Thread: Your Top 5 Bands...

Originally Posted by chazoe60

My bands have changed so much.

My top 5 changes every week. Lol

5. Flogging Molly
4. Colter Wall
3. The Pogues
2. Lost Dog Street Band
1. John Prine

5. Lamb of God
4. Nas
3. 2Pac
2. Lil Nas X
1. TBD.

I used to love Joe Budden, but I couldn't condone what he was as a person. Honorable mentions to gunship, Blackbear, Biggie, and Robert Johnson.

Making this T-Swift playlist...I'm not sure how King does not listen to her most heartwrenching ballads late at night while crying like a normal heartbroken millennial.

Hits the spot.

Originally Posted by aberdien

Making this T-Swift playlist...I'm not sure how King does not listen to her most heartwrenching ballads late at night while crying like a normal heartbroken millennial.

Hits the spot.

How do you cry yourself to sleep at night as a heartbroken person when you, in numerous other conversations, have shown yourself to be a heartbreaker?

JFC!

So, Taylor Swift. She has a lot of songs from all of her different eras and they are all varying degrees of good, so it's hard to pick a handful of her "best" songs. I care more about sound than lyrics, but she has been complimented on the detailed storytelling in her songs.

If you want to hear the 5 most critically acclaimed songs she has, these are the ones I would go for. They are all pretty representative of the different eras of her career, and none of them have been big radio hits. All Too Well was originally a non-single deep cut that grew among Switfies and now it is generally agreed to be her best song in terms of her vivid storytelling.

All Too Well
Getaway Car
Enchanted
Cruel Summer
august

If you wanna hear some of my favorite T-Swift songs:

Our Song
State of Grace
It's Nice to Have A Friend
Getaway Car
Fifteen
I Almost Do
Holy Ground
All You Had to Do Was Stay
New Romantics
Mirrorball
August
My Tears Ricochet

The albums breakdown:

Taylor Swift - some good songs on here, but mostly radio pop-country, not that there's anything wrong with that
Fearless - a step up from the previous album, most songs are good, and there's a handful of certified bangers if you're okay with teen love songs
Sparks Fly - the first album she wrote all the songs on, it's too long but it's my 2nd favorite album of hers
Red - a bridge between the teen country pop era and her becoming a legit singer songwriter, her best album
1989 - synthy, poppy, 80s vibes, ditched the guitars, shorter, this was her first big "genre switch" if you wanna call it that
Reputation - kinda goes into a slightly more industrial sound while still being poppy, but it's definitely darker in tone
Lover - a much happier and more positive shift in tone, more songwriting growth, it's pretty poppy, somewhat dreamy
Folklore & Evermore - Her 2 pandemic albums. If you like indie folk, cabin type music, this is your thing. These are the albums which made people take her seriously in indie-type circles. Taylor Swift meets Bon Iver (they even have a song together) or The National. You can definitely see the growth in terms of songwriting on these. For me, they're too depressing for me to listen to unless i'm in a mood, but they are definitely good and easily her two most acclaimed albums.

----

She is undeniably prolific as a singer-songwriter, acclaimed as a detailed storyteller, and much more than just the teenage girl country-pop star that most people know her as. Even if she just wrote teenage love songs, her teenage love songs are great and deserve acclaim, just like The Beatles’ teenage love songs don’t deserve to be shrugged off. At the very least her career arc is pretty interesting - going from a teen pop star easy to write off as a talentless hack, to an artist trying to be taken seriously, to dating and breaking up with famous dudes and writing songs about them, to dealing with all of the Kanye West award show drama, the aftermath, the criticism of her singing ability, accusations of cultural appropriation, any other number of usual struggles famous people have, and now to an acclaimed singer songwriter.

She has also not had a critically bad album, although most of them are bloated and some less good than others. I’d say she has at least 4 classic albums at this point in her career. For somebody who has made 9 albums between the ages of 16-32, that’s a pretty damn good streak of not missing. You could compare that with any number of acclaimed singer-songwriters and she is at least on par with the Bob Dylans and Neil Youngs of the world.

I got hooked on her after I heard “Our Song” on country radio while working at my aunt’s food truck when I was like 14. I hated country, but that song was dope, and she wrote it for her HS talent show. Ever since then I’ve been a fan and an interested follower of her career. It’s only a matter of time until she misses, and I’m kindof excited to see what happens when she does. Regardless, she is already one of the great American songwriters. Put some respek on her name.

If you wanna hear her most acclaimed song, which made it to #69 on Rolling Stone's 500 greatest songs of all time:



If you wanna hear what has been described as her grandiose, arena rock, U2-esque song:



If you wanna hear maybe her best 80s synthy vibes song:



If you wanna hear Taylor Swift meets Bon Iver:



If you wanna hear a solo Taylor cabin-in-the-woods song:



If you wanna hear a song that most Taylor Swift fans don't like, but I think is among her best:

Jesus christ Abe, go rub one out already.... lmao

Originally Posted by Northman

Jesus christ Abe, go rub one out already.... lmao

One day she will release a metal album. You'll see!

State of Grace has two versions: studio and "Taylor's Version". Which?

****. All of these songs have a "Taylor's Version" on Spotify. Confusing.

If you like spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0z...a6c184c121476e

Ok. About 2 minutes into All Too Well... I started falling in love with Taylor Swift.

#abewins

Originally Posted by Hawgdriver

State of Grace has two versions: studio and "Taylor's Version". Which?

Originally Posted by Hawgdriver

****. All of these songs have a "Taylor's Version" on Spotify. Confusing.

There was this thing where this dude bought the rights to her music or something, so she has decided to re-recorder her older music so she owns the "master" recording.

The versions basically sound the same, but I prefer the sound of the originals because it's what I first listened to. Your choice, there's almost no difference between them.

Originally Posted by Hawgdriver

Ok. About 2 minutes into All Too Well... I started falling in love with Taylor Swift.

#abewins

Feel free to do some reading about the song (wiki is fine) if you wish, and then dive into the 10 minute Taylor's version, which she also performed on SNL recently.