taylor swift iridescent smoke bombs thread 2019 - lover

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).

yeah that's my guess too - not much appetite for country in Europe and then probably didn't have the resources put into really trying to breakthrough in Europe when she did go pop due to the existing lack of interest - some of her pop singles seem to have been hits in France though but not to the same degree as elsewhere

Why are they embarrassing?

Americans are not permitted to say they "fancy" someone

To my ears, she comes across as playful rather than fake.

playful but still deeply embarrassing

"paper rings" kinda sounds like it was made to soundtrack a target commercial - i'm still on the fence about it

well you are talking about an artist who released 4 different versions of the album at target...

Ha, that reminds me that, er, "Me" is being used by the ABC network in Fall preview commercials.

Can't spell ABC without ME.

there's a capital one commercial where taylor plays a diner waitress and "me!" plays in the background... it sounds prefect in that setting

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

it's good

― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, August 27, 2019 4:00 AM (thirteen hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

extremely benoit & sergio vibes from much of it!

― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, August 27, 2019 4:13 AM (thirteen hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

what the? i wish there were these vibes, pls explain

i most enjoy cruel summer & the more ballad leaning songs -- soon youll get better is great & just endlessly, universally relatable; lover is like 90% great but is slightly off somehow

lover is like 90% great but is slightly off somehow

Yeah, it's the bridge! It just kills me... this could have been an almost perfect song.

I'm no songwriter, but I feel like they could have even somehow segued right from the 2nd chorus into the the final two lines of the bridge ("And you'll save all your dirties jokes for me...") -- that section works fine melodically, it's the rest of it that sticks out like a sore thumb. Of course, that would mean losing lyrical content.

it's not a very sophisticated comparison, I'm just talking about the slow synthy moody ones like the archer, cornelia street..

xpost

ok now i like “miss americana” lol

I really like "Lover"; I love when she's able to turn the broad, generic statements around into the brutally specific, like in "Your are in love", and I can feel it happening here in the "guitar scars" line.

i know this’ll wear off eventually but i’m pretty sure “death by a thousand cuts” and “afterglow” are my favorite taylor swift songs

"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

I agree those lyrics are odd, but I like the "wtf" aspect; the way everything gets kicked up a notch into this heightened register, and suddenly she's not just singing about a failed relationship anymore.

Btw (to balance my picking apart the bridge of "Lover" above) -- this is an example of the kind of bridge that really works for me, melodically -- it effortlessly flows from the section that preceded it, feels like a "natural part of the song," and even elevates the song / makes you go "yeah!". I love when bridges do that. And those weird lyrics are part of the overall effect... I get a scalp tingle when she launches into, "Our songs, our films...."

this is our house, these are our rules..

I had more trouble with the "Went home and tried to stalk you on the internet/Now I've read all of the books beside your bed" on "Paper Rings" -- the latter too incongruously weird for the persona she's created.

im not sure if that one is supposed to be taken as "i stalked you on the internet so well that i read the books you own" or "we have spent so much time together that i've read the books next to your bed"... either way i don't mind that one but there are def some lyrics that don't really track for me even on like "the archer"

I wake in the night, I pace like a ghost
The room is on fire, invisible smoke
And all of my heroes die all alone
Help me hold onto you

pacing like a ghost (?) and the room is on fire but the smoke is invisible ... wha

Taylor swift who can recall her past lives

im not sure if that one is supposed to be taken as "i stalked you on the internet so well that i read the books you own" or "we have spent so much time together that i've read the books next to your bed".

It's the latter; same with the next verse:

Like the shoulder that I gave you in the street
Cat and mouse for a month or two or three
Now I wake up in the night and watch you breathe

“room is on fire / invisible smoke” is taylor pulling apart a metaphor for an anxiety attack imo

crowd mostly moving from ParlSq up Whitehall now, think it's already dissipating tbh

lol oops

a post of a London boy

man i love the "death by a thousand cuts" bridge(/lyrics overall) sooo much haha. goosebumps every time.

i guess i have always liked the impressionistic side of her lyrical approach, so i don't mind that she's leaning on it so heavily on the last few albums, and perhaps even becoming more imprecise in how/where she deploys it.

You guys, I want to be defined by the things I love, not the things I hate. (I’d be happy to provide a detailed list of things in each category, to facilitate your definitions of me — just lmk)

For example, please do not define me by this — but one thing I recently discovered that I hate are the vocal stylings of a certain “Brendon Urie of Panic! At The Disco.”

^^ you need to calm down

I don't know if "It's Nice to Have a Friend" is my favorite song on this album, but it stands out as the most unique-sounding song on any of her albums. Kind of like Sade's "Turn My Back on You" looms in her discography. It's not that the Swift & Sade tunes sound exactly alike but they seem to share a haunting, almost ineffable sonic world. Or maybe I played them too close together and it's affecting my opinion. Still, "Friend" should be the last song on here, or followed by the title tune.

“daylight” pretty much has to be the closer i think

Lyrically, it's a logical closer. Just doesn't hit me the way a few others do. However, anything but "I Forgot That You Existed"--thematic kiss-off to her last LP or not--should be the opener. It may be her weakest opener ever (as someone else mentioned above) although "Welcome to New York" would be an acceptable alternate choice re: weakest opener.

I think “I Forgot...” is a great opener!

“i forgot that you existed” is 100000x better than “welcome to new york,” a bad song i made myself like

"Death by a Thousand Cuts" & "Afterglow" are two of my three favorite songs here ("It's Nice to Have a Friend" being the other). The second half is soooo good aside from "London Boy" & "ME!"

They were mentioned together in a previous post but which is worse: "London Boy" or "Welcome to New York"?

"london boy" is worse lyrically, "welcome to new york" worse musically and probably overall

Welcome To New York. London Boy isn't as bad as people are saying it is, and if anything TS seems to know even less about how NY really works on "Welcome..."

It perhaps wouldn't work well as an opener but "New Romantics" basically rendered "Welcome..." entirely redundant in the "I just moved to NY and it feels so liberating to live in this city and have a shitload of money" stakes.

"new romantics" has been the opener on my edited 1989 tracklist since release

I think experiencing "Welcome to New York" in concert made me like it more than I should. Hearing 60,000 or so people sing along to it in a Boston suburb was a real treat. "New Romantics" would've been an excellent opener! Hate that it was relegated to the bonus tracks.

It at least could have replaced “I Know Places" (that album’s bum track).

Remove both tracks and add in "You Are In Love".

London Boy isn't as bad as people are saying it is

otm

The "London Boy (A to Zedd Remix)" is gonna be ace!

She could have at least got J Hus to jump on there or something

There's still time.

I've tried liking "Daylight," and while it's nice it feels as if she and Antonoff put it at the end because it's slow enough to feel like a closer or something instead of a retread.

^The bridge is terrific though; it makes the song! (Don’t know why so much bridge tawk for this album...)