Skip to main content

My Favorite Album

My desert-island cast album is "Red," by Taylor Swift.

This isn't actually a cast album--it isn't paired with a musical--but, then, wait. "Red" is sneaky; it does work as a musical.

When she met Jake Gyllenhaal, Taylor met the nemesis of a lifetime; I'd argue no one else, in Ms. Swift's vast galaxy of characters, seems quite as interesting. Gyllenhaal is the Joker, or Lex Luthor. Yes--the Penguin is out there, as well--but no one can really compete with the Joker.

Who wants to hear about love? We're all here to get the details on the breakup. Young Taylor Swift knew this instinctively; she wastes very little time on the happy period. We move very quickly toward the pain.

Take "All Too Well," Taylor's most celebrated number, and a kind of thesis statement for the album. The very first line: "I walked through the door with you; the air was cold; but something about it felt like home somehow...." THE AIR IS ALREADY COLD! It's cold in THE FIRST LINE! Taylor knows we don't really need to dwell on the "meet cute."

At the same time, Jake is a trickster; he isn't all bad, not right away. He "feels like home." He has that "sweet disposition." He sings in the car; he dances around the kitchen in the refrigerator light. He has erotic talents. ("I'll do anything you say.....if you say it with your hands....") If Jake were obviously, fully evil right from the get-go, then we'd lose some suspense. (People have made this criticism of J.K. Rowling's Voldemort, in the Harry Potter books.)

Everything goes to hell--and Taylor uses mesmerizing specificity. Jake is a closeted sadist. He mocks his girlfriend's albums! His girlfriend's albums aren't cool enough! Jake disappears for a month, then claims he "needs space." The most damning thing--and I'll always love this, because it feels very true--is that Jake can't commit to a breakup. He keeps calling and calling and calling! A twist so perverse, Taylor writes not one, but two, songs about it. "Ugh.....so he called me up again last night...and I'm just like....This is exhausting. We are never getting back together." Also: "Every time you reach out....there's no reply...."

Eventually, Taylor meets a new man, and all's well, because this guy knows a great deal about James Taylor, and he stands up when Taylor Swift enters a restaurant. "I thought all love does is break and burn and end....But on a Wednesday...in a cafe...I watched it begin again...." Simple and inevitable, and it just called out to be paired with a short film of Taylor looking wistful in Paris, and then Taylor gave us that short film.

I think "Red" is riveting. It is the one work of musical theater that I'd really, really like to see on Broadway. I write without irony. I just needed to get that off my chest.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to Host a Baby

-You have assumed responsibility for a mewling, puking ball of life, a yellow-lab pup. He will spit his half-digested kibble all over your shoes, all over your hard-cover edition of Jennifer Haigh's novel  Faith . He will eat your tables, your chairs, your "I {Heart] Montessori" magnet, placed too low on the fridge. When you try to watch Bette Davis in  Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte , on your TV, your dog will bark through the murder-prologue, for no apparent reason. He will whimper through Lena Dunham's  Girls , such that you have to rewind several times to catch every nuance of Andrew Rannells's ad-libbing--and, still, you'll have a nagging suspicion you've missed something. Your dog will poop on the kitchen floor, in the hallway, between the tiny bars of his crate. He'll announce his wakefulness at 5 AM, 2 AM, or while you and another human are mid-coitus. All this, and you get outside, and it's: "Don't let him pee on my tulips!" When...
3 comments
Read more

The Death of Bergoglio

  It's frustrating for me to hear Bergoglio described as "the less awful pope"--because awful is still awful. I think I get fixated on ideas of purity, which can be juvenile, but putting that aside, here are some things that Bergoglio could have done and did not. (I'm quoting from a survivor of sexual abuse at the hands of the Church.) He could levy the harshest penalty, excommunication, against a dozen or more of the most egregious abuse enabling church officials. (He's done this to no enablers, or predators for that matter.) He could insist that every diocese and religious order turn over every record they have about suspected and known abusers to law enforcement. Francis could order every prelate on the planet to post on his diocesan website the names of every proven, admitted and credibly accused child molesting cleric. (Imagine how much safer children would be if police, prosecutors, parents and the public knew the identities of these potentially dangerous me...
1 comment
Read more

Raymond Carver: "What's in Alaska?"

Outside, Mary held Jack's arm and walked with her head down. They moved slowly on the sidewalk. He listened to the scuffing sounds her shoes made. He heard the sharp and separate sound of a dog barking and above that a murmuring of very distant traffic.  She raised her head. "When we get home, Jack, I want to be fucked, talked to, diverted. Divert me, Jack. I need to be diverted tonight." She tightened her hold on his arm. He could feel the dampness in that shoe. He unlocked the door and flipped the light. "Come to bed," she said. "I'm coming," he said. He went to the kitchen and drank two glasses of water. He turned off the living-room light and felt his way along the wall into the bedroom. "Jack!" she yelled. "Jack!" "Jesus Christ, it's me!" he said. "I'm trying to get the light on." He found the lamp, and she sat up in bed. Her eyes were bright. He pulled the stem on the alarm and b...
1 comment
Read more