BIG POP GIRLS 2024
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I gave it a 7, so think that was fair. As mentioned, these write ups give me time to revisit them.
She/her
I find the melody to be totally uninteresting and repetitive. When listening to the album for the first time I had to be drawn in and there was nothing to hook me. It seemed to drag on and on without any real pay off.
The Prophecy, on the other hand, is gorgeous and I hope that soars.
It also really suffered on the tracklisting coming after such a burst of 90s teen movie energy in So High School.
She/her
I gave both songs a 7. I like them but they weren't the best on the album, in my opinion. I'm not articulate enough to offer more of an explanation, sorry.
I gave it a 5.5. If it was on Folklore or Evermore would I have scored it higher? Probably!
I blame it entirely on Taylor’s presentation of the album that some (potentially) good songs are getting lost within the mix. A completely uninspired vomit of songs - no thought or care put into a narrative, creating peaks and troughs, developing any sort of sonic variety, etc.
It turns out that I run out of patience with “variations on a theme” after a while! And we know that there’s no artistic statement being made either, which might give me more of an angle to dig deeper into it - it was the most transparent attempt at breaking streaming records that we’ve seen for a while.
It’s telling that Cowboy Carter is only 4 tracks shorter but it feels like a complete album, because she takes you on a journey.
I blame it entirely on Taylor’s presentation of the album that some (potentially) good songs are getting lost within the mix. A completely uninspired vomit of songs - no thought or care put into a narrative, creating peaks and troughs, developing any sort of sonic variety, etc.
It turns out that I run out of patience with “variations on a theme” after a while! And we know that there’s no artistic statement being made either, which might give me more of an angle to dig deeper into it - it was the most transparent attempt at breaking streaming records that we’ve seen for a while.
It’s telling that Cowboy Carter is only 4 tracks shorter but it feels like a complete album, because she takes you on a journey.
Good tracks on the album fall victim to haphazard track listing. My favourite album of the last year - Diamond Jubilee, is also just as long as Tortured, and a double album, but there are artistic merits and intentions behind that mammoth of an album. World crafting so ambitious and boundless that I can’t imagine an album like that needing less tracks to accomplish what it did. Unfortunately I can’t say the same for Tortured. I do like the optics of the biggest artist in the world vomiting out such a weird, self indulging album, but sooo many tracks on that album simply needed culling. It’s causing traffic jam. A blockage. A feast for fans and constipation for any listeners who just want a well thought out, immaculate experience that’s expected from a creator of albums like folklore and evermore! I’m glad she got it out of her system. Happy for her!
He/Him
Well, that didn't happen.
Also I'm fucking pissed and will be commenting properly tomorrow after sleeping. But can we please for the love of God leave Taylor alone for a couple of days? Everyone else could stand to lose at least one or two songs.
The thing with The Tortured Poets Department being called a data dump only concerned with streaming numbers is those types of albums pretty much always contain at least a handful of tracks that basically sound like they were slapped together in half an hour and don't really serve any purpose beyond making the tracklist longer, but here, whether you like them or not I think it's hard to argue thought and care wasn't put into every single one of these songs, and, as the write-ups have greatly shown, each one actually gives you something to chew on and, on their own, taken from the context of being part of a very long album, none feel particularly throwaway or like something you could just easily label as filler.
he/him
How many Taylor songs are left?
Is anyone keeping a running total of sorts?
Is anyone keeping a running total of sorts?
He/Him
By my count, 13.
How appropriate
Too bad it's probably going to be down to like eight by the time we reach the top 100 nn
Even as someone who hammered the album during 2024, I'm still finding new favorites. For example, I never really cared for Smallest Man before but seeing it's doing comparably better here, I listened to it again and now I love how she quietly drags Matty on it.
I think a lot of people who dismissed the album because of its number of songs are going to regret it later.
I think a lot of people who dismissed the album because of its number of songs are going to regret it later.
He/Him
This is what's left.How appropriate
Too bad it's probably going to be down to like eight by the time we reach the top 100 nn
Fortnight (feat. Post Malone)
Down Bad
So Long, London
But Daddy I Love Him
Guilty As Sin?
loml
The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived
Clara Bow
The Black Dog
How Did It End?
So High School
I Look in People's Windows
The Prophecy
All of them should be top 100 with most belonging in the top 50 but will that fucking happen? Probably not.
We'll do round-ups at natural checkpoints - first will be at 100.
he/him
11 x 1
@Music Is Life & Death
HIGHEST
10 x 8 (@Ashling92, @bad karma, @Blond, @Inland Empire, @motorbike, @One of One, @Petty Mayonnaise, @savilizabeths)
LOWEST
0.5 x 1 (@Plethorya), 1.5 x 1 (@eliminathan)
One of the things I love about Taylor Swift is her ability to summate a whole series of events in just one song. For a very long time, most Swifties unanimously agreed that “All Too Well” was her best song – for the veryreason that it tells the whole story of her relationship with an older man who broke her heart like it was the very first time during its runtime of five minutes and twenty-nine seconds. Indeed, the ten minute and thirteen seconds (*wink*) version, is even better because it expands so much upon this story and adds even more context and detail.
Another similar song, also adored by her fans and non-fans, is “Dear John” – a song where she negatively reminisces on a past relationship where she felt manipulated. “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve”, similarly, acts as a pseudo-sequel to “Dear John” with Taylor reminiscing on that same relationship more than a decade later.
“All Too Well”, as incredible as it is, has a certain immaturity to it – after all, it was written by Taylor Swift prior to being in any long-term relationship – and doesn’t really dive into why the relationship fell apart. Even in the heartbreak of “All Too Well”, there is still a wistful feeling underlying the whole song. “Dear John”, another phenomenal song, lingers in its sadness more than its anger about being a young woman who was played by an older man.
When she revisits these songs in later years, she approaches them with a more mature perspective that comes only with age and distance from the original heartbreak. The entire back half of “All Too Well (10 Minute Version)” focuses on the age difference and the broken power dynamics of the relationship. In this version, the feeling of longing is gone after the final three minutes. “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve” does exactly the same, turning the sadness from “Dear John” into anger about losing her innocence.
“The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived”, despite being written in the immediacy of the heartbreak, sounds like a song she wrote years later like the re-recording of “All Too Well” and “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve”. The anger in this song is searingly direct, yet she sounds somewhat defeated because she knows she won’t get revenge on him. It feels like a song that was written with major distance from the event is because she sounds like she’s already lost: she knows he will get away with what he did to her. She sounds betrayed and frankly, fucking annoyed that this man ever entered her orbit, and she willingly let him inside of it after years of lusting over him.
There are some phenomenal lines in this song, perhaps some of the best on the album, which just scold this man. I could go on for hours about some of the lines here, but in particular, I will flag up two. “'Cause it wasn't sexy once it wasn't forbidden / I would've died for your sins, instead, I just died inside” is such a striking couplet, explaining so much about Taylor’s regrets with this whole endeavour. One of the things I adore about this record – and partly why I find repeated listens to be so rewarding – is how the whole album interconnects with itself.
There are so many references between songs that fold together to tell the whole story. “Fresh Out the Slammer” directly connects with “Guilty as Sin?” which connects with “But Daddy I Love Him” and so on. It’s truly a towering piece of work that I cannot get enough of. The two lines “'Cause it wasn't sexy once it wasn't forbidden / I would've died for your sins, instead, I just died inside” connect this song with “Guilty as Sin?” and “Fresh Out the Slammer”. The tapestry of this record just builds upon itself consistently.
Similarly, “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” consistently builds throughout the track. It starts as a subdued piano ballad with Taylor taking a breath before starting, only to morph into a much more intense song. “All Too Well”, the re-recording, pulls a similar move with its final three minutes where the production entirely switches to a darker, more subdued sound. “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve” does something much more similar with going towards a rockier sound that matches that of this song to match Taylor’s anger.
“The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived”, at least in the standard album, is the final song about her relationship with Matty Healy. It is her way of putting the nail in the coffin regarding this story in the same way “All Too Well” and “Dear John” felt like the final punch.
One of my favourite memories with this song has to be from The Eras Tour in night three of the Wembley shows. While we were in the queue to get in, some Swifties were handing napkins to fans with a sticker, asking the audience to wave the napkin like a ‘white flag’ during the bridge of “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived”. I've attached a video of it below.
I will leave you with the commentary from @Music Is Life & Death who wrote: "I love a lot of songs in this rate and especially on this album but I think this is the song that still it’s me hardest. It’s fairly simple all things considered, but the simplicity works in its favor. The star of the show is the bridge when everything explodes, but I do love the subtle build-up to that throughout, with the electronic pulsing and acoustic instruments coming in more. Like most (if not all) of the album, the melodies are simple but memorable and help put the lyrics and her emotions at the forefront, something Taylor has always been skilled at. It all helps build the tension that the (amazing, showstopping, etc.) bridge helps release in a cathartic climax. I’ve been obsessed since the first listen. And the song hits on a personal level because for the past 4 years I’ve been dealing with the emotional and mental fallout of a relationship with someone I fell harder and loved faster than anyone else, and there are shades of him in these lyrics. I think Taylor perfectly captures the feeling of what happens in the aftermath of being emotionally manipulated by someone into loving them and understanding that that’s what happened after the end of it all. This song is a prime example of one of Taylor’s best skills being her ability to be very specific and highly relatable at the same time, and it’s something I love about Tortured Poets as a whole. I mean, most of the world probably has their own “smallest man”, and that idea helps make this song - to me - feel very classic Taylor. It’s absolutely one of the best on the album, and the rate as a whole in my opinion, and since I’m worried it won’t do well - though I hope I’m wrong - I wanted to highlight it here by giving it my 11."