Red Mosquito

What a funny exchange that I just bottom-paged.

Jorge wrote:

Monkey_Driven wrote:

Norris wrote:are you married to jorge?

I hope not.

Wait why the fuck not

Mostly against kissing facial hair

After actually listening to Folklore/Long Pond for a few days, I think I took to it because it reminds me of Little Earthquakes era Tori Amos, an album I grew up on.

This is all still so weird to me as such a huge The National fan. I remember first looking at the album cover for Sleep Well Beast featuring their studio and thinking how cool it looked. It was the first time really seeing it from the outside.

Since the time that Red was released, I've really liked Taylor Swift's stuff (generally), but never really looked at her more than the huge pop star that she was. My admiration for her music was pretty superficial. But I respected the hell out of her.

Three years after Sleep Well Beast and it was the literal musical worlds colliding with Aaron Dessner and Taylor Swift's Instagram posts announcing Folklore and their collaboration. And it was good!

Now seeing Long Pond (that studio) featured on a documentary about the making of a Taylor Swift album, together with a second LP featuring the entire band The National with 2/5 of it writing most of this music, and it's all still so surreal. There's a lot to unpack here, and I'm still not sure what to make of it. But it's a great ride.

Shit, I don't even like The National.

Norris wrote:Shit, I don't even like The National.

There's still time.

Something about that voice.

The voice is definitely polarizing to be sure. Matt Berninger’s lyrics are really, really good though.

I love music that has layers and textures. That’s part of the reason why I love Radiohead so much. And The National is among the best at creating that kind of music. It’s interesting listening to the music on some of the songs on Folklore and Evermore. If I hadn’t known Aaron Dessner had a hand in it, I would’ve sworn he did.

Also, the line from Coney Island “Were you standing in the hallway
With a big cake, happy birthday. Did I paint your bluest skies the darkest grey?” is about as The National as you can get in terms of lyrics.

yeah that might be my least favorite part of that song

Chris_H_2 wrote:This is all still so weird to me as such a huge The National fan. I remember first looking at the album cover for Sleep Well Beast featuring their studio and thinking how cool it looked. It was the first time really seeing it from the outside.

Since the time that Red was released, I've really liked Taylor Swift's stuff (generally), but never really looked at her more than the huge pop star that she was. My admiration for her music was pretty superficial. But I respected the hell out of her.

Three years after Sleep Well Beast and it was the literal musical worlds colliding with Aaron Dessner and Taylor Swift's Instagram posts announcing Folklore and their collaboration. And it was good!

Now seeing Long Pond (that studio) featured on a documentary about the making of a Taylor Swift album, together with a second LP featuring the entire band The National with 2/5 of it writing most of this music, and it's all still so surreal. There's a lot to unpack here, and I'm still not sure what to make of it. But it's a great ride.

I've listened to folklore like 50 times since the release, but I never posted in this thread about it, never read a review, never even looked at the credits on wiki or anything like that. Until coney island, I had no idea that The National was involved at all. Yet I can't count how many times I thought to myself how much a lot of the songs on Folklore sounded like The National. Funnily enough though, the one that really sounds like it could be one of their songs is My Tears Ricochet, which I don't think Dessner co-wrote. So it goes.

Norris wrote:Shit, I don't even like The National.

I've always liked you.

epilogue wrote:

Norris wrote:Shit, I don't even like The National.

I've always liked you.

Norris wrote:Something about that voice.

If you have any desire to give them a try again I am Easy to Find is probably the best place. Female vocals on almost every song, sometimes lead even. Gorgeous harmonies all over the album.

washing machine wrote:

Chris_H_2 wrote:This is all still so weird to me as such a huge The National fan. I remember first looking at the album cover for Sleep Well Beast featuring their studio and thinking how cool it looked. It was the first time really seeing it from the outside.

Since the time that Red was released, I've really liked Taylor Swift's stuff (generally), but never really looked at her more than the huge pop star that she was. My admiration for her music was pretty superficial. But I respected the hell out of her.

Three years after Sleep Well Beast and it was the literal musical worlds colliding with Aaron Dessner and Taylor Swift's Instagram posts announcing Folklore and their collaboration. And it was good!

Now seeing Long Pond (that studio) featured on a documentary about the making of a Taylor Swift album, together with a second LP featuring the entire band The National with 2/5 of it writing most of this music, and it's all still so surreal. There's a lot to unpack here, and I'm still not sure what to make of it. But it's a great ride.

I've listened to folklore like 50 times since the release, but I never posted in this thread about it, never read a review, never even looked at the credits on wiki or anything like that. Until coney island, I had no idea that The National was involved at all. Yet I can't count how many times I thought to myself how much a lot of the songs on Folklore sounded like The National. Funnily enough though, the one that really sounds like it could be one of their songs is My Tears Ricochet, which I don't think Dessner co-wrote. So it goes.

I think it underlined for me the importance of the different vocalists in how they establish the mood those bands/artists live in. When listening to Folklore, I can certainly hear the musical resemblance, but it's hard for me to say it sounds like The National when the vocal (and songwriting) is coming from a markedly different place (the simplified drums are the other big difference for me).

But both these records are very strong, and it's always refreshing to see a big artist taking swings like this. Her career really is something that's a lot rarer now; she's a singer/songwriter operating at a massive amount of popularity whose also expected to move between sounds and styles with each record (like, if you asked most people I'd imagine they'd expect that whatever she would do next would not sound like this).

I see where she laid rest to the woodvale rumours. Even doing two albums consecutively in a similar vein is a first for Taylor, so three might be a push.

Besides I think the concept of trilogies is overdone in various media and like a two-parter myself.

Chris_H_2 wrote:This is all still so weird to me as such a huge The National fan. I remember first looking at the album cover for Sleep Well Beast featuring their studio and thinking how cool it looked. It was the first time really seeing it from the outside.

Since the time that Red was released, I've really liked Taylor Swift's stuff (generally), but never really looked at her more than the huge pop star that she was. My admiration for her music was pretty superficial. But I respected the hell out of her.

Three years after Sleep Well Beast and it was the literal musical worlds colliding with Aaron Dessner and Taylor Swift's Instagram posts announcing Folklore and their collaboration. And it was good!

Now seeing Long Pond (that studio) featured on a documentary about the making of a Taylor Swift album, together with a second LP featuring the entire band The National with 2/5 of it writing most of this music, and it's all still so surreal. There's a lot to unpack here, and I'm still not sure what to make of it. But it's a great ride.

yeah, it was super cool to see the studio in the doc. Also, im listening to Sleep Well Beast right now again after a long time. Love it.

I think my four favorite songs on evermore, in some order, are champaign problems, 'tis the damn season, marjorie, and evermore.

And then probably tolerate it. Either way my two least favorite are cowboy like me and long story short.

This is too early:
1 Ivy
2 Tolerate It
3 Long Story Short
4 Willow
5 Tis the Damn Season
6 Dorothea
7 Champagne Problems
8 Gold Rush
9 Coney Island
10 No Body No Crime
11 Happiness
12 Cowboy Like Me
13 Evermore (love it until Justin squawks)
14 Closure
15 Marjorie

Norris wrote:I think my four favorite songs on evermore, in some order, are champaign problems, 'tis the damn season, marjorie, and evermore.

It’s a pretty great album when two people can really love it and have polar opposite opinions on favorite and least favorite songs. The two albums combined are an incredible collection of songs that I will listen to to some degree for the rest of my life.