"I'm curious as to why she didn't just re-record them in chronological order."

i mean, if you had the luxury of picking your roadmap, wouldn't you? everyone's already been through the chrono order and tswift is v much one to drop ambiguous signals for her fandroids to project intentions over, so i don't see why the way she approaches her l-l-l-l-l-egacy would be any diff

everyone itt (*especially* the silent observers) is weak af and doesn't deserve a karaoke anthem as powerful as We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together

Album Rating: 4.5

she also apparently teases dropping 1989 by releasing Wildest Dreams... then hitting us with Red because why not

must be great being successful enough to pretend your fanbait power moves are the future of the industry

I always thought Begin Again was such a missed standout on this album. It has some gorgeous musicality to it, and hidden at the back end of a Pop injected quasi-country album. It is such great song writing, nearly equal with All Too Well.

Album Rating: 4.5

Agreed. Begin Again was always one of my favorites.

Album Rating: 4.0

Begin Again's definitely in my top 10 TS songs. Always loved that one, plus (much like a lot of the other songs on Red) it's incredibly nostalgic to me now. Red was my first Swift album, so Begin Again's the album closer I'm always gonna have the closest connection to



Clean from 1989 is definitely the runner-up, though

Album Rating: 4.5

I saw Taylor Swift play at a fair before she released her self titled debut. I remember thinking she was okay but I was not really paying attention because I was too busy screwing around with my friends and looking for good food stands. She also went to high school at one of my rival districts and for a short period of time we even had a friend in common; although we never actually hung out. Feels funny to say all that given her status now lol. Still, it was the only reason I bought her debut and then when Fearless blew up it was sort of a surreal feeling.

Album Rating: 4.0

I think a lot of people have that one artist (or a few artists) who grew up in the same area and then blew up. For me it was Avenged Sevenfold (I only lived an hour or two away from them); I was the singer of a short-lived metal band back in high school, and our guitarist actually had a copy of A7X's three-song demo from 1999 when they were just getting their start. At the time he didn't think anything of it, but he remembered being so blown away when albums like City of Evil and the s/t came along and made the band superstars



As a side note, Beast and the Harlot was one of the songs my band covered back then!

--must be great being successful enough to pretend your fanbait power moves are the future of the industry
--

is this salt

it's incredulity at the number of people here who romanticise taylor swift's personal feuds into unrealistic chances for industry reform, and if you're going to daytrip round poptimism, you should probably recognise that

best case scenario from all of this, swift benefits from increased royalties and bolstered relevance for her back catalogue, and the rest of the world is more conscious of exploitative label contracts (which have been in and out of public controversy for practically as long as they've existed (gonna set the spiritual start date as the whole Beatles-Allen Klein saga and call it cemented by the time the Kinks dropped Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, but willing to be amended here)), but the vast majority of artists will never have the platform or marketing support to operate anywhere near as independently as she does so nothing changes. real change comes from labels becoming obsolete (i.e. further undercut by streaming corps, which come with their own set of issues), but as long as artists are compelled to lean on major labels for distribution purposes, these issues are gonna persist

don't get me wrong, it's a neat career move on swift's part, but when i see the likes of

a turning point in the history of music ownership thanks to the spotlight it’s placing on label contracts, ownership of masters, and right of first refusal for artists. In short, it’s kind of a big deal

i can't help but roll my eyes at how easily people have handed her the narrative for this

Album Rating: 4.5

We wouldn't have had this problem if a few more of the old timers would have stood up and said nay to my staff promotion! Sputnik, you did this to yourself.

You should turn that into a something something blog piece identifying such and such problems within that format w/ speculation as to what the streaming set up will implicate towards more futuristic movements something something

Album Rating: 4.5

I would read that

Big fan of the something somethings

lol i am not writing a fucking taylor swift blogpiece

and tbf sow, the fact that people are indeed ascribing this level of siginficance to taytay's personal crusade is defs intro para-level spotlightable. you just missed a golden opportunity to call them idiots :]

Album Rating: 4.5

Haha well I'd have to include myself in that subset, seeing as my intro ascribes a similar level of alleged importance to her crusade. Is it too late to edit my review to make myself seem much smarter and more in-tune with the history of label-artist interactions?



Also:

Write a Taylor Swift blog piece [2]

--Big fan of the something somethings--

I am a fan of some things.

Write a Taylor Swift blog piece [3]

Brazil people will love it.

hm only if i can do your sexification staff interview first

Album Rating: 4.0

Shit, I'd be down to do the blog piece as a contrib feature if you don't wanna do it. I do have a lot of thoughts about the re-recordings as it is

--hm only if i can do your sexification staff interview first--

Dewi is probably a sexier time than me, but I'm always available for JohnnyDeeds[ofthewell].

this was aimed at sowing, but i will also be coming for your head (have dewi's and a couple of others in the bank already)