POP SONG REVIEW: "The Fate of Ophelia" by Taylor Swift
Added 2025-10-28 04:04:51 +0000 UTCHere's a video.
Please vote in the Song vs. Song poll. Tiny bit more obscure, "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone" by Paula Cole vs. "Sunny Came Home" by Shawn Colvin. "https://www.patreon.com/posts/new-poll-sunny-141986224
Please correct my errors.
Comments
I still can't believe Rolling Stone gave this five stars. Like I know they're constant sell outs but COME ON
Jackson S.
2025-10-31 12:17:06 +0000 UTCI would love a full album review of this one. I've been a fan of Taylor's since I heard Mean. I've disliked plenty of her stuff over the years, but always enjoyed at least a few songs every album, so I listened to this album 3 times trying to find anything I could like about it. Nothing. Now I've got a ton of songs I don't like stuck in my head
Francesca Belle
2025-10-30 00:46:48 +0000 UTCisn’t saying that she would have experienced opelia’s fate without meeting travis a comparison between her and ophelia?
Celeste Romero
2025-10-30 00:10:07 +0000 UTCI don’t really like the disingenuous interpretation of this song that she’s saying she’s Ophelia or comparing herself to Ophelia, she’s just saying she was saved from a fate similar to hers. I’ve heard people say this misunderstand Ophelia’s character as she was a victim of misogyny and couldn’t be saved by a man which is a bit hilarious to me as it pretends as though Shakespeare was some feminist.
Barnabus
2025-10-29 16:11:01 +0000 UTCI'm glad someone else sees that film as overrated, it had the most obnoxious green-messaging i've ever seen, it makes Captain Planet look downright subtle by comparison.
RedBedroomRecords
2025-10-29 05:52:17 +0000 UTCI like him way more then Matt Healy, I always despised the 1975, found their music to be pretentious nonsense and Healy's quasi-racism turned me off to him and I was glad when Swift left him.
RedBedroomRecords
2025-10-29 05:43:53 +0000 UTChonestly for me it's too milquetoast to inspire much anger, you want an album that REALLY pisses you off-try listening to Tones and I-Welcome to the Madhouse, that's an album that feels like it was scientifically formulated to piss you off.
RedBedroomRecords
2025-10-29 05:40:38 +0000 UTCreminds me of how Rick Ross confused Expedia with Wikipedia
RedBedroomRecords
2025-10-29 05:39:27 +0000 UTCPokemon comparison seems apt, especially given the massive backlash to Legends ZA and how little effort was put into it.
RedBedroomRecords
2025-10-29 05:37:50 +0000 UTCThank you finally someone else who thinks Avatar is massively overrated, if it wasn't for the 3-D nobody would've given two shits about the movie, and Cameron's frankly disrespectful attitude has really soured me even more on the series, I hope the next few movies flop. As for this album, I think it's fine, I honestly prefer it over the last one, some weird lyrics but i've heard FAR worse, like i'd still gladly listen to this over anything MGK or Post Malone ever did. Ophelia is an alright song, it's like that New Age music they play in the malls, does not really inspire extreme love or hate, just kind of in the middle.
RedBedroomRecords
2025-10-29 05:35:56 +0000 UTCThat was an absolutely killer episode.
Tashlin Familiy
2025-10-29 04:58:51 +0000 UTCGreat vid, you are back alright and you've been missed. What a song too The verses have the cadence of Lana del Ray (or at least Summertime Sadness) to me but very bouncy chorus, it's Def odd. I feel like a lot of these songs she was trying to do other people's thing, be it the bits of this that sounded like summertime sadness or how her attempt to be cutely sexual just sounded weak when we've already had Sabrina Carpenter doing it better. Oh well.
Deegcakes
2025-10-29 03:19:59 +0000 UTCincredible nailed it
Creamer
2025-10-29 00:32:22 +0000 UTCI appreciate the nuance displayed in this, and I don't even hate the album, but honestly, you could have began and ended this with the post you showed at 4:18 We were promised an album full of bops in a year where we *desperately* need them, and at most it has... Three bops, and that's being generous and including this song. A theatrical concept, the presence of Max Martin and Shellback, and all we get is this. I think it's been lost in the larger discourse because people were ready to have their knives out for Taylor at this point, and we have to talk about her like we talk about no other person who has ever existed. Frankly, I'm impressed Sabrina was able to come to the studio to record the title track, after being crushed by the weight of carrying mainstream pop this year Also Way of Water rules, for shame
The Hand Of The People
2025-10-28 22:31:30 +0000 UTCI get Todd's point in comparing how Taylor Swift connects to something like Avatar but to me that connection feels faulty for a couple of reasons. 1. Though there are some very very VERY dedicated fans who love the franchise for it's lore and characters even a lot of the most diehard ones will fully copt to just loving the visuals and look of that world on the big screen that captures something majestic to them and then maybe attaching ideals and characters to that later. Like my sister is a huge die hard fan of Avatar but even she will admit it's because of how pretty she thinks it is not because of liking having major attachment to Jake or Nefretiti as people. And yeah even in 2009/2010 when Taylor Swift was her most shallow I don't think you can just say even to average fans she just skirted by so heavily on 90% appeal. You need to have a really REALLY different kind of style for that as a pop star or be presentable as more hollow like say Katy Perry for instance. Taylor Swift was so successful then for how she spoke to a certain generation and continues finding new ones to this day that really stick to her. And you especially can't really compare the two since 2. No matter how good her next Album would have been or having the same flavor but with more extended drama due to the long gap between them, it would NOT be a hit if Taylor Swift went 13 years after dropping "Fearless". Like even if Life of the Showgirl was considered a beloved title it wouldn't be doing anywhere near the numbers if it was such a huge gap because that's not the kind of artist Taylor is. Granted in the music industry I don't know who could get away with having a 13 year gap between albums and you know even in the movie industry that's pretty rare but it's pretty clear because of how beloved that visual appeal is Avatar was able to do that. T-Swizzle wouldn't of. So who would I have personally compared her to? Pokemon.... No seriously think about it. - They do have a specific appeal that at first seems limited to though a very specific demographic it's also a profitable enough where you can really make a name for yourself just aiming for that niche. - They both have also evolved and changed over time in different ways and though have gone through controversies and low points are still massive franchises everyone knows and because though their core is still the same there are unique gimmicks there is an expanded age bracket beyond what was initially presented even if that now includes those who have grown up with them. - They constantly update at least every few years that are these big releases that even when there are problems they are still generally accepted and make a huge splash that even the issues some have aren't enough to temper the brand itself. - They are so famous and beloved they can re-release older work with a shinier new coat of paint and that winds up doing huge sales as well. Redux Pokemon games for every older generation of Taylor re recording and mixing old songs that still climb up the charts. - Though their attempts at experimenting with the prime style can do decently (like Pokemon Legends Arceus and Taylor's folkier albums from a few year backs) the fact that they still come out with main line titles that have a lot of major flaws even the hardcore fans of the material pick out doesn't stop them from not only being still massive sellers but you will find those who just generally appreciate all the lore and added material from how simple things started. That most will only know if they keep up with all the releases or at least keep up with people who keep up with the releases. Again i rewatched all of your Taylor Swift videos before this one and this actually does fit in as part of her journey... not the best part but a part nontheless. So yeah that's the comparison I would make and honestly I actually like this song and even Opalite a fair amount more then I did her older songs and would easily relisten to them. Maybe personally after having so many songs about heart break or terrible relationships or knowing the relationship won't last for various reasons or her trying to be the bad guy or just trying to get back to having fun or somewhat supporting gay rights or worried no one would get her, it's nice actually hearing full love songs for her in her most serious and healthy relationship she's ever been in and just enjoying that bliss that I do connect with. That said I do still love this review like again I fully rewatched Todd's older Taylor Swift reviews so I do love him going back to pointing out how "Love Story" the romantic points she tried comparing don't work ("god bless her button nose" is a classic older Todd quote) and how that's still an issue now and actually being glad to cover Bad taylor Swift music again like that's good stuff.
Neo Ultra Mike
2025-10-28 20:51:47 +0000 UTCthe difference between taylor swift and avatar is that liking avatar hasn't been the majority opinion since january 2010 and liking taylor swift has been the majority opinion off and on for the past 15 years. the avatar backlash was something that those movies could never fully come back from, and even as some support has emerged in the last few years, it's much cooler, societally, to hate on them than it is to enjoy them, as it feels like it always has. whereas taylor there's these shifting tides were you're either out of step for liking her [societally] or out of step for hating her. very much the popular kid vs. the shut-in nerd with rich parents.
Jordan Schmidt
2025-10-28 20:48:08 +0000 UTCDifference is as defensive and obviously agitated as Slim/Marshal/Eminem can get with his detractors and "haters" never specifically tried evolving his style because of them but rather because of life making him feel differently over time and the changes in the music more coming from that which yeah if you no longer have the jams costs you more in the long run. Like I loved him when I was a teen but after Encore he peaked of being the biggest thing ever and even when he came back 5 years later he never reached higher heights again and has been declining heavily in the last decade. Say what you want about Taylor Swift but she's had a FAR more successful 15+ years of her career still being this massive hit maker even now.
Neo Ultra Mike
2025-10-28 20:38:50 +0000 UTCTaylor Swift and Eminem have had the same career path of "raw voice of the youth" -> still trying to do that when they're too old to capture it -> defensively overwriting their songs to make them feel more legitimate and respected
TurquoiseYoshi
2025-10-28 19:39:45 +0000 UTCAt this point, knowing that Taylor Swift is a demonstrably decent person in an era (sorry) in which we're being ruled by celebrity grifters, she could release a note-for-note cover version of Metal Machine Music, and I'd still be rooting for her. I only really like a handful of her songs (Anti-Hero, Cardigan -- and yes, even Shake It Off, in part because I have a friend who beat cancer who has been known to listen to it for a little boost on occasion, and in part because I may or may not listen to it in the car after a day of refereeing soccer games and listening to whiny coaches/parents/players), but I like *her*. I'll grant that Wood is kind of cringe. This one? It's pretty cool.
Beau Dure
2025-10-28 19:30:50 +0000 UTCIsn't that pentameter?
Beau Dure
2025-10-28 19:24:27 +0000 UTCOOH BABEY
Shiny Skunk
2025-10-28 18:49:26 +0000 UTCas everybody suggested, it should've been a Sabrina Carpenter song instead
Alex Woo
2025-10-28 18:46:29 +0000 UTCYou know, looking at that "tower" lyric...is she confusing Ophelia with the Lady of Shallot? Another common subject of pre-Raphaelite paintings? It would have made a lot more sense if she'd picked her. Fairy princess, up in her ivory tower, making beautiful tapestries of the images she'd see in her mirror, but never seeing the real thing until she gazed at a big hunky knight passing by.
maruhkati
2025-10-28 17:47:31 +0000 UTCThank you for sparing "Ruin the Friendship" Todd
JD
2025-10-28 17:46:51 +0000 UTCHey now. Luigi Mangione is an ALLEGED assassin.
Stormy K.
2025-10-28 17:45:40 +0000 UTCI think that's where I'm at, too. I don't have any visceral hate for Showgirl -- I think lots of it are nice, and I've got tolerance for her being goofy on purpose -- but it just doesn't hook you. I won't turn it off but I won't seek it out
David L. Lebovitz
2025-10-28 16:20:04 +0000 UTCagreed, my feelings about the music aside, the music video for Fate of Ophelia is really beautiful and well made. She's got a good eye
David L. Lebovitz
2025-10-28 16:17:10 +0000 UTCExcept if Loreena McKennitt wrote a song with that title, it would probably connect better to the source material!
Esther Mackenzie
2025-10-28 16:05:22 +0000 UTCExtremely vindicated by you saying you woke up mad the next morning; I literally couldn't get back to sleep that night after listening to this terrible album because it made me so mad. Up until 4 am like "the lyrics were so bad it permanently dis-regulated my nervous system, THANKS TAYLOR".
Jennifer Adcock
2025-10-28 15:17:42 +0000 UTCI kinda disagree with Todd saying that Swift is only a musician. Ever since Midnights, I’ve appreciated her more as a visual artist. The art direction of all of her recent albums have been stellar, but sadly the music hasn’t followed. Maybe she should direct films like everyone predicted two years ago. She’s clearly got an eye, if not for aesthetics, then for finding people who do.
Andrew Behm
2025-10-28 15:05:05 +0000 UTCUm... Drake is famously Canadian.
Jon Heiman
2025-10-28 14:40:54 +0000 UTCHeres hoping shes running on momentum and itll hit a brick wall soon.
James Eldred
2025-10-28 13:53:54 +0000 UTCI noticed this aswell and it seems Taylor did too. "you're only as hot as your last hit baby" as said by taylor on track 2 (and my favourite of this album)
Laura Savaglia
2025-10-28 13:23:54 +0000 UTCEver since this album came out, my Tiktok has so many people on conspiracy theories that Swift is a secret MAGA, and its weird. Shes endorsed every Democrat Presidential candidate and her fiancé starred in Pfizer commercials. Its made me think alot of Todds theory on how the general reception is only as good as your recent hits, and nowdays it might affect people like Taylor
Tony G
2025-10-28 13:13:12 +0000 UTCI haven’t heard this song all the way through yet and my first reaction is why does it sound like that? Why is there so much echo in the vocals? The same guy who produced a lot of 1989 produced this? Also I would like to go on the record and say I have quite literally never liked Travis Kelce. His meathead shtick is extremely tired and he’s a big douche on the field
Andrew
2025-10-28 13:06:52 +0000 UTCi definitely think taylor's ability to express a lot in few words is her best skill, and i see almost none of that on either the new album or Tortured Poets. not only is that bad from a writing standpoint, but it also means the songs have less structure and feel more meandering. just off the top of my head, lines like "gone was any trace of you, i think i am finally clean" or "the best and worst day of june was the one that i met you" communicate a lot of emotion in just a single sentence, and i don't feel like we got any of that on the last two albums :/
Austin F
2025-10-28 12:37:41 +0000 UTCalso the craziest thing about Wood to me is that it has both the cringiest lyrics and by far the best production on the album. purely in terms of the sound, i think Wood is great. it's catchy, it bounces, the structure is on point, taylor actually sounds like she's having fun, it's just a bop. but, as someone with a high tolerance for cringe in pop songs, some of the lyrics are just too much....it's rough
Austin F
2025-10-28 12:25:39 +0000 UTCIt’s interesting that two of the top American acts Drake and Taylor are experiencing backlash in back to back years. There’s probably a connection to America’s Fall to Fascism, but that’s above my pay grade.
KHMakerD
2025-10-28 12:14:18 +0000 UTCI don't know if you'll ever see this Todd, but RE: "Your English teacher" It's because when folklore and evermore came out, a very loud subset of the fans were calling her their "English teacher" because she has many young fans and they learnt a lot of new words from those albums. I am a huge Taylor Swift fan, but when I read this perspective when Folklore and Evermore came out, I was shocked, like, I DEFINITELY knew words like calamitous, insurmountable, crestfallen, evergreen, contrarian, incandescent, byline, and precipice when I was 13. However, Taylor is a) very popular with ESL audiences, and, b) I was a nerd, I loved English, so maybe I was at a higher level because I just happened to read a lot (I'm not smart, I just read a lot) So, rewind to when all this happened. Taylor Swift, who has been, since the start, a very good writer, is finally getting the flowers she deserves. We know she's thin skinned, so she's overjoyed, and I completely understand why. From her perspective, she has worked in the industry for 15 years and no matter what she did, how hard she tried and how genuinely good her writing was, the general opinion is "Taylor Swift is not mediocre/shallow/stupid/blonde/bimbo". Now, all of a sudden, she releases an album and all these people are calling her a poet, they're saying she's their English teacher, and Taylor Swift, who has worked hard all her life goes, "holy shit, people are finally seeing everything I've put into this." She looks at the praise and it's almost always through the lens of what the most immature, loudest people think makes the writing in Folklore good. It's people saying "She's so smart, she taught me these words" or "she said my 'eyes leak acid rain' instead of just 'I'm crying'". She sees that and decides, finally, I've got this image now of genuinely being a great writer, and this is how I got it. That's how we got here. That's why she calls herself an English teacher, because the Swifties did it first and they love it and SHE loves it. The Swifties saying that, of course, are the youngest Swifties because what adult (I'm 28 for example) looks at another adult and thinks back to English Teachers in high school. We don't say that, we say "you're my favourite writer." So all of this English Teacher stuff is coming from the youngest fans, and she's getting praise through their lens. She makes herself into whatever image fits into that lens. More mature fans are left going, "what happened?" because we know "leak acid rain" or "soliloquies" is not the thing that makes Taylor Swift a good writer. Taylor Swift is a good writer because she writes "I wake in the night, I pace like a ghost, the room is on fire, invisible smoke and all of my enemies started out friends, help me hold on to you." We think Taylor Swift is a good writer because when she wants to she can build such a clear and strong beautiful image. Anxiety, for example, she wakes up in the night, she's pacing like she's haunting her own house and she's choking on all this anxiety and panic and the world around her burning and she looks around and there's nothing there, it's just her, alone, and she's doing it to herself and she's admitting she needs her partners help to not sabotage what they have. All of that captured so beautifully with just a few words. Simple words. The right words, for what she wanted to say. However, the GP doesn't understand what makes great writing great. They understand being pretentious and obnoxious and using big words, and they didn't appreciate the great writer Taylor Swift when she was just being a great writer, and now we have trying too hard Taylor Swift. FYI, I also see this a lot in my writers group meetings. So many writers either a) have so many great ideas and metaphors or b) they're insecure and need to prove they can write and they just want to bundle it all in. Unfortunately, this almost always makes the text weaker, a huge part of writing is learning when to hold back. This is why we have editors, books don't just go straight out of us into the world. We go to collaborative meetings, we edit ourselves, we do everything we need to do to take the weaknesses of our writing out of it. Taylor Swift however, doesn't seem to have these things anymore because Taylor Swift is terrified of leaks and so big that people are afraid to say, hey, don't do that.
Laura Savaglia
2025-10-28 12:09:46 +0000 UTCThe Fate of Ophelia sounds like a song off a Loreena McKennitt album.
Angela
2025-10-28 11:57:54 +0000 UTCI think the reason The Tortured Poets Department could get the response it deserved was because she released it during the Eras Tour. The cultural conversation was already discussing that to death (I was as guilty as anyone of that), and then TTPD drops, we all look at it and realize it's nowhere near as interesting as the massive record-breaking tour, and leave it for the fans. The Life of a Showgirl, on the other hand, dropped into a relative void for Taylor Swift, and that's how we ended up with this response. I didn't hate the album listening to it, but I finished it and thought "well, I never need to listen to that again." It's not that the album is bad, it's that it's just kinda nothing.
Harold Kingsberg
2025-10-28 11:34:43 +0000 UTCThe five bar phrases in this song really bother me, the extra bar is just awkwardly tacked on the end like she forgot the next line and has to wait to come back in
El
2025-10-28 11:09:51 +0000 UTCLETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Cherry Charleston
2025-10-28 11:04:15 +0000 UTCuh, top 40 music has been about branding for basically its entire existence. you're falling into the nostalgia trap. pop music was not more authentic 10 years ago, just like it wasn't more authentic 40 years ago. it's a commercial genre.
Austin F
2025-10-28 11:02:05 +0000 UTCas a swiftie since 2012, i mostly found this album very mid; Tortured Poets Department was the album that massively disappointed me and broke my heart. it's been an odd feeling to watch this album get backlash even though i think Tortured Poets deserved way more scorn. still, it's a bummer to get two misses in a row from your favorite musician :/ i think she needs to take a break. it seems like she's creatively exhausted. it would improve her music a lot to just step away for a while. (and honestly, with how much she overworks herself, it'd probably be better for her health, too)
Austin F
2025-10-28 10:58:02 +0000 UTCI'm all for women getting to talk about sex explicitly in music, but that line really baffled me because of the tone of it. It comes across less horny and more just bragging, and also it feels at odds with her aspirations to write poetic lyrics about more sophisticated emotions. (Also since she's brought it up, now I really need Travis Kelce and Nick Foles to whip em out and see if her comment still holds up in comparison lmao)
CJ
2025-10-28 10:30:26 +0000 UTCBecause songs like this aren't really aimed at 8-9 year old girls. This one is aimed at high schoolers and middle aged people who peaked in high school. Which is fine, but I don't see tweens being drawn to something that sounds this "adult contemporary"
CJ
2025-10-28 10:24:04 +0000 UTCEh, I disagree with that assessment of "fun" as a shield descriptor. I think being mindless fun is a positive trait - it's just that the thing that is mindless fun can't aspire to be more than that. Fast and Furious movies aren't trying to reach beyond their grasp and offer, like, incisive commentary on global economics or deconstructing masculinity. They're just meant to be exciting! And because they're not trying to be more than exciting, it's more fun to then try and come up with a deeper reading through analysis. But Taylor songs like this one tend to be the opposite, where they sound like they mean more than they do. If she wasn't overwriting the lyrics so badly I could accept the "fun" description.
CJ
2025-10-28 10:18:49 +0000 UTCThe thing with her is that she started off as David but has now become Goliath, and the thing with Goliaths is that they always want to be David again. Swift has won at life, but no one likes a sore winner who gloats, so she's stuck on a fence where she either has to embrace that "mean" side, or she can try to keep framing herself as the underdog and hope people don't smell bullshit about that. It worked for a while, thanks to the whole Scooter Braun fiasco, but she definitively won that beef too, so she's literally the underdog to nobody. Same thing happened with the Kansas City Chiefs, where they were underachievers for decades until suddenly conquering the NFL for years on end and now everyone but their core fans wants to see them fail.
CJ
2025-10-28 10:13:42 +0000 UTCI think she has somehow been hired by curriculum designers to help high school students remember to do their English homework because her depth of references are all literally stuff we read in high school circa 2012
CJ
2025-10-28 10:09:25 +0000 UTCShe really missed her calling as an actual high school English teacher I feel like her pool of references is specifically tailored (heh) to things that teenagers have read And because teens don't read books unless they're assigned them, she's stuck referencing the most popular Shakespeares everyone knows, and then classic novels like The Scarlet Letter even if the reference makes no sense I am having serious flashbacks to when we read The Great Gatsby in senior year shortly before the Baz Luhrmann movie came out with that Lana Del Rey soundtrack single Maybe this song is just supposed to be a throwback to that era for her (pre 2013) but it's giving serious "peaked in high school" vibes, because an actual English teacher would have more depth of references Basically I haven't heard a Taylor song for years but this one sounds exactly like I would have expected And incidentally, her referring to Travis as a gym teacher is equally comically off base; the man would struggle to read a box of cereal. He's also a guy who, persona wise, peaked in high school; it's just that he's talented enough that he's lucky to play games for a living for over a decade. I'm no fan of either of them but I'm not really a hater either, I just want to hear about basically anybody else. I always joke with my football friend that I wish Taylor had hooked up with an offensive tackle or a long snapper or literally any unglamorous mid tier player. Did she have to check how many Pro Bowl invites he had before she responded to his DMs?
CJ
2025-10-28 10:06:05 +0000 UTCMy 8 and 9 year old girls are Swifties and play her music all the time, but somehow this is the first time I’ve ever heard this track. I also don’t think I’ve heard anything off Poets Department since last summer despite being to several Swift themed birthday parties in that time. I don’t know what to make of that.
Robert Lee
2025-10-28 10:00:18 +0000 UTCOh, wow. Todd's reviewing Taylor Swift content again? I need to watch this ASAP! (From what I recall, Todd didn't review anything off "The Tortured Poets Department"?) Honestly, I get why she designated this song as the lead single for "The Life of a Showgirl." It *is* catchy, and the instrumentals sound nostalgic in the best way. Still, something about this song is off. I really wanted to like this album more than TTPD, yet it just seems like Taylor Swift is still phoning it in. It's so hard to imagine the same singer-songwriter who gave us Folk-more is now releasing stuff that reminds me way too much of Katy Perry's more recent albums.
Andrew Davey
2025-10-28 06:45:28 +0000 UTCSo somebody else basically wrote my comment on the song, I enjoy it regardless of any annoying music/Lit. critic "criticisms" (no offense Todd), I just think it's a fun song about being in love after a series of bad breakups, one of which was literally the basis for her last album, obviously this relates has affected her greatly. Anyway, the first Avatar is a fun movie, never saw the second one, the frame rate/3D fucked with my glasses too much, but I'm sure it's also fun, and this third one also looks fun. People like fun movies Todd, not everyone's a critic, get over it!! (JK, love you Todd, fun video!)
George E. Schneider
2025-10-28 06:34:03 +0000 UTCI agree; they were playing this song in the grocery store I work in today and I didn’t recognize it at all until she said Ophelia, which made me go “Oh, it’s the single from that bad new Taylor Swift album, right.”
Rei The Gei
2025-10-28 06:32:47 +0000 UTCAgreed. I'd be curious to here your thoughts on the rest of the album, considering your enjoyment of this song.
George E. Schneider
2025-10-28 06:26:03 +0000 UTCI guess a little under a month IS soon for Todd, huh.
George E. Schneider
2025-10-28 06:24:03 +0000 UTCSmall editing nitpick: The audio balancing in the segment where You Belong With Me is playing in the background felt a bit off to me; the music was drowning you out a bit after you said “I don’t get what this offers to an adult audience.”
Rei The Gei
2025-10-28 06:23:42 +0000 UTC"red wood tree" she really has been binging succession
Jericho Merklein
2025-10-28 06:03:16 +0000 UTCI was not expecting another video so soon, what a nice surprise! I hope you remembered to charge for this one :)
C-Jam
2025-10-28 05:50:27 +0000 UTCIts such a bland song. Everything she makes is so painfully bland. Its time we accept top 40 music has not just been 'minimalist' the last decade, its been helping to lower the bar of listeners intelligence and standards. Thats the only way she keeps getting away with this - branding matters so much more than the art now.
Taylor Abrahamse
2025-10-28 05:29:34 +0000 UTCMy first reaction after listening to Taylor's new album was how little any of it I remembered. It is not bad or boring, but uninteresting and forgettable.
Christopher Usher
2025-10-28 05:27:42 +0000 UTCSince I saw the Release Party movie and she described what the intent was behind writing the song in it, I got it. Even then, it wasn't really that hard to figure out either that Ophelia was not connected to reality as she was forced to be a pawn in what was happening in the story until it drove her to madness and to that early grave; that the men in the story were the ones controlling everything and that being saved from "The Fate of Ophelia" revitalized Taylor's spirit. It's a romantic song for someone in a funk who either feels like they've finally been uplifted by love or hope to be uplifted by love and to be completely honest, I do totally vibe with it as well—and the music video looked amazing on the big screen too.
Vincent Perrone
2025-10-28 05:22:17 +0000 UTCSo basically you're saying the chance she gave you to criticize her more harshly again "saved [your] heart from the fate of Ophelia"? Haha.
Vincent Perrone
2025-10-28 05:21:29 +0000 UTCTrash Taylor Swift all you want, but sending strays at Avatar... now you've gone to far...
MJS
2025-10-28 05:12:40 +0000 UTCCackled like a witch when I saw the notification for this; I’m so here for a good ol’ negative Todd review of really anything off this album
Rei The Gei
2025-10-28 05:08:36 +0000 UTCI love the comment that “It’s just so much fun.” I’ve heard that all over the place, too, and that’s usually what you say about something that’s terrible and you can’t think of anything else good to say about it.
Elton Webb
2025-10-28 05:03:34 +0000 UTCGod I can't belive im writing this.... So I was with you Todd right until the end of the video where you played the last line of the song "you saved MY HEART from the fate of Ophelia" which suggest that she treated her heart as a put upon, disregard, side character ignored to the point of drowning itself in sorrow as apposed to the rest of Taylor still being the main character etc etc. That doesn't excuse "you keep it a 100 on the land the sea the sky" which is honest such a bad line I'm kinda obsessed with it. But even as one of the last people who just don't care about Taylor Swift's music at all I just really had to write this because somehow it still clicked into place. Still enjoyed watching this video immensely, it felt like you had fun writing about this and it really resonated through the video, never felt like you left but am super glad your back.
Nir revel
2025-10-28 04:55:28 +0000 UTCI can feel how much fun you had writing this one!
Jack Darnell
2025-10-28 04:55:14 +0000 UTCAs a high school teacher who has been a chaperone at dances, or events with a karaoke booth, I've never seen anyone get more feral than teen girls at the end of the bridge to "Love Story". No one is having that reaction to this album because "my daddy doesn't like my boyfriend" or "the guy I was dating was a jackass" are very relatable, while "my football star fiance has a big dick" is not!
Jonathan P
2025-10-28 04:47:05 +0000 UTCI heard this song on the radio yesterday and had a similar thought re: TayTay and classic literature. "My english teacher" girl, who was YOUR english teacher?? Great vid as always, Todd!
LF R
2025-10-28 04:45:17 +0000 UTCTodd back on is hater era!
Bruno Sauvagnat
2025-10-28 04:40:22 +0000 UTCI think the Lady of Shalott is who Taylor was thinking about when she wrote the "up in my tower" line. She's probably confusing the two Waterhouse paintings?
Alina
2025-10-28 04:36:19 +0000 UTCIt’s the review of a showgirl
Scott Sandler
2025-10-28 04:06:40 +0000 UTC
