Taylor Swift -- Evermore

I have been curious about how/if her core fanbase have been acquainting themselves with his work and everything he's attached to (namely The National ofc)

Some good stuff here from Marissa Moss on Evermore / Taylor's relationship with country music

https://dontrocktheinbox.substack.com/p/dont-rock-the-inbox-issue-3

xp Speaking of her core fanbase – I was chatting w/a coworker who seemed like a gonzo fan (based on his Slack comments re: Folklore); I mentioned Red, and he admitted that he hasn't heard anything earlier than 1989.

FYI, there’s an EP with a few different versions (mixes?) of “Willow,” including the one that brad posted above.

There’s something so... relaxed, superficially “minor” about “Ivy” and “Cowboy Like Me”, a vibe which feels almost like a breakthrough in her songwriting (they’re not actually minor at all, of course - this is some of her loveliest songwriting, performed with great delicacy) - an increasing realisation that you can skip the exclamation marks and the bold underline emphasis and still capture something important and alluring.

^yeah, this is well-stated... these songs don’t have that slightly “show-offy” quality that her stuff often has (including folklore, even though its songs present themselves as “understated”).

(and “show-offy” isn’t bad – just to be clear! – but I think one reason I connect w/evermore so much is that the songs work that other vibe which Tim expressed.)

one of the tracks she's reused melodic phrases from in "champagne problems" is "all too well" but i haven't managed to place the others yet

― ufo, Friday, December 11, 2020

"i knew you were trouble"

for whatever reason, the one song that has really stayed with me from these first few days with this album is gold rush, which i haven't seen discussed much...

― petey v, Sunday, December 13, 2020

what popped for me at once on first listen: morrissey's coastal town, interpolated in a way that immediately calls to mind some of the conjurings of NFR! (CSN, Cohen, sorry haters!) which hey, we found the Antonoff track! (so everything comes full circle and on first listen it's my favorite track on the record, until the next one comes in to eclipse it)

Huh, listen to “Cowboy Like Me” and Tori’s “Crazy” back to back.

now you hang from my lips
like the gardens of babylon

yes, the phrasings in bits of cowboy like me are very amos also. none of this is a knock, IMO. I'm all for more people writing songs that sound like this.

i saw some people giving 'some tent like thing' some criticism but I really like that line.

Me too - it's a cool line, and doesn't seem like the kind of lyric she would normally write.

that line is amazing!!!!

(It reminds me of a particular band or artist that I can't place.)

I think the comment I saw about that was on the hoffman forums, and someone did add "not sure what else she would have said, 'tarpaulin'?' and now I think "the tennis court was covered up with some tarpaulin' half the time, which is what elvis costello would have written and it would have been stupid

love Bernie Tarpaulin's lyrics

i am unsure why i love "cowboy like me" as much as i do (maybe because it reminds me of "papa was a rodeo" if covered by emmylou harris) but it is full of some terrific and realized writing, including "some tent like thing", it really nails down the protagonist's vernacular. amy hempel could've written it. unshowy and minor as referenced above, but no less striking. actually even more impressive than the knockout one-liners she's proven capable of.

That line reminds me of Connie Converse's "some sort of a squirrel thing"
I've found myself starting the record at "ivy" and then just letting that last stretch play. "cowboy like me" my fave though

yeah "ivy" --> "evermore" is her best ever stretch of songs

"papa was a rodeo" if covered by emmylou harris

^nice! it also makes me think of "papa was a rodeo" (but I shied away from mentioning that, as it felt too indie-schmindie a reference).

need more stately songs about reckless swindlers meeting their match tbh

i was talking to tim about this record yesterday and he pointed out that "cowboy like me" features one of her favorite lyrical tricks (which is all over this record), the repeated phrase that is altered by its new context each time it recurs, cf. "i haven't met the new me yet" in "happiness." "cowboy like me"'s is "i could be the way forward / only if they pay for it" which curdles into "we could be the way forward / and i know i'll pay for it." i keep thinking that insecurity and melancholy are the driving emotions of that song even though on the surface it is about finding love in your chosen field if that field happens to be con artistry, because it's a relationship where you're never certain if the person you're falling for is the real one, and you never know if they're ever being truly honest with you. and this is never stated outright, it just works through the song ambiguously, compromising every declaration of certainty, subtly poisoning lines like "i'm never gonna love again" from the very roots. it's great writing

song feels bottomless both in its sound and vision

we also talked about "ivy," i am sort of struck every time i hear it that it's the apotheosis of her career's worth of themes, the pull of an imaginary fairytale universe somehow unlocked by true love b/w the overdriven romantic and sexual tensions of songs like "treacherous," except in this song the latter so darkens and confuses the former that it feels like you're wandering through the ruins of a castle or a magical forest full of dead trees. it is so lost in this effect that lyrically she gives almost nothing away, there's so much allusion and incident that only sort of indirectly tells you what's going on ("and the old widow goes to the stone every day / but i don't, i just sit here and wait / grieving for the living"). it's like the song is wreathed in a fog. so often her successful writing is rooted in the specificity and resonance of her details so "ivy" really does feel like it has its foot in another world where nothing resolves so easily. so like while it's the apotheosis of her themes it delivers them with what feels like a new obliqueness and mystery

at least half of these ideas are copyright tim f btw

I also like the "tent-like thing" line a lot, but I wish she'd kept up that voice all the way through the song. The "gardens of Babylon" line sounds more like Taylor Swift to me, less like something that character would say.

I'm sorry, the old Taylor can't come to the phone right now

i was talking to tim about this record yesterday and he pointed out that "cowboy like me" features one of her favorite lyrical tricks (which is all over this record), the repeated phrase that is altered by its new context each time it recurs, cf. "i haven't met the new me yet" in "happiness." "cowboy like me"'s is "i could be the way forward / only if they pay for it" which curdles into "we could be the way forward / and i know i'll pay for it."

Totally. She does this elsewhere in "Cowboy" with "I've got some tricks up my sleeve" then "You had some tricks up your sleeve" then "I've had some tricks up my sleeve," which seems simple enough but is a subtle and clever way to tell stories with the chorus not just the verses.

Probably stating the obvious (and previously stated), but this feels like the "10 years later" version of Folklore: the high-school drama has turned into adult relationships and regrets. Today it's "happiness" that's hitting me hardest.

"the lakes" is the only folklore track i don't really care for so i am really surprised at how great the evermore bonus tracks are

"great" may be overstating it, i wouldn't swap them for anything on the record, and "it's time to go" sort of confirms this is her joni mitchell record, taylor just had the good sense to cut "the windfall (everything for nothing)" from the official tracklist

I think my CD is scheduled to arrive tmrrw. Looking forward to it

lol I haven’t heard these yet but I still get the windfall joke

but which is 'Ray's Dad's Cadillac'?

closure sounds like casiontone for the painfully alone imo, i like its sentiment but it doesnt work for me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ur_wAcYDnuA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iRbIYkccgw

Really nice songs, IMO

girl... enough

I guess “Right Where You Left Me” sounds a little like “You Belong to Me”... which is not an unwelcome callback, for a post-breakup song years later.

Such good lyrics—

I’m sure that you got a wife out there
Kids and Christmas

Wow, just listened to "Tolerate It" and "closure": p cool; 5/4 grooves were not what I expected from her.

I find “Tolerate It” pops into my head a lot.

One of several remarkable things about "Cowboy Like Me" is how it kicks off with what turns out to essentially be the bridge melody, when it returns around 2:50. Can anyone think of another example of a song that does that? (I'm a connoisseur of bridges in songs, I can't off the top of my head.)

I love how this song floats along, stately & serene, lightly touching down every time it shifts from section to section.

It’s easy to imagine a Matrix-produced version of “Long Story Short” being a hit for an Avril or Michelle Branch in the early ‘00s (this is a virtue, btw).

I feel like "Ivy" through "Long Story Short" is her finest 3 song run ever.

Yes! (That’s the run I just experienced in the car.)

i wish to know
the fatal flaw that makes you long to be
magnificently cursed

the "lay the table with the fancy shit" chapter

the AND NOW! backing vocals in "long story short" are so deliriously infectious

Ftr, I was wrong about “Cowboy” kicking off with the bridge melody (don’t know why I heard it that way earlier).

Maybe not the thread for this I don't know

I’m thrilled to tell you that my new version of Fearless (Taylor’s Version) is done and will be with you soon. It has 26 songs including 6 never before released songs from the vault. Love Story (Taylor’s Version) will be out tonight. Pre-order now at https://t.co/NqBDS6cGFl 💛💛 pic.twitter.com/Vjyy2gA72O

— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) February 11, 2021

I thought the old Taylor was dead?