Well Here We Go: Taylor Swift’s “New Years Day” is Coming to Country Radio
Taylor Swift is coming back to country, or at least to country radio. Officially announced on Thursday (11-16), her song “New Years Day,” which is the final track from her sixth studio album Reputation, is being serviced to country radio by her label Big Machine, hoping to rekindle Swift’s history and success with the format and hopefully land a hit ahead of the actual New Years Day looming ahead on the calendar.
Though not country whatsoever, “New Years Day” is a piano ballad and probably the most organic track off of Reputation, which otherwise is heavily embellished with hip-hop and EDM influences and the dirty work of super producers such as Max Martin and Jack Antonoff, even more so than Swift’s previous exclusive pop effort, 1989.
Releasing “New Years Day” to country in some respects validates the rumors that swirled ahead of Reputation that Swift would include some “country” songs on the new record. Of course “New Years Day” is country in name only, but it also may satiate a desire from her label owner Scott Borchetta to continue to court country radio with Swift. Borchetta previously begged Swift to include a track or two on 1989 to bring to country radio, with Swift declining, not wanting to confuse fans about the lane she had chosen for her music moving forward.
Servicing “New Years Day” to country radio may be dictated by Swift herself, or it may be coming from Borchetta and Big Machine. Perhaps the strategy here is to have a song in the country format, while Swift simultaneously permeates the pop format with other singles. So far early estimates have Reputation selling over a million copies in its first week.
Though Swift has said previously she is not interested in calling herself country anymore, country still seems to be somewhat obsessed with her, or the attention she can bring to the format. At the 2017 CMA Awards, the Swift-penned song “Better Man” recorded by Little Big Town was nominated for both Single of the Year and Song of the Year, eventually winning for Song of the Year, which is a dedicated songwriter award. Swift was not in attendance to receive the award, but it likely helped re-open the door for Swift to throw her weight around in the country format once again.
It will be very interesting to see the traction “New Years Day” receives on country radio heading into the holidays, and if it’s successful, what impact that may have on country radio long-term. Will we see more Swift songs released as singles, or more pop stars trying to court country radio?
Cindy
November 16, 2017 @ 12:17 pm
I will need “counseling” over this incoming onslaught on how freakin amazing of a country artist she has always been…She NEVER was country…PLEASE for all that is holy help me !!!
Jim
November 16, 2017 @ 11:01 pm
Another person saying “she never was country” …Taylor Swift single handily saved the country music industry and made it relevant worldwide. She opened up peoples eyes to other country acts because people started listening to “country stations” specifically to hear her.
Fuzzy TwoShirts
November 17, 2017 @ 12:25 pm
meanwhile people who actually liked Country Music turned Radio Stations off to get away from her.
Her dumb Hannah Montana act doesn’t belong on Country Radio.
She, and LeeAnn Rimes and Reba McEntire and Faith Hill and all the other soccer mom singers of the early 2000s created a feminine vacuum that brought on the overly masculine dude-bro epidemic of the early 2010s.
Taylor Swift ruined Country Music by making it a place where people don’t need talent or quality material they just need to attract dumb preteens and “tweens” and soccer moms with no social life who shop at bed bath and beyond.
Country Music was just fine when George Jones and Porter Wagoner were around. Taylor Swift didn’t save it because it didn’t need saving as evidenced by continued growth with upward career arcs of Randy Travis, George Strait, and Garth Brooks who yes, is in fact a talented Country artist who respects the genre, and the critical acclaim from later life releases of Cash, Nelson, Walser, Porter Wagoner’s final album “Wagonmaster” was one of his best received.
Country Music had its own programming, its own stations, its own identity and it sure didn’t need to be saved because it was doing quite nicely on its own and many of its stars had movie deals and there was an entire industry built around it with Country Music centric programming including untold appearances of stars on stand-alone programs including Green Acres, the Beverly Hillbillies, and the Dukes of Hazzard.
Taylor Swift came into the temple and turned it into a den of thieves.
Cindy
November 21, 2017 @ 7:07 pm
Thanks Fuzzy TwoShirts You said it so well & it’s the truth.
Jim you just need to go with me to counseling, obviously you need it.
Jake Gerber
December 27, 2017 @ 11:30 pm
Spot on. Taylor Swift and those no talent thugs from Scandinavia have destroyed EVERY genre of music that once had melodies and lyrics with wit and feeling. It makes me sick. “Algorithms Max Martin “ I just read an interview to verify he was the no talent I thought he was. You would have to read it to believe it . Music is at its nadir. Why is Nashville even letting this entitled little marketing and PR woman do whatever she likes on your radio stations . Writers and musicians are starving because of “Reputation “ and all her Hollywood ilk are eating it up. I’m pissed ! Yep ! I’m a serious songwriter. Have recorded in Nashville a few times and loved it, and I don’t even write country, but the musicians were top level Nashville Cats !
Master Spleen
November 16, 2017 @ 12:24 pm
she’ll fit right in with alllll the otter not country singers with zero talent like sam unt and luke brian and Jason alderaan and Mirand alamert and blake shaleleotn and dan and shey and fgglgl and coal swindle and chase rice
Trigger
November 16, 2017 @ 2:19 pm
Alderaan was destroyed in Star Wards Episode 4.
Shastacatfish
November 17, 2017 @ 11:00 am
There were three Star Wars movies before the first one?
Gabe
November 16, 2017 @ 2:23 pm
Oh no, he’s back!
Per Tore Gresseth
November 17, 2017 @ 6:00 am
Yeah.. Mirand alamert and blake shaleleotn sucks
Lunchbox
November 18, 2017 @ 4:28 am
i love Mirand alamert. not a huge fan of her music though
TheJimReaper
November 18, 2017 @ 6:29 pm
Dude learn to spell.
Master Spleen
November 20, 2017 @ 2:02 pm
Im learning a new decvie because I cant type anymore with my hands I am getting better though
Sam
November 16, 2017 @ 12:37 pm
I’d be outraged, but to be completely honest I haven’t listened to country radio in years. My life will continue on wholly unaffected.
Razor X
November 16, 2017 @ 8:22 pm
I feel the same way. It just doesn’t matter anymore.
BTW, Trigger, when can we expect the impending implosion of corporate radio that we keep hearing about?
Trigger
November 16, 2017 @ 8:47 pm
Well there’s been more bad news on iHeartMedia this week. May have a story on it soon.
Fuzzy TwoShirts
November 17, 2017 @ 9:35 am
but bad news for the corporate radio monsters is good news for fans of quality music who are opposed to the meat parade pageantry and corporate cultural misappropriation
BrandonWard
November 16, 2017 @ 12:39 pm
I guess hip hop and pop radio is tired of her schtick so she’ll be shoved back down the throat of country radio. Her songs have always seemed to be bland, with forced phony emotion.
I’m sure in a year or so, we’ll get the whole “I’m returning to/rediscovering my true roots” routine in which Borchetta puts her on a media tour for her to say how near and dear country has always been to her heart. I’m sure the past few years were just a post-teen rebellious period she needed to get out of her system for her to realize how much country means to her.
And yet, I still havent heard Sunny Sweeney, Lindi Ortega or Margo Price getting any mainstream airplay. The joke continues….
Jen MALCOM
November 16, 2017 @ 5:08 pm
The only thing I remember about her music, was how she liked having guys on their knees. Talk about a superiority complex!
JohnS
November 17, 2017 @ 2:57 am
I remember Sunny Sweeney got it years ago. That’s how I first heard of her. She jokes about it now. Didn’t even sing her radio song when she played the show I saw her. Loll
Huntermc6
November 17, 2017 @ 10:16 am
Lindi Ortega has the most unique voice I have heard in a long time. I am late to the game discovering her music but I can’t even fathom how she is not more popular.
Angelo Rinaldi
November 16, 2017 @ 12:41 pm
Well, at least it’s a good song
jtrpdx
November 16, 2017 @ 1:40 pm
That’s what I was thinking. The plus side is this as good as anything else on mainstream “country” radio these days (maybe not Stapleton), and way better than the other 98% of the crap they play..
Amanda
November 17, 2017 @ 1:30 pm
Legitimately one of the only good songs on her new album. Swift seems to have mostly forgotten that her strength is storytelling within songwriting. This song is one of the few exceptions on Reputation.
Drew
November 16, 2017 @ 12:52 pm
Any review of the song? It might be a piano pop-ballad, but I’d rather here it than You Broke Up With Me. It’s a well written song.
Trigger
November 16, 2017 @ 2:21 pm
I may review the song as well. Didn’t want to conflate my opinions on the song with the news of its release to radio.
Grady Smith
November 16, 2017 @ 12:55 pm
No lie, I love this song. It’s very pretty, and I think the whole lyrical conceit that she wants a guy to clean with on New Year’s Day, not just during the glitzy celebration of New Year’s Eve is pretty clever/effective. Plus, that longingly melancholy line “Please don’t ever become a stranger whose laugh I could recognize anywhere,” has been the one I sing the most from this whole album.
Compared to so much other trite nonsense on country radio, I feel the same way about “New Year’s Day” that I did about John Mayer’s “In The Blood,” which is to say, I don’t mind it being there!
Corncaster
November 16, 2017 @ 1:13 pm
Nobody cares what this 50-year-old dude thinks, but it’s the internet, so … this is a complete snooze of a song, pitched too low for her, musically boring (all she can handle on piano?), lyrically underachieving for her, and about as far from “country” as, well, Tropicalismo.
This is Taylor Swift trying to channel Joni Mitchell’s “A Case of You,” and failing.
No wonder she sounded nervous.
Cool Lester Smooth
November 16, 2017 @ 1:19 pm
Just about every song from her last two albums has been “lyrically underachieving, for her.”
Master Spleen
November 16, 2017 @ 1:49 pm
part of her problem is she hasn’t figured out her niche properly or at the very least is trying to change her niche shes not a grate writer espeiccallu not compared to Schoenberg webber Dylan stapletin isbell strugill mcmurtry ostroushko thile etc but shes a lot better than say the major offenders of pop radio shes a comfortable in between but shes trying to hard to play somebody elses gme what I think she oughta do is bring on board some instruments not normall heard ie double mandoliss or say a kalimba and make her accompaniment unque if she does that and doesn’t try to sojnd like pop or country and uses completely unqueue arrangements she can let her lyrics go into that naturallyyyyy the rroblem is that shes trying to gfit in sonically with other formats and her ylrcis are eing forced into the mold of other formatrs
Corncaster
November 16, 2017 @ 2:00 pm
I agree with all that. Taylor is the nerdy girl who hangs with the art kids. Her music should sound like that.
Bear
November 16, 2017 @ 3:29 pm
Tropicalismo is more country than Sma Hunt though. And now if you’ll excuse I have to listen to Gal Costa.
Amanda
November 16, 2017 @ 1:37 pm
It’s well-written and decent. I normally haven’t cared much for Taylor’s recent music, but her first two albums were solid. And “Mean” from Speak Now is a good song, as well. Like Grady Smith stated above, I look at this similar to John Mayer’s “In the Blood”. Is it country? Hell no. But is it quality music? I would say it is. But keep in mind, I love traditional country, but I’m no purist by any means. I actually like clever, catchy, and well-written pop country, country rock, and blues country. Much like I do with Eric Church, Brothers Osborne, Maren Morris, Lauren Alaina, Aubrie Sellers, Carrie Underwood, Tim McGraw (although half of the time, he is country), and majority of Carly Pearce’s music, I welcome Taylor Swift and “New Year’s Day” with open arms.
Trigger
November 16, 2017 @ 2:24 pm
“In The Blood” also went absolutely nowhere. I get a sense Borchetta wouldn’t release this unless he is expecting to really push it and for it to be successful. If it fails, it may mean no re-entry for Swift back into country in the future.
anna
November 16, 2017 @ 2:35 pm
Taylor will undoubtedly make more country albums in the future (or at least guitar-driven albums recorded with a live band). It’s not even a question in my mind. She’s only 27 now so probably feels it’s too soon to start making ‘back to my roots’ albums.
Amanda
November 16, 2017 @ 1:49 pm
That being said, this is a million and one times more inspired and generally better than anything by Kane Brown and Walker Hayes. I’d much rather hear this than What Ifs, Heaven, and You Broke Up With Me.
Master Spleen
November 16, 2017 @ 2:14 pm
Kanye brown is the epeittomy of everything wrong with the industry. compared to the untalented aldeans and sam hunts he is a good singer at least compared to them and he knows and understands classic songs goolgeee his randye tracivs covers he sins three wooden croses eve though he calls himself the Justin briber of coutry music and I think the labels are tyring to mold him into something else even though he could and at least would sometimes be a lot more traditional but the industry is trying to make yhim more pop
Corncaster
November 16, 2017 @ 2:23 pm
+1 for “hicktown” though
Kevin Davis
November 16, 2017 @ 3:48 pm
Master Spleen, are you intentionally trying to misspell and subvert grammatical conventions? Please stop or go elsewhere.
Corncaster
November 16, 2017 @ 3:58 pm
I enjoy it, actually. ymmv
Master Spleen
November 16, 2017 @ 6:10 pm
im still leaning to use this device I cant type anyore so I use a touchscreen now
Madwolfe
November 16, 2017 @ 8:21 pm
Is there not a backspace key on your device?
FLYINGBURRITO24
November 17, 2017 @ 3:38 pm
Then come back when you figure it out.
Mike Honcho
November 17, 2017 @ 4:38 pm
buncha fuckin spell checkers here.
Razor X
November 16, 2017 @ 10:08 pm
I don’t want to hear any of that.
Scotty J
November 16, 2017 @ 1:53 pm
Our savior has returned!
Gabe
November 16, 2017 @ 2:27 pm
Could this be the “Body like a back road of 2018”??? #notgood
Ella
November 16, 2017 @ 2:29 pm
I think lyrically, her best album was “Speak Now” – the one she wrote entirely by herself. Loved all of the stories told on that record. She should try that again. I do think by fully embracing pop for these last two albums, her songwriting took a bit of a hit since there has now been more emphasis on loud production and constantly repeated phrases.
“New Year’s Day” may not be a country song, but when you have all of the existing offenders in the top 30 right now, I can’t say that I’d mind hearing this one in rotation. It’s a nice song and the performance on Fallon was sweet.
RD
November 16, 2017 @ 2:50 pm
I liked Charlie Robison’s version better. She really can’t sing.
Ronald
November 17, 2017 @ 7:59 am
I love Charlie Robison’s New Year’s Day. In fact his whole album Good Times is one of my top all time country albums. It is actually the album that got me into Texas Country.
CountryKnight
November 16, 2017 @ 3:23 pm
Worst news of 2017. Bar none.
Bear
November 16, 2017 @ 3:32 pm
All I can think about is the U2 song though. So I guess I’m old.
Scotty J
November 16, 2017 @ 3:39 pm
May be old but you have good taste! Early U2 is awesome. Almost everything after ‘Joshua Tree’ not so much.
Benny Lee
November 16, 2017 @ 4:01 pm
The Destructor returns.
How long has it been since the beast ripped out country music’s heart, leaving only an empty, greedy corporate shell behind?
Thankfully, this menace moved on to infect the pop world. Little did we know, it was only waiting for the right time to return and finish off what little is left of our musical homeland.
The Destructor returns. All shall perish in its wake. All is lost.
Corncaster
November 16, 2017 @ 5:07 pm
Liked the drama of your post, but the answer to threat is always life and love. The good stuff is alive. Support it.
Benny Lee
November 17, 2017 @ 9:24 am
Oh, I am. Just having a little fun with the TSwift hysteria. 😉
Hugh
November 17, 2017 @ 9:09 pm
Could you guys please get a room? No one needs to see this.
Lizzy
November 16, 2017 @ 4:05 pm
This should be no surprise. Taylor has always been on pop and country radio (remixed some of her songs to sound more pop for radio) when she was in country. I really like New Years Day. I think it’s beautiful song.
Kevin Davis
November 16, 2017 @ 4:31 pm
In more positive news, the CMA just uploaded Miranda Lambert’s performance of “To Learn Her”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nue6CbJg6kg
They also uploaded Alan Jackson, Chris Stapleton, and other performances from last week.
Christian H.
November 17, 2017 @ 1:33 am
Wow. Thanks for sharing, Kevin. That was darn good.
DJ
November 16, 2017 @ 4:37 pm
4 min 2 seconds is too long for radio.
albert
November 16, 2017 @ 5:04 pm
where’s auto-tune when you really need it …?
if this were any no name wannabe playing in any piano lounge , subway station , school talent audition , or anyone submitting material to a song contest or a publisher ..ANY person applying to a talent show of ANY kind anywhere …particularly with this song ….she ‘d be ignored outright or told , respectfully ” thanks ….we’ll let you know the judges decision ” .
why in God’s good name is she given a pass simply on the basis of HER name ? this voice , this song is plain and simply disrespectful to REAL talent .
fuck these tv shows for pandering to the lowest common denominator for ratings.
Corncaster
November 16, 2017 @ 5:08 pm
word.
Jen MALCOM
November 16, 2017 @ 5:05 pm
I don’t even listen to lamestream music, anymore. I listen to Hank FM, or to a faith-based music station. I couldn’t care less what Twigs is up to, or what song she’ll release back to country. She’s only doing it, because her pop fans turned on her and deserted her, over the fact she’s “too white”…the left, these days is absolutely the most unhinged bunch I have ever seen!
Corncaster
November 16, 2017 @ 5:09 pm
too “white”? really?
Jen MALCOM
November 16, 2017 @ 5:51 pm
Thats what I read. Wouldn’t surprise me. She’s trying hard to be liked by rappers and pop singers, like Bey, and the like…their rabid fans don’t like her, especially now, that Bey has turned into a racist beast, along with her thug husband.
Zeng
November 19, 2017 @ 4:23 am
Really? She has turned into a racist beast along with her husband? Can you give some examples to prove that. But I never like them anyway and never read news about them…
Jen MALCOM
November 19, 2017 @ 5:06 am
Bey is a BLM supporter, a black panthers supporter, and now Jay is saying he worships Lucifer and that Satan is God. Might be his, but never mine. Lucifer is simply God of the Underworld. He punishes the wicked. Pretty sure ol Jay and Bey are going to be in for a very rude awakening. One which they will never sleep again!
Anyway, she also back pedaled on Kanye, and earned the ire of all of their fans. I think her star has fallen. She won’t be accepted back to country and pop doesn’t want her, either.
Hugh
November 19, 2017 @ 9:02 am
Zeng and Jen, sitting in a tree…
Jen MALCOM
November 16, 2017 @ 5:17 pm
The only thing I remember about her music, was how she liked having guys on their knees. Talk about a superiority complex!
I just listened to the first few seconds. I’ll pass.
Larry
November 16, 2017 @ 6:36 pm
Strikes me that this is just as country as 99% of her “country” songs were, right?
Willie Potter
November 16, 2017 @ 6:38 pm
She’s a great songwriter. Like it or not.
This new tune is great…great lyrics…great melody.
Several tunes that I’ve heard from her new album are excellent. Definitely not country music but excellent nonetheless.
Haven’t really paid much attention to her last two forays into pop music, but her first three albums are very impressive for an artist her age.
Nothing but love for Taylor.
She never proclaimed herself to follow in the footsteps of Loretta, Tammy or Patsy.
She’s an artist in her own right.
albert
November 16, 2017 @ 8:01 pm
sorry willie …you lost me a the word ‘great’…..
calling TS a ‘great’ songwriter is an insult to Lori McKenna , Don Schlitz , Patty Griffin, Jim Webb , Hal David , Gretchen Peters , Kacey Musgraves and on and on and on ……..
Razor X
November 16, 2017 @ 10:11 pm
And besides that , it isn’t true.
Jake Gerber
December 27, 2017 @ 11:48 pm
Great ? There is no melody, she has a vocal range of about an octave. Heartfelt lyrics ? Give me a break. I wish I knew how to post songs on here that are on SoundCloud.
Ray
November 16, 2017 @ 6:55 pm
A piano ballad from Taylor Swift is MUCH better and more country than another Jason Aldean/Florida Georgia Line arena rock anthem.
albert
November 16, 2017 @ 7:57 pm
a 3 day old macdonald’s cheeseburger is also much better than a plate of fresh fried worms
albert
November 16, 2017 @ 8:03 pm
still doesn’t make any of it palatable , ray
Honky
November 16, 2017 @ 7:42 pm
Her face alone compels me to have a bowel movement? Her voice? It’s right up there with a weed eater, on my list of favorite noises.
Desperado Destry
November 16, 2017 @ 8:41 pm
I do landscaping and have to listen to a weed eater on a daily basis. Compared to Taylor… my weed eater is Tammy Wynette reincarnated.
Sam Cody
November 16, 2017 @ 9:29 pm
Interesting. I had the impression you hadn’t had a bowel movement in many years…
Fuzzy TwoShirts
November 17, 2017 @ 1:36 pm
Luke Bryan doesn’t have bowel movements because all his shit winds up on the radio
Jackie Treehorn
November 19, 2017 @ 8:50 pm
Baaahaaaahaaaaaahaaa!! Now that was some funny shit!
Hugh
November 17, 2017 @ 9:51 pm
All this shit talk has made you hungry.
Desperado Destry
November 16, 2017 @ 8:21 pm
Is it just me or does Swift have an identity problem when it comes to music? First she’s country, then pop, now hip-hop but somehow country again… I mean what the hell? If she’s not interested in country music anymore then why the hell does she keep coming back? I can see Borchetta behind it because he wants more air play and more greenbacks in his already oversized fat ass wallet. All we can do right now is pray that New Year’s Day does awful on the country charts if there’s any hope for country radio.
Razor X
November 16, 2017 @ 10:12 pm
Welcome to the monogenre.
Thoroughbred
November 16, 2017 @ 9:08 pm
You might like those lyrics, but that hook doesn’t pass the test of any publisher in Nashville if your songwriting name ain’t a one percenter. This will be another one of many singles in 2018 to keep trad country songs in their place. Fine with me, I’ll watch the charts, but I ain’t turning on FM. There’s a reason why the scene at Layla’s looks and sounds completely different than Tequila Cowboy.
Sam Cody
November 16, 2017 @ 9:28 pm
What about that new single she just released, Greatest Love Story, under the pseudonym Lanco? That is her, right? Gotta be.
Mike Honcho
November 17, 2017 @ 4:52 pm
This is a no shit story. Last week I was driving through Texas after buying a classic car in Austin, that I drove straight through from Colorado so that it wouldnt be sold out from under me before I could look at it. I stopped at a Marriot hotel in downtown Dallas after sleeping for 3 hours out of the last 60 to rest my weary eyes. This was about 730 and I went right to bed only to be awoken by some dumbass talking loud in the parking lot. Only it wasn’t some dumbass in the parking lot, it was the lead singer of Lanco talking on the microphone before giving a concert at some amusement park that I didn’t know was there. A couple hours of laying there thinking how shitty this local band was, and then about 10pm I hear the Love Story song and realize I had heard these turds on the radio before. Thank God there was no encore. Just an offer for free rides on the ferris wheel.
Smashville
November 16, 2017 @ 11:09 pm
Don’t worry….The Bobby Bones radio push will be along shortly. Guaranteed #1!
Desperado Destry
November 17, 2017 @ 6:21 am
Thanks for mentioning Bobby. Now I have to go through my day with a blood pressure rate of 180.
Thoroughbred
November 17, 2017 @ 6:40 am
One of the most annoying things about Bobby is that he plays this totally humble act and yet subtly and constantly works in his own self promotion, whether it’s the raging idiots, his book, Lindsay Ell, his stand up routine, etc. He’s always talking about how marginally talented he is to be more Joe Next Door, but then he turns around and reminds everyone of what he’s got going on. With his actual humble background, you’d think he’d be less of an underhanded attention seeker.
Hugh
November 17, 2017 @ 9:39 pm
Like a weirdo staying undercover, claiming to be Joe Next Door -just a regular Joe Schmoe -you’re average dude – generally a well meaning guy. But he’s got to prove to everyone online he’s got spy skills, you’d think he would be less of a underhanded attention seeker the way he goes about his business, you think he’d be able to leave less of a trail.
Mike Honcho
November 18, 2017 @ 8:24 am
That sounds like Shawn Hannity.
bamstrait
November 17, 2017 @ 7:48 am
This song is personal, full of truth and emotion, everything country is missing these days. More country than what radio is playing.
albert
November 17, 2017 @ 9:24 am
i disagree . this lyric as a cryptic narrative , its hard work for little reward , lacks a melody and dynamics and is lost in the daily din..everything a great country song is not .
Dobe Daddy
November 17, 2017 @ 7:51 am
Dear Taylor,
Please write a song that a) has a melody, b) uses an actual drummer, and c) doesn’t require a subscription to People magazine to understand. Then pack that hot garbage up and send it right the hell away from country radio where it belongs. Stop crapping in my ear and calling it country.
Thank you.
[CC: Blake Shelton]
Hugh
November 17, 2017 @ 9:44 pm
Exactly, people like you wouldn’t feel much, you’re the real deal, you need something much stronger. Send it right the hell away. Stop crapping in my ear and calling it country.
chris31
November 17, 2017 @ 8:14 am
Tried to feel the emotion that she was trying to push and felt nothing.
Now I can’t get enough of Tyler Childers “Feathered Indian”. That song does what a country song should do.
The Ghost of Buckshot Jones
November 17, 2017 @ 8:35 am
Sounds like a B-side off of a Wreckers album from 10 years ago.
Hugh
November 17, 2017 @ 9:46 pm
Thank you Buckshot.
Bill
November 17, 2017 @ 8:43 am
Sounds like she’s channeling Joni Mitchell circa 1968.
Erik North
November 17, 2017 @ 11:55 am
Ironically, five years ago, T-Swift was considered for the role of Joni in a proposed film version of Sheila Weiller’s book “Girls Like Us”, which details the lives and musical musings of Joni, Carly Simon, and Carole King during the big singer/songwriter boom of the late 1960s and 1970s. Joni not only squelched the idea, but rejected the idea of Taylor even stepping into her shoes, saying “All you’ve got is a girl with high cheekbones”
And we have to be honest here, it’s a long way from singing about how “haters gonna hate, hate, hate” (in “Shake It Off”) to talking about people who “pave paradise and put up a parking lot” (as Joni did in her 1970 classic “Big Yellow Taxi”).
Corncaster
November 17, 2017 @ 12:05 pm
I love Joni Mitchell and have the utmost respect for her as an artist. Taylor Swift is clearly more interested in being a star than being an artist. I’m not at all surprised at Joni’s reaction.
The Senator
November 17, 2017 @ 1:00 pm
Joni is a true artist who may very well be my favorite singer-songwriter of her era. She painted many of her own album covers, was enormously well read and a deep thinker. It showed in her music. As a big Jazz aficionado, I truly appreciate her collaborations with Jaco Pastorius and Wayne Shorter. Taylor Swift is nothing but a drop of water compared to Joni’s sea of contributions to our musical landscape.
Corncaster
November 17, 2017 @ 1:43 pm
yeah, well, she’s living in a big old city, and all you’re ever gonna be is mean! you … you meanie!
Bill
November 18, 2017 @ 7:06 am
I had forgotten about the proposed Joni bio with Taylor playing her. And I’m in no way saying Taylor is as talented as Joni either. Not many artists (male or female) are. Just that Taylor was attempting to sound like her.
Mike
November 17, 2017 @ 8:51 am
This news made me want to commit seppoku. Fuck you, Taylor Swift!!!
Hugh
November 17, 2017 @ 8:45 pm
2 likes… That’s terrible, drastic and weak.
Mike
November 19, 2017 @ 11:07 am
I wouldn’t be wasting toooo much time trolling on my posts, Hugh. I’ve heard Mikel Knight doesn’t take too kindly to his street team members going online when they should be pushing his CD’s at the Walmart in Shitstain, MS!!
TheTruth
November 19, 2017 @ 11:50 am
Lmao! Hugh got OWNED. And Taylor still sucks…
Hugh
November 19, 2017 @ 1:02 pm
The Truth is madly in love with Mike. Do you take it to the street to make out? Or do you do all your loving online?
Mikel Knight
November 20, 2017 @ 9:35 am
Why aren’t you out getting your numbers up? I ain’t paying you to feed your infatuation with Taylor Swift. You better sell some CDs today or I’m gonna leave your ass there!!!
Erik North
November 17, 2017 @ 8:53 am
Admittedly, it isn’t saying much, but in my opinion “New Year’s Day” isn’t any better or worse than practically anything else that gets played on current radio, pop OR country.
The problem with Taylor is that she has done virtually nothing to improve on what is her big Achilles Heel, and that’s her voice. Auto-tune or not, it sounds irritating to listen to; she still sounds like a teen in a body that’s about to turn 28 years old. She can say all she wants (as she did in “Mean”) about the critics pointing out her vocal deficiencies, but it doesn’t change the fact that she’ll never be a great singer (or even just merely good) unless she really works at voice training and dumps all the production gimmickry, regardless of what musical format she’s in at any given time.
albert
November 17, 2017 @ 9:29 am
yup….you nailed it eric.
thing is ,as long as her minions worship her as she is , having talent or a voice really doesn’t matter to her or them. if you’re getting stupid wealthy selling sugar-riddled chocolate to diabetics by the truckload why change your product , your marketing plan OR your ethics ?
Hugh
November 17, 2017 @ 8:55 pm
Did you just rub Erik’s face in the obvious. $1.29?
Thoroughbred
November 17, 2017 @ 9:12 am
The evolution of mainstream country lyrics is now baffling compared to other genres…
Hard Rock
“What can a poor boy do but to sing for a rock n roll band, cuz in sleepy London town, there’s just no place for a street fighting man”
to
“It’s just teenage wasteland”
to
“Welcome to the jungle, it gets worse here every day”
to
“I’m gonna fight em off, a seven Nation army couldn’t hold me back”
Etc
Pop
“I ain’t got nothing but love baby, eight days a week”
to
“You are the sunshine of my life”
to
“I just wanna dance with somebody, somebody who loves me”
to
“Because I’m happy, clap along if you know what happiness is to you”
Etc
R&B
“I never loved a man the way I love you…”
to
“Let’s…let’s stay together, loving you whether, whether, times are good or bad, happy or sad”
to
“I need a man with a slow hand…”
to
“I’ll make love to you like you want me to…”
to
“I keep on fallin in and out of love with you”
Etc
Country
“Hey good looking, whatcha got cooking…”
to
“That leaves only me to blame cuz mama tried”
to
“He stopped loving her today”
to
“Just called me angel of the morning…”
to
“I got friends in low places where the whiskey drowns and the beer chases”
to
“If it looks like we were scared to death, like a couple of kids just trying to save each other, you should’ve seen it in color”
to now…
“Dahlin, you can crash my party wid jo sarries and what are we’s…ain’t nobody makin you watch me get my fo’get you on”
Hugh
November 17, 2017 @ 9:22 pm
You’ve actually fallen into the real rabbit hole.
Hugh
November 17, 2017 @ 9:24 pm
But unlike Alice, you don’t know it, and you won’t be getting out.
DJ
November 19, 2017 @ 9:49 am
Don’t forget: I was country when country wasn’t cool
JB-Chicago
November 17, 2017 @ 9:48 am
Coincidentally I bumped through this entire album yesterday just to hear what she was up to before Trigger wrote this. I thought as I went from track to track “I can’t stand this pop drivel” then when I heard the last song I thought “At least that sounds like old Taylor”. I like the song but I never once thought it was Country or should be on Country radio. For the people above that said “this song is as good as ANY song that’s on Country radio now, you’re wrong. It’s better than SOME but it’s not half as good as a Combs song, a Pardi song etc…. that are actually Country whether you people like it or not.
Hugh
November 17, 2017 @ 1:03 pm
I agree. Taylor Swift makes it easy for the green eyed monster of jealousy to arise. Around the world, things come easy for tall blondes with perfect features, brains and talent. Resentment and grudginess will be a natural extension of everything that is unfair in life. Just when it seemed over, put comes an album titled New Year’s Day, which would make the perfect xmas gift, extending the holidays for the treasured gift receivers. The profits on just one of her songs on Spotify could go to supporting struggling country artists in need of recognition and she’d never miss it… but you can’t really tell who she’d be putting out there. Artists…what are you going to do?
Fuzzy TwoShirts
November 17, 2017 @ 1:07 pm
“things come easy for tall blondes with perfect features, brains and talent”
then why did they come easy for taylor swift?
Hugh
November 17, 2017 @ 8:19 pm
Go stick a Christmas lapelpin to stick up your butt and find out.
Mike Honcho
November 18, 2017 @ 8:25 am
Hugh, from your post above I’m wondering if you tried that and poked a hole in your brain.
Zeng
November 18, 2017 @ 5:52 am
A curious question…
Now that she’s a free agent after her sixth album,
do you think she will stay with Big Machine?
Common sense would say she most likely will not stay, right? Why not have your own label when she’s one of the very few artists around who can still sell albums in the millions?
But will she stay?
Hugh
November 18, 2017 @ 8:52 am
Yes.
Caitlin
November 18, 2017 @ 11:01 am
I adore Taylor, and I love her new album. It’s been on repeat ever since it came out. “New Years Day” is a beautiful song, but it does surprise me they are releasing it to country radio. I’m not sure I understand the point. Of course, it’s substantially better than any song being played on country radio right now and I won’t mind hearing it, but I just find it perplexing, as she is so focused on pop right now.
BlackHawkDown
November 20, 2017 @ 7:14 am
Look what we made her do
Wes
November 21, 2017 @ 8:51 am
I actually liked that a lot. Id listen to this over a lot of the stuff on the radio now days. If it was this exact recorded version which I know it wont be but I can dream…