Eras Rank!! 💚💛💜❤️💙🖤💖🌲🍂🌌✒️🤢 (rant incoming)
I dont like country music (also her voice is lowk bad on this one) bite me
11. The Life Of A Showgirl
Father Figure and Ruin The Friendship are the ONLY songs that redeem this mess of an album. There are so many reasons i hate this era but essentially i think it comes accross as extremely egocentric, obnoxiously privileged, and lacking completely in nuance, empathy and imagination. The lyricism is wordy sloppy cringeworthy downright abhorrent at points ("every joke's just trolling and memes" "did you girlboss too close to the sun" "boss up, settle down, got a wish list" "pledge alleigance to your hands your team your vibes" you get the idea these lyrics have been mocked to death already)
Wish list, Actually romantic, CANCELLED! And Eldest Daugher are some of the most conceited songs ever written and most of the album stinks of a victim complex. This is truly a stain on her discography.
Not to mention how the Fate Of Ophelia completely misunderstands the point of Hamlet and tells the story of a helpless damsel saved by big strong Travis which completely undermines everything Taylor claims she stands for when it comes to womens rights and to her own status as a powerful figure. Wood is a bad sabrina carpenter imitation (and i already dislike sabrina carpenter to begin with) and the rest of the "romance" songs about Travis sound like vague cliche platitudes devoid of actual originality or passion.
The worst song by far is Wish List. "They want that yatch life (...) And an Oscar on their bathroom floor (...) i just want you"
Are we forgetting, Taylor, that you HAVE the "yatch life" and are drowning in awards? What a strange implication that people who want wealth and fame and success, all the things you aspired to and now possess in EXCESS, are somehow morally beneath you? As if you aren't hoarding 1.6 BILLION dollars most of which you most DEFINATELY dont need. Stop trying to play tradwife, Taylor.
10. The Tortured Poets Department
There are several songs i really like on this album (Guilty as sin, I Hate It Here, So High School, Clara Bow, and a couple more) however considering that this album contains over 30 songs this does not redeem it.
Overwritten, pretentious, plodding, naval-gazing. Taylor trying to force herself into public image as a "poet" is extremely bizzare and on the nose- yes, folklore/evermore contained poetic lyricism, but this self promotion as a brooding poet is forced as fuck, not to mention self important.
"Who's Afraid Of Little Old Me" was a precursor to the victim-card fiesta that would become The Life Of A Showgirl.
I don't HATE this album. However, i'm not fond of country as it is, and i simply don't really like the sound of this album very much. There are some very decent songs on this album but i wouldn't choose to listen to it.
"Mean" is maybe her worst song ever, as well.
This can be sweet at times, but i do find it to be overly immature in many of it's narratives- i understand that she wrote it as a teenager, so this makes sense, however i'm not interested in listening to averagely written sulky breakup songs or bad analogies of shakespeare plays. The best songs on this album are the ones which lean into young romance in a fantastical, almost hyperbolic way, like Fearless and The Way I Loved You.
Obviously, this was a transition album for Taylor, and therefore experimental. She really hits the mark with a lot of the songs: Alll Too Well and Trecharous are beautifully written, while other songs like 22 are fun and upbeat. However there are quite a few songs on this album which are jarring and fail to achieve the balance taylor was going for- Stay Stay Stay is particularly terrible. This being her first attempt at pop also means although the songs are fun, they don't feel as well developed as later pop songs by her, and they can get irritating.
The good songs are GOOOOOOOD, the bad ones are BAAAAD. There is a decent amount of very mid tier material in here as well. ME! is a crime against humanity, while Paper Rings is a gift to humanity.
Very good album overall, although the lyrics are quite simple compared with what Tayor is capable of, however a few truly awful songs drag it down. End Game, I Did Something Bad, Look What You Made Me Do and This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things are the culprits. Taylor just can't pull of the "bad bitch" vibe she's going for in this era, which is evident in the fact that most of it is about love anyway, so these songs come accross as cringe and tarnish the overall effect of this era.
I really love this album! I think it achieves the intended effect of being kind of trippy and sleepy and luxurious in it's sound, and it is introspective, well written, covers interesting subject matter, and captures given emotions very well. I will say that some of the tracks on the Til Dawn edition deserved to be on the main album.
One of the best pop albums out there, period. The guitar riff on Style? God. This is such a fun album with interesting, well executed ideas and some of the most iconic songs Taylor has ever written.
The lyrics and storytelling, the gentle guitar, the yearning and aching and passion and grief and romance, ABSOLUTE PERFECTION. Ivy is my favoruite Taylor Swift song of ALL TIME. Evermore is more mature and understated than Folklore, but i believe it is so criminally underrated.
I think Taylor 100% peaked with Folklore. It balances poetry and realism, naivety and maturity, it tells stories with illustrative lyricism, exceptional instrumentation and gorgeous vocals- it is such a rich, complex album full of passion and heartache and nostalgia. Up there as one of the best albums ever for me.
Do you find my rank valid or outrageous?
yousharknotpass
gummygunk
