Tag Archives: Asylum

by

Song of the Day #5,785: ‘The Black Dog’ – Taylor Swift

Continuing the tracklist of my version of Taylor Swift’s latest album…

Taylor Swift’s Asylum
Track #2: ‘The Black Dog’

When I first heard this song, the opener of the second half of The Tortured Poets Department, I immediately thought it was better than most of the “official” album. So I’m giving it a prime spot in my Asylum edit.

The chorus of ‘The Black Dog’ owes a bit too much to the excellent ‘Betty,’ but I really like the turn it takes at the end with the “old habits die screaming” line, giving a jolt of energy to a batch of songs that are often quite sleepy.

Continue reading →

by

Song of the Day #5,784: ‘The Bolter’ – Taylor Swift

The release of a highly anticipated album by a major artist is cause for celebration in these parts. And those album drops typically result in a countdown of my favorite tracks (as with Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter last month) or even a song-by-song dissection (as with Lana Del Rey’s Did you know that there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd last year).

Taylor Swift’s latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, has been a trickier prospect. For one thing, the album — after the surprise 2 a.m. drop of its unpublicized second half — features 31 tracks and runs for more than two hours. And while I’m not categorically opposed to turning a month and a half over to one album, I don’t relish the idea either.

Continue reading →