He/Him/His
BIG POP GIRLS 2024
- Thread starter aux
- Start date
Popjustice members try not to be gross about women for ten seconds challenge. Seriously, why does it matter that she's in her 30s?
Subwaykid
Staff member
Oh yes, let’s get rid of bye and don’t wanna break up again today too.
I am a Little Homewrecker but I screamed.
Alright you goons I've been awake since 5AM, I've been to the gym, I've done a full day at work, I've been on a run (with THESE KNEES @constantino!!!), and now I'm sitting here doing this fucking elimination in my sweaty clothes instead of drawing a bath and queuing up the new Bald & The Beautiful to listen to, so let's get this shit over with!
HIGHEST
10 x 11 (@reputation. @ufint @Daniel_O @Sprockrooster @RJF @sapnu puas @bad karma @maverick_79 @dylanaber @BTG @Subwaykid)
LOWEST
0.75 x 1 (@Remyky22)
I've been so thoroughly bamboozled by the elimination order of Taylor's songs and distracted by the devilry of the thread that I kind of forgot that this was even still in, despite loving it. I'm actually surprised it has outlasted some other songs here. It's probably the most ballad sounding of the ballads so I think I just assumed the majority of you would have squealed and reached for the skip button and the 2 on your keyboard. But here we are!
Tortured Poets is a sad album. End of write up. Just kidding, but no. A lot of the time any kind of real glimpse we get into Taylor's mental state is rough, but I don't think anything else on the album sounds as sad as "How Did It End?". Sonically, melodically, it's the closest thing to a lament Taylor is probably ever done. Taylor prefers her choruses to kind of... lift in her songs, even in the sad ones, but "How Did It End?" sinks. I think that chorus melody is one of the finest moments on the album. It kind of reminds me of the middle-eight of "cowboy like me" where so much of the emotion and story is in the melody that the lyrics almost don't even matter. In fact, Taylor agrees, as the chorus lyrics completely change in the second go around. There's just a taunting, furious, bitterness to how it sounds. Yeah, my life is a fucking circus, come and get your ticket. The resentment, the shame.
Which I think are the two biggest emotions here. Break ups are hard, but break ups on the international stage when so much of your career and artistry is bound to your personal relationships must be so much harder. The... embarrassment of having to tell everyone the dream is over. The mechanically bland PR statement, the retroactive shame for all those love songs (He's NOT the Burton to this Taylor!!!), and probably just pure rage at the fact that you have to go through this entire process when you just want to curl up and die. I do also like the inclusion of "the shops" in the lyrics too; I feel it deliberately places her in her disintegrating life in London in the immediate aftermath of Joe with a quintessentially British turn of phrase. A life in London which we know she loved, which was another thing she was losing, and mourns elsewhere on the album.
There's also that thread of just hating the faux-concern from the mob, which ties to "But Daddy I Love Him" where she directly addresses the fact that sometimes, people just want to know the grisly innards of her business instead of actually respecting her privacy, which is probably something everyone at her level goes though. It's a fantastic song. I can even forgive the lyrics in the middle-eight being kind of maudlin because she delivers them so excellently, and the rest of the song is doing so much anyway. Again, the more fascinating thing about this song comes from how it touches on emotions Taylor rarely touches: shame, anger, her own wounded pride, which is made to sound like the biggest casualty here. But I won't be unpacking that particular horror today.
"How Did It End?" was one of the few Tortured Poets songs that didn't have to share runtime with another song during the acoustic section of the Eras Tour. Additionally, it was another one of the those tracks she chucked out a professional recording for because she's a greedy beast! What a treat. Enjoy, although the higher key she puts it into to manage it live is a little eh.
HIGHEST
10 x 11 (@reputation. @ufint @Daniel_O @Sprockrooster @RJF @sapnu puas @bad karma @maverick_79 @dylanaber @BTG @Subwaykid)
LOWEST
0.75 x 1 (@Remyky22)
I've been so thoroughly bamboozled by the elimination order of Taylor's songs and distracted by the devilry of the thread that I kind of forgot that this was even still in, despite loving it. I'm actually surprised it has outlasted some other songs here. It's probably the most ballad sounding of the ballads so I think I just assumed the majority of you would have squealed and reached for the skip button and the 2 on your keyboard. But here we are!
Tortured Poets is a sad album. End of write up. Just kidding, but no. A lot of the time any kind of real glimpse we get into Taylor's mental state is rough, but I don't think anything else on the album sounds as sad as "How Did It End?". Sonically, melodically, it's the closest thing to a lament Taylor is probably ever done. Taylor prefers her choruses to kind of... lift in her songs, even in the sad ones, but "How Did It End?" sinks. I think that chorus melody is one of the finest moments on the album. It kind of reminds me of the middle-eight of "cowboy like me" where so much of the emotion and story is in the melody that the lyrics almost don't even matter. In fact, Taylor agrees, as the chorus lyrics completely change in the second go around. There's just a taunting, furious, bitterness to how it sounds. Yeah, my life is a fucking circus, come and get your ticket. The resentment, the shame.
Which I think are the two biggest emotions here. Break ups are hard, but break ups on the international stage when so much of your career and artistry is bound to your personal relationships must be so much harder. The... embarrassment of having to tell everyone the dream is over. The mechanically bland PR statement, the retroactive shame for all those love songs (He's NOT the Burton to this Taylor!!!), and probably just pure rage at the fact that you have to go through this entire process when you just want to curl up and die. I do also like the inclusion of "the shops" in the lyrics too; I feel it deliberately places her in her disintegrating life in London in the immediate aftermath of Joe with a quintessentially British turn of phrase. A life in London which we know she loved, which was another thing she was losing, and mourns elsewhere on the album.
There's also that thread of just hating the faux-concern from the mob, which ties to "But Daddy I Love Him" where she directly addresses the fact that sometimes, people just want to know the grisly innards of her business instead of actually respecting her privacy, which is probably something everyone at her level goes though. It's a fantastic song. I can even forgive the lyrics in the middle-eight being kind of maudlin because she delivers them so excellently, and the rest of the song is doing so much anyway. Again, the more fascinating thing about this song comes from how it touches on emotions Taylor rarely touches: shame, anger, her own wounded pride, which is made to sound like the biggest casualty here. But I won't be unpacking that particular horror today.
"How Did It End?" was one of the few Tortured Poets songs that didn't have to share runtime with another song during the acoustic section of the Eras Tour. Additionally, it was another one of the those tracks she chucked out a professional recording for because she's a greedy beast! What a treat. Enjoy, although the higher key she puts it into to manage it live is a little eh.
ohnostalgia
Staff member
She/her
(I gave How Did It End? a 9.25, it's my favourite on the whole album)
It kinda does matter when most of her strongest reflections on heartbreak were written 10-15 years ago and her more recent attempts feel so lifeless and stunted by comparison. Saying someone's work hasn't evolved over a given period isn't age shaming, is called engaging in an artist's work critically, not accepting scraps because you have a lot of stock in the artist regardless of the quality of their output.
I'll give you the benefit of the doubt that this is how you meant it, because it certainly didn't come off that way, but in general I would really like to see less people (men) on this forum commenting on and bringing up how old women are and what is or isn't appropriate for them to do/sing/write about at their age.
A good amount of the comments in this thread and elsewhere on the forum, especially ones about Taylor, make me (yes, as a woman, sorry to play that card!!) feel vaguely uncomfortable, as they read less like legitimate critiques of her music and more like covertly misogynistic hot takes on how she's whiny/annoying/melodramatic/has bad taste in men/is too old for the kind of heartbreak she's experiencing. You don't have to like the music, but it's so odd and off-putting for me to read what feel like critiques of how women express sadness, coming from, essentially, a bunch of men.
Basically:
How Did It End? is another example of her making the trope of being a famous person in a famous relationship feel somehow relatable, which is quite impressive. It makes earlier material with a similar subject - like Dancing With Our Hands Tied, for example - feel shallow in comparison. It really almost feels like Taylor is watching the world watching her, and how that effects how she navigates private stuff.
Ugh, The Anthology you will always be famous to me at least.
Ugh, The Anthology you will always be famous to me at least.
I can't disagree with this. If my comments (or anyone's for that matter) make you feel uncomfortable that's absolutely fair. I have to take that onboard, but I want to ensure I communicate my viewpoint as intended.
I don't think age in isolation is off limits but I understand there's a lot of baggage when gender and age cross.
Likewise, when you produce art specifically referencing another public figure (same goes with Sabrina), we're gonna have views on that - especially considering Matty Healy history of...foul behaviour towards women.
Based on this, we should certainly be getting rid of "Mean Girls" soon for who that references - right?
:)
A Swiftie (not @aux) should run a TTPD rate so we can see how the people who actually listened to the album ranked the songs.