Taylor Swift - "Lover" [New Album]

TRACKLIST

1) I Forgot You Existed
2) Cruel Summer
3) Lover
4) The Man
5) The Archer
6) I Think He Knows
7) Miss Americana and The Heartbreak Prince
8) Paper Rings
9) Cornelia Street
10) Death By A Thousand Cuts
11) London Boy
12) Soon You’ll Get Better (feat. Dixie Chicks)
13) False God
14) You Need To Calm Down
15) Afterglow
16) ME! (feat. Brendon Urie of Panic! At The Disco)
17) It’s Nice To Have A Friend
18) Daylight
 
It really feels like this campaign is just trundling on without anybody outside of her core fan base engaging at all. Imagine spending ALL THAT MONEY on the Me! video, only for nobody to watch it more than once.

Somebody wake me up when she drops a Delicate/Out Of The Woods/Style k thx
 
She entitled a track "Cruel Summer"? Please stop setting yourself up for failure dear.

This album doesn't feel like it's out this week at all. I wonder how enormous the first week sales drop against Reputation will be?
 
I’ve tried with all the lead singles and “instant grats” and none of them really stuck. She’s much better when she’s not performing a caricature of herself or attempting a cultural moment (see Delicate , Style, Blank Space, Out of the Woods, Mine etc).

“Archer” came closest to the dreamy 80s pop nostalgia I want, but they forgot to finish the chorus in order for it to take off. “Lover” is a decent album track but not a hit she needs
 
Totally agree with @wurst and @northernlad - this era just feels like it’s being rolled out with no real thought or audience demand.

Everything about this campaign feels remarkably muted. I’m sure the album itself will be absolutely FINE, but I can’t see it avoiding a massive drop-off from the million-selling debuts of the last few albums.
 
Her commercial history is so ridiculously overachieving that it had to crash and burn spectacularly at some point.

I thought "Reputation" was the one that would clue the MASSES up to how it was all going a bit tits up commercially, but I suppose these things do take a while to filter through.
 
Reputation WAS a relative commercial disappointment, wasn't it?
 
I think Reputation demonstrated she wasn’t invincible, and outside of “Delicate” none of the singles lived a long chart life. The album itself did pretty great considering the dramatic decline in sales overall between 2014 and 2017. But yeah 1989 was a two year juggernaut that doesn’t come around anymore.
 
I think it's safe to assume that her sales peak is past, the question will be if she has fallen off a cliff or just undergone a (probably overdue) "correction".
 
KindaCool said:
18 tracks? Did she make this in 2002?
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As much as I want to tell KC to fuck off for this, it is true to say that attention spans are not 18 songs long in 2019 and thinking in terms of a value-for-money CD represents that things are a wee bit out of date at Swift Inc.
 
Not just that, but I think because music is so digital and singles-focused now, record labels are opting to put out short bursts of music instead of these archaic compendium-like albums. There really is no more incentive to put out more than 8-10 songs at a time. And I wouldn't be surprised if that number decreased even farther to 5-6

But I suspect Taylor Swift thinks she's being 'innovative' or something.
 
POP! said:
TRACKLIST

1) I Forgot You Existed
2) Cruel Summer
3) Lover
4) The Man
5) The Archer
6) I Think He Knows
7) Miss Americana and The Heartbreak Prince
8) Paper Rings
9) Cornelia Street
10) Death By A Thousand Cuts
11) London Boy
12) Soon You’ll Get Better (feat. Dixie Chicks)
13) False God
14) You Need To Calm Down
15) Afterglow
16) ME! (feat. Brendon Urie of Panic! At The Disco)
17) It’s Nice To Have A Friend
18) Daylight
Click to expand...
QUEEN OF POP :disco:
 
octophone said:
As much as I want to tell KC to fuck off for this, it is true to say that attention spans are not 18 songs long in 2019 and thinking in terms of a value-for-money CD represents that things are a wee bit out of date at Swift Inc.
Click to expand...

But doesn't this come down to your point in the Kylie thread? You don't need to listen to the whole album for it to count as an album sale. So do attention spans matter, in chart terms at least?
 
By the way I'm obviously trolling. As if I'd ever seriously be into someone who collaborated with Ed Sheeran!

I do like some of her songs though.
 
lolly said:
But doesn't this come down to your point in the Kylie thread? You don't need to listen to the whole album for it to count as an album sale. So do attention spans matter, in chart terms at least?
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Good thought - so, if you only like 5 of the songs and stream them repeatedly, that chalks up a point for the whole album, therefore by some sort of law of averages or somesuch, she scores. Hmmm.
 
KindaCool said:
Not just that, but I think because music is so digital and singles-focused now, record labels are opting to put out short bursts of music instead of these archaic compendium-like albums. There really is no more incentive to put out more than 8-10 songs at a time. And I wouldn't be surprised if that number decreased even farther to 5-6

But I suspect Taylor Swift thinks she's being 'innovative' or something.
Click to expand...

I doubt that. Her albums are usually longer than most.
 
Long albums have a place in the same way that long tracks have a place. I couldn't give a fuck if streamers turn off after 30 seconds, I still stan Nurse With Wound's 2-track-50-minute albums.
 
KindaCool said:
But I suspect Taylor Swift thinks she's being 'innovative' or something.
Click to expand...

Hardly, she's just sticking something for everyone on there in order to maximise profits and avoid burning bridges that, frankly, she'd be better off burning. See also the lead single which seemed to have no other aim than being as inoffensive to the masses as possible.
 
I never expected her to maintain a consistent sales pattern - that’s not realistic.

What’s surprised me this time around is that it feels the launch COULD have been bigger. I’m not sure barrelling out four singles before the album is a strategy that works for her. It seems to have killed, rather than built momentum.
 
Apparently 1,250 paid for streams (or 3,750 ad supported streams) count as an album sale for Billboard. So doesn't it actually make sense now to release longer, bloated albums that like northernlad says will appeal to everyone? Even if I only like a few of those 18 album tracks, if I repeatedly stream them I'm helping her in the chart. Someone else could be doing the same with a completely different set of tracks and be doing likewise.

Only the poor mugs who still buy whole albums (but who don't matter after the week they buy it) will be left with a flabby, disjointed mess.
 
lolly said:
Apparently 1,250 paid for streams (or 3,750 ad supported streams) count as an album sale for Billboard. So doesn't it actually make sense now to release longer, bloated albums that like northernlad says will appeal to everyone? Even if I only like a few of those 18 album tracks, if I repeatedly stream them I'm helping her in the chart. Someone else could be doing the same with a completely different set of tracks and be doing likewise.

Only the poor mugs who still buy whole albums (but who don't matter after the week they buy it) will be left with a flabby, disjointed mess.
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You’ve got to think this is how we ended up with “Rebel Heart”...
 
Well, hang on - just because an album is long doesn't mean it'll be flabby and disjointed. It still fits on one CD (and some of the tracks could be "interludes", unless we also have track times that suggest otherwise...) so we're not talking The White Album here. A productive artist is generally a happy artist so let's see.
 
That strategy has certainly worked for Drake (and perhaps Drake alone), at least in the short-term, but the problem with Taylor is that: 1. There's no guarantee the white, suburban, hetero, under 25 girls that have made her the biggest pop star in the world will bother sitting through the entire thing to find the 2 songs up their alley, and not be tainted with the malaise of it all, and 2. Along with Adele she is in many ways the last great albums artist and this strategy could completely undo that. I don't think you can overstate how important she is to the industry in powering physical sales. Even though Reputation sold a third of 1989, is was still the best-selling album of 2017 in pure sales by country mile.
 
octophone said:
Well, hang on - just because an album is long doesn't mean it'll be flabby and disjointed. It still fits on one CD (and some of the tracks could be "interludes", unless we also have track times that suggest otherwise...) so we're not talking The White Album here. A productive artist is generally a happy artist so let's see.
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Well obviously it doesn't NECESSARILY mean it will be flabby and disjointed - but from a chart perspective there's less incentive for it NOT to be, isn't there?
 
It might have 18 tracks but I don't think there's much to spoil here honestly
 
octophone said:
Well, hang on - just because an album is long doesn't mean it'll be flabby and disjointed. It still fits on one CD (and some of the tracks could be "interludes", unless we also have track times that suggest otherwise...) so we're not talking The White Album here. A productive artist is generally a happy artist so let's see.
Click to expand...
One of the worst things to happen in the "CD Age" was this notion that filling up all 76 minutes of a CD was something to aim for. I much prefer the all killer, no filler 30-40 minute length we had before and have reverted to now.
 
Christian said:
One of the worst things to happen in the "CD Age" was this notion that filling up all 76 minutes of a CD was something to aim for. I much prefer the all killer, no filler 30-40 minute length we had before and have reverted to now.
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I can think of several brilliant long albums with no filler and several short ones that still have crap on them. The reason why albums have got shorter is down to attention spans, not a (necessary) return to quality control.
 
octophone said:
I can think of several brilliant long albums with no filler and several short ones that still have crap on them. The reason why albums have got shorter is down to attention spans, not a (necessary) return to quality control.
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Oh for sure, but there will always be outliers. I can't think of many double albums that wouldn't have made better single albums though.
 
Christian said:
Oh for sure, but there will always be outliers. I can't think of many double albums that wouldn't have made better single albums though.
Click to expand...

Well, not in Swift's genre/field anyway, that is certainly true.

Just to clarify, I am not expecting an 18-song, every-one-a-Maserati classic here. I just dislike pulling albums down on ciphers.
 
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