Since you know I am a Swiftie, or at least Swiftish, I thought it wouldn’t hurt for me to share 10 things I think I think about Taylor’s new, and somewhat polarizing, album.
10. It’s a bop. Maybe she really does put narcotics into all of her songs?
9. I believe it was written with a glitter gel pen. I was there when the deep magic was written, and I too wrote things with a glitter gel pen.
8. Yes, that was an amazing photoshoot, but stop it with the variants already.
7. You really rhymed “witty” with “legitly”? (Yes, a lot of that song has slant rhymes, but that was a particularly rough one to start us off on.)
6. It is true that “Wood” is the most Shakespearean song on the album. (I still don’t like it.)
5. On my first listen, I fell for “The Fate of Ophelia,” “Elizabeth Taylor,” “Opalite,” “Eldest Daughter,” and “The Life of A Showgirl” (despite that really amateur rhyme) in roughly equal measure. This is still the way I feel, although “CANCELLED!” and “Father Figure” have become sort of guilty pleasures. I’m kind of meh on what’s left over after that.
4. “Eldest Daughter” is not the best Track 5 by a long shot but the bridge to “Eldest Daughter” is right up there with the all-time TS bridges.
3. “The Fate of Ophelia” music video is the best thing about the song. A lot of the album discourse has centered around the relationship of joy, misery, and art. That video shows people making art out of joy. It’s a lot harder to pull off in a fallen world, but it’s possible.
2. We need to talk about misogyny, perfectionism, and race. (We can do it while we’re dancing.)
Photo by Caitlyn Wilson on Unsplash
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