Straight White Man Reviews Taylor Swift #14

Phewf... this one's rough. Not only is this the only TV that's worse than the OG... it's worse by a LONGSHOT. I mean, she messed up style, the perfect pop song. HOW DO YOU EVEN MANAGE TO DO THAT??? Songs like the new version of Welcome To New York, which just sounds bad on the ears and obnoxiously loud compared to the understated nature of the original song, Shake It Off, which is another example of poor mixing on the instrumental front here, New ... read more

Straight White Man Reviews Taylor Swift #13

Wow ok this thing is so head and shoulders above the original. The original felt like Hallmark-core country pop. It was... fine, had a few great moments, but generally felt very sterile and Taylor's voice felt too, idk, like a vocalist from one of those feel-good commercials or something? But here, the minor improvements made make pretty much every single instrumental better PLUS Taylor's voice sounds so much more organic and better on this one. ... read more

Straight White Man Reviews Taylor Swift #12

Starting with the negatives: this version of Enchanted is marginally worse than the OG, most likely due to Taylor's vocals being more aged. I feel like her being older does give quite a few songs a much needed sense of maturity, though Enchanted does feel neutered in losing its adolescent charm; similar sentiments shroud The Story of Us and Better Than Revenge, which I already didn't enjoy initially. Otherwise, the rest of the tracks are either on ... read more

Straight White Man Reviews Taylor Swift #11

It's honestly kind of incredible how much of an improvement this is over the original despite not changing up too much. While I'm still not too huge on many of these compositions, Taylor's voice has improved by leaps and bounds in the decade-plus since she released the original Fearless allowing many songs to become a lot more bearable. All the TV's of tracks off the OG record are improvements and Fifteen is actually now one of my favorites here. ... read more

Straight White Man Reviews Taylor Swift #10

Midnights is largely a hodgepodge of half-baked and incredibly devoid of personality tracks that feel incredibly underwhelming coming straight off the cuffs of Taylor's sister folk albums, two of the most front-to-back exciting records in her catalog. While occasionally decent in moments like the incredibly catchy Anti-Hero or the somewhat aimless though nonetheless pretty pristine Sweet Nothings, the one-dimensional and dingy aesthetic of the whole ... read more

Straight White Man Reviews Taylor Swift #9

Nice, nice, nice; not quite as good as folklore but still quite pleasant. Going into this I was afraid that it would just be a bunch of folklore leftover and it is... until about track 6. As much as I enjoy willow, it definitely just feels like a cut track from folklore- as does the rest of the first five tracks on this record. But once you hit no body no crime, a no-frills take on Americana featuring none other than HAIM, the record definitely gets ... read more

Straight White Man Reviews Taylor Swift #8

Nothing that's gonna blow the socks off anyone who's familiar with a lot of this type of folk music but hey, it's still pretty solid and very pleasant to listen to. It has Taylor's best songwriting to date, most mature soundscapes, a good hunk of it is comprised of drop-dead gorgeous folk ballads, a bon iver duet, Aaron Dessner producing the whole thing, and, of course, betty- nothing else has to be said about that track. Usually when mainstream ... read more

Straight White Man Reviews Taylor Swift #7

Taylor basically says "fuck that goofy-ass dark shit" as she transitions from reputation to Lover; a definite return to form for Taylor at this point in her career. Lover has some amazing moments, however, feels a bit bloated too. On top of this, Lover was definitely a transitional moment in Swift's career. It's Taylor going back to the synth/electropop bliss that made 1989 so enjoyable on the bulk of this record with some of her brightest ... read more

Straight White Man Reviews Taylor Swift #6

Despite not being as atrocious as I anticipated, reputation is still pretty bad. Following a string of (kind of?) controversy with the whole Kanye Famous video thing and people getting mad at her for winning AOTY at the Grammys, Taylor sheds her usual persona in favor of a more rebellious "bad girl" one. Knowing a few singles off this one, I expected obvious poor and rushed writing that tries to be "edgy" from Taylor on the bulk of ... read more

Straight White Man Reviews Taylor Swift #5

Iconic, iconic, and iconic. On my initial listen, I really only thought it was the hit singles that stood out to me- I mean, no one can deny Style or Wildest Dreams- but honestly, a good chunk of the deep cuts get incredibly underappreciated. You have some misses (like How You Get The Girl which suffers from boring verse syndrome) but nothing terrible. On top of the obvious picks for my favorites (like Style, Blank Space, and Wildest Dreams), This ... read more

Straight White Man Reviews Taylor Swift #4

Taylor's first forte into pop, dipping her toes into it while also staying true to her country pop/folk pop/pop rock style (a bit heartland rock tinged this time around too) for the bulk of this record. The three pop hits here aren't that good for the most part- 22 is still a banger but the dubstep drop of I Knew You Were Trouble ruins the cut and i never really cared for We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together. Where this record really strives is ... read more

Straight White Man Reviews Taylor Swift #3

Speak Now IS by a landslide the best record from Taylor's pre-pop days. The more sprawling nature of some of these cuts, alongside their gritty and somewhat alt-rock-influenced nature, help deviate many of them from the horde of otherwise generic and soulless country pop of the 2000s. That being said, Taylor still struggles as a songwriter. Though the Disney fairytale style of writing works well with some songs like Enchanted and Haunted, songs that ... read more

Straight White Man Reviews Taylor Swift #2

A bit of an improvement over her debut, but not that much. The highs here are higher and more widespread, and the lows here are less excruciatingly dull. That being said, it still does kinda feel like Taylor was painting herself into a corner as an artist from the get-go. If she didn't switch things up quickly and veer toward a more straightforward pop direction or go into the slightly more distinctive and gritty sound which she explored on Speak Now, ... read more

Straight White Man Reviews Taylor Swift #1

For the most part, Taylor Swift's self-titled debut is a big steaming hunk of generic and incredibly by-the-numbers country pop. Beginning recording immediately following the end of her freshman year of high school, I don't want to spend too much on this record as it's clearly just an amateurish and boring record made by a fifteen-year-old with little direction- Taylor herself clearly doesn't even care about it that much as she skipped over it when ... read more

The vibes of this album are immaculate. Mindblowingly atmospheric, catchy, and eclectic alt R&B that both harkens back to the club floors of the 2000s and sounds like it comes from 30 years in the future. A beautiful collage of some of the year's most nocturnal soundscapes that works best as a front-to-back experience. Handily Kelela's best work to date and a really gorgeous record overall. From the inclusion of breakneck breakbeat drums on many cuts and the washed-out rap feature from ... read more

Catchy, spontaneous, gritty, aesthetically cohesive through and through- this is Paramore's best record. The post-punk revival sound really suits the band well; better than the New Wavey After Laughter or the Alt Rock of Brand New Eyes, honestly. If you're looking for a record where you're gonna have your brain melted by a shit ton of insane genre fusions and out-there ideas, probably not the record for you. However, if you're looking for some jumpy, contagious, and endlessly fun record with ... read more

Blah blah blah "ooooo yachty dropped a rock album" MAGDALENA BAY PRODUCTION ON A MAINSTREAM RECORD WE REALLY OUT HERE WINNING!!! But seriously, cannot be understated how far and away better this record is than everything Yachty's done since Lil Boat 1 (even if I personally didn't fully dislike that Detroit Trap record from 2020). Punchy psych rock that pulls from a wide array of genres and makes a record that absolutely nobody could have seen coming from Yacht. This thing's all over ... read more

what houdanny said

Genres: Jungle
Secondaries: Atmospheric Drum and Bass, Drumfunk
Playlist Adds: Tidal Waves, Ambien Sequence, Switch Up The Patterns
Worst Track: Demolition

hmmmm well looks like i'm pressing the reset button on this account

Deleted all the old reviews on here (what few of them I had) and am planning on reviving this account. Gonna mostly be putting down a couple sentences about records I want to talk about but won't get the time of day to discuss on my main account (a man only has so much free time to write detailed reviews about records). I don't really wanna clog up that account with short "you should listen to this" posts on albums ... read more