Taylor swift

[fraybentos1]

A lot of the best stuff is in the second half imo

[CaledonianGonzo]

It's longer than The White Album, The Wall, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, Live-Evil. 

 

Only Sandinista has it beat.

[LinvoyPrimus]

I'm a fan of hers but this left me underwhelmed. 

 

Does nothing interesting or unusual with the double album format, a lot of the 31 tracks are same-same, Antonoff's production is pretty formulaic and predictable at this point. Probably her most cohesive work yet, but there aren't a lot of highs – very few standouts on first listen which is unusual for a Taylor Swift album.

 

As is almost always the case with double albums these days, if you'd pulled the best bits from both 'sides', this could have been a great album.

[dotdash79]

 

Sir, a second Taylor Swift album has hit Spotify.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Too much content here to have a definitive opinion on it after one or two listens imho. There's maybe not enough stylistic variation to sustain the length, but song for song it eats.

[homesick]

Can only really echo what others have said

 

Am a huge Taylor Swift fan (have tickets for Wembley and Edinburgh), but I feel with every release I get slightly more tired of her. Which is a shame as she's easily in my top 5 artists of all time. Every album seems to get longer and longer, with more and more filler, followed by the inevitable five special edition vinyls in different colours. Having said that, I'm only halfway through the double album, so hopefully it improves/grows

 

I would like a stylistic change, a return to the odd banger, and surely Dessner has served his purpose now

 

Favourite song so far is 'Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?', think that has the potential to be a classic

[homesick]

As an aside, 90 on Metacritic???? That would make it her greatest album of all time, which is frankly impossible. 1989 and Red by comparison are 76/100 and 77/100 respectively

 

Critics really seem to have lost all sense of perspective on her in recent years, like they're trying to overcompensate for sneering at her music for so long 

 

[CaledonianGonzo]

 

When you sense that another downswing in popularity increases the chances of her d@bbing up at the G.

[dotdash79]

10 minutes ago, homesick said:

Critics really seem to have lost all sense of perspective on her in recent years, like they're trying to overcompensate for sneering at her music for so long 

they are scared of being cut off by her team, she's big business. 

[CaledonianGonzo]

1 minute ago, dotdash79 said:

they are scared of being cut off by her team, she's big business. 

 

Not seen any interviews with her for a while. Years maybe.

 

NME gave it a kicking fwiw, even though they're more of a K-Pop news aggregator than much else these days.

[Avalon_Fields]

I know she’s not the only one, but I think it’s evil to release 4 versions of the same CD/LP where the difference is just the front photo.

[CaledonianGonzo]

5 minutes ago, Avalon_Fields said:

I know she’s not the only one, but I think it’s evil to release 4 versions of the same CD/LP where the difference is just the front photo.

 

Not defending it, cos it is a grift, but this time they do all have different bonus tracks on them.

Edited April 19, 2024 by CaledonianGonzo

[dotdash79]

6 minutes ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

Not seen any interviews with her for a while. Years maybe.

Time Magazine at the start of the year

[CaledonianGonzo]

Just now, dotdash79 said:

Time Magazine at the start of the year

 

Fair - but Google suggests it was her first interview in 4 years, which is still sufficiently intermittent to suggest most outlets have nothing to lose by taking the gloves off.

 

Unless you count incurring the wrath of the fanbase - which surely doesn't matter that much to an embittered music journo.

[st dan]

3 minutes ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

 

Not defending it, cos it is a grift, but this time they do all have different bonus tracks on them.

If anybody needs bonus tracks after 31 new songs then they have issues. 

[CaledonianGonzo]

1 minute ago, st dan said:

If anybody needs bonus tracks after 31 new songs then they have issues. 

 

The bonus tracks are all taken from the extra 15 that arrived after the main album - and noone buying the limited variants knew that that was about to happen.

 

[Avalon_Fields]

Just now, CaledonianGonzo said:

 

Not defending it, cos it is a gift, but this time they do all have different bonus tracks on them.

Which makes it even more tempting to buy all 4 versions. No wonder she’s a billionaire. 
 

To be fair, thinking about it, it’s been going on for years. Earliest one I can recall is Zeppelin’s In Through The Out Door with 6 versions. I’m sure there are earlier examples.

[giantkatestacks]

Heavy use of Prince's old drum machine is my first thought. I like that though.

[Avalon_Fields]

5 minutes ago, st dan said:

If anybody needs bonus tracks after 31 new songs then they have issues. 

I’d opt out on most artists bonus tracks. 95% should be billed as ‘not good enough to be on the album’.

[CaledonianGonzo]

1 minute ago, Avalon_Fields said:

I’d opt out on most artists bonus tracks. 95% should be billed as ‘not good enough to be on the album’.

 

It's a decent rule of thumb for sure, but this woman has left some absolute stormers off her main album. 

 

In the old world maybe most of them would probably have wound up as b-sides, but that's obviously a moribund concept. 

 

Not saying that there's not an argument for keeping a stockpile handy and not releasing everything you record, but - she also doesn't do that - hence all these Vault tracks.  Probably at some future point more tracks will surface from this period.

 

Just massively prolific. She's like Robert Pollard.

[Avalon_Fields]

I admire her for being so prolific (and hardworking), there’s very few acts that have maintained a high level of quality for as long as she has. 

[incident]

49 minutes ago, Avalon_Fields said:

Which makes it even more tempting to buy all 4 versions. No wonder she’s a billionaire. 
 

To be fair, thinking about it, it’s been going on for years. Earliest one I can recall is Zeppelin’s In Through The Out Door with 6 versions. I’m sure there are earlier examples.

 

I mean f**k, there's at least a couple of 90s albums I have Japanese CDs of (usually in addition to the UK release) because they always used had a couple of extra tracks on them.

[Alex DeLarge]

Haven't listened to it, but I wouldn't be surprised if people are just getting tired of the overexposure. 

 

She has had 8 albums, a concert film and constant press coverage just in the 2020s. That's a lot for any artist.

[FloopFiller]

One publication that has given a particularly scathing review has made a note of not printing the authors name due to a similarly negative review of Lover resulting in death threats a few years ago. Swifties truly are nuts, and I feel like she emboldens them far too often and calls them out far too little, even if she has finally given a little snap back on this album (albeit, only now that their ravenous fandom has affected her in a way she disapproves of). 

 

Also keep smirking at the general response to the initial album being ‘this is too long’ and then a whole second part dropping, although seems like she’s done exactly as she undoubtedly hoped and broke a whole bunch of streaming records on the first day. 

[northernangel]

15 hours ago, Alex DeLarge said:

Haven't listened to it, but I wouldn't be surprised if people are just getting tired of the overexposure. 

 

She has had 8 albums, a concert film and constant press coverage just in the 2020s. That's a lot for any artist.

Weren't half of them just re-release Taylor versions?....but still there is a big point to it. I would guess it means she is around next year though. Imagine Glastonbury having to choose between Taylor and Olivia having already got Rihanna. I don't think she'll agree for the money anyway now myself yet. I mean she's only 34.