Saturday, October 23, 2010

AND SHE CAN'T EVEN DRINK LEGALLY YET: The days of mega-debuts on the Billboard album chart seem over, with the biggest selling opening week this week going to Eminem's Recovery, with just under 750k sold. (In contrast, NSync's No Strings Attached sold nearly 2.5M copies just in its first week.) That said, given the media frenzy (OMG! Which song is about Taylor Lautner?), I could see Taylor Swift's Speak Now, which arrives on Tuesday, opening close to a million. The album will ship double platinum--2M copies, and first single Mine sold nearly 300K digital downloads in its opening week (it's now just over 1.1M downloads), with the title track having accumulated 217K downloads in its opening week despite limited non-country radio play. Fearless opened just under 600K, on its way to over 6M copies sold, so it's not that big of a leap, and between the Grammys, the Kanye incident, and general mainstream pop crossover, I think it's very very possible.

20 comments:

  1. Joseph Finn12:02 AM

    But is the album any good?

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  2. Reviews are generally mixed to favorable thus far, especially given that Swift wrote the entire album on her own (or is at least credited as such).  Yes, the Kanye apology song is pretty much awful, but "Mine" is a nice piece of country-pop candy.

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  3. gretchen7:07 PM

    I think Mine is actually really great -- I love the line "You made a rebel of a careless man's careful daughter."  It gives you so much story with such economy of words. 

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  4. FWIW, I'll almost certainly buy the album in physical form later this week, probably at the same time I pick up Rock Band 3 and the Keyboard Controller.

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  5. I did, finally succumb to buying the first two TS albums.  (Both through Amazon's MP3 store on super sale.  Between the $5 pricing and a $3 coupon code, I got them both for $7.  Well worth the money, I thought.)  I was listening to them last week, and you know, they are good albums.  She has a bit of a tendency to use certain romantic images over again---in particular, she seems way too eager to have someone carry her up the stairs---but the songs overall do hold up.  She also seems to have a way with a good hook.

    Personally, I'm rooting for Amazon MP3 to have the CD as its Tuesday super-deal of the day, which would mean pricing between $1.99 and $3.99.  It would amuse me if I managed to acquire the entire TS oeuvre for under $10 total.

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  6. gretchen10:41 AM

    She's also invested in slamming screen doors, wearing dresses in the rain, and what daddy is going to think.  But I really like her music -- her song Fifteen is perhaps one of my all time favorites.

    Jenn, what do you think about the new Sugarland CD?

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  7. Ah, yes.  Wearing dresses in the rain is huge.  [As for favorite songs of hers, I do quite like Our Song, but I'd point to White Horse as her best song.  Also, Kelly Clarkson does a great cover of it.  Worth hunting down on the internets.]

    Actually, I've downloaded the new Sugarland CD but keep forgetting to put it on my ipod to listen to at work.  Whether my failure of memory has anything to do with lurking concerns based on some reviews that I've seen is not clear.

    What do you think of it?

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  8. I haven't bought the Sugarland album yet, and I think it's because of the lurking concerns based both on the reviews and also my personal confusion over Stuck Like Glue. (Which vacillates between a pretty clear I hate this, to a maybe I actually kind of dig this, back to I am pretty sure I hate this with an occasional pause at - what the hell is she doing? Is this a Jamaican rap?  I think I hate that.  But I might like it.)

    Please advise once you listen!

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  9. I have had that exact same word choice thought. I love that line. There are many examples of good word choice in her work, which is what makes it difficult to really argue with her songwriting skills.

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  10. Genevieve1:18 PM

    My husband loves that song for exactly that line.  It's terrific.
    Cheryl Klein (children's book editor) had a great post analyzing this song line by line:
    http://chavelaque.blogspot.com/2010/09/genius-of-taylor-swift-and-ramble-about.html

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  11. Genevieve1:26 PM

    I'm really liking Stuck Like Glue (thanks Jenn!).

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  12. gretchen3:03 PM

    I listened to the whole album once and generally liked it, but nothing stuck like glue in my head.  I had the same love/hate/love/what is going on reaction to Stuck Like Glue, though I think I've settled on "love this."  And I do love the beat behind Incredible Machine.  Definitely different for Sugarland, but I think I like it.

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  13. Jenn.3:10 PM

    I did end up liking Stuck Like Glue, and I also appreciate that, unlike some other big-voiced singers, Jennifer Nettles doesn't feel the need to beat everyone over the head in every song with her range and power. 

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  14. bella wilfer4:03 PM

    COMPLETELY agree re: the love/hate/love to Stuck Like Glue.  I even like the weird Jamaican rap part.  Though at first I hated it.  As for Taylor Swift, I cannot wait for the new CD, and I think it's really interesting that the song that's getting all the press (at least IMO) is the "F you, John Mayer" one.  Somewhere, Taylor Lautner is sending Mr. Mayer a thank you note.

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  15. Heather K5:39 PM

    and matt just figured out what I am getting my fiancee for christmas--the rock band 3 keyboard/game bundle.

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  16. Since my earlier posts I did acquire the new Swift CD (for my daughter, of course) and I have to say that after one full listening it's definitely not going to satisfy the folks who really wanted it to bomb.  There are some fine songs there. So far the F-You John Mayer song is my favorite. It's a good song.

    I think my daughter might also need Incredible Machine.

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  17. Jenn.9:58 PM

    Heh, Leo.  I would say that I would add "Excuse to buy music" onto the "reasons to have kids" side of my ledger, but to be honest, I just simply buy whatever music I want.

    Oh, and Speak Now just went on sale for $3.99 at Amazon MP3.  What?  I told y'all I was watching.

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  18. gretchen10:09 AM

    Jenn, when you buy off AmazonMP3, do you just download into iTunes or do you use another program?

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  19. The Amazon MP3 downloader will download straight to itunes.  I think that it will also download to other programs, but as itunes is the probram that I use, I've never explored that.

    Listening to Sugarland now.  I'm on the fourth song (Tonight), which I don't like, but I liked everything before it, and particularly liked Incredible Machine, to my surprise.

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  20. Jenn.4:06 PM

    Tentative conclusion:  I like but don't love Sugarland's Incredible Machine.  Still trying to figure out whether it's simply that the CD is different than I expected when I first heard that a new Sugarland CD was coming out, or whether I just don't like it as much as I'd have hoped.  I may just love the song "Incredible Machine," though.

    TS's Speak Now is actually pretty strong, I think.  Plenty of catchiness to the songs.  Well worth four bucks.

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