#even 1989 which is like her most pop album probably has a lot of songs that I love

[daintyduck99]

Writing Trademark: it's a daintyduck production (TM) if it makes me want to google Taylor Swift songs. Also, if there's metaphors that stab me right through the heart

I am always spilling over with relevant lyrics (especially when they don't end up in the fic itself) and would absolutely be willing to send you those whenever! Though of course I always recommend listening to her songs because--I'm incredibly biased lol (but they also tend to fit the tone of the fic--Paper Rings is an incredibly upbeat bubblegum pop number whereas The Archer is an incredibly vulnerable ballad that's more stripped and--Bethany's birthday fic was literally based on the former but Help Me Hold Onto You ended up resonating with the latter emotionally if that makes sense)

Also I've written a handful of Rulie fics inspired by her music and it's always songs off of Lover or reputation (probably because there are so many good vulnerable songs on reputation imo I could do a whole essay on that but I love every song on that album besides Look What You Made Me Do), though there's a surprising lack of her in this latest fic lol

Metaphors my beloved writing device ❤️ Thank you because with every one I'm like--okay did I actually just do something or do I sound like a pretentious hipster

I try not to use too many of them now (and I actually tried not to use any in the proposal song in You'll Be Mine And I'll Be Yours, but one slipped in anyway) because I don't want to diminish their impact, but they're so fun to come up with and they sometimes weave their way through a whole story and I always feel so excited about that (re the whole sunflower thing in sunflower syndrome)

[foxes-that-run]

From the Dining Table

Note the subtle tattoo kiss. Like MMIH, Harry hasn't played FTDT live since 2018. Harry told the Grammy Museum:

Styles’ favorite track on the album is “From the Dining Table,” which he said is, “The one that makes me feel the most,” adding that, “it’s the most different than what I expected myself to write and it’s probably the most honest that I’ve been in a song as well.”

To Rolling Stone he said:

"The more vulnerable the song, he learned, the better. “The one subject that hits the hardest is love,” he says, “whether it’s platonic, romantic, loving it, gaining it, losing it  …  it always hits you hardest. I don’t think people want to hear me talk about going to bars, and how great everything is. The champagne popping  …  who wants to hear about it? I don’t want to hear my favorite artists talk about all the amazing shit they get to do. I want to hear, ‘How did you feel when you were alone in that hotel room, because you chose to be alone?'”

This quote is interesting because the song is self-aware of the wrong choice to be with be with someone who looked like his muse.

Why is it called from the Dining Table

When performing the album in his first ever solo show Harry introduced from the dining table by explaining it was written at the dining table in Jamaica and it kept the name.

Lyrics

[Verse 1] Woke up alone in this hotel room Played with myself, where were you? Fell back to sleep, I got drunk by noon I've never felt less cool

The open is remicinet of his comments to Rolling Stone above. So many One Direction songs, in particular Perfect portrayed that fun image of "trouble up in hotel rooms". FTDT strips it away to leave a lonely 22 year old guy who lost someone he loves and misses and does not feel cool. To me, what's special here is addressing some misconceptions about his life and what being that guy cost him.

[Chorus] We haven't spoke since you went away Comfortable silence is so overrated Why won't you ever be the first one to break? Even my phone misses your call, by the way

Harry and Taylor sing a lot about never communicating, and have said in interviews that they can say things to an instrument but not each other.

[Verse 2] I saw your friend that you know from work He said you feel just fine I see you gave him my old t-shirt More of what was once mine

Taylor's friend from work is often thought to be Ed, however Ed was Harry's friend first, and more a personal than a work friend to both.

When Harry was starting his Debut album he worked with a lot of music producers, including Max Martin, who worked in 1989. Harry spent a week with him in November 2016 before starting to work Tom and Tyler.

There are several shirts of Harry's that Taylor's worn and could have given to Max. To me, it's this Genius Jumper, which Max has worn, she lent to to lots of friends before it disappeared. have no reason to think Harry ever wore it though, other than it is a UK high street brand and it looks like the Cardigan-cardigan.

[Bridge] Maybe one day you'll call me and tell me that you're sorry too x3 But you, you never do Woke up the girl who looked just like you I almost said your name

1989 largely focuses on Taylors experience, in her later work she has reflected more on how things played out in tracks like Afterglow, Coney Island and The 1.

At the end of 2014:

October 1989 was released, Taylor jaded in interviews, November 1D released Four with Stockholm Syndrome and Fool's Gold. Harry and Taylor had been hanging out, made heart eyes at the AMAs

2 December may have left the VS Secret show together, (So it Goes, Pick you up). On that, this is the closing track, Ready for it is the opening track of the next album in order.

22 December - HS pictured with VS model Nadine Leopold, this was in NYC before he bought an apartment there. She looks well...

So I think this song is set in late 2014 rather than the boat, though I must admit I still imagine it in the Virgin Islands.

[silent-partner-412]

I feel like people hating on Jack Antonoff need to check his production credits again, because this man has possibly the most impressive body of work of any current pop producer.

Like, even just going through the songs that stood out to me:

- Out Of The Woods, I Wish You Would, and You Are In Love by Taylor Swift (three of the best tracks on 1989)

- HEAVEN by Troye Sivan (probably Troye’s best song to date)

- ALL of Melodrama by Lorde except for Homemade Dynamite (it should go without saying that this is awesome)

- New York, Masseduction, Sugarboy, and Happy Birthday Johnny by St. Vincent (four great songs on Masseduction)

- Look What You Made Me Do, Getaway Car, Dress, This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things, Call It What You Want, and New Year’s Day by Taylor Swift (I know a couple of these songs are contentious but surely we can all agree Getaway Car, Call It What You Want, and New Year’s Day are all terrific, right?)

- Want You In My Room by Carly Rae Jepsen (The best song on Dedicated easily and one of her best songs ever)

- 11 songs on Lover by Taylor Swift (one of these include Cruel Summer which is universally agreed to be one of the best and most underutilized songs in the entire Taylor Swift canon, and the rest add up to an album’s worth of music that would be a better album than what we actually got)

- This Love Isn’t Crazy and Comeback by Carly Rae Jepsen (more Carly bangers. He’s 3/3 so far when working with her)

- More amazing songs on Folklore and Evermore, including 2 all time Taylor bests with August and This Is Me Trying)

- All of Daddy’s Home by St. Vincent (a weird and great album in its entirety)

- The All Too Well 10 Minute Version (which is really great for what it is as well as a cultural moment even if the 5 minute version is still superior imo)

- Most of Dance Fever by Florence + The Machine (aka one of the best albums of 2022)

- All of Being Funny In A Foreign Language by The 1975 (aka the best 1975 album in like six years)

- and of course Midnights by Taylor which is what seems to have spawned this new wave of Jack hate

This doesn’t even include other beloved albums that I’m not a huge fan of like Norman Fucking Rockwell, and all his work with his own bands. This man has a stacked fucking resume, the only really extremely notable miss I saw on his Wikipedia page was Solar Power, which even then that album isn’t awful just not particularly memorable. Even assuming you think Midnights has shitty production (which I wholeheartedly disagree with), I have a hard time believing anybody could hate every single one of these projects I just listed here.

I can’t think of a reason other than overexposure why people seem to vehemently hate him so much, he seems like a nice guy and has made a lot of great music. I honestly feel like people need to chill out lmao

[likeadevils]

what’s your album ranking?

i legitimately can’t pick, like i go to all of her albums for different things and they all fill different needs to various degrees, so instead i will tell you what i like most about each album

debut: no skips. if i am in the mood to listen to debut i am in the mood to listen to all of debut. i don’t know if that’s due to excellent pacing or just consistent quality but it’s a feat

fearless: like i said earlier it’s so thematically consistent. like it’s not just a collection of good songs it’s a collection of good songs in conversation with each other and arranged in a way that makes it better than the sum of its (already outstanding on their own) parts

speak now: this album has grown on my the most? it was my favorite when i first got into taylor but then i kinda fell out of love with it in my teen years because it seemed kinda childish? but then i turned 19 and was like no this is exactly what this time in my life feels like. i also used to think it didn’t have any themes and was just a collection of good songs, but the more i’ve listened to it the more i’m like, no, it actually is revolving around a central question, it just doesn’t have a title that reflects it

red: god when this album hits it fucking hits. i feel like this album is when taylor really deconstructed the way she wrote songs and became even more intentional about the way she told stories. also, the way she structured the album with each song being the opposite of the song that came before it is absolutely genius

1989: dear god i love 1989. she’s just… there’s this one review that says it simultaneously sounds exactly like taylor swift and like nothing she’s ever made before, and just. like the phrase cultural reset gets thrown around a lot but she literally reshaped pop as we knew it, the way it sounded the way it was promoted like. it brought back 80s dream pop!! she invented secret sessions for it!! it’s the album that invented the word era!! the tour was one of the first tours to include light up bracelets!!

rep: i think rep is the opposite of 1989 in that it didn’t get a lot of love when it first came out, partially because people wanted to shit on anything she did, and partially because it kinda sounded like a cheap knockoff of what was on the radio at the time— which, it wasn’t, and it did kickstart a lot of trends like the anti chorus and other stuff i’m blanking on at the moment, but compared to how transformative 1989 was it kinda got screwed right out of the gate. BUT as it’s gotten older it’s been able to stand on its own two feet and be appreciated for just how expertly crafted the lyrics are. also, once again we have a purposeful tracklist order, telling the same story from two different perspectives while also pulling off telling one story, which is just. i’m such a slut for a good tracklist order

lover: like with red, when lover hits it really fucking hits. like it probably has the highest highs of any of her albums, and the lows aren’t that low

folklore: folklore is just. like after red i was like okay taylor’s career can go in three different ways: she can lean into pop, lean into rock, or lean into a softer acoustic sound. and when she chose pop and knocked it out of the fucking park i was elated, but i also did quietly mourn the other songs she could’ve written, especially after all the acoustic b-stages that made me fall in love with songs if previously kinda dismissed, like dwoht and wtny. so long way of saying that i’d been waiting for taylor to make an album like folklore since 2012 and somehow it not only matched my expectations but blew past them

evermore: like with lover, i don’t have much to say beyond like. these are some really good fucking songs. like. you could say almost any of these songs are your favorite taylor swift song and i’d be like, immaculate taste my dude, don’t forget to eat something before you take your meds

midnights: it’s such a mature album. like you know on liability reprise (lordes best song) when lorde stops the whole song to repeat “but you’re not what you thought you were” and she says it like it’s both a good and a bad thing? i feel like midnights takes that concept and just runs with it, like it’s made me completely reframe… not who i think taylor is, maybe, but who i think taylor thinks she is

[a-story-with-no-end]

So I decided to do a ranking of my favourite Taylor Swift albums. If there is an existing Taylors Version I'm gonna rank that instead of the old version. I am also taking Deluxe songs into consideration. This is just my opinion.

10. Folklore

I can enjoy Folklore and really appreciate it for what it is and lyrically it's probably one of her best albums. But I think I listened to the whole thing like once. There are some songs that I listen to from time to time but I rarely choose to listen to this album as a whole. The style of the songs just isn't my cup of tea.

9. evermore

I prefer the sister album evermore. I really enjoy listening to Willow as well as No body no crime. Especially the last one is so fun to me which probably makes no sense because it's about unaliving someone. But I also learned to appreciate songs like gold rush, champagne problems and tolerate it.

8. Red TV

I just don't listen to the album as a whole a lot. There are songs on this album I really like and I listen to regulary for example Red and I bet you think about me and songs I listen to semi-regulary like I knew you were trouble but I think I enjoy her other albums more.

7. Fearless TV

There was a period of time I didn't listen to the album a lot but the past few weeks I find myself listening to it more and more. Maybe the album will be higher in my rankings in a few weeks.

6. Debut

Objectively speaking her self titled album isn't the best but it's the one that makes me the happiest. Some of the songs on these albums make me want to dance and I don't like to dance but I'm forgetting about it when I listen to it. This album just hits different for me.

5. Speak Now

I enjoy a lot of these songs and it's impressive that she wrote this whole album alone at such a young age (of course excluding If this was a movie which was now moved to Fearless TV). I just have to say I am really excited for the rerecording.

4. Lover

Aesthetically speaking this album won. I am the Lover aesthetic and I am so sad I wasn't a fan during the release. But even if we talk only about the songs it's a really good album in my opinion. I love how many happy songs she put in there. I love Paper Rings, I love London Boy but I also love songs like The Man. And in my opinion Me! doesn't deserve the hate it gets. Maybe it isn't the best lyrically but it's fun, she's happy not everything has to be a lyrical masterpeace to enjoy it.

3. 1989

This is a no skip album. It's fun, I love the lyrics and she sounds amazing on it. Pop perfection. No need to add anything here.

2. Midnights

Midnights was my first release as a Swiftie so maybe I am a bit biased. I feel like nearly everyone can find something on this album they like. You like fun songs? Here listen to Karma. You want something darker? Here listen to vigilante shit. You want something calmer? Try listening to Sweet nothing. You want to cry your heart out? Anti-Hero is right there.

1. reputation

I like two types of songs the most. The angry ones that sometimes involve fantasizing about revenge and beautiful love songs. This album is the best of both worlds to me. We've got these angry songs like LWYMMD or I did something bad but in contrast to that her song Dress, especially the bridge of the song, describes romance in the most beautiful way. reputation got my heart and I am very excited for the rerecordings and vault tracks.

[florencewellch]

bestie how would u rank taylor’s albums 👀

Thank you so much for asking! Putting under a cut, because it got a little long:

1. Speak Now. It was during that era (around December 2010 or January 2011) that I got into Taylor Swift and even though Red used to be at the top for me (and Speak Now was a close second), I've come to appreciate Speak Now more. I feel like this is Taylor at her most honest and vulnerable, which makes sense considering she wrote the entire album by herself when she was just 19/20, which is quite an achievement. Also the Speak Now Tour movie is just amazing. Favorites are Back to December, Mine, Never Grow Up, Mean, Dear John, The Story of Us, Enchanted, Innocent, Last Kiss, Long Live and If This Was a Movie

2. Red. I just love Red, it was my favorite album for quite a while, and it should have won Album of the Year back in 2013 imo. There's only song I don't really like, but it's also kinda catchy so I don't mind it that much. Also love the vault tracks in Red TV! Favorites are State of Grace, Red, Treacherous, All Too Well, Holy Ground, Begin Again and Nothing New.

3. Evermore. The fact that she wrote this and released just a few months after writing Folklore is insane. It's the one album I don't skip any songs. Favorites are Cowboy Like Me, Gold Rush, Coney Island, Tis the Damn Season, Happiness and Marjorie.

4. Folklore. I really don't have much to say about Folklore beyond "it's great" and I loved the concept. My favorite songs from it are The 1, Cardigan, Mirrorball, Seven, This is Me Trying, Invisible String and Peace

5. Fearless. Love Story was the first TS song I ever heard when I was just like 8 years old (it was on the soundtrack of this movie I watched with my mom called Letters to Juliet) and here we are today. There are a couple of skips, but overall it's a great album imo. Favorites are Fearless, Fifteen, You Belong With Me, Love Story, Breathe, Hey Stephen and Forever & Always.

6. Debut. Appreciate this album more!!! The vocals are a bit off because she was just 16 and the equipment probably wasn't the best, but that doesn't affect the songs that much in my opinion. Like Fearless, there a few skips, but it doesn't affect the album that much. The stand outs imo are Our Song, I'm Only Me When I'm With You, The Outside and Teardrops on my Guitar.

7. Reputation. It's lower on the list, but in my opinion out of her 3 officially purely pop albums, it's her best one and I really like the concept of the album, but I do feel like there are few songs that sound way too much alike in terms lyrics/storytelling and 2 songs that are skips imo. My favorite songs from Reputation are Delicate, Getaway Car, Gorgeous, Dancing with Our Hands Tied, King of My Heart, Dress and Call It What You Want.

8. 1989. It's a fun album, but I just feel like there's something missing. The songs aren't bad (except for like maybe one or two), but I think the lyrics feel watered down in comparison to the other ones (even the one that's below 1989 on my ranking). Faves are Blank Space, Style, Out of the Woods, I Wish You Would Come Back, This Love, You Are In Love and Clean.

9. Lover. I don't dislike it, but it just feels messy and it has a lot of skips imo (because they just don't really fit with the theme of the album or it's a bit cringy but not in a good way). Favorites are Cruel Summer, Lover, Cornelia Street, The Archer and Afterglow.

[cosettepontmercys]

Hi!!! I'm so sorry I didn't reply until now. This week has been blah and I've felt more tired than usual. I love it all too and I loved seeing Long Live live so much, but I mostly understand why they were cut. I like everything how it is, but I would probably change the Evermore and Red songs the most. I would get rid of We are Never and I guess 22 for State of Grace and Red, which is an awesome opener and title track that sets up the whole album. I would not get rid of ATW 10 at all omg!!! For Evermore, I would probably get rid of Tis the Damn Season and Tolerate it, even though I like the table setup. I would probably put Gold Rush instead or maybe Long Story Short and would hypothetically want Evermore since it's another title track and my fav. I still liked her solo version of it too. I think I would try to add Our Song somewhere but it's a good thing its in the movie! I definitely love Look What You Made Me do with the other Taylors and the Don't Blame Me transition. The thing about rep to me..is I like every song but I don't really have specific favorites in the album as much. I feel the same way about 1989 sort of but Iove the singles, so I don't know if I would change anything on tour.

I am excited to hear it later tonight though omg!!! I forgot which song you said you were the most interested in or the most excited to hear. For me, I think it's still Slut and between Suburban Legends or Is it Over Now. Did you see the lyric snippets she posted and which songs do you think they were a part of? The first one reminded me of Holy Ground cuz of the coffee lyric mixed with a little bit of I Wish You Would but then someone said it was more chasing shadows in the grocery line lyric and I might prefer it if the song did have more longing actually so I guess we will see. That might also change what song I'll think it's from. When she did these for Midnights, I was pretty good at guessing a few of them. I am more interested in the pool lyric cuz of aquamarine for now but we will see if she shares another one later today too! Do you listen in order or vault first? I'm still gonna try shuffle for this one and see how it goes. If you have any other predictions for the songs, you can put them here. I am very curious on the sound, though I have no idea what it could be. I think there could be another slowish dreamy song and maybe it will be the new closer. Even though most of the songs are pretty short, I'm hoping they are still amazing and I'm sure they will be! Also, I wanted to ask you if you plan to listen to The Good Witch too cuz I really don't know if I should listen to Maisie or Taylor first. Like I feel like I wanna save Taylor for last but then I will be too excited..and maybe it depends on how long the album will be, but I also wanna hear Maisie's songs too, and I don't know what to do.

For Midnights, I honestly just consider the 3AM version the main version. I think when we heard it, it was all together cuz it was almost midnight and we were barely still getting thru the main album. I remember being the most excited for Midnight Rain, and Lavender Haze, and Antihero. I did not really like Midnight Rain on the first listen and my prediction of the song was wrong. I thought Lavender Haze might be an old fashioned 50s Broadway style love song from the way she talked about it and that was wrong lol. Antihero has become one of my favorites and I liked it when I first heard it but it wasn't an instant love either. The album grew on me a lot but my favorites have stayed mostly the same, and we have some of the same favorites! I think I'm going to listen to it later to get in a 1989 pop mood and I haven't heard it in a while.

Anyway I listened to Hollys album again and I think my favorites are Into Your Room, Ghost Me, Antichrist Lauren and Elvis Impersonators. Some of the songs blended and I think I need more time but I really enjoy the whole album. I think some of her older songs stand out to me more though at this point, like Scarlet and Walls are Way too thin.

Ya stunt casts are always sort of mixed for me, but if it works and gets more people to see shows, then I guess it's a good thing. Ya I was wondering how you felt about Jordan Fisher in the role. I knew it was rumored but didn't know it was confirmed, and I would be interested to see him in the role. I hope you have fun at the tour and I think seeing someone else might make a difference in a good way, even though I like Reeve. The only thing about the Waitress proshot is I'm not used to Sara in the role haha but I'm sure she's still good. Idk if I will see it yet but I do want to at some point and hope I don't forget about it. I realized I never got around to watching the Heather's proshot either, except it wasn't one of my favorite musicals. I seriously meant to watch Daddy Long Legs and Allegiance at some point..like I had both on my old computer, but never got around to it! I have listened to the cast recording of Daddy Long Legs though and know the basic plot and meant to watch the old movie version from the 50s. I remember one of the things my sister said was she has such an interesting voice too and thats why some songs would always get stuck in my head. I love She Loves Me and have seen a non pro shot version of First Date before. I've never had Broadwayhd but always wanted to check it out. I try to watch as many proshots as I can. I've never heard of Snapshots but it sounds interesting mixing Stephen Schwartz shows. Haha yes, we have actually already discussed Smash more than once in your asks but I do love it. I wonder what happened to the Smash musical. By the way, I heard Gatsby got mixed reviews but at least I think the costumes I saw made it look better and the sets were gorgeous!

Les Mis was great but now I can barely remember it! I can't believe I went but it almost doesn't feel like it. I loved him as Marius! He has a good voice and I always love Empty Chairs. My sister said she actually didn't care for Enjolras on tour and preferred Aaron in the movie and also that Jean Valjean sounded like Hugh Jackman from the movie, but it could be that we are too used to it even if I do love it..but seeing it on stage obviously just feels different and it's better. Just remember that reading or annotating is supposed to be a hobby so just take your time if you want, since it's so long. Eventually you will make some progress. Honestly I haven't had a lot of time for reading either if it makes you feel better. I did make time to start our buddy read which I wanted to do before I replied to you cuz I read that you said you didn't like it as much, and wanted to see how I felt about it. only read 2 chapters so far. I thought it was okay, but I think the thing that threw me off was that I never read third person so I would have to get used to that. If you don't want to read it anymore for now though, I can also start the Night Circus..even if it's not October anymore lol. Also I realized that I might have been confusing the Starless Sea with the book that you said you hated..the house in the cerulean sea lol. I realized I don't even know what that book is about but maybe I will try to find it if I like the Night Circus. But another person I follow said they loved the Starless Sea too and it's definitely one of their favorites so I might have to check it out. Oh I did not know that about Only Murders but I know the newest season revolves around a theater show and does have music or singing in it so thats awesome. Also..I actually know nothing about hockey at all! I remember it was a category on connections at one point and I was so clueless, but I hope you had an awesome time at the game! Anyway have a blast listening to the album tonight and I will reply with my reactions and opinions so we can talk about it!!!!

i was just thinking about you, friend! i've been looking forward to hearing from you, but no pressure on when you pop into my askbox 🤍 i hope your week gets better soon, and you get to rest this weekend!! do you have anything fun planned?

ugh i love state of grace — i do prefer the acoustic but it's such a good song. "mosaic broken hearts" is one of my favorite phrases that taylor's ever written. and i was lowkey always surprised gold rush never made it on the eras setlist, but then also a lot of things about the eras setlist surprised me (like no mashups). her solo version of evermore is so good; i really hope there's a live album of the surprise songs!

and i did! i think the 300 coffees one is from is it over now, but i'm not sure what the aquamarine one is from! othe chasing shadows line is so good too, i love cardigan. i'm still upset it was cut from the movie (despite understanding why she did that). i'm really bad at guessing things so we'll see! i would love a slowish dreamy song, but i feel like 1989 will be more pop upbeat stuff this time. i'm going to listen in order, but i might actually listen to maisie's good witch deluxe first and then 1989!

i'm still holding out hope for a 3 am vinyl. i love the way midnight rain is done on tour (i think a lot of midnights is perfect for touring, actually). i do think that 1989 and midnights seem more like sisters, than midnights/anything else — including lover; what do you think?

and yay!! i'm so happy to see that you listened to holly again! i do think some of them sound a bit similar, and i think that my favorites from her ep (scarlett, the walls are way too thin, deep end, etc) still outrank how i feel about my favorites on PMBB, but am curious to see how that'll change with more listens/over time!

i think jordan fisher will be great, vocally! there's been a lot of jokes about if he shows up to work (from when they were in deh) but i think jordan's always been a very strong vocalist and i'm really interested in his interpretation! i've never seen sara in waitress, but i have some friends who REALLY love her, so i'm excited to one day see the proshot! i am so bad at watching things — it's been years and i still haven't watched the come from away proshot either, and i love that show. i loveeee megan mcginnis' voice, it's so pretty! i also really like how she sings in some things are meant to be (little women)! i remember that now 😭 sorry! i haven't looked into the gatsby musical too much after we talked about it!! i'll look at some reviews and then we can chat about it next time :")

i'm so glad you got to see gregory as marius before he left!! i just love his marius! and yes — i am so excited to buddy read! are we still buddy reading both books? which book did you get two chapters into? happy to match your pace, obviously! i am finishing up an audiobook (hopefully tonight) and then am good to start something else! i love the starless sea! but i do hate the house in the cerulean sea!! the house in the cerulean sea is probably up there for my least favorite books of all time (for many reasons). if you want i'll also buddy read starless sea with you! a quick note for night circus — pay attention to the dates! i didn't realize it wasn't chronological the first time i read it and had to restart after a friend pointed it out to me.

wait do you play connections daily!! i play connections religiously; i love it. i had a blast at that game, and i feel like every time i go see a game in person i get more into the sport — i've been watching the last two kraken games online, which has been really fun (i used to lowkey just follow updates but now i'm watching from home and learning a lot more)!

by the time you read + reply, you'll probably have listened to the vault tracks + good witch deluxe so i'll leave you with some questions! what were your favorites, and initial thoughts? least favorites? how accurate were your predictions?

hope you're having a good weekend + have some time to rest!! xx

[linaswiftsblog]

Why I fell in love with Taylor Swift aka the answer to the question of non-swifties, what is her phenomenon? (Read if you don't understand)

Let's start with the background of the post:

So I thought for a long time what got me into Taylor, why I single her out, because I listen to a lot of people, but she is more so

For the first time I thought about it far before Sobchak's question "what is her phenomenon?"

Actually, I found the reasons

1) Taylor writes every song herself (usually Jack Antonoff helps her, but Speak Now is 2010, she wrote the whole thing herself, by the way it is my favorite album), so this already elevates her for me above singers who do not write their own songs themselves;

2) This point is related to the first one, "well, she writes songs and what, a huge number of artists also write songs themselves", but she writes stories, short stories and even about the former, but beautiful lyrics are really partly the reason for her popularity;

3) Each Taylor album is like a few pages of her diary, here is the song ME!, which is most often provided as proof that Taylor is not a brilliant songwriter, but a dumb pop singer. This song is just funny notes from niggas to do. Another example is, of course, you belong with me, it’s clear with her, the girl likes the boy, it seems to her that they are made for each other, but he meets another. If you are familiar with such a situation, congratulations, I understand you (I had such a situation), teenage girls often have a similar problem. Taylor may not have had this, but she always describes the story as if she lived it, very accurately, and the main one with beautiful text. And we (her fans), as if reading her personal diary, perhaps replacing some facts from the songs with our own, while listening;

Summarizing the first 3 points, we can conclude that Taylor became popular thanks to her relatable aka life lyrics, especially for teenagers, which is why many grew up with Taylor and still listen to her.

4) Each album is made in a specific musical style (there are a couple of songs of exceptions), the musical concept is felt, the first three albums of Taylor Swift, Fearless, Speak Now are country, country pop, country rock, acoustic ballads. The album Red has a greater variety of genres: pop, country-pop, country-rock, folk-rock and other offshoots. Pop albums: 1989 - 80s pop, reputation and Lover - electro-pop (but they are different in style, in terms of the feel of the album), Midnights contains sorts of modern pop music. And of course folklore - indie folk and evermore - alternative rock, indie pop. Genre diversity is another reason why I love her music;

5) She is close to me as a person, she exudes goodness and in general she is cute :)

That's probably the main reason why I listen to it)

[literary-jams]

Enchantment:

Hello Swifties and non swifties, this is my personal take on Taylor Swift, so lets get to know her through each other's perspectives. Her birthday is on 13th December 1989, which makes her a sagittarius baby. My introduction to Taylor Swift was actually through the songs "Blank Space" and "Look What You Made Me Do" a classic 2017 introduction. I was on the phase of my life when everyone around my age had just recently started using social media and hence the ultra popular figures like Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, etc. kept popping up a lot on our feed.

Bangalore weather is beautiful, it is a perfect blend of warm of sunshine, wet streets and windy evenings. Being somebody from the Eastern coastal region of Bengal, I find myself in my room often bundled up with blankets, coffee and Netflix.

Chilly weather has always been very dear to me and just the other day I came across the song " Back to December" by Taylor Swift. I sat there on my bed and memories came flooding back to me. I guess Taylor Swift has a certain hold on me like that, hence I thought who could be a better person to write about other than her.

Her birthday is on 13th December 1989, which makes her a sagittarius baby. My introduction to Taylor Swift was actually through the songs "Blank Space" and "Look What You Made Me Do" a classic 2017 introduction. I was on the phase of my life when everyone around my age had just recently started using social media and hence the ultra popular figures like Taylor Swift, Ariana Grande, etc. kept popping up a lot on our feed.

Her first song ever Tim McGraw is about a boy she was dating who was going away to college. The first classic heartbreak and the sheer helplessness of the situation has been so beautifully brought out in the song. One of the main reasons I enjoy Taylor Swift songs so much is because they bring me comfort, I am obviously into other genres as well, and there was a certain time around the age when I was fifteen I used to swear by Eminem and NF. But I think I realized eventually with time that most people do not have a tragic life story. Sometimes maybe the biggest heartache in our life has been going through a break up but it is not a pain that is deniable. When we fall in love that is the most vulnerable we can be, because we willingly choose to trust a person with our emotions and when they break it could be excruciating and to come out and lyrically expressing yourself through it is quite courageous.

Album: Taylor Swift

Since her first Album we see quite a lot of rage and sadness in her lyrics and in her voice, for example "Picture to Burn" is a teenager's feelings about a person who might have been their first love but they borderline intentionally ruined their childhood fictional love story. In our young minds we secretly hope for the love at first sight and a happily ever after, more often than not we also tend to project the same onto our first relationship, but when the dream comes to a crashing halt its disheartening and we feel like a fool. We feel enraged and curse ourselves for being so naïve and hence the urge to burn the said person's picture.

Teardrops on my guitar is a song about being in love with your best friend. The longing for the person but unfortunately they are in love with someone else and you're probably deep in the friendzone. Being unreasonably envious of the other person and constantly comparing yourself to them is a classic human nature that not a lot of people might agree to, but it is an unconscious mistake we all make.

"Our Song" is a song about the thrill of a new relationship, the honeymoon phase where everything is perfect and both the parties are just unbelievably happy and obsessed with each other.

My best friend Ash just like me is a die hard Swiftie thus I thought it would an advisable idea to interview her about the exquisite love she feels for Taylor.

My first question to her was initially how did she start being invested in american music because as indian kids our main focus is always bollywood exposure in our life is quite prevalent and then gradually through some cousin or a friend we venture into hollywood. However her answer to this question was the introduction of spotify in our lives. She also added that she did not think she'd ever be interested in Taylor much as she had heard bad floating rumours about her but in spite of that in her young mind the song blank space has left such an impression that she continued to play the song in repeat which used to anger her mother a lot. A part of me believes she partially did so to annoy aunty but hey who am I to judge! This lead me to my third question "when did you start to actually hear the lyrics and enjoy the songs for the content and not just a catchy beat. Her answer to this question was the pandemic, which makes much sense as during that time of crisis everyone was just constantly in a search of a new hobby all the time. She had also mentioned that her favorite albums are the folklore and lover which is definitely two of the many things we have in common and hence I would like to venture in detail, later on in the blog. I also asked Ash about why she thinks Taylor Swift gets intertwined in so many controversies and her answer to that was blatant " because she doesn't care what people think of her" which is quite true as we have seen time and time again that in spite of many threats and hateful behavior she continues to talk about her love life without a care in the world. When asked about her favourite lyric of a Taylor song there was a long pause before she finally answered, its

"And I cut off my nose just to spite my face

Then hate my reflection, for years and years

I wake in the night, I pace like a ghost

The room is on fire, invisible smoke

And all of my heroes die all alone

Help me hold onto you"

Her reason was since our childhood we face alot of criticism which we convince ourselves that that it does not affect us while in reality it is like a stabbing knife slowing making its way through towards the other side of our body. We change ourselves or at least try to according to societal norms and in the process lose our individuality.

Through the albums over the years we see Taylor grow from a teenage angst to a mature woman.

Album: Lover

The theme varues from light comforts to grave songs about losing the people you love. For example "Soon you'll get better" is about a song when you find out that your loved one might pass aay because of a terminal illness. You try to comfort them and and yourself by saying "soon you'll get better" but unfortunately you know you're just living in a delusion. My favorite lines from the song is

" And I hate to make this all about me

But who am I supposed to talk to?

What am I supposed to do

If there's no you?" its a human dilemma that someone losing the person they love, find themselves in. We know that the person going through the illness has no control over their circumstances yet we cant stop thinking about ourselves the life we will end up having without them. We despise them for falling sick and we despise them for making us love them. We feel selcish for thinking that way yet we cant help but do so.

Taylor Swift also addresses alot of her controversies through her songs for example the song "The Man" she points out the hypocrisy of society. If a man lived her life he wod be appreciated. He'd be someone desirable and unattainable. People would not shake their heads in disapproval or question the integrity of her success. So, "if I was man, then I'd be the man".

Album: Folklore

This is the most appreciated album because first off it was a surprise album but apart from that it has beautiful tracks like Cardigan, August and Betty. The entire album is a fictional love triangle between Betty, James and an unned woman. The line "I knew you'd miss me once the thrill was over" it is a beautiful line depicting the fleetingness of human feelings. Once the honeymoon phase is over, more often than not people tend to get bored and tired of the affair. August is a song from the perspective of the unnamed woman, she speaks about how her month long affair with James fleeted away in a moment. She honestly fell in love with a man who was never really hers to begin with. My most favourite line of the song August is "I'd cancel my plans just in case you'd call". It sums up the entire relationship, she is so enthralled by the man that just a mere possibility of meeting him makes her cancel all the plans she has.

Taylor Swift has a song for every occassion when it comes to feelings, whether it is about loving someone else or loving ourselves. Her albums are like stories that help us predict our mind frame better and makes us feel better and unapologetic about just being human.

[turnallthemirrors]

"SOUR is only about breakups" aside from being a lazy misogynistic criticism also misses the point. I've seen a lot of people say SOUR is a concept album centering on this breakup which is pretty accurate considering everything about how it has been branded. But I also think it makes the only two songs that aren't about the breakup, brutal and hope ur ok, all the more important.

First of all, they're the first and last songs on the albums, so they bookend the entire story. brutal serves as the thesis of the album, especially the perfect line "I'm so sick of seventeen, where's my fucking teenage dream." YES this is an album about a breakup, but it's more about being a teenager. That's why the album is called SOUR and she has this very teenagery vibe with the clothes and the stickers and the poses and the stylization of everything - it's not a breakup concept, it's a teenage girl who's a little bit sour concept album, which centers on a breakup, yes, but it is so so much more than that.

There's so much to brutal as well as an opening track. "Where's my fucking teenage dream" is clearly a reference to Katy Perry's Teenage Dream aka the 2010 pop album that defined the next decade of pop music. I haven't really thought about Katy Perry since 2010, but ever since hearing SOUR I cannot help but think about what it means in relationship to this album. I invite Katycats or anyone else to expand on this and I will probably have more thoughts too, but I think the gist of Olivia's point is that this glamourous sexy candypop vibe that Teenage Dream embodies in our collective imagery isn't real, even for a Disney star. She is deliberately referencing the 2010s pop girl scene throughout the entire album, which she openly talks about in interviews as well. In doing so, she evokes the imagery of this era but recenters it through her perspective as a teenager in 2021. One way she does this is by embodying an authentic teenage voice which Katy Perry, in her mid-20s and singing that she feels like she's in a teenage dream, was not at the time that the album was released. Olivia doesn't talk about sex, she just got her driver's license and can't parallel park, and says "I'm so insecure I think that I'll die before I drink" implying that she hasn't enjoyed any underage drinking she may have partaken in. She is singing about a first heartbreak, and people criticize her for being immature or obsessive or repetitive and it's like... first of all you're being a misogynist... second of all that's literally the point and she says that throughout the album. She's obsessive and insecure and angry and sad and she says that - because god, it sure is brutal out here for a teenage girl.

I'm not going to break down the breakup songs by track, but I honestly don't think they're repetitive. They explore different emotions - angry/sour (good 4 u), heartbroken (driver's license) - and songs like enough 4 u and happier create a very specific story about a single relationship which was unhealthy and tragic but Olivia still wants him to be happy but not too happy, which are all different facets of the same relationship. When Taylor Swift did this on 1989 that was awesome that won album of the year. And Taylor got shit for it too. We can't keep saying young women, especially teenage girls, aren't good writers for writing about relationships. It's tired. It's misogynistic. And it's just not true. Also the fact that I have seen Swifties use this argument against Olivia? Whew....

And our final track, hope ur ok. Aka the song that made me cry this morning aka seven by Taylor Swift's dear sister. Also not a breakup song, it's about people she used to know who had bad relationships with their parents and how she hasn't seen them in a while but she hopes that they're okay. The nostalgic song reflects on more ways that people can hurt other people in the name of love, and concludes the album with a wish of happiness for people she has loved.

At the end of the day, SOUR isn't just about a breakup. It's about being a teenage girl who has been through some shit and is working through it. And maybe the relationship is the focus for a lot of it, but think about it. When you were in high school, you had a lot going on because, again, it IS brutal out here. But certain relationships held up your focus - many of us cannot help but replay our high school friendships or romances or crushes when we listen to SOUR, because the album is about how it feels to be a, to quote brutal, "messy" teenager. It concludes with a memory of her old friends and wishing them well. Most of SOUR is about one relationship, but as a whole, it explores the facets of emotionally charged early relationships under the pressure of a changing world through the perspective of a teenage girl. She is dramatic, she is immature, she does reference other artists - that's the point! It's a brilliant debut album and I for one cannot wait to see where Olivia Rodrigo goes from here.

[thepriceofbeingaroseisloneliness]

KAORU PERSONAL INTERVIEW SPECIAL HEADBANG VOL.27 TRANSLATION 2/2

The ideal figure that the guitarist who leads the band as a leader got while struggling, and the reason for his unstoppable pursuit. “Without ‘BLUE BLOOD’ I wouldn’t really be who I am now” “After all, I’ve always liked dark and hopeless stuff, that kind of things” “I’m the type of person who wants to be affected by cd jackets and lyrics” "Sometimes I can do it. A song with a very pop and bright atmosphere"

Notes before reading: This is the second part of the personal interview of Kaoru from the magazine Headbang Vol.27 released on 18th August 2020.  The interview is 11 pages long and this part covers the last 5 pages.  As Toshiya and Die’s interviews, 2nd part is focused on his roots as a guitarist.

You can get the magazine at Amazon Japan or CDJapan. Read Toshiya’s interview here Read Die’s interview here

Feel free to correct me if you spot any mistake or any confusing. Links or credits to this post when the content is reposted or captured in other SNS is appreciated :) ----- Text by: Yohsuke Hayakawa (First part here) “Without “BLUE BLOOD” I wouldn’t really be who I am now” -Then, the topic of the talk changes from here.  I would like to ask you about the story behind the 20 albums that you selected regardless of era or reasons but, you chose 10 albums from Japan and 10 foreign albums.

K: Is that true? (laughs). It's a coincidence, but it was very difficult to narrow down when it came to choose again. So, I chose mainly the ones I listened to a lot before I started the band and when I started doing it. They are just albums that influenced me. -I have the impression that Japanese music was a kids who read WeROCK’s thing. K:  Hahaha. Yes (laughs). -First of all…. COLOR's mini album "FOOLS! GET LUCKY !!" (1989) is also included. I have to ask about why you picked this one. K: Well, I really love it (laughs). Even though it was "X in the east, COLOR in the west"*, I was really into it, so I went to see their live performance. I like their punkish songs and they have many fast songs. At that time, if a song wasn’t  fast, it was a “no” for me. I also liked ROSE ROSE. *(This makes reference to X Japan being from the Kanto region (East) and COLOR being from Kansai (West) as both band emerged around the same time.) -Then D'ERLANGER. DIR EN GREY participated in D'ERLANGER's tribute (announced in 2017 ‘D'ERLANGER TRIBUTE ALBUM  ~ Stairway to Heaven~ "). Was the album "LA VIE EN ROSE" (1989) a shock for you?

K: That’s right, “LA VIE EN ROSE” too but also CIPHER (G) himself. Well, I think it was at ”BURNN! JAPAN”, CIPHER appeared in a solo photo on one page in colour.

-Oh, it’s a shot in which you can see him standing with a flashy Les Paul guitar. It was before kyo (D’ERLANGER vocalist) became a member. K: That’s right.  I though “What on earth is this person?” After that, they were releasing a CD ("LA VIE EN ROSE") , so I made a I made a reservation right away.

-Also, a band you can't miss from those times is DEAD END. It never gets old because it’s respected across generations. K: I chose "Shambara" (1988), well, it's a masterpiece. Just listening to the opening song "EMBRYO BURNING" made me sick. When I first started listening to metal music, I was a bit reluctant but with DEAD END, the melody that MORRIE sung got me very quickly, I got into them without any resistance. I didn’t have the impression that DEAD END was so-called “metal”. Since I started playing in bands, I was overwhelmed by the seriousness of YOU’s guitar technique. - Next is ZI: KILL is "ROCKET" (1993). Initially, the dark positive punk style was strong but with that last album, their musicality expanded dramatically and there are even piano jazz songs. K: It’s an album that feels like something has been reached. I got into ZI:KILL since the early albums and after making their major debut, I got the impression that their albums got milder. However, when I listened to "ROCKET", it seemed like an insanely cool album. I still listen to it. -Including a horn in their arrangements was ground-breaking. K: Yes, at first I hated it! But somehow, I didn’t care about it at all. Still, TUSK (Vo) lyrics and the songs were addictive. It made a deep impression on me, that’s why I read ZI:KILL lyrics carefully as well.

-Do you care about the lyrics when it comes to Japanese artists? K: I check the booklets properly. After all, the lyrics reach my ears at the point in which the words make you feel something.

- And, needless to say, you also chose X's "BLUE BLOOD" (1989). At the Vol. 20 of this magazine, you chose it as a “metal album that changed your life”. So, as expected, if you choose an album from X japan, would be this one? K: Without this album, I wouldn't really be who I am now.

-You were influenced by everything, both the music and the guitar play….is that so? K: The guitar too, right? Well, it’s not at that level anymore.

-Ah, that’s not the level (laughs) K: I was just listening to it earnestly and thinking “amazing!”, it just something that I like, there is no particular reason (laughs).

“Western music  (I listened to) was also greatly influenced by HIDE. That’s why everything it’s related to HIDE (laughs)”

- On the other hand, Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi and Cocco are also included. K: I've always liked Nagabuchi. Like "Tonbo" (1988), there was a tv drama about that. *(”Tonbo” (Dragonfly) was also a tv drama  in which Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi played a member of a yakuza gang  who is trapped in a violent existence.)

- Oh, after that was "Shabontama" (1991). K: I also like the movie "Orgel" (1989), I was really into Nagabuchi at that time. The "Showa" (1989) album I chose this time is the album that got me hooked. The masterpiece "Gekiai" which is my favourite song was recorded around that time.

-You liked Nagabuchi’s drama series. K: Yes, they are rather dark series. I don’t know much about the brighter/cheerful ones.

-The ones like "Family Game" (1983)? K: That's right. Those are not the ones that I prefer. After all, I’ve always liked dark and hopeless stuff, that kind of things. -(Laughs) However, the radical portrayal of Nagabuchi’s drama shocked your heart as a young boy. Probably such a drama couldn’t be made in this era. K: Yes, you can’t. There isn’t even a rebroadcast of these ones.

-Certainly.  Also, I remember that Cocco was around in the scene at the same time than HIDE (g). K: Yes. When I listened to her album, it didn’t feel like I was listening to a Japanese cd. I felt like it was a western heavy band, so I got into it with that kind of image.

-I feel that foreign music, the alternative vibe is overall stronger, but do you like that? K: After all, HIDE’s influence in foreign music (I listened to) is huge. At that time, I was buying various magazines and looking for some more, I checked the names that appeared in HIDE’s articles and I’ve been listening to the ones I liked all the time.

- I have the impression that HIDE had a great influence on you listening to bands like Jane's Addiction at that time. What about Vanessa Paradis and Japan ( English new wave band)? K: That was also due to the influence of HIDE. That’s why almost everything is related to HIDE (laughs). Also, this album of hers (released in 1992, “Vanessa Paradis”) was produced by Lenny Kravitz, who liked to go to her lives.  She's still good, but I especially like her early days, I'm attracted to that voice.

“I’m the type of person who wants to be affected by cd jackets and lyrics”

- So that's it. The only work related to HIDE that you chose was with X Japan but, what about his solo works? K: Well, of course I like his solo, but in my case, I like HIDE in X Japan the most.

-Other than that, I can tell that you like strong sounds, heavy riffs and industrial. K: That’s right. As I was always seeking fierce things, I came to like strong riffs such as Pantera and Ministry.

-What about the so-called European German metal? K: Especially at that time, it wasn’t my cup of tea (laughs) - Then, some of the foreign music you chose…. "Psalm 69: The Way To Succeed And The Way To Suck Eggs" (1992) by Ministry. This album was already mentioned in this magazine before as an important metal album for you. K:  At that time, there was a foreign-related CD shop called WAVE at  Umeda Loft in Osaka. I think that I found it there and listened to it. I was like “what the hell?”, so I bought it right away. I listened to it at home again. That night I went to a acquaintance’s house and I said “Listen to this!”, and I forced him to listen (laughs). -I can tell your excitement (laughs) K: Then I listened to all the other albums. Above all, I like this one the most.  -And you also mentioned Nine Inch Nails. K: The first thing I heard from them was a single or something. At that time, I thought, "Wow, that's amazing," but when I listened to the songs on that album, I felt like I was listening to something I had never heard before. It's dark, but it sounds very aggressive. But it’s not like european music dark feeling.At that time, I wasn't sure if  they were a band or not (laughs).  -You wondered if it was a one-person band. K: That’s right. I was like “Is the same person doing everything?”, “Is he playing drums too?”. Everything was a mystery. Information was not available as soon as it does now, so I was wondering “Who is this person?”. I also wondered if the cd jacket had something to grasp, like it was a cd jacket that I didn’t really understand. Like the logo. It was all mysterious and addictive. I myself am the type who wants to be influenced/affected by cd jackets and lyrics, so I look at every corner. Everything up to the back of the wrapping. Then, when I looked at the back, I thought, "Isn't there anything attached?" (Laughs).  -(Laughs)There are many things that are totally attractive, including elaborate art books.  K: Yes. Especially for Nine Inch Nails, I went looking for some place that sell T-shirts of them.  "Sometimes I can do it. A song with a very pop and bright atmosphere"  -Among these works, isn't there any in particular that has an easy-to-understand influence on the songs that you make with DIR EN GREY? K: Well, I don't know that .  - Some of the works you chose this time have a strong melody…. For example, on a 2017 tour focused in “MACABRE" (2000), you played “Taijou no ao” for the first time in a while. I mentioned in this magazine before that "If you change the arrangement of a song to your current style, you can still play it ", but is there a desire to make a song with that kind of melody now? K: I don’t have a particular desire to do it. I think that it feels like something from that time, it’s an image that doesn’t make me feel excited now.  -By the way, do you usually listen to music with melodies like that? K: I do, I do.  Rather, I’ve been listening to pop music all the time lately.  I am not listening noisy bands at all.  -Noisy ones (laughs). K: Hahaha. -However, it's a little hard to think that you are going to make songs like that. K: Yeah, it doesn't happen very often sometimes, but there are times when I can do it. A song with a very pop and bright atmosphere. So, when I tried to start to work on songs, one turns out like “this is what I have done”. But maybe then I think that it’s a little different from what I do with DIR EN GREY, so I have to mess with it, fix it or just store it. - Eh! Do you make that kind of songs? I would like to hear a song like that from you now. That’s why the melody of “Taijou no Ao” that I mentioned as an example is not only pop but also suffocating. Faintly scented lyrics. I wonder if that it’s your true self. K: That's right.The first thing that influenced me was  the New Wave*. Pet Shop Boys and so, I liked that kinds of thing. That’s why there is a bit of that “kind of atmosphere” sometimes. It's not just pop. *(New wave is a broad music genre that encompasses numerous pop-oriented styles from the late 1970s and the 1980s) -There is also a sorrowful side. K: So, if I had to pick one, Europe is better in that than America. Well, when it comes to the songs I make, I’d like to make them more interesting, but I don’t feel like doing something that is off the point/wrong.  -I have to ask you about the melody part now. K: If you have any concerns, I will answer them…  - What if there is something clear for you like, “this song has this kind of image”? K: After that, Kyo has several ways to sing so I will combine them in my own way and propose new melodies. Like “I think in this way would be cool”.   -Oh, that’s how you do it. In any case, now I'm looking forward to the day when I can listen to a new song again. Will the album be completed in 2021? K: That's right.  -By the way, Kaoru-san's hard disk has already material for the new album…. K: Well, there's something for the album……there is, but it’s still not the whole thing at all (laughs).

[path-of-my-childhood]

How Aaron Dessner and Taylor Swift Stripped Down Her Sound on ‘Folklore’

By: Jon Blistein for Rolling Stone Date: July 24th 2020

At the beginning of March, the National’s Aaron Dessner traveled back to the United States from Paris, where he’d been living with his family, to shack up at Sonic Ranch Studio in Tornillo, Texas to work on the next Big Red Machine album with Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon. Those plans - obviously - soon shifted, as the reality of the COVID-19 pandemic set in. Dessner and his family were able to relocate to their home in upstate New York as lockdown orders went into effect, and the musician soon settled into a groove of homeschooling his kids and able to focus fully on music in a way he hadn’t in a while, due to the National’s regularly rigorous touring schedule.

In the middle of what Dessner describes as one of the most productive moments of his career, Taylor Swift called. A longtime and avowed fan of the National, Swift asked if Dessner wanted to try collaborating on a few songs remotely. He said of course, and asked if she was looking for anything in particular. He noted that he had plenty of material at the ready, but acknowledged he’d been in a more experimental mood, due to the Big Red Machine sessions; not to mention, Dessner added, he’d never really ventured into the pop world Swift has dominated for well over a decade. She told him to send everything he had.

“I think she was interested in the emotions that she feels in some of the music that I’ve made,” Dessner tells Rolling Stone.” So I just sent her a folder of things I’d done recently and was excited about. Hours after, she sent back a fully written version of ‘Cardigan.’ It was like a lightning bolt struck the house.”

Over the next few months, Dessner and Swift crafted the bulk of Swift’s eighth studio album, Folklore. Dessner spoke with Rolling Stone about working with Swift, their instant chemistry, how the album developed under a thick cloud of secrecy and more.

When Taylor first reached out, did she have a specific vision in mind for the album? She was a bit cryptic. I didn’t know that we were actually working on a record for quite a while. It just seemed that she was seeking me out to collaborate. And then we were both feeling very inspired by it. Once there were six or seven songs that we had written over a couple of weeks, she said, “Hey can we talk?” Then she said, ‘This is what I’m imagining,’ and started to tell me about the concept of Folklore. Then she mentioned that she’d written some songs at an earlier stage with Jack [Antonoff], and they felt like they really fit together with what we were doing. It was a very inspiring, exhilarating collaborative process that was almost entirely remote. Very sort of warp speed, but also something about it felt like we were going toe-to-toe and in a good pocket.

After “Cardigan,” how did these songs develop and do you think she pushed you in any new directions as a songwriter? When you’re working with someone new, it takes a second to understand their instincts and range. It’s not really conscious. She wrote “Cardigan,” and then “Seven,” then “Peace.” They kind of set a road map, because “Cardigan” was this kind of experimental ballad, the closest thing to a pop song on the record, but it’s not really. It’s this emotional thing, but it has some strange sounds in it. “Seven” is this kind of nostalgic, emotional folk song. Even before she sang to it, I felt this nostalgia, wistful feeling in it, and I think that’s what she gravitated towards. And “Peace,” that just showed me the incredible versatility that she had. That song is just three harmonized bass lines and a pulse. I love to play bass like that - play one line then harmonize another, and another, which is a behavior I stole from Justin Vernon, because he’s done that on other things we’ve done together. And actually, that’s his pulse, he sent me that pulse and said, “Do something with this.” But when she wrote that song, which kind of reminds me of a Joni Mitchell song over a harmonized bassline and a pulse, that was kind of like, “Woah, anything can happen here.” That’s not easy to do. 

So, in the morning I would wake up and try to be productive. “Mad Woman” is one I wrote shortly after that, in terms of sound world, felt very related to “Cardigan” and “Seven.” I do have a way of playing piano where it’s very melodic and emotional, but then often it’s great if whoever’s singing doesn’t sing exactly what’s in the piano melody, but maybe it’s connected in some way. There was just some chemistry happening with her and how she was relating to those ideas.

“Epiphany” was something she had an idea for, and then I imagined these glacial, Icelandic sounds with distended chords and this almost classical feeling. That was another one where we wrote it and conceived it together. She just has a very instinctive and sharp musical mind, and she was able to compose so closely to what I was presenting. What I was doing was clicking for her. It was exhilarating for us, and it was surreal - we were shocked by it, to be honest [Laughs]. I think the warmth, humanity and raw energy of her vocals, and her writing on this record, from the very first voice memos - it was all there.

Do you think that chemistry might’ve had something to do with her being a National fan, and you being a fan of her music? We met Taylor at Saturday Night Live in 2014, or whenever that was that we played and Lena Dunham was hosting. We got to meet her, and that was our first brush with a bona fide pop star. But then she came to see us play in Brooklyn last summer and was there in a crazy rainstorm, like torrential downpour, and watched the whole show and stayed for a long time afterwards, talking to me and my brother. She was incredibly charming and humble. That’s the nice thing about her, and a lot of people I’ve met that have that kind of celebrity. It’s great when you can just tune it out and be normal people and chat, and that’s how that felt. So, we knew that she was a big fan, and we really got into the 1989 album. Our Icelandic collaborator, Ragnar Kjartansson, is a crazy Swiftie. So we’ve kind of lived vicariously through him. I’ve always been astonished by how masterful she is in her craft. I’ve always listened to her albums and put them in this rarefied category, like, “How did she do that? How does anybody do that? How do you make ‘Blank Space?’” There was an element that was intimidating at first, where it just took me a second to be like… Not because I think her music is better than what we’ve done, but it’s just a different world.

Were there particular songs, albums or artists the two of you discussed as reference points for this album? “Betty,” which is a song she wrote with William Bowery, she was interested in sort of early Bob Dylan, like Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan, I think. “Epiphany,” early on, felt like some weird Kate Bush-meets-Peter Gabriel thing. I think we talked a little about those things, but not a lot. Actually, I think she really trusted me as far as my instincts to where the music would ultimately go, and also the mixing process.  We really wanted to keep her voice as human, and kind of the opposite of plastic, as possible. That was a bit of a battle. Because everything in pop music tends to be very carved out, a smiley face, and as pushed as possible so that it translates to the radio or wherever you hear it. That can also happen with a National song - like if you changed how these things are mixed, they wouldn’t feel like the same song. And she was really trusting and heard it herself. She would make those calls herself, also.

You mentioned William Bowery - who is he? He’s a songwriter, and actually because of social distancing, I’ve never met him. He actually wrote the original idea for “Exile,” and then Taylor took it and ran with it. I don’t actually know to be totally honest.

We’ve been trying to track him down, he doesn’t have much of an internet presence. Yeah, I don’t fully know him, other than he wrote “Betty” and “Exile” with her. But you know she’s a very collaborative person, so it was probably some songwriter.

So it’s not an alias for anyone? No, no, no. I mean, I don’t know - she didn’t tell me there was a “Cardigan” video until literally it came out, and I wrote the song with her [laughs]. So I don’t know. But I’m pretty sure he’s an actual songwriter. She enjoys little mysteries.

With the National, you and your brother write the music, Matt Berninger adds the lyrics, and then you fuse it - was it a similar process on Folklore? Taylor is very collaborative in that sense that, whenever she sent a voice memo, she would send all the lyrics and then ask me what I thought. And sometimes we would debate certain lines, although generally she’s obviously a strong writer. So she would ask me if I liked one line, and she would give me alternate lines and I would give her my opinion. And then when she was actually tracking vocals, I would sometimes suggest things or miss things, but she definitely has a lot of respect for the collaborative process and wants whoever she’s writing with to feel deeply included in that process. It was nice, and was a back and forth, for sure. And she would sometimes have ideas about the production if she didn’t like something, especially. She would, in a tactful way, bring that up. I appreciated that, too, since I wanted to try to turn over every leaf, take risks and sometimes get it wrong. That always takes a second, to get over and then you start again.

You mentioned earlier that once you had six, seven songs, she was able to describe a concept behind the album. I’m curious what that conversation was like. She would always explain what each song was about to me, even before she articulated the Folklore concept. And I could tell early on that they were these narrative songs, often told from a different… not in the first person. So there are different characters in the songs that appear in others. You may have a character in “Betty” that’s also related to one in “Cardigan,” for example. And I think that was, in her mind, very, very important. It doesn’t seem like, for this record at least, that she was inspired to write something until she really knew what it was about. And I think I’m used to a more - at least lately - impressionistic and experimental world of making stuff without really knowing what it is. But this was more direct, in that sense. That was really helpful, to know what it was about and it would guide some of the choices we were making.

Every time she would send something, she would narrate a little bit, like how it fit, or what it was about. And then when she told me about Folklore as a concept, it made so much sense. Like “The Last Great American Dynasty,” for example, this kind of narrative song that then becomes personal at the end - it flips and she enters the song. These are kind of these folkloric, almost mythical tales that are woven in of childhood, lost love, and different sentiments across the record. It was binding it all together and I think it’s personal, but also through the guise of other people, friends and loved ones.

You were working in secret - how did that affect the process? Was that a difficult burden? It was. I was humbled and honored and grateful for the opportunity and for the crazy sort of alchemy we were having. But it was hard not to be able to talk openly with my usual collaborators, even my brother at first. I didn’t know if I could really tell him, because we normally… Ultimately, he helped me quite a bit, he orchestrated songs. But we always help each other. But eventually, we figured out how to do it. Towards the end of the process, I said to Taylor, ‘I really feel that I need to try a few experiment and try to elevate a few moments on the record because we have time, and we’ve really done a ton of work here, and it all sounds great, but I think we can go even further.’ And then she said, ‘Well what does that mean?’ And I explained how that would work, and the way that we work. Our process is very community-oriented, and we have long-time collaborators that we have a good understanding with. So I was able to say, to my friends, ‘This is a song I’m working on, I can’t send it to you with the vocals, and I can’t tell you what it is, but I can explain what I’m imagining.’ And the same with my brother, he knows my music so well that that was very easy for him to just take things that we were working on, add to that, and do his kind of work. So it was all remote and everyone was in their corner and we were shipping things around. It was incredibly fast because of that, because you didn’t have eight people needing to come to the studio. You had eight people working simultaneously - one in France and one in L.A. and one in Brooklyn. This is how it went, and it was fun. We got there.

When were you able to tell everyone who contributed that this was the Taylor Swift record, what was their reaction? You can imagine. I think they realized it was something big because [of] the confidentiality, and they were like, ‘It could only be a few things.’ I couldn’t tell them until, basically, when she announced it. Just in the moments after she announced it, I basically told everyone. I was like, ‘By the way…’ And they were thrilled. Everyone’s thrilled. Nobody seemed mad, everyone was thrilled and honored. Even Justin Vernon had not heard anything else except “Exile,” even though the pulse of that song “Peace,” he gave that song to me. It was important to have it be a surprise, and you know how it can be with someone in her position, with all the speculation, and she’s always under a lot of pressure like that. So it was really important to the creative freedom she was feeling that this remained a secret, so she could just do what we were doing.

Being such longtime friends and collaborators with Justin, what was it like hearing “Exile” for the first time? His voice and Taylor’s together? He’s so versatile and has such a crazy range, and puts so much emotion… Every time he sings when I’m in his presence, my head just kind of hits the back of the wall. That’s the same on this song. William Bowery and Taylor wrote that song together, got it to a certain point, then I sort of interpreted it and developed a recording of it, and then Taylor tracked both the male and female parts. And then we sent it to Justin and he re-did obviously the male parts and changed a few things and also added his own: He wrote the “step right out” part of the bridge, and Taylor re-sang to that. You feel like, in a weird way, you’re watching two of the greatest songwriters and vocalists of our generation collaborating. I was facilitating it and making it happen, and playing all the music. But it was definitely a “Wow.” I was just a fan at that point, seeing it happen.

Are there any moments that really stick out to you as particularly pivotal in shaping the sound of this record? The initial response. When we first connected, and I sent a folder of music and Taylor wrote “Cardigan,” and she said, “This is abnormal. Why do you have all these songs that are so emotional and so moving to me? This feels fated.” And then she just dove into it and embraced this emotional current. And I hope that’s what people take out of it: The humanity in her writing and melodies. It’s a different side to her. She could have been every bit as successful just making these kinds of songs, but it’s so great that she’s also made everything that she’s ever made, and this is a really interesting shift, and an emotional one. It also opens other doors, because now it’s kind of like she can go wherever she wants, creatively. The pressure to make a certain kind of… bop - or whatever you want to call it - is not there really anymore. And I think that’s really liberating, and I hope her fans and the world are excited by that because I am. It’s really special.

[phoebe-delia]

Hello, Phoebe. I’m back :)

How are you doing? Just put whatever you feel like here! This ask is the Phoebe Show; make it yours!

Lyssa, it is always a pleasure to see you in my notifs, but especially in my ask box! Thank you for filling it with kind words, awesome prompts, and fun questions for me to play around with.

This blog is the closest I imagine I'll ever come to having the Phoebe Delia Show, and since you have given me free rein with this ask, I shall endeavor to make it count.

I've gotten some incredible asks about my interests, but I'm going to answer a question that has been asked by exactly no one and rank Taylor Swift's albums.

This will be in order of my favorites; this isn't necessarily a reflection of what I think the rank would be in terms of objective quality; instead, this is based on my own personal enjoyment of the albums.

As always, I will provide a little explanation as to my reasoning, because I am nothing if not indulgent.

I actually really surprised myself with this ranking; as I looked through the albums I evaluated each by counting the number of songs I liked off of each one, and the ranking I thought I had has now changed. (I will explain in my comments!).

So! With that said. The Phoebe Delia Show Presents: Ranking Taylor Swift Albums.

1. Speak Now--To me, there is only one skip on this entire album; it is bop after bop. (If you're wondering, I think "Innocent" is the skip). Every song is just fun! I should also point out that this is also my favorite in part because Taylor said it was inspired by theater/Broadway.

2. 1989--I'm gonna be honest and say that I'm ashamed to have sort of slept on this album for so long. Don't get me wrong--I listened to and enjoyed it a lot when it came out, but I always sort of automatically pushed it further down on my list in favor of my 3rd choice because I liked the songs on my 3rd choice more. But now that I'm older and my music taste has somewhat evolved, I think I can say that 1989 is my 2nd favorite. There are truly no skips on this album. Yes, I know I said SN has a skip, but that album holds a special place in my heart so it gets number 1. I was thinking it over today, and while Taylor has always been amazing, I think this is the album that launched her into superstardom. We, her fans, knew she could do anything, but she still shocked us all by making the transition to an entirely pop album. Remember the "Blank Space" and "Bad Blood" music videos? I still think those are two fo my favorite of her mvs, though LWYMMD is a close second.

3. Red--Oh, my beloved. This album is wonderful. I have a lot of memories associated with this one, particularly watching the WANGBT music video and the IKYWT parody with the fucking goat that makes me laugh so hard even to this day. I am SO pumped for TV in November!! And while, yes, "All Too Well" is my favorite song on the album (and my fave TS song overall), "Holy Ground" is slept on and amazing.

4. folklore--This album is probably the most meaningful to me of them all just because of when it came out. We as an entire global community were struggling, and I know I had immense privilege to have been healthy and safe during that time. Still, like everyone else, I was depressed, lonely, and felt trapped inside my home and inside my mind. I will never forget listening to this album in my room and gasping when I heard TIMT. Not long after this album came out, I also lost my family dog, and this album was essential in helping me grieve. This album saved my sanity and gave me a cathartic outlet. I will be forever grateful to Taylor for writing it.

5. Reputation--This is another one for which I have a lot of memories. I will never forget when the LWYMMD music video came out and the world lost its entire mind. Taylor said there are still easter eggs we missed and I want someone to find them please and thank you. There are a few songs on this album that I'm not obsessed with, but the storytelling is so cohesive and creative. On the surface, one might think Taylor was being petty or whiny, but if you look closer--and remember the utter hell she was going through at the time--I think there are deeper meanings than her just getting back at Kim and Kanye.

6. Fearless--Oh, this album. It has some of her most iconic songs: YBWM, "White Horse," "Love Story"," "Forever and Always," etc. I truly wish I could tie this one with Rep, but I think Rep edges this one out *just* barely with songwriting/lyrical quality. I also don't know if I'll ever fully get over the fact that she kept "Mr. Perfectly Fine" from us for so long, but I suppose I can consider the 10 min "All Too Well" on Red TV to be proper repayment. ;)

7. evermore--I could not believe my eyes when she announced this album. How can this woman write this fast and this well!! I will never forget listening to "champagne problems," "no body, no crime," and "tolerate it" in particular. I ranked this after reputation just bc I think I enjoy listening to Rep more, but some of the songwriting on this album is *chefs kiss.*

8. Lover--I know, I know, I'm sorry. I don't want to put this one so low on the list but I just kind of can't put it any higher? I really love some of the songs on this album, but SYGB is too sad for me, "London Boy" kinda annoys me I'm sorry, and I just never really got into INTHAF or "Afterglow." But, that said, every other song on the album is a bop, even ME!, although I listen to the live version over the studio recording. It's a great album though.

9. Taylor Swift (Debut album)--I feel a little bad ranking this so low but I cannot honestly tell you that this album is better than her others, and something has to be last on the list. There are also some great, classic songs on this album. So, instead of being critical, I'm instead going to say that I remember vividly seeing a snippet of "Teardrops On My Guitar" advertised on Disney Channel for Radio Disney. It makes me smile to think of how far she's come since then.

And that concludes this episode of The Phoebe Delia Show! Tune in next time where I post some other self-indulgent opinion about one of my interests and hope it reaches people who care to read it :)

Send me an ask about Harry Potter, broadway/musicals, The West Wing, and/or Taylor Swift! Or just about life in general :).

Also, I have a playlist of my 99 most listened-to songs of the year so far. Pick a number 1--99 and send me an ask and I'll write you a fic based on it!

[bisluthq]

Babe they had a toxic fucking codependent early 20s friendship.

It really wasn’t codependent dude she wasn’t any more dependent on karlie than she was on her other friends. She wasn’t that attached to her and hence she publicised the fuck outta that friendship ( Taylor doesn’t publicise relationships that actually mean something to her THAT HARD see: Joe/selena) she could’ve done a song w selena but she doesn’t even tho they record together and play each other their albums.

If she was that dependent on karlie she would’ve stayed there for her when things were going bad for karlie with josh but she couldn’t have given a lesser amount of fucks because she straight up ran away with Joe. I know cancellation and all but let’s be real she’s there for her actual friends even if she’s at her lowest, yes she needed Joe but she didn’t give a fuck about karlie way before joe happened, she got her share of publicity and karlie was getting too annoying for her lbr. She distanced from karlie before the scooter drama because karlie is not tays vibe at all and that’s why I can’t think of any logical reason why Tay would be jealous of karlie.

Taylor was a skinny, tall model looking pop star(and still is) fresh outta her tour and her album even won her a grammy. I doubt she was jealous regards to the relationship too because even though karlie has a long term relationship with josh and yea her in laws don’t matter that much but in Taylors books she doesn’t look like the person who would fantasise about a relationship like Joshlies. She wanted something long term since she was a kid that’s why she kept trying to take back Jake even after he demeaned her so much. She probably looked down on karlie for staying in a relationship with Josh who wasn’t even taking a stand for her at that point. This doesn’t mean Joshlie isn’t a happy couple it just means Joshlie doesn’t have anything Taylor would be jealous of re: longevity I doubt it because Taylor would rather dump a guy like Josh voluntarily than put up with him just for the sake of the relationship. Also, Taylor could clearly see Karlie is a gold digger she wouldn’t have said that to her obvi but it doesn’t take a genius to figure that out. Regarding the fashion cool kid group I’m highly suspicious Taylor ever wanted to be a part of the fashion world. She isn’t interested in haute couture and never was and knows that she never will be. She had model friends for sure but I don’t think it was purposely done, she was just campaigning hard to clear her boy hungry man eater image and showing the world that she has all these pretty girlfriends. She wasn’t tryna join fashion she was tryna clear and transform her image and get a grammy which she got. She’s definitely an insecure girl and is for sure jealous of a lot of people even now and was in her twenties but karlie being one of those people doesn’t sit right with me atleast.

Eh maybe. I disagree but not enough to argue lol. Like you’ve thought it through and tbh none of us know these people. Your headcanon is well argued, I just don’t think it’s right. Most importantly, I think the “she doesn’t publicize meaningful shit” isn’t true for 1989 era. She publicized EVERYTHING dude. Fucking EVERYTHING. If live-streaming taking a shit would’ve gotten her more likes and fans and clicks, she’d have done it. The woman was fame whoring hard because she wanted that Grammy and once she had the Grammy she started to chill more again.

But ya I mean I’ve shared my thoughts, but they’re just thoughts and headcanons about strangers. Yours also make sense. I just don’t agree lol.

[sickadelia]

hey 'delia, it's me. eddedneddy. i've got a question for you.

so imagine this. there's a guy, right. he breaks into your house, gun to your head, asks you to pick 3 records out of your collection. just 3. the gun is real and it's an alternate reality in which people can just legally break into people's houses and make them pick records, so there's no loophole out of this. you get to keep those, but he's gonna stomp on every other record you own so the three you pick have to be worth the anguish.

I'm that guy right now. which records do you choose bestie

hi bestie eddedneddy!!!! as terrified as i am by this scenario, your interest in The Record Collection makes me want to scream and cry in the best way possible (insert paragraph about how much i love you here), so let's get into this because i have a gun to my head!!!! also, quick moment of silence for the 550 albums that are about to be stomped into oblivion.

(sorry this is mostly gonna be unedited rambles ecksdee. but thats just how i work)

1. xtc- white music (1978)

starting off strong, establishing my weirdo music taste pretty quickly. i have a weird thing for debut albums that are totally different from the rest of the band's discography, probably because they have a scrappy, unpolished charm. i feel this way about a lot of bands, especially cheap trick. btw, please listen to cheap trick self-titled, it's so good. oh wait i have a gun to my head-

ANYWAY, xtc. a british 80s "new wave" band who are best known for the song "making plans for nigel" and their stuff from 1979 to 1989. their sound during their peak is pretty guitar-oriented and bouncy, but little do many people know that they briefly had a- drumroll please- crazy post-punk keyboard phase!!! woah!!! from 1978 to 1979, they had a guy named barry andrews playing the lo-fi 70s keyboard, and they released two albums with him before he peaced out to form the band shriekback, which is also pretty cool. white music is the first of these two albums, and has sooo much of that scruffy "we don't really know what's happening" energy, i love it so much.

i was obsessed with xtc one summer a few years ago, and while i do love all of their stuff and own pretty much all their albums, their more successful 80s guitar stuff really can't compare to the barry andrews keyboard era. the guitar era is much more polished and professional, but andy partridge's scratchy guitar paired with andrews' squealy synthesizers gives it a very "sharp" feeling. to give you some imagery, this album sounds like what it feels like to walk on a pathway made of nails. in a good way of course. i dunno if there's a positive way to walk on nails, but humour me and imagine.

partridge, who is xtc's de facto leader and the primary songwriter, has said that his style was inspired by comic books, sci-fi, and pop art. ignoring how cool that sounds for a sec, i think that really shows the most on this album, whereas the rest of their catalogue is just "oh weird thingy haha", and is a little more restrained and, like i said, polished. but white music FEELS and SOUNDS like pop art, bursting with all this neon, bright-coloured energy and what have you. it's one of those "aesthetics" that you can't really describe, but you could easily make a pinterest board for. everything about it is so ECCENTRIC!! i feel like it's hard to find anything else like this out there, whereas their later stuff (WHICH I STILL LIKE BTW)

also, quick funny little story: during the "xtc summer" i was a stupid kid who had just gotten her first job and was weirdly loaded with cash, so i just spent all of it ordering random albums off discogs marketplace LMAOO. i managed to track down every single barry andrews xtc ep and album, and they were og uk pressings which took forever to arrive. and i kid you not, not even a WEEK after they all arrived, i saw copies of every single one of them in a record store 10 min from my house. for 10 bucks ea. i was about to burn the damn place down.

- favourite songs: statue of liberty, neon shuffle, i'll set myself on fire, spinning top, into the atom age

2. beastie boys- paul's boutique (1989)

a strange deviation from the theme we had going on there, but my music taste basically does not exist. if a song has a good beat then i like it........ unless it's country music. country sucks.

my love of the beastie boys is kinda weird, because i got into them when i had an utter distaste for any music made after 1985, especially rap and hip hop. this is because i was a stubborn little greaseball who knew absolutely nothing about what hip hop actually was, thinking it was just some lil pump shit or something. but when i heard hey ladies for the first time, everything about hip hop clicked in my brain, and it's been one of my favourite genres of music ever since. while i do like rap, the way that hip hop utilizes samples and how they work together with the flow of the MCs is actual art.

anyone who knows me well knows that i am absolutely obsessed with sampling and the work that goes into it, and this album is what got me into obsessively researching every single sample i hear on a song i like. before this, i had no clue that most of hip hop backtracks were taken from other songs, and that method of "stealing" cool parts of other songs and making it into one big song collage was so fascinating to me. some madlad on youtube made an "every paul's boutique sample" video on youtube, and i think i watch it once every month or something. the dust brothers are such fabulous producers, and the way they seamlessly layer and swap out samples makes my brain explode.

AND THE BEASTIES THEMSELVES!! *sighs wistfully* oh, the beasties. on their debut/previous album they were lowkey annoying (SORRY I DO LIKE LICENSED TO ILL, IT JUST GETS A LIL TIRING AFTER A WHILE!!!), but finding their footing and mixed with all the samples here, they just sound so effortlessly cool. they totally sell the whole thing, it's a nice mix of vulgarity and chill (if that makes sense). their flow and style of swapping from guy to guy is so well-done, i just!!! i love it so much!!! i've always wanted to make a beasties animation, cos their raps just have such strong flow and energy that are very well suited to that medium. they are just such huge balls of personality, and their strong friendship really shows in the music. imo they're underrated, idc if they technically aren't underrated, I AM DYING ON THIS HILL. also rip mca i miss you sm </3

i've been into the beasties for a while, and i think i've had a different fav album of theirs each year, but i think paul's boutique is my actual fav forever. it hypes you up and makes you feel super cool, whether you're driving with your dad to the grocery store or walking downtown wearing a super awesome outfit. you just crank the volume up to 11 and enjoy yourself babey!! GET FUNK-AY!!!!

- favourite songs: 3 minute rule, car thief, the sounds of science, shake your rump, egg man, b-boy bouillabaisse

3. todd rundgren- a wizard, a true star (1973)

saved this one for last, because this is the only one that i would pick to be saved without even thinking about it. if you were gonna stomp 552 of my records into oblivion and only let me keep one, it would be this one, and it's because i don't think i'd be the same person i am today if this album didn't exist. for REAL. todd rundgren (the world's most underrated producer, songwriter, guitarist, music video innovator, etc...) is my favourite artist FOREVER OF ALL TIME and i love all of his albums to the moon and back, but i have such a blatant bias towards awats that i dont really listen to his other stuff that much (LOL)

knowing all that i do about him (because ive read his wikipedia article 500 times and own two books about him, including his lowkey terrible autobio), i think the thing that draws me the most to todd is his absolute "i dont give a fuck" attitude. for his entire career, he's basically just done whatever the hell he wants and not really cared about what makes the most money or appeals to the most people. if everyone's eating bananas, he's painting a carrot green and then gluing googly eyes onto it. in short, he's the type of person who purely makes music- and content in general- for himself, and i really think that awats shows that in the best way. he had great commercial success with his prev album something/anything, and had a huge new audience of pop radio listeners that were eager to hear more sappy soft rock or whatever. and you know what he does? guess. yeah, you got it, he makes a bonkers psychedelic trip prog-electronic fusion album that completely alienates his entire new normie fanbase, and then goes on an unintelligible prog tangent for the rest of the 70s, to the point where you'd have to be a pretty dedicated fan to stay interested (i am. i love the prog era. todd and initiation fuck).

awats is just kinda... unapologetic. before this todd had "fuck it" insane moments on his albums, but they were kinda few and far between, this is entirely him just doing WHATEVER. the first side of the record is just random song fragments, completely unrelated to each other, but at the same time it's just so insane that it kinda makes sense i guess?? to a reg person this is probably all a bunch of random noises and screams, but to ME it is a cinematic, passionate work of art from one of music's most brilliant and creative personalities. getting into the specifics of why i like the music so much will get redundant and long, so i'm not gonna get into it. but lemme just say that the one thing this album has over the others is that i do not dislike a single song on here. not even a little bit. with white music & paul's boutique, there are songs that i'm just okay on, but awats has a ""song"" that is literally just dog noises and i still like it. everything about it is just... idk. hashtag perf.

even if the music sucked, or it had no artistic integrity, it would still be my favourite of all time because of the emotional significance it has for me. awats entered my life during a really difficult time, where i was miserable all the time and hated myself. i felt like i had no purpose in life or no friends to turn to, so having a cool album and guy to obsess over numbed the pain. the other two album picks have helped me thru some hard times too, but awats has so many memories and emotions attached to it, good and bad. i remember laying in bed and crying listening to sometimes i dont know what to feel, but i ALSO remember bouncing down the street singing along to you don't have to camp around. my all-time favourite record shopping experience when i was at my first record fair in 2019, anxiously searching all the huge crates, then magically finding a copy of it in all its glory.. with some random guy's name scrawled across the beautiful back cover. i actually gasped out loud and jumped all around the room, i could barely even contain my excitement. i don't think any other album i own or will own can replicate that feeling for me, just absolute glee and euphoria but also comfort and solitude. tl;dr... it means the world to me and it's my fave album ever. the end.

- favourite songs (EVEN THO YOU SHOULD LISTEN TO IT IN ORDER) : international feel/le feel internacionale, never never land, just one victory, sometimes i dont know what to feel, the medley, when shit hits the fan, zen archer

~~

forever appreciative to you for asking me this vezzie!! i love to talk about my records :> hopefully it won't be too hard to sift through this hell post!

[hoochy-coo]

For some reason I feel like I need to defend myself cause I'm not a belieber by any means and I get irritated when we get an earnest and honest pop culture discussion and it will always end with "you're just a biased stan" "you're a hater." Cause you've been so objective and we were really just discussing the main pop boys around. I am not a stan of any of these boys. But I think it's fair to admit Purpose was a huge era. Bigger than any other pop boy save for Divide probably if we call Ed a popstar. Sorry was a huge single and I would argue it's the same level or may be even more impactful than Blinding Lights.

I am in no way denying Fine Line is a big era. But I will still say it's no Purpose and none of his singles touch Sorry or Love Yourself. I also think 1989, MBDTF, Purpose are on a different level because they were both quality albums and the narrative and publicity surrounding them. In short it was meant to be huge and it just needed the artist and their team to cooperate and bring out quality. 1989 was Taylor pushing herself to every single thing imaginable, creating a pr that made her reach every base, living her life on a fishbowl, a narrative of I'm an adult now and I'm a popstar. MBDTF was Kanye's comeback after America or maybe even the world deemed him a villain. It was Kanye proving he is a genius and the quality of his music will be above of any of his bullshit. It was emotional return as no matter what people try to twist, they made his stunt at the VMAs into an opportunity for racist attacks towards him. It's regarded as one or even the best album to be released on the 2010s. Purpose was Bieber's redemption arc after he was so close to destroying both his image and himself. They made the whole thing into a redemption arc, even the roast of Justin Bieber and Carpool Karaoke was meant to show oh he's got his head chilled now. People wanted him to fail, but they released singles that were undeniably bops and would be a hit to the gp one after another. In a year where Drake, Rih, Adele, Ariana all released music he had the top 2 singles on the Billboard Year End charts.

We're having an earnest pop culture discussion here and I hope it won't end with stan wars. I agree with other anons, Charlie blows them all out of the park in terms of raw talent but he just doesn't have enough IT factor and his personality is annoying. But I think a lot of people assume Bieber got here just cause of Scooter's manipulation and cause the tabloids were on him a lot. Both of those were major factors but Bieber is a legitimate talent and he was born with all the right factors to be a musician. He has both the star factor and the innate musical talent. Like your anons said he's a natural and is a white guy born with both rhythm and the melody. He had the luck of the right timing but he also undoubtedly worked hard to get where he is. We all dislike this guy's personality, but pop culture wise he is BIG and he didn't get there because of a fluke and it's valid to discuss him because he is relevant to pop culture.

“I also think 1989, MBDTF, Purpose are on a different level because they were both quality albums and the narrative and publicity surrounding them. In short it was meant to be huge and it just needed the artist and their team to cooperate and bring out quality.” I really agree with this!

Just to add, MBDTF had a roll out of a lifetime. He made G.O.O.D. Friday a thing and was dropping quality demos every Friday for a few months to tease the album and people were sitting around in anticipation every week to see what Ye would be putting out next and who would feature as well. It also doubled as a marketing tactic for Ye’s label, GOOD Music, and pushed a lot of those artist’s career i.e. Big Sean, Cy Hi the Prince, Lloyd Banks, etc. Half of those songs didn’t even end up on the album itself but anyone who was into hip-hop at the time probably still remember how iconic those tracks were and can agree that a lot of them were some of his best work (Christian Dior Denim flow, G.O.O.D. Friday, Looking For Trouble - which most hip-hope heads would agree helped launched J.Cole’s career since his verse destroyed everyone else’s except maybe Pusha T). People have never experienced an album roll-out of that level before and it truly changed the way artists, especially rappers, plan out their roll-outs. Not to mention Runaway got a feature-length film treatment for its visual, which was unheard of the time.

Ok but remember when Justin Bieber was one of the very first pop artists to hop onto the hip-hop/trap wave before it blew up? He had a feature on the G.O.O.D. Friday roll-out and a feature on Travis Scott’s Rodeo? He truly was ahead of the curve tbh. Like I think JB rightfully should get dragged for being a culture vulture but he also put a lot of black artists on and brought attention to them when most white artists would have not wanted to associate with them. Now hip-hop is hot and EVERYONE wants an eight bar on their bridge lol