Tag: Taylor Swift

Having just wrapped up the record breaking Eras Tour, Taylor Swift may just be looking for some well earned downtime. Way back in April she released her 11^th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department. The album broke streaming records upon release and she has just recently released physical copies of the album’s Anthology edition, offering up another 15 tracks that she wrote and recorded with her main collaborators – Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner.

The first single, “Fortnight” features Post Malone on a downtempo sound about the mundane tensions that can run through the suburbs. The title track is a mix of pop and country as the sponge like Swift absorbs the culture around her as she name drops “You’re not Dylan Thomas, I’m not Patti Smith/This ain’t the Chelsea Hotel”. “Down Bad” sees Swift beam up into stardust just to be left naked and alone on a synthy R+B track while “Florida” sung with Florence Welch ratchets up the Lana Del Rey vibes.

Like most of her albums, the lyrics have been examined a million times over looking for clues on who the songs are about. Almost every track on the album has it’s own Wikipedia page which does not happen for most artists but such is Swift’s immense popularity and interest in her private life. “So Long, London” leaves behind her British boyfriend where she sings “You say I abandoned the ship/but I was going down with it” over a beat that sounds a like a racing heart. After a few slower tracks, “I Can Do it with a Broken Heart” brings back the bright coloured lights as she acknowledges that “you know you’re good when you can even do it with a broken heart”.

The Tortured Poets Department follow the same path of some of her recent albums with similar pros and cons.  It’s an odd quirk that it’s almost immediately apparent with within the first few bars of each track you can tell whether it’s going to be a great one or just OK.  Coming at 17 tracks, including the bonus “The Manuscript”, it’s a bit long and could use some trimming to make it a leaner listening experience. But the good points are all there – the production is impeccable and Swift’s lyrical wordplay is always intriguing.  This slick team is really good at what they do.

7.5/10

The headlines that Taylor Swift has generated for her latest album, Midnights and her next tour have been staggering.  1.5 million units sold in its first week on sale, broken Spotify records for streams, and 10 songs in the top 10 singles chart.  When tickets for her 2023 concerts went on sale, it not only broke the hearts of fans left out of getting their hands on one but also broke Ticketmaster.

Music wise, first single “Anti-Hero” is a deep look at Swift’s own insecurities where she claims, “I’ll stare directly at the sun but never in the mirror” over a mid-tempo pop beat. Once again working with Jack Antonoff in the producer chair, Swift sings with Lana Del Rey on “Snow on the Beach”. Their voices intertwine beautifully on the chorus on a track about lovers falling in love at the same time. Shimmering synths flow through “Bejeweled” before the sumptuous atmosphere of “Labryinth” that sees the protagonist fall in love after a hard break up, “I thought the plane was goin’ down/How’d you turn it right around?”

The colour “Maroon” runs through a relationship like “rust that grew between telephones” on the moody electronic track.  “Karma” recalls early noughties indie rock/electronic act CSS before the album closes with the bubbling synths of “Mastermind” where childhood trauma turns the protagonist into a scheming genius.  A few tracks lack some of Swift’s clever wordplay and could have been sung by anyone.  But far more often than not, Taylor Swift delivers a great pop songs on Midnights.

8/10

In the summer of 2020, Taylor Swift stunned everyone by surprise releasing the album folklore.  The album topped both the charts and was high on year end critics’ polls.  In another surprise twist, Swift pulled the same trick and released it’s sister album evermore. Once again using Aaron Dessner from The National as a main producer is a continuing departure for the country pop star.  The sole track done with long time favourite Jack Antonoff is a stunner, “gold rush” compares “your hair falling into place like dominoes” over a drum machine beat.

Throughout the album, her lyrics and storytelling are often picture perfect. Swift visits her country origins on several songs including “champagne problems” where the protagonist turns down a marriage proposal and imagines another girl will “patch up your tapestry that I shred”.  First single, “willow” is laid back and compares her man to a number of different items.  “marjorie” is reportedly about her maternal grandmother who was an opera singer and how she left “all your closets of backlogged dreams”.

Like on folklore, Justin Vernon aka Bon Iver makes an appearance on the title track which also features a beautiful piano line.  The National’s Matt Berninger has been making the duet rounds recently and appears on “Coney Island” while sister group Haim appear on the crime story of “no body, no crime”.

Along with a Disney + release of the folklore special in November 2020, this release of another 17 songs included in the deluxe copy from December shows just how busy Swift was during the pandemic.    Whereas folklore was consistently great, evermore is consistently very good.  There is a wealth of riches to be found in both release as Taylor continues to expand her sound and empire.

8/10