J12's Recent Activity

J12 replied to the thread Album Taylor Swift - The Tortured Poets Department (April 19, 2024).

Agree with this and think it’s an interesting discussion. Also regularly think about what Lover “Fest” would’ve been like. Its funny, because that was only going to happen in Mass and LA and yet I remember it being easier to get great tickets for than both Rep and 1989.

J12 liked Kiana's post in the thread Album Taylor Swift - The Tortured Poets Department (April 19, 2024).

I feel like people act like Reputation was her "misstep" (if you feel like she's even had one because obviously every release she's ever had has been successful) but imo her misstep was Lover and if the pandemic hadn't have happened and she kept going in the vein of Lover instead of folklore I don't think she'd be at this level now. Acknowledging that this is wild speculation cause obv nobody knows what she'd have done if covid didn't happen but I'm bored so I'm thinking about it

J12 liked Shrek's post in the thread Wrestling Thread 8: Follow The Buzzards.

tbf OC's reign was just dudes walking up backstage demanding a shot and OC saying okay, that's just an open challenge in a different wrapper. i definitely think Continental is the most distinct and interesting of the three and it would probably be good in the long run to get away from the network named belts

J12 liked JoshIsMediocre's post in the thread Wrestling Thread 8: Follow The Buzzards.

J12 replied to the thread Album Taylor Swift - The Tortured Poets Department (April 19, 2024).

I am all in on the Post Malone love. Big fan of his work, but he really does just seem like the sweetest man.

J12 liked phaynes12's post in the thread Album Taylor Swift - The Tortured Poets Department (April 19, 2024).

[MEDIA]

J12 replied to the thread Wrestling Thread 8: Follow The Buzzards.

Underrated part of the show (well, pre-show) was the official merging of the six-man belts because I am a strong advocate of deleting like half the company's titles.

J12 liked shea's post in the thread Wrestling Thread 8: Follow The Buzzards.

i legit thought his shoulder came out but then he started doing the twitching shit again

J12 replied to the thread Wrestling Thread 8: Follow The Buzzards.

I'll die on the hill of Danielson repeatedly faking major injuries around his neck and head is bad, self-indulgent bullshit that Tony should veto full stop. But, aside from that, the match was other-worldly incredible and the show was excellent as a whole.

J12 replied to the thread Vinyl Thread.

I wish I liked Pearl Jam enough to warrant buying that new record, because the RSD pressing is absolutely gorgeous.

J12 replied to the thread Album Taylor Swift - The Tortured Poets Department (April 19, 2024).

I've been trying to give each "disk" time separately as to not overwhelm myself and my feelings remain largely unchanged after the weekend with a few more listens: The proper album is really, really, really good. I have it easily usurping Midnights. I don't know where it falls otherwise, but, I do at least know that for now. Catch me singing "FLORIDAAAAAAA" every time I see a headline of someone from there doing something stupid. The second disk is largely fine, but it feels like a lesser, under-baked version of what she successfully did on Folklore and Evermore. I feel like that type of style is better suited for her writing ventures outside of auto-biography. If I wasn't at least passingly intrigued by the Easter eggs and general lore, I don't really think I'd see any reason to revisit those songs.

J12 liked Craig Manning's post in the thread Album Taylor Swift - The Tortured Poets Department (April 19, 2024).

This album should be called I Just Wanted to Fuck Matty Healy In Peace.

J12 liked Craig Manning's post in the thread Album Taylor Swift - The Tortured Poets Department (April 19, 2024).

I think maybe my biggest frustration with this album is that it feels like her going back to Dessner again, and not really finding anything new there, cheapens folklore and evermore a little bit. Those albums were so special to me in the moment for a lot of reasons, and they're both near the top of my Taylor rankings. But part of what I really loved about them was that they stood alone as this kind of pandemic-era island in her catalog. I know some people already think evermore cheapened folklore, but I never bought into the narrative that that album was a retread or folklore b-sides. Those two albums feel so distinct to me: folklore the bleary-eyed snapshot of a summer that never was, evermore the worn-down wintertime bummer that is (still, even after this new album) the saddest record Taylor has ever made. But disc 2 mostly feels like a retread of those two albums to me, at least so far. Maybe I'll find the magic there with more listens, but it's eluding me so far. It's all perfectly nice and pretty, but it's not grabbing me. It reminds me a little bit of when Beck made Morning Phase, a perfectly nice and pretty retread of Sea Change that was also drastically inferior and kind of sapped the original of its novelty.

J12 liked Garrett's post in the thread Album Taylor Swift - The Tortured Poets Department (April 19, 2024).

I think when all the dust settles and the discourse and initial reactions have run its course, this will settle into the lower third of her discography. However, this may be the most personal record she’s ever written (with the exception of Red), and on that front, I find it pretty fascinating. I think any creator of art, any medium, understands that moment where the only way to process everything going on is to craft through it. I wrote an entire poetry collection trying to just process 2020/2021 in a way that let my brain expel feelings. This activity is on full display here with Taylor and some distance will allow us to actually see Taylor the person. We joke about “capitalist queen” and “billionaire” because she is those things, but at the end of the day, neither of those things made her happy. Her songs say it blatantly, but do we know if she’s learned it yet? The songs about Travis (The Alchemy, So High School) feel like an entirely different person than the other 29 songs at times. Those two and Clara Bow really do seem like the Taylor the lyricist we may see going forward. But Daddy, I Love Him is probably going to be the main one from this album that sticks in the fandom at large. The chorus has been stuck in my head for days. It’s got the grandiosity of Getaway Car with a smidge more personality. Personality is a big factor with the songs I’ve started to latch onto with this project. The ones that have little flares over calculated presentations really do stand out to me. (Including ICDIWABH and WAOLOM? as personality choices.) Just some rambling thoughts I’ve had thinking about the album this morning over coffee.

J12 liked sophos34's post in the thread Album Taylor Swift - The Tortured Poets Department (April 19, 2024).

I quite frankly can’t stand the ten minute all too well and think the original is her best song and everyone gassing up a far inferior version has done horrible things to her as a writer

J12 liked MegT585's post in the thread Vinyl Thread.

Picked up are: this is why online - thanks for all the help guys!

J12 liked Drew Beringer's post in the thread Vinyl Thread.

J12 replied to the thread Vinyl Thread.

Damn, Darkside really came through. They had everything, at least for a moment. I scored the Noah/Olivia single and another copy of The 1975 for a friend (after spending too much for my own yesterday thinking there was zero chance I’d get it.) I’d already ordered Filter from Newbury after striking out at Rough Trade.

J12 replied to the thread Vinyl Thread.

Hoping to score Filter on one of the many sites tomorrow morning, if anyone knows of any that will for sure have it, a heads up would be appreciated!

J12 replied to the thread Vinyl Thread.

My local Bull Moose had tooooons of RE: This is Why, so I'd expect them to be available online there, too!

J12 replied to the thread Vinyl Thread.

Did I just splurge and order a copy of The 1975 on eBay? Yes. Probably the cheapest it's ever going to be, especially given the prices of the one last year.

J12 replied to the thread Vinyl Thread.

2nd year in a row I've struck out on The 1975. Wasn't a lot I wanted this year, but did grab the Paramore/David Byrne split and The Weeknd Live at SoFi. Would've picked up the Filter set if I could've found it anywhere, too, but that was one is surprisingly rare.

J12 liked Craig Manning's post in the thread Album Taylor Swift - The Tortured Poets Department (April 19, 2024).

As a fellow verbose lunatic, I have a soft spot for Taylor’s uber-wordy era. That said, some of these songs really buckle under the weight of all the language, and it makes me really want her return-to-country album. I think of that song “The Architect” from the new Kacey Musgraves album and really want to hear Taylor (and a new team of co-writers) take on the challenge of writing with that kind of economy again. We’re really in the “All Too Well 10-minute version” timeline, but just like the original version of that song is better and more devastating with less *stuff* I think she could benefit from trying to pare it down, lyrically.

J12 liked disambigujason's post in the thread Album Taylor Swift - The Tortured Poets Department (April 19, 2024).

Thoughts on the album and discourse, dozens of pages later: big fan of artists releasing as much music as possible, so I love the secret double release, even if there is some fatigue. Is it a lesser “album” for it? Perhaps, but at the end of the day, my favorite artists are largely the ones for whom I have the most songs I enjoy listening too. Even concise albums rarely have no skips, and there are almost always b-sides that should’ve been on the record, so bring on the tunes and maximize how many I’ll love. for the same reason, I’m hesitant to say she should’ve/should take a break, but i agree with the sentiment I think she’d benefit from whatever would shake up the songwriting a bit surprise releasing the double album vinyl to preorders wouldve been a legendary move and I’d imagine the number of future orders would’ve exploded. Feels like a missed opportunity to gain an ungodly amount of good karma, even if she doesn’t need it. Saw a news story earlier about how she functions as America’s royal family. Would’ve hammered home that narrative. as for the record itself, I agree there’s an element of staleness here but at least for me that’s kinda missing the point. If it’s really good, I care way less how little individual albums deviate from each other. My problem with this is largely the same as my issue with midnights - I’d go farther than saying the album feels one-note and say it feels like a vast majority of the songs feel too long and repetitive themselves. I feel like most of the last 45 Taylor swift songs I’ve listened to just have the same cadence and repetitive rhyming pattern throughout the whole song, over and over and over again for 3-5 minutes without ever going anywhere. idk, I really miss the massive pop hooks and singalong songs, even if the song structure was very traditional. all that said, I do think it’s better than midnights. Feels more lyrically dense, her storytelling is as good as ever, even if it comes with a lot of the classic Taylor clunkiness. I liked it a lot more on my second than first listen and it’ll continue to grow. Very excited to see her in Liverpool I don’t think there’s a meaningful difference between “Taylor is being exploitive” and “fans don’t have to buy it, they can still listen to it.” Exploitation comes from intent, not the number of people that fall for it. Good on folks for not giving in, but every decision an artist makes is designed to part as many people with as much money as possible. She’s just better at it.

J12 replied to the thread Album Taylor Swift - The Tortured Poets Department (April 19, 2024).

Having now listened through the whole thing, I was pretty swept up in all of the first part and pretty bored by most of the second. We'll see how subsequent listens change that.

J12 liked Greg's post in the thread Album Taylor Swift - The Tortured Poets Department (April 19, 2024).

My dream/nightmare is she takes them on tour. Dream because would be rad to see them play such huge shows. Nightmare because I would never be able to get a ticket to a show haha

J12 liked manoverboard365's post in the thread Album Taylor Swift - The Tortured Poets Department (April 19, 2024).

I've already taken note of what their Spotify monthly listeners is at today (498k). Lets see how much that changes in the coming weeks.

J12 liked bradsonemanband's post in the thread Album Taylor Swift - The Tortured Poets Department (April 19, 2024).

they need to go back to full time ASAP and capitalize on the Swifties

J12 replied to the thread Album Taylor Swift - The Tortured Poets Department (April 19, 2024).

Also, what if The Starting Line blows up now?

J12 replied to the thread Album Taylor Swift - The Tortured Poets Department (April 19, 2024).

As someone who is both a huge Taylor Swift fan and experiencing an immense amount of Taylor Swift fatigue, I can't say i was excited going into this thing. I haven't made it through, but so far, my very rudimentary thoughts are that there are more highs than lows, it seems to have more interesting things to say than Midnights did, and the fact that I'm enjoying it despite how much I've actively tried to avoid her lately due to fatigue must say something.

J12 liked Jason Tate's post in the thread Album Taylor Swift - The Tortured Poets Department (April 19, 2024).

J12 liked Matthewconte's post in the thread Album Taylor Swift - The Tortured Poets Department (April 19, 2024).

I think the internet and streaming are a huge part of where the difference between them comes in. I'm on the other side of a lot of people here where I do think there's a saturation point and am feeling some fatigue here. And a huge part of that is the MCU-ification of the fandom where once something hits it's all about anticipation and clues for what the next thing is going to be. And another is that Bruce wasn't able to just dump songs on Spotify on a whim. Whether it's because he was a little more precious or because the opportunities didn't exist (I think it's some of both), what he ultimately released for public consumption over the course of his most prolific writing and artistic peak (1973--1987) was 7 albums, less than 90 songs, and about 6 hours of music. Tracks didn't come out until 1998 and at that point it's considered a "for the fans" release. Meanwhile, in just the last five years Taylor has given us 5 albums, over 100 songs, and almost 7 hours of music and that's not even considering like 30+ vault tracks. This has been my favorite era of hers song-wise, but I do wish it was a little more lean and cohesive and there was more time for me to live with songs and albums and connect with them before there's even more. But I get that that's not how everybody listens to music and not how everyone feels about it.

J12 liked Drew Beringer's post in the thread Album Taylor Swift - The Tortured Poets Department (April 19, 2024).

here are 15 more songs instead!

J12 liked Jason Tate's post in the thread Album Taylor Swift - The Tortured Poets Department (April 19, 2024).

Early impressions: Better than my first listen of Midnights but very one note. Missing a new level, which means the over exposure becomes a factor and it just feels … ok? And a little lacking. the Starting Line reference rules If you told me this was a bunch of bsides or (fake) versions of the vault tracks I’d believe you. this roll out has bugged me and felt exploitative if I was a consultant for a career (lol no one cares what I think at this level) .. I’d recommend a break, a reset, and work on the songs until they don’t feel like lesser versions of what you’ve don’t before