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

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

Well at least fans don’t have to track down four versions of the CD to hear the bonus tracks

i think the underwhelming reaction from a lot of places is because people want her to either make massive pop hits (which this doesn't really have) or return to country/folk singer-songwriter stuff (which the regular album doesn't do much of) and instead most of the regular album is in midtempo synthpop mode which doesn't do much for people who don't adore the blue nile

would have been cool if the 2nd album was just songs about really detailed football offensive schemes. "Sweep Pass". "Flea Flicker".

she really made an album just for me lol

I adore the Blue Nile

I don't know what I want from her.

The Prophecy is my favorite I think

you could remix the hell out of "i can do it with a broken heart" a la pet shop boys.

But it’s a bit Sufjan I guess

yeah where IS Neil Tennant?

i can hear tennant singing "i can do it with a broken heart" deadpan

It does have a midtempo plod, I understand those complaints and it's one of my issues with Midnights. I don't know why it works for me here better except that Tim F is otm about it feeling "roomier." The prior stuff it most recalls for me is the latter half of 1989 -- "Wildest Dreams," "This Love." I like her gauzy sweeping synth mode I guess.

Ann Powers’ article piqued my interest far more than the album it’s about— prob won’t listen, I’m on a Swift-free listening diet these days—

https://www.npr.org/2024/04/19/1245630721/taylor-swift-tortured-poets-department-review

Interesting points, I’ve always felt as if Swift’s autofictive bent made for ugly listening, having Powers reframe it as necessarily dangerous has me reexamining my own discomfort

I joked to myself last night while reading this “has any Taylor Swift album passed the Bechdel Test”

Curious as to other people’s takes on the (as always) very good article, gonna read it again in the daylight

My main problem with the disc 1 stuff is that (much like on Midnights and Lover) most songs have parts that sound like they were cribbed from earlier Taylor songs.

i like this album a lot. could you cut 3 or 4 songs and make it better/tighter? of course. you always could. 16 songs will always be too many songs for one album. but if you make something perfect then you offend God. so, best to keep it a little lumpy.

okay, almost on to the extra stuff.

I can say that Powers' upcoming Joni book is awesome btw