Tag: Florence + the Machine

Happy Release Day to Taylor Swift and The Tortured Poets Department

Album cover for Taylor Swift’s 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department

It’s been a long time coming…

But we finally get to hear The Tortured Poets Department, Taylor Swift’s highly anticipated 11th studio album, which she announced the night she won the Grammy for Album of the Year for Midnights earlier this year.

Everyone knows I’m a massive Swiftie. I was fortunate enough to see Miss Americana on her record-breaking Eras Tour in both Nashville and Cincinnati (VIP floor seats for Nashville, lower bowl for Cincinnati), and they were two of the most transformative experiences of my life so far.

That said, I already own like 16 copies of this album that I’ve not even heard a teaser of (I am writing this on March 23rd, 2024) because you know I had to buy every single variant: The Manuscript, The Bolter, The Albatross, and The Black Dog. And each of them came in vinyl, CD, and cassette formats. So, I’ve spent roughly $300 or more on this album and I am not anywhere near approaching rich. I’m paycheck to paycheck, so this album had better deliver. But I know it will. I’m afraid it might dethrone folklore as my favorite Swift album.

My first clue that that might be the case was the song titles, of course. I mean, “Clara Bow”? As in, THE Clara Bow, the silent film siren who successfully transitioned into talkies in the late 20s. The woman who Taylor has been subtly Easter-egging into different pieces of content? Honey, I’m a child of TCM and I am ready for this album. I saw a lot of people on Twitter (ain’t no such thing as X) already claiming what they think their favorite songs will be, so I was and am obliged to do the same. “Clara Bow” belongs to me.

I will post reactions to my first listen-through ASAP, I promise you.

Thanks as always for being a faithful reader of The Voracious Bibliophile. If you like what you see, please like, comment, follow, and subscribe to my email list to get notified of new posts as soon as they drop. You can also email me at fred.slusher@thevoraciousbibliophile.com or catch me on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest @voraciousbiblog. Keep reading the world, one page (or pixel) at a time.

What I’ve Been Listening To

Anyone who’s been reading this blog for any amount of time knows that while I’m a physical, tangible media kind of a dude, I’m also on the go a lot. I have a portable handheld cassette player but it’s cumbersome to carry around more than one cassette at any given time to play in it. I’m also very careful, gentle, and anal-retentive with all of my belongings so I don’t relish the thought of my cassettes (or any of my belongings, for that matter) being exposed to the elements and/or being jostled in my purse.

That said, I tend to carry around just one book at a time (zipped in my purse carefully or protected in a padded book sleeve) and listen to music on my phone via Apple Music. Please note that I’m aware that in the current zeitgeist Spotify reigns supreme while Apple Music, much like Facebook, is for oldsters. I don’t care. I like to look at my Replay every week to see which songs I’ve had on repeat, some of them the whole year long. I wanted to share them here so you can see just how unhinged my listening habits truly are.

Top 5 Songs

#1: Innocent (Taylor’s Version) by Taylor Swift (64 plays)

#2: Violet Chemistry by Miley Cyrus (54 plays)

#3: Choreomania by Florence + the Machine (46 plays)

#4: Thousand Miles (feat. Brandi Carlile) (38 plays)

#5: Used To Be Young by Miley Cyrus (36 plays)

Top 5 Artists

#1: Taylor Swift (4,325 minutes)

#2: Lana Del Rey (2,034 minutes)

#3: Miley Cyrus (776 minutes)

#4: Florence + the Machine (428 minutes)

#5: Halsey (335 minutes)

Top 5 Albums

#1: Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) by Taylor Swift (203 plays)

#2: Midnights (The Til Dawn Edition) by Taylor Swift (188 plays)

#3: Endless Summer Vacation by Miley Cyrus (136 plays)

#4: Midnights (3am Edition) by Taylor Swift (121 plays)

#5: folklore (deluxe version) by Taylor Swift (108 plays)

Two things of note I want to point out. One, there are two different versions of Midnights in my top five. That’s 309 plays on Apple Music alone. That doesn’t count all the times I’ve listened to the album on any other format. Can I quote it by heart? Yes. Do I think it should win Album of the Year at the Grammys? Absolutely! Midnights supremacy.

The second thing is that Miley Cyrus’s song Used To Be Young was just released on August 25th and it’s already in my top five most-played songs of the current calendar year. That song is resonating with me. I mean, I’m not nostalgic about a youth spent basking in an endless bacchanalia because that wasn’t ever my reality. I spent my youth working my way through school and now just working, endlessly. Am I still young? I guess I am, by most conventional definitions. I’m 27, but I feel hundreds of years old. Like a vampire. I have high blood pressure and diabetes and asthma and I live 95-plus percent of my life in a 5-mile radius. But enough with the self-pity. It’s just a really good song.

Anyway, here’s the link to my Replay 2023: Apple Music for Fred. Enjoy!

Thanks as always for being a faithful reader of The Voracious Bibliophile. If you like what you see, please like, comment, follow, and subscribe to my email list to get notified of new posts as soon as they drop. You can also email me at fred.slusher@thevoraciousbibliophile.com or catch me on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest @voraciousbiblog. Keep reading the world, one page (or pixel) at a time.