Taylor Swift

[Chris_H_2]

Completely agree. I couldn't name another song after Shake it Off they're so unmemorable.

[Norah]

I wonder how Kevin Davis feels about it.

[@SkitchP]

I like Blank Space a little less than I knew you were trouble. but its a great song.

[doug rr]

good group of guys making my head shake here

[malice]

good group of guys making my head shake here

pretty much

[Chris_H_2]

For all you know I'm writing this with a Korean at my feet and with cotton between my toes sipping a Sex on the Beach.

Edit: and none of this has anything to do with my enjoyment of Taylor Swift

[Kevin Davis]

I wonder how Kevin Davis feels about it.

I still haven't listened to it -- I wasn't crazy about "Shake It Off," it kind of delayed my sense of urgency to check out the rest of it. Someday soon.

[Kevin Davis]

It's a nice little record up through Shake it Off. After that it falls off a cliff.

I pretty much agree with you, Pete -- though I do think there a few winners ("Wildest Dreams" and "I Know Places" particularly) on the back half of the album. Song for song, this is probably as strong of an album as I would expect from her -- the usual 50/50-ish ratio of undeniably great songs and not-unenjoyable-but-easily-forgotten ones, you take yours and I'll take mine -- and, artistically, it probably hangs together as a piece better than anything else she's released. Among her direct competitors and many of her indirect ones, she remains unmatched as an artist and composer. But I miss the emotional range -- the mixture of the whimsical ("Mean," "Stay Stay Stay") and sentimental ("Never Grow Up," "I Almost Do") in with the accusatory and the empowered. These songs are all varying shades of cool, and seem to fulfill what has been a gradual slide towards a collective musical and topical decadence that I find comes at the expense of empathy -- many of these songs hone in on a particular genre of lifestyle that I simply don't identify with on even the most superficial of levels.

I do like the album, though, and admire her desire to grow her sonic repertoire. Furthermore, I have no reason not to trust that she has done as successful of a job articulating the finer points of the NYC socialite-nightlife-singles-scene as she did her various adolescent romantic misadventures (the details are lucid enough most times). And I know better than to care too deeply about the disappearance of a particular set of musical traits for a single record. But I nonetheless hope that 2-3 records from now, this album ends up having been a sort of sensory indulgence, rather than just another step down the celebrity/tabloid rathole. She's a better songwriter than aesthete.

"Shake It Off" does sound way better on the album than on the radio, though.

[Jorge]

I gave the album a listen and was immediately turned off by "Welcome to New York", which struck me as a completely flat and characterless pop song.

[Kevin Davis]

I gave the album a listen and was immediately turned off by "Welcome to New York", which struck me as a completely flat and characterless pop song.

Things get better from there -- it is weird to hear her do one of those NYC-travel-brochure songs, as if she's Frank Fuckin' Sinatra or something. The song wins me over eventually though, in spite of itself...

[Jorge]

Yeah, she probably got paid a whole lot of money for that song-- isn't it part of some "I Love New York" type tourism campaign? It was all over those taxi TV screens when I was in NYC last week.

I like "Blank Space" and "Shake it Off" enough that I'll give the album another listen at some point.

[@SkitchP]

I get disappointed when I can drive all the way home from work and "Blank Space" doesn't come on the radio.

[Yeddie Yedder]

My wife loves The Voice and therefore, I watch The Voice. She was a guest coach during an episode. I was astounded how little she had to offer. She has the looks, the voice, but it sounded like she didn't have a clue as to what she was talking about...

[BurtReynolds]

I was going to work on a Tayler Swift cell phone game once. I was told "don't make her look squinty, even though she looks like that. She hates that."

[LetMeSleep]

I was going to work on a Tayler Swift cell phone game once. I was told "don't make her look squinty, even though she looks like that. She hates that."

Angry Swiftlets?

[BurtReynolds]

I was going to work on a Tayler Swift cell phone game once. I was told "don't make her look squinty, even though she looks like that. She hates that."

Angry Swiftlets?

That would be fun. I think this one involved putting on make-up or something.

[Norah]

Blank Space is fantastic guys.

[Kaius]

Meh

[Kevin Davis]

A-"meh"-zing, you mean!

[Kaius]

Oh boy