#specifically my tears richochet at the moment

[seenthatcolorblue]

listening to folklore

#specifically my tears richochet at the moment

[lonelier-version-of-you]

Finally listening to Folklore. I did a ‘thoughts on...’ post for Lover, so I suppose it’s only fair I do one for this album too. So, here we go.

I’ll give my thoughts, list favourite lyrics, and rate each track as I did before. Also - because if you’re the type of person who follows me, then we all know this is probably the information you’re REALLY looking for - I’m gonna rate each song based on how Johnrik it is.

the 1:

A gorgeous opening track. It has a lovely, wistful tone to it.

Favourite lyrics: “Persist and resist the temptation to ask you / if one thing had been different / would everything be different today?” “But we were something, don’t you think so? Roaring 20s, tossing pennies in the pool / and if my wishes came true, it would’ve been you / in my defense, I have none / for never leaving well enough alone”.

7/10. Johnrik rating: 9/10.

Rest of the album under the cut ‘cause this is LONG.

cardigan:

Oh, I LOVE this song. It starts out tender and beautiful and slowly turns into sad and equally beautiful.

Favourite lyrics: “You drew stars around my scars / but now I’m bleeding” “But I knew you’d linger like a tattoo kiss / I knew you’d haunt all of my what-ifs / the smell of smoke would hang around this long / ‘cause I knew everything when I was young”

8/10. Johnrik rating: 8/10.

the last great american dynasty:

PERFECTION. Taylor really shows her gift for not just songwriting, but storytelling here. This is already one of my favourite songs from the album.

Favourite lyrics: “They say she was seen on occasion / pacing the rocks staring out at the midnight sea / and in a feud with her neighbor / she stole his dog and dyed it key lime green / fifty years is a long time / Holiday House sat quietly on that beach / free of women with madness / their men and bad habits, and then it was bought by me”

10/10. Johnrik rating: N/A, because it’s very specific but it’s also a fantastic song so I felt guilty giving 0/10.

exile (ft. Bon Iver):

I wasn’t that into this song but then Taylor started singing and WOW. It’s really good.

Favourite lyrics: “I never learned to read your mind | Never learned to read my mind / I couldn’t turn things around | You never turned things around / ‘cause you never gave a warning sign | I gave so many signs”

9/10. Johnrik rating: 10/10.

my tears richochet:

FUCK FUCK FUCK THIS IS LITERALLY SO JOHN @ HENRIK VIBES I’M GOING TO CRY.

This is also an absolutely stunning song with a brilliant concept behind it, and definitely a favourite. BUT FUCK THE LYRICS ARE SO JOHN’S GHOST HAUNTING HENRIK ARRRGHHHH.

Favourite lyrics: “And if I’m dead to you / why are you at the wake?” “I didn’t have it in myself to go with grace / and so the battleships will sink beneath the waves / you had to kill me, but it killed you just the same”

10/10. Johnrik rating: 10000/10.

mirrorball:

Another beautiful song and probably one I’ll have on repeat for a while yet. I could see this one being a really successful single.

Favourite lyrics: “Hush / when no one is around, my dear / you’ll find me on my tallest tiptoes / spinnin’ in my highest heels, love / shining just for you” “I’m still a believer but I don’t know why / I’ve never been a natural, all I do is try, try, try / I’m still on that trapeze, I’m still tryin’ everything / to keep you looking at me”

10/10. Johnrik rating: 8/10.

seven:

This song is lovely, but I’m not gonna lie, any song that uses childhood stuff as a metaphor always puts me off because it just makes my traumatised ass feel alienated.

Favourite lyrics: “And I’ve been meaning to tell you / I think your house is haunted / your dad is always mad and that must be why / and I think you should come live with me / and we can be pirates / then you won’t have to cry / or hide in the closet”.

I’ll give this a, fittingly, 7/10. Johnrik rating: 4/10.

august:

I like songs where Taylor does that breathy thing with her voice, so I automatically love this one. The lyrics are great too.

Favourite lyrics: “But I can see us lost in the memory / August slipped away into a moment in time / ‘cause it was never mine / and I can see us twisted in bedsheets / August sipped away like a bottle of wine / ‘cause you were never mine”

8/10. Johnrik rating: 7/10.

this is me trying:

This song is very sonically interesting - it sounds quite unique. So I like that.

It also resonates with me, really hard. Definitely going on my ‘songs to listen to when I’m sad’ playlist.

Favourite lyrics: “They told me all my cages were mental / so I got wasted like all my potential / and my words shoot to kill when I’m mad / I have a lot of regrets about that / I was so ahead of the curve that the curve became a sphere / fell behind all my classmates and I ended up here”

10/10 because I can relate so much to it. Johnrik rating: 6/10, I could see John singing this to Henrik.

illicit affairs:

Oh, HERE it is! The Gay Song of the album! Wondered when we were gonna get around to that. Some of Taylor’s songs, you can just tell are about women, and this is one of them.

Favourite lyrics: “Leave the perfume on the shelf / that you picked out just for him / so you leave no trace behind / like you don’t even exist / take the words for what they are / a dwindling, mercurial high / a drug that only worked / the first few hundred times”

9/10. Johnrik rating: also 9/10.

invisible string:

This is cute. I like it. Reminds me a lot of Paper Rings.

Favourite lyrics: “Bold was the waitress on our three-year trip getting lunch down by the lakes / she said I looked like an American singer”

7/10. Johnrik rating: 3/10.

mad woman:

I knew from the title my crazy-and-proud self was gonna LOVE this song. Spoiler: I love it. It’s like a stripped-down version of an Emilie Autumn song, that’s the sort of vibe it has. Also Taylor said “fuck” and it was brilliant.

Favourite lyrics: “Every time you call me crazy / I get more crazy / what about that? / and when you say I seem angry / I get more angry”

“And there’s nothing like a mad woman / what a shame she went mad / no one likes a mad woman / you made her like that / and you poked that bear ‘til her claws come out / and you find something to wrap your noose around / and there’s nothing like a mad woman”

“The master of spin / has a couple side flings / good wives always know / she should be mad / should be scathing like me / but no one likes a mad woman”

10/10, again because it means a lot to me. Johnrik rating: N/A. (Though if you wanted to get a Holby connection in there, you could probably spin it into a Jac song...)

epiphany:

This is a beautiful ballad, and the meaning behind it is lovely.

Favourite lyrics: “And some things you just can’t speak about”

9/10. Johnrik rating: N/A again.

betty:

I said ‘illicit affairs’ was the Gay Song. Nevermind. TAYLOR IS LITERALLY PUTTING OUT LOVE SONGS TO WOMEN AND NONE OF YOU GUYS ARE NOTICING. I know it’s written from the perspective of a male character, but still??

Favourite lyrics: “If I showed up at your party / Would you have me? Would you want me? / Would you tell me to go fuck myself, or lead me to the garden?”

8/10. Johnrik rating: Another N/A I’m afraid. Though I kind of like to imagine young!Henrik and Maja to this song, in an AU where he 1. came back to her after running away and 2. wasn’t probably too mentally ill to be a parent or hold down a steady relationship.

peace:

This is such a lovely song. The theme reminds me a bit of ‘In Love But Not At Peace’ by Dar Williams - though that one’s a much sadder take, this one has some hope to it.

Favourite lyrics: “But I’m a fire and I’ll keep your brittle heart warm / if your cascade ocean blue waves come / all these people think love’s for show / but I would die for you in secret / the devil’s in the details / but you’ve got a friend in me / would it be enough, if I could never give you peace?”

8/10. Johnrik rating: 7/10.

hoax:

OH HEY SHE JUST GOES AND CLOSES OUT THE ALBUM WITH ANOTHER JOHNRIK SONG. THERE GOES MY HEART. “Don’t want no other shade of blue, but you / no other sadness in the world would do”... that’s them alright. Fuck, I’m emotional.

Favourite lyrics: “This has frozen my ground / stood on the cliffside screaming ‘give me a reason’ / your faithless love's the only hoax I believe in”

10/10. Johnrik rating: also 10/10.

Overall album rating: 9/10.

#Taylor Swift #long post

[bisluthq]

if the problem is relatabillity the ayhtdws - Had me in the palm of your handThen why'd you have to go and lock me out when I let you in ? is taht not relatable to you? it is to me. The problem is a i know she's capable of writing that feeling more interesting than that. August sipped awayLike a bottle of wine'Cause you were never mine is relatable but also well-putt. My tears richochet and the lucky one are unrelatable but no lesser songs songwriting wise.

I mean it’s not just relatable - it’s specific. That’s where, imo, her lyrics shine. She has fewer lines like the one you chose from August but she has a lot of songs that describe domesticity and kinda snapshots of specific moments and that’s a hallmark of her writing. The line that’s most Taylor in August is “meet me behind the mall” tbh. It’s a hallmark of her writing since debut, where she says “Just a boy in a Chevy truck / That had a tendency of gettin' stuck / On backroads at night” - it’s so specific and let’s you as the listener or reader paint the story.

In Delicate, all the stuff she’s saying is dialogue. It’s not her commentary, it’s a particular snapshot of a particular moment or set of moments.

AYHTDWS is generic commentary. She’s not talking to the person - the “you” isn’t there. And it’s saying nothing man and it’s not really letting you paint a picture it’s just like “STAYYYY” and Stay Stay Stay - which is the other side of this song btw - is lyrically much stronger because of the specifics. You can’t just shout STAY and think you’ve made a point.

#nat talks 1989