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 is happening, again.

All’s fair in love and poetry... New album THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT. Out April 19 🤍https://t.co/WdrCmvLHyA

📷: Beth Garrabrant pic.twitter.com/CCPhmSZ2UD

— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) February 5, 2024

Jeez Biden already gave her a Cabinet post

At this rate, the next Super Bowl will just be Taylor Swift, with the game taking place at halftime.

It would be a better allocation of resources.

Lana should sue.

The Ever-popular Tortured Artist Affect

she is so embarrassing, can't wait

It must be exhausting always torturing all these poets

As Chris Molanphy noted elsewhere, Taylor's now the first four-time album of the year Grammy winner. Let's see if this eventually makes it five...

re: the terrible album title, her ex's group chat name was apparently The Tortured Man Club

lol at the one announced track title (a bonus track) being “The Manuscript”

So that's what's going to save America from Trump

I like the name of the album.

somewhere, Jewel is weeping

Dead Poets Society ref, one presumes? Sorry if I am the last person in the universe to get that joke

Her longest album title to date was Taylor Swift.

The Yeah, I Showed Up at Your Poetry Open Mic Chapter

she must've seen all the long titles in the top 77 this year

heh

Oh my god you thought the ALBUM TITLE was bad.

The song title list is terrifying.

we need a poll of the song titles stat

SIDE A:

Fortnight (ft. Post Malone)
The Tortured Poets Department
My Boy Only Breaks His Favourite Toys
Down Bad

SIDE B:

So Long, London
But Daddy, I Love Him
Fresh Out The Slammer
Florida!!! (ft. Florence + the Machine)

SIDE C:

Guilty as Sin?
Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?
I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)
loml

SIDE D:

I Can Do It With A Broken Heart
The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived
The Alchemy
Clara Bow
Bonus Track: The Manuscript

it lost me with “ft. Post Malone”

just thankful it wasn't "Fortnite (ft. Post Malone)"

I did worry that is what it was at first

“reputation, but even more embarrassing”

seriously can’t wait

absolute value of om

lotta ppl learning about the original it girl tonight

https://i.ibb.co/zS1NSnn/Screenshot-20240205-201252-Chrome.jpg

I feel like she's truly jumped the shark, last night felt like a heel turn, but I guess we'll see...

(all I know is - I live in a very Taylor-unfriendly household, and I couldn't muster up the gumption to rep for her even feebly right now)

Oh do not ask, “What is it?’

"My Boy Only Breaks His Favourite Toys"
"But Daddy, I Love Him"
"The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived"
"Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?"

are you fucking kidding me

How you could list those but not "Fresh Out the Slammer"...

because that one didn't have some reference to being smol

"Fresh Out the Slammer" sounds like early Paramore title.

...or Sublime.

the song titles are a headfake to make people miss the evil messages of violence that each song will contain

Amnesty International Presents

SIDE A:

Fortnight (ft. Post Malone)
The Tortured Poets Department
My Boy Only Breaks His Favourite Toys
Down Bad

SIDE B:

So Long, London
But Daddy, I Love Him
Fresh Out The Slammer
Florida!!! (ft. Florence + the Machine)

SIDE C:

Guilty as Sin?
Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?
I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)
loml

SIDE D:

I Can Do It With A Broken Heart
The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived
The Alchemy
Clara Bow
Bonus Track: The Manuscript

― Tim F, Monday, February 5, 2024 7:54 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

I 100% unironically believed this entire list was inspired parody

April Fools

Are we sure this isn't coming out on April 1st.

hoping The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived is a Dr Demento-esque novelty track

"Iommi" is the Black Sabbath tribute Swifties had no idea they deserved.

What is this that stands before me?
Figure in black which points at me
Turn 'round quick and start to run
Find out I'm the chosen one
Hell, yeah!

Some people say my love can it be true
Happiness is your eyes when I'm kissing you

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:qpqyay6mqatzyyet3jdgxiwi/bafkreigbosz33xvvalqcchln6kixpudbgqjzpdu5bezi2mimikejrpq6iu@jpeg

lmao

i don't know what she's going for but i'm glad she's going for something at least

But Daddy I Love Him is now trending on Twitter

The Smallest Hands Who Ever Lived

deluxe version comes with a pop-up book featuring Travis Kelce

super deluxe same but uncensored pop-up

Clara Bowling Alley

really enjoy how the first verse of "down bad" likens love and subsequent rejection to being abducted by aliens

"you made the universe feel so big but then you left and everything contracted into something so small and shitty and dull which it maybe was the entire time????"

I don't think her music previously has grappled with what it means to be an unreliable narrator of yr own life as relentlessly as she does here

otm. to me this is the taylor swift album that deals most directly with illusion and disillusion, it is the great throughline of these songs, applying that perspective not only to her romantic relationships but her career ("clara bow") and her craft ("the manuscript")

Beauty is a beast that roars
Down on all fours
Demanding more
Only when your girlish glow
Flickers just so
Do they let you know
It's hell on earth to be heavenly
Them's the breaks
They don't come gently

think this might be the best thing she's ever written

that song in its entirety is very special but when she says "Them's the breaks/ they don't come gently" I melt

My favorite song on here is "The Bolter" (I don't have a deep lyrical analysis, I just like the melody & music).

I like it, too. I like guitars.

"How Did It End" is really nice, too... that one must have slipped by in my initial listens (the piano figure isn't much, it sounds almost like a practice exercise; but I like the song built on top of it).

Swifties are losing their minds on social media at the changes to the Eras setlist in Paris

didn't need the last 9 words

can't believe she isn't doing the title track live

otm. to me this is the taylor swift album that deals most directly with illusion and disillusion, it is the great throughline of these songs, applying that perspective not only to her romantic relationships but her career ("clara bow") and her craft ("the manuscript")

― ivy., Thursday, 9 May 2024 14:15 (eight hours ago) link

Relatedly I like how "I Can Do It With A Broken Heart" is such a clear sequel to "Long Story Short" - a deceptively cheerful song which pokes fun at herself including her penchant for melodrama.

"He said he'd love all his life / But that life was too short". Literally and thematically it echoes "And I fell from the pedestal / Right down the rabbit hole / Long story short, it was a bad time": the idea that even Taylor acknowledges that her songwriting could be accused of belaboring every point.

This would be less obvious on "I Can Do It..." if the song wasn't placed immediately after "loml" ("You said I'm the love of your life / About a million times"); the abruptness with which she now cuts to the point mocking every other extended examination of the same situation.

Also: "I cry a lot but I am so productive, it's an art". You can't persuade me that the person who wrote these lyrics doesn't fully understand the double-meaning here.

I kinda disliked the spoken bit at the end, which felt a bit on the nose, until I realised she was saying "Try and come for my job".

i feel like this album has completely dropped out of public consciousness in record time for a Swift release, but maybe I'm just not paying attention anymore.

Oh yeah it feels like a million years old because of all the Kendrick stuff

I was at the 2nd night of the Paris show. My friend is a massive fan and couldn't get tickets in the UK but managed to get two there. I went with her because she thought I would love it, and I would consider myself a fan - not anywhere near on the level of some of us here, but I think she's a good lyricist who makes interesting mistakes and even what I would consider her weaker moments are still interesting to me even if I find myself struggling with them. I think the new album is her best yet, in part because of ivy and Tim F posting here and opening it up, but also I think it's just the most sonically pleasing music she's ever recorded, and I don't hear any of the weird distracting poor cadence moments that plague at least a couple of songs on every album she does. I didn't watch the Eras concert on Disney+ because I didn't want any spoilers for what to expect, but I was really excited for it - a trip overseas, to see the biggest popstar in the world put on a spectacular show, touring their best material.

It was... a bit underwhelming? She started with a Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince intro, then into Cruel Summer, and I thought: excellent, this is going to be a lot of fun! But it really lost momentum. It's a 3.5 hr show and it really droops with the Evermore/Folklore section in the middle, which is a huge energy drop. She cuts chunks out of the 1989 material so it's mostly just one verse and one chorus of those songs. Her stage presence isn't great, and I felt like there's a lack of imagination in the staging. There is a part where she changes costume that's meant to be fun and campy, but she just isn't that kind of performer and instead of being playfully kitsch it just feels so awkward and contrived, it actually gave me the motivation to go to the bar at that exact moment. We were standing, maybe 10 rows from the front, and everyone around us lapped it up, to the point where people around us were crying at the end of it. I didn't think it was terrible, but I didn't think it was particularly great. The price of a ticket in France was considerably lower than the price in the UK, and I think I would have been very annoyed if I had paid that much. It didn't amaze me as a spectacle or inspire me to revisit her catalogue. I enjoyed it, but when I've spoken to colleagues and pals who are going to the UK shows later this year I've had to force myself to be a bit more enthusiastic in my thoughts than I'm inclined to be.

I knew the fans would be intense around it, but the performative fandom aspect was unlike anything I've ever experienced before. The idea that I would spend time at home making custom jewelery to swap with strangers is bizarre, but people all around me were doing this with their friendship bracelets. Twenty-five years ago I guess I would have been a "stan" for Garbage, in that I loved them very much and spoke about them all the time to anyone who was remotely into music, I had posters and keyrings and all that stuff too. I get the idea that your love for a band can be very important to your sense of identity. But the scale and intensity of Swifties around me felt almost like a cult.

Yes and you are an unbeliever so time for sacrifice er wait hold on.

still haven't watched the eras concert, but taylor swift live hasn't been for me since she started dancing. everything's a little overdetermined

Three and a half hours is a LOT for any artist.

The middle hour is just beatboxing

Seems like she'd suffer a little too by having Paramore opening with a nice, tight Greatest Hits set.

I saw her ages ago, on the Speak Now tour, and thought she was fine and fun but also not somebody I was going to make a lot of effort to see in concert again. It's not her most natural or rewarding milieu imo. Happy to just listen to the albums.

I was about to say - Paramore were FANTASTIC and I say this is as someone who thinks they weren't a good band at all until their fourth album. They did nine songs including a Talking Heads cover, and nothing too rocky/emo which suits my personal tastes although I can appreciate thar was disappointing for others.

Hayley Williams owned the stage in a way Swift didn't. They performed without any props or staging, just the band and their instruments, and some screens showing close-ups of them. Her charisma, energy and personality were off the scale, and i would actively go to see them again, which was not what I expected at all.

I saw Depeche Mode do a 3.5 hr set at the start of the year. I would say I'm much less invested in them as a band than I am Taylor Swift but they were a far stronger live act. Their pacing was stronger, Gahan was lively and likeable, and even their mid-set ballads didn't feel like a slog. I'm not against a long set if it's wholly entertaining for the duration!

still haven't watched the eras concert, but taylor swift live hasn't been for me since she started dancing. everything's a little overdetermined

― ivy., Monday, May 20, 2024 11:34 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

I've seen Taylor play several times - though not since 2015 - and the best remains when she performed in a nightclub here I think immediately before or after Fearlesss was released. She already had a bit of a theatre kid quality but it was very charming and disarming in that context, probably because of (rather than in spite of) the fact that she did not yet have the means to fully realise her visions.

I saw Depeche Mode do a 3.5 hr set at the start of the year. I would say I'm much less invested in them as a band than I am Taylor Swift but they were a far stronger live act. Their pacing was stronger, Gahan was lively and likeable, and even their mid-set ballads didn't feel like a slog. I'm not against a long set if it's wholly entertaining for the duration!

Someone who's been doing something for 40 years is better at it than someone who's been doing it for 15? Surprising.

She’ll have this performance thing down by 2050

Cool, I can totally imagine me at 81 paying half my remaining life savings to go see 61-year-old Taylor Swift. I didn't have any life goals for if I make it to 2050, now I do.

(If it happens, I'll find this thread and report back.)

Twenty Six Years Pass

Paramore being better at it than both didn't take them 40 years

Because Paramore rules, is why.

The time I saw them was at Bonnaroo, and it was the day that news broke about Anthony Bourdain's death. At one point during a breather between two songs, Hayley Williams sat down on the edge of the stage and talked about it and how much she loved Bourdain and how hard mental illness is and gave a sort of pep talk to anyone suffering (pretty sure she included the suicide hotline number). It was really affecting, the whole field of people got quiet and paid attention, and it was just striking the ability she had to talk directly and pull people in just sitting there talking. And then they went back to rocking.

If Taylor doesn't write a song called "The Bechtel Test" where she has a coffee with Gabriette and they don't refer to Healy once, she will have let me down, she will have let the community down, and most importantly she will have let herself down.

forever mad that this album coincided with the inevitable even longed-for second or third wave of taylor swift backlash bc it is so awesome :(

Yeah but that backlash as such is kinda...contextual? It's still the number one album in the country and has been since release, whereas a lot of immediate reviews seemed to be thinking 'bleah, nobody will care after first listen.' Not exactly the case!

There's a fair amount of backlash to the maneuvers to keep it at #1 (over Billie Eilish and Charli XCX)

love how her pro's fastidiousness about extending her metaphors gradually turns "down bad" into an entire straightfaced song about fucking an alien

she works so goddamn hard goddammit. why i'm still like miss me with that please.

I am vaguely disappointed that I didn’t get even a slow clap for the above joke

We are simple people.

lol I just now saw it, so consider it clapped.

I'm going to put this album on right now I think. I haven't circled back to it since the first go-round but I heard "Fortnight" on the radio the other day and it sounded good.

love how her pro's fastidiousness about extending her metaphors gradually turns "down bad" into an entire straightfaced song about fucking an alien

― difficult listening hour, Wednesday, 3 July 2024 17:04 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

My favourite thing about her TBH. If she could chill out for even a moment she would make a great meme page administrator..

So my revisiting of this album yesterday was quite pleasant, although as per usual I got bored and turned it off during "Smallest Man in the World" and didn't get to the bonus disc. It's a good record, though.

I rather liked this piece, YMMV:

https://variety.com/2024/music/news/taylor-swift-eras-tour-impact-1236089525/

Separately, this was good as well, from a different angle:

https://johnpstrohm.substack.com/p/you-better-believe-im-a-swiftie

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/music/2024/08/07/taylor-swift-cancels-vienna-shows-terrorist-attack/74472897007/

0_O

must be someone who found her music unmemorable

aww bollocks -- unmemorable music merits an unmemorable response, hence my posting here. don't like the music? go bowling, no bombing fer cryin out loud!

but for real they're saying it had ties to isis. like, the extremist terrorist organization, not the metal band.

big sigh. correct response to the whole on her+her team's part, but still... what a world, big sigh.

It already happen at an Ariana Grande concert after all

I guess she’s unmemorable as well

Gonna be interesting how she navigates her high profile NFL boyfriend bring “honored” Trump is coming to watch him play. Backlash is already stirring…

Trump will probably demand to award the trophy and he'll talk about how happy or sad Taylor Swift must be (depending on the outcome) and make some jokes about how "she doesn't like me"

I re-engaged with this beast, and made a pleasantly robust playlist of faves/keepers:

1. TTPD
2. Down Bad
3. But Daddy
4. Fresh Out da Slammer
5. Guilty as Sin
6. loml
7. Clara Bow
8. The Black Dog
9. Chloe or Sam…
10. How Did It End?*
11. Cassandra
12. The Bolter
13. Robin
14. The Manuscript

*this is a great song, don’t know why it didn’t grab me before…