Review? Deep dive? Who knows. Leave it to Taylor Swift dropping another musical masterpiece to bring me out of blogging retirement.
When it comes to Taylor’s lyrics, I love doing a deep dive into the lyrics and possible hidden meanings and allusions within the songs to feel like I fully understand. Just one listen won’t cut it! We’ll start with my early album ranking, after round 5 of a full listen-through. Of course, Taylor dropped an entirely new set of songs around 2am, fully completing the anthology, and it’s difficult to decisively rank 31 songs all at once – but I’ve done my best.
Album Ranking
- Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?
- So Long, London
- I Can Do It With A Broken Heart
- But Daddy I Love Him
- Clara Bow
- The Albatross
- Florida!!!
- The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived
- loml
- The Black Dog
- thanK you aIMee
- The Bolter
- The Prophecy
- My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys
- I Hate It Here
- The Tortured Poet’s Department
- The Manuscript
- The Alchemy
- Peter
- Guilty as Sin?
- So High School
- How Did It End?
- Cassandra
- i’mgonnagetyouback
- I Look In People’s Windows
- Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus
- I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)
- Robin
- Fresh Out The Slammer
- Fortnight
- Down Bad
Fortnight: The opening single isn’t my favorite, but more because the rest of the album ends up overshadowing it so much that it was hard to remember the melody by the end of the album. Part one, that is. I’m excited for the music video release earlier tonight. I think the trailer, as well as the first two lines of the song – I was supposed to be sent away / but they forgot to come and get me are a clear callback to Hits Different – is that your key in the door? is it okay? is it you? or have they come to take me away? The idea of being locked away not of one’s accord seems to be a recurring theme throughout the album, akin to being held captive – perhaps in a back-and-forth, will-he-won’t-he relationship.
The Tortured Poets Department: The album’s titular track was a clear clue tying back to her relationship with Matty Healy. If you were on tumblr around 2014, you know – if you weren’t, I still think many women can relate to being in love with the idea of someone rather than the actual relationship. But who am I to say – we only see as much as Taylor allows us to, and I’m a firm believer she loves embellishing prose in her songs. I love the slight mockery in this song, with I laughed in your face and said “You’re not Dylan Thomas, I’m not Patti Smith / this ain’t the Chelsea Hotel, we’re modern idiots. Patti Smith has spoken up for Taylor before, and I’d be curious to know her thoughts on this song.
My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys: Welcome back, Tennis Court by Lorde’s beat! My favorite part here is the bridge – once I fix me / he’s gonna miss me. Even Taylor Swift dreams of the ‘I won the breakup’ satisfaction – girl, you’re Taylor Swift, don’t you know that already?
Down Bad: It’s at the bottom of my list for a reason! Not to say that I hate it – this album truly has no skips for me. She calls back to New Romantics here – Please take me dancing / Please leave me stranded / it’s so romantic with the bridge – How dare you think it’s romantic / leaving me safe and stranded. No longer cool to be left alone!
So Long, London: This track blew me away. Of course it’s track 5! The intro reminds me a lot of Call It What You Want fromthe reputation album. Her voice is reminiscent of Lana Del Rey here, and the fast pace and consistent drum beat reminded me of You’re Losing Me from the Midnights Til Dawn album. I stopped CPR, after all it’s no use had my jaw drop when I first heard it, an obvious callback to You’re Losing Me’s Stop, you’re losing me / I can’t find a pulse / my heart won’t start anymore for you. Her own heartbeat is credited on You’re Losing Me as well as the song being the exact BPM you’d use for CPR. The drama in this track, referencing an ex-lover ruining her favorite place they had together, has tones of anger and resignment all at once.
But Daddy I Love Him: We’ll get the important part out of the way – she said my name! Not in the best context, but a win is a win! The storytelling in this song reminds me of Love Story – and now that I think about it, there’s a lot of songs on the first part of the anthology that reminds me of Fearless. My favorite lyric – sanctimoniously performing soliloquies I’ll never see so perfectly sums up celebrity culture in that everyone holds their opinion and loves to share, but she’ll never see it, so bless their heart (God save the most judgmental creeps). This is a song that points to multiple relationships, but I do think it comes full circle to Travis Kelce at the end – welcome to the Taylor Swift discography, Trav!
Fresh Out The Slammer: One of the verses – my friends tried, but I wouldn’t hear it – is again, another relatable lyric that made me laugh. Wearing imaginary rings feels like a callback to Lover’s Paper Rings to me as well.
Florida!!!: I love Florence + the Machine, so I was very excited for this collaboration – and it was everything I could have wanted. In an iHeartRadio interview, Taylor talks about Florida being a place to escape and skip town – a theme you could definitely see in the song, but she obviously didn’t mention the rumors of her relationship with Joe supposedly ending while on tour in Florida. In the line Little did you know your home’s really only / a town you’re just a guest in, I feel like she describes the feeling of returning home to a place that doesn’t feel like yours anymore – especially if the person there is detached as well.
Guilty as Sin?: This song feels like she’s trying to convince herself the relationship really was all that she had it chalked up to be in her mind – or was it? Am I allowed to cry? Is she allowed to mourn something that wasn’t truly good for her in the first place? When she makes the Jesus comparison in the bridge, ultimately ending with I choose you and me religiously, I feel like it’s a callback to False God from Lover.
Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?: Immediately I felt a connection to the song Willow off of evermore, from the opening line, the muted guitar plucking, the building chords, etc. I love the yell in the choruses, and the bridge takes the cake for me in this song. That I’m fearsome and wretched and I’m wrong / put narcotics into all my songs / and that’s why you’re still singing along ?! You’re kidding me! The rise of her fame was exponential this past year, with the Eras Tour, the movie, the multiple re-records, her introduction to the NFL crowd – and I love her message within this song. You can say what you want, but at the end of the day, you still know and sing along to my hits.
I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can): Let him go girl! I really like the sound within this song, reminding me of an old Western soundtrack especially with the overlapping reverb. Ultimately it didn’t stand out to me – but again – no skips on the album, so I’ll happily listen.
loml: Another Fearless-esque track, the cadence of the chorus called me back to White Horse immediately. The lyrics in this track tell me a complete story, but instead of taking a folkore-style spin (allegedly fictional), this album feels very clear it’s about all her own experiences within the heartbreak of a relationship. We get hit with a total sucker punch at the end, expecting loml to be ‘love of my life’ – but instead, loss of my life.
I Can Do It With a Broken Heart: Everyone (understandably) calls this back to Bejeweled, and I think thematically it certainly aligns – but the beat is so sonically Mastermind to me. Of course it’s track 13, all about how she can pull off the magnitude of a tour like the Eras Tour – even when her world is seemingly breaking down. I loved the humor in this one, how she doesn’t take herself so seriously. The laughing with Try and come for my job at the end is the perfect endcap to the song.
The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived: Maybe one of Taylor’s angriest songs yet? The barrage of point-blank questions littered throughout the song, heightened by the bridge and the building strings, emphasize her frustration with the subject in question. And I’ll forget you / but I’ll never forgive – if there’s one thing Taylor loves, it’s holding a grudge, and I love her for that.
The Alchemy: I did not expect an entire Travis Kelce love song on this album – but here it is! As a Kansas Citian, the idea of her dating a Chiefs player in KC is still the funniest thing to me and I still can’t wrap my head around it sometimes. The random football references littered through – while still eloquent, as only she can do – are too good. Where’s the trophy / he just comes running over to me – thank you, Kansas City 2024 Super Bowl Champs!
Clara Bow: Long Live, but make it a cautionary tale? She starts by referencing a singer looking like Clara Bow, an old Hollywood starlet who eventually suffered from mental illness, influenced from scrutiny from the media and overexposure. Stevie Nicks wrote a poem for the front of the album, and she’s referenced in the middle of the song here. Taylor was often compared to Stevie around the Speak Now/Red era on the rise of her career. The ending of the song – You look like Taylor Swift / in this light we’re loving it feels like a comforting ode to the next generation of stars, a reminder from Nothing New.
Overall, this album stood out to me from the first listen and I need to listen to part two of the anthology and dissect it more in order to do a full review justice. Can’t wait to listen to this 30000 more times!