I do truly hope you haven't been missing out on the likes of Lucinda Williams, Kate Bush and co. till now.
I just listened to the album again and it still improves. At the moment, this would be my ranking of her albums: Folklore Evermore Speak Now The Tortured Poets Department Red 1989 Midnights Fearless Lover Taylor Swift Reputation
But for the restrictions in the UK Singles Chart where an artist is allowed only 3 charted singles in any week, Taylor Swift would have 31 of the top 32 positions in the singles chart. It'll be interesting to see where she lands in the US chart where no restrictions apply. I think she took the entire Top 10 last time
Nope, I'm good here. But there were many years when Kate Bush was the main "female artist" in my record collection. I bought Man With The Child in His Eyes as a single, been on board with her since then. Wuthering Heights hadn't grabbed me, but she was interesting. Next single, loved her ever since... But everything else was male. Nowadays, for several years, most of my "omigod" new music purchases seem to be female artists. Also, a lot of my "mining the past" purchases have been the girls too. Music collection still isn't 50/50, but it would be unrecognisable to the me of the 80s! My "big three" favorites at present are Taylor, Beth Hart, and Florence Welch. Waiting for St Vincent's All Born Screaming to arrive at the moment. Her last one Daddy's Home, is what attracted my attention, I immediately went all in and got all her albums. Missed the new release yesterday! BUT! many thanks... Lucinda Williams was just a name to me, listening now... HOLY wow... many many thanks.
Check out Bjork at least I do reckon Diamanté Galas might be a bit much but I strongly recommend her. What an icon Beth Gibbons is active right now. You've heard of Portishead one presumes Sister Rosetta Tharpe is one of the most astounding performers there has been - if you're not on at least decent terms with her as an artist, you're severely limiting yourself for reasons that probably will look ridiculous in the cold light of day The Breeders are worth a listen I'm not even going to recommend singers like Billie Holiday, etc - it would be remiss of me to thunk anyone's gulf is that wide
For most of my life, I have been in the "please no cursing in my music" camp, but I have softened a bit in recent years. Maybe I am just more used to it with certain artists, but it doesn't bother me anymore. There are a few times where I feel it is gratuitous with Taylor - the no-bleeping-body at the end of the first chorus in the title track, for example, seemed unnecessary; and I still listen to the clean version of Question? from Midnights because I thought the f-bomb in that seemed out of place and meathead works just as well as d-head - but I think she makes it work more often than not. I heard the clean version of The Bolter, which I thought did work fairly well, but not as well as the original with the profanity. The smoothness of her delivery in the regular version with the f-bomb is just so good.
I suspect more and more comments like this to drop in the coming weeks... https://twitter.com/swifferupdates/status/1784130074171810196 Oliver Darcy (Senior Media Reporter): "I judged Taylor Swift’s album immediately after it came out. Here’s why I was wrong" (via @CNN ) "One week later, my view of the album has entirely reversed. After spending more time with the two-hour sonic feast, more methodically touring through its subtleties and nuances, I am ready to declare that it is one of Swift’s best works yet." "Swift’s new work demands more time to fully absorb. It cannot be assessed in an instant. It’s not fast-food. It’s a multi-course meal that stipulates the person sit, with undivided attention, and focus on what is before them."
It is wild to me that anybody cares about cursing in songs. Maybe I just grew up listening to too much punk and NIN? Also some curses have such great percussive effects when sung, and they really convey emotion well when used effectively. But in the end, it’s just swear words. I feel like they’re almost all fully defanged in western culture by this point. I cannot stop listening to I Can Do It With a Broken Heart. It really goes perfectly after loml. Those two songs together was a great sequencing decision
loml following I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can) is perfect as well. Following her realization that she cannot fix him, we get her somberness in loml.
Mine: 1. Folklore/Evermore/Long pond 2. Red (but considering the TV, might be #1) 3. Speak now 4. TTPD 5. Fearless 6. Midnights 7 1989 8. Taylor Swift 9. Lover 10. Reputation
After spending some time with TTPD, my current TS album ranking goes something like this: 1. Folklore/Long pond (while they are technically the same album, they are different enough to me and I like each enough to put them both here) 1. Speak Now (Taylors Version) (regular version is good, but something about Taylors Version that I like more) 1. Midnights (can't explain why, but I just really dig this one) The above are tied for #1 and I have no way of picking one over another. Just depends on my mood and the day. 4. Red 5. TTPD 6. 1989 6. Fearless Tied again. I think 1989 is more consistent, but Fearless has some better songs/some filler songs. 8. Lover 9. Reputation (When this came out, I lost interest in TS for a while. Lover brought me back into the fold) 10. Evermore (as much as I love Folklore, I am equally disinterested in this one. It has always felt like Folklore leftovers to me) 11. Taylor Swift I don't usually see people include the Speak Now live album on their lists, but if I did it would be tied with Red at spot #4.
Folklore Evermore 1989 Speak Now Red TTPD Reputation Midnights Lover Fearless S/T is where I’m at after a week.
This forum has a very serious misunderstanding about the age of the typical Taylor Swift fan. The typical Taylor Swift fan demographic has been documented and supported with data in almost every thread about her.
I'll have to wait for the new car smell to wear off a bit before I can even begin to consider where I'd put this when ranking her albums, but I'll be surprised in six months if I am not calling this a top 5, or even top 3, Taylor record. For me, that is.
I would put TTPD in the middle of the pack as far as her albums go. I think as far as songwriting goes, it's one of her best, but the arrangements are often lacking. The great thing about 1989, and Red, and to a lesser extent Folklore are that the arrangements are often matching the impact and narrative changes of the lyrics. TTPD is largely just a soft bed for the words to sit upon, save for a few real standouts ('loml', 'imgonnagetyouback', 'Down Bad', and 'Guilty as Sin' come to mind, but I do think they're in the minority here. 'Who's Afraid' does this too, but it's a little over the top Disney villain feeling). Folklore 1989 Red Midnights Speak Now TTPD Fearless Reputation Evermore Lover s/t
When you are born again, it changes you. It doesn't change you overnight because you are still rooted in this world. But over time, while you accept that cursing will be a part-and-parcel of popular music, you naturally pull away from it and would rather that it not be there. And that is precisely the downfall of Western culture. It's hard to pull away from Taylor's music because it is inescapable if you are a general music fan. But I have broken away from all the dark gothic and alternative/metal music I used to listen to and replaced it mostly with worship music. The holy spirit will over time change you and take you away from those dark places. Sorry to sound preachy in this post but you asked for a valid reason why people still care about cursing in songs; and I just want you to know that there was a time I didn't care just like you, and I listened to all the punk and metal and nihilist music - but now I think it's important to regain some kind of moral code in the time we have left and fix the eyes on the unseen. But I agree that the cursing adds a good percussive/rhythmic effect to Taylor's songs like The Bolter and Down Bad. I just wish she used other words that had just as effective an impact. It leaves me in two minds because as a musician and music fan, I can hear that it's very effective. But as a born again Christian, it quietly repulses me.
I forgot to add that my ranking of TTPD is only the album (the one with Black Dog as the bonus track). I listened to the extra 15 tracks a few times, then set them aside. After I have digested the first 17 tracks for a while, then I will begin considering the other 14. Maybe then it will move up in my rankings. Or maybe down. We shall see.
