Some Indie Record That’s Much Cooler Than Mine

July 26, 2020 12:40 PM

It’s got a metal cover, a song ft. Bon Iver, a song about the people who used to live in her house, an uncanny resemblance, a secret bonus song, an isolation manifesto, a cardigan for Natalia Bryant, 8 deluxe vinyl editions and 8 deluxe CD editions, huge initial sales, and rave reviews. It’s folklore [Spotify link, but there are others], the [surprise] new album from Taylor Swift.
posted by chavenet (47 comments total)

For a sudden little indie project she certainly has her marketing angles worked out.

I haven't listened to it (don't have Spotify, might see if it's on Amazon Prime), but from what I've read she's taking a different tack with this release, and I like when artists change their approach. Maybe this one will work out well.

Note: it's also available on cassette. For those who like that sort of thing.
posted by hippybear at 1:09 PM on July 26, 2020 [2 favorites]

Loved my first listen of this album and know I'll be returning to this album a lot.

But especially wonderful to first hear about it through the Museum of English Rural Life's live tweeting it Friday morning.
posted by sk932 at 2:02 PM on July 26, 2020 [7 favorites]

I listened yesterday when it dropped, and (being of a certain age) I was like: oh my god she's achieved her Stevie Nicks form, she's going to need to start a shawl collection now

(the syncopation bit going on in the last great american dynasty is utterly charming, love it)
posted by Mary Ellen Carter at 2:13 PM on July 26, 2020 [12 favorites]

I adore folklore and it's the first Taylor Swift album that I have zero skips on - I like every single song! It has a very interesting vibe and just fantastic songwriting. Mary Ellen Carter - was thinking the same about Stevie Nicks, and also a little Joni Mitchell?

The entire album is available as a playlist of lyric videos on YouTube. I hope this album is widely heard and appreciated!
posted by danabanana at 2:20 PM on July 26, 2020 [7 favorites]

I listened yesterday when it dropped

Didn't it drop like two days ago ?
posted by Pendragon at 2:25 PM on July 26, 2020 [1 favorite]

Aaron Dessner of The National co-wrote most of the songs, did a lot of the production and played a many of the instruments and I would have never thought that merging his very distinctive sound with hers would work but it does.
posted by octothorpe at 2:44 PM on July 26, 2020 [8 favorites]

The queer community digs it.
posted by bluloo at 2:50 PM on July 26, 2020 [4 favorites]

For those confused, the metal cover is the cover artwork, not a cover of a metal song.
posted by adzm at 3:02 PM on July 26, 2020 [31 favorites]

Although many years ago I saw Taylor do the CMT show Crossroads with Def Leppard, and she did a very credible Pour Some Sugar On Me. *

*Yes I know. It 's not metal either.
posted by COD at 3:23 PM on July 26, 2020 [4 favorites]

Didn't it drop like two days ago ?

I'm on quarantime, I have no idea when things happen, I have subscribed to a daily newsletter that tells me what day of the week it is
posted by Mary Ellen Carter at 3:26 PM on July 26, 2020 [59 favorites]

New music get released by the labels on Fridays.
posted by sideshow at 3:34 PM on July 26, 2020 [2 favorites]

I find the whole thing to be somewhat somnolent. That someone to do with the Nationals co-wrote it makes sense to me, because I have a similar complaint about them.

Regardless, the woman can write the hell out of a song and I’m not really her target audience after all...

Also, to be fair, if “invisible string” was just a little faster, even just the pace of “Red,” it would be in all my playlists.
posted by BeReasonable at 4:16 PM on July 26, 2020 [5 favorites]

Speaking as a socks and sandals Radiohead dad who has endured infinite repeat of all her albums, IMO this is her most artistically adventurous. I love that she’s abandoned the tween formula in favor of just writing good songs, mainly to satisfy her own creative needs. I think I’m going to enjoy listening to this one on repeat (but don’t tell my kids).
posted by simra at 4:36 PM on July 26, 2020 [5 favorites]

Okay, so, I really like the musical tone of this album. It's really got some great things going on.

I just find the lyrics to be... um... like... I mostly don't care? I dunno. Like Melissa Etheridge in her early career or Indigo Girls across decades or Janelle Monae... are more interesting lyrically?

I am glad she did this album. I think it's just not for me, really.
posted by hippybear at 4:46 PM on July 26, 2020 [4 favorites]

I so love this new album. Despite my Boomer-ness, I'm very much a Taylor Swift fan, and have all her albums. I've only listened to it once, so I'm not sure if every song is a winner yet (her only album I consider skipless so far is "1989)."

And I love surprises!
posted by lhauser at 6:52 PM on July 26, 2020 [1 favorite]

I now like one Taylor Swift song.
posted by srboisvert at 7:01 PM on July 26, 2020 [3 favorites]

We’ve been listening to the new album and when I hit exile I hit repeat and got stuck. Hoping to listen to the rest tomorrow. Funny that I’m almost 50 and I’m as excited about it as my 23 yr old daughter. I’m a huge the National fan and was excited to hear Aaron Dessner was collaborating. I’d love to see Taylor tour with the National. that would be dreamy.
posted by photoslob at 7:56 PM on July 26, 2020 [3 favorites]

That someone to do with the Nationals co-wrote it makes sense to me, because I have a similar complaint about them.

You find Washington's baseball team somnolent? I mean, they do have a losing record but we're only 5% of the way through the season, and they won it all in 2019.
posted by axiom at 8:03 PM on July 26, 2020 [7 favorites]

I looove Taylor Swift, and I like this record, but it really felt like an attempt to bite Lana Del Rey’s (IMO superior) last record. I know a lot of the songs share Antonoff on production, but still.
posted by outfielder at 8:42 PM on July 26, 2020 [4 favorites]

an attempt to bite Lana Del Rey’s (IMO superior) last record.

Well yeah, depth here is relative and we're still talking about Taylor Swift, queen of teenage breakup songs.
posted by simra at 9:17 PM on July 26, 2020 [1 favorite]

You know "Depeche Mode" means "Fashion Express" or in other words, "Taylor Swift".
posted by w0mbat at 10:02 PM on July 26, 2020 [50 favorites]

My new industrial punk band is called KMFTS
posted by kaibutsu at 11:28 PM on July 26, 2020 [4 favorites]

Love the clip for Cardigan more than I can express. And the song is ok I guess? Wait, let me watch it ten more times, before I form an opinion haha. (Also did w0mbat just win the internet? You're really burrowing into the land of puns there, I like it.)
posted by Coaticass at 1:46 AM on July 27, 2020 [2 favorites]

"For those confused, the metal cover is the cover artwork, not a cover of a metal song."
...because she's not going to beat her work with Def Leppard and 'Pour Some Sugar On Me'?
(see above, which I didn't)
posted by ewan at 2:39 AM on July 27, 2020 [1 favorite]

The third section of the video for "Cardigan", after the quiet cabin and the idyllic mossy riverside cliff, with a grand piano in the stormy waters as her raft -- a really simple image, gorgeous and moving.
posted by brainwane at 3:45 AM on July 27, 2020 [2 favorites]

I was surprised to see that she directed that video herself but I guess she's directed other videos too.
posted by octothorpe at 3:50 AM on July 27, 2020 [2 favorites]

I've been listening to this album non-stop, it's gorgeous and feels like a perfect summer album and somehow also a perfect album for my current weird vibe of being stuck at home and time no longer existing . Exile was the first song I heard and I legit cried over how beautiful it is. I became a total Taylor Swift fangirl after watching Miss Americana on Netflix (and grudgingly liking her music since 1989 came out... that album is so good! As is Lover! She is a fantastic songwriter!).
posted by banjo_and_the_pork at 4:34 AM on July 27, 2020 [3 favorites]

octothorpe: indeed! In case you haven't seen her video "The Man" -- it's very pointed.
posted by brainwane at 5:16 AM on July 27, 2020 [3 favorites]

I think it's just not for me, really.
This is where it's landed on me so far. I'll keep working my way through because I'm interested in the project, but I increasingly don't care for this kind of production.

I also still don't get how TS is considered anything but "pop." It's not full-on bubblegum, but I think the fact that it has *some* substance is often breathlessly reported as depth. Do people genuinely feel she's breaking any kind of musical ground?
posted by aspersioncast at 5:48 AM on July 27, 2020 [4 favorites]

Do people genuinely feel she's breaking any kind of musical ground?

I mean...I don't, but I also think the premise itself is misguided. Who in the world can truly be said to be "breaking new ground" musically? If that's the measure of worthwhile music, doesn't it rule out all but crazy experimental avant-garde stuff? Any more, when I hear this kind of comment, it sounds reflexively dismissive, a way to say one doesn't enjoy something, but to also make it sound like there's some more substantive reason than "it's not to my taste." But what's the counter example?

Me myself, I'm loving the new album. One little detail that I find interesting...there's a couple of references in the lyrics, in different songs, to the experience of reconciling a childhood of being called "gifted" to an adulthood that doesn't live up to the expectations one had for themselves. I can't really imagine what ambitions Swift must have harbored, such that massive worldwide success, popularity, and critical acclaim fall short. "I've never been a natural, all I do is try try try" is a really interesting, really moving line when it hits.
posted by Ipsifendus at 6:26 AM on July 27, 2020 [8 favorites]

lpsifendus: Maybe she had dreams of breaking new musical ground? Not trying to be flip at all, but sometimes the dream isn't about just having millions of adoring fans throwing money at her.
posted by lhauser at 6:42 AM on July 27, 2020 [2 favorites]

I highly recommend Aaron Dessner's interview with Pitchfork about what it was like to produce the album. One of my favorite details of the album is that the production on most of the Dessner songs is glitchy and almost ambient in places, which is IMO reasonably new musical ground when paired with Swift's voice / songwriting.
posted by rishabguha at 7:35 AM on July 27, 2020 [4 favorites]

Maybe she had dreams of breaking new musical ground?

Exactly. This isn't a narrative I invented; it's something Swift and the music press have pushed since she came on the scene.
posted by aspersioncast at 8:02 AM on July 27, 2020 [1 favorite]

Old Taylor: it's worthless if it doesn't win a Grammy. New Taylor: fuck that, let's just make some music.
posted by simra at 11:18 AM on July 27, 2020 [3 favorites]

Not to argue what the pop label does or doesn't suggest about an artist's depth, but Swift has a compelling voice that speaks to an unexpectedly vast audience. 1989 to Reputation to Lover isn't exactly Bowie in Berlin, and haters complain about her supposedly endless string of "break-up songs." But Swifties (like any rock-and-roll fans) find it comforting and cathartic when someone acknowledges and echoes the kind of too-familiar feelings that are often dismissed or mocked as unserious but still tear you up inside and then elevates them and amplifies them to fill an arena. Taylor Swift does that for a heretofore underserved audience; while the lyrics trade in broad generalities she still manages to convey an emotional specificity that eludes the Katy Perrys and Ariana Grandes. And she mostly avoids embarrassing herself in social media in the manner of Lana Del Rey. That her songbook is increasingly laced with direct jabs at the sexists who don't take her seriously is icing on the cake.
posted by Mothlight at 1:20 PM on July 27, 2020 [17 favorites]

Just to clarify, I don't mean to suggest that you're a sexist if you don't take Taylor Swift seriously; just that I appreciate her lyrics calling out the sexism that she does, undoubtedly, encounter in the industry. (And I respect the heck out of her for bringing and winning a sexual assault case against a DJ who somehow thought it was a good idea to get handsy with her. Fuck that guy.)
posted by Mothlight at 1:34 PM on July 27, 2020 [5 favorites]

I struggle with the dismissive attitude that Taylor Swift is less of an artist because she writes pop songs or "teenage breakup" songs (the woman is 30 years old... how old does she have to be for her songs to no longer be teenage breakup songs?). Bon Iver's debut album was entirely about his post-break up feelings and it was critically acclaimed. If this album had Sharon Van Etten's or Angel Olsen's name on it instead of Taylor's it would probably be considered a great indie rock album. I do get it if her music is not to one's personal taste, but she is a genuinely strong song writer who puts a lot of work into her craft, and it makes me sad that she is not taken seriously by Serious Music People .
posted by banjo_and_the_pork at 2:54 PM on July 27, 2020 [10 favorites]

For those confused, the metal cover is the cover artwork, not a cover of a metal song.

That's not a metal cover. It's a generic black-and-white cover of trees in a forest. While I wouldn't put it past Taylor Swift to plagiarize some black metal album cover as a way of pissing off hipsters and critics, the evidence here is super weak. I collect private press LPs, and the black-and-white photo of a forest for the Swift & the metal album looks like those generic covers that came standard with those 1970s era send-in-your-demo-tapes, get a box of 500 records services that used to be quite common in the U.S.
posted by jonp72 at 4:04 PM on July 27, 2020 [1 favorite]

If you don't like that cover, I guess you can pick one of the seven other Limited Edition[tm] ones that are available.
posted by delfin at 4:51 PM on July 27, 2020 [1 favorite]

Based purely on this post I listened to this album, expecting it to be decades wrong for me. The Last American Dynasty sounds (musically, lyrically) like Lloyd Cole output of the 1990s. "The wedding was charming, if a little gauche." Wow.
posted by bassomatic at 5:05 PM on July 27, 2020 [3 favorites]

Bon Iver's debut album was entirely about his post-break up feelings and it was critically acclaime
I also find Bon Iver generic as fuck? Yeah apparently I'm too old for this generation's introspective pop.
posted by aspersioncast at 9:43 PM on July 27, 2020 [1 favorite]

Indie rock is also something that probably should have gone and fucked off a lot earlier than 2020.
posted by aspersioncast at 9:45 PM on July 27, 2020 [1 favorite]

I think if this album had come out in 2013 I would have been VERY into it, but now I'm way more into the teenage breakup songs of 070 Shake. I generally enjoy Swift's music, so I'll go back and give this another listen. I just lost interest after Bon Iver popped up to do his Bon Ivering. He's another person I used to like a lot but just can't get into anymore.

Will say that the Depeche Mode to Taylor Swift language connection is continuing to blow my mind.
posted by weed donkey at 9:51 PM on July 27, 2020

the woman is 30 years old... how old does she have to be for her songs to no longer be teenage breakup songs?

Isn’t that partly on her for still writing songs like a Betty that are literally set in high school, though?
posted by naoko at 5:54 AM on July 28, 2020

The album is amazing, one of, if not the, best from TS. I highly recommend the new episode of Switched on Pop for a look at a lot of the musical details.

Taylor Swift is an incredible songwriter. Her tremendous success is a testament to that. Her music resonates with a lot of people, and the same tired criticisms seen here ("this isn't new musical ground," "writing about teenagers is dumb") are so super lame I don't even know how to respond to them. Sorry the band that you think is great that is playing all their songs with just intonation on a Harry Partch set with lyrics mashed up from Proust and CVS receipts and recorded on 8-track isn't more popular. Like it is a legit skill to craft well-written pop songs with catchy hooks and clever lyrics about human traumas that are sometimes trite but nevertheless universal. Taylor also has a knack for picking great collaborators and, by all accounts, working really really well with producers to make some of the most well-produced pop music in a generation.

Indie rock is also something that probably should have gone and fucked off a lot earlier than 2020.

Oh my god my eyes have rolled so far back into my head that I can watch my brain trying to work out why so many people think that commenting here to say TS (or whatever popular band) sucks makes them musically cool or whatever.

You don't have to like TS but these wannbe Adorno comments about her not heralding some new era of musical progress or whatever give me major cringe.
posted by Lutoslawski at 4:04 PM on July 28, 2020 [10 favorites]

Complaints that Swift is still writing teenage love songs, and therefore doesn't merit serious attention, are falling into a genre trap. Roger Ebert used to say, "“It's not what a movie is about, it's how it is about it.” Meaning, I believe, that you can't just look at the genre a piece of art falls into, and make assessments about whether it's any good based on that.
I'm a lifelong fan of science fiction, horror, comic books...I know whereof I speak. There are still people out there, fewer than there used to be, but still some out there, who will never give Ursula LeGuin's stuff a second glance, because it's sci-fi/fantasy, and worse, some of it's intended for young adults. The can't engage with "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse", because it's a cartoon, and a cartoon about superheroes. And those people are asinine. They don't have to read science fiction if they don't want to. They don't have to like it. But's it dumb critiquing science fiction for being science fiction. And they're missing out on great stuff because of this dumb ass blind spot.
Taylor Swift writes pop love songs and dance songs. That's her chosen mode of work. Now, nobody has to be into that. But if you're failing to engage with the material on the basis of not liking the form, then no matter how many dismissive remarks you make, you haven't said a damn thing about Taylor Swift. You've only communicated the boundaries that surround your personal interests, and that Swift is outside of them. And I'm not sure why anybody who doesn't know you personally ought to care.
posted by Ipsifendus at 4:23 PM on July 28, 2020 [8 favorites]

This is the first Taylor Swift album I've ever listened to, though I've heard plenty of her hit singles. "exile" is a stand-out track, and I liked several others. "If I'm dead to you, why are you at the wake?" Heh.

I knew that Bon Iver had something to do with it, but I didn't know anyone connected to The National was, but I was thinking that it had a similar sound to some tracks from The National's most recent album. Then to learn in this thread that there is a connection was fun--I've always been a terrible music geek (e.g., couldn't name the producer for any album except Phil Spector for the Beatles)--So finding a similarity based on two songs based on a similar producer made me feel extra cool.
posted by skewed at 10:38 AM on July 29, 2020 [2 favorites]