Taylor Swift has written and recorded the year's best and most exciting pop album

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When I first started attending a university, I worked as an after-school daycare counselor for elementary schoolers. Every other Friday, or so, the afternoon started with a movie. We showed Labyrinth, one time, because why the fuck not? It's a movie for kids. Jesus Christ, what a terrible afternoon. Kids wailing and crying in terror, trying to escape from the room, and going wild. Unbelievable. We made it through like 40 minutes before we had to pull the plug. If that.

What I'm saying, I guess, is that you're not alone. I don't understand why, but you're not alone.

Sorry to be off-topic, but I feel like that's a worthwhile story, given the immediate context.
 
i don't even know what scared me, but i have a sneaking suspicion it was bowie.
 
We had to turn it off after these guys started goofily singing and dancing:

aph_5.jpg


Though that was hardly the first tear-inducing moment. The kids were understandably more stunned by than scared of David Bowie and his penis.
 
Play countin':

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But wait!
A CHALLENGER APPEARS:

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Now, Taylor's got a bit of a head start, so we'll see how this one shakes out in a few weeks.

edit- OOOOH Taylor has a 220 - 212 lead in play counts right now. But Kanye has the string intro to All Of The Lights as a separate track, and you can peek out at the bottom of the screen that the original copy of Power that Kanye released earlier in the summer has 33 plays (the only difference I can tell is a piano note at the start when he says "twenty first century"; but that's an awesome note). -35 + 33 = -2, for a 220 - 210 Taylor lead.
 
Damn, you really like Sparks Fly. Good shit. Song's a banger.

But you've only listened to Long Live twice? Go listen to that song again, right now.
 
LemonMelon said:
See Me Now has more plays than Devil In A New Dress? :tsk:
Click to expand...

Now in fairness, I DL'd the album (getting it for Christmas!) and thought for a while that it was the last track on the album so I was trying to give it some time.
 
YouTube - Taylor Swift - Back to December

Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy shit. Taylor has made a music video, and she looks GAWJUS. The video looks great, too.

I also contend that her cadence and vocal delivery at the start of the second verse (These days, I haven't been sleepin, stayin up, playin back myself leavin...)is one of the 40 or 50 best things I've ever heard in my life.
 
I like to think that Hayley Williams and Taylor Swift are the two girls tearing each other apart in Misery Business and Better Than Revenge.

Paramore:
I'm in the business of misery,
Let's take it from the top.
She's got a body like an hourglass it's ticking like a clock.
It's a matter of time before we all run out,
When I thought he was mine she caught him by the mouth.

I waited eight long months,
She finally set him free.
I told him I couldn't lie he was the only one for me.
Two weeks and we caught on fire,
She's got it out for me,
But I wear the biggest smile.

Whoa, I never meant to brag
But I got him where I want him now.
Whoa, it was never my intention to brag
Just steal it all away from you now.
But God does it feel so good,
Cause I got him where I want him now.
And if you could then you know you would.
Cause God it just feels so,
It just feels so good.

Second chances they don't ever matter, people never change.
once a whore you're nothing more, I'm sorry, that'll never change.
And about forgiveness, we're both supposed to have exchanged.
I'm sorry honey, but I'm passin' up, now look this way.
Well there's a million other girls who do it just like you.
Looking as innocent as possible to get to who,
They want and what they like.
It's easy if you do it right.
Well I refuse, I refuse, I refuse!

Whoa, I never meant to brag
But I got him where I want him now.
Whoa, it was never my intention to brag
Just steal it all away from you now.
But God does it feel so good,
Cause I got him where I want him right now.
And if you could then you know you would.
Cause God it just feels so,
It just feels so good.

I watched his wildest dreams come true
Not one of them involving you
Just watch my wildest dreams come true
Not one of them involving.

Whoa, I never meant to brag,
But I got him where I want him now.

Whoa, I never meant to brag
But I got him where I want him now.
Whoa, it was never my intention to brag
just steal it all away from you now.
But God does it feel so good,
Cause I got what I wanted now
And if you could then you know you would.
Cause God it just feels so,
It just feels so good.

Taylor Swift:
Now go stand in the corner and think about what you did
Ha, Time for a little revenge
Verse:
The story starts when it was hot and it was summer
And, I had it all; I had him right there where I wanted him
She came along, got him along, and let's hear the applause
She took him faster than you can say sabotage
I never saw it coming, nor did I suspected it
I underestimated just who I was dealing with
She had to know the pain was beating on me like a drum
She underestimated just who she was stealing from

[Chorus]
She's not a saint and she's not what you think
She's an actress, Whoa
She's better known for the things that she does
On the mattress, Whoa
Soon she's gonna find
Stealing other people's toys on the playground
Won't make you many friends
She should keep in mind,
She should keep in mind
There is nothing I do better than revenge, Ha

[Verse]
She lives her life like it's a party and she's on the list
She looks at me like I'm a trend and she's so over it
I think her ever present frown is a little troubling
And, she thinks I'm psycho
Cause I like to rhyme her name with things, but
Sophistication isn't what you wear, or who you know
Or pushing people down to get you where you wanna go
Oh they didn't teach you that in prep school
So it's up to me
But no amount of vintage dresses gives you dignity

[Chorus]
She's not a saint and she's not what you think
She's an actress, Whoa

She's better known for the things that she does
On the mattress, Whoa
Soon she's gonna find
Stealing other people's toys on the playground
Won't make you many friends
She should keep in mind,
She should keep in mind
There is nothing I do better than revenge, Ha ha


[Bridge]
I'm just another thing for you to roll your eyes at honey
You might have him, but haven't you heard
I'm just another thing for you to roll your eyes at honey
You might have him, but I always get the last word
Whoa

[Chorus]
She's not a saint and she's not what you think
She's an actress, Whoa
She's better known for the things that she does
On the mattress, Whoa
Soon she's gonna find
Stealing other people's toys on the playground
Won't make you many friends
She should keep in mind,
She should keep in mind
There is nothing I do better than revenge,

And do you still feel like you know what you're doing,
Cause I don't think you do, Oh
Do you still feel like you know what you're doing
I don't think you do, I don't think you do
Let's hear the applause
C'mon show me how much better you are
See you deserve some applause
Cause you're so much better
She took him faster than you can say sabotage

Back to December....ehhhh. I get the feeling that there's a solid song lurking around there, but that broad Tiny Dancer sort of string aesthetic in a ballad just tunes me out.
 
This is skull-thumpingly obvious in retrospect, but I was surprised that Fearless is a lot more rooted in high school experiences, which does kind of emphasize how young Taylor was when she wrote it.

Fifteen and Belong With Me are the standouts thus far.

GAF, hit me with some "fearless" facts.
 
mobvok said:
This is skull-thumpingly obvious in retrospect, but I was surprised that Fearless is a lot more rooted in high school experiences, which does kind of emphasize how young Taylor was when she wrote it.

Fifteen and Belong With Me are the standouts thus far.

GAF, hit me with some "fearless" facts.
Click to expand...

It's interesting. I've actually been finding myself very reluctant to go back and listen to anything she recorded pre-Speak Now. I honestly feel that the album completely blows most everything else she's done out of the water. It's streets ahead of Fearless and the debut. I feel she really, truly settled into her comfort zone with this one, and it kinda makes the first two look a bit weaker in retrospect.

Which is really strange for me to say, because I absolutely fucking adore her first two albums. The debut knocked me on my ass back in '06. It was sonically/stylistically/thematically very much in the vein of all the other modern "country" stuff that was out at the time. But there was something different. Something better. A breath of fresh air in that genre that is so often (and rightfully) shit on and ignored. There was energy and life and personality there, whereas so much of that genre right now is cold and lifeless and made-to-order. And she wrote the bulk of that album when she was 14 and 15, which is just fucking insane. There's a song on there ("The Outside") that she wrote when she was 12. I mean, come on. That's ridiculous. Who does that? But I digress.

You asked about Fearless. Yeah, great album. I couldn't have been happier that it blew up and made her a huge star and won all those awards. It deserved it, and she deserved it. But it ain't no Speak Now.

The title track is gorgeous. "Love Story" and "You Belong With Me" are probably her two best singles to date (until "Mean," "Story of Us," etc. are released. I swear, if they don't put "Mean" out as a single...). "Hey Stephen" is infectious as all hell.

Looking at it now though, after having not listened to it in a few months, I think the two tracks that stand out the most for me are the two that actually have nothing to do with young love or boy/girl stuff.

"The Best Day," written for her Mom, is just beautiful. One of the best pure melodies she's ever come up with. That chorus. I still remember the first time I heard it (I don't know why, all the trees change in the fall...), it was one of those melodies that sounds so instantly familiar, at least to me, and makes me want to cry or run around the room or at the very least nod my head in sincere approval.

And then there's "Change." Which is easily her best pre-Speak Now song and may still be my favorite Tigga Swift song. It signaled some of the attitude and style we'd see on Speak Now. It's a BIG song, a banger, and it's about her and the journey she'd gone on with her tiny record label and how they figured out how to kick everybody else's asses. It is, to me, a wonderful encapsulation of her career to that point and hugely empowering.

As for "Fifteen," it is pleasant and well-crafted, but not a favorite. I don't know, it was probably a song she had to write, but it never really connected with me.

If you're liking the album, you should seek out the extra tracks on the Platinum Edition. More damn good songs there, including "The Other Side of the Door" which is a hidden gem. That closing verse!

Speak Now is where it's at, though. For real.

I can't wait to hear what's next. Scary shit.
 
Oops I meant Love Story, not Fifteen.

It's good to hear your thoughts. I do agree that there's a stepping-stone effect comparing Fearless and Speak Now that makes some of the earlier songs feel slightly precambrian compared to SN's polish.

For me what's interesting looking at two albums' worth of songs and videos is that I feel a step removed as far as Taylor's lyrics. Listening to her, I think that elements which would otherwise trip my mental sensors as self-absorbed (chorus and "gay" quip in Picture to Burn) or self-consciously mass market (fantasy fulfillment in the Love Story and Belong videos) and self-effacing ("she wears short skirts, I wear t-shirts") get a pass either because of her commitment to the whole thing or the slight sense I pick up that Swift might agree she doesn't need to personally stand behind the viewpoints of all the narrators in her songs. Just using archetypes, and so forth. In a way that's similar (dare I say it?) to another current artist her recent history has been intertwined with.

I guess Taylor's dancing on the line a little bit. So, does it matter if in Better Than Revenge she's playing with the idea of being an uber-revenge master that spends the whole time focused on trashing the other woman and barely any on the guy with apparently horrifically low standards that Taylor was after and supposedly started the whole thing? Or is she actually behind that idea?

To cut that line of questioning short, no, it evidently doesn't, because I've been noticing those things ever since I started listening to Swift but it hasn't stopped me yet. :shrug: Girl knows how to write a tune.

As you said, I remain interested to hear what's next.
 
Totally into You're Not Sorry and Change right now.

What's that business about her tiny label?
 
The volume of YT comments from teenaged fans that were praising Swift for being so upstanding and nice made me a little suspicious. Surely there's gotta be a little calculated positioning in that. But I have to concede I have yet to hear any remotely negative behind-the-scenes stories about her, and an awful lot that makes her sound like an honestly nice, well adjusted human being:

November 4, 2008
Swift Bus
Posted by Sasha Frere-Jones

The agreeable artist presents a problem. Granting interviews when offstage is, of course, all part of the performance, but what if the performer’s niceness is genuine, their warmth unforced? Acknowledging that, in print, can make a writer feel like a flack, rather than a reporter. But what if the niceness is the fact?

For critics, who spend time with songs and movies and books, this problem doesn’t pop up much. Sometimes, though, a critic will foolishly break the wall and confront the person behind the art. When I was reporting this Taylor Swift column, I spent the better part of a day with Swift, much of it on her tour bus. There is a glass cabinet inside stocked with awards, some comfortable couches, a kitchen, and a small desk. It isn’t stunningly lavish, but you could live on it without feeling unduly deprived.

Many stars enforce inaccessibility, even when you’re five feet away. Publicists, tour managers, assistants, and other foot soliders guard the gates. Sometimes you just wait outside the bus all day.

The Swifts employ a few of these helpers, though none of them got in my way. The publicist who arranged my meeting was not on the bus. The tour manager occasionally popped his head in, but didn’t interrupt. The forty-five minutes I was scheduled to spend with Swift turned into roughly eight hours. Her mother, Andrea, travels with Swift, but is not her manager. Mostly she checked her watch and gently reminded Taylor when it was time to go to lunch, time to do the meet and greet, time to do the sound check. The mood was so relaxed, it was extremely easy to forget that Swift was about to play to thousands of people in the same arena where the Republican National Convention had been held a few weeks earlier.

When we got off the bus to have lunch with the band, she had no bodyguards, no handlers. Almost every human being we passed in the street recognized Swift; maybe a third of them wanted to take a picture with her. She said yes to every request, posing quickly but without any sense of the moment being cursory or false. And then she kept moving.

It was like Tai Chi. By being infinitely accommodating, Swift kept moving so efficiently that, were you to be slightly distracted, you might miss what was going on. It is irrelevant whether or not the Swifts are as exceptionally warm as they seem. (My guess is that they are.) What’s notable is that travelling light and granting all requests made their job easier, not harder. People who act like stars may be complicating their own lives unnecessarily—unless that expression of power through denial and frustration is part of what they’re after.
Click to expand...

Kudos, ma'am.

The Mean video came out this last weekend. I've read a little criticism of her, some of which is unfair. That mainly focuses on the lyrics, when she goes into the "pathetic/liar/alone in life and mean" verse. I understand how those lines seem a little opposed to the above-your-arrows aura of the rest of the song, but interpreting that as thin-skinned doesn't sit right with me. This is the same girl who wrote a broad romantic pastiche for Love Story, then lacerated herself for believing that fantasy a few songs later, so I think she gets some benefit of the doubt as far as separating the speaker's voice from the songwriter. Personally I thought it was consciously a little ironic and humanizing. :shrug:

The video itself still keeps her in model-perfect lighting. I would like to see her push beyond that posing a little. But I just discovered Fiona Apple's Criminal video last weekend and thought the grunginess was amazing, so maybe I'm in the wrong mood for that right now.
 
Indeed! I was a bit surprised to learn this wasn't on the original album release, it's a solid track. I haven't listened to it all the way through a second time, but my impression is that TSWIFT:06 was pretty forgettable in the middle from A Place In This World through Stay Beautiful, but it's got a good start and finish. Robust. Worthwhile. words.

Her sudden country drawl on Picture To Burn and her subsequent acknowledgement that her dad's actually a stock broker are a little....curious, but I'll go with it as the steps of an artist trying to find her identity.
 
You're not enough of an expert on the subject of Tay-Tay to do it yourself?
Click to expand...

:shh:

After posting the trivia idea though I realized it was a fool's game: if it was a fan devoted enough to outfit a user profile in character, they'd probably remember more about Taylor than Taylor would. :lol:
 
I'm not familiar with Tori Amos, so the title had me hoping she did a cover of Faraway, So Close. Maybe, I dunno, in Dublin.

She sounds great on the cover, though.
 
Our girl's been busy in The Snob's Media this last month or so, with features in both The New Yorker and 60 Minutes. I was most interested by the news from the New Yorker that her manager (or was it Scott Borchetta?) said that movies were her next frontier. There's an interesting split between Taylor the artist and Taylor the corporation that this forum's patron saints have already been through, so I'm really interested in hearing (less than a year, now!) how the fourth album comes around.

Anyway, I'm also reluctant to read my past posts in this thread because thinking about them, they may have seemed a little snobby. I tend to have a problem where I cringe at words I've written a few months prior.

Finally, this guy: Yoann Lemoine


interesting choice for the Back to December video. He also directed Katy Perry's Teenage Dream vid and is collaborating with Lana Del Rey, but he also did this (as Woodkid)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSkb0kDacjs

cool
 
I thought she was very good recently on what was it, the CMA's? When she did that song sitting on the couch wearing the pink sweater. Her live singing was much improved over some of the other times I've seen..like that one with Stevie Nicks.

I think she's adorable :wink:
 
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