”

“Town” is weak; something like “home” would be better, but she already said “homeland.”

(clunky metaphors are kind of her thing, though)

Whoever annotates the Genius.com entries for Taylor Swift songs has an annoying tendency of flagging lyrics just to point out very slight similarities with lyrics from previous songs of hers (like, literally, a repeated word).

Yeah, I saw some of those notations last night, those drive me nuts.

i feel like i've learned something about myself vis a vis taylor bcuz every time i listen to "invisible string" my mind expects her to say "isn't it just so funny to think / all along there was some invisible string / tying you to me?" instead of "isn't it just so pretty"

'hoax' is so devastating and may have become my favourite taylor swift song. her closers are always sick but this is the first one that's completely devoid of hopefulness or optimism

"you knew it still hurts underneath my scars from when they pulled me apart - but what you did was just as dark" ;_;

“Isn’t it pretty to think” recalls the closing line of The Sun Also Rises, no?

you're right:

Isn't it pretty to think that the sun...also rises?

There isn't a single album which wouldn't be improved by a couple of omissions, this one no exception; but I like Lover as much as the best songs on this one.

I agree with this. High points in Lover are as high as the best tracks here, and the stretch in the middle is as good as folklore or Red. On the other hand, I think folklore comes out on top because even if you could remove a couple tracks here to improve it, I can't find anything that makes you want to skip here; no cringe tracks. And I have nothing against her cringy stuff, I enjoy them the same way I appreciate the most idiotic McCartney stuff; but this album feels stronger without them.

I'm not sure if it was intentional or not, but I'm getting some really pleasant R.E.M. vibes here, esp. w/"Illicit affairs" (I'm thinking of the likes of "Half a world away")

I like the way "Illicit Affairs" doesn't resolve, musically or narratively. It goes into the bridge and never comes back.

Has anybody seen the bridge?

someone call phoebe

Bridgers to Babylon

I suspect Swift might be more into "Bridge to Terabithia."

That might be the harshest thing anyone has ever said about Taylor Swift.

I like the album a lot, but JFC she is milking her fans with these staggered merch and single drops. I mean, obviously no one has to buy all of this shit, but I genuinely feel bad for these young stans that are feeling pressured to buy everything to show their support.

I really liked the cardigan ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

this is always the strangest moment of the new Taylor Swift album thread

Bridge to Terabithia was my favorite book in elementary school because I'm never not hovering over the surface of my deep emotions, so I have been feeling deeply validated by this album

Hopefully someday there will be an ILM Taylor tracks poll so I can vote for "invisible string"

I just accidentally closed my mp3 player app while playing invisible string and it was living death.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/taylor-swift-remains-silent-as-fans-doxx-and-harass-music-critic-over-folkore-review

that Tapes n' Tapes album did getba better score

Menomena, too

I assume I'm in a very small club when I say I miss Menomena

Guillemots

I heard what turned out to be Invisible String randomly, really like it a lot! Heard another one I didn't like so I'll stick with just this track for now and try another in a couple of weeks

a couple of mit grads made an algorithm that tells you "if you liked 'Invisible String', listen to 'peace' next"

I didn’t realize that doxxing/harassment was going on. Why doesn’t she say something?

maybe she's upset that two Architecture in Helsinki albums got higher scores

the cardigan demo really highlights the vocal melodies and performance in a nice way. Must have been too dark in that cabin to find the vocal mic's gain slider, though.

also makes the album version's percussion feel like a tortured production choice that takes me out of it a bit now.

maybe she's upset that two Architecture in Helsinki albums got higher scores

...or too busy tracking down Architecture In Helsinki for a collaboration on her next quarantine album.

where's the cardigan demo?

it is a single on spotify, and I assume elsewhere. Called "cabin in candlelight version."

We made an all acoustic, stripped down version of #Cardigan yesterday. Have a listen! https://t.co/sUZyj1WLRp

— Aaron Dessner (@aaron_dessner) July 30, 2020

i think it's just an alternate mix, not the demo. the piano & vocal take sounds the same as the album version, so the only new addition to the mix is the acoustic guitar.

i like the album version's percussion, it adds to the ways it reminds me of tori

ah ok. I googled it while listening and nme.com calls it a demo. I've been lied to.

i've heard "cardigan" on the radio several times now and to my surprise it never sounded out of place

A "remix/mashup" of Mirrorball and This Is Me Trying, tagged as #Shoegaze. Probably closer to Noise Pop due to the blown-out nature of the mix. Pretty cool.

https://soundcloud.com/stpaulattheendoftheworld/mirror-trying-remix-mashup-of-taylor-swift-mirrorball-this-is-me-trying

This album is so precisely my shit. Just killer track after killer track. Giving me a lot of mid-90s lo-fi indie vibes, Scrawl in particular. I don't think she's ever written better melodies or let herself just consistently stretch out like this. And when she has in the past the lyrics have always felt a bit cloying, like overcompensating or showy, and now its just so goddamn seamless. This is now up in competition with any of the classic singer-songwriter albums from the 70s or whatever. I absolutely didn't expect we could ever have chart-topping albums like this ever again.

even the "bad" ones have grown on me

also how tf did the whole conversation about "cardigan" revolve around ldr and not like early fiona apple? (and there's a lot of half-quotes of "wildest dreams" too)

the other comparison that came up apart from ldr wrt "cardigan" was tori amos which i agree with far more

um, Scrawl vibes?! guess I will listen to this after all

hmmm but scrawl were good

I played this a lot those first few days, but haven’t been compelled to revisit it. I guess each album of hers (since Red) has had less staying power for me than the one preceding it.

I very much enjoyed relistening to this tonight although yeah you could cut 3-4 songs easy