worldoptimization:

kontextmaschine:

Identifies her primarily as a songwriter who’s not an interchangeable performer like competing young singers, as a carpetbagging code-switcher (contrasted with her not-that-wide vocal range, even), but with a distinct writing style that can be traced through all her works… see, I’m not the only one who notices that. It even mentions that some songs were clearly aimed towards an older generation and that she’s obviously absorbed some Jenny Lewis at some point.

Generally agree with the rest of the judgment – Red was the best album, but the second half (esp. the duets) is a drag you have to slog through – and it’s impressively thorough – the Christmas and iTunes Live From Soho albums, the Beautiful Eyes EP, even a bunch of special edition bonus tracks I’d never heard of before

imo I’d Lie is the most underrated song on this list

I mean, come on:

early evidence of “memorizing is Taylor’s love language”

that chorus, the way she slows down and pauses on “if you asked me if I love him,” allowing a moment of vulnerability and rawness and pain …

and then snaps back with an upbeat, almost cheerful “I’d lie,” exulting in artifice as if the alternative is too much to handle

Eh, it’s kind of cobbled together from elements she did better on other songs, though.

The “passenger seat” imagery that gets used and not followed-up on in the beginning was done better in Our Song and honestly even alluded to in Picture to Burn (that stupid old pickup truck you never let me drive) and similar to the “laughing on a park bench” bit from YBWM

The sound of “as he runs his fingers through his hair”, “i don’t think it ever crossed his mind/he tells a joke, he fakes a smile”, and “he sees everything in black and white/never let nobody see him cry” are all transparently ripped from Train’s Drops of Jupiter, which she had a cover of.

“His sister’s beautiful, he has his father’s eyes” - the invocation of family as a way to establish him as an ideal domestic partner but then immediately complicating it, that’s The Way I Loved You

The “stuff you memorized about the crush who has you in the friendzone” and even the specific phrase “all his favorite songs” was YBWM

Honestly “he looks around the room/innocently overlooks the truth” doesn’t have a perfect match but it still reminds me of Enchanted and The Story of Us and Teardrops on My Guitar