taylor swift iridescent smoke bombs thread 2019 - lover

her performance of "Lover" at the VMAs was really quite something. I know the crowd was full of fellow celebs but it was still pretty powerful to see so many people at an awards show vibing on the same thing in a seemingly genuine way, especially for a song that hadn't been out two weeks but that everyone was already treating like a staple.

I’ve never been a huge Taylor fan, but I’m really liking the sadder/more anxious songs on this album. I like how under all the candy-colored happiness there’s this consistent undercurrent of fear that she’s going to screw it up and it’s all going to go away.

i love this album

Yeah I’m in deep too

Currently obsessed with “I Think He Knows”. By 16th Avenue does she mean Music Row or is that some significant New York or London reference?

she's a big fan of the nuttery
https://thenutteryny.com/about-us

"cornelia street" might be the best version of the breathy synthy kinda song she's started writing since 1989

‘i forgot that you existed’ is my #breakupgoals

i agree that ‘if i was a man, id be the man’ is a bad lyric... but it’s also otm

‘calm down’ and ‘ME!’ are 2 of the worst songs on here, and prob some of the worst of her career imo. ‘lover’ is fantastic, such a great chorus

I’m at that point I reach with Taylor Swift albums, where some songs still sound awesome to me, but others have suddenly become skippable (“The Man,” “The Archer”...).

Archer must be skipped unless you want to spend the next 20 minutes staring out the nearest rain-streaked window

"cornelia street" might be the best version of the breathy synthy kinda song she's started writing since 1989

Yeah, it kind of is. It's like she finally managed to marry those vibes with the diaristic/narrative idiosyncrasy that was so integral to classic-TS.

so "Holy Ground"

Live Lounge:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p07m7pwb

1 London Boy
2 Lover
3 Can't Stop Loving You (Phil Collins cover)
4 Holy Ground
5 The Archer
6 You Need to Calm Down

yess holy ground.

I think at this point I can swallow this album from beginning to end. Which is more than I can say for most.

I can even somewhat enjoy "Me!" here? Am I going too far? Possibly. But it feels so much more earned at Track #16 than as first single. It's like the shallow/simplistic first couple of singles are now part of a more complex whole?

Can't believe she's making a cover version from a Phil Collins 34-point Metacritic album. That's gutsy.

yesss I hope she plays "Holy Ground" at the show here next week

I am really into "Afterglow" and "I Think He Knows" now.

"Death By A Thousand Cuts" sounds she's adapting the Imogen Heap sounds of "Clean" to a poppier song.

I think at this point I can swallow this album from beginning to end. Which is more than I can say for most.

I can even somewhat enjoy "Me!" here? Am I going too far? Possibly.

same on all counts but this was so inevitable for me that i’m suspicious of it. same thing happened with red, i had my own edit and discovered i preferred the sprawl. “me” is a bad song but it’s just kinda this cloud-skipping detour in sequence and it’s fine. i guess, unlike “bad blood,” which i still struggle through, at least it didn’t exactly become a world-blanketing hit

even though I like "You Need To Calm Down" and "London Boy" fine enough, I'm enjoying my edit without them (and without "Me!" obviously). I also cut "It's Nice to Have a Friend" because it and "Daylight" are good but seem unnecessary & then I can just start the album over again a little faster.

had a real moment with “daylight” yesterday

also i was talking to a friend about how i’m confused about what i’m supposed to think the verse and chorus are on “death by a thousand cuts.” obv “saying goodbye is etc.” is the chorus but the rest of the song doesn’t feel like verses, just more distorted and desperate unfoldings of the chorus. my friend then made the point that the song’s more like three incredible bridges strung together

that sounds right! it's an excellent song

I do like "Daylight" but I'll treat it like a b-side and only indulge periodically, whereas I'm mainlining the rest

Her lyrics can still be, I guess, endearingly clumsy (“Running through rose thorns / I saw the scoreboard / And ran for my life”).

And I like “Paper Rings,” but the details of the relationship don’t track — in the verses, they’re a couple who met on a night out, she was instantly obsessed, and they played “cat and mouse” for a few months before falling hard for each other; and in the chorus, they’re a pair of friends who “accidentally” became lovers?

"You Need To Calm Down" I've warmed to, "ME!" remains a rubber donut, and "Daylight" is a weak closer -- a limper "New Year's Day."

And I like “Paper Rings,” but the details of the relationship don’t track — in the verses, they’re a couple who met on a night out, she was instantly obsessed, and they played “cat and mouse” for a few months before falling hard for each other; and in the chorus, they’re a pair of friends who “accidentally” became lovers?

― Sorry to clutter yr watchlist with my junk (morrisp), Monday, 2 September 2019 16:14 (seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

SEO

imago I am glad you don't like this and the LDR record, because if you did, I would second guess my taste.

i haven't said if i like this yet. but i am listening so i'd imagine i'll be letting you know

opening track has a vocal hook redolent of...xtc of all things

dear god

'church of women' actually ;)

if taytay or antonoff have heard xtc's much-maligned final album i'd be fairly amazed tho

anyway

this album...sounds...much better than other taylor swift albums i've heard, can't hate the music (even if her persona, exemplified by the very end of the opening track, still irritates me)

so cut the HEADLIGHTS
summers a KNIFE
im always waiting for you just to cut to the bone
devils roll the DICE
angels roll their EYES
and if i bleed youll be the last to knoww

if taytay or antonoff have heard xtc's much-maligned final album i'd be fairly amazed tho

― imago, Monday, September 2, 2019 9:38 AM (nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

it would surprise me zero percent to learn antonoff is a xtc fanboy

though the opening track is not antonoff lol

so cut the HEADLIGHTS
summers a KNIFE
im always waiting for you just to cut to the bone
devils roll the DICE
angels roll their EYES
and if i bleed youll be the last to knoww

"You Need To Calm Down" I've warmed to, "ME!" remains a rubber donut, and "Daylight" is a weak closer -- a limper "New Year's Day."

Album closers for me: Long Live > Begin Again > Our Song > New Year's Day (these 4 are all really good and I suppose could be interchangeable depending on the mood) > Change > Clean (I just really love Change) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Daylight

“bad blood,” which i still struggle through, at least it didn’t exactly become a world-blanketing hit

Bad blood is still a clunker to me, too. It's sad that for many people, that's what comes to their minds when they think of Swift.

“clean” is her best closer, real heads know

i've reached 'london boy'

if she names anywhere south of the thames i'll give it a pass

ok anywhere other than brixton ffs

“daylight”’s chorus has an ebbing quality to it that reminds me of jimmy eat world and the bridge is among the best on the record. it’s a very “this is the closing song on the album” closer and thus feels kind of obviously constructed toward that end but i think it’s gorgeous, brings the album around to this final gradually-dying shimmer

also it’s much better than “change” come on

Yeah I have a jelly-like soft spot for "Change" I guess. It was such a shock back then to hear a teenage girl writing such anthemic, anachronistic guitar solos, I never really recovered.

the version of "the archer" on live lounge is amazing

The verses on 'Death By a Thousand Cuts' mostly just sounds inspired by Young Thug / bop-music/other singsongy hiphop? It's good :)

the version of "the archer" on live lounge is amazing

― J0rdan S., Monday, September 2, 2019 12:58 PM (six hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

the whole thing is really great but yeah “the archer” and the rearranged “holy ground” stop time

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

^^

― J0rdan S., Tuesday, August 27, 2019 4:08 AM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol i am only on my second listen of this and I immediately thought the same thing. I'd say it's pretty much true of the whole song.

The songwriting credits for this album are so revealing:

1. The songs attributed to Swift alone ("Lover", "Cornelia Street", "Daylight") are three of the best.

2. The songs involving Little ("The Man", "Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince", "You Need To Calm Down", "Me!") range between the worst and (at best) non-essential, making him Swift's worst foil since Tedder/Zancanella.

3. There's really nothing to distinguish Antonoff co-writes from Bell/Feeney co-writes (and the production approaches are also not readily distinguishable).

Consider the above together and it suggests that the album's success largely rises or falls on the extent to which Swift's collaborators got out of her way.

Cf. Reputation where everything was a co-write and there didn't really seem to be so much of a correlation between songwriting credits and sound/quality.

i hate accidents except when we went from friends to this uh huh

that’s right

darlin

the album's success largely rises or falls on the extent to which Swift's collaborators got out of her way

I hadn't realized "Cornelia" was credited only to her. But this statement sort of applies to most of her career, I think. I'm pretty sure she's far better at songwriting than all the partners she's had over the years. Maybe Martin was, but on a different thing. And I'm not sure he enhanced her strenghts.

I think I'm warming to "Miss Americana". It felt like a show stopper at first, but it reminds me of Springsteen and I like Swift when she goes that way.