#ANOTHER AARON DESSNER COLLABORATION

[baby-girl-aaron-dessner]

NEW GRACIE & AARON ALBUM JUNE 21 NEW GRACIE & AARON ALBUM NEW GRACIE & AARON ALBUM JUNE 21 NEW GRACIE & AARON ALBUM JUNE 21 NEW GRACIE & AARON ALBUM NEW GRACIE & AARON ALBUM JUNE 21 NEW GRACIE & AARON ALBUM JUNE 21 NEW GRACIE & AARON ALBUM JUNE 21

[midnightsslut]

It’s really interesting how much of Taylor’s current life is owed to a text message sent to Aaron Dessner one night asking him out of the blue if he wanted to make an album with her and her deciding that she would in fact re-record her entire discography. Like the first one not only ended up with another AOTY, but also brought a collaborator who she called her musical soul mate last year. And going back through her discography might have led to the beginning of the end with Joe. Life works in funny ways.

it really does. folklore completely changed her life in conjunction with the re-records. looking backwards might be the only way to move forward.

[mermaidinthecity]

Prologue

To put it plainly, we just couldn’t stop writing songs. To try and put it more poetically, it feels like we were standing on the edge of the folklorian woods and had a choice: to turn and go back or to travel further into the forest of this music. We chose to wander deeper in and my collaborators and I are proud to announce that my 9th studio album and folklore’s sister record is here. It’s called evermore.

I’ve never done this before. In the past I’ve always treated albums as onе-off eras and moved onto planning the nеxt one as soon as an album was released. There was something different with folklore. In making it, I felt less like I was departing and more like I was returning. I loved the escapism I found in these imaginary/not imaginary tales. I loved the ways you welcomed the dreamscapes and tragedies and epic tales of love lost and found. So I just kept writing them. And I loved creating these songs with Aaron Dessner, Jack Antonoff, WB, and Justin Vernon. We’ve also welcomed some new (and longtime) friends to our musical kitchen table this time around…

Before I knew it there were 17 tales, some of which are mirrored or intersecting with one another. The one about two young con artists who fall in love while hanging out at fancy resorts trying to score rich romantic beneficiaries. The one where longtime college sweethearts had very different plans for the same night, one to end it and one who brought a ring. Dorothea, the girl who left her small town to chase down Hollywood dreams – and what happens when she comes back for the holidays and rediscovers an old flame. The ‘unhappily ever after’ anthology of marriages gone bad that includes infidelity, ambivalent toleration, and even murder. The most righteous motive, to avenge the fallen. The realization that maybe the only path to healing is to wish happiness on the one who took it away from you. One starring my grandmother, Marjorie, who still visits me sometimes…if only in my dreams.

I wanted to surprise you with this the week of my 31st birthday. You’ve all been so caring, supportive and thoughtful on my birthdays and so this time I wanted to give you something! I also know this holiday season will be a lonely one for most of us and if there are any of you out there who turn to music to cope with missing loved ones the way I do, this is for you.

I have no idea what will come next. I have no idea about a lot of things these days and so I’ve clung to the one thing that keeps me connected to you all. That thing always has and always will be music.

And may it continue, evermore.

Taylor

— Taylor Swift, Evermore (2020)

[bananaofswifts]

4/ STARS by Annabel Nugent

The Swiftie fatigue should’ve set in by now. The pop star, 33, is everywhere: she is re-recording old albums and releasing them periodically while also on a very sold-out, very publicised world tour, clips of which circulate hourly on social media. And yet, still fans awaited Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) with the same heady anticipation as if it were a release from an elusive artist who seldom puts out music, not pop’s hardest-working star.

It’s the third of six albums that Swift is re-recording in order to take legal control of her back catalogue. Originally released in 2010, Speak Now arrived sandwiched between 2008’s Fearless and 2012’s Red (the two records, in fact, that Swift has already remade). To listen to Speak Now, written entirely by a then 20-year-old Swift, is to hear an artist in transition – both in her music (Swift cleaves closer to pop here than she had ever done previously) and her profile, which was rising rapidly and dizzyingly.

As with previous Taylor’s Versions, the most obvious change is Swift’s voice, which is expectedly richer and more mature than it was a decade ago. It is also notably less country. That nasal twang that once plucked against the lovestruck chorus of “Mine” is no more. Its absence slightly blunts the fun factor in singing along, but not by much. (Notably too, the fiddle appears to sit lower in the mix of the rootsy, bluegrass-influenced kiss off “Mean”).

But really, the record’s appeal exists in how true it stays to the source material. This isn’t an opportunity for reinvention, but rediscovery. The shimmery haze of “Enchanted” is as enticing as ever, as is the bruised, bluesy ballad “Dear John” that takes aim at an unkind ex-lover. John Mayer, though – whom Swift briefly dated and whom the song is heavily rumoured to be about – is perhaps part of the minority who was not eagerly awaiting another round of Speak Now. Last night, he shared a photo of the night sky at his Colorado concert lit up with the words “please be kind” possibly in anticipation of the vitriol likely reinvigorated and heading his way (again).

Lyrically, too, these new versions do not stray far, if at all. The only exception is “Better than Revenge”, which has undergone one significant tinkering. The Paramore-indebted number, a pop-punk savaging of a girl who stole her boyfriend, originally included the line: “She’s better known for the things that she does/ On the mattress, whoa.” To the dismay of some fans, Swift has traded in the barbed taunt for a vaguer sentiment, something about a moth and a flame.

Sprung from the vault are six new tracks. Co-produced with her frequent collaborators, Aaron Dessner and Jack Antonoff, these include features from Fall Out Boy (“Electric Touch”) and Hayley Williams (“Castles Crumbling”). The most talked-about track is “When Emma Falls in Love”, a lilting piano-led number that is the spiritual predecessor to “Betty” (2020’s Folklore) and “Dorothea” (2020’s Evermore). The best, though, is the very danceable “I Can See You” – a track that conjures an indie-rock mood not unlike those found on Swift’s most recent records. The past typically isn’t the most comfortable place to inhabit, but Swift embodies her younger self fully, imbuing these tracks with the same immediacy and emotional heft as she did all those years ago. Country twang or not.

[merylodrama]

folklore

Taylor Swift — 2020

a revisit on vinyl — ★★★★☆

It has been four years since Taylor Swift came back out of nowhere with what seemed to be weirdly correlated black & white pictures posted on her instagram feed. It was at that moment that she revealed the cover art of her surprise dropped eighth studio album named folklore.

While some of the songs got produced by Jack Antonoff, who has been a long time collaborator since the 1989 days, folklore introduced a big shift in Swift's career with a radical departure from the pop songs from Lover (2019) to go down on a more alternative/indie route with Aaron Dessner as the producer of most of tracks on the record. A sound that fits Taylor and her pen pretty well. Perhaps a bit too much, since it looks like she was able to drag that sound from that album to The Tortured Poets Department, including her Taylor's Version albums, making it sadly sound overused and much less genuine on her recent projects (but that's a story for another day).

Some of the highlights include exile with Taylor and Bon Iver's hypnotizing vocals, the incredible backing vocals on mirrorball or Swift's incredible ability to write and tell stories as on the song betty.

With a more toned down sound, a desire to express herself with a newly acquired freedom and the opportunity to take the time to write these new songs during the pandemic lockdown, Taylor Swift put out one of the best and most mature record to date off her discography, folklore is arguably an essential record from 2020.

the 1 — 7,8

cardigan — 8,8

the last great american dynasty — 8,3

exile (feat. bon iver) — 9,5

my tears ricochet — 9,4

mirrorball — 9,5

seven — 7,4

august — 8,6

this is me trying — 9,4

illicit affairs — 7,9

invisible string — 8,6

mad woman — 8,4

epiphany — 6,4

betty — 9,6

peace — 8,2

hoax  — 7,0

the lakes — 8,1

Total : 8.4

[this-daydream-is-dangerous-13]

More Aaron Dessner!! Ignore the 🙄🙄🙄 headline because it’s super misleading and luxuriate in his wonderfulness. And his unabashed love for an admiration of our beloved Blondie.

Some banner quotes:

Do you have any memories from the studio or a writing session that stick out to you as an example of just why Taylor is so good at her craft?

“There are so many stories I could share. When I sent Taylor the music for our song "Willow" — I think she wrote the entire song from start to finish in less than 10 minutes and sent it back to me. It was like an earthquake. Then Taylor said, "I guess we are making another album."”

When you wrote Folklore and Evermore, it was peak pandemic and the world was different. What's it like for you now to see those albums that were written in solitude performed for tens of thousands of people?

“It was quite surreal to be honest. When Taylor first texted me about writing remotely with her during the pandemic, I almost didn't believe it was her at first. And then as we were working on Folklore, we had almost no outside interaction with anyone on her team or label, much less the outside world of her millions and millions of fans.

Taylor never made me feel any of the shadow of her previous work or success. There was no pressure at all. It was as though we were just making an album for ourselves and passing time during the pandemic. It felt like we were on our own private artistic life raft, just making songs to soothe our souls and get through such an uncertain and difficult time.

When the album was finally shared with the world, and that feeling became something shared cathartically with millions and millions of people around the world, it was really something I will never forget. We were on FaceTime at midnight on the night Folklore came out and the first reviews and responses started coming in and it was really one of the most exhilarating, life-affirming feelings I have ever had. The fragile songs we had made remotely during lockdown were suddenly becoming part of the fabric of so many people's lives.”

😭😭😭😭

Go read the whole thing. Swessner always.

[wander-whimsy]

Tay's Anthology: A Swiftie's Seismic Feels

Alright, co-interns, gather around as I, your humble co-intern, guide you through Taylor Swift's, our chairman, "The Tortured Poet's Department: The Anthology." This album isn't just a collection of songs – it's a captivating journey cultured in 2 years through depth of Tay's soul, showcasing the unparalled talent and storytelling prowess of none other the Chairman of the department.

From the get-go, Taylor Swift's vulnerability has been her trademark, and she wears it proudly in this album. Each track offers a window into her innermost thoughs and emotions, akin to reading pages torn from her personal diary. It's this unfiltered honesty that has endeared her to millions of fans worldwide.

But "The Tortured Poets' Department" isn't merely a journey through heartache and sorry – it's a multifaceted exploration of the human experience. Through themes of love, lost, resilience, and growth, Taylor, in her role as Chairman, create a complex series of emotions that resonates deeply with her interns on a profound level.

And let's not foget the surprises Tay has in store for us! From the unexpected announcemnt of a double album to the thrilling collaborations with industry heavywrights like Post Malone and Florence Welce, each twist and turn leaves us eagerly anticipating to what's to come. Beyond the music itself, Taylor's meticuluos attention to detail shines through in every aspect of this album. From the poetic prologue penned by Stevie Nicks in the physical album which we are looking forward have to the meticulously crafted production by Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner, every element contributes to the rich collection of sound and emotion that defines "The Tortured Poets Department".

And let's not overlook the bonus tracks – the hidden gem waiting to be discovered. From introspective ballads to fiery anthems each one adds another layer to the album's already rich collection and tapestry.

In the end, "The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology" isn't just an album – it's a cultural phenomenon, a seismic event that will leave indelible mark on the music world for years to come. As die-hard Swiftie and co-interns of this journey. I for one, am eager to dwelve int oevery lyrics and melody, dissecting the album's nuances and intricacies alongside you all.

And with that, I officially adjourn this meeting. But fret not, fellow Swifties, for our journey through the "The Tortured Poets Department" is only just the beginning. In fact, I'm excited to announce that I'll be embarking on a 31-day task of dissecting each of the 31 songs from the album. Yes, you heard that right – 31 days, 31 songs, and 31 deep dives int the brilliance of the Chairman of The Tortured Poets Department. So stay tuned, mark your calendats, and get ready to join me on this epic journey through "The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology." Let's immerse ourselve in Taylor's world and revel in the magic she has bestowed upon us again.

[girl4music]

From Apple Music: "In the 18 months after Taylor Swift released Midnights, it often felt as though the universe had fully opened up to her. The Eras Tour was breaking records and blowing past the billion-dollar mark; its attendant concert film became the highest-grossing of all time. She generated interest and commerce and headlines everywhere she stepped foot, from tour stops to the tunnels of NFL stadiums. In 2023, she was named both TIME magazine’s Person of the Year and—just as iconic, tbh—Apple Music’s Artist of the Year. 

But do songs about that level of success speak to you? As the news broke that her highly private six-year relationship to Joe Alwyn had ended, Swifties started Swiftie-ing, quickly recirculating a clip on social media of Swift a few weeks earlier, onstage during an early Eras show, in tears as she sang “champagne problems”—a song she and Alwyn had written together. It was a reminder that, despite the superhero-like aura she now radiates, Swift, at her peak, still hurts like the rest of us. What sets her apart is her ability to sublimate that pain into pop. When she announced her 11th studio album in early 2024—while accepting another Grammy, as one does—we probably shouldn’t have been surprised. 

“I needed to make it,” she’d say of THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT a few weeks later, to a crowd of—[rubs eyes]—96,000 in Melbourne, Australia. “I’ve never had an album where I’ve needed songwriting more than I needed it on TORTURED POETS.” Working again with trusted collaborators Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner, she returns to the soft, comfortable, bed-like sonics of Midnights. But the stakes feel noticeably higher here: This isn’t so much a breakup album as it is a deep-sea exploration of everything Swift has been feeling, a plunge through emotional debris. 

On “But Daddy I Love Him”—over strings and guitar that faintly recall her country roots—she lashes out at the crush of scrutiny and expectation she’s been subject to from the start. Naturally, catharsis comes after the chorus: “I’ll tell you something right now,” she sings. “I’d rather burn my whole life down than listen to one more second of all this bitching and moaning.” On “Florida!!!” she and Florence + the Machine team up for a pulpy escape fantasy wherein they Thelma and Louise their way down to the Sunshine State in hopes of starting over with new lives and identities: “Love left me like this,” they sing. “And I don’t want to exist.”

At turns hilarious and heartbreaking, TTPD is a study in extremes, Swift leaning into heightened emotions with heightened, hyperbolic, ALL-CAPS language and imagery—how we think when we’re drunk on love or flattened by its sudden disappearance. Note the dark humour she weaves through the Post Malone-enriched opener “Fortnight” (“Your wife waters flowers/I wanna kill her”). Or the thrilling self-deprecation of ���Down Bad”, a foray into science fiction wherein Swift likens the warmth of a relationship to being abducted by love-bombing extraterrestrials—only to be left “naked and alone, in a field in my same old town.” 

But this remains her most candid and unsparing work to date: As a listener, you frequently get the feeling that you’ve stumbled across emails she’d written but never sent, or into conversations you were never meant to hear. There’s a density and a specificity and a ferocity to her lyrical work here that makes 2012’s “All Too Well” feel sorta light by comparison. If you’re the kind of Swiftie who likes to live in the details, well, this one might be your Super Bowl. “You swore that you loved me, but where were the clues?” she asks on the devastating “So Long, London”, a high point. “I died on the altar waiting for the proof.” Alone at a piano on the haunting “loml”, she flips the script on someone who’d told her she was the love of their life, by telling them that they were the loss of hers: “I’ll still see it until I die.” 

The story, as you likely know, doesn’t end there. We get a glimpse of new beginnings in “The Alchemy” (“This happens once every few lifetimes/These chemicals hit me like white wine”) and something like triumph in the montage-ready synths of “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart”, when Swift, shattered on the floor, “as the crowd was chanting, ‘More!’,” still finds the strength to deliver: “’Cause I’m a real tough kid and I can handle my shit.” 

But we also get a sense of acceptance, of new-found perspective. On “Clara Bow”—named after a 1920s movie star who was able to survive the jump from silent film to sound—Swift reflects on the journey of a small-town girl made good, sung from the vantage of an industry obsessed with the next big thing. She zooms out and out and out until, in the album’s closing seconds, she’s singing about herself in the third person, in past tense, acknowledging that nothing is forever. “You look like Taylor Swift in this light, we’re loving it,” she sings. “You’ve got edge she never did/The future’s bright, dazzling.”

I'm not restricting or limiting her artistic potential or anything but I really think Taylor Swift's niche in genre is dream, folk or synth-pop. That ethereal soundscape goes well with her small-ranged voice and her lyrical style works best when it's telling stories about stuff that isn't even necessarily about her, but about someone or something.

It's her niche. Where she sounds her best. When she's at her best.

I like the fact that in this album she's not worried about singles because most of these songs are too long for radio play unless they have to cut them down, and we all know how she feels about that. It's an album meant to be an album. It's a proper concept album. She doesn't need to worry about singles anyway. She'll sell regardless.

It sounds bloody fantastic in lossless 24-bit 48kHz ALAC/FLAC.

She's done it again. Created a musical masterpiece.

Like we'd expect anything less from Taylor Swift.

"As a listener, you frequently get the feeling that you’ve stumbled across emails she’d written but never sent, or into conversations you were never meant to hear. There’s a density and a specificity and a ferocity to her lyrical work here that makes 2012’s “All Too Well” feel sorta light by comparison." Yeah, you do with every great songwriter. The difference is great songwriters that are actually the musical artists of what you're listening to don't often exist in the pop industry.

Taylor Swift takes up space in pop music because she demands it. Most people would scoff at it. Even call it egoic. I highly respect it because she brings to pop music the point of the music. Art - not just entertainment. There's a phrase I use: Art is meant for expression, not impression. And she provides and delivers both seamlessly within each other. That's why the space she demands, she deserves. Not just any pop artist can do that or have that mark in the pop industry because most of them don't even write their own fucking music.

So if you feel like you shouldn't be present when listening - you feel put out or uncomfortable in any way - that's how you know you're listening to a true and great songwriter because they all DO THIS.

[always-rolling-my-eyes]

Day 9 of The Tortured Poets Department countdown which means we are headed back to the woods for Evermore

Just when we thought Taylor couldn’t shock us anymore, she releases yet another surprise album, all within the same year. Folklore’s sister album continues the whimsical and ethereal storytelling of folklore but while still having its own unique feel and identity; it’s the winter to folklore’s summer. It also continued the amazing collaborative work of Taylor with Aaron Dessner, making it clear he was here to stay. This album also led to some of the most anticipated fan moments during The Eras Tour, screaming the bridge of Champagne Problems and shining the lights for Marjorie. Although it is referred to as the ‘forgotten album’ by some, it has proven to be yet another piece of Taylor’s discography which has cemented her as the legendary artist and songwriter she is and will always be known as, forever and evermore.

My top 3 from this album:

‘Tis the Damn Season

Long Story Short

Dorothea

Honorable Mention: Ivy

Most Underrated Song: Closure

[afflictedbythe-not-knowing]

evermore

Album Number: 9

Written: 2020

Announced: December 10, 2020

Released: December 11, 2020

Genre: Alternative

TRACKLIST

willow  3:34

Written By: Taylor Swift, Aaron Dessner

Produced By: Aaron Dessner

2. champagne problems  4:04

Written By: Taylor Swift, William Bowery

Produced By: Taylor Swift, Aaron Dessner

3. gold rush  3:05

Written By: Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff

Produced By: Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff

4. ‘tis the damn season  3:49

Written By: Taylor Swift, Aaron Dessner

Produced By: Aaron Dessner

5. tolerate it  4:04

Written By: Taylor Swift, Aaron Dessner

Produced By: Aaron Dessner

6. no body, no crime ft. Haim  3:35

Written By: Taylor Swift

Produced By: Taylor Swift, Aaron Dessner

7. happiness  5:15

Written By: Taylor Swift, Aaron Dessner

Produced By: Aaron Dessner

8. dorothea  3:45

Written By: Taylor Swift, Aaron Dessner

Produced By: Aaron Dessner

9. coney island ft. The National  4:35

Written By: Taylor Swift, William Bowery, Aaron Dessner, Bryce Dessner

Produced By: Aaron Dessner, Bryce Dessner

10. ivy  4:20

Written By: Taylor Swift, Aaron Dessner, Jack Antonoff

Produced By: Aaron Dessner

11. cowboy like me  4:35

Written By: Taylor Swift, Aaron Dessner

Produced By: Aaron Dessner

12. long story short

Written By: Taylor Swift, Aaron Dessner

Produced By: Aaron Dessner

13. marjorie  4:17

Written By: Taylor Swift, Aaron Dessner

Produced By: Aaron Dessner

14. closure  3:00

Written By: Taylor Swift, Aaron Dessner

Produced By: Aaron Dessner, BJ Burton, James McAlister

15. evermore ft. Bon Iver  5:04

Written By: Taylor Swift, William Bowery, Justin Vernon

Produced By: Taylor Swift, Aaron Dessner

_______________________________

16. right where you left me  4:05

Written By: Taylor Swift, Aaron Dessner

Produced By: Aaron Dessner

17. it’s time to go  4:15

Written By: Taylor Swift, Aaron Dessner

Produced By: Aaron Dessner

PROLOGUE

To put it plainly, we just couldn't stop writing songs. To try and put it more poetically, it feels like we were standing on the edge of the folklorian woods and had a choice: to turn and go back or to travel further into the forest of this music. We chose to wander deeper in and my collaborators and I are proud to announce that my 9th studio album and folklore's sister record is here. It's called evermore.

I've never done this before. In the past I've always treated albums as onе-off eras and moved onto planning the next one as soon as an album was released. There was something different with folklore. In making it, I felt less like I was departing and more like I was returning. I loved the escapism I found in these imaginary/not imaginary tales. I loved the ways you welcomed the dreamscapes and tragedies and epic tales of love lost and found. So I just kept writing them. And I loved creating these songs with Aaron Dessner, Jack Antonoff, WB, and Justin Vernon. We've also welcomed some new (and longtime) friends to our musical kitchen table this time around…

Before I knew it there were 17 tales, some of which are mirrored or intersecting with one another. The one about two young con artists who fall in love while hanging out at fancy resorts trying to score rich romantic beneficiaries. The one where longtime college sweethearts had very different plans for the same night, one to end it and one who brought a ring. Dorothea, the girl who left her small town to chase down Hollywood dreams - and what happens when she comes back for the holidays and rediscovers an old flame. The 'unhappily ever after' anthology of marriages gone bad that includes infidelity, ambivalent toleration, and even murder. The most righteous motive, to avenge the fallen. The realization that maybe the only path to healing is to wish happiness on the one who took it away from you. One starring my grandmother, Marjorie, who still visits me sometimes…if only in my dreams.

I wanted to surprise you with this the week of my 31st birthday. You've all been so caring, supportive and thoughtful on my birthdays and so this time I wanted to give you something! I also know this holiday season will be a lonely one for most of us and of there are any of you out there who turn to music to cope with missing loved ones the way I do, this is for you.

I have no idea what will come next. I have no idea about a lot of things these days and so I've clung to the one thing that keeps me connected to you all. That thing always has and always will be music.

And may it continue, evermore.

[uniquejellyfishqueen]

Karma

Karyn

Cardigan

11 11 3 = 7

…did you have spelling regret? Because hypothetically that c could have been a k

c-k is 8…. KC… and 8+7=15 is album 2 track 2… 22? Which is album 4 track 6.. 10.

10/22/22 is Midnights 3 am, happy 2nd birthday to the additional 7 tracks

*but also 10/22/2012 is Red’s 12th birthday.

12/2.. 6 days before tour ends, and 4 days before she picks back up in Vancouver. That is another 10.

Which would give you 20, just like the amount of stars on the Midnights Cardigan released on 10/21/24. 10 on the Back 10 on the Front. (BF)

Lover is also connected to cardigan. So far I have counted 17 songs that connect to 1 line of that song. “Once in 20 lifetimes”. Not to mention isnt lifetime premiering a Christmas movie that everyone thought was about TS and TK?

Her cardigans are knit. You can knit with string, which takes shape in the cardigan. And way to knit with thread is finger knitting… the crowd goes wild at her fingertips. Your finger on my hairpin trigger… like the excessive amount of Bobby pins in her hair in the FN music video with PM she feels so high school so she never wants to grow up. She’s a writer so her use of forms form a story line of their own entirely.

Her writing is incredible, to weave it all like a BASKET to carry these eggs in.

Like for example out of the woods is connected to the use of 20, the lyric says ���twenty stitches” and then you see the connection to Shawn Mendes Stitches and then the connection of their collaboration on the Lover remix ahhh in which those lyrics say “the girl in my story has always been you i’d go down with the titanic its true, for you, lover.”

*on 4/15/1912 the Titanic sank.

PAUSE FOR HISTORY

*Titanic the movie was released on 12/19/1997 was there room on the door? Ugh door…. The KARMA door. It’s really all about transportation at this point, my goodness..

*oh but wait 12/19… Happy BD Jake. —-> ATW scarf is about him? Maybe she just gets cold? Personally I think that it’s symbolic of falling in love HARD for the first time and it is a core memory?

*12/19 is also look for an evergreen day—->champagne problems.

****Thinking out Loud ES 2:14 mark your soul could never grow old its evergreen…. We fell in love right where we are, right where you left me. One direction concert film Where We Are was released on 10/11/2014… 17 days later TS released 1989. 17 days apart. 7+1=8.

*the mirror of 10/11 is 11/10… 3 years later she released reputation. 3rd album is Speak Now which was released on 10/25/2010. Which is 3 days from when I’m typing this. Weirddd. So the last song on TTPD was The Manuscript and track 7 on SN is The Story of Us… the story of my life. Us.

*12/19/1924 the last Rolls Royce Silver Ghost is sold in London.

*ah welp 1701 were produced where I fear the dogs and cats are in danger.

*12/19/1984 Wayne Gretzky is the 18th and youngest player to hit 1000 points.

*12/19/1995 2 years b4 the Titanic movie The Queen asked Diana and Charles to divorce.

*12/19/1998 Bill Clinton was impeached. ——>high infidelity…. Such a torrid affair.

YOU MAY CONTINUE

4/15/2023 in Tampa FL she brought out Aaron Dessner to sing The Great War (track 14 on Midnights 3 am, but that is also the 1st song out of the 7 added, 1/14 is DG BD.) which brings it. Full circle to M3AM 10/22. TR lol thats a mirror of RT where I spent about 7 years of my life, weird.

*cardigan imo is connected all the way back to debut. I think that is her literal invisible string she is giving to the fans to have a more meaningful way to connect to her songs. The cardigan could be symbolized as a cloak if you are following the witch rumors. It could be seen as a cape and that it gives her super powers. She wore it on screen for us to see so she wanted you to know it was more than a song to her, it meant something deep enough that she had to create something just to remember the song itself. I think it’s really poetic and beautiful and, she’s showing you that she does wear her heart on her sleeve. Well stars, “the way my blue eyes shine but those Georgia stars to shame…”

*”she had stars in her eyes” to be dazzled and hopeful.

Lover and Clara Bow..

Also imo to the newest cardigan would be the word “Once.” She is telling a story, regardless of who it is about her story line is a story that makes sense when it never made sense in the first place which is why there are so many eggs, by the fandom connecting the eggs you all can create a story. And holy fucking shit as I type this it is hitting me. She is giving all the people therapy through her videos and her music and her tours. She is releasing the positive endorphins into the air that seep into our pores…. “I put narcotics in my songs..” what about the wonderdrug? Or what was once “sunshine in a bottle”—->pocket full of sunshine? Or pocket full of Prozac?

So when that woman uses once in lyrics I look to see the use of it because way back when she said I believe it was a Tuesday when I caught your Eye. Omg tomorrow is a Tuesday… and it’s M3AM BD. lol thats funny.

I do think she is connecting it back to debut as a nod to Cold As You as well. Just because the first letter of each word is CYA and I think thats funny.

**oh also in the TTPD file folder it says “I enter into my tarnished coat of arms” the cardigan literally goes on her arms… tarnished…rust? Hello Maroon and High Infidelity. And if she is rolling the stone away and revealing the truth about herself and they are gonna crucify her anyways. Then what more of a poetic way for her to give her fans a cardigan that they can think of her when she puts it on, because when shit hits the fan are you gonna be a fan? If her truth isn’t as pretty as the pictures will you still stand behind her? You say yes right now, but remember there are two sides to everyone’s story. But what if you were famous wouldn’t you start to create maybe another version that only a select version know, if you learn to live a story line for your career wouldn’t it be just as easy to do it for your personal life? When TTPD came out I had a theory in my mind she was a pure angelic virgin. NO ONE KNOWS.

The cool thing about my theory is that this is the biggest creative break through I have had in years, so even if I am losing my mind at least I have a storyline. So thank you Taylor for breaking my writers block.

[miss-sapphicana]

Here Are All the Celebrities Who Have Attended Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour - Part 1

From Haim and Emma Stone to Shania Twain and Diplo, here are all the famous faces that have been spotted at Swift's various The Eras tour stops.

Posted August 19, 2024 - Billboard

It’s nice to have a friend, and Taylor Swift has plenty of famous pals that have been supporting her on her massive The Eras tour, which kicked off on March 17 in Glendale, Ariz.

Besides friends such as Haim, Laura Dern, Emma Stone and Shania Twain watching from the crowd and singing along to every word, Swift also surprised fans with onstage appearances. Despite telling Swifties during night one at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium that “we don’t have guests at this show,” the pop superstar invited Marcus Mumford, the Mumford & Sons frontman, for her debut live performance of “Cowboy Like Me,” from Swift’s chart-topping 2020 album, Evermore.

Other music stars have also gotten an invite from Swift to perform alongside her on the tour, including opener Gracie Abrams, frequent collaborator Aaron Dessner, Taylor Lautner, Phoebe Bridgers, Ice Spice, Maren Morris and more.

See below for all the celebrities who have made appearances at Swift’s The Eras tour stops, either in the audience or on stage, which we’ll be updating as the 14-time Grammy winner makes her way around the world.

Haim

Swift’s “No Body, No Crime” collaborators, “Bejeweled” music video co-stars and besties Haim were one of the first celebs spotted at The Eras tour, jamming along to the superstar’s many hits and dancing the night away on opening night.

See them via a video shared by People here. The sibling trio is also set to open for Swift later in the tour.

Emma Stone

The La La Land actress was just as much of a Swiftie as the rest of the Glendale crowd when she was spotted belting her heart out to the Fearless hit, “Love Story.”

Marcus Mumford

The Mumford and Sons frontman joined his longtime friend Swift onstage to perform Evermore‘s “Cowboy Like Me” in Las Vegas.

“Last night in Vegas Marcus Mumford showed up and surprised the crowd with ‘Cowboy Like Me’ so like [mind blown emojis],” Swift captioned a photo of the moment on Instagram. See the post here.

Chloë Grace Moretz

Like Stone, Moretz was loving the “Love Story” part of the show in Las Vegas.

Emma Watson

The Harry Potter star was seen having the time of her life with Este Haim, dancing during the Vegas tour stop.

Diplo

“I kinda know the lyrics,” the DJ wrote on his Instagram Stories while dancing along to “Anti-Hero” in Las Vegas. He also confirmed that he’s a “motherf—ing Swiftie now.”

Shania Twain

Shania Twain is all about the girl power, and the “Man! I Feel Like a Woman!” superstar had the time of her life dancing to the 1989 single “Blank Space” in Vegas. “What a show,” she wrote on Instagram.

Laura Dern

After taking her family to opening night of The Eras tour, Swift’s “Bejeweled” co-star took to Instagram to share a snap smiling with the superstar. “Celebrating our amazing buddy’s first show of tour. Extraordinary. Found family,” she captioned the post, which you can see here.

Emma Roberts

Yes, yet another Emma was at The Eras’ Vegas stop, as she was spotted taking videos and dancing with sunglasses on to the tune of “Style.”

Watch here.

Ellen Pompeo

Another “Blank Space” fan is Ellen Pompeo’s daughter Sienna, who starred in her mother’s Instagram Stories singing along to the track in Las Vegas.

Selena Gomez

Swift’s longtime friend showed up for her at the April 1 show in Arlington, Texas. Selena and her little sister Gracie each dressed up as a Taylor Swift era — Folklore and Speak Now, respectively — and Gomez was spotted screaming along to “Cruel Summer.”

Jack Antonoff

Swift’s prolific producer pal Antonoff also made it to see the star in Arlington on April 1. “holy shit,” he captioned an Instagram Stories video taken during the emotional stage production of “August,” a Folklore favorite that he co-wrote and co-produced. Swift also took a special request from Antonoff that night: “Death By a Thousand Cuts,” which was one of the surprise songs on her set list.

J.J. Watt

Former Arizona Cardinals defensive end J.J. Watt took to Instagram to rave about his experience at opening night of The Eras tour. “So much respect @taylorswift,” he captioned a video sharing his thoughts about the concert. “When your fans pay for a ticket, they are getting their money’s worth and some.”

Danica Patrick

“We were all so in the moment that we didn’t take many pictures together and I didn’t even take that many videos,” the former race car driver wrote on Instagram. “@taylorswift sang 44 songs and it was the most amazing concert I have ever seen. Swiftie for life.”

Samara Weaving

Samara Weaving was also in attendance on opening night in Glendale, Ariz., and the Scream VI actress took her Instagram Stories to share a few moments from the crowd.

Cara Delevingne

The model took her social media game at The Eras concert to the next level, and actually livestreamed the show on her Instagram account.

Ethan Hawke

It was the ultimate crossover when Hawke was spotted chatting with Selena Gomez at the Arlington, Texas, tour stop.

Aaron Dessener

Aaron Dessner enjoyed the first of Swift’s three Tampa concerts from the audience, and then joined her on the stage two nights in a row for the live debut of two songs. On April 14, they performed “The Great War” together. On April 15, they had a special moment at the piano for “Mad Woman.”

Billy Joel

Billy Joel and his family seemed to have a blast seeing Swift live. “Rockin’ into our new ‘era’ thank you @Taylorswift we loved the show!” he wrote on Instagram, where he shared photos from the concert and a video clip of his young daughters dancing around to “…Ready for It?”

Joseph Kahn

Grammy Award-winning director Joseph Kahn happily checked in via Instagram Stories from a VIP tent at the April 21 Eras Tour stop in Houston. After the show he wrote, “Irrespective of our friendship, this is my honest opinion: @taylorswift is putting on the show of a lifetime with the Eras Tour. It’s as big, bold, and artistic as any of the great pop stars of history. It’s fueled by her imagination and her soul. It’s stunning and beautiful.” Kahn worked on a number of music videos with Swift: “Blank Space,” “Bad Blood,” “Wildest Dreams,” “Out of the Woods,” “Look What You Made Me Do,” “…Ready for It?”, “End Game” and “Delicate.”

Matty Healy

Matty Healy was spotted at Swift‘s concert in Nashville on Friday (May 5), sparking further speculation that the two music stars are romantically involved.

Earlier in the week, rumors surfaced that the The 1975 frontman and pop superstar are “massively proud and excited about this relationship,” according to a source cited by The Sun. The report followed news of Swift’s split from her longtime boyfriend Joe Alwyn in early April.

At the show, during her performance of “Cardigan,” fans were quick to notice Swift mouthing the same words to that Healy was filmed saying before The 1975’s performance of “About You” in Manila on May 3.

“This one is about you. You know who you are. I love you,” they both mouthed to the crowd on the separate occasions.

Mariska Hargitay

After sharing some photo memories with Swift from tours past via an Instagram Story earlier in the day, the Law & Order star was spotted on the floor at Nissan Stadium in Nashville at the May 6 show of The Eras Tour.

She returned for more on May 26! Hargitay attended one of Swift’s New Jersey shows and posted a video about her experience on Instagram the next day. “I’m sitting here basking in the glow of last night, Taylor’s concert, which was so amazing. I can’t even get over that woman. Three-and-a-half hours of pure magic,” she gushed. She also showed off a little collection of gifts she received from Swifties: “50 of these friendship bracelets from last night. I wanted to say thank you to everyone who gave me their friendship bracelets. It was so sweet.”

Reese Witherspoon

“What a night to remember!” Witherspoon gushed on Instagram after Swift’s May 6 concert in Nashville. “@taylorswift in front of 70,000 incredible fans.”

“The stellar song choices, inspired choreography, other-worldly art design … an incredible night to dance, sing and feel so much JOY .. thank you @taylorswift and the whole ERAS tour team for shining so bright tonight.”

Witherspoon shared a clip from the Midnights era of the show, with Swift performing “Bejeweled.”

Sabrina Carpenter

Sabrina Carpenter was overcome with emotion during Swift’s concert at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field on May 12. The singer and actress took to her Instagram Story to share a tearful moment while watching the show. “don’t hmu,” Carpenter captioned the clip. “unless you are HER,” she added to a follow-up post of Swift performing.

Candice King

Former The Vampire Diaries star Candice King was among the Swifties who attended the rain-delayed show in Nashville on May 7. “A Four hour weather delay (and every canned cocktail we brought in our to go cooler… and then maybe some of the canned cocktails our driver surprised us with) later… and the show went on!” the actress captioned a carousel of photos and videos on her Instagram account. “So much running, so much dancing, and even more singing all in the warm spring midnight rain.”

Blake Lively

Swift’s longtime friend Blake Lively was in attendance with her daughters James, 8, and Inez, 6, during the singer’s May 12 concert at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field.

During the show, Swift gave a sweet shout-out to the two youngsters while performing her Red track “All Too Well.” “Hi James, hi Nezzy!” the superstar appeared to mouth from the stage.

After the concert, Swift was seen exiting the stage with Lively and her children. In a fan-captured video, the smiling songstress was seen holding hands with James and waving to fans, while Lively held Inez.

Lena Dunham

The Girls TV series creator was in attendance during Swift’s second night at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field on May 13. In honor of Dunham’s 37th birthday, Swift performed Fearless deep cut “Forever & Always” during the surprise song portion of her set.

“This is a request from my friend Lena. It’s her birthday today, so I’m absolutely going to grand that request and also wish her a happy birthday,” Swift told the sold-out crowd. “She wanted to hear — and she’s here tonight, that’s also important. I’m not just doing this to send to her later. She wanted to hear ‘Forever & Always.'”

Jennifer Lawrence

It was quite a crowd that surrounded Jennifer Lawrence once she was spotted at the VIP tent at Philadelphia’s Sunday night (May 14) show. The actress took the time to interact with fans, even attempting to take group photos while staying on her side of the barricade.

Keith Urban & Nicole Kidman

Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman showed up to night three in Philly, leaving fans wondering whether the couple was just there to see the show, or whether Urban — who was also seen taking selfies with Swifties — might join Swift onstage for their vault track “That’s When.”

Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello

After sharing a passionate kiss at Coachella in April 2023, Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello were spotted together at Swift’s concert in East Rutherford, N.J., on May 26.

In fan-captured photographs taken at MetLife Stadium, the “Stitches” singer, 24, and “Havana” songstress, 26, were seeing enjoying a night out during the first of three sold-out shows at the massive N.J. venue. A video circulating on social media sees the pair strolling to their seats in the VIP section, Mendes rocking a sleeveless white shirt and blue jeans and Cabello sporting a black halter top and colorful skirt.

Check out the fan-captured photos and videos on Twitter below.

Lin-Manuel Miranda

The Hamilton creator was spotted in the VIP tent on May 26 at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, posing with Molly Ringwald and Mariska Hargitay, and checked in from the show on Instagram later on, quoting one of Swift’s Midnights songs. “…what if I told you I’m a mastermind (@taylorswift ftw, what an incredible show),” he wrote.

Maren Morris

The country star also posted clips from the May 26 concert at MetLife from the moments that Swift performed “You Belong With Me” (Morris joked, “She’s gonna be huge someday!” and “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” (with Morris giving the camera the middle finger).

Aaron Rodgers

Aaron Rodgers had the time of his life during Swift’s concert at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., on May 27. The New York Jets quarterback was spotted dancing up a storm during the pop superstar’s performance of “Style,” which peaked at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2014. Earlier in the show, the Super Bowl winner revealed in an Instagram Story video that he was attending the sold-out show with Top Gun: Maverick star Miles Teller and the actor’s wife, Keleigh.

Miles and Keleigh Teller

Top Gun: Maverick star Miles Teller and his wife, Keleigh, were spotted at Swift’s concert at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., on May 27. The couple attended the sold-out show with New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who was spotted dancing up a storm during the pop superstar’s performance of her 1989 hit “Style.” Minutes before Swift hit the stage, Rodgers captured the Tellers in a video on his Instagram Story, captioning the post, “Taylor Time.”

Fletcher

Fletcher tweeted after Swift’s May 28 show at MetLife Stadium that “singing ‘clean’ with a stadium full of people at the top of your lungs in New York while deep in your feelings hits different. thank you taylor.”

An Instagram Story video of Swift performing “Clean” at the piano — it was one of her surprise songs of the night — was captioned: “an artist for the ages. blown away.”

Paul Rudd

Fans spotted actor Paul Rudd at Swift’s MetLife Stadium show in New Jersey on May 28. One fan photo shows him accepting a friendship bracelet, and another shows off the “13” he has written on his hand for the special occasion.

Bradley Cooper

Add Bradley Cooper to the list of famous names to catch one of Swift’s celeb-stacked New Jersey shows. The snapshot below was captured by a fan on May 28.

Drew Barrymore

The Drew Barrymore Show talk show host raved about Swift’s show after attending the final of three Eras Tour stops in East Rutherford. “I LOVE YOU TAYLOR SWIFT!!!!!!!!” she posted on Instagram, sharing photos from the night. “You are the role model all of us girls and women need. Thank you for one of the best nights of our lives. We are so lucky to have seen your show… You transcend. And make life beautiful. Everyone passing beaded bracelets around. Witnessing the good.”

Julia Roberts

The Oscar winner had high praise for Swift after attending one of the concerts. “@Taylor Swift I Love You. Thank you for being EVERYTHING WE EVER NEEDED!” the actress captioned a June 5 photo of the pop star on Instagram.

Flavor Flav

Flavor Flav had the time of his life during Swift’s Eras Tour stop at Detroit’s Ford Field on June 9, 2023. During the show, the Public Enemy co-founder documented his enjoyable experience on social media with fellow fans. “THANKX to all my new friends,,, luv my fellow Swifties,” the iconic clock-wearing MC tweeted alongside a video of himself rocking an all-red outfit.

Flav would latter attend Swift’s show in Hamburg, Germany on July 23, 2024, during which the pop star would give him a sweet shoutout from the stage. “Shout out back to @taylorswift13 @taylornation13 and her team and family for having me,!!! 🫶🏾🫶🏾🫶🏾” the rapper tweeted afterward.

David Harbour

A fan snapped a pre-show picture with the Stranger Things star by the VIP tent at Swift’s June 24 stop in Minneapolis.

Millie Bobby Brown & Jake Bongiovi

Brown — no doubt in her Lover era — and her fiancé were photographed in the VIP tent at Swift’s Friday night (June 30) show in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Toni Collette

The Hereditary actress saw Swift in Cincinnati and raved about the show on Instagram. “Your talent is immeasurable and your generosity boundless,” Collette wrote. “Thank you for sharing it all with the world. You bring endless joy and inspiration to many, including me. It’s bloody brilliant seeing you having the time of your life up there.”

Taylor Lautner, Joey King & Presley Cash

Fresh off the release of her re-recorded Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) album, Swift was joined onstage by actors Taylor Lautner, Joey King and Presley Cash for the premiere of the singer’s action-packed “I Can See You” music video in Kansas City, Mo., on July 7.

Lautner, who briefly dated the singer in 2009, delighted the packed crowd by cartwheeling and backflipping onto the stage. King and Cash previously starred in Swift’s “Mean” video in 2011.

“WELL. SO. I’ve been counting down for months and finally the ‘I Can See You’ video is out,” Swift tweeted alongside behind-the-scenes photos from the self-directed video. “I wrote this video treatment over a year ago and really wanted to play out symbolically how it’s felt for me to have the fans helping me reclaim my music.”

Eddie Vedder

The Pearl Jam frontman was spotted with his family at Swift’s Saturday night (July 22) Eras show in Seattle. Wife Jill posted a closeup of Eddie’s collection of friendship bracelets on Instagram, as well as several Instagram Stories from the concert — including a photo of their children taking a selfie with Swift backstage, and one of Eddie that she labeled “best dad ever.”

Eddie, dressed for the occasion in a sequin jacket over a T-shirt that appeared to say “It’s me, hi, I’m the father it’s me,” seemed in good spirits at Lumen Field, where he chatted with fans who stopped to say hello and give him a bracelet at the VIP tent. One Swiftie even got him to film a sweet happy birthday video for her dad: “Get yourself a nice coat,” he suggested, pointing to his own sequin getup.

Simu Liu

The Shang-Chi and Barbie actor attended the July 23 show at Seattle’s Lumen Field. Afterward, he shared photos from the show, and the friendship bracelets he received.

“what a night in seattle!!! i was absolutely BLOWN away by the eras tour, by taylor and by all of the amazing and kind swifties that stopped by the tent to say hello and give a bracelet,” he tweeted. “you really showed me that kindness always wins. bravo!!!”

Gigi Hadid

Gigi Hadid attended her bestie’s concert at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on July 28. The model took to her Instagram Story to share moments from Eras Tour show, which she attended with make-up artist Patrick Ta. “The most magical night,” she captioned a photo of the pair showing off their collection of Eras Tour friendship bracelets. Hadid also participated in some backstage shenanigans with Swift at the show. In a TikTok video shared by the pop superstar, Hadid is seen giggling on a golf cart as the songstress films her dad following them on a Segway.

Vanessa and Bianka Bryant

Gigi Hadid attended her bestie’s concert at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on July 28. The model took to her Instagram Story to share moments from Eras Tour show, which she attended with make-up artist Patrick Ta. “The most magical night,” she captioned a photo of the pair showing off their collection of Eras Tour friendship bracelets. Hadid also participated in some backstage shenanigans with Swift at the show. In a TikTok video shared by the pop superstar, Hadid is seen giggling on a golf cart as the songstress films her dad following them on a Segway.

Mindy Kaling

The star showed off some of her friendship bracelets in an Instagram Stories ahead of the show on Aug. 3. “NGL this was challenging for me,” she wrote over the photo. Later, a friend shared a snap of the actress wearing a 1989 T-shirt at the show.

Jesse Tyler Fergurson, Justin Mikita, Hayley Kiyoko, Molly Shannon & Becca Tilley

Ahead of the Aug. 3 show, the Modern Family star shared a photo of the friendship bracelets he made. “Justin told me I have to make these for the @taylorswift #erastour tonight. I am 47 years old but I don’t want to be underprepared,” he captioned his Instagram post. The next morning, the actor shared a series of photos of himself and his husband enjoying the concert, including a group shot with Hayley Kiyoko, Molly Shannon and Becca Tilley.

Brie Larson, Sarah Paulson & Lupita Nyong'o

The Captain Marvel star attended the Aug. 3 show at SoFi Stadium. She shared a series of Instagram Stories from the concert, kicking off with a photo of the countdown clock and captioning it, “Before we lost our minds.”

In a subsequent video on Stories, she traded and showed off friendship bracelets with Paulson and Nyong’o.

Tanya Rad

The author, who co-hosts On Air With Ryan Seacrest, was in attendance at the Aug. 3 show with boyfriend Roby. She shared an Instagram photo of them together at the show, and captioned it, “He’s my most favorite era ❤️🦋☺️😫 *my invisible string.” In the snap, the couple is wearing matching white T-shirts with a red heart, with the two connected by a piece of white string.

Continued in part 2

[theswiftiearchive]

Red (Taylor’s Version) - Run (Taylor’s Version) [From The Vault] [feat. Ed Sheeran]

Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran are not only two of the most famous musicians on the planet, but also friends. They are constantly facing scrutiny in the media and invasions of privacy by the paparazzi, so sometimes they want to escape from it all. This song finds the duo imagining running away together to a place "where no one else is."

Swift and Sheeran wrote this song in a Seattle hotel room in early 2012 for her Red album. While it didn't make it onto the record, another track they penned a week later, "Everything Has Changed," made the cut.

Sheeran actually preferred "Run" to "Everything Has Changed" and hoped his friend would record it one day. Swift granted his wish when she re-recorded the songs on her first six albums after Scooter Braun acquired her old label, Big Machine Label Group and her master recordings in June 2019. When Swift came to redo Red, she also recorded nine songs, including "Run," that did not make the 2012 record.

Aaron Dessner co-produced the track alongside Swift. The National band member did not take part in the original Red recordings but was her chief collaborator on her Folklore and Evermore records.

Image Credit: Taylor Swift

I do not own the image, used with fair use in mind.

[readingsrantsrambles]

Taylor Swift and the Sad Dads

by Spencer Kornhaber

theatlantic.com

The indie-rock band The National has long served as a mascot for a certain type of guy: literary, self-effacing, mordantly cool. With cryptic lyrics and brooding instrumentation, the quintet of scruffy brothers and schoolmates from Ohio conveys the yearnings of the sensitive male psyche. The band’s lead singer, Matt Berninger, has a voice so doleful and deep that it seems to emanate from a cavern. His typical narrator is a wallflower pining for validation from the life of the party—the romantic swooning of a man in need of rescue.

In the mid-to-late aughts, as The National was gathering acclaim with darkly experimental albums, another artist was rising to prominence: Taylor Swift. On the surface, these two acts are starkly different. Where The National’s songwriting is impressionistic, Swift’s is diaristic—built on personal stories that typically forgo abstraction or even difficult metaphor. Where The National’s charisma lies in its mysteriousness, Swift earnestly says just what she means. The National is known for somber dude-rock; Swift found fame with anthems of heartbroken but upbeat young-womanhood. (In her 2012 hit “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” she even jabbed at pretentious guys who are obsessed with dude-rock, like the ex who ran off to listen to “some indie record that’s much cooler than mine.”) The National became the house band for a certain segment of Millennial yuppies; Swift became one of the biggest stars in the world.

Read: The National further complicates its sadness

So some listeners have been surprised to see the two emerge, in recent years, as close collaborators. After the pandemic interrupted Swift’s promotional plans for her 2019 album, Lover, she reached out to the multi-instrumentalist Aaron Dessner to help produce two new albums, Folklore and Evermore, the latter of which featured all five members of The National—whom she called her “favorite band”—in some capacity. The albums easily could have amounted to a credibility-chasing costume change: pop star goes coffee shop. Instead, they refreshed Swift’s style by pairing sophisticated, moody arrangements with a new lyrical approach. Rather than once again mine her own life for lyrics, she imagined fictional scenarios: a teenage love triangle, a murder conspiracy among friends, a romance between two con artists. Swift was availing herself of the freedoms, even imperatives, that men in rock and roll had long enjoyed—projecting moral ambiguity rather than wholesomeness and virtue.

Now it appears that Swift may have pushed the men of The National in new directions too. On the band’s latest album, First Two Pages of Frankenstein, out in April, Swift’s influence feels pervasive. It’s not just her voice, which she lends to the lilting track “The Alcott”; she seems to have taught them something about the mode of candid self-expression that she has mastered. In so doing, The National and Taylor Swift have become one of the unlikeliest and most productive synergies in contemporary music—the cross-pollination of a gloomy indie-rock fraternity and proudly sentimental, stadium-charming pop.

Murky, male-driven art rock tends to encourage the confession of flaws without hope for absolution. Think of Leonard Cohen in “Famous Blue Raincoat,” a self-lacerating mash note to the man who cuckolded him. Or take the mealymouthed misery of R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe on “Losing My Religion”: “Oh no, I’ve said too much / I haven’t said enough.” Like his predecessors, Berninger tends to use oblique, figurative language to evoke his own shame and humiliation. “I know you put in the hours to keep me in sunglasses,” he sang on “Secret Meeting” (2005), possibly alluding to the tears he’d shed over a lover and the ways he’d tried to hide them.

But in First Two Pages of Frankenstein, the songwriting is tighter and often brighter, and Berninger’s meanings are remarkably direct. On the hopeful-sounding “New Order T-Shirt,” Berninger collages images with his trademark flair, and then, atypically, explains himself in a chorus that Swift herself might have written: “I keep what I can of you / Split-second glimpses and snapshots and sounds.” Over the danceable beat of “Tropic Morning News,” Berninger even tells a tale about learning to share his inner life: “There’s nothing stopping me now / From saying all the painful parts out loud.”

The changes in style reflect a change in substance. Many old National songs are character studies of a morose, hapless man getting nurtured—or dumped—by a competent woman. The trope of wife or girlfriend as mothering savior looms perpetually, even as Berninger’s humor, grounded in the mundane realities of adult relationships, usually undercuts it. “Carin at the Liquor Store”—a 2017 track whose title refers to Berninger’s wife and lyrical co-writer, Carin Besser—sees him mocking his own abjection: “I was a worm, I was a creature … I was walking around like I was the one who found dead John Cheever.”Taylor Swift seems to have taught The National something about the mode of candid self-expression that she has mastered.

But if The National’s signature narrator used to be a lonely mope, here he’s no longer wallowing quite so helplessly. On the new album, Berninger sings about being useful to his romantic partners. In the gentle, kind closing track, “Send for Me,” he offers: “Send for me whenever wherever / Send for me I’ll come and get you.” Even the breakup songs are a bit rebalanced. The thundering “Eucalyptus,” for example, depicts a couple dividing their belongings. Listening to it is like watching a bout of arm wrestling that’s closely matched and oddly poignant. And on the plaintive ballad “Your Mind Is Not Your Friend,” he’s the one consoling someone whose interior world is—as has been the case for so many of The National’s past narrators—an “awful place.” The new lucidity of the lyrics thus has a constructive purpose. As Swift’s songs have always shown, reaching out to connect with others requires openhearted, straightforward communication—from her outright plea “Baby, just say yes” on the 2008 classic “Love Story” to her simple admission “I’m the problem, it’s me” on 2022’s “Anti-Hero.”

Berninger does seem a little bashful about now acting as a healer. On “Alien,” he wryly suggests, “I can be your nurse or something.” Nursing, as that “or something” acknowledges, is a role that our culture hasn’t exactly shown men how to play. Those who try, in music, tend to overshoot into messianic territory (see Coldplay’s “Fix You” or U2’s past few albums). In dialing back the misery and adding Swiftian uplift, the new album sometimes flirts with this kind of sappiness. One can almost imagine “Send for Me” as the first dance at a wedding or “Your Mind Is Not Your Friend” in a touching insurance ad.

Read: The real Taylor Swift would never

But the band guards against cheap inspirationalism by relying on the idiosyncrasies that have defined it all along. Its old motifs—romantic death and rebirth, sad saps saved by realists, drums that burst like flak cannons—now serve a new aim by acting as a reminder that empathy doesn’t come easily. Rescuing people can mean coaxing them to share how they really feel—and that process requires psychological struggle. On “Alien,” Berninger urges someone to “drop down out of the clouds you’re in.” A hint of conflict lurks in the line, acknowledging just how bracing such conversations can be. Real breakthroughs, these artists have shown in their work together, come from blunt and open exchange. As Swift and Berninger sing on “The Alcott”: “I tell you my problems / You tell me the truth … You tell me your problems / And I tell you the truth.”

This article appears in the May 2023 print edition with the headline “How Taylor Swift Infiltrated Dude Rock.”

[bananaofswifts]

BY MIKAEL WOOD

Taylor Swift’s pin-sharp new album, “Midnights,” closes with a song in which the pop superstar patiently explains to someone — perhaps many millions of someones — that their intimate relationship wasn’t a product of kismet but of design.

“I laid the groundwork,” she sings over a blippy electronic groove, her voice edging slightly ahead of the beat, “and then just like clockwork the dominoes cascaded in a line.” The tune is called “Mastermind,” which is what Swift calls herself in the chorus, neatly rhyming the word with “now you’re mine.” And plenty of its characteristic detail can make you think she’s describing a romance. But “Mastermind” is also about Swift’s one-of-a-kind career — about the deliberation and the ingenuity of the moves that took the 32-year-old from being a teenage country phenom to being one of the two or three biggest acts in all of music.

“No one wanted to play with me as a little kid,” she sings near the end of “Mastermind,” which might be the saddest and funniest line on an LP teeming with both kinds, “so I’ve been scheming like a criminal ever since to make them love me and make it seem effortless.” (Take a second to savor the intricate rhythm of those words before you’ve even heard them set to music.)

Pondering the delights and the anxieties of her own celebrity has been a hallmark of Swift’s work for years — or at least it was until 2020, when she set aside much of the autobiographical life-of-a-pop-star stuff for the ostensibly fictional character-driven narratives of her twin pandemic albums, “Folklore” and “Evermore.” Full of songs about small-town grifters and awkward high-school kids and unhappily married people — even a murderer — those projects also radically recast her sound, veering away from the synthed-up productions that sent her up the Hot 100 toward a rootsy, mostly acoustic vibe she formulated with Aaron Dessner of the indie-rock band the National.

Swift suggested that the isolation of the pandemic had set her imagination free; certainly, the music’s smaller scale reflected the demands of remote collaboration. Yet “Midnights,” her 10th studio full-length, returns to an earlier Swift mode in both sonic and lyrical terms: This 13-track set, which she produced with her longtime creative partner Jack Antonoff, feels like it picks up right where 2014’s “1989” and 2017’s “Reputation” left off, with slick, beat-heavy arrangements that seem dimly aware of hip-hop’s existence and with lyrics peppered with juicy allusions to Swift’s various high-profile feuds and love affairs. (“Lover,” from 2019, plays even more now than it did then like a transitional effort between phases of Swift’s career.)

It’s easy in a sense to understand why she took this approach, given that she spent 2021 rerecording her albums “Fearless” and “Red” as part of a plan to create new versions of the LPs she lost partial control of when her old record label changed hands. As meticulous a diarist as pop has ever known, Swift has clearly been thinking — thinking more than usual — about her journey and about her younger selves; “Nothing New,” one of many freshly recorded outtakes she included on “Red (Taylor’s Version),” captures a woman in her 30s confronting her 20-something suspicions about how her chosen industry would treat her as she aged out of ingénue-hood.

“Midnights” opens with the steamy, R&B-adjacent “Lavender Haze,” in which Swift laments the scrutiny she’s under as a famous person dating another famous person (in her case, the English actor Joe Alwyn); the song — co-written by and featuring background vocals from the actress Zoë Kravitz — seeks a safe space removed from a realm where her loose talk threatens to “go viral,” as she puts it. In “Anti-Hero,” over Antonoff’s buzzing synths and booming ’80s-rock drums, she weighs the public’s harshest opinions of her, copping to a “covert narcissism” and admitting that sometimes she feels like “a monster on the hill … slowly lurching toward your favorite city.”

The vicious and shimmering “Karma” seemingly takes aim at the powerful music executive Scooter Braun, who engineered the label purchase that spawned Swift’s rerecording enterprise: “Spiderboy, king of thieves / Weave your little webs of opacity,” she sings — heed the conspicuous “S” and “B” in “Spiderboy” — before describing what she views as her cosmic advantage with a series of vivid metaphors: “Karma is my boyfriend / Karma is a god / Karma is the breeze in my hair on the weekend.” The breeze in her hair on the weekend! Good night, Spiderboy.

Swift’s storytelling impulse isn’t dead on “Midnights,” which she’s said grew out of her bent toward wee-hours contemplation. “Midnight Rain,” a slow and woozy number with pitch-shifted vocals, narrates a tale of a guy and a girl with differing life goals, neither of whom appear to be Swift or Alwyn; ditto “Maroon,” in which the guy and girl get drunk off her roommate’s “cheap-ass screw-top rosé.” Then there’s the pulpy, Billie Eilish-ish “Vigilante S—,” about a woman who helps a betrayed wife get revenge on her dirtbag husband.

Yet the songwriting and the vocal performances here are so strong — she’s playing with cadence and emphasizing the grain of her voice like never before — that eventually you stop caring what’s drawn directly from Swift’s real life and what’s not. It’s just a pleasure to get lost in tunes like “Labyrinth,” in which the singer explores her fear of falling in love again, and “Snow on the Beach,” a gorgeous duet with Lana Del Rey with some of the album’s most affecting imagery: “My smile is like I won a contest,” Swift sings in regards to a surprising new fling, and that’s all you need to conjure the precise picture in your head.

She paints another indelible picture in “Mastermind,” referring to herself as “the wind in our free-flowing sails” just after she offers a bit of context for why she’s been so thoroughgoing in her interactions with her boyfriend (or her audience). “All the wisest women had to do it this way ’cause we were born to be the pawn in every lover’s game,” she sings. Then she takes a breath and adds: “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” Only Swift could make a self-help slogan sound like a fairy tale.

[this-daydream-is-dangerous-13]

It seems that OW has taken some interest in Taylor recently. After reading your previous Anon I would certainly agree she would go to any lengths to get what she wants. She was close friends to Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein who thankfully resides in a NY prison. I was interested for Harry to have an acting career but not with OW as Director. I could see several things that could come back to haunt all of us who love Harry. The fact that some of his management team doesn't like Taylor says we won't see Haylor again.

I think some of his friends are leery of Blondie insofar as they worry she will use him or hurt him.

But his management team? Remember - Jeff Azoff is his manager and bestie and he? Is very pro TS and vice versa.

He also manages HAIM, so is likely very pleased with the success of eras.

As for Tay-Jeff, look at the Grammy interactions:

In 2021, you see her blow kisses to Jeff during the “H and Jeff come visit chat”. (I also love that H and Jack Antonoff actually hug during this interaction, COVID protocols be damned).

In 2023, Jeff is in between H and T, and she leans over him to hug H and rests her hand on Jeff’s chair and maybe pats his back.

Another interesting point: during H’s speech where he gets booed. Standing the entire time (does not need to pop up like Tay)? Aaron Dessner. Standing in solidarity with H. And they stand and Tay looks at Jack and he pops up too. All three of them, in support.

I would say that all the closest collaborators and managers? All know and support.

As for OW - the less said about her, the better.