Siskel and Ebert on Taylor Swift’s new album
I know it’s only been ten days, but it seems a lot longer
I don’t often read reviews of music albums, with one big exception. When I find myself utterly ecstatic and in love with a new album or find myself completely despising a new album, sometimes I wonder… is it just me?
Siskel and Ebert sidebar
When I do find myself reading entertainment reviews, I'm often reminded of Siskel and Ebert.
For those that don’t know, Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert had a show on PBS for 25 years where they reviewed the latest movies, until Siskel died in 1999, years before Taylor Swift’s first album. They were such different people, almost complete opposites in some ways, which made it entertaining even if you didn’t care about the movies.
I was a teenager at the time, so I had extreme opinions, but I always adored Roger Ebert, a sentiment that persisted later in life. And I really disliked Gene Siskel. To me, he was the stereotypical film snob. The one who had all sorts of expectations about how movies should be, how plots should unfold, and how various genres should be represented. I found it stifling. Roger Ebert, on the other hand, seemed to have more of a beginner’s mind and was more interested in being entertained. He valued movies that were really out there, that broke the mould. If a movie made him laugh or feel something new, he loved it.
Back to Taylor Swift
So, I’m not historically a Taylor Swift fan, but like many people, I “discovered” her with the release of Folklore during COVID. Previously, she was in the “pop star” bucket that I purposely ignored, because I can be a snob like Gene Siskel. But I read a story about how she released this surprise album, and it basically broke the internet. I had to find out what the heck was going on.
And I was hooked from the first song. I don’t think I listened to anything else for several months.
After that, I started listening to older albums, found a lot that I liked, and continued to listen to new albums as they came out. But Folklore and Evermore, the follow-on album that was in the same vein, remained tops. I found her 2024 album (The Tortured Poets Department) to be especially disappointing, and felt like maybe the whole thing had run its course.
But this new album (The Life of a Showgirl) has really grabbed me and refuses to let me go. One song, which I’m embarrassed to say is called Wi$hli$t, has really become one of my all-time favourites. After listening to it for 10 days straight now, I took a break and listened to Folklore/Evermore again and I’m thinking this might have exceeded those.
I can’t say that I feel her musical accompaniment is anything special or that her lyrics really grab me. I can’t even really say that I think she has an amazing voice. However, I feel like she has invented some of the most clever and unique vocal melodies I’ve heard, and that’s really the reason I think she’s unique. Some artists might have a couple of clever vocal lines on an album if they’re lucky, but I feel that Taylor Swift sometimes has several per song. This is probably why Folklore was such a perfect entry point for me, as it was a stripped-down album that was mostly just her vocal melodies.
Reading the reviews
Since I’ve been in this little Taylor Swift new album bubble for a few weeks, I was curious how the album was being received.
After reading a few reviews, I was back to thinking about Siskel and Ebert. Most of the bad reviews sounded like Gene Siskel back from the grave. It was all about expectations. How should a late-career album from a 35-year-old billionaire who is engaged to a football star sound? What should the lyrics be like? It felt like the negative reviews were loaded with all these expectations about how the album should be, and then it was compared with how it actually was and found lacking.
Then I found a review that sounded like Roger Ebert back from the grave. From Rolling Stone magazine, this review gave the album five stars. While acknowledging the existence of her incredibly successful career, they also decided that it was simply a great album. There was nothing in there about what the album should have been like.
Addendum
Roger Ebert died in 2013, only getting to enjoy Taylor Swift’s country career, her crossover albums, and the very beginnings of her becoming the pop star she is today. I wonder what he thought of her.