Champagne Symphony

Songwriting genius usually lasts only a few years.  Take the greatest songwriters of all time, Paul McCartney and John Lennon. They couldn't write a bad song from 1965-1969.  Afterwards, they couldn't even manage another half dozen. Or Eminem. He had the greatest run in rap history from 1999-2002.  Since then, his music output has been almost entirely crap. There are some exceptions.  For example, Bono of U2 wrote great songs at a steady clip from 1984 all the way to 2004.  Unfortunately, Taylor Swift is not one of them.  Over the past half decade, she's had the best run in country music history.  That run ends here.  That's not so say Red is a bad album.  It's not. It's a very good adult pop album. It's just that the genius isn't there anymore. There's no " Teardrops on My Guitar ," no " Love Story ," no " Back to December ."  The best we get is "Begin Again" and "The Lucky One."  Both of them are ...

Music's been pretty disappointing recently, so, I figure, why not take a look back.  I recently put together a playlist of songs that I feel are absolutely essential.  I'm gonna put that playlist on shuffle, list the 10 songs that come up, and write a sentence or so on each song just for a bit of background.  Maybe I'll turn this into a regular thing if it ends up being interesting. The Smashing Pumpkins - 1979 - The greatest song by one of the great 90's bands.  A sweet, unpretentious bit of nostalgia, very much like The Beatles' In My Life. Jay-Z - Dead Presidents II - This is the standout track on Jay-Z's Reasonable Doubt, the album that he built his reputation on.  His lyrics have never been more literate and complex than they are here. Mylo - Sunworshipper - This song's a forgotten classic.  It's the sonic equivalent of a perfect, peaceful sunrise. Tyler, The Creator - Yonkers - A brilliant beat with some very interesting rapping.  The vi...

So Taylor Swift's just put out the title track from her upcoming album Red.  It's a generic dance pop number that sounds like a limp version of Mariah Carey's Obsessed .  It makes the cute but ultimately mediocre We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together Again sound like a masterstroke.  Why would she resort to doing songs like this? She clearly hasn't lost her touch. Ronan , which she put out a few weeks ago, is absolutely brilliant. Hiring outside writers to make dance pop songs is just wrong for so many reasons. She's already one of the greatest songwriters of our time.  Sure, she's not the best, but I can count on one hand the number of people better than her (Drake, Kanye West, Kele Okereke of Bloc Party, Caleb Followill of Kings of Leon, and Matt Berninger of The National). There's no reason to hire help when you're already so damn good at what you do. Dance pop is completely saturated. There's Kesha, Katy Perry, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, Ellie...