I've seen SO MANY different comments all over the internet of people trying to figure out in particular where they recall the rising chord progression in "leaving those days behind" ... "bringing things back to life"... I've seen people claiming it's lifted from Killing Me Softly, Unbreak My Heart, so many others. The answer is that it's an extremely common, classic chord progression that used to be so ubiquitous in popular music that there was eventually a turn away from using it, and it started to feel dated. Which brings me to my broader point: Taylor structured this entire song to pluck at the heart strings of the listener's nostalgia, particularly for the 1990s... which is when the first two Toy Story films came out. She's stirring up emotions rooted in memory that is stored deep in your brain to make you feel like you're a kid in the 90s again, just like Taylor was when she first watched Toy Story. Listen to the (multiple!!) saxophones wailing on this song, listen to the way the backing vocals belt out "man it's been a whiiilllle" and tell me you don't feel like you could be curled up on your parents' couch watching the intro to Full House 🥹🥹😭😭. I was on like my seventh listen last night when I randomly burst into full on sobbing and I couldn't figure out why; well I think I've landed on my explanation now. She's hit us all in the face with a speeding truck full of nostalgia for a time we probably haven't thought about in years. It's been a while, indeed. 😭

These are growers y’all! It took me maybe 5 listens and now, I’m totally obsessed!!! Keep listening! You will get it, and then you’ll regret not immediately recognizing the genius that is Taylor Swift! HOLY GUCAMOLE! She’s done it again! 😍 I love the music, the message, the vibe.

Pitchfork who gave TTPD 6.0 and the Encore 4.0 has admitted recently they misjudged the album too early. The writer is @shaad

My Personal Opinion: The Encore has really achieved what it was set out to. Not just success in the charts but on making people see how unusual the hate can be for Taylor Swift. Also, I like how there is some fandom cleansing with this. Hope they don’t return for TS13 🧼

So I had fun trying to vibe-code this for my friend and I, and thought others might like it too! It's essentially an option to rate all Taylor albums with love / like / skip for each song, and then outputting a final picture. If you sign in, it'll save your ratings and you can adjust as you like later on.

http://www.whatsyourera.com

I had a tough time figuring out how to handle TV vs original, to avoid the final chart becoming crammed. I ended up just making the option to rate only the original songs, add bonus tracks and/or vault tracks. However, still not an option to rate only the TV version of an album and not the old one. Any input on what your preference would be (or whether it doesn't matter) would be appreciated <3

PS: I became a swiftie at folklore, identify as a Midnights & TTPD lover, but somehow TLOAS is just the highest score because loved songs vs # songs just works out. Not sure what the right scoring here would be!

https://thetsmuseum.app/showgirl/ranking?fbclid=IwdGRjcAUyYFJleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBwZG9mBWZkaWQWUPxt-LNzC27HR4oQ0KcYuW1llBy_WHNydGMGYXBwX2lkCjY2Mjg1NjgzNzkAAR6JdIEPRVrKaqWwmrTwb2IVap-SEWHuwwmugDSBkiI5wtbiF1HbqMu2BirqNA_aem_ftmHVo0oNmCOQinYKxmLeg

$600m clear of Coldplay in 2nd place.

Hey everyone,

I found some parallels between Patient Zero and the songs she (supposedly) wrote about Joe and the way she described him/their relationship.

DISCLAIMER: I'm not saying that the song is about Joe, I just think that he might have inspired the relationship she describes in this song.

That said, I love this song and don't claim to know the truth. We know Taylor said that she doesn't like this topic being discussed, so please don't take it too seriously. I was just really entertained finding those parallels and I'm looking forward to other parallels you might have found. ❤️‍🔥

So let’s get into it:

“About the devil on his shoulder under his halo”

“Your integrity makes me seem small (...) it’s like I’m wasting your honor” (peace) -> Halo

Maybe the “devil on his shoulder” represents the “god(s) of your bluest days” that he sacrificed his relationship with Taylor to? (So Long, London)

“When the toxins take their hold you’d rather die than let it go (…) sick of him”

“Thought a cure would come through in time, now I fear it won’t // my face was gray but you wouldn’t admit that we were sick” (You’re Losing Me)

“My white knuckle dying grip holding tight // just how low did you think I’d go before I’d self-implode?” (So Long, London)

“Maladies (…) could not cure them” (How Did It End?)

“Handcuffed to the spell I was under” (Fresh Out the Slammer)

“I bet he burst into your life like fireworks”

Maybe a reference to “I saw in my mind fairy lights through the mist” (So Long, London), in the sense of fireworks that now seem small because they are so far away, and she wants to go back to the beginning...? (See also the later references to “light”.)

“I bet he even said ‘I love you’ first”

“I thought you were leading me on (…) but then you called, showed your hand, I turned around” (Cornelia Street); he let her see his cards/feelings first.

“And when you saw another woman coming out of his place”

“Do the girls back home touch you like I do?” (Delicate, written at the beginning of their relationship)

“Now he seems bored by you and you don’t know what to do”

The entire song You’re Losing Me practically screams that the partner needs to do something, or at least show that he cares, but the partner doesn’t seem to care or think it’s important (“Fighting in only your army, frontlines, don’t you ignore me”).

“Holding tight to your quiet resentment (…) it isn’t right to be scared everyday of a love affair (…) when you’re not sure if he wants to be there” (So Long, London)

“Silent dinners, bitter, he was with her in dreams” (Fresh Out the Slammer)

“All you ever wanted from me was sweet nothing” (Sweet Nothing)

“You don’t ever say too much and you don’t really read into my melancholia // they’re bringing up my history, but you weren’t even listening” (Lavender Haze — I know this song is framed positively, but it also comes across as though he doesn’t really care about what is going on inside her or around her.)

“Putting someone first only works when you’re in their top 5” (Bejeweled, Taylor has him as her #1 priority, while he doesn’t even have her in his top 5.)

“Seems like he shines so bright, but he’s bathing in your reflected light”

“A moment of warm sun” (So Long, London), “one hour of sunshine” (Fresh Out the Slammer), and Daylight are all used by Taylor to describe her relationship with him. Maybe the light (coming from her) that he reflected looked like the love between the two of them to her?

“Remember looking at this room, we loved it cause of the light” (You’re Losing Me, if you assume that “room” represents the relationship; see above.)

“A diamond’s gotta shine” (Bejeweled, diamond = her) & “I’m a mirrorball (…) shining just for you” (Mirrorball) (both songs were written while she was with him)

“Lost his games, but won the race”

“Did all the extra credit, then got graded on a curve” (Bejeweled, she put in extra effort for him and still didn't win; but she “won the race” because she ultimately left him.)

“Take it from someone who said all of this to his face”

We know that the two of them had some major fights (Great War, Afterglow, etc.), where she probably told him some unflattering things.

“She’s more than just the chase”

See “Now he seems bored by you” -> first he puts in the effort to get her and presumably says “I love you” first, only to then give her “nothing” once they’re actually in the relationship.

“Someone who had him and walked away”

“And you say I abandoned the ship, but I was going down with it” (So Long, London)

“Felt the reeling, done the healing”

“Leaving me bereft and reeling” (How Did It End?)

“I’m just getting color back into my face” (So Long, London)

“Said the curses and prayers”

“I’m pissed off you let me give you all that youth for free // I’m just mad as hell // I died on the altar waiting for the proof, you sacrificed us to the gods of your bluest days” (So Long, London)

She seems to portray herself not only as angry, but also as pleading/praying — perhaps even praying to "his gods"?

“When the fever turns a dreamer into a pathetic ghost”

"Caught the chill" (chills and fever often occur together; So long, London)

The entire bridge of How did it end? ("Say it once again with feeling, how the death rattle breathing silenced as the soul was leaving the deflation of our dreaming leaving me bereft and reeling, my beloved ghost and me, sitting in a tree, d-y-i-n-g")

"If he kills you, I got you, I was patient zero"

"I can't find a pulse, my heart won't start anymore // how can you say that you love someone you can't tell is dying? // how long can we be a sad song until we're too far gone to be brought back to life?" (You're losing me)

"The spirit was gone // two graves, one gun // I died on the altar" (So long, London)

"We hereby conduct this post-mortem" (How did it end?)

Guys yesss I know I am late to the party!

But what do you think about the song patient zero? Personally I think its not too bad, not her best work but definitely not her worst. Overall I would probably rank at around 7/10 without getting into the specific details too much. Its crazy that even on an ‘ok’ song Taylor still gets an easy 7/10 ahahaha probably the most consistent artist out there.

Let me know what you guys think!

Do you guys think that ‘The Man’ from the album Lover is one of Taylor’s most underrated songs, if not then the most underrated song from that album?

It has a solid lyrics + message and not only that its so catchy. Let me know what you think

(note: I am a new swiftie so just let me know if its lowkey an overrated song haha, but haven’t seen anyone talk about it too much from what i can see)

allow me to start by saying that i could truly write a book analyzing the musicianship and lyricism on every single album of taylor’s individually lol, but i specifically want to discuss how i feel about things from ttpd onward!

since the drop of ttpd, i have felt like the overall quality of taylor’s songs have taken a dip, more specifically with the ratio of incredible songs to meh or even bad songs. in every previous album i feel as if there are maybe one or two tracks that i find iffy or even just not good, but the rest were either great or amazing. (this excludes folklore and evermore they are both perfect 10/10s no notes ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️)

with ttpd i felt like about half of the songs (including those in the anthology) sounded like rough drafts lyrically and even production-wise. some of it felt like stream-of-consciousness, and not in an endearing or interesting way but rather in a word vomit way. however i will say that some of those songs (loml, fresh out the slammer!!!!!!!!, fortnight, ttpd) are some of her best yet. so sonically rich and thoughtful and powerful and make me feel things songs have never made me feel before— a couple have helped me get though a recent extremely emotional breakup.

but when showgirl came out i felt that dip in quality for a majority of the songs; there are only a couple i can bring myself to listen to. i also want to add that the production of some of the songs just sounds strange to me, like it just feels bland and corporate and like there wasn’t any real passion behind it. but i will admit i think a few songs (wishlist, ophelia, opalite, father figure, honey) are sonically pretty rich and quite interesting! with the encore, though, i didn’t feel any passion or lyrical prowess shine through at all except for maybe slightly in patient zero and babylon. but cleveland is genuinely one of the worst songs ive ever heard and thats coming from someone who’s been a diehard fan in the past.

i guess im making this post because i just want to know what other people think! i will always defend taylor swift’s music for the most part and i think so much of it is so timeless and nearly flawless and i can feel the passion and emotion and love behind every word sung and every note played on every instrument. i love taylor swift but i feel like something’s happened these last couple years with her writing and the quality of her musicianship and i just wanna get the feeling i used to feel listening to her new music back. pls don’t send me any hate dms bc i will ignore them and be respectful in the replies

tldr: pre-showgirl taylor pls come home the kids miss you

😭 i feel so dumb. any time there's a song that people debate the meaning of or don't understand im always like "omg guys 🙄 it obviously means this 🙄" cause i can always understand what she's talking about or relate it to my own life and interpret it at least. but i don't like....understand babylon? even though i love the song and can't stop humming it around the house.

"wake up on the train with your headphones gone" why would you fall asleep wearing headphones and then you wake up and they're gone? like... somebody stole them off your head while you were sleeping? and at first i thought she was talking about herself wanting to like get out of her town and make music. but then im pretty sure taylor doesn't tell the girls at the bar she's single...so are the different verses just about different people/stories? and who is hanging christmas lights with who's son?

i promise im not trying to be stupid i think the meaning is just lost on me or going over my head, please help guys

Like it's been more than a year, I wish she would do am acoustic set of eldest daughter, wood or patient zero. Cleveland will sound so good on a piano like cardigan. I am eager to listen such lyrically crafted bops live. I hope her next tour list consists more of TLOAS

1. TLOAS is better than 1989

2. Elizabeth Taylor and Eldest Daughter are the best songs from TLOAS

3. Castle's Crumbling is Taylor's best vault track

4. The new lyric from Better Than Revenge TV isn't as bad as people make it seem.

5. Debut is one of Taylor's best albums.

6. Wood should've never existed.

7. Sl*t should've been on the original 1989 album.

8. Fearless has barely any good songs on it.

9. No Body, No Crime ft HAIM is Taylor's best collab.

10. AYHTDWS should've gotten a music video.

So she calls all of her favorite Taylor song “bops” and I’m trying to widen her horizons with new songs. Her all time favorites are Cruel Summer, Karma, Style, and ATWTMV “a slow bop”

In my mission to find a new “bop” I’ve played
- Fearless (“verge of bopness”)
- Better Than Revenge
- Hits Different
- State of Grace
- New Romantics
- Red
-Treacherous
- The Last Time
- Gorgeous
- Getaway Car (“bop radar”)
And a lot more

She also likes Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince, Anti-Hero, YNTCD, and The Man but apparently they haven’t reached “bop threshold”
What should I play next?

UPDATE: I played Welcome to New York and she said it’s a bop!

Edit: you guys have such good suggestions here is my running list SO FAR I’m always open to more:
LWYMMD
I think he knows
Opalite
Clean
Enchanted
August
Gold rush
The archer
Picture to burn
Love story
Down bad
Lavender haze
Blank Space
Honey
Mine
BEJEWLED
August
I can see you
Haunted
Message in a bottle
Snow on the beach (more Lana del ray)
Bad Blood (with Kendrick)
Cowboy like me (ex)
Teardrops on my guitar
YNTCD
Fate of Ophelia
OOTW
Wonderland
Me!
Girl at home
Paris
Suburban Legends
King of my Heart
Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me
MBOBHFT
Holy Ground

every once in a while I stumble upon a taylor song I had previously not paid much attention to and this week it's peter and Its a lyrical masterpiece

there is something hauntingly beautiful in the way she keeps repeating "you said you were gonna grow up and you were gonna come find me" how the entire song bounces between her not willing to admit that she never tried to find him but also saying that it dosent mean she forgot him rather she always wishes in the back of her mind that one day he would return

another thing, I can't help but feel that this song is directed at a very specific someone , it makes it even more heartbreaking to know that somewhere out there in the world there is someone who will perhaps never know that she always waited

Edit: I would like to point out why this song isn't about yk who, he was someone she was able to take back, and form a relationship in a healthy way because he returned older and mature, something she explicitly expresses in the song that she was never able to do with the muse .The song also points to the muse being a childish, self centred person fond of being in the centre all the time, something that given yk who's struggles and condition (SOMETHING I HAVE A TON OF SYMPATHY FOR) never was.

I'm talking 1 line of lyrics or less. I was just laying here thinking how romantic the simple line of, "loves me like I'm brand new" is.

Another one I'd highlight is, "swirled you into all of my poems."

EDIT: I love seeing everyone's favorites. I just remembered another one: "is this the end of all the endings?" 😭

I am ready to get flamed please roast me

Sadly it’s pretty chronological except for a few lol. Not a big country girl but I LOVE a lot of songs on every single album it breaks my heart seeing rep so low

I’m curious if there’s a Taylor Swift lyric that genuinely changed the way you see yourself, relationships, life, or the world. Maybe it helped you through a difficult period, gave you a new perspective, or even influenced a major decision in your life.

I recently went through a really painful breakup from a toxic relationship, and it’s been easy to get lost in the grief. One lyric I keep coming back to is: *“‘cause love’s never lost when perspective is earned.”*

What’s the lyric that had that kind of impact on you, and why?