Let us go then, you and I/When the evening is spread out against the sky/Like a tight end playing in the Super Bowl -- The Tortured Poets Department, Taylor Swift, April 19

and “smallest man”’s late-song power ballad explosion/collapse does make it feel like a less patient “all too well” but it’s still kinda fun to listen her totally murder whoever she’s talking about

It's almost certainly about Matty Healy, right?

how did she have time for this

uh there are so many sexy songs about matty healy on this album that i don’t think “smallest man” is about him but whatever i don’t really want to know

there's a few references on it that make me think it's very much about healy

yeah i’m rethinking my assumptions. regardless i will defend to the death taylor swift’s right to lust after a disaster of a man and bury his freshly dead body on the same album

We’ve all been there.

i was right that "the black dog" was too good to be a bonus track!

One distinguishing feature of this album compared to Midnights is that the songs tend to be filled with more internal variation - e.g. the way that "Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?" speeds up and slows down. Or the general sense during "I Can Fix Him" of "I don't know where this is going".

The songs on Midnights tended to feel kind of... dogged? Very trapped within a single thought? Which worked really well I felt on "You're On Your Own, Kid" especially where the vibe becomes self-conscious, but otherwise (esp. due to lack of bridges generally) could make the songs feel more claustrophobic than a lot of her other work.

These songs feel a lot roomier generally.

Anyway I approve of her just going ahead and releasing her own Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, all two hours of it.

second disc turns into folklore pt. 3 pretty quickly

so far i’m only obsessed with “so high school”

i’m not going to be able to stay awake through all these bonus tracks but general impression is she picked the right songs for the album

i'm so depressed i act like it's my birthday!!!
every day!!!

i'm so obsessed with him but he avoids me!!!
like the plague!!!

― ivy., Friday, 19 April 2024 04:03 (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

massive lol at this bit

first disc is mostly synthpop with antonoff, second disc is mostly folk songs with dessner

“second disc” ennobles what really sounds like a bunch of cast-offs to me. sadly a completely dessner-led swift album would kinda bore me, turns out!!!

it doesn't live up to folklore yeah and the highlights so far are the ones where she isn't really working in that mode or reaching beyond it - "the black dog", "so high school", "thank you aimee"

"I'm not trying to exaggerate but I think I might die if it happened to me"

"the prophecy" is alright too but the second disc is not great. it's very much a separate thing though

i really hate to be the one to say this, but isn't hats like matty healy's favourite album, so any reference lyrically or musically to it is some sort of guarded tribute to his taste, even if he cops it bad

yeah that feels pretty deliberate to me

I thought Midnights was ok, just a major letdown after Folklore/Evermore/the ten minute All Too Well. But this is Be Here Now levels of over the top badness. Two hours of plodding rhythms and boring synths, every now and then livened up by a funny line/rhyme or a 'oh I wonder who that is about' reference. A few good songs, but they drown in the sameness.

the best songs on here are way better than anything on midnights

Probably true, but even the longest version of Midnights was 40 minutes shorter.

i recommend just ignoring the second disc which is largely a significant step down in quality

Starting this now—
I think they put a LDR song upfront by mistake

You smokеd, then ate seven bars of chocolate
We declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist

ILM in a nutshell

Lots of Puth heads here?

I thought Midnights was ok, just a major letdown after Folklore/Evermore/the ten minute All Too Well. But this is Be Here Now levels of over the top badness. Two hours of plodding rhythms and boring synths, every now and then livened up by a funny line/rhyme or a 'oh I wonder who that is about' reference. A few good songs, but they drown in the sameness.

― Frederik B, Friday, April 19, 2024 5:04 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

kindof agree w this, tho i like midnights more than ok & not a giant fan or folklore/evermore

Uh “Florida!” Is terrible

But “Daddy I Love Him” is great

Uh “Florida!” Is terrible

― Never fight uphill 'o me, boys! (President Keyes),

I like the line about Destin, a shit spring break town; but I'm proud to say our version was better.

i'd take taylor over patti smith. as a songwriter. easily. but she is nice to be nice to her elders.

"I like the line about Destin, a shit spring break town"

my god i love Destin, but yes, good description

i think this is my favorite taylor swift record and i will get mad if ppl treat the “anthology” version as the real album

Wow, ivy. After two listens to the original album the incessant midtempo-ness of the thing is tiring me.

i'm just treating the second half as a separate album that is just a frustratingly underwhelming folklore retread

but i love that burst at the end of the chorus in "the black dog"

I want something to POP. "But Daddy I Love Him" is a moment, I guess.

my biggest problem with the regular album is that it doesn't spent more time in gorgeous synth ballad blue nile tribute mode

the regular album is definitely my favourite - there's no real duds, it has some of her very best songs on it, the production generally works. it could still use an editor as it doesn't need to be an hour but eh that's nothing compared to the sort of issues most of her albums have

no idea why "fortnight" is the single though. it's good but it's hard to see it being much of a hit, it's rather sleepy

Wow, ivy

what, is this not the real midnights? a full album of insomnia-driven spirals about people you’ve lost and still long for or wish you would’ve told the truth to when you were still talking? i guess “florida!!!” is the only “fast” track but i appreciate the sleepy amniotic shuffle, a body turning over in bed again and again. the melodies are gorgeous and i think there’s a ton of internal variation in its half-asleep whispers too… is “guilty as sin?” not her sexiest song? is “but daddy i love him” not like a giant wedding cake of songwriting? is “i can do it with a broken heart” not actually completely manic and simultaneously in denial of and in acceptance of it? i feel like everyone is tired and has cloth in their ears which i understand, taylor swift is exhausting, i guess she was due for significant blowback from a bunch of ppl who form their opinions on someone’s work based on how tired they are, but the moment i heard this i noticed how it moved and shifted in a way none of her previous pop albums have. it is not REALLY my favorite swift album because i am way too sentimental about red and evermore but its 16 tracks long and the songs are full of gorgeous melodies and impossibly none of them are embarrassing. a triumph, imo

The second disc is much better imo

im sorry that post really reads like i didn’t get enough sleep

i feel like everyone is tired and has cloth in their ears which i understand, taylor swift is exhausting, i guess she was due for significant blowback from a bunch of ppl who form their opinions on someone’s work based on how tired they are

OK this is not me.

And it IS the real Midnights.

i like this. wait where does the regular album end the YT i am listening to has 31 tracks. i like daddy and florida and who's afraid and tortured poets. those are the best.

first 16 are the regular album, 17-31 are "the anthology"

The bass drop in "Who's Afraid of Little Old Me" made me lol in a good way.

she could make the best punk rock album with a punk rock band. she's so good at pissed.

The ones she wrote herself are the punkiest!

okay so it ends with "clara bow". got it. haven't gotten there yet.

i do really hate that she released EVERY SONG from these sessions to goose streaming numbers. i have a headache