Taylor Swift - The Tortured Poets Department (April 19, 2024) Album • Page 92

I don't really get the "Fortnight" hate. It's a cool vibey song that (IMO) sets the tone for the album better than anything else here; I really don't think the title track works as an opening track, as multiple people in this thread have tried with their alt tracklists...totally built to be a track 2. "Fortnight" has a sticky slow-burn hook with a memorable mission-statement-for-the-album lyric, Post sounds great, etc.

It's probably not the song I'd have chosen as the single ("I Can Do It with a Broken Heart" seems like the obvious call here, and I'm a strong believer that openers and closers shouldn't be your leadoff single) but that decision has limited bearing on my life since there wasn't a pre-release single from this album anyway.

 

You are so skilled at arriving at opinions that I simply cannot comprehend, lol. Love that for you.

 

Anthology at 3 is a bold take for sure.

 

Fortnight might be my favorite song out of this entire thing, and I only cut 4 songs out of the 31.

2 albums, 14 tracks & 13 tracks.

 

Yeah, I've come to the conclusion that everything here is pretty good (well, everything but "Aimee" which I will probably never listen to on purpose again) but shouldn't have been released all together. Drop the second album in the fall and I think the reception for the entire project is different.

 

I think the Anthology is helped by its connection to the main album. This whole collection of songs does such a great job of adding more emotional weight to individual tracks through the storytelling across the whole album, at least for me.

That's partly why I'm so glad she put it all out at once even if it clearly had the opposite effect for some people who just didn't want to deal with 31 songs at once.

 

I also think The Anthology section is probably her most consistent set of songs for me. "Cassandra" is my least favourite on there and there's at least one song I like less than that on every album she's made.

 

I just think a lot of people never even gave that second "disc" a chance. I've heard a lot of "I listened to it 1-3 times and thought it was boring" or "There are just too many songs!" criticisms. Giving it some breathing room would have been beneficial.

 

"Aimee" is seriously a bottom five Taylor Swift song for me. I find it astonishingly stupid.

 

I think Aimee is funny, but also have skipped it more than I’ve listened to it. It feels undercooked musically.

 

Yeah I think people should have just ignored it unless they really wanted more. I think too many people listened out of obligation and it maybe caused them to even engage with the main album less because it was just too much at once.

 

I don't know if it bothered anyone else like it did me, or if I was just overthinking everything, but I didn't like how the rollout / surprise was handled, and it ended up feeling to me kinda like a trick, and it left that second disc of songs in limbo where I wasn't sure if they were bonus tracks tacked onto the end or a second disc of a double album or of the whole thing was one big huge album like Beyonce's latest or what.

 

I love Aimee, I think it sounds great and it's funny. Plus the element of self-celebration works for me too.

 

Listening out of obligation is definitely part of the problem. I've heard it described by multiple people as a "hostage situation."

There was a bait and switch aspect, for sure. Framing some of those songs as potentially vinyl-only bonus tracks (like what Olivia did) and probably pushing a lot of fans to buy multiple variants for that reason, and then saying "Just kidding, they're all on this second album!" but then also not having said second album included in the vinyl release, or any way to buy those songs in a physical medium, was not great. Especially since it totally means there's another vinyl drop coming. I hope that release will offer an option to just buy the second disc, but I'm worried it will be a jumbo deluxe box set and you'll have to buy the whole thing if you want the Anthology album.

 

How did that baby afford a ticket?!

 

Weirdly, I’ve only listened to the Anthology (once) and not the actual original album yet. Accidentally put it on thinking I was starting at the beginning during a late night drive back from Manchester - it was only when we got home that I realised my error.

 

She mashed up The Alchemy and Treacherous at this show tonight

 

And then mashed up Begin Again and Paris

 

oh she in love love etc

 

He was at the show too

 

The reason I struggle with imagining her releasing "The Anthology" on standalone vinyl is because I don't get how that would work sales wise, which is clearly something Taylor thinks about. Like would selling just the Anthology make it count as a separate album?

Also I mean she never released the 3 AM edition Midnights songs on vinyl right? So there's a precedent for her just simply not releasing the additional songs on vinyl. But this seems more definitively a double album than bonus tracks. Idk just trying to figure it out because I still didn't grab this on vinyl and would like to but definitely don't want to until I know what the deal is.

 

She's gonna release a mega Taylor's Version box set with like 11 different covers or 12 if she releases another album before S/T drops.

 

I keep thinking maybe disk 2 will click with me at some point, but I listened to the whole thing on a long drive yesterday and was kind of taken aback by how much I found myself appreciating the proper album (even after already liking it quite a bit) and how bored/distracted I became during the second.

 

31 songs is a lot to get through in one sitting, so I'm not too shocked you started losing interest halfway through. I'd suggest listening again when you're in the mood, but starting with the second half. That's what I had to do and it hit a lot better.