Taylor Swift's "The Tortured Poets Department" listening party

[SJK]

1 hour ago, Spicechinodiva said:

But it is for people with a glass of wine and their cats

This sums up her fan base

[Isla]

SCREAM I was in HMV earlier and they were playing it!! I still haven’t listened to it properly myself yet.

[Spicechinodiva]

People are wanting jack Antonoff to get canceled.  

 

Saying he's the problem not the artist's. Cos his sound is on Lana, taylor and lorde. He's the problem and nobody is addressing it. 

King of depressing music. It's literally why nate broke up fun. 

[MIKE_INT]

I used to be Taylor fan, but with all the over-exposing and constant glorification of her and of her relationships (until they lasts) its get quite annoying.

Do I really want to listen 35 year old woman refer to her boyfriend to "tattooed golden retriever", do I really want her to come back to old feud she had with another celebrity 15 years ago?

 

I like the music, I like the melodies even it is not much progress and it is basically in very similar vein as her previous albums. but the lyrics, the pressure to embellish all words doesn't sounds natural, sometimes less is more.

 

[ICouldntThinkOfOne]

27 minutes ago, Spicechinodiva said:

People are wanting jack Antonoff to get canceled.  

 

Saying he's the problem not the artist's. Cos his sound is on Lana, taylor and lorde. He's the problem and nobody is addressing it. 

King of depressing music. It's literally why nate broke up fun. 

Thats such a ..silly...reason though. Taylor (and Lana, and Lorde), while they have more joyful, happy songs, have always been known for their songwriting, which covers a spectrum of emotions. I mean, there are plenty of acts that release happy songs, why not just listen to them rather than try and cancel someone? 

[ICouldntThinkOfOne]

2 minutes ago, MIKE_INT said:

I used to be Taylor fan, but with all the over-exposing and constant glorification of her and of her relationships (until they lasts) its get quite annoying.

Do I really want to listen 35 year old woman refer to her boyfriend to "tattooed golden retriever", do I really want her to come back to old feud she had with another celebrity 15 years ago?

 

I like the music, I like the melodies even it is not much progress and it is basically in very similar vein as her previous albums. but the lyrics, the pressure to embellish all words doesn't sounds natural, sometimes less is more.

 

I do find it interesting that in the same week, Drake calling out someone for their small feet is celebrated, while Taylor directly calling out someone who actively tried to sabotage her career and profit off it is met with a different response.

[MIKE_INT]

2 minutes ago, ICouldntThinkOfOne said:

I do find it interesting that in the same week, Drake calling out someone for their small feet is celebrated, while Taylor directly calling out someone who actively tried to sabotage her career and profit off it is met with a different response.

I absolutely dont listen Drake, never did, so I have absolutely no idea what he is doing or saying, I was talking about my take on Taylor songwriting and overall exposure of her exploitation of her relationships as a marketing strategy

 

[ICouldntThinkOfOne]

2 minutes ago, MIKE_INT said:

I absolutely dont listen Drake, never did, so I have absolutely no idea what he is doing or saying, I was talking about my take on Taylor songwriting and overall exposure of her exploitation of her relationships as a marketing strategy

 

Isn't that the point of songwriting though? I mean, all music comes from a place of experience. Her relationships have been all over social media even if she keeps them private, so why shouldn't she create art from her own experience of it, particularly if people around the world relate to it?

[Spicechinodiva]

2 hours ago, ICouldntThinkOfOne said:

Just finished listening to the entire album, and let me start by saying this; the album is absolutely phenomenal.

Before I listened to it, I read threads here and tweets claiming it was similar to Midnights, and while I did get that from at most the first two tracks, it is not a Midnights sister album, it is far richer in every sense.

 it utilises the lyrical finesse she showcased with Folklore and Evermore and balances it out with some of her richest and most driven production she has ever used, with the depth of folklore/evermore, with the brilliant twinkling anything production of records like 1989, reputation, midnights etc. One thing I found very interesting is that she very much leans into her country routes on a solid segment of the album, creating songs that have the same allure as songs on Fearless/Speak Now, with the insight and maturity she has gained since.

She makes it clear; she has been criticised for writing about her experiences, and so she changed that, but with the this album, she's very boldly saying "actually no, I will do that!", and then details some of her most emotional sounding music; the theme of it being Grief and the stages of acceptance is very much clear, and this, in line with the concept of being a post mortem file, revisiting the details of what lead to them. It is a highly personal album.

Her Collab with Florence is incredible but the highlight of the standard album is definitely "Whos Afraid of Little Old Me?"; which feels like the sequel to Folklore's My Tears Ricochet. "I Can Do It With A Broken Heart" builds into what is Taylor's most dance driven song, which is the most direct Sad Girl Bop I've ever heard.

And then we enter the second album...

In my opinion, if Folklore was a summer album, and Evermore was a Winter album, This is definitely a spring album. The writing, and production is far more in line with Folklore and Evermore here, and features some of the albums most cohesive sounds.

Vocally, it is on par (if not better) than Folklore and Evermore, and the production is the richest she has ever released.

 

If you haven't already, listen to it.

And gold derby even said we have the first ever consecutive album of the year. 

 

Cos they review lyrics,  production, vocals and overall themes. 

 

Folklore and Evermore brought her new heights as a songwriter and gained her best reviews and it began her being taken more seriously as a songwriter,  which is probably how taylor swift sees herself first a songwriter not just a person who happens to sing. 

 

So you know cowboy carter is going to lose to the magnum opus of taylor swift's soon to be 18 year career. 

 

At 34 she delivered her magnum opus. That's Usually for artists in their 40s. 

 

 

[Popprincess19]

I like it. 
 

Taylor’s impact so big she gets a thread on a forum that ain’t even abt her to get six pages 

[allthat88]

1 hour ago, MIKE_INT said:

I used to be Taylor fan, but with all the over-exposing and constant glorification of her and of her relationships (until they lasts) its get quite annoying.

Do I really want to listen 35 year old woman refer to her boyfriend to "tattooed golden retriever", do I really want her to come back to old feud she had with another celebrity 15 years ago?

 

I like the music, I like the melodies even it is not much progress and it is basically in very similar vein as her previous albums. but the lyrics, the pressure to embellish all words doesn't sounds natural, sometimes less is more.

 

This is my issue too.  It's very much the same.  Lyrics are beautiful.  some really nice stuff here but over HALF of these songs could've been on other albums all the way back to Speak Now.  

 

 

With that said LOML, Black Dog, Down Bad, I Look in Ppl's Windows are very instant to me.  

[Isla]

Finally listening and FORTNIGHT IS LITERALLY THE SONG I HEARD ON TWITTER THE OTHER DAY??? AND PEOPLE WERE TELLING ME IT WAS AI?! I KNEW I WAS RIGHT

[Seanril]

I really do not listen to Taylor Swift but I was curious and started listening and I really am enjoying what I've heard so far. 

[Body ache]

The second half of the album is a mind trip. I would have appreciated the album more if the album consisted of only the second half starting from Clara Bow onward. Overall this album is depressing but in a good way. Clara Bow onward is some of her best work ever. It had no skips for me. I would like to see Down Bad and Clara Bow as singles with My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys as a promo single. Fortnight was not initially one of my favorite songs on this album but it's really starting to grow on me. It has summer smash written on it. Something fascinating that I realized with this album is that Taylor really doesn't need major production to make a song sound good. She really just needs her guitar or piano. The songs that had major production on this album sounded good but they weren't as good as the songs that had live instruments with barely any production. Although I like her big production albums like 1989 and reputation, her top 3 for me is Midnights, TDPD and Folklore.

Highlights (in order):

Clara Bow, My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys, loml, How Did It End?, Down Bad, Smallest Man, The Prophecy, I Can Fix Him, I Look In People's Windows, So Long, London, The Bolter, imgonnagetyouback, So Highschool, Fresh Out The Slammer, Chloe, But Daddy I Love Him, Fortnight, Cassandra, Alchemy, Who's Afraid Of Little Old Me?, Albatross, I can do it w/ a broken heart, Black Dog, I Hate It Here, TTPD, Florida, aIMee, Peter, Guilty As Sin?, Robin, Manuscript

Edited May 4 by Body ache