Taylor Swift - The Tortured Poets Department (April 19, 2024) Album • Page 49

Love Fortnite and the title track but I REALLY hate My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys

 

Hm. I’m about five tracks in, and the main word coming to mind so far is “obligatory.”

 

I think the internet and streaming are a huge part of where the difference between them comes in. I'm on the other side of a lot of people here where I do think there's a saturation point and am feeling some fatigue here. And a huge part of that is the MCU-ification of the fandom where once something hits it's all about anticipation and clues for what the next thing is going to be. And another is that Bruce wasn't able to just dump songs on Spotify on a whim. Whether it's because he was a little more precious or because the opportunities didn't exist (I think it's some of both), what he ultimately released for public consumption over the course of his most prolific writing and artistic peak (1973--1987) was 7 albums, less than 90 songs, and about 6 hours of music. Tracks didn't come out until 1998 and at that point it's considered a "for the fans" release. Meanwhile, in just the last five years Taylor has given us 5 albums, over 100 songs, and almost 7 hours of music and that's not even considering like 30+ vault tracks. This has been my favorite era of hers song-wise, but I do wish it was a little more lean and cohesive and there was more time for me to live with songs and albums and connect with them before there's even more. But I get that that's not how everybody listens to music and not how everyone feels about it.

 

more like the tortured listeners department am I right

 

Listened to the first half last night and enjoyed it. What is the Starting Line reference? I heard her say "starting line" when I was half asleep but didn't think she was referring to the band

 

enchanted is about the owl city guy, we’ve been down this road before lol. Gotta separate the art from the artist(‘s unfortunate love interest) lmao

 

In the song "The Black Dog" she references The Starting Line coming on and the girl he's with now being too young to know the song.

 

lol, I downloaded the album for offline play last night before going to bed, and just found out that there’s actually an entire second album’s worth of songs here???

The middle of the “main” album started pulling me in a bit more, and it’s promising to see someone say the bonus album feels more Dessner. But when I first saw that it’s actually thirty-one tracks, I kinda groaned.

My friend who I always talk Taylor’s albums with texted me “happy release day”; I hope I have more good than bad to say to her later on, lol.

 

"And it hits me
I just don't understand
How you don't miss me
In The Black Dog
When someone plays 'The Starting Line' and you jump up
But she's too young to know this song
That was intertwined in the magic fabric of our dreaming
Old habits die screaming"

 

I learned this fact, somehow, only during the Speak Now TV rollout, so thankfully now that just makes me chuckle.

 

I guess my point, re: Bruce, was that being THIS prolific isn't new. I do think there's a fundamental difference of eras (forgive me for using that fucking word, lol) between them, in that he held onto that stuff whereas a modern version of that type of songwriter would put it all out there. I mean, Ryan Adams (sorry again!) was that kind of songwriter in the 2000s, and his version of it was just leaking a lot of that stuff as unofficial albums that then got passed around forums and mp3 blogs forever. In the Spotify era (dammit!), it's not surprising that the prolific singer-songwriter would put all that music out there.

Personally, I've always found the Tracks approach extremely daunting. I'd rather have an artists' "outtakes" apportioned out over time, whether as standalone albums or individual collections, then dumped as a box set. I eventually ended up splitting all those songs up into different playlists tied to the periods in which they originated, and it made it so much easier for me to appreciate the songs. Instead of just being this big jumbo data dump, the songs became little collections that fit more logically into the Springsteen narrative. Taylor is kind of doing that in real time, and I prefer that approach. Totally understand feeling the other way, though!

 

Haha that exact thing used to be my biggest complaint about Ryan Adams! During that period of time he just released waaay too much (although at a significantly bigger hit to the quality than Taylor's) and at some point I just checked out from it. Of course, that's now like my fourth or fifth biggest complaint about Ryan Adams.

 

This is how I felt too but I think it gets better as it goes. I’m still gathering my thoughts after one listen, but I liked it more by the end than I did at the beginning.

 

Insane how much I like this. Honestly shocked. And a Blue Nile and Starting Line reference? Jesus.

remember when Matty played “Best of Me” at a 1975 show…..

 

After listening to this all day and going over the lyrics I'm at the point where I can see this becoming my favourite Taylor Swift album.

Feels like the definitive mix of the sounds she's been playing with on the last few albums with a lot of best most emotionally potent songs she's ever written. I love it more with every listen.

 

Listened to the first 5 songs on the drive to work, didn’t really enjoy any, but I’m going to finish the deluxe album this weekend

 

To be fair you can say that about a lot of artists. 31 songs is around 3 albums for a normal person.

 

Some of the lyrics on this thing are so bad haha

 

Just finished Down Bad and yeah lol

excited about what I’m hearing about the 2nd album though, still working my way through the first.

 

So do I buy the vinyl at Target today or hold out for the whole Anthology? That’s my current dilemma.

 

I like about 2/3 of the songs on the standard version, almost through all of it. Title Track, Favorite Toys, I Can Do It With a Broken Heart, Florida!!! are all so fun. Guilty as Sin, Little Old Me, Daddy, Smallest Man are excellent. Some whatever songs that might grow on me (Fortnight, London, loml, I Can Fix Him), some bad songs (Down Bad, Fresh Out the Slammer), but it has really high highs I think

 

Can’t wait for my mom and sisters to wake up and learn there’s an entire additional album

really wish I could listen to this but I’m at coachella all weekend so I won’t hear it until monday on my drive home