Album Rating: 1.5

Decided to check this out even though I haven't been a fan of her other stuff. All the buzz about how great this is sucked me in. But yeah this sucks, so fucking boring. Feels really uninspired.

Album Rating: 1.5

"sure but the overwhelming majority of listens have still been via streaming. probably a lot of people like me who buy records and then never even open them or listen to them"



no one is denying that a majority of people listen through streaming, that's pretty obvious. but a not-insignificant number of people do invest money into music and buy her shit. a sale is a sale, regardless of if you open it or not. megafans are going to buy the standard edition and 3am edition regardless anyways so its money in the bank for teeswizz

Re: logistics, I hope other big-name artists don't see Taylor's numbers here and try to repeat the same trick by ordering in massive pressings, bet it'd only take a few doing so to gum up the works for any indie acts trying to get a pressing out

Album Rating: 2.0

A similar situation happened when Adele released her last album, didn't it?

Album Rating: 4.0 | Sound Off

While I don't like the idea of a single artist taking up the majority of vinyl pressing and holding back indie artists and smaller artists in general, it's hard to argue that these sorts of sales are awesome for local record shops. The uptick in vinyl sales might be purely an aesthetic for some people, but I love the sound of records, so I just like to support shops and artists. No doubt a lot of her traction is streaming as it is more many artists, but the revival of physical sales is very nice to see.

I listened to this at 5 am utterly sleep deprived. Unsurprisingly was less negative than Sputnik on this album, I think my impression was the start and end were pretty good and the middle was boring. But it was a single listen and realistically I just listen to Taylor Swift for the handful of singles that end up being good tracks, not for a full album. I think Enchanted and Begin Again are the only two non-singles I can even remember enjoying. Feel like it'd probs end up a 3 for me

Album Rating: 1.5

sadly when you google "taylor swift midnights vinyl" the top store results are her own site, target and best buy which i'm sure account for the majority of the sales so it really doesn't do much for local shops



this record has over 1M sales already jesus

Album Rating: 2.0

I think that ship has sailed. XD



Regardless of what she does now, it's going to be a massive success. We're also living in an age now where records are being broken almost all the time.

Album Rating: 2.0

I'm not sure, to be honest. It's not exclusive to music either. Even movies and video games are enjoying similar successes. The latest Top Gun became Tom Cruise's highest grossing film. And nearly every other day I hear how a game in a series has become the most successful release in its respective franchise.

social media becoming more prevalent causes more uniformity in what people consume imo

yessssss 2.8 I WON

-----

"Very true. I wonder if it's just because there's more people in the world with automatic access to music? Not to diminish the legitimacy of broken records, just wondering what exactly is causing that sort of trend because I feel like I've been noticing that too unless I'm just imagining it."

I say it's mostly stan mobilization. Fans just mobilize a lot to organize streams and even mass buying campaigns, since breaking records is part of the increasingly hypercompetitive nature of fandoms.

Just look at kpop fandoms - even relatively small fandoms will organize ways to artifically inflate numbers to win a weekly korean music show award, and things like random photocards and the chance to join a fansign event will help to further inflate album sales.
Now, while this is kpop context, I think general pop music culture has absorbed some of it with BTS and Blackpink successes making this kind of culture more visible.

Album Rating: 2.0

You're not kidding. Wow. There are campaigns and all to inflate her success. What's the point? She would be topping the charts even with all that effort. XD

Album Rating: 2.5 | Sound Off

a lot of this is swift being bizarrely understated in her performance. you can feel in You're On Your Own, Kid her voice should go UP at the end of each stanza with vibrato, the melody practically begs for it but she just goes up a little. everything about the album is purposely lacking in energy to get that chill alt-pop vibe but the hooks aren't great enough on their own to justify the lack of energy.

Album Rating: 2.0

I know how you feel and maybe this is just my misunderstanding of the general concept behind the album but it's all late night songs, right? I appreciate that they're going to be a little understated to fit in with a quieter late night vibe. Given that, though, I feel like they could have leaned a little harder.



Maybe that's me expecting some Blue Jam or something but it certainly doesn't come across to me like a late night album. It's not exactly Wee Small Hours, is it? XD

Album Rating: 2.5

Was looking forward to this but I can’t remember a single song lol

anti-hero is pretty great

Album Rating: 2.5

"Was looking forward to this but I can’t remember a single song lol"



The T Swift Experience

Album Rating: 4.5

I really liked the album. Like Sowing, it isn’t my favorite Taylor Swift CD and I am still debating giving it a 4. But I feel like the hooks are there in a glam disco kind of way. The hooks aren’t as shiny and big as before but it was an enjoyably unique experience again.

Album Rating: 3.6

this is MUCH better than 1989

lol [8]