Member Since: 11/17/2011
Posts: 52,363
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Quote:
Katherine St Asaph:*Pop songs about friendship are surprisingly rare, and pop songs about friendship breakups might be*stunningly*so; I’m a pile of feelings and lost friendships who can’t get through “Postcards” without tearing up, but surely wider audiences might find these relatable too. Swift, as always, delivers relatability via tales of the stars, but the Katy Perry “diss” in “Bad Blood” — splattered through the press, then the video in full splattervision — is perhaps overstated. All celebrity “feuds” are inherently suspect, and at any rate*her*name was once rumored*as the surprise guest, which would’ve been something, if not*something unprecedented. As a narrative, though, it’s canny; it plays right to the stans, ensuring that any criticism of the song outs you as Team Katy, which in “Bad Blood”‘s case is convenient. The biggest difference between Pop Taylor and Country Taylor is that while Country Taylor faltered for sounding too hyperpolished, Pop Taylor*thrives*on polish, without which she sounds*sloppy,*ungainly*or, as here, lopsided. Kendrick is enough of a get that he’s given huge swaths of the remix, which makes Swift’s already-thin songwriting sound even thinner. Some parts work, like Taylor massing dozens more unison Taylors around her vocals like a cloud of retweets, but the melody leans harshly on each line end, each syllable taking up three spots: “you made a really deep*cut,” “take a look what you’ve*done.” Not only does it draw attention to underwritten lyrics (every time the chorus rolls around I half-expect “we have*bad blood, it used to be*good blood“), as an effect it suggests — and I don’t think this is projection — unprocessed thoughts, petty spite. As feelings, those are fine, no one expects you to coddle thy enemies; as a song, it’s nothing I have use for.*
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Out of all the tracks on 1989 it will age the best
Hideous one of the worst vocalists of our times 
Like a lot. No exaggeration.