Taylor Swift - "Lover" [New Album]

Well, if we're doing it:

"Bitches Brew"
"Gone To Earth"
"Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me"
"Harsh 70's Reality"
"Soliloquy For Lilith" (a triple LP, no less)
 
octophone said:
I can think of several brilliant long albums with no filler and several short ones that still have crap on them. The reason why albums have got shorter is down to attention spans, not a (necessary) return to quality control.
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Albums aren't getting shorter though. Quite the opposite.
 
lolly said:
Albums aren't getting shorter though. Quite the opposite.
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They were getting longer and longer during the last days of CDs as the primary forward - remember Ellie Goulding's reissues? I think "Halcyon Days" ended up being something like 27 tracks. But now albums are hitting the 40 minute mark again - Ariana Grande is probably in the vanguard here, releasing Sweetener and Thank U, Next about 8 months apart; 10 years ago, we'd have got "EXTRA SWEET EDITION" with all of "Thank U, Next" added to it.
 
Over the last five years, the average album has increased by 10 minutes, apparently.
 
The thing is, eveything is SO immediate now in terms of streaming/instant-grat, etc. that I don't think there's any real concept of albums in the way they used to be. At best now they're a way of dividing an artist's career up into "eras" - but even that's becoming more blurred (are 'Sweetener' and 'Thank U, Next' classed as different eras for Ariana?)

If streaming means you can have pretty much everything and anything you want, right now, then I think the onus has probably shifted for acts to try and flood their campaigns with songs to keep people interested and satisfied. I didn't feel hard done by when the Spice Girls released a ten-track debut album at the height of Spice-mania - but if they were launching now I think I would do.

It's almost as if the dynamic has shifted to "just release EVERYTHING you've recorded and I'll make my own album" - which I suppose is essentially what streaming has done.
 
Absolutely. And the death of the b side means the lesser tracks can just be thrown on the album to bulk it out. Not that every b side is a duff track of course but there was usually a reason that certain tracks were kept back as b sides.
 
Tori Amos used to be renowned (by gays) for her b sides, but then in the mid to late 2000s her albums just got bloated with surplus tracks because she wasn't releasing singles anymore
 
Suedey said:
ANYWAY, I like the song - yes the lyrics are a bit iffy but I like the melodies and arrangement, and for once I even enjoy her vocals.

Not being a CONTRARY MARY (as IF) but it looks like I'm just getting into Taylor when everyone else is going off her.

I'm even contemplating a special edition purchase?
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I really like the title track too, and I've even ended up enjoying the other new songs too. What's wrong with me?!?
 
The album is apparently approaching a million sales(?) in pre-orders/pre-streams(?) - although that's an international tally.
 
lolly said:
Over the last five years, the average album has increased by 10 minutes, apparently.
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Really? I wonder if that's down to box sets and reissues being classed as "albums"? Or shorter programmes being defined as EPs?
 
Iguana said:
Absolutely. And the death of the b side means the lesser tracks can just be thrown on the album to bulk it out. Not that every b side is a duff track of course but there was usually a reason that certain tracks were kept back as b sides.
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The sad thing is that b-sides used to be where bands could stretch out a bit and have fun. The results could be impressive - Placebo recorded "Pure Morning" in a b-sides session and realised they'd be fools to throw it away as such. Blur's b-sides were better than most people's A-sides and there would be entertaining silliness as well as outright gems.
 
octophone said:
Really? I wonder if that's down to box sets and reissues being classed as "albums"? Or shorter programmes being defined as EPs?
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It's the length of the average album listened to on spotify, but prompted by the increasing length of the average US #1 album.

I very much agree with you about shorter attention spans - I just think that the way the industry is dealing with it isn't making albums shorter - it's making them longer to offer more choice for playlists, because you don't need to play the whole thing for it to count to the chart.
 
In a way, it's mad but then again, the charts always influenced content. Do we really think the average Blur single would have come on 4 formats, all with different b-sides if the charts hadn't allowed it? It was exploiting the system and I guess this falls into the same category.
 
Have had a listen to the album. I actually quite liked the singles, but it's all sounding sooooo safe and banal. Zero artistic growth. Hopefully it'll be a grower, but there's no sense of moving on from the sound of the last couple of albums.
 
So the album's finally out and it's an unspeakable disaster. I'm quite shocked at just how bad it is.

The majority of the songs are clearly recycled from superior efforts on 1989 and reputation (Cruel Summer is quite literally just Getaway Car). The lyrics are uniformly bad, she clearly has nothing to write about anymore. She's started doing some really deeply unappealing things with her voice... that low speak-singy thing she employs in almost every song's middle 8 when the music briefly falls away is just the fucking worst.

The Man is at least somewhat interesting, catchy and not totally expected (lyrically it might have a touch more impact if not written with a man, or if Taylor didn't work almost exclusively with male songwriters/producers in general - 1 out of 7 collaborators on this album is female, and she contributed to one song out of 18) - making it the push track on Spotify today was smart. Cornelia Street is more like it.

I Forgot That You Existed is honestly disgusting (WHY has she made beige plinky-plonky nothingness her new sonic template?) and I Think He Knows is not much better. I think the main problem here (and there are many to diagnose) is that she's completely lost her ability to surprise. She's just falling back on the same old tropes over and over again, with less impact each time.

Afterglow is the best thing here by far and Soon You'll Get Better is really good - just go back to country, Tay Tay.
 
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I’m listening now, Cruel Summer is brilliant
 
Soon You’ll Get Better might not be what many on here want from her but it is gorgeous.
 
It’s bloated but Cruel Summer, Soon You’ll Get Better, After Glow, The Man, plus the two singles are all pretty stellar.
 
I find Taylor Swift SO WEIRD as a popstar. I generally HATE her main singles, (shouty aggressive tat like Me!, LWYMMD, Ready For It etc) but she really does slinky 80's synthpop better than people who dedicate their entire careers to the genre solely.

Anyway, I was listening to this album hoping for the Delicate I can add to my (reasonably short) playlist of Taylor Swift songs I like, and I'm somewhat surprised that the majority of the album is shimmery synthpop Taylor!
What were they thinking with the singles? Me! is literally like nothing else on the album, YNTCD I get as a single and it worked for what she wanted to say, Lover is nice but would be much better at Christmas than Summer (?).

The Man would have made much more sense as the lead.
Anyway on first listen I'm really enjoying this album. Cruel Summer, The Archer, Cornealia Street, Afterglow and Daylight are all EXACTLY what I want from her (even if Daylight is literally Out Of The Woods part 2 :D ), the Dixie Chicks track is lovely, Miss Americana... is basically a Lana Del Rey Born To Die era album track, False God is Taylor Swift doing Julee Cruise, It's Nice To Have A Friend is Taylor doing a song for the Big Little Lies soundtrack...

I need to listen to it more, but taking out Me!, I Forgot You Existed, Paper Rings and London Boy from the tracklist INSTANTLY make this a much stronger album.
 
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It's HEADLINE NEWS here that a local Asda put this out on the shelves yesterday, apparently.
 
I’ve been listening to the album on shuffle throughout the day and I actually think it’s much better than some are giving her credit for.

I agree it doesn’t really progress her sound, in the way that 1989 did, but I think on the whole the tunes are there.

Cornealia Street is dreamy.
 
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