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Buket's avatar

This is the TTPD review I've wanted to write but never got around to! I think you nailed it. When this album first came out, the music critics were either wildly unkind or bafflingly praising. Ultimately, it's a mixed bag. Songs I love in general will have one line or a bridge that is unfathomably ear-grating, or songs I never listen to will have one line that's just really well said.

I say this as someone who loves Swift's work and thinks she's a once-in-a-generation talent, at some point before Midnights released, she seems to have lost sight of intentionally building her discography rather than expanding it as much as possible, as fast as possible. All artists will make bad or average records, but for someone who's been so careful until now, it's a bit of shame to see.

For example, with Lover, which is a great album but had a comparatively weaker impact, it was still a complete vision, true to where she was in life. Midnight and TTPD feel comparatively more clumsy and hasty even when she's writing some of her best songs (You're on your own kid, would've could've should've, the bolter). So, it really makes one wonder what was the point of publishing everything in the drafts and calling it an album? You said well with, "This album, like Midnights before it, is too comfortable existing as a diary that it forgets to exist as a work of music."

OK clearly, I can drone on about this but I'll stop there. There's also a lot to be said about Swift's near pathological pursuit of "winning" but I'll refrain from stating that on the record for now.

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Natalie Kunce's avatar

I will be coming for Jack Antonoff when he inevitably strips Taylor Swift (Taylor’s Version) of everything I hold dear (its over the top drums)—but she is in the drivers seat so I can’t even be mad!!

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