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Sea partakes of ocean
May. 10th, 2009 01:30 pmPosted this on Rolling Country, summarizing what I've been writing on a couple of different threads:
About six months on I still haven't figured out what I think of Taylor Swift's Fearless, except that I severely underrated it. Xhuxk was wrong about its being quiet and lacking hooks, except I kind of agree with him anyway. That's because, though it actually has as many or more hooks and loud songs as the first alb, it feels more static, a deep sea of feminine feeling, the songs seeming all to partake of the same ocean, so less differentiated. The hooks on Fearless become a problem in the instances when they're assertive and get in the way (happened a few times on the first album too, e.g. "Teardrops On My Guitar," where the sing-songy chorus undid the catch-in-a-throat mood). I think the second album works best when a song's parts have an even impact, the hooks and choruses being subordinate to the overall atmosphere. "Love Story" is only half an exception here in that the chorus ramps up the mood without losing it. My favorite track is "You're Not Sorry" which is just floating, dripping, profound hurt. "You Belong With Me" is atypically airy, her shaking the drops off her wings with the "can't you see-ee-ee, you belong with me-ee-ee," but it still draws on the emotions drifting up from below.
She's a singer-songwriter, of course, reporting on her grand search for self by way of busted relations with boys. Menstrual rock (to adapt a phrase of Adam Sobolak's, who back in an old Radio On said that with "Stand Back" Stevie Nicks had invented menstrual disco). Taylor was a singer-songwriter on the first album too - crucial song is "Cold As You," cleaner but just as angry as "You're Not Sorry," its relative stillness a setup for the storm unleashed a few tracks later on "Should've Said No" - but the first album had more resolution and release and choruses to take away and hum.
About six months on I still haven't figured out what I think of Taylor Swift's Fearless, except that I severely underrated it. Xhuxk was wrong about its being quiet and lacking hooks, except I kind of agree with him anyway. That's because, though it actually has as many or more hooks and loud songs as the first alb, it feels more static, a deep sea of feminine feeling, the songs seeming all to partake of the same ocean, so less differentiated. The hooks on Fearless become a problem in the instances when they're assertive and get in the way (happened a few times on the first album too, e.g. "Teardrops On My Guitar," where the sing-songy chorus undid the catch-in-a-throat mood). I think the second album works best when a song's parts have an even impact, the hooks and choruses being subordinate to the overall atmosphere. "Love Story" is only half an exception here in that the chorus ramps up the mood without losing it. My favorite track is "You're Not Sorry" which is just floating, dripping, profound hurt. "You Belong With Me" is atypically airy, her shaking the drops off her wings with the "can't you see-ee-ee, you belong with me-ee-ee," but it still draws on the emotions drifting up from below.
She's a singer-songwriter, of course, reporting on her grand search for self by way of busted relations with boys. Menstrual rock (to adapt a phrase of Adam Sobolak's, who back in an old Radio On said that with "Stand Back" Stevie Nicks had invented menstrual disco). Taylor was a singer-songwriter on the first album too - crucial song is "Cold As You," cleaner but just as angry as "You're Not Sorry," its relative stillness a setup for the storm unleashed a few tracks later on "Should've Said No" - but the first album had more resolution and release and choruses to take away and hum.
