The spirit of the film shape-shifts along with the tone, conjuring a realness that balances the Ghibli dramatics with a taste of Miyazaki’s (and our) world.
Where the original 2010 release was glittery and girlish, characterized by tentative adulthood and budding maturity, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) feels polished and self-aware, heavy with nostalgia and hindsight in a way that Swift’s previous re-recordings haven’t.
Someone has to have salted skin. It’s always the first lesson.
I’m in the right corner, the center; my head disappears and is replaced with my knees in intervals. Two beats of silence.
Echoing the existentialism of her 2020 collection, Sweetdark, and that which characterizes much of her work outside of it, Brown pushes theory into the world of palpable, close subjects, rendering Closer Baby Closer a hushed portrayal of the private workings of a love-remembering mind.
i try not to think / of the air right through his teeth / that two hours ago might / have been funny, but now we’re wanting a/c / on our tattoo-heavy / bodies
In the interest of no longer caring for you, I’ve gone a long time without telling people I’m married to you. I announced divorce to a witness, just for good measure.
Swift has always made music that is upbeat, pop-leaning and lyrically straightforward — even kitschy at times — and her tenth album is in part a return to this style. But Midnights is gentler, more intimate and velvety, than any of her past work.
I learned how to name my emotions and how to call them in: on our daily walks in the neighborhood, a particularly pretty patch of clouds and sun could later bring me to tears thinking about how much I loved and was grateful for the moment.
Bring the neighbor’s cat inside, let her watch the crickets out of the corner of her eye.