While I’m definitely on Team Taylor, I would suggest that we also need to take her own self-serving statements with a grain of salt. She’s telling the story she wants to tell and angling for her own bargaining position and her own interests. While I don’t doubt that Braun would love to receive some sort of assurance that Swift stops bad-mouthing him in public, she is not above exaggerating his faults and his bargaining position. What the two parties tweet about each other or say in press releases doesn’t necessarily reflect the bargain their lawyers are trying to strike behind closed doors.
This splendid post is exactly why I respect Spencer R so much. His passion for Taylor's music, and even his respect for her as a person and music artist, does not blind him to the very complicated nature and history of the relationship between Taylor Swift and Mr. Braun or other record executives. I have been following Taylor's career since her first album, and I greatly sympathize with her effort to secure her own masters, but I am not sure that vilifying everyone who gets in her way of accomplishing this worthwhile goal is the proper way to do it.
There are also swaths of T-Swift fans that are literally rabid and crazy... as evidenced by Scooter reporting that he and his family received numerous death threats once Taylor started publicly airing her (IMO legitimate) complaints. So, if I were him, I'd want an ironclad NDA just to avoid her riling up her fans against my family again regardless of how boring or mundane the deal ended up being.
Wow! All $hit I didn't know... That's crazy! If true, I completely agree, and don't blame him. I guess it's true what they say... "There's three sides to every story."
I can understand Scooter not wanting Taylor to say negative things about him but the way he presented the terms seemed very unusual to me. It's one thing to say "if you keep saying negative things I'm ending the negotiations" and quite another to say "you have to agree to stop saying negative things before negotiations even begin". As far as Taylor's concerned, he could have just made her sign the NDA and then presented completely unreasonable terms (eg. she has to pay 2 billion for the masters + hire him as her manager) with the full expectation that she would reject those terms but would now be unable to air any grievances related to those terms or whatever else he did in the past that she could use to rally her fans into switching over to consuming the re-recordings. In fact, I suspect this was most likely what his strategy was. His involvement in the Kanye/Kim Kardashian/Famous controversy is the main confirmed reason why she doesn't like him but there could be more. For example, Taylor is close friends with Selena Gomez, and Selena was dating Justin Bieber who's one of the biggest artists Scooter manages. During one of their break-ups, Justin was taking flack from the public for not being a good boyfriend and soon after rumors began being propagated that Selena was an alcoholic and faking her Lupus diagnosis to hide that which started to shift public opinion against her. The source of those rumors was never confirmed but they were propagated in large part by TMZ who Scooter is thought to have connections to. BTW I think the claim of death threats from fans was called into question due to no police complaints being filed?
I'm so glad I'm an old (51) Swifty! Haha! I love her music, but I honestly have no clue about any of that drama. I knew someone (I guess Kanye?) grabbed the mic from her when she was accepting an AMA many years ago and said that someone else deserved it, but that's where my awareness of any of this scrap ends. I'm not on any social media at all and don't watch much TV (and never TMZ), so I guess I'm not in the loop... Thankfully!
Just spun my vinyl. As others have reported, the discs are a touch warped. Nothing that affects playback, but it def. reminded me of those late 80s records that would come out of the sleeve warped. I received the peach colored vinyl - which has a somewhat imperfect tone to the color - but I could care less about colored vinyl. Sound is great. Nice and quiet. No pops, clicks. Really like the sequencing over the four LPs. Worth the wait.
After dealing with customer service, we were told there was a 10 to 12 week wait for a replacement copy +1 to 2 weeks shipping. After waiting for months since pre-ordering the record, this is ridiculous. Apparently, they still have copies for sale on the website but they can’t fill our replacement with one of them. Our non-fill was the “in the trees” edition.
Got the In The Weeds version yesterday. I assume everybody ordering direct received the paper stars? The songs haven't really sunk in yet, but it's very good. Only two tracks aren't connecting, but I've only heard the whole thing once.
I did. Nice touch or weird thing? For a moment it made me feel special so I'll go with nice touch. Play it at night, I find it fascinating and reassuring, like a warm blanket.
That’s the crap shoot of buying limited records like this from an artist store or on Record Store Day. I bought two copies of the recent RSD half speed mastered reissue of Paul McCartney’s debut album, because the first copy I bought was warped. The second copy was even more badly warped. Can’t return Record Store Day records, what can you do?
I just received the “In the Weeds” vinyl today. I’m into side 2 and my pressing is dead quiet. Sounds great.
Mine too - was surprised how quiet, without any cleaning or anything. I definitely am preferring the vinyl over the download they gave me when I ordered.
They just packed up all my lps fpr shipment , hopefully have them before Thanksgiving .... Taylor posted a video to thank Apple music for the songwriter of the year award , Fans think she's getting in RED mode again & putting out the re-record for that 1st ? Twitter Thinks Taylor Swift’s New Hair Is a ‘Red’ Easter Egg
The mic grabbing moment was in 2009, and they reconciled in 2010. Then in 2016 Kanye releases "Famous" with the lyric "I feel like me and Taylor could still have sex. Why? I made that bitch famous" and accuses Taylor of lying when she said she didn't approve of it. Kanye & wife Kim Kardashian claim that have proof that Taylor approved and Taylor says she never approved of being called "that bitch". Kanye then releases the music video for the song which features a large bed containing wax figures of himself next to a topless Taylor, along with his wife, their exes, and other controversial "misunderstood" figures (ex sexual abusers). Kim Kardashian then releases a portion of an illegally recorded private phone call between Kanye and Taylor that was edited to mislead people into thinking Taylor was lying and did in fact approve of the lyrics. The public and media started talking about how Taylor was playing the victim and lying to villainize Kanye, and Kim and Kanye encouraged their fans to hate on Taylor, call her a snake, chant "f--- Taylor Swift" at concerts, and some even sent her death threats. Then earlier this year the full unedited phone call leaked. Although Taylor's initial public statements were carefully written to make her look as good as possible, she never said anything untruthful and did not in fact hear the full lyrics that referenced her, nor did she know Kanye was planning on calling her "that bitch". Scooter Braun was Kanye's manager during 2016-2017, so that's why she dislikes him so much. The hate Taylor got in 2016 was also the backdrop to most of her "reputation" album released in 2017.
I think the fans are just bored and looking for clues in everything but you never know... I wonder what she'll do for the Apple Music awards. It seems like they put out a lot of content over the course of a week as part of their awards (live performances, interviews, etc). Taylor mentioned Zane Lowe in her thank you video, he's the guy that does a lot of the interviews for Apple and I think he does a great job with interviews so it would be cool to see another with him and Taylor. This one was done before one of the last dates on the 1989 tour Watch “Beats 1 Interview” posted by Taylor Swift on Apple Music. This one was in 2019 after Lover's release.
The times they are a changin. Picked up my Folklore vinyl (haven't opened it yet, I've heard the album a billion times) at Target using curbside pickup. Also picked up REM Out Of Time on yellow vinyl. I guess this is how I buy records now.
My copy of the In the Weeds vinyl showed up today. A sticker on the shrink said “Made in France.” Both records are flat, praise Jesus. As with her past LP releases, this one doesn’t sound super-ultra-audiophile to me, but is pretty clearly an improvement over the CD, especially with regard to dynamic range. With my system cranked a bit, I heard little percussion details in “Cardigan” that have never jumped out at me on the CD. Taylor’s vocal on “Last Great American Dynasty” sounds better and more natural than it does on the CD. Bon Iver’s voice really gets low and sounds realistic on his track. The front cover is gorgeous. The dark blue vinyl is really cool, that’s the main reason I ordered this version over some of the other variants with light brown vinyl. I have watched unboxing videos of the other cover variants that have cooler photos on the inner gatefold, though. In hindsight, I kind of wish I had bought more than one variant of the LP, but, oh well. Just feel lucky to have gotten a flat copy, with no apparent non-fill issues.
Finished listening to the whole LP. It really does sound nice. Assuming that the red Target LP is cut from the same source, or cut the same way, I would highly recommend that pressing to anyone who missed these limited edition pre-orders. As with so many other double LPs or really long CDs, breaking an hour of music down into four- or five-song chunks, and having to get up every so often to flip or change the record, makes the hour of music seem more manageable. I know that can seem like a trivial difference, but I do think it’s a better way to digest an album like this than just popping the CD in the player, pressing play, and sitting there for an hour.
Great description! I'm very happy with my copy of In the Weeds for the same reasons - I also like the cool bonus smoke-like swirls that show up when you hold the vinyl up to sunlight, At first I thought the color was just a plain blue/teal
