Cruel Summer

Literally all she has to do in order to do so is lay low for a minute, release Debut TV late this year or sometime next, and come back with a better album at least a year from now, maybe a little more, that changes her sonic direction away from mainstream radio pop. Even just an album that goes back to being primarily country pop would be enough to turn the tide if she also challenges herself to do new things with her subject matter and lyricism.

Please don't give her more ideas, I can't afford the $31.13/mo she'd charge in this economy!

The way I predicted 185k, oh me!stradamus

Babylon is a 'Tis The Damn Season sister and the girls who get it get it and we're horribly depressed longing to go back to our small town roots whilst living in a city that feels a thousand times more lonely and dead than home ever did Hypothetically of course totally don't mean anything by this

And that's even if they all get their fervent, desperate wish and she finally relinquishes her sheer commercial dominance in the US starting right this second. A storied career with decades yet to come

The way they're already comparing it to regular album releases and pre-album singles because they just can't actually compare deluxe edition releases without looking like clowns, not to mention making up weird narratives that she's hitless or something… they're so desperate for her to be over

Ignoring the global numbers (I have no clue if this is even "bad" for a deluxe) and focusing on how she's still locking down the top four in the US

TTPD (song) being a hyperfixation of obsessed haters should have been the warning sign for where things would go by now, honestly, because the way they acted like she committed heinous artistic crimes over... um, mentioning a contemporary popular artist and using a golden retriever analogy

I think that pretending the critic score "matters" is maybe a little divorced from reality. Nobody who likes this song is going to have their mind changed because Pitchfork decides it's uncool trash, and nobody who hates it is going to be swayed if Rolling Stone says it's the best song of the year. Quality, sure - but clearly notions of quality aren't universal anyway.

The kind of sad part is that they didn't even actually, officially downgrade the score because it's done by panel rather than being assigned by the writer - the writer herself just spontaneously lost her spine and ability to stand up for her own work and made a snarky comment on her own review, coincidentally on the same day half the internet was snarking over her. The official score is still the same, though I'm sure they'll release one for the deluxe that's like 0.7 and filled with what they think are the most incisive lines ever written. Not that Pitchfork still had any credibility left whatsoever anyway, but the sheer cringe of being soooo beholden to clicks and half-viral stan twitter posts everyone forgets the next day

outros are important and all but that building synth in the background of Fortnight from 2:03 to 2:14 is the single most important sound ever recorded

beauty is a beast that roars down on all fours demanding, "more" only when your girlish glow flickers just so do they let you know it's hell on earth to be heavenly them's the breaks, they don't come gently

TTPD standard edition kinda eating up all her other pure pop albums combined when you think about it...

It's Saturday night, they have to do something to entertain themselves! Hate stream Cleveland for the hundredth time today while you're in here checking up on us, besties

If anything good comes of the reception to this deluxe, it'll be that she hopefully goes back to working with people like Bon Iver and The National and expanding that side of her musical circle and discography - and if she dares to finally convince Sufjan to do some some sessions