Taylor Swift's New Album?

I haven't yet.

Out of the, what, 31 tracks on the double album, did you post that one as a favorite, or just as one you happened to stumble on?

 

i've never heard a swift song, but i was impressed by a few off beyonces new c&w album

 

There's probably from one to three off each Swift album that I would recognize on hearing ... and a rather smaller number that I could hum if prompted.

I was paying the most attention when the first few albums were coming out, and for her age at the time she seemed to me to have a prodigy's writing ability.

I don't think her talent has fallen off any, getting older, and I'd still say she's darned good at what she does; it's maybe not as jaw-dropping to me anymore as when this high-schooler out of nowhere was doing it.

 

Funny, could actually be my first time for this one. I wasn't listening often to country stations then, so the songs I noticed first were the ones that got more crossover airplay. The country roots are strong in this one.

Is the bridge in this one, at four measures, one of the shortest Taylor Swift bridges in existence? Oh what the future would bring....

 

@Prius Camper i never pictured you as having the slightest interest in Taylor Swift…

 

Yeah Beatles, especially on headphones, were so crisp/sharp/flawless it was almost too much. Was reassuring to hear the occasional zip sounds of fingers running along guitar strings.

 

There's a voice for those sounds on my old Yamaha keyboard....

$19.89 of those even came from me. For my tastes, even that seemed a bit steep for sitting in the dark in my local movieplex, but I was curious and came away thinking it well spent. That'll have to do it for me; I heard recently she's got a show scheduled in Indy but I just can't justify what those tickets go for.

The person I heard it from is still hoping (however unrealistically) to get some, though.

I thought the last time I was hearing gripes about Hollywood they were making it out to be a bottomless pit of anti-American indoctrination.

I'm clearly doing a lousy job of keeping up-to-date on such gripes.

 

About the most unfavorable (but entertainingly so) review that I've seen so far is this one (of the album, not the Nazis):

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/2024/04/20/taylor-swift-review-tortured-poets-department/

Although I've listened to very few of the tracks, I do have to admit that during the "Who's Afraid of Little Old Me" track you linked, I kind of was thinking "hasn't she been doing the they'll-be-sorry-they-dissed-me shtick for several albums now?".

 

That is a good point, she is creating records at the pace of the 1950s and 1960s creations.

I fast-forwarded through her Era Tour video, and well, I just did not enjoy her songs.
FWIW I'll say I actually enjoy Miley Cyrus' music better, but neither are my favorite "sound".

Besides the fast record/song issuance point, what I do admire about Taylor is her ability to put on a 3-hour show, night after night, and "save" "take medical care" of her voice.

She is a valued entertainer.

 

+1

I'm not much of a 'swiftie.'
I can name two more WNBA players off the top of my head than I can recall the titles for her songs

Different kind of TDS.....
The YouTubes charge me closer to $15 a month and it's the only subscription I pay other than the occasional $4-5 a month special price for Audible - the last of which expires this month.

My YouTube selected-for-me music hasn't included any Swift music to date.

I'm not much of an NFL fan either, so I guess I'm also fresh out of rats to give about which player with a tight end she's prancing around with.
If I were the NFL's Commish I would give her lifetime access and all of the attention that she craves.

Getting pre-teen girls interested in the sport beyond the annual party in February is a BIG get.

 

Another somewhat critical review, this one from someone supplying proof of swiftie status:

Taylor Swift Is Releasing Too Many Songs. Blame the Streaming Era.

Buried in it is what might be some praise for a couple of the later tracks:

The latter half of her double album contains some of the brightest gems, like "I Look in People's Windows" and "The Prophecy." But instead of getting their own moments to shine, they've been relegated to track slots 25 and 26 in a two-hour deluxe edition. They won't be included in CDs or vinyl copies. Casual fans may never even hear them​

I haven't tried to find or listen to those yet. I guess it's not written in stone that Callie Ahlgrim and I would have the same idea of a 'gem', but I don't know that we wouldn't, either.

I'll agree with ETC that I've never felt the fascination with figuring out exactly who she's writing about in every phrase. I might go so far as to say a song doesn't work as a song, unless it can work without you having to know all that.

 

people love to disect song lyrics. lennon said it was all nonsense, dylan said they mean what you want them to mean, not what his intent was.

 

And you can mishear the lyrics, but it still works. I always though Dylan said "before the sky there are no fences facing". Apparently it's "but for the sky there are no fences facing".