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Post by neverduplicated on Oct 25, 2010 3:40:24 GMT -5
Okay, so I'm in love with this album. But I just want to complain about Itunes for just a minute. I bought the countdown singles because I was anxious to hear some songs from the album and figured the album would be cheaper when it came out. But then I see Itunes is charging $13.99 for the album. For reals? I know they're trying to cash in on the fact that hardcore Taylor fans are going to pay whatever price to get the album, but still. I found the album on amazon.com for only $8, which for me is actually cheaper than completing the album anyway (though I don't see that option anyway). So yeah, I'm never buying Itunes countdown singles again.
But more importantly, I love this album to death! Though a few of the songs don't really do it for me (Sparks Fly, The Story of Us, Better than Revenge), there are some AMAZING songs on here. I like the new slow, brooding, reflective Taylor that I'm finding on tracks like Dear John, Enchanted, Innocent, and Last Kiss. To me those tracks + Mean stand out the most simply because of how different they are for are. Also love Mine (say what you want, it's a very powerful song), Back to December, and Haunted. The title track is also quite good, and I appreciate its playfulness and how the lyrics really paint a picture. I'm on the fence about Long Live. Not a bad song, but musically it sounds like a lesser version of Change. But even the tracks I'm not crazy about I do like, and as a whole, the album works really well except for Better than Revenge which seems too childish and petty to be on the album.
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Post by justlurkingaround on Oct 25, 2010 4:24:03 GMT -5
Okay, so I'm in love with this album. But I just want to complain about Itunes for just a minute. I bought the countdown singles because I was anxious to hear some songs from the album and figured the album would be cheaper when it came out. But then I see Itunes is charging $13.99 for the album. For reals? I know they're trying to cash in on the fact that hardcore Taylor fans are going to pay whatever price to get the album, but still. I found the album on amazon.com for only $8, which for me is actually cheaper than completing the album anyway (though I don't see that option anyway). So yeah, I'm never buying Itunes countdown singles again. But more importantly, I love this album to death! Though a few of the songs don't really do it for me (Sparks Fly, The Story of Us, Better than Revenge), there are some AMAZING songs on here. I like the new slow, brooding, reflective Taylor that I'm finding on tracks like Dear John, Enchanted, Innocent, and Last Kiss. To me those tracks + Mean stand out the most simply because of how different they are for are. Also love Mine (say what you want, it's a very powerful song), Back to December, and Haunted. The title track is also quite good, and I appreciate its playfulness and how the lyrics really paint a picture. I'm on the fence about Long Live. Not a bad song, but musically it sounds like a lesser version of Change. But even the tracks I'm not crazy about I do like, and as a whole, the album works really well except for Better than Revenge which seems too childish and petty to be on the album. I contacted them about this. I'll let you know what they say. iTunes update: 010. Mean 019. Mine 024. Back To December 055. Speak Now 100. Sparks Fly 115. Dear John 116. The Story Of Us 122. Innocent 136. Better Than Revenge 142. Haunted 145. Enchanted 150. Last Kiss 155. Long Live 157. Never Grow Up I knew it! Sparks Fly getting the most downloads
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Kyla
Platinum Member
Joined: January 2007
Posts: 1,013
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Post by Kyla on Oct 25, 2010 4:30:40 GMT -5
Taylor buying her CD at Starbucks in NYC at midnight: LINKYou'd think she would look a little happier? She looks tired and/or sick. Hopefully just a little tired. Her promotional schedule is crazy this week.
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👑 Eloquent ™
Diamond Member
TSC: Certified Member
Joined: September 2007
Posts: 21,971
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Post by 👑 Eloquent ™ on Oct 25, 2010 4:37:32 GMT -5
Yeah, she looks exhausted! Maybe she just woke up?
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Post by justlurkingaround on Oct 25, 2010 4:38:27 GMT -5
I think she looks cute though
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Kyla
Platinum Member
Joined: January 2007
Posts: 1,013
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Post by Kyla on Oct 25, 2010 4:41:50 GMT -5
Yeah, she looks exhausted! Maybe she just woke up? They just got back from Europe recently. Maybe yesterday or the day before? So she might have some jet lag too. And she made a comment when she was there that she's the busiest she's ever been in her life right now and that has to be saying something. So I'm sure she's exhausted. But hopefully the new album excitement will kick in and help her get through all the media stuff she has coming up this week.
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Post by heartbreaklullaby on Oct 25, 2010 5:58:49 GMT -5
010. Mean 019. Mine 024. Back To December 055. Speak Now 056. Sparks Fly 066. The Story Of Us 069. Dear John 070. Innocent 074. Better Than Revenge 083. Enchanted 084. Haunted 086. Never Grow Up 087. Last Kiss 090. Long Live
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Post by heartbreaklullaby on Oct 25, 2010 6:29:04 GMT -5
You'd think she would look a little happier? She looks tired and/or sick. Hopefully just a little tired. Her promotional schedule is crazy this week. She was supposed to perform on Schlag den Raab in Germany last Saturday, but her performance was cancelled due to sickness. I hope she has recovered by now.
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JamaicaFunk²
Diamond Member
Will & Grace!
Joined: January 2005
Posts: 13,797
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Post by JamaicaFunk² on Oct 25, 2010 6:47:13 GMT -5
The album is $8 on amazon mp3. Makes up for the lack of "complete my album" from iTunes. Great price!!!
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👑 Eloquent ™
Diamond Member
TSC: Certified Member
Joined: September 2007
Posts: 21,971
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Post by 👑 Eloquent ™ on Oct 25, 2010 6:50:48 GMT -5
Taylor update:
10. Mean 19. Mine 25. Back To December 29. Sparks Fly 33. The Story of Us 36. Dear John 37. Innocent 41. Better Than Revenge 44. Haunted 45. Enchanted 46. Last Kiss 47. Never Grow Up 48. Long Live 65. Speak Now
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Post by justlurkingaround on Oct 25, 2010 7:03:10 GMT -5
The album is $8 on amazon mp3. Makes up for the lack of "complete my album" from iTunes. Great price!!! Yeah, but iTunes has geographical restrictions for those outside the United States. iTunes does not if you have a billing address. Still waiting
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Post by jumpupandburst on Oct 25, 2010 7:28:04 GMT -5
a great selection of songs from her new album....but i still think she should just come out saying she's more of a dynamic artist in terms of genre....most songs on this album don't sound country...i mean AT ALL...lol
hope she does well on the charts =). she should have crazy sales numbers on her first several weeks!
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Post by fullonrainstorm on Oct 25, 2010 7:38:04 GMT -5
Taylor in her own words describing each song(taken from her Comcast videos): SPARKS FLY The song Sparks Fly is about falling for someone who maybe you shouldn’t fall for. Uh but you can’t stop yourself because there’s such a connection, there’s such a chemistry. Uh this is a song that I wrote a few years ago and uhm had been working on it ever since in the last 2 years. Just honing on in little lyrics and just changing lyrics. Uhm so it’s been really awesome to see it change over the years. The fans have heard it before in concert but there have been some really cool changes that I’m very proud of and can’t wait for them to hear. DEAR JOHN The song Dear John is sort of like the last email you would ever send someone who you used to be in a relationship with. And uh usually people write this venting last email to someone and they say everything that they want to say to that person and then they usually don’t send it but uh I guess by putting this song on the album, I guess I’m pushing send. NEVER GROW UP Never Grow Up is a song about the fact that I don’t know how I feel about growing up. It’s tricky. Uhm you know growing up happens without you knowing it, growing up is such a crazy concept cause a lot of times when you were younger, you wish you were older. And I look out into a crowd every night and see a lot of girls that are my age going through exactly the same things that I’m going through. Then I see, every once in a while I look down and I see a little girl whose 7 or 8 and uhm I wish I could tell her all of this. You know, there she is becoming who she’s going to be and forming her thoughts and terms and opinions. I wrote this song for those little girls. ENCHANTED Enchanted is a song that I wrote about a guy who I was enchanted to meet. Obviously. He was a guy that I had talked to a couple of times on email but I hadn’t met him and then I went to meet him. I met him in New York. I remember just the whole way home thinking ‘I hope he’s not in love with somebody’ like uhm it was just wonderful. It’s like that feeling like ‘OMG, Whose it with? Does he like me? Does he like somebody else? What does it mean?’ And I got home and I opened my email and he had emailed me and said something like ‘Oh sorry I was so quiet. I was wonderstruck meeting you.’ And so I incorporated the word wonderstruck into the song sort of as a ‘hey this one’s sort of for you…’ cause I don’t think he knows that I feel this way at all soo…. BETTER THAN REVENGE The song Better Than Revenge is about a girl who uhm a few years ago stole my boyfriend. I think she probably thought that I forgot about it but I didn’t. INNOCENT The song Innocent is about something that really intensely affected me emotionally and uh it took a while to write this one. I was fortunate enough to get a chance to perform this song at the VMAs and it’s the first time that anyone ever heard it. And uh putting out an album called Speak Now where you’re supposed to say what you feel when you know how you feel, I felt that performing that song on that particular award show was appropriate so I hope everyone likes this one. HAUNTED This song is about the moment that you realize that the person you love is drifting and fading fast. And you don’t know what to do. You just start scrambling and uhm it’s sort of like in that period of time, in that phase of love when it’s fading out, time moves so slowly. Everything hinges on what their last text message said and if that means anything, what did that tone mean when he said that. Well it’s kinda falling out of love and that’s a really heartbreaking and tragic thing to go through because the whole time you’re trying to tell yourself that it’s not happening. Uhm and I went through this and I ended up waking up in the middle of the night writing this song about it. LAST KISS The song Last Kiss is sort of like a letter to somebody uh that just say all of these desperate, hopeless feelings that you have after a breakup. You know, going through a breakup you feel all of these different things. You feel anger, and you feel confusion and frustration but then there’s the absolute sadness. The sadness of losing this person, of losing all of the memories and all of the hopes you had for the future. There are times when you just have this moment of truth and you admit to yourself that you miss all of these things. When I was in one of those moments, I wrote this song. LONG LIVE This song is about my band and my producer and all the people who have helped build this brick by brick. The fans, the people who I feel are in it together. It talks about the triumphant moments that we’ve had in the last two years. I’ve had a lot of different kinds of moments in the past two years but there’s been a lot of triumphant ones where we just jump up and down and dance like we don’t care how we’re dancing and just scream at the top of our lungs ‘how’s this happening?’ and I feel very lucky to even have had one of those moments none the less all the ones that I got to have. I wrote a song about how I feel reflecting on it. This song for me is like looking at a photo album of all the award shows and all the stadium shows and all the hands in the air in the crowd. It’s sort of the first love song I’ve written to my team. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Also her message taken from the CD booklet:
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Post by heartbreaklullaby on Oct 25, 2010 7:38:26 GMT -5
Taylor Update: 10. Mean 19. Mine 25. Back To December 26. Sparks Fly 32. The Story of Us 33. Dear John 34. Innocent 37. Better Than Revenge 42. Haunted 43. Enchanted 46. Last Kiss 47. Never Grow Up 48. Long Live 65. Speak Now
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Mark
3x Platinum Member
Joined: March 2005
Posts: 3,029
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Post by Mark on Oct 25, 2010 7:39:28 GMT -5
Just bought it at Target :)
:shaking and crying:
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Deleted
Joined: January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Oct 25, 2010 7:46:14 GMT -5
Is she making TV appearances this week?
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tamed09
Diamond Member
Top Notch
Joined: November 2007
Posts: 11,219
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Post by tamed09 on Oct 25, 2010 7:47:28 GMT -5
Target as well just got back 20 minutes ago.
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Post by heartbreaklullaby on Oct 25, 2010 7:55:50 GMT -5
Is she making TV appearances this week? Today's schedule: Taylor Swift's Live Video Streaming Event Contest winners from as far away as Australia are traveling this weekend to attend Monday's (Oct. 25) video streaming event, Speak Now: Taylor Swift Live From New York City. The party and performance celebrating Monday's release of Swift's new album, Speak Now, will be streamed live at 7 p.m. ET on CMT.com, MTV.com, VH1.com and other MTV Networks websites in Europe, Asia, Australia and Latin America. Following the event, which will be attended by contest winners from throughout the world, a select number of grand prize winners will fly with Swift from New York to Los Angeles. En route, the winners will be conducting live radio interviews with her. The event is one of many media appearances and promotions Swift has scheduled to promote the arrival of Speak Now. www.cmt.com/news/news-in-brief/1650660/taylor-swifts-live-video-streaming-event-new-album-arrive-monday.jhtml
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Post by jumpupandburst on Oct 25, 2010 7:57:56 GMT -5
i heard the promotional schedule is going to be crazy...hope she gets a good nights sleep!
wow...that would be so awesome to be one of those fans to fly cross country with her...what a great prize for a contest!
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Post by justlurkingaround on Oct 25, 2010 8:24:37 GMT -5
Taylor in her own words describing each song(taken from her Comcast videos): SPARKS FLY The song Sparks Fly is about falling for someone who maybe you shouldn’t fall for. Uh but you can’t stop yourself because there’s such a connection, there’s such a chemistry. Uh this is a song that I wrote a few years ago and uhm had been working on it ever since in the last 2 years. Just honing on in little lyrics and just changing lyrics. Uhm so it’s been really awesome to see it change over the years. The fans have heard it before in concert but there have been some really cool changes that I’m very proud of and can’t wait for them to hear. DEAR JOHN The song Dear John is sort of like the last email you would ever send someone who you used to be in a relationship with. And uh usually people write this venting last email to someone and they say everything that they want to say to that person and then they usually don’t send it but uh I guess by putting this song on the album, I guess I’m pushing send. NEVER GROW UP Never Grow Up is a song about the fact that I don’t know how I feel about growing up. It’s tricky. Uhm you know growing up happens without you knowing it, growing up is such a crazy concept cause a lot of times when you were younger, you wish you were older. And I look out into a crowd every night and see a lot of girls that are my age going through exactly the same things that I’m going through. Then I see, every once in a while I look down and I see a little girl whose 7 or 8 and uhm I wish I could tell her all of this. You know, there she is becoming who she’s going to be and forming her thoughts and terms and opinions. I wrote this song for those little girls. ENCHANTED Enchanted is a song that I wrote about a guy who I was enchanted to meet. Obviously. He was a guy that I had talked to a couple of times on email but I hadn’t met him and then I went to meet him. I met him in New York. I remember just the whole way home thinking ‘I hope he’s not in love with somebody’ like uhm it was just wonderful. It’s like that feeling like ‘OMG, Whose it with? Does he like me? Does he like somebody else? What does it mean?’ And I got home and I opened my email and he had emailed me and said something like ‘Oh sorry I was so quiet. I was wonderstruck meeting you.’ And so I incorporated the word wonderstruck into the song sort of as a ‘hey this one’s sort of for you…’ cause I don’t think he knows that I feel this way at all soo…. BETTER THAN REVENGE The song Better Than Revenge is about a girl who uhm a few years ago stole my boyfriend. I think she probably thought that I forgot about it but I didn’t. INNOCENT The song Innocent is about something that really intensely affected me emotionally and uh it took a while to write this one. I was fortunate enough to get a chance to perform this song at the VMAs and it’s the first time that anyone ever heard it. And uh putting out an album called Speak Now where you’re supposed to say what you feel when you know how you feel, I felt that performing that song on that particular award show was appropriate so I hope everyone likes this one. HAUNTED This song is about the moment that you realize that the person you love is drifting and fading fast. And you don’t know what to do. You just start scrambling and uhm it’s sort of like in that period of time, in that phase of love when it’s fading out, time moves so slowly. Everything hinges on what their last text message said and if that means anything, what did that tone mean when he said that. Well it’s kinda falling out of love and that’s a really heartbreaking and tragic thing to go through because the whole time you’re trying to tell yourself that it’s not happening. Uhm and I went through this and I ended up waking up in the middle of the night writing this song about it. LAST KISS The song Last Kiss is sort of like a letter to somebody uh that just say all of these desperate, hopeless feelings that you have after a breakup. You know, going through a breakup you feel all of these different things. You feel anger, and you feel confusion and frustration but then there’s the absolute sadness. The sadness of losing this person, of losing all of the memories and all of the hopes you had for the future. There are times when you just have this moment of truth and you admit to yourself that you miss all of these things. When I was in one of those moments, I wrote this song. LONG LIVE This song is about my band and my producer and all the people who have helped build this brick by brick. The fans, the people who I feel are in it together. It talks about the triumphant moments that we’ve had in the last two years. I’ve had a lot of different kinds of moments in the past two years but there’s been a lot of triumphant ones where we just jump up and down and dance like we don’t care how we’re dancing and just scream at the top of our lungs ‘how’s this happening?’ and I feel very lucky to even have had one of those moments none the less all the ones that I got to have. I wrote a song about how I feel reflecting on it. This song for me is like looking at a photo album of all the award shows and all the stadium shows and all the hands in the air in the crowd. It’s sort of the first love song I’ve written to my team. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Also her message taken from the CD booklet: I hate iTunes. They still didn't allow me to complete the album and I'm dying to get the booklet. This is epic :'(
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Joe1240
6x Platinum Member
Taylor Swift-The Best in Pop & Country Music!
Joined: September 2003
Posts: 6,959
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Post by Joe1240 on Oct 25, 2010 8:44:43 GMT -5
Is she making TV appearances this week? This is the week's schedule for Taylor- October 25th-MTV.com Stream Oct. 26 – The Today Show – performance October 26th-Late Show With David Letterman October 27th-Regis & Kelly November 2010 November 1st-Ellen November 2nd-Dancing With The Stars
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Post by shamrock1987 on Oct 25, 2010 8:52:21 GMT -5
10. Mean - Taylor Swift 17. Sparks Fly - Taylor Swift 21. Mine - Taylor Swift 23. The Story of Us - Taylor Swift 24. Dear John - Taylor Swift 26. Innocent - Taylor Swift 29. Back to December - Taylor Swift 30. Better Than Revenge - Taylor Swift 35. Haunted - Taylor Swift 36. Enchanted - Taylor Swift 38. Last Kiss - Taylor Swift 39. Never Grow Up - Taylor Swift 40. Long Live - Taylor Swift 65. Speak Now - Taylor Swift
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austin
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Pulse Survivor Sri Lanka Sole Survivor
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Post by austin on Oct 25, 2010 8:54:48 GMT -5
I really like the album. I think "Dear John" was sort of overhyped for me. It's a great song, but it's way too long and far from the album highlight for me.
She has some big hits on this record, but the majority of it is an artistic album that is much less "instant" than Fearless, but that's a GOOD thing. This album is much stronger than her previous ones, I just wish a few of the songs weren't so slow and/or long.
My favorites are "Haunted", "Story of Us", "Mean", 'Sparks Fly' and probably 'Enchanted', which I expected to hate.
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Post by kt1990 on Oct 25, 2010 9:11:46 GMT -5
Jonathan Keefe of Slant Magazine gave it a semi-decent review. His criticisms, were pretty spot-on, IMHO, tbh.
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Post by jumpupandburst on Oct 25, 2010 9:31:41 GMT -5
I don't know if the album is more mature...if mature means "staying away from pure pop." i love how she has a lot of rock/pop/alternative songs on this album. eg. haunted, better than revenge..etc. don't know if this a more mature picture of her...but the lyrics and composure are more refined to make it sound like a more mature album. the concepts are still about her prior experiences...which can be meant to mean she's maturing...
i really like this album...and she's smart to keep the country genre/fans association...though this album sounds like an alternative album more than country.
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Post by justlurkingaround on Oct 25, 2010 9:37:58 GMT -5
10. Mean - Taylor Swift 13. Sparks Fly - Taylor Swift 17. The Story of Us - Taylor Swift 18. Dear John - Taylor Swift 19. Innocent - Taylor Swift 24. Better Than Revenge - Taylor Swift 25. Mine - Taylor Swift 27. Haunted - Taylor Swift 28. Enchanted - Taylor Swift 30. Last Kiss - Taylor Swift 32. Never Grown Up - Taylor Swift 34. Long Live - Taylor Swift 35. Back To December - Taylor Swift 66. Speak Now - Taylor Swift
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Stephen
Gold Member
Captain of Carrie's Shade Patrol
Joined: January 2011
Posts: 786
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Post by Stephen on Oct 25, 2010 9:52:41 GMT -5
Jonathan Keefe of Slant Magazine gave it a semi-decent review. His criticisms, were pretty spot-on, IMHO, tbh. I actually kind of agree with the part about Mean. As much as I like the song, the "drunk and grumbling about how I can't sing" is kind of annoying because she really, to be honest, can't. It wouldn't bug me if the song wasn't about calling people out for being mean since she did just diss someone for being a whore on BTR. I don't know, minor qualms for an otherwise impeccable album.
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applechic
Charting
Joined: August 2010
Posts: 399
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Post by applechic on Oct 25, 2010 10:00:29 GMT -5
Jonathan Keefe of Slant Magazine gave it a semi-decent review. His criticisms, were pretty spot-on, IMHO, tbh. I don't know how he gave her 3 stars, then went on to bash her for 3/4 of the review. His criticisms were a little harsh...you can't just call her out for lacking self-awareness when it holds true for EVERY artist in the industry today.
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desertfloods
2x Platinum Member
Joined: July 2007
Posts: 2,433
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Post by desertfloods on Oct 25, 2010 10:13:43 GMT -5
Jonathan Keefe of Slant Magazine gave it a semi-decent review. His criticisms, were pretty spot-on, IMHO, tbh. I don't know how he gave her 3 stars, then went on to bash her for 3/4 of the review. His criticisms were a little harsh...you can't just call her out for lacking self-awareness when it holds true for EVERY artist in the industry today. He did spend like 3 whole paragraphs praising her songwriting and the impressively well-constructed songs though. TBH, I think the review is pretty accurate as well. ETA: Agree with Stephen on BTR vs Mean too.
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Post by heartbreaklullaby on Oct 25, 2010 10:17:13 GMT -5
9513 gave a pretty positive review www.the9513.com/album-review-taylor-swift-speak-now/Album Review: Taylor Swift – Speak Now Blake Boldt | October 25th, 2010 A preteen Taylor Swift, peering into her crystal ball, could hardly have imagined the great successes and loud failures that have marked her career so far. She’s sold thirteen million albums since 2006, staggering figures for a girl who is not yet allowed to drink outside her own apartment. She’s claimed the coveted Entertainer of the Year trophy from the good ol’ boys club of the Country Music Association. And earlier this year the young starlet won four Grammy Awards and was scheduled to perform a medley with Stevie Nicks. The evening will be most remembered, though, for the discussion surrounding Swift’s wobbly, out-of-tune vocals. Her choppy performance soon initiated one of music’s greatest rivalries: Taylor Swift vs. the critics. As the hype machine whirred at a hurried pace, Swift set about challenging her detractors and has now delivered one of the most intriguing albums of the year. Speak Now confronts the criticisms about her live vocals with “Mean,” a hoedown throwdown that barely masks her disgust at the haters. As a banjo plays in the background, she imagines a drunk critic in a dimly-lit bar “talking all about how I can’t sing.” The painful realities of Swift’s growing up—personally and professionally—are reflected in her spasms of anger. She may be the most gracious performer in popular music, but she’s a spiteful menace when she gets into the studio. The calmer moments on Speak Now, then, are also the least compelling. “Innocent,” inspired by Kanye West’s tantrum at last fall’s MTV Video Awards, has all the marks of a condolence call to the boastful rapper. “Never Grow Up,” a soft lullaby sung to an infant relative, passes by with barely a notice. Swift is most powerful when she’s not holding her peace. Few singers are so frank in their a public forum as she is. On “Better than Revenge,” a caustic rebuke of a romantic rival, she declares her intentions: “You might have him,” she sneers over a pop-punk beat, “But I always get the last word.” That rooster y remark is a Cliffs Notes summary of Speak Now. (In fact, the album, with its wordy passages, is a dense work and begins to wear thin around Track 13.) Swift’s ill-fated romances, so often splashed across the tabloids, are relived here with her own brutally candid commentary. Speak Now exposes Swift’s biggest weakness. It’s not her singing voice, as some might expect, but her appetite for lanky, dark-haired young men. Her paramours–Twilight hunk Taylor Lautner, GLEE star Cory Monteith, Joe Jonas—remain anonymous and ready fodder for journalists scouring the lyric sheet for clues. The best song here offers a big exception. “Dear John,” a dark account of Swift’s brief dalliance with rock star John Mayer, seethes with a newfound intensity. A small reminder that she’s no longer a kid, she admits that the romance sprung forth without parental permission: “My mother accused me of losing my mind,” she mourns. “But I swore I was fine.” Mayer’s trademark blues guitar licks are mimicked as Swift claims victory in their lover’s quarrel: “I’m shining like fireworks over your sad, empty town.” Swift appears to be saved by her own common sense before her fairy tale turned into a cautionary tale. No matter how many bad days she’s dodged, she’s emerged with her inner contentment intact. Speak Now will be known as her diary for tit-for-tat diatribes, but there’s a good dose of Swift sweetness as well. Songs like “The Story of Us,” a sharp piece of emo pop, and the goth-lite ballad “Haunted” express a wistful melancholy for love affairs that couldn’t withstand the pressures of fame or fickle hormones. If it’s not exactly a happy ending, it’s at least a hopeful one. For a massive star like Swift, pressure is a privilege. It brings out the best in some entertainers and the worst in others, and the former teenage queen sounds ready to rise to the challenge.Country music , where Swift still belongs despite the grander scope of her arrangements, is centered on the heart’s conflicts. By laying bare her flaws, she’s figured out a way to shine all the more brightly. 4 stars.
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