Joe inspired all her worst albums.

Reputation, Lover, Midnights.

F*** him.

I can do it with a broken heart is interesting and enjoyable

The rest is very mid I’m afraid.

It’s the type of album where if no one knew who Taylor Swift was, I can’t imagine it would be streamed very much

Only for her chance to finally pursue the man of her adolescent dreams to align with him making headlines by boasting about his knowledge of fetish race play brutality p***

Taylor Swift

Swifties are crazy.

Rabid nutjobs lol

Second-hand embarrassment.

I do feel like she’s taking a page from Lana’s book and settling into a sound that she’ll maybe make subtle changes to, and maybe bring others into, but it might be at a point where everything from certain lyrical motifs, chord progressions, and production styles are now forming roots and the most important aspect to her is the songwriting. How successful she is in that is another story, but it does feel like that’s her aim.

Yo this b**** really dropped two mid f***in albums and now clogged the main page on Genius with her s***. Get this outta here man

Alright, thoughts at the end of the weekend:

I’ll start with the bad because it seems like those are the biggest voices in the discourse rn lol. The album’s too goddamn long, yes, but it’s particularly bad that this is a collection of largely downtempo, (somewhat) lyrically dense songs that work best in context. It becomes a frustrating album to sit with when, for example, the entire post-thanK you aIMee stretch of the second half is a strong set of ballads that are absolutely not making any playlists and work best together, but they also come after a full 24 songs of varying degrees of quality. I had a similar gripe with We Still Don’t Trust You burying the bonus tracks at the end, but at least those a. Are fun and revisitable tracks on their own merit and b. Come after two logically divided and digestible main halves.

Ironically, she solved for that problem perfectly already with Folklore/Evermore. Why not do it again and call it book 1 and book 2 or something? I know the answer as it was with We Still Don’t Trust You is first week sales, but it’s not like book 1 wouldn’t have absolutely demolished records in its own right. She could have even had a 2am surprise of “oh s***! Book 2 comes out in a few weeks!” and the effect would’ve been similar.

That said, the other problem is… is the second half strong enough to stand as its own album? To be entirely fair, I’m not sure it does. It’s definitely cohesive, but there’s no single or power stretch of songs to hook the listener in with all of the ballads. So, fair enough, but that doesn’t justify them weighing down the overall track list imo; and it’s a small thing and obviously I and many others are listening to them as their own halves, but I really think a huge part of the current response being so relatively negative is how she chose to drop.

The other major part is that there is a lot of artistic regression on here. thanK you aIMee is a f***ing embarrassing song for anyone to have written at 34, much less this specific woman who by all accounts had no reason to even revive this decade old beef with a woman who only got into it because her initial beef was with her ex husband. It’s a much better song, but I’d also say But Daddy I Love Him is a great example of the overarching theme of this record: she clearly has fallen into the Kanye-esque level of fame where she’s lashing out at any non-yes men rather than listening to why they might say hey, you’re very publicly crashing and burning with this rebound.

Which again: particularly frustrating when she’s clearly able to tackle darker topics in more creative and compelling ways on songs like I Can Do It With A Broken Heart (the beat sampling the in ear monitors is genius) So Long London, Clara Bow, The Black Dog, loml, Guilty As Sin, etc. There are great tracks on this thing, like Fortnight, the title track, Florida!!! (since when does she listen to Sufjan) Chloe or Sam… but for every good song there’s an absolute stinker like Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me or So High School (I’m surprised that last one’s getting so much love - to each their own but I absolutely hate it lyrically).

This feels like her Scorpion, sad to say. The highs are high, and she’s going to coast straight into Reputation TV and move on from this cleanly enough, but it’s an overall bloated and difficult full listen that feels like it needs a serious course correction next time. It reminds me a lot of Reputation in that way (the Kim track is fitting I guess) and while Lover felt like the worst case scenario for a follow up, Folklore/Evermore/even Midnights in hindsight showed exactly what she’s capable of at this level. I hope she closes this chapter and really does step away from it as she’s saying, finishes the TVs, then comes back in a few years with something completely new.

But Rolling Stone said she's the better Adele

I will say Adele has her own quality control issues but saying that about this particular album of Taylor’s is insane lmao

Folklore and Evermore have Joe writing/production on them and they're her best work

Do you think this is her commercial peak? Her “Divide” with the next albums being her “Equals” and “Subtract”?

There is something slightly charming about the overblown lyrics. Referencing Patti Smith, Dylan Thomas, and conjuring up imagery from The Great Gatsby is clearly an attempt to establish the motif about writing and creativity. It doesn’t always work but when it does — it’s effective.

next album will be after a short hiatus in 2027. will do similar numbers cause it'll bring a new sound

i think the best thing she could do is announce her marriage/pregnancy and a hiatus, and then surprise drop her "last album" to gin up sales. she might get 3M or even the record that way.

but honestly ive given up hopes that shes capable of making 1989-style bops and bangers anymore. most of her recent songs are snoozefests made by that crappy producer jack antonoff. at her current fame she could be doing so much more than this crap.

gonna give a second listen to all 31 tracks again tomorrow

finally did a full playthrough of all 31 tracks and I think that was one of the most difficult tests of will I’ve ever put myself through

Solid review

Grown man kpop stans who actively enjoy listening to Taylor swift calling people losers lmao we need to bring back bullying