Red Mosquito

It's been on the wiki article for the album for weeks.

cutuphalfdead wrote:It's been on the wiki article for the album for weeks.

WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME

durdencommatyler wrote:

cutuphalfdead wrote:It's been on the wiki article for the album for weeks.

WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME

I'm sorry. I've failed you.

cutuphalfdead wrote:

durdencommatyler wrote:

cutuphalfdead wrote:It's been on the wiki article for the album for weeks.

WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME

I'm sorry. I've failed you.

I forgive you.

Sorry I yelled.

durdencommatyler wrote:

cutuphalfdead wrote:

durdencommatyler wrote:

cutuphalfdead wrote:It's been on the wiki article for the album for weeks.

WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME

I'm sorry. I've failed you.

I forgive you.

Sorry I yelled.

Sorry I lied

Chris_H_2 wrote:

durdencommatyler wrote:

cutuphalfdead wrote:

durdencommatyler wrote:

cutuphalfdead wrote:It's been on the wiki article for the album for weeks.

WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME

I'm sorry. I've failed you.

I forgive you.

Sorry I yelled.

Sorry I lied

It's okay. You didn't know.

I knew

goddamnit ruddo

it's a goddamn conspiracy!

Listened to this today. In a lot of ways it is her most natural-sounding and effortless album, and the hooks are choice as usual. But there are also a lot of things that bug me about it. Overall I think most of the issues stem from the fact that she is aging so disproportionately to her subject matter -- at 30, she still writes primarily about high school drama, only now it's from the viewpoint of unlikeable, pleasure-seeking adults who can't keep their shit together, as opposed to the naive teenagers for whom that world is a natural reality. It's increasingly inauthentic each time out.

Is better than her last album, which was underwhelming at best?

Considerably, I think.

Kevin Davis wrote:Listened to this today. In a lot of ways it is her most natural-sounding and effortless album, and the hooks are choice as usual. But there are also a lot of things that bug me about it. Overall I think most of the issues stem from the fact that she is aging so disproportionately to her subject matter -- at 30, she still writes primarily about high school drama, only now it's from the viewpoint of unlikeable, pleasure-seeking adults who can't keep their shit together, as opposed to the naive teenagers for whom that world is a natural reality. It's increasingly inauthentic each time out.

"Speaking as a child of the 90's . . ."

Pearl Jam owes its entire career to songs based on teenage angst written and performed in their late 20's/early 30's.

Kevin Davis wrote: unlikeable, pleasure-seeking adults who can't keep their shit together

This feels like a personal attack, KD

Chris_H_2 wrote:

Kevin Davis wrote:Listened to this today. In a lot of ways it is her most natural-sounding and effortless album, and the hooks are choice as usual. But there are also a lot of things that bug me about it. Overall I think most of the issues stem from the fact that she is aging so disproportionately to her subject matter -- at 30, she still writes primarily about high school drama, only now it's from the viewpoint of unlikeable, pleasure-seeking adults who can't keep their shit together, as opposed to the naive teenagers for whom that world is a natural reality. It's increasingly inauthentic each time out.

"Speaking as a child of the 90's . . ."

Pearl Jam owes its entire career to songs based on teenage angst written and performed in their late 20's/early 30's.

Right, and then by the time they got to their seventh album they were on to other things. In any case, I didn't compare her to Pearl Jam or hold them up as some gold standard artistic model, so this is kind of a straw-man response. I think a lot of PJ's teen angst songs sound ridiculous too.

theplatypus wrote:

Kevin Davis wrote: unlikeable, pleasure-seeking adults who can't keep their shit together

This feels like a personal attack, KD

It isn't meant to be one, and I don't mean any offense; it's just my honest reaction to the stories she tells in her music over and over and over again, not unlike a screenwriter who consistently writes unsympathetic characters. I appreciate that (as it would appear, anyway) her characters are rarely more than a degree or two removed from her autobiographical self, so maybe by extension it ends up being judgmental of her person, but that's not my intent; it's 100% a response to what she's putting in her music, not to anything I happen to know or think about her personally.

That said, I can see that by calling out her personal age that my subsequent judgmentss felt personal as well; it was really meant to be a remark on a "career stage" thing (to her, 30 years old means she has been doing this for half her life), and that while I think the music is strong, lyrically (which I respond to, even though I know no one else on RM does) I don't find that her themes and default tropes resonate the same way in songs about adult nightlife patrons as they do in the songs she was writing 8-10 years ago. That's an oversimiplification, but it was a resonant enough impression after one pass through the album to stand out.

I was just making a joke about myself as an unlikable pleasure-seeking adult! I understood what you meant.

I have never been a huge TS fan outside of 1989, which I still like a lot. I listened to the following album exactly once and found it pretty unmemorable, save for "Look What You Made Me Do" which was memorably bad. I've only heard "London Boy" and "ME!!!" from this new one and really didn't like either. Can't muster the enthusiasm to give the rest of the album a try.

LOL -- forget my overlong, KD-esque response then.

Try out the opening track on the new one: "I Forgot That You Existed." I love how light and unburdened it feels, with that chorus from 0:46 to 0:56 really hitting the sweet spot for me.


Her albums have always been overlong and inconsistent, so honestly this probably hits about the same ratio she always has (even though I thought "Reputation" came in well below her batting average).

Ugh. The title "I Forgot That You Existed" is enough to make me not want to listen to it.

Do any of these pique your interest?

"Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince"
"Death by a Thousand Cuts"
"You Need to Calm Down"

I'll give "You Need To Calm Down" a try