Taylor Swift - new music & album "Reputation" (November 10, 2017)*

Some of these comments seem to be written by 13 year olds. Of course, 13 is her lucky number!

FWIW, I think (and recently in another thread expressed this) that Blood On The Tracks confessional reputation (see what I did there?) is overstated. However, over the course of three albums, from Planet Waves to Desire, with Blood On The Tracks in the middle, you can find some of Dylan's most personal and confessional songs.

Red had some of my favorite songs of hers. But I don't think I'd call it my favorite album. I think I'll cautiously call it uneven. She may have spread herself a little too thin with it. I actually think 1989 is her most cohesive and brilliant album. Fearless, while not as mature as what was to come, is also a great album as a whole. Speak Now is probably my least favorite. A bit self-indulgent. As talented as she is, I think she needs collaborators to sharpen her work. Left to her own devices, she is willing to place stuff like The Story Of Us and Haunted alongside songs like Last Kiss and Dear John.

 

SNAP!!

 

Yeah, I wouldn't call Dylan a confessional songwriter at all for the most part. Personally, I didn't much care for 1989. "Clean" was the only song on there that I thought really matched the best of Swift's abilities as a writer, although there were plenty of other good pieces on there, and some truly drecky ones like "Welcome to New York," and "Out of the Woods." Red's the only album of her's I really love start to finish.

I'm not much of a fan of confessional singer-songwriter kind of stuff myself. And "All Too Well" not withstanding -- one of my favorite Swift songs and performances -- I think she's a better writer when she's couching her emotions in more of an arm's length story than when she's going full confessional. In fact, I think that's true of most writers.

 

Exactly... or perhaps...

 

Eyes Open did chart

 

Ryan Adams version of bad blood is pretty awesome while Swifts version is not

 

Funny i love Haunted , it's a very well written almost rock tune & the Cadence of the lyrics to me is Brilliant , i loved Speak now & the tour , i found it pretty cool she went it herself & just did what she wanted ............. I like all the albums for different reasons , they all offer something a bit different .

 

You are right. She is a brilliant artist and all of her albums are great for different reasons and this one will be equally as great for its own reason.

 

"Taylor Swift is a great writer."

- Neil Young

 

The Speak Now Tour was great. Didn't get to see the Red Tour (I actually had taken a day off from work intending on going, but never wound up even buying a ticket.) The 1989 Tour though... that was quite an experience. I almost hate to pit it against her other tours because clearly she had very different themes and intentions, but for my taste, the 1989 Tour was the most memorable and exciting. And I loved the amazing star power she was able to pull out over the course of the tour. It's an amazing concept and one that only she could really pull off. I got to see her and Nick Jonas singing Jealous. But look at some of the other names: Mick Jagger, Lorde, Selena Gomez, Fifth Harmony, Avril Lavigne, Beck & St Vincent (among many others, but these are my favorites). The only other artist that I can think of that did something similar was The Rolling Stones, who over the years have amassed one hell of a list of guest performers (Taylor being one of them!)

 

Wow, she somehow went even more pop than 1989

 

That's quite a letdown IMO

 

I don't like it. I guess that answers the question whether or not she's going back to her country roots.

 

I love how creative lyric videos are now. This one is very Saul Bass, nice.

 

When Red came out I said I missed songs like she had on Speak Now.

When 1989 came out, I said I missed songs like she had on Red.

I miss 1989.

 

Straight hate record over a hip hop beat aiming right at Kanye and his tilted stage, but exactly the kind of insular celebrity culture self involvement that I think someone up thread was worried about and kind of a non song. It'll be much talked about but I dunno if it'll be much listened to. So much for shaking it off.

 

Wow more warbling over beatzz. Who would've guessed.

 

There's no melody in the chorus.

 

Now I know what happens when you're a pop artist that's pissed off: you make a bland EDM track.

 

Yes, I too would love a return to Fearless-era Taylor Swift. But in reality, artists move on (I know it's hard to accept, trust me--I very much dislike Red for that reason). I, for one, am loving the new sound and I'm thinking this is going to be her best album since Speak Now.

 

The verses and the pre-chorus are fine. But the chorus ("Look what you made me do") is a pathetic letdown. They build to a big chorus and instead you get...limp crap.

The video a total aesthetic winner, however.

 

Nah ... the newsprint background is what makes it unique and interesting. It also provides context about what the theme of the album will be.

 

Well, that... sucked.

 

Isn't that a huge chunk of her market? Sounds like an intelligent business decision to me. Why alienate her massive existing fanbase and start singing about topics they can't relate to?

 

This is one of those cases where I admire the artist's willingness to explore new things more than I tangibly enjoy the fruits of the labor. I usually end up liking Taylor's albums to a certain extent, but she's also not necessarily an artist where the essence of her gifts travels easy with her across boundary lines. No matter how fond she is of Lorde or Selena Gomez or any of the other artists she pals around with, her marginal gift for attitude has never eclipsed her principal gift for melody and never will -- it's not part of the music that built her and at the end of the day it just doesn't come naturally to her. And with every one of these petty snap-back/revenge dramas she writes, she sounds less like a sympathetic firecracker getting one off on someone who's wronged her (an ex, the media, "haters") and more like a young woman approaching thirty with stunted social maturity who can't learn from her own mistakes. Seriously, we get the point -- you make your own karma and you're not taking anyone's crapola. Surely you've had some other thoughts pass through your head over the last ten years?