The second verse begins "Took off faster than a green light-go," and the song builds itself in the shape of this line. ![]() There's a central relationship to "Holy Ground," and Swift refers tidily to its end with the lyric, "Well I guess we fell apart in the usual way / And the story's got dust on every page." But the song is focused inflexibly on a single, revelatory moment that happened during the course of the relationship. Most of all, Springsteen and Swift share a sensibility: that a story can be reduced purely to its rising action. The drums add syllables to the words-"I was / remin / iscing / just / the / oth / er / day" -just as every snare roll divides "Candy's Room" into kinetic fractions. They're faster here, though, and are insistent enough to act as punctuation for the lyrics, which practically tumble out of Swift and fit into one another strangely, like how early Springsteen rhymed as if by accident of memory. There's no real trace of producer Jeff Bhasker, who's worked with Kanye West and fun., except in the drums, which, as in fun.'s "We Are Young," are pure bombast. "Holy Ground," though, isn't Springsteen in subject. On her earlier records, Swift would often employ the Springsteen trope of escaping a small town and entering the blurry resolution of a city, but the only hints of his city darkness were in "Never Grow Up" ("It's so much colder than I thought it would be / so I tuck myself in and turn my night light on"). The percussion, the cadence, and the electrified air all point directly to Bruce Springsteen. " Holy Ground" recalls another tradition, this time without doing much to disguise itself. But small, unexpected lyrical flourishes transform their surroundings, like milk pluming in a cup of coffee. The cascade in "State of Grace," meanwhile, is mostly of worn phrases: "hands of fate," "Achilles' heel," etc. "Glamour Profession" eventually becomes a cascade of disturbed people and events-it's sort of Steely Dan's ultimate dead zone of cynicism. "Glamour Profession," from 1980's Gaucho, begins with their characteristically vague and ominous scene setting: "6:05 / outside the stadium / Special delivery / for Hoops McCann." It's all transparent allusions to drugs until the next lyric lends the scene color, recasting it in a kind of shrapnel grey: "Brut and charisma / poured from the shadow where he stood." The narrative, before a deranged and incomplete puzzle, experiences poetry, which deepens the song and gives it three dimensions. The mingling of concrete and abstract detail in "State of Grace" reminds me most immediately, of all things, of Steely Dan: how Donald Fagen and Walter Becker would introduce an image to their songs that could change the entire character of a story. The Epic Ballads That the World's Listening to, From Chile to Thailand But Swift brings intricate craft to seemingly simple pop about the teenage experience. There's a critical and cultural bias against artists like Swift, whose bright, booming production and songs about ex-boyfriends can seem juvenile and unserious. On her new, fourth album, Red-which moved a decade-record-setting million copies last week-the 22-year-old seems to have picked up a few techniques from classic, acclaimed masters of narrative rock and roll. Swift, an underrated and overselling pop-country songwriter, has been getting better and better at telling stories through song. They have a similar effect on the music itself for "State of Grace," intensifying and unlocking it: Swift's delivery enters a kind of double time, the drums become varied and alive, and the guitars spin bright webs. "We are alone, just you and me / up in your room and our slates are clean / just twin fire signs / four blue eyes." Those are the kind of details that detach from a narrative and stretch over it like clouds, casting shadows that introduce nuance. Swift, though sounding more confident and focused than ever, lingers in abstraction and cliché for a verse: "We fall in love 'til it hurts or bleeds / or fades in time."īut then something happens: She gets writerly. The percussion-near-ponderous, seemingly pulled from a mammoth rock record-lopes along the guitars ease in and flutter U2-like. ![]() Taylor Swift's new album opens with heaving drums and vague lyrics.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |