Since part 1 of this series, people have been telling me they’re excited for when I get to reputation. I built it up in my head. I created expectations. As we crept toward it each day, I imagined more and more what I thought it would be like. It’ll be gorgeous, delicate, with flowery melodies and soaring acoustic accompaniments. And then, as suddenly and unexpectedly as a snake pulling out a handgun and demanding the contents of my wallet in perfectly constructed iambic pentameter, it arrived.

Also I reviewed Lover.

But before we get into the albums, I forgot a couple of in-betweener songs from previous parts, so I’ve included them here.

**Non-Album Songs**

**I Don’t Wanna Live Forever (feat. ZAYN)**

This guy has a crazy sounding voice. It’s good, it’s just all the way up there. Cool music video, and I’m noticing that Taylor looks older now. Not in a bad way or anything, she just doesn’t look like a kid anymore. This video looks like something I would have enjoyed making. The combo of ZAYN and Taylor works well and I could’ve seen this being an album track.

**Monologue Song (SNL)**

I missed this one in the timeline, so I’m placing it here as a catch-up.

This was clever. I really enjoy humor in my music and if one of her albums was styled this way, I’d add it to the very short list of albums I revisit when I’m driving cross country. If you’ve gotten to know me well through this whole adventure, I hope you get how big a compliment that is.

_____

**reputation (2017)**

I’ve been told this is a polarizing album. Let’s do this.

**Q:** STOP RIGHT THERE. I’ve read your first impressions and you’re under arrest for music crimes.

**A:** Wait! I watched the Reputation Tour Movie on Netflix and it completely changed my opinion on the music! Please, don’t put me in Swiftie jail. There are Harry Styles fans in there!

**Q:** Explain, quickly. And use a lot of words so I know you mean it.

**A:** Thank you. First, let me contextualize how I ended up trashing the album on the first listen. I had built up a lot of expectations. I was charting Taylor’s growth as an artist, her buildup to putting together all the pieces within her country/pop fusion work, and perfecting her nice girl persona. I thought reputation would be the apex of this mountain that she’s been climbing. In a way, it was; but it wasn’t the stunning, beautiful view I anticipated. It was a gut check of grit and sex and attitude that was equivalent to having a bite of ice cream, expecting vanilla bean, and tasting mustard. That mustard ice cream is actually amazing, yes really we all love it, but you’re spitting it into the sink and asking why the world is punishing you. Also, don’t bite your ice cream, it’s upsetting everyone.

**A:** One of the drawbacks on missing out on the buildup to an album’s release, is that I miss all the marketing and setup. I’m flying blind here, so all I have is some album art and my experience with previous releases to calibrate my expectations. If I was there when it was being hyped, I would have seen her wipe her social media accounts, all the promotional art making her look like a pariah, and ultimately the performances of the music that package up all the things the media has been attacking her for, and her counterpunch to that ridiculous situation. She flipped her haters off with both hands and served up a flaming fastball of a pop album at the same time. It’s a glitch in the timeline of her career, so different, so fucked up and distorted as to be wholely unrecognizable, but undeniably Taylor Swift.

**A:** I could never have understood this album without the tour film. Thank God for u/medium-parsnip-4238 for catching that I was about to relisten to the album and telling me to watch the movie instead. I would have hated the album again, lost my momentum, and been torturing myself to keep this project going. Medium Parsnip, and the others who told me to check out that tour movie, kept this project on the rails.

**A:** It feels like Taylor wrote a stage show, and the album is just the soundtrack for it. The concepts on display here are incomplete without the visual. It’s no wonder that people can’t make their minds up about the album, and talk about how it clicked after they saw the tour movie. Imagine listening to the Rent soundtrack and not knowing what their block looks like. You’d get to the part about the art show and have no clue where Maureen’s influences came from.

**Q:** Hmm, so you’re saying you love the album now?

**A:** Nooooot exactly, no. I love the songs, and I’d skip around in here as a way to experience the tour movie the same way someone listens to a soundtrack, but I’m going to have a way harder time digesting the version of End Game where Ed Sheeran raps in his ridiculous accent, or Ready for It without Taylor’s dancing because all I’ll be able to picture is T Swizzle from Thug Story. Getaway Car is full of vocal rhythm changes that are jarring when not supplemented by what’s happening on stage. Look What You Made Me Do can come off like a child’s tantrum, because IT IS, but IT’S THEATER, and if you listen to Taylor Swift to hear how she’s feeling, she’s going to come off like an idiot. Dress is way too sexed up for me as a listener, and I struggled to watch it even on film. This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things is another tantrum, but when you see it on stage, all the sudden it sounds like Hard Knock Life from fucking ANNIE, with the attitude of the fucking PUNISHER.

**A:** Also, there’s something to be said that the presentation of these songs, whether on the album or on stage, chokes out the messages she baked into the writing. You have to get out a decoder ring and read the lyrics without the music playing to understand some of these stories, and that just plain isn’t going to do it for some fans who are used to her presenting her narratives in a very straightforward and honest way. Simply put, this album is a beautiful lie, and if you’re going to be a fan of it, you have to look for the truth.

**Q:** You’re straining the Q&A format, Alex. Nobody even remembers that this is supposed to be a funny bit.

**A:** That’s not a question.

**Q:** Ahem, is there anything else you want to tell us before we read all your heinous first impressions?

**A:** Yeah, read and be amazed as a 33 year old man takes it personally when a girl with a guitar writes some things he doesn’t immediately comprehend. This is a case study in my own fragility as a person. On occasion I’ll write a second impression (look for Broke/Woke tags), but consider this preamble my true feelings about this entry in Taylor’s discography. Also, I watched the music videos for reputation right before finishing this post. They would’ve helped contextualize this thing a lot, too. Keep in mind that my reactions to those come from AFTER I saw the tour movie. Enjoy!

**…Ready for It?**

Who the fuck? Points for trying something different and taking a creative risk but I wasn’t….Ready for It. T Swizzle got me spinning. The start and stop between chorus and verse is good. If this is the groove we’re going to be in all album, I better get comfortable with it.

Music video: Hey, this is the bladerunner aesthetic I was looking for on the last album! This music video is so much fun. The nude Taylor robot is definitely a “the old Taylor is dead” moment. Feels like what Wrecking Ball was for Miley Cyrus or something, idk I didn’t pay that close of attention. The robot looks kind of like Cortana. If I saw this music video before the tour was announced, I’d be hyped to buy tickets. OH SHIT the real Taylor was the robot! This also had some Westworld vibes, too.

**End Game (feat. Ed Sheeran and Future)**

IDK who Future is but I wasn’t anticipating this being my future when I finished the last album. Hey, look, Ed Sheeran. Is he rapping? Do I have a fever? I feel ill. Ed Sheeran is rapping about how it’s natural for both good and bad things to end up in your songs. Good point, Ed Sheeran. I wonder if I would like this if I had listened to more R&B. But I haven’t listened to more R&B, because it’s not what I groove with. These first two tracks have been like hot tar on my skin.

Music video: I just realized I’ve seen people talk in game threads that Taylor is thinking End Game with Travis Kelce and that finally makes a little more sense, lol. This music video isn’t my favorite. I just don’t vibe with the aesthetic they’re going for, but I can recognize some hallmarks of rap and R&B music videos in here. Is she in Tokyo? Man, I just can’t stand Ed Sheeran rapping.

**I Did Something Bad**

Broke: I’m not smart enough to know if the songs are getting less bad or if my ears are going numb. This feels really reactionary. Whoever’s going r-r-r-r-r-atata in the background, your mom’s a ho.

Woke: This is the most fun song on the album. It pushes and pulls the listener, then tricks them into getting comfortable so Taylor can break them again. Sorry I called your mom a ho.

**Don’t Blame Me**

Broke: “They say she’s gone too far this time.” I’ll say it. I’ll say it twice. She’s gone too far this time. Come back Taylor. We miss you. Your parents and I are worried. Is it the love? Did the love make you crazy? It doesn’t have to end like this. Get off the drug. Don’t use for the rest of your life. Get Clean.

Woke: This song is bizarrely cozy. I feel like lounging in a huge, fluffy blanket and sipping something strong while I listen to it and watch a fashion show. This also has one of the more straightforward stories on the album. And she calls herself Poison Ivy! I SAID THAT YESTERDAY!

**Delicate**

My reputation’s never been worse, so you must like me for me is an incredible lyric laid to ruin within an album which was designed to poison me, and it feels personal. I’m mad that I’m starting to like this song a little bit because that last sentence felt really good to write. The fact she’s saying the situation she’s in is delicate, it feels true and real. Is it chill that you’re in my head? You don’t have to be so concerned. Where did your confidence go? You rule the world, man.

Music video: “Dive bar on the east side” while she’s walking through the nicest hotel I’ve ever seen, lol. The story they’re telling with the music video is FANTASTIC. Her making faces to herself is so cute and actually quite impressive from a physical control and acting perspective. I wish she could have two lifetimes so she could have gone into movies and TV.

This is my favorite music video I’ve seen by a long shot. She’s so happy that nobody can see her anymore. This is the mix of outward joy, internal sadness, and silly humor that made me fall in love with BNL in the 2000s. This makes me feel so happysad.

**Look What You Made Me Do**

Broke: Whoops, this chorus went too hard. Honey, I rose up from the dead I do it all the time / I’ve got a list of names and yours is in red underlined slaps so hard I thought it might’ve been my wife striking me across the face, begging me to wake up from whatever stupor I’m in to think this was Taylor Swift’s next album. Look what I made you do? BRO. IT WASN’T ME. WHY ARE YOU PUNISHING ME. This song should play on a loop in the Aeropostale outlet.

Woke: This song should play on a loop in the Abercrombie outlet. And the whole place should overwhelmingly smell of $35 cologne. 😛

Music video: SPOOKY TIME LET’S GO. Zombie Taylor pulling the gravestone is the visual gag I needed. She just bit the bejeweled rope, I’ve seen that image somewhere. She just crashed a car! For those of us following the car lore, this is basically her saying the ride’s over, and she ended it violently. Please don’t let dominatrix Taylor find out I’m watching. Hey, it’s finally that goth taylor from the Capital One commercial! Was understanding the references in that commercial part of the reason I did this? Not remotely, but it is one of the biggest perks.

Why? Cuz she’s dead! Super fast flash of zombie Taylor. The direction of her music videos has so consistently improved. This skit at the end with all the Taylors and her defaced private jet is comedy gold. I can totally believe I got 3 amazing music videos out of this album, it’s perfect for it. Like I said, this album is a show.

**So It Goes…**

I think I finally understand what this album’s sound reminds me of. There was a period of time where I played Madden, and Madden NFL 2018 had a bunch of songs that sounded like they were recorded in empty parking garages that were also under water somehow. Everyone sounded like they had wet hair while they were recording their music. Tires squealed in the distance. Someone slammed a car door and yelled an expletive. It was a confusing time. These songs make me feel like I’m reading my Madden Mail before putting in my free agent signings.

**Gorgeous**

Broke: “You should take it as a compliment that I got drunk and made fun of the way you talk.” Easy, Taylor, I’m supposed to be the one writing outrageous things and getting credit for being funny and/or annoying. Whisky on ice, Sunset and Vine? Is she singing about that app with the short videos? This song does sound like something she’d listen to in a hot tub, five feet apart cuz she’s not Tay. And I stand by it, she’s a different person in this album outside of the occasional slick lyric.

Woke: Aww, she has cats at home. The synth that sounds like a kalimba (?) that plays the four climbing tones throughout the song are my favorite sound on the album.

**Getaway Car**

Broke: Please, Taylor. Write me a song about you being in the passenger’s seat of a getaway car. I need a scrap. A shred of something to hold on to. Well, true to the car songs, there’s an interesting relationship story in here. I just wish it wasn’t wrapped in a Gran Turismo noise machine. That’s not entirely fair, the R&B vibes are subsiding a little bit but we’ve still got someone who set their phone down on a synth and it’s keeping the keys depressed through the whole song.

Woke: Honestly I don’t like it. I get what she’s going for and it doesn’t work for me here when it might work elsewhere. She has a great dance for it, though. “This circus ain’t a love story” is a cute meta reference.

**King of My Heart**

Broke: (entry missing)

Woke: I couldn’t pay attention to the song because the dude that dances with her for this part of the show was SO GOOD. The man matched her intensity and contrasted her sharpness without ever drawing attention away from her except where it was clearly intended. Good job, dancing guy.

**Dancing With Our Hands Tied**

I recognize this drop! Man, it feels like forever since I heard something I recognized. It’s not like I’ve heard much but is there not a radio hit on this album? Or was I so far gone from music by this point that I straight up missed it?

**Dress**

Send her straight to horny jail. This album really isn’t for me. I’m almost done. It’s almost over.

**This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things**

Broke: Taking an axe to a mended fence is considered a FELONY in my neighborhood. For SHAME. Man, she’s so mad. So mad. Once again, so reactionary. I want nice girl Taylor back.

Woke: You can have Nice Girl Taylor back later. Right now we’re in our attitude era.

**Call It What You Want**

Broke: She doesn’t sound like she’s doing better than she ever was. Maybe she feels like she is, fine. But I have to take her word for it. I’ll call it what I want: this whole album sounds like a car crash. This woman was a ray of sunshine and whatever the media and fame did to her is a goddamn tragedy. At least, according to her, she’s happy.

Woke: Once you realize this album is a performance, it’s a lot easier to understand that this is her pulling back the curtains a little bit and talking about what she’s feeling during all of this. It’s refreshing and easy to listen to. And when she says she’s the one he’s walking to, I hear that as her saying that when her guy is walking, he’s listening to her music. That’s a really powerful statement to me for whatever reason.

**New Year’s Day**

Oh my God, she’s still alive in there somewhere. This song is delicate and rich with bare wood visual clarity. She hit me right in center mass when she sang please don’t become a stranger whose laugh I could recognize anywhere. I’ve forgotten so many faces of friends from old places. Ooh, that rhymed. See how bad I needed this song, Taylor? It brought out a little song lyric of my own. I feel like I can feel the chill air blowing in from outside when she says they’re carrying their shoes down to the lobby.

**Final Thoughts On reputation:**

This one almost broke me, and I came out the other side believing for the first time that I’d want to go to a Taylor Swift concert. I didn’t want to see the Eras tour movie, but now I do, and you’ll see my review of it as the epilogue to this series. Favorite song? New Year’s Day, you can keep the rest. Favorite performances? Gorgeous, Delicate, Look What You Made Me Do, and This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things, in no particular order. Totally loved each of them.

_____

**Lover (2019)**

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

**I Forgot That You Existed**

SHE’S BACK, BITCH. Taylor, you would not believe what happened. Someone released an album under your name and it was So. Bad. Man, I love how bouncy and honest this song is. It’s biting but warm and cute. I love this song. I love that this doesn’t sound like rep. I’m so happy right now. Yes, I went straight from rep to this in desperation before going back and cleaning up those entries. I needed to know if I was going to be in music jail for the rest of the time. But she sounds fun again! Please don’t be an isolated incident.

Post-wiki: This confirms for me that she’s closing the book on reputation with this song. We’re on to new stuff now, she’s excited about it, let’s keep moving.

**Cruel Summer**

I’ve heard this chorus! We’re BACK! I hear some of the wubs from rep in here but it’s married much more closely to her lyrical style and writing. “I love you, ain’t that the worst thing you ever heard??” The way she yells grinning like the devil is so good. This track has attitude and I love it.

**Lover**

Who’s going to tell Taylor that leaving the Christmas lights up until January is totally normal? This is a smoky lounge song, and I want to sit on a red felt couch with a drink stain while I listen to it. She’s playing way looser with her vocal rhythm, really sounding masterful when handling her voice over music.

Post-wiki: I agree with Taylor that this song sounds timeless, and if you’re setting out trying to hit that target, you’re in for a hell of a challenge. She delivered.

Music video: Another brilliantly directed and executed music video. Are all music videos this good these days? Or is she just killing it? I love this dollhouse perspective on her life. This isn’t my favorite song on the album, but I like it a lot still. I think I just really like this album in general.

**The Man**

What, uh, what do you mean by this? You don’t want to be like Leo. Oh, oh ok I get it. Yeah, if you were a male singer/songwriter you very likely would have had a significantly smoother experience up to this point. But don’t leave the quiet part unspoken. You’re still white and from a wealthy background. Oops.

Post-wiki: I was a mean and defensive person in my initial reaction. I think it’s cool that she explored this topic in a song. It’s a poignant question, and an uncomfortable topic for people like me who have privilege and struggle to confront the reality that some people experience barriers in life that I don’t have to. I like that she consciously decided to make it a catchy song so that people would have to deal with the message. Gender inequality is a trip, and while I’m on the benefit side, I feel hamstrung when I talk about it.

Music video: the caricature she’s developed for this music video is funny, sure, but I feel personally attacked that I own the shirt Male Taylor was wearing on the yacht. Yes, I like expensive, outrageously loud shirts, it’s a weakness. I’m a shoes, shirt, and bag kinda man. I like to wear things that don’t use their inside voice. If I was a woman and dressed like that, people would say things about me that they don’t say now. I get the point. LMAO the vignette at the end where she’s the director telling the actor to be more likable is a great touch and I liked that they showed her prosthetic transformation into the guy.

**The Archer**

Here’s a song that Taylor couldn’t have written a decade prior. She’s lived a lot of life now and she’s occupied all sides of the love game. There has to be a middle ground between archer and prey before you’ll know who’ll stay. I feel like your persona had that figured out a few albums ago, but maybe it was me giving out free credit. Combat? Wow that song ended on a really interesting note and I think I get it. Good for you.

**I Think He Knows**

Oh, she’s a predator. It’s crazy to me that girls can say they like a boyish man. Imagine if I said that about a woman. I’d be on a list. I do like hearing aggressive sexy Taylor, and I didn’t think I would. It’s a fun angle and a catchy song.

Post-wiki: Oh, it’s about Joe! I know of him because people say they like Travis Kelce a lot better. Is Joe the one that people said was ‘hiding her away?’ I feel like that’s pretty small-minded considering what Taylor wrote in her song, The Lucky One.

**Miss Americana & the Heartbreak Prince**

Okay! I love that interjection, haha. I like this song a whole lot. It’s such a weird, skewed retelling of her younger perspective. Approaches like this are what I want from a full-fledged, award-winning creative Taylor Swift. I’m not above getting a Go/Fight/Win tattoo. But that’s for a different bet, I’ve already done enough off the back of this one. What’s that? We’re not even halfway through the album releases? Ohhh. Whose idea was it to cover the Taylor’s Versions separately?! Me? Me who!

Post-wiki: I missed a little of the storytelling angle she was taking, but we’re getting toward a point when the depth of her writing is going to outstrip my ability to digest a song in a single listen. I’m still considering that tattoo idea.

**Paper Rings**

You could convince me this was a song was on Red. Man, I like this album so much more than rep. Sorry to keep saying it. Ooh, score one for driving-with-a-boy bingo. I noticed she didn’t say who was driving, maybe she finally got her license after the whole Getaway Car fiasco.

**Cornelia Street**

Again, her syncopated vocals are so masterful. This is something she got good at during rep and she’s applying the skill over some less insane songs to great effect.

Post-wiki: I’m glad there was info on this one because I really didn’t get the context. This is about the memories set around her old apartment. I really get the impact of that for her, and for a long time I’ve planned to write an autobiography using the same draw, but after hearing this song I’m concerned that readers would have the same reaction that I had to this song, which was to fail my attempt to connect with her memories. Maybe it’s a problem of medium, and I could help make that connection by using the breadth of space I can write in, while she is confined by the restrictions of her lyrical format. Look at me, pretending I can leverage some trick to write a better product than Taylor Swift. Ha!

**Death by a Thousand Cuts**

She do be drinking in these albums. Yo! SLOW DOWN. Too many good lines in a row. Back it up.

I dress to kill my time / I take the long way home / I ask the traffic lights if it’ll be alright / they say, “I don’t know”

Oh man, it keeps going. One for the ages / but if the story’s over / why am I still writing pages?

It didn’t keep giving, but that was the best verse of her career by my measure, and it was fitting that those lines started in a car.

Post-wiki: AAAAAaaahhhhggh. I was afraid this song was about mental health, but I didn’t realize she was playing with the concept that if your life is ‘settled,’ you’re dead creatively. Does using the turbulence of life as an energy source for your creativity doom you to powerlessness if the waters calm? It can make a creative person fear happiness and stability. The truth of the matter, and I’ve lived it, is that a healthy home life and the warmth that comes with it is an environment wonderfully suited to exploring creativity. Without my wife, I couldn’t have explored half of the creative projects I’ve spent my adult life pouring time into, this project included. I’m forever grateful to her for supporting me in my desire to create and risk time and resources on things that might have no outward value, but that matter so much to me. I’m glad Taylor succeeded in writing her heartbreak song without needing the real-world equivalent to generate it. When she said her reaction to being able to do it was to think, “It’s still here! Yes!,” I realize that this is a lesson I got to learn much sooner in my life than she did.

**London Boy**

Pip pip and all that, I guess. He did not just say he would take her on a drive on his, uh, skootah. She’s a shotgun seat girl, mate. Ooh, I like how it sounded like the record player had turned off and started slowing down during that transition at EXACTLY the 1 minute mark. The rest of this song is basically just naming places though. Groovy though, yeah baby yeaaahh.

Post-wiki: It makes more sense now that I know who the heck Joe is. Kick rocks, Joe, we have football games to go to and there’s no skootah parking!…sorry man.

**Soon You’ll Get Better (feat. The Chicks)**

Oh, we religious now. Is someone sick? I hope her parents are ok. The last song she wrote about illness was Rowan and that was devastating. Oh crap, somebody is definitely ill. Please don’t be her mom.

Post-wiki: FUCK.

Post-post-wiki: She’s still alive! It sounds like both of her parents are okay, but have struggled with medical problems. That’s a very relatable thing. When my dad had a heart attack in 5pm traffic in L.A., I thought for sure he was dead. I wrote what I would read out at his funeral so that I could find a way to deal with the emotions I felt. I hope Taylor got the catharsis she needed when she wrote this, and I think it’s very cool that the choice to put it on the album was a family decision.

**False God**

I’m not sure where to put this song in my mind. I’m not particularly religious but a lot of my life has been shaped by religion for better and for worse. I want to unpack the themes but I feel like I’ll take it in the wrong direction unless I check the wiki first. It was mercifully short.

Post-wiki: NOTHING? C’mon, I wanted to steal an opinion about the song without forming one of my own! I’m not giving it another listen, I still have like a hundred songs to do! Fingers crossed that I can find some answers in the comments here.

**You Need to Calm Down**

Don’t hate on people drinking Patron at 7am, Ke$ha brushed her teeth with a bottle of Jack and everybody loved it. Oh hey, I know this chorus. Not like, a lot but the way she says “stressin’ and obsessin’ ’bout somebody else is no fun” rang a bell. This song actually feels kind of empty. I’m not sure if it’s the backing track or what. I’m getting that it’s a song about calling out homophobic haters on the internet but I wish it was…IDK, better.

Post-wiki: I LOVE that this song was Taylor’s way of saying “touch grass.”

Music video: Kitty watch! I love this pastel pink trailer and that back tattoo. She looks a little bit like Paris Hilton here, haha. This is yet another cool concept for a music video. I can understand someone having a small number of high effort music videos, but so many of these are incredibly well executed and interesting. This one isn’t as high production as some, but it’s almost a Wes Anderson movie of a video. Hey, is that Hannah from My Drunk Kitchen?? Oh Jesus, the way they grab the cakes. Holy shit, the burger girl and fry Taylor are in love. Ryan Reynolds?! Wait wait I saw him and his wife with Taylor at one of the Kansas City games. I bet they’re friends.

**Afterglow**

That first verse deserves a trophy. Rhythmic, meaningful, interesting. This sound is what I think of when I think female-led pop song. I don’t know if that’s bad but it’s such a fitting sound. I guess we are getting pretty close to contemporary. OH DAMN. I just realized this album came out like six months before COVID. I wonder how the tour was affected.

**ME! (feat. Brendon Urie)**

Ah, here we go. I was wondering where the radio hit would be on this album. Turns out it’s buried all the way down here! I like Panic! At The Disco and I recognized that guy’s voice right away. So many of these songs have lines that end with an upward inflection and it’s about to run out of cool points.

Post-wiki: There’s some info here about how Taylor teased the release of this single with a mural by a prominent street artist in Nashville. That’s cool. I’ve heard some people talk about the creative ways she hints about her projects.

Music video: my wife and I also treat our pets like our children. What a strange way to start this one. I am so lost! This music video’s palette is giving serious Easter vibes though. Is it the Panic! energy informing some of the strangeness of this music video? If so, I kind of like that. Oop, we’re all the way up in this guy’s heart box now. I think there was an episode of Adventure Time that took place in a club inside someone’s chest, too. Bet you weren’t expecting me to draw a parallel between a Taylor Swift music video and a cartoon by Pen Ward! This music video has great energy.

**It’s Nice to Have a Friend**

I like steel drums. I grew up listening to Jimmy Buffett in the car with my dad, who used to race sailboats in the Gulf of Mexico. The sound of those drums is tied to a bunch of memories. I actually had to restart the song to shake it off. This song sounds like being married and it’s nice.

**Daylight**

I wonder what lines Taylor has crossed with people. This song makes me feel like she’s coming out of the dark she was in for rep. I have no idea if that’s fitting because I haven’t read the rep wiki stuff to get a clear view of what the hell happened. I’m sure I’ll be back here to re-assess once I finally return to it. I’ve done this whole review without reading or refreshing anything from my first impressions of that album. It was an experience. Sorry to keep talking about it.

**Final Thoughts on Lover:**

This was the album I thought I was getting when I got to reputation. It’s the apotheosis of her writing style that I was after, married to the pop sound I expected. Definitely my favorite album up to this point. My top songs were: I Forgot You Existed, Lover, You Need To Calm Down, It’s Nice to Have a Friend, and You’ll Get Better, not necessarily in that order.

_____

**Non-Album Songs**

**All of the Girls You Loved Before**

I’m completely oblivious to any sort of pop music meta, but does Taylor chase trends with her music, or set them, or both? I’m sure it also has to do with how the production goes, too. I bring it up because this doesn’t sound like anything I’ve listened to before, but it’s undeniably a pop sound. I don’t know how to reconcile that. I really like the concept she’s exploring here. All the girls you’ve loved before made you the one I’ve fallen for? I have absolutely no clue how to reconcile that either. But good for you, seriously. I got married to my wife young, and when we talked about it we agreed we wanted to keep growing together. I can’t imagine meeting someone who has all these past relationships that shape them into who you’re in love with. Neat idea, I love that for you.

**Beautiful Ghosts**

Let’s goooooo CATS. I like Cats, and I haven’t seen the movie so I’m unspoiled for this song. Taylor could definitely have been one of the greatest voices of Broadway if she had wanted to be, I have no doubt. She has the vocal and performance chops to crush stage music. I’d pay to hear a Broadway hits cover album.

**Christmas Tree Farm**

I’m a big fan of Christmas music (Charlie Brown Christmas is my JAM). But if you count that as me listening to music, you are a silly person. This song is super. It nails the mood, retains Taylor’s signature storytelling style, and it even has a music video composed of home movies. 5 stars…4 mocking birds, three French hens, etc.

**Only the Young**

Ooh, this is from Miss Americana. I intend to watch that but I don’t know if it’ll be until next week once I’m done with all this. Except it might help me deal with my problems with rep, which I STILL haven’t returned to. Who is this big bad man she’s takling about? Is it an…orange…person? Is that why only the young can save us? Do I have terminal online brain rot?

**Lover (feat. Shawn Mendes)**

Is this song improved by the Shawn Mendes collab? Yes. It is. But I like the original better. The mood was so different as a solo performance, even if the duet sounds so good. 5 stars….4 mocking birds, three Fren–stop stop stop stop