I would not have made an open thread if I thought the song was bad, but I like it.1 I was sort of expecting a sad ballad, and instead I was very happy to discover that, for me, it’s “I Think He Knows (Yee Haw Harmonica Version).” As maybe the world’s only “I Think He Knows” superfan, this pleases me. Furthermore, as one of the few and the proud who has never turned on Mr. Jack Antonoff, whose name is respected in this house,2 I am also vindicated by this song being 1) good 2) totally different 3) proving once and for all that the Swedes should have been left in the past.
Some other thoughts:
I don’t know what the name is of the thing she does at the end of the verses (on “leaving those days behind” etc) but I love it.
I feel like there’s a level of… chaos…? in this song that is actually new for her—a lot going on in the instrumental, the song itself moves fast without giving you much of a chance to breathe. I don’t think “chaos” is the right term. I would be psyched to get more of this sound on TS13.
Love it when her voice gets a lil squeaky… one of my favorite features of her live acoustic performances and it’s nice to hear on a studio recording.
Relistening, I think what I mean by “chaos” is actually “saxophones.”
Really the main thing I wish is that it was like thirty seconds longer. That said, “I Think He Knows” is shorter and “Cruel Summer” is exactly this length… I’m just used to her songs being longer.
Is this the first ever potentially good movie for which Taylor has written a song?3
What’s up with that?
Did like… her mom read Where the Crawdads Sing for a book club or something?
These questions keep me up at night.
This is a sort of unimportant thing but one day I would enjoy hearing Taylor record a studio track with her actual backup singers doing the backup instead of layering her own voice. They’re good and they’ve been with her such a long time… I just Think It Would Be Neat.
Anyway: have fun, play nice, I’ll pop in later! Also, what is even left to happen in Toy Story? I tapped out at movie number three.
Another single I was looking forward to this Friday was Tinashe’s. I would enjoy a Taynashe collab, personally.… Anyway—this one is definitely too short.
Obviously you can disagree.
Famesick remains on hold at the library.
I never watched The Hunger Games.
other thought: this song is basically the emotional journey my dog goes through whenever I leave the house… "it's been a while" sir it's been ten minutes I just went to get the mail
I really like this song and I am also a "I Think He Knows" superfan. We few, we two.
"Crawdads" seems to me like a book TS would really like, tbh - she described her ideal novel on Colbert and I feel like it was kind of something Crawdads-adjacent, like, girl-oriented gothic crime/reckoning with past type of deal.