It’s taken me so long to write about Folklore. I want to get it right, but I don’t want to alter the experiment. At one point, I considered cutting this album from the timeline and placing it at the end. I spent 2 hours on the debut album. I spent 7 on rep. But I’ve spent two days thinking about folklore. With rep I went an album into the future before going back to it. I finished Taylor’s discography before rereading my first impressions of folklore. It was a lot easier to post these when I wasn’t taking it this seriously. I got things wrong. I didn’t understand a lot of it. I misinterpreted things. It’s so rough, I decided not to read the wiki. If I did, I wouldn’t have the strength not to edit my first impressions. I’m scared that you are going to skip this intro and go straight to these reviews and then tell me I missed the mark. It’s ok – I know now. It’s my favorite album and my worst review. For that, I implore you:

Lower your expectations. Yes, YOU! Right there, with your hand curled under your chin and your phone balanced with your pinky finger. I SEE YOU, and I feel you getting comfortable that these reviews are going to be a certain way. You need to acknowledge right now that these albums are plum lush with depth and character, and I’m just a guy listening to everything once. I even went back and listened to the pond sessions and I STILL didn’t have time to process all this material. They’re big. W I D E. Deep. They’ve got dimension. How many other ways do I need to phrase this before you skip ahead? DON’T! Stop right thereyoustopwriggling fuck you’re slippery, what’s your skin routine?

Listen. These are my favorite albums. I like them. I’m not head over heels for them. I’ve got gripes. Music is an incredibly varied and nuanced medium and it was nigh impossible for Taylor Swift to end up being my favorite artist. I like her a lot, honestly I like Taylor the person markedly more than I like Taylor the musician, and the musician is pretty darn good. But even though these albums hit my feel good buttons, they’re not going to change my life and I’m most certainly not going to catch everything on the first pass. Good? Good. Good talk. We’re good. You good?

**folklore (2020)**

COVID ALBUM STRAP IN LET’S RIIIIIIDE

I love this album, but it’s not good enough. Not yet. I got lost in it, and came out the other end not knowing what time it is. I’ve spent this whole exercise casually enjoying her stuff. Now I need one to sit with. I’d settle for just one album that makes me forget my name while it’s on.

**the 1**

Ayy she’s doin good and she’s on some new shit. That’s great to hear. Good for you, dear. I think? I think I’m about to have my feel good album. I deserve this. If this is the vibe of the sad song about the guy who would’ve been the one, I’m gonna be able to chill with this whole affair. “The greatest loves of all time are over now” is a poignant observation. You have to live out the greatest things for the next group to call them that. I’ll be interested to hear the backstory on this track.

**cardigan (Music Video)**

What is sensual politics?? Aw. You put me on and said I was your favorite. That’s sweet. I’m trying to be an adult about what she said right before that. Did it work? She’s kissing in cars, that’s another one for passenger’s seat bingo. Oh man, it’s getting sad now. Peter losing Wendy? Who gave you permission to poke that ancient wound? Neither of them deserved to lose the other.

**the last great american dynasty**

For those playing along at home, I am now going back to finish my reputation review block because this album makes me feel safe and I’m ready to tackle my demons. Be right back. See you yesterday.

I return a better person. The personal nature of this album, and the storytelling, are exactly what I would ask for in an album that came out during COVID. I have a million words I want to write about what that time was like, but I’ll suffice to say that what I needed from my media was a feel like I was 1 on 1 with it. I wanted it to be close to me. I was afraid and wanted to huddle up close for safety. Which, ironically, would have violated social distancing. Thank God for digital distribution.

This song is narratively dense. One of the things I heard about Taylor Swift from the Game Thread (Taylor’s Version)’s was that some of her songs felt like they could have been books. That’s what sparked my interest in her in the first place, and I feel like I’m getting that now.

Alex, why haven’t you dissected the story? Well, dear reader, the denser these get, the less I’ll have the ability to unpack them from my first listen. Remember the mission – we gotta get through every single song in a week. We’re more than half through, if I spend an hour on each song we will fail. Taylor’s music needs more than I can give it now for this first pass. It’s ok. There’s a lot more days in the calendar for me to enjoy its richness. Tsk tsk, stop; don’t ask me if I’m going to start listening to music again after this is over, you won’t like the answer.

**exile (feat. Bon Iver)**

This guy has a really rustic and western voice. Don’t ask me to explain what I mean, I can’t figure it out. I like it. The feel of this album is what I’ve wanted from the jump, and it’s such a great payoff for this whole experiment. The piano is so delicate and the vocal performances float on top like a cloud over gentle waves.

This song occupies the same space as The Last Time for me. I would enjoy listening to them back to back.

**my tears ricochet**

It’s funny. Nowadays I’m looking for something to break up the pace, keep the album from being one note. But when it came out, that’s not what I would have wanted at all. I was a bottomless pit of media consumption that wanted to be flooded with consistent and uniform experiences. I wanted a buffet where every offering was the same comfort food over and over again. That’s what this album feels like so far, tonally.

**mirrorball**

I’m nostalgic for this album and I’ve never heard it before. This song feels like she’s writing about how she reflects what her audience’s myriad faces are. She’s making music for them as much as herself, it wouldn’t surprise me if there was some of that in this song’s meaning.

**seven**

She does a great job capturing the childlike vocal rhythm for the verses: “pack your dolls and a sweater, we’ll move to India forever” is one example, it has the same rhythm of a jump rope chant. I resonate strongly with the message she’s tackling here. I’m a really nostalgic person and it elicits a bunch of memories from me that I’ll save you from reading here.

**august**

That’s it – the way Taylor writes a song, it’s like watching a storm forming on the horizon, and feeling the temperature change with the wind.

I’m glad Taylor is this musician, and I’m glad that Taylor isn’t JUST this musician. It was really smart of her to embrace the encouragement to experiment with her music. She never got stale, and we can enjoy an album like this without it making her discography feel oversaturated with songs like it. I wonder if recording these made her look forward to doing rerecords of her old music.

As I’m writing this I’m constantly making notes for myself to remember things I want to say. The further along we get, I feel like I’ve settled in and I hear myself thinking, it’s ok to not worry about nothing that. When we get there, I’ll know what to do. I trust me.

I don’t have time to talk about how they did the camera work in this cabin studio but I want you to know I appreciate the intelligence of it. We’re on the other side now but I miss when the world was ending, it was like falling asleep in the bath.

**this is me trying**

It’s been a little bit since I unnecessarily called out that she mentioned being in the car. She did it. Just there, she said she pulled the car off the road to the lookout. Does it fit the thematic line I was trying to pull earlier on? No, not really. “I got wasted like all my potential” don’t make me laugh, this woman is one of the most actualized and successful creative talents in history. I get that she can feel that about herself though, and express that she’s working on herself. But its not really about her, is it?

**illicit affairs**

Ah. She’s getting tired. I’m tired too. It’s inevitable to get desensitized to the things that used to bring you joy. It doesn’t mean you don’t still want it, but the color gets drained from that former source of brightness. There’s a magic trick involved in letting life breathe back in some of the joy to those things.

**invisible string**

This song about reflection over where you ended up as a person, it aligns so closely with what I would write for myself, in long form, if I was ready. I have a dozen ways I want to do it, all drawn out and planned. I wonder if I’ll ever flesh them out.

**mad woman**

This song is meta as hell. She sounds like she’s writing about material she’s written, without dropping the feeling that she’s also writing about something fresh. The ability to do both at the same time is rare and the result of refining an already impressive skillset. Good shit.

**epiphany**

The way this song starts is really nice. Is this song about military service? Oh, this is COVID so being a medical professional is like being in war. Holding your hand through plastic…yeah. I’m not sure what her meaning is for only 20 minutes to sleep but when COVID started I was only sleeping a couple hours a night, just doom-scrolling every night until the sun came up.

**betty**

Harmonica yay! Oh jeez, what did you do to Betty? This song is ~~…this is it. I’m going to ask you to please do something. Listen to the Barenaked Ladies song [I Live With It Every Day](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU4rGpbmo4c). Don’t overreact to the ridiculous sounds (it’s silly so it can get serious later), listen to the lyrics, and then once it softens at 2:20, you might feel a little bit like I feel right now. On the edge of tears. I’ve listened to nearly 200 songs now. Please listen to this one.~~

Fuck.

Earlier on I would’ve thought that Taylor stole Betty’s girlfriend…or shamed her for being gay? Now I don’t care what she did. It doesn’t matter. I just want to listen to this song over again and be alone.

**peace**

Mm, we are post coming of age for sure. I’m not ready to share how this is making me feel. Is this a Joe song? Is she saying she feels his family is her family and she would have his children? And shes worried that she can’t give him peace because of all the attention she gets? Oh, no. I hope I’m wrong and it’s a fictional one.

**hoax**

I had taken solace up to this point in the fact that it was easy for me to joke and have fun with how I portrayed myself in these reviews. That’s getting harder and my words sting a little now when I pull them out and place them down. I know what she’s talking about now when she says “this was just as hard as when they pulled me apart.” No other sadness in the world would do, yeah that’s a line. The silences between each track have been getting longer.

**the lakes**

This is powerful. I need to watch the long pond studio sessions and think about how I’m going to write a final thoughts on this album.

**Need**

This song is gorgeous, and whatever the effect is on the chorus, I wish more songs felt like this. I listened to the piano version since it was all I could find and it was wonderful.

**Final Thoughts On Folklore:**

I despise that I don’t have time to listen to this album 5 times and give it the time it deserves. With the exception of rep, each of Taylor’s albums up to this point has been easy enough to grasp with a single listen. There’s so much more here than there was in Fearless. We just. Don’t. Have. Time. Favorite tracks? Buddy, who knows. I don’t know yet. TLGAD, Illicit Affairs, Cardigan, Betty…Don’t ask me right now.

**evermore (2020)**

**willow**

Great start. Taylor really knows how to open an album. The guitar here is more interesting than I’m used to from her music. Actually, so is the melody. The song has shifted tone halfway through as well. COVID has been good to our girl. Wreck my plans, that’s my man. That’s one of the first lines that really felt sexy to me. That and Go! Fight! Win!

**champagne problems**

Ever been on a night train? It’s such an all consuming mood. The world becomes a tiny place. Holy shit, she just referenced a Chevy door and the strings are going. That’s a shot to the spine. Flannel cute, ooh. This composition has depth while staying simple. She did the thing where she twists the perspective at the end, that’s a good move. I also liked how she played with the piano keys for a second after it ended.

**gold rush**

I like how she’s telling me what she doesn’t like. She’s running the vocal rhythm moves hard here. That’s something I really enjoy from her. This one went by quick.

**‘tis the damn season**

What a title! I wish I had written “there’s an ache in you put there by the ache in me.” I wish that was mine. Seeing old sights in the car, Taylor? Mud on truck tires? She really is thinking about her hometown. Is this biographical? I think I saw something about this album being entirely about her while Folklore was more fictional. I might have that backwards.

**tolerate it**

I haven’t mentioned it but I like the choice to have track titles in under case. Oh, she’s watching someone tolerate her. I wouldn’t be shocked if this was about John Mayer. I don’t know what this kind of vocal performance is called. Choral?

**no body, no crime (feat. HAIM)**

Don’t panic but we’re on our country shit. She’s telling one of those stories. This one is certainly not about her, lol. She’s hitting that visual of truck tires again, it’s a button she pushes to illicit certain feelings and visions. She twisted the perspective again! She loves that move. What a fun story.

**happiness**

I like that she uses curse words like a normal person even though it gets her the explicit tag. She knows her fans have grown up enough to not care. She’s really digging to hit some low notes there and it sounds good. Oh no, is this song about her and Joe breaking up after their long relationship? I loved the mood of it.

**dorothea**

Is it really so uncommon that Taylor sings her own harmony that this is the first time I’ve noticed it in a verse? This song is one to sway to. This Dorothea lady sounds like a character.

**coney island (feat. The National)**

I’ve got another coney island song that I really like, but it’s about going back to it. She’s been talking about shattering someone in a few tracks. Dropping a glass heart, or here she’s accidentally crushing something. Oh shit, there’s a cowboy here. Hello, sir. Yeehaw, amigo. I can’t do this guys voice for whatever reason. He just sounds like he’s supposed to be roping steer right now. Yeah, I don’t like it. I’m sorry he got into an accident though.

**ivy**

Ooh, where does the spirit meet the bones, anyway? This might be my favorite track since the first. Gorgeous banjo stuff going on and the harmony, it’s right where I want to be. I’d quote my favorit lines but it’d be the whole song. Is him putting roots in her Dreamland a sexy thing? Because I feel like it’s much more about her mind.

**cowboy like me**

Good evening sir, how would you prefer your yees hawed tonight? Oh, sorry I wrote that based on the title before the song started in earnest. What makes someone a cowboy like her? And now she’s a bandit. Good harmony for sure. This song might be too slow for me but I might be feeling impatient. Ah, there’s a tone shift but it goes right back to the mosey.

**long story short**

Thank you Taylor, for the unusual sounds here. It’s breaking a little monotony we fell into. I can handle a little wood block percussion. Did she say she threw a sword into a bush? She needs to go pick that back up, it’ll fuck the hell out of a hedge trimmer next time the home owner is doing yardwork. If the shoe fits, walk in it! That’s what the rep album was about. I learned stuff.

**marjorie**

It’s nothing fancy but the way she performs that chorus is captivating. That’s another car ride in the books, for those keeping score. And it sounds like Marjorie was driving which means we look up to her. She was watching, then listening, now singing. Taylors ability to take us through a progression in her stories has greatly improved.

**closure**

Tempooooooo! Tempo? What the fuck is going onnnnnnn! I fucking love this, I’m so confused. Why does she have an accent in the chorus? Is that a Jamaican accent? I can’t believe Taylor recorded this next to an active construction site.

**evermore (feat. Bon Iver)**

Stoked to see Bon Iver back, Taylor was so excited to work with him last time. I like his voice. Not enough people sing about motion capture. “Hello, December.” I’m ready to go back there if you are, Taylor. Can I get an isolation of her saying pause like that please? Whoa, Bon Iver changed the tempo! This dude is so weird and good. I wonder if I would like his music. Ooh, frooOOOooost! We’re done being excited now, that was so well executed and I’m rewarded with harmonies. Evermore!

**right where you left me**

Well hey if it isn’t teen sensation Taylor Swift! Her vocal register has been lower like this more often lately and I enjoy it. Her scene descriptions here are nice and rich. The girl who got frozen and time went on for everyone else? Yeah, I’ve played Life is Strange. Here’s some more shattered glass. What the hell happened, Taylor? This backing track is so groovy for such a sad song, great choice.

**it’s time to go**

Well I’ll be damned. I don’t think I have anything to say about this one. It was fine. Wait, no, we are freezing our past and there’s glass. These are some common ideas in this album. What’s she up to?

**Final Thoughts on Evermore:**

These two albums are definitely my favorite, and while I like Folklore the most, I might like more songs on Evermore, especially the eponymous track. But I don’t have to wrestle with it like I do Folklore. This album is the good guy I want to spend the weekend with. Folklore is my Jess Mariano. Favorites? Evermore, Ivy, Closure, Willow.

**Non-Album Songs**

**Renegade (Big Red Machine feat. Taylor Swift)**

I think this is that guy’s band, the one from the long pond studio sessions stuff. I saw Big Red Machine written under his name at some point. Oh dang, is that his voice? Ooh, the guitar. That’s my shit. It’s just wandering around. This song is great. It has that driving energy I like, Taylor’s exploring her feelings, the whole collage of sound just works. If anything I think Taylor’s writing is getting a little lost in the shuffle but it sounds good. I just get the jist of what she’s talking about, instead of the full strength. I didn’t even mention the interesting visuals in the music video.

**Birch (Big Red Machine feat. Taylor Swift)**

When Taylor Swift songs are named after a plant, they go hard. If the way you ever wake up is old, you’ll know what he means here. This song is more BRM with Taylor supporting. I like that we got one of each taking the focus. This guy’s got a unique and satisfying sound. I could imagine having this one while doing the dishes. Once again the video features some really interesting looking visuals. This look could come off as really lame if not done right. Like, he’s got the hat, glasses, and mustache and he’s doing an analogue-wave thing over nature footage. Playing with fire there, but he didn’t get burned.

**Gasoline (HAIM feat. Taylor Swift)**

FUNK ME UP, DEARIE. heyifyoucouldneverbringupthatIsaidthatjustnow, that’dbegreatthanks. This has a nice groove but i’s unfortunately kind of forgettable. For how excited I was about the sound profile, and I still am, nothing really develops to make this a memorable experience. It’s just a neat little thing that happened.

**The Joker and the Queen (Ed Sheeran feat. Taylor Swift)**

Holy Jeez, it’s Ed Sheeran. You better not rap, young man. This music video looks and feels like that movie The Holiday. Oh, Edward, you have such a breathy lilt of a voice buddy. It’s nice. WOW. Their voices come together beautifully. It can’t work for a long sitting because they’re too similar, but I’d legit pass out if we got Lightbody in here from The Last Time to support the bottom end of this thing. Imagine those three voices enmeshed. Cute music video, as well. This kid is now what Ed Sheeran looks like to me because I haven’t seen him yet.

**Carolina**

Ack, bug noises. Oh, ok. So this song should be in Red Dead Redemption. I watched the lyric video on Taylor’s Youtube channel for this one. It’s really moody. Her voice sounds great when she’s down in this register. Makes me wonder if she could take the man’s part with a nice alto sung by a man. Wait, didn’t that kind of happen with ZAYN? That guy’s voice was ^high!

**Fearless (Taylor’s Version) 2021**

This is the first time other than rp that I’ve heard an album again. Man the recording quality is so, so improved. And her voice is so much more mature! Wow! It’s making me like this music more, but also knowing where we’ve gone since this album, it feels pleasantly wide eyed and hopeful.

I CANT BELIEVE I just enjoyed you belong with me. What the actual fuck has happened to me.

**Today Was a Fairytale**

Huh, so I’m assuming these vault songs are from the period of the album, but didn’t make the cut before? Pretty smart idea to add value for the Taylors versions. It’s sappy and blunt, but that’s Fearless, baby. Listening to this after all these other albums is a real trip. Somehow, I don’t hate it.

**You All Over Me (feat. Maren Morris)**

The bright sound of the guitar is so nostalgic, even though I was in this album only 4 days ago. Clever lyrics here but it sure does sound like country music. I wonder what these songs would sound like if she had remastered them in the Folkmore style. I’d probably be a big fan of them, and I wonder what that says about my musical biases.

**Mr. Perfectly Fine**

She let a little bit of cool production stuff slide into this track. That country guitar did a little ceiling fan distortion thing. I don’t know how to describe this stuff, gimme a break. This is the best of the three vault songs for me so far. If at the beginning of this, you had played me this song and told me this was as good as it gets for Taylor Swift, I would have said it’s impressive. Now, I know this is nowhere near her ceiling but I can still appreciate what the me of last Sunday would’ve seen in this song.

**We Were Happy**

Aw, you threw your hands around my neck back when I deserved it? I hope this song was written when she was a teen so it doesn’t mean she wrote that about herself in 2021. I kind of feel like this is a recent write up though, which looks back on this album’s time period. For what it’s worth, owning a farm isn’t what it’s cracked up to be.

**That’s When (feat. Keith Urban)**

That snare and bass drum sound great in a country-esque track. It’s a small thing but it makes a big difference. Wait, this is what Keith Urban sounds like? I see why he’s popular, his voice is very gentle. I wouldn’t have chosen to listen to him, but it didn’t kill em.

**Don’t You**

These songs that sound like Fearless but have a more mature perspective are really interesting. I wonder if Taylor enjoyed putting these together. I bet it was a pretty funny feeling. Hey wait, there’s some synth stuff going on back in here. Fascinating. If these songs actually were all written and not touched up for her modern perspective, it’ll be funny to realize I’m putting it into the music myself as a listener.

**Bye Bye Baby**

For whatever reason I’ve been noticing the percussion a lot. Might just be the better mix for the album as a whole. I don’t click with this song lyrically, but it didn’t suck or anything.

**If This Was a Movie TV**

Why is this separate? It fits really well for the album, and the atmosphere is so good. Have I already heard this? I definitely have. I think this must sound a lot different from the version I heard before. This is moody and kind of rock-y. If it’s an identical accompaniment, I’m gonna need an unbarrassment pill. Hm? What’s an unbarrassment pill? It’s like a lactaid but instead of after eating cheese you take it after you’ve said something completely moronic in front of a bunch of better-educated people. I keep them on me during business meetings.

**Red (Taylor’s Version) 2021**

So I don’t listen to music ordinarily, we’ve established this. Throughout this whole exercise I’ve pushed past my discomfort around having to listen to so much music, and I’m reaching the point where my lungs are starting to burn from how long I’ve held my breath. This album was enjoyable on first listen, but it takes a lot to make me want to relisten to something by choice. Fearless had the nostalgia going for it somehow, partially because I’d heard some snippets of it when I was younger. We haven’t had to deal with me being grumpy because I’m listening to musi—–I was listening to the original. Please hold.

Bad mood gone, I’ve entered a new state of grace. This album starts with such free spirit and positivity. I can’t believe this is the album right before Reputation. She won’t sound like this again for years. The more I think about it, the John Mayer thing turned into the Scarf Guy thing, which turned into the Taylor is Over thing, which became rep. Man, she must’ve really needed the release of that reputation album. I get it more each day why that’s such an important album. I also see what people were saying about how Fearless sounds the most different in the Taylor’s Version, because of the age difference. But it’s still noticeable even here, for the better. There’s something irreplaceably youthful about her voice in the originals, but you can’t discount the bump in quality that’s here. It’s neat that they both have their own value, even if it does feel scummy to listen to the old record. On relisten, I did hear her say that nothing safe is worth the drive in Treacherous. That’s one reference I missed before and it actually adds a lot to the car lore. Shit, this album’s long. I’m very impressed that she got Lightbody, Eduardo, and almost all of the original instrumentalists back for the re-record. Speaks to her quality as a person that they wanted to come back for her. On relisten, The Last Time is my favorite song of the Young Taylor years. I Heart ? gets a solid second place finish. I like how Ed Sheeran says “We good to geau?” before Everything has Changed, and the the raw quality of it is so good. I bet they’re good friends, something just sounds like chemistry in their songs. Plus he’s been on a lot of tracks. Everything Has Changed is very good. If I didn’t include it in my favorites of the album before, I would now. It’s actually incredible how hard it is for me to remember what I wrote before. I’ve written 26,300 words in the last 4 days (if you’re curious, I did my listening notes way ahead and then came back the evening of each post and do everything else – post-wiki, music videos, etc. As I write this, it’s Thursday at 2am). This album feels softer than it did originally. I wonder if that’s because I’ve listened to the Folkmore stuff now, since I’m pretty sure these are 1-to-1 recreations.

**Better Man**

There are NINE vault songs on here!? There’s no way this was written back then, right? This sounds like there’s been plenty of time for her to think and process what was going on in her life back when. This has so much country feel to it. Saying she knows why they had to say goodbye like the back of her hand really gives me that feeling that this comes after a lot of time has passed.

**Nothing New (feat. Phoebe Bridgers)**

This song would have worked well on the Juno soundtrack. It feels like Taylor, but it also doesn’t. “How long will it be cute when you can’t blame it on my youth” is a dagger. I like the place this song came from, it’s a great addition to the album.

**Babe**

This definitely has the feel of the Red album. The promises, promises, promises echo is a nice touch. Wrecking ball? Well, it’s a classic breakup song and that’s all there really is to it, I’m afraid.

**Message in a Bottle**

What is this beat called? Is it like a euro thing? I’m picturing this song over a montage in Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Don’t knock it if you haven’t read the book, and Alexis Bledel was great in the movie.

**I Bet You Think About Me (feat. Chris Stapleton)**

Don’t say that a girl has a fine pedigree, it’s off-putting. Could just be my dog brain complicating the lyric. I don’t know who Chris Stapleton is but his voice sounds like he’s never needed to use a Print and Ship Center. This got country, and quick. I wonder how it ended up here, this doesn’t fit the sound how I thought it might.

**Forever Winter**

I’ve hyper-focused on the car lore during my first listen through of this discography, but the next person who does a series like this should focus on the weather lore. For a second, I thought she would be a silver sun forever, and I really want to write something using that. What a cool piece of imagery. This song was fine but I was mostly thinking about weather lore.

**Run (feat. Ed Sheeran)**

Welcome back, Ketchup Guy! Of all the recurring characters, you’re my favorite. I’m going to finally look up what this guy looks like. Oh my god lmao. His resting expression is pretty silly, but I just read that he has lazy eyes and I’m not trying to bully him, he looks like a sweet guy. He does look a lot like that kid from the Joker and the Queen. His face is growing on me, I like him in glasses. What a goof. I looked it up and it seems like they’re very good friends which I think is wonderful. This song has a great feel to it. Man, he’s got a great voice. I’ve been told he’s kind of a big deal right these days and I can see why.

**The Very First Night**

Man, this is another montage type song. I wonder if that’s why she had so many vignette-style music videos early on. She has quite a few songs with this vibe. Probably the casualty of being so prolific, you’ll end up having a few handfuls of songs that are very similar feeling.

**All Too Well (10 Minute Version)**

Ah, we’ve arrived. People have gotten me anticipating this version of the song. The longest song I can remember listening to is Albuquerque by Weird Al, which while it is absolutely a storytelling song, I don’t think it’s very, uh, similar, to this. Ok Taylor, I’m in the car and we almost ran a red light. Full focus. If you go to a donut shop and they’re out of jelly donuts I’m going to lose my mind. Sorry, sorry, full focus. Oh, he threw her the keys! But she dropped them, LMAO! We aren’t ready for Getaway Car yet. Man, this song is full of wonderful things about Scarf Guy. She must have really loved him. I’ve heard from some interviews with Tom Holland that Jake G is a lot of fun to be around, lots of youthful older brother energy. I wonder if he was like that with Taylor, and she fell into a one-way dead-end love. OH, that’s why loving him is like driving that Maserati down the dead end street. Wow, got there on my own. I’m sorry but I have absolutely no sympathy for Taylor when she says it hurt her when he said if they were closer in age maybe it would’ve worked. It hurt you and that’s awful, but also, respect a man who feels uncomfortable dating a younger woman and acts to rectify that feeling. We’ve got a lot of the opposite problem going around. She did the subject shift here, now saying that HE remembers it all too well. Oh shit. Did Scarf Guy continue dating women Taylor’s age, but tell her that she was too young? I’m not going to pretend that Taylor gives off a very innocent and childish energy sometimes, but that’s HARSH. He didn’t want someone older, he wanted someone with a young body who acted more grown up. Fucking, yuck. Get me out of here. Taylor, we gotta get outta here.

**A Message from Taylor**

Oh dang, so all of these were meant for Red, meaning they were all written then, huh? Credit where it’s due, I thought Better Man would have been written many years later. Our girl has some serious emotional depth.

**Non-album songs**

**Safe & Sound (feat. The Civil Wars)**

I think I like the Civil Wars? I don’t remember. It’s that folk sound that I crave, though, so I bet I’m right. It’s gotta be cold out there and Taylor has on some quarter-sleeves. Get her a jacket, for Christ’s sake. They just cut to the fireside with who I assume are the Civil Wars and I want to see them more. Oh damn, there’s a forest fire. Holy shit, that guy’s voice is haunting. That was a great song and I’d put it in the small pile with my favorites.

**Eyes Open**

I like when Taylor does stuff with more of a rock sound, but I want it to be more forward. I need a punky alt rock song. Hey, it kind of got there! I would like 11 more of these, please.

NEXT TIME: MIDNIGHTS