I’m on my way, driving at ninety down those country lanes…
Like a lot of other people, I got introduced to Ed Sheeran‘s music during his opening gig days on the Red Tour. He remains in my mind, a musical genius capable of putting his music center stage without little to no scenery. Back then his style was almost urban, and that’s never a bad thing. Beat and a rhythm comes so easily to him that for Divide, or to be specific the ÷ album, he’s already past the mastery of the craft and begin the innovation stage. Or perhaps both were always the same thing to him.
This is one of those albums you experience more than listen, where all melodies blend themselves together the first time and you don’t really want to interrupt by looking up song titles. It takes a second listen to forcibly abstract yourself from the audio and finally check out what was that amazing track you just heard. “Castle On The Hill” was a favourite before I even owned Ed’s third studio offering, a mix of nostalgia and longing in a coming of age story that is almost cinematic. I could recognize the pop and the club beats influencing Ed and he in turn influencing them back in “Shape of You”. I’m not much for dancing music but I can’t help but like it. He goes back to ballads easily, so “Perfect” is almost a surprise in the sense that it’s not an easy track musically and lyrically. A less musician would’ve been happy with less, but the more you hear the more you become impressed.
“Galway Girl” is another impressive feat that has Ed’s style as well as old time folk music, something out of a Celtic fairy tale. “Happier” and “What Do I Know?” are also impossible-to-skip favourites already. You might have heard of the story behind the tear-jerker “Supermarket Flowers” which is a beautiful tribute written from her mother’s point of view to her grandmother, but it’s still going to make you cry.
Highly recommended album to listen non-stop. Available now on iTunes.
It could end up in burning lights or paradise, Taylor Nation.
How are you? How’s the family? I hope everything is good on your side of the world. Here at the Swift Agency, just a guy who is not a journalist but some days feels like he’s dreaming with this “journalistic integrity” ideal, we’re missing reporting on the Blonde With The Sparkly Guitar. On the other hand, the current political climate is really charged, isn’t it?
(Source: internationalwomensday.com)
Taylor has opted to stay silent about social issues so far. People have interpreted her silence in different ways, some more outrageous than others, but all of them are speculation. The Sparkly Dressed is not playing the political game and I respect that. Myself, I was ready to go all out and criticize both left and right, but the truth is I’m really tired of entertainment having a political agenda. As entertaining as some people might find to go crazy over politics, I don’t expect politics when I go to an entertainment site. That being said…
I do want to wish you all a Happy International Women’s Day 🙂 Because of the date there’s something I think it’s worth saying without playing to sides, hopefully.
So, here’s my disclaimer. In the beginning I thought I’d sit this one out and say nothing. Let the women have their say. But since I’m choosing the latest moment of the day to speak now, I hope nobody will mind. The thing is, I’ve learned that believing in gender parity doesn’t mean you can preach about it – specially if you’re on the side which is mostly getting more benefits than detriments. In the past, I’ve foolishly taken the name of feminist without knowing that the role means different things to different people. So I’ve stepped back and decided that rather than seek out to fit labels, I’d rather just state what I think and hope I don’t get pushed to anybody’s camp. I’m going to be imperfect and awkward but I’ll try be honest.
Women are awesome. They’re awesome in the sense that they can be inspiring, wonderful, sensible and smart human beings. They don’t need to fulfill a particular societal archetype BUT they’re welcome to take any role they want without being policed, which means they don’t need to answer to anybody. Women are flawed, they get frustrated, they lose their patience, they miss their step and they get lost. But there’s no telling what they can do when they find their footing. They don’t need anybody but their achievements do not lose any greatness if they ask for help. They’re not the other half of humanity but complete humans themselves. Women define femininity exclusively.
That’s it 🙂
Coming up! Eh…. Not a thing. Darn it. Something better pop up soon.
It was Super Saturday Night indeed, Taylor Nation!
(Source: TaylorPictures.net)
The Blonde With The Sparkly 1989 Microphone took the stage at Club Nomadic in Houston, Texas for Super Saturday Night, February 4 for what could be her only concert of 2017. Or at least, the only concert she’s aware by her own admission.
“By coming to this show tonight you are attending 100% of this year’s tour dates,” she said to the nine thousand people in attendance.
(Source: TaylorPictures.net)
Ruby Rose performed DJ duties before the big show started off. The pre-party was Taylor-ed for Swifties with a variety of snacks named after T-Swizzle’s most famous lyrics. All You Had To Do Was Satay Chicken and I Knew You Were Truffle Waffles were available for purchase. The main act didn’t start until well past eleven. The waiting was a killer, and for the hardcore crowd which surrounded the circular stage, dehydration was a very real struggle.
The Enchantress chose to open with “New Romantics” which she’s done before, and works really well as an opener. Up next would come “22”, “Blank Space”, “I Knew You Were Trouble” (I want to say truffle from now on) and “Style”.
And then she sang an acoustic version of “I Don’t Want To Live Forever”.
Yeah, consider all chill lost at this point if there was any left. However, I was glad to find out she still brought out “You Belong With Me”. She followed that with “This Is What You Came For”. That was followed by another surprise, a first time ever live rendition of “Better Man”.
Get up from the floor, we’re not done yet. “Red”, “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”, “Love Story”, “All Too Well”, “Wildest Dreams”, “Bad Blood”, “Out Of Woods” and “Shake If Off” completed the set list, as if Taylor was making a best hits album.
It almost makes me forgive them for that livestream of a wall of flowers. Makes me wonder if nobody at AT&T actually thought of pointing the camera at, and I know this is going to sound a little crazy but hear me out, the artist known as Taylor Swift we were all wishing we’d be watching that night? I like I said, almost.
I’m glad the night at Club Nomadic had a lot more thought put into it, but impatient little me might have not survived in a club surrounded by people left and right. I am glad for everyone who got to see the Queen of Sparks. I really hope there’s another chance for her this year to perform and, who knows, another album in the works sometime soon?
(Source: TaylorPictures.net)
And now, let the social media flood begin. I’ve had to trim this down as much as possible since the page is already very video-heavy. Sorry about that.
We don’t endorse hotel room mayhem, Taylor Nation 😉
(Source: Universal Studios)
Chill, it’s a joke. I’ve made no secret that I don’t endorse the film Fifty Shades Darker, as you’ve probably already read. The song “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever” by Zayn and Taylor Swift doesn’t really break any new (holy) ground musically. The music video, however – which no doubt was directly influenced by the atmosphere of the film – ended having its own momentum. I was curious what direction (seriously no pun intended) it was going to go.
Zayn plays himself – or a version of himself, arriving at a hotel that has obviously forgot to pay the bill to the electric power company. Fortunately he has the flashes of the paparazzi to guide his way in. By the time he gets into the elevator I half expected him to bring out his cellphone to light the way. And yes, I’m being half sarcastic and half funny because most of the video is in half darkness, but it’s not really a bad video.
Taylor coalesces out of the dark, dressed in lingerie but donning a coat which accomplishes two things that a vampy femme dreams of: she’s both classy and sexy. She hints at the lingerie but never quite takes the coat off all the way. Taylor plays both the seduced and the seductress, keeping an even playing field with Zayn’s brooding. Actually I breathed a sight of relief at that, as I kinda dreaded any power game that would emulate the movie. It’s not that I’m being a prude, it’s just that I’d rather Taylor not take the submissive nor the bitch role. There’s no extended story, it’s just two lovers and some light hotel room trashing. Let’s just go to the video, shall we?
There’s a common tagline that you find way too often in movies, tv series and even music: “It’s like nothing you’ve seen before.” It rarely delivers. In the case of the Blonde With the Sparkly 1989 Microphone, it’s both true and false. The Sparkly Dressed has been known to deliver a new album with a new style, always evolving towards the next one. That means we’ve come to expect a jump everytime, but at the same time she remains on point towards a certain style in the way she treats each evolutionary stage.
From Taylor Swift to Fearless she jumped into the national stage. Speak Now is one album where I disagree with most critics, it’s severely underestimated. Red was her unofficial transition to pop, but I consider it more of a practice album for what came next. The next album 1989 marked not only a full transition, but a complete reinvention that invigorated her music and an impromptu homage to the 80’s musical style.
And then she took a year off. Yes, we’ve come to expect a new Swifty album every two years, but the streak was broken in 2016. What happens now? Where do we go from here? Nobody knows. Taylor’s not saying a thing.
We know how this one goes, right? When the album enters the last stages of development, Taylor starts putting out clues in social media. They’re never extremely complicated, but we fans tend to overdo it (nooo, really???) and read way too much into every little thing. So without any clues, and knowing already she’s firmly rooted in pop, perhaps we can make a few guesses. These are not meant to be accurate or deductive. I don’t have any insight into Taylor’s current songwriting style. I’m just speculating to pass the time.
Chances are there will be more collaboration with Jack Antonoff. He’s amazingly talented as a performer, a songwriter and a producer and shares the credit of penning some amazing songs with Taylor. I’m not a huge fan of Max Martin and Shellback collabs in general, which have mostly sound geared towards radio play time. It’s not that I dislike cheery songs, it’s that when a song has too many bells and whistles the music tends to get lost. Fortunately, most of the collabs that they’ve done with Taylor do have a message, albeit a short one.
I know a lot of people still wish the Enchantress would go back to her Country music roots. I used to be one of them, but nowadays I will admit I don’t see why she would. Taylor’s career has plotted a course set by one captain: herself. That doesn’t mean she hasn’t taken input from her fans. Taylor knows you want to dance at her concerts, so she’s slowly added some danceable tracks. I expect a few to make it to the new album. I also still expect the lyric-heavy songs that read as stories, which are more traditionally associated with Taylor. After all, she honed her craft in Country music songwriting where storytelling is abundant.
One thing that I believe will change is the notion that each song has a name associated to it. More and more, Taylor’s songs have drawn from a collage of her experience and imagination rather than from one particular relationship which used to be her modus operandi. She has thrown a shoutout now and then to a specific event (a forgotten scarf, a visit to an emergency room after an accident) that throws the fandom and the media into a frenzy. I would rather she kept away from those, but I won’t deny their impact. They’re a surreal songwriting equivalent to clickbait. The other growing trend is that celebration of youth. That dynamic happiness of living with imperfections and all, experimenting and evolving. I don’t know about you, but I say we keep that. 🙂
The hardest thing to speculate on is the album’s theme. The Blonde With The Sparkly Guitar has always found one subject to envelop her album and gather together the tracks as if they were a bouquet of flowers that go well together. 1989‘s track list orbited the 80’s pop rock feel and style evoking both the style and nostalgia. This album had such excellent results that I’m almost fearful that Taylor will be pushed to recreate it. She shouldn’t. 1989 was a risk, and it payed off. The next album should be another risk, another creative leap of Taylor’s songwriting craft. We expect it to be recognizably Taylor-esque and at the same time, sonically different.
Here at the Swift Agency, just a guy who knows how long the waiting for the new album is going to feel, we know the expectations are high for this one. I know some people are hoping for the lyrics to include a vague reference to a past romance we only saw from the outside. Myself, I just want more great music.
I want to congratulate the people who are going to get to see Taylor Swift on Houston on February 4. Get some pictures and video for the rest of us to enjoy. Just a request, I’m not sending ninjas after you or anything. 😉
