BruiserBrody
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Taylor Swift
- Thread starter Byron The Bulb
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Finally got around to listening to The Life of a Showgirl.
It was pretty okay overall. There's definitely a T Swift is in love with Travis/getting married aura over the album and I was kind of waiting for it to lean more into a concept of being a showgirl aspect that could have been kind of unique and cool. Instead it was just a usual Taylor Swift album albeit leaning more towards upbeat pop and not really challenging much in the melody or songwriting side so the majority of the album felt like a lot of same-ness going on.
I'm also a big fan of vocal playing/toying around with emphasis on words and lyrics which was sorely lacking on this album vs. something like a "I Know Places" or "Stay Don't Go" from other albums. One thing I noticed and it was kind of weird dunno if it's just her style or the nature of pop music today but there was no real spacing vocally so Taylor would sing lines and I'd wait for a pause that'd fit the next line but it all just ran together like a stream of conscious poem & she was just trying to fit it all into one take. A perfect example is Shania Twain's "Man I Feel Like a Woman" and her opening where she goes, "Wanna make some noise, really raise my voice - Yeah, I wanna... scream and shout"
I've never been a big fan of the Taylor as lyricist side of her as a performer (I think her strengths are the teams she works with to structure her songs and lay them out tbh whereas I think of artists like Alanis Morissette and Fiona Apple as the opposite) and I kept feeling like a lot of the songs teased the highs of her past albums, Ruin The Friendship notably standing out in this manner, but were usually a step below that peak level making the album a bit more of a chore to get through in general.
The first 3 songs were the strongest elements, just really solid stuff, and then it just falls hard in the middle and never quite rebounds, which is unfortunate as her typical Taylor Swift patterns start appearing song after song. A song like "Actually Romantic" I really liked the beat and catchiness but I didn't care for the lyrics while "Wi$h Li$t" had interesting lyrics but the vocals never tried to play around/emphasize certain areas so both are the epitome of the album where I kept waiting for it to just hit like a "Welcome to New York" or "Shake It Off" from past albums.
Disappointing would be a good descriptor. There's songs here that could've been big and really struck but they were mostly just missing that 'X' factor.
HQ's Favorite Songs: The Fate of Ophelia; Elizabeth Taylor, Wood (may be the catchiest beat/musicianship on the album)
It was pretty okay overall. There's definitely a T Swift is in love with Travis/getting married aura over the album and I was kind of waiting for it to lean more into a concept of being a showgirl aspect that could have been kind of unique and cool. Instead it was just a usual Taylor Swift album albeit leaning more towards upbeat pop and not really challenging much in the melody or songwriting side so the majority of the album felt like a lot of same-ness going on.
I'm also a big fan of vocal playing/toying around with emphasis on words and lyrics which was sorely lacking on this album vs. something like a "I Know Places" or "Stay Don't Go" from other albums. One thing I noticed and it was kind of weird dunno if it's just her style or the nature of pop music today but there was no real spacing vocally so Taylor would sing lines and I'd wait for a pause that'd fit the next line but it all just ran together like a stream of conscious poem & she was just trying to fit it all into one take. A perfect example is Shania Twain's "Man I Feel Like a Woman" and her opening where she goes, "Wanna make some noise, really raise my voice - Yeah, I wanna... scream and shout"
I've never been a big fan of the Taylor as lyricist side of her as a performer (I think her strengths are the teams she works with to structure her songs and lay them out tbh whereas I think of artists like Alanis Morissette and Fiona Apple as the opposite) and I kept feeling like a lot of the songs teased the highs of her past albums, Ruin The Friendship notably standing out in this manner, but were usually a step below that peak level making the album a bit more of a chore to get through in general.
The first 3 songs were the strongest elements, just really solid stuff, and then it just falls hard in the middle and never quite rebounds, which is unfortunate as her typical Taylor Swift patterns start appearing song after song. A song like "Actually Romantic" I really liked the beat and catchiness but I didn't care for the lyrics while "Wi$h Li$t" had interesting lyrics but the vocals never tried to play around/emphasize certain areas so both are the epitome of the album where I kept waiting for it to just hit like a "Welcome to New York" or "Shake It Off" from past albums.
Disappointing would be a good descriptor. There's songs here that could've been big and really struck but they were mostly just missing that 'X' factor.
HQ's Favorite Songs: The Fate of Ophelia; Elizabeth Taylor, Wood (may be the catchiest beat/musicianship on the album)