Yes, I’m a Swiftie, a real one. Not a smoking hot scoop spilling out here. My Swiftism, however, has its limits of time and money. Let’s start with the money.
Like any self-respecting Swiftie who refuses to wear plastic friendship bracelets (ugh!), I tried like hell to buy tickets for the 34-year-old popstar’s visit to Toronto in November next. Impossible mission. Discouragement, questioning and crying on my guitar, I felt like I was in a sad song from the album evermorebut without the elfin aesthetic of Loreena McKennitt.
Between a titanium hip replacement in a private clinic and a ticket for Tay-Tay on the black market, you have to make practical choices rather than artistic ones. So.
Time now. The improved version of the super tour The Eras, online on the Disney+ platform, lasts nearly three and a half hours, or half an hour longer than the recording of the same show which was released in theaters last fall at a cost of $19.89 per entrance. We agree: three and a half hours is a long, long time. It’s more than two weeks of STAT without commercial breaks.
For fans and stans who have already seen the film The Eras upon its release, note that Disney+ offers five new songs, which were cut in the first edit, i.e. Cardigan (how could we have removed it in the first place? Honestly!), You Are in Love, Death by a Thousand Cuts, Brown And I Can See You.
Yes, it’s very long, The Eras, but it’s very, very good. Even for a less devout Swiftie, who will discover the immense talent and dazzling charisma of this prolific singer-songwriter, as comfortable in candy pop as in poignant indie-folk.
The best part of this epic concert remains the one devoted to the album folklore, her most accomplished, where Taylor brings back her rustic chalet and her vaporous Victorian dresses. Perched on a mossy roof, she recreates nostalgia The 1 with astonishing accuracy. She grabs her acoustic guitar to Betty and continues with The Last Great American Dynasty, August (I will never get tired of this one), Illicit Affairs And My Tears Ricochet, which she ends up on her knees on the immense stage. It’s sweet, moving and poetic.
In The Eras, the American singer revisits her last nine albums and devotes each to a well-defined space, with designated scenographies and colors. The film starts with the era Loverin pastel glitter, and its most dazzling success remains Cruel Summer, as the crowd of 70,000 people at SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles screamed themselves unconscious. This is the biggest advantage of attending The Eras in your living room: not to hear these high-pitched, piercing and unbearable screams, which shatter the eardrums of elderly people.
Very short, the period Fearless don’t break the house. The megastar only keeps the eponymous title, You Belong with Me And love story. Miss Americana is also sweeping her phase very quickly Speak Nowmore youthful and romantic.
The section evermoremy second favorite The Erashighlights two superb pieces written by Taylor Swift, namely Marjoriea tribute to his maternal grandmother, who was an opera singer, as well as Champagne Problems, a ballad about an aborted marriage proposal, which she does sitting in front of a lichen-covered piano. Gorgeous.
The enchanted forest environment à la Zeldaevermore evokes nights of black magic, where the high priestess of the Swifties, hidden under an emerald velvet cape, would summon the spirits of the dead and cast disappointing spells on the living. I loved everything about this unapologetic druidic kitsch.
In the segment dedicated to the album Redthe color of the soles of her Louboutin boots, Tay-Tay offers her most beautiful creation ever, the song All Too Well, in its ten-minute version. It’s a musical gem, which recounts the painful breakup between Taylor Swift and actor Jack Gyllenhaal, which has never been confirmed, moreover.
Since the release ofAll Too Well in 2012, Taylor Swift, the best storyteller of her generation, played the mysterious role of Carly Simon, who never revealed the identity of her lover who passed to cash in his classic You’re So Vainpublished in 1972.
The transition to 1989the album that catapulted her into the pop stratosphere, resurrects her bombshells like Shake It Off, Style And Blank Spaceand she concludes her marathon show of more than three hours with Midnightshis latest opus which won him the Grammy for album of the year, in February.
There is nothing improvised in this gigantic backfiring concert. Taylor Swift never stammers, she doesn’t fake, she performs her choreography without making a mistake, she smiles for the right camera, she walks to the appropriate place on the stage, she repeats the same gestures and says the same words.
The end result is shiny, albeit smooth. Contrary to the litany of faults she attributes to herself in the play Anti-hero, Taylor Swift shows no imperfections. She practically blushes when she says the word “fuck” in her songs. It’s cute, but it lacks a bit of arena popstar attitude.
I levitate
With Gisèle Michaud in STAT
Played by Carmen Sylvestre, this friendly patient who suffers from Alzheimer’s and ALS brings subjects that are both funny and serious in the Radio-Canada medical soap opera. We saw her go through the long process of obtaining medical assistance in dying, but we also saw her laughing and dancing with Richard (Rémy Girard), the father of Éric (Stéphane Rousseau), whom she mixture with her husband Armand, deceased. She is extraordinary, this Gisèle, we adore her and we don’t want anything bad to happen to her!
I avoid it
The GM Paillé ad
The black series of bad radio advertisements continues with that of this car dealership in Berthierville, which runs constantly on 98.5 FM. His slogan ? OK, OK, Straw, Straw! When you hear it 17 times a day, you just want to say: OK, OK, stop, stop.