Let us go then, you and I/When the evening is spread out against the sky/Like a tight end playing in the Super Bowl -- The Tortured Poets Department, Taylor Swift, April 19

It is happening, again.

All’s fair in love and poetry... New album THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT. Out April 19 🤍https://t.co/WdrCmvLHyA

📷: Beth Garrabrant pic.twitter.com/CCPhmSZ2UD

— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) February 5, 2024

Jeez Biden already gave her a Cabinet post

At this rate, the next Super Bowl will just be Taylor Swift, with the game taking place at halftime.

It would be a better allocation of resources.

Lana should sue.

The Ever-popular Tortured Artist Affect

she is so embarrassing, can't wait

It must be exhausting always torturing all these poets

As Chris Molanphy noted elsewhere, Taylor's now the first four-time album of the year Grammy winner. Let's see if this eventually makes it five...

re: the terrible album title, her ex's group chat name was apparently The Tortured Man Club

lol at the one announced track title (a bonus track) being “The Manuscript”

So that's what's going to save America from Trump

I like the name of the album.

somewhere, Jewel is weeping

Dead Poets Society ref, one presumes? Sorry if I am the last person in the universe to get that joke

Her longest album title to date was Taylor Swift.

The Yeah, I Showed Up at Your Poetry Open Mic Chapter

she must've seen all the long titles in the top 77 this year

heh

Oh my god you thought the ALBUM TITLE was bad.

The song title list is terrifying.

we need a poll of the song titles stat

SIDE A:

Fortnight (ft. Post Malone)
The Tortured Poets Department
My Boy Only Breaks His Favourite Toys
Down Bad

SIDE B:

So Long, London
But Daddy, I Love Him
Fresh Out The Slammer
Florida!!! (ft. Florence + the Machine)

SIDE C:

Guilty as Sin?
Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?
I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)
loml

SIDE D:

I Can Do It With A Broken Heart
The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived
The Alchemy
Clara Bow
Bonus Track: The Manuscript

it lost me with “ft. Post Malone”

just thankful it wasn't "Fortnite (ft. Post Malone)"

I did worry that is what it was at first

“reputation, but even more embarrassing”

seriously can’t wait

absolute value of om

lotta ppl learning about the original it girl tonight

https://i.ibb.co/zS1NSnn/Screenshot-20240205-201252-Chrome.jpg

I feel like she's truly jumped the shark, last night felt like a heel turn, but I guess we'll see...

(all I know is - I live in a very Taylor-unfriendly household, and I couldn't muster up the gumption to rep for her even feebly right now)

Oh do not ask, “What is it?’

"My Boy Only Breaks His Favourite Toys"
"But Daddy, I Love Him"
"The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived"
"Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?"

are you fucking kidding me

How you could list those but not "Fresh Out the Slammer"...

because that one didn't have some reference to being smol

"Fresh Out the Slammer" sounds like early Paramore title.

...or Sublime.

the song titles are a headfake to make people miss the evil messages of violence that each song will contain

Amnesty International Presents

SIDE A:

Fortnight (ft. Post Malone)
The Tortured Poets Department
My Boy Only Breaks His Favourite Toys
Down Bad

SIDE B:

So Long, London
But Daddy, I Love Him
Fresh Out The Slammer
Florida!!! (ft. Florence + the Machine)

SIDE C:

Guilty as Sin?
Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?
I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)
loml

SIDE D:

I Can Do It With A Broken Heart
The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived
The Alchemy
Clara Bow
Bonus Track: The Manuscript

― Tim F, Monday, February 5, 2024 7:54 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

I 100% unironically believed this entire list was inspired parody

April Fools

Are we sure this isn't coming out on April 1st.

hoping The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived is a Dr Demento-esque novelty track

"Iommi" is the Black Sabbath tribute Swifties had no idea they deserved.

What is this that stands before me?
Figure in black which points at me
Turn 'round quick and start to run
Find out I'm the chosen one
Hell, yeah!

Some people say my love can it be true
Happiness is your eyes when I'm kissing you

https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_fullsize/plain/did:plc:qpqyay6mqatzyyet3jdgxiwi/bafkreigbosz33xvvalqcchln6kixpudbgqjzpdu5bezi2mimikejrpq6iu@jpeg

lmao

i don't know what she's going for but i'm glad she's going for something at least

But Daddy I Love Him is now trending on Twitter

The Smallest Hands Who Ever Lived

deluxe version comes with a pop-up book featuring Travis Kelce

super deluxe same but uncensored pop-up

Clara Bowling Alley

Which is not to say that Taylor Swift is more famous than Bruce (or Jesus), but she is singular in some ways.

Arguably TS's ubiquity is part-premised on a slowdown or diminution in generational bracketing.

The generation gaps ain't what they used to be

Also I don't think Springsteen and Prince were equivalent to Thriller mania, nothing has been imo

Thriller’s first single was a duet with PM
Torturted Poets first single is a duet with PM

But what is her Billie Jean?

Charlie Puth

What is her “Bobby Jean”?

(I guess it’s “Dorothea”…)

"seven"

confused why radiohead came up here lol

It’s a little late for me to be properly cogent on this, but Taylor’s ubiquity is synergistic with the id of the state of the music industry, a Tetsuro of Spotify and late capitalism and Live Nation and everything else; Radiohead and Bruce and MJ and Prince could never (and arguably in most cases would never, MJ excluded I’m sure he would’ve)

Changes of heart!

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/04/26/entertainment/taylor-swift-album-quick-to-judge/index.html

It’s a multi-course meal that stipulates the person sit, with undivided attention, and focus on what is before them. Absorb the smells and the different ingredients designed to stimulate the palate.

It is unfeasible to appreciate the stories of heartbreak, romance, frustration and conquest that Swift cleverly narrates through two hours of unrelenting poetry. But that is where Swift shines. It is in the intricate, layered storytelling. And it is implausible to fully grasp the serpentine journey she leads listeners on with a quick cursory listen.

Sounds like a hostage statement:

“Those who swiftly write the album off in search of instant satisfaction will not. Those who give it the chance will likely come to love it – as have I.”

i feel like a lot of music fandom is basically Stockholm syndrome - it’s just that this writer has no skill so their defense of that vibe is particularly threadbare

“Gorgeous” and “Call It What You Want” are probably my favorite of her songs in terms of what I think of as “pop craft”… though neither was even a single, so I’m probably making a category error.

― rendered nugatory (morrisp), Friday, April 26, 2024 10:24 PM (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

Thanks for this post. Got me to go back and listen to Reputation for the first time in a while, and yeah, those two songs are ridiculously great.

Also this bridge!:

You make me so happy it turns back to sad
There's nothin' I hate more than what I can't have
You are so gorgeous, it makes me so mad
You make me so happy it turns back to sad
There's nothin' I hate more than what I can't have
Guess I'll just stumble on home to my cats... alone

I appreciate that she's pushed herself into new territories lyrically -- and I'm not saying the above are even good lyrics -- but most of TTPD is so overwritten compared to this.

@_@

xp Glad to have found a fellow traveler! (The Reputation-loving road can sometimes feel like lonely one...)

“Those who swiftly write the album off in search of instant satisfaction will not. Those who give it the chance will likely come to love it – as have I.”

That's what I always say about Miami Vice (2006).

Taylor Swift is going to finally write the Jose Yero breakup anthem we've been waiting for.

Those who give it the chance will likely come to love it – as have I.

Yeah Kristi Noem, jeez.

Taylor has the top 14 slots of the Hot 100

Taylor taking it over here: ITT: Tell The Beatles to Fuck Off

Well, yeah...

https://helios-i.mashable.com/imagery/articles/01WB7bBmscKnyMcMnE8LLtj/hero-image.fill.size_1248x702.v1611609541.jpg

Taylor has the top 14 slots of the Hot 100

Interesting to compare the chart positions with the tracklist order; "I Can Do it With a Broken Heart" is really punching above its weight.

1. Fortnight (1)
2. Down Bad (4)
3. I Can Do It With a Broken Heart (13)
4. The Tortured Poets Department (2)
5. So Long, London (5)
6. My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys (3)
7. But Daddy I Love Him (6)
8. Florida!!! (8)
9. Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me? (10)
10. Guilty as Sin? (9)
11. Fresh Out the Slammer (7)
12. loml (12)
13. The Alchemy (15)
14. The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived (14)

NOT IN TOP 14
I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can) (11)
Clara Bow (16)

I mean, iHeartRadio had a whole campaign to play nothing but the album on a bunch of stations the weekend it was released, so it's not Wolfman Jack carefully curating the tracks...

I assumed "Fortnight" was the only one getting any significant radio airplay and the rest were streams. Since "Fortnight" just happens to be the first track, I would expect chart positions that roughly matched the album sequence, because people are largely playing it in order but some of them don't finish it. So I was struck by one song that AFAIK is not a single being a notable exception to that.

SiriusXM is also running a 24/7 "Taylor's Versions" channel that leaned hard into this one once they were allowed to.

I stopped in Target last week for a few minutes; "Out of the Woods" was playing, I was bopping along... then it segued into a somber ballad that sounded like Taylor, but I wasn't entirely sure. I Shazam'd it – turned out to be "The Manuscript" (track 31 of the album!). Guess they programmed a DJ set...

Ross Douthat’s take on the album reinforces my view that the biggest problem with TS’s ubiquity is how people who can’t write well about music feel both empowered and obliged to make an exception in her case.

so she IS like the Beatles after all

I remember when George Will wrote a column about Springsteen.

Taylor has inspired a lot of pieces by non-music writers over the years. In the early days it was often stuff like "She's a bad example for my daughters because all she ever sings about is boys."

Yeah, and there was some fussing about slut-shaming in "Fifteen" (which I continue to think is a serious misreading of the song, and I feel like the subsequent catalog bears that out). More recently of course it's conservatives who worry about the example she's setting by not being normative enough, no husband or kids, no songs about God, etc. In all cases I think her chosen avatar — the pretty blonde who likes pretty dresses — fries some people's circuits so that they can't perceive or understand her as an individual artist.

I thought the slut shaming thing came from Better Than Revenge?

there was slut shaming discourse around both

In “Fifteen,” Swift sings about a girl who fell in love at age fifteen, stating that “Abigail gave everything she had,” her virginity, “to a boy who changed his mind.” I might not be an expert on this situation, but I am sure that Abigail has more to offer as a person than her virginity, and Swift’s placing a woman’s entire value on whether or not she has had sex before is troublesome to me as a woman, especially when the message is coming from someone who identifies as a feminist.

and the "is taylor swift feminist???" discourse prevailed for several years thereafter

Also, "is Taylor Swift the Aryan snow goddess?"

fifteen discourse was fun cuz it was so obviously the critics themselves who could not imagine abigail having something else to offer

wanted to share my friend isabel's piece about the lyrics on this record bc it's one of the better things i've read about taylor swift in a while, the section on "the manuscript" in particular https://wildandunwise.substack.com/p/im-just-a-notch-in-your-bedpost-but

In “Fifteen,” Swift sings about a girl who fell in love at age fifteen, stating that “Abigail gave everything she had,” her virginity, “to a boy who changed his mind.” I might not be an expert on this situation, but I am sure that Abigail has more to offer as a person than her virginity, and Swift’s placing a woman’s entire value on whether or not she has had sex before is troublesome to me as a woman, especially when the message is coming from someone who identifies as a feminist.

― Never fight uphill 'o me, boys! (President Keyes), Tuesday, April 30, 2024 9:58 AM (four hours ago)

who wrote this?

https://blog.washcoll.edu/wordpress/theelm/2013/10/hypocrite-posing-as-good-role-model/

wow that analysis is extremely off-base and i read a lot of college writing (as well as college student essays about TS)
needs revision, try again!

Christian sites seem really hectoring and disapproving about the lyrics to “But Daddy I Love Him”, which is kind of funny to watch.

I haven't read everything written about this album (who could!) but that song in particular I haven't really seen anyone give a socio-political gloss to even though it lends itself to it easily. I know the read on it is it's about her possessive fans, but it could be about plenty of other things.

Sarahs and Hannahs in their Sunday best
Clutching their pearls, sighing "What a mess"
I just learned these people try and save you
... cause they hate you

I think she was inspired by Sarah Brand’s “Red Dress”