\n\n\n\n\n\n\nIdentifies her primarily as a songwriter who\u2019s 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\u2026 see, I\u2019m not the only one who notices that. It even mentions that some songs were clearly aimed towards an older generation and that she\u2019s obviously absorbed some Jenny Lewis at some point.
\nGenerally agree with the rest of the judgment \u2013 Red was the best album, but the second half (esp. the duets) is a drag you have to slog through \u2013 and it\u2019s impressively thorough \u2013 the Christmas and iTunes Live From Soho albums, the Beautiful Eyes EP, even a bunch of special edition bonus tracks I\u2019d never heard of before
\nimo I\u2019d Lie is the most underrated song on this list
\nI mean, come on:
\nearly evidence of \u201cmemorizing is Taylor\u2019s love language\u201d
\nthat chorus, the way she slows down and pauses on \u201cif you asked me if I love him,\u201d allowing a moment of vulnerability and rawness and pain \u2026
\nand then snaps back with an upbeat, almost cheerful \u201cI\u2019d lie,\u201d exulting in artifice as if the alternative is too much to handle
\n
Eh, it\u2019s kind of cobbled together from elements she did better on other songs, though.
The \u201cpassenger seat\u201d 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 \u201claughing on a park bench\u201d bit from YBWM
The sound of \u201cas he runs his fingers through his hair\u201d, \u201ci don\u2019t think it ever crossed his mind/he tells a joke, he fakes a smile\u201d, and \u201che sees everything in black and white/never let nobody see him cry\u201d are all transparently ripped from Train\u2019s Drops of Jupiter, which she had a cover of.
\u201cHis sister\u2019s beautiful, he has his father\u2019s eyes\u201d - the invocation of family as a way to establish him as an ideal domestic partner but then immediately complicating it, that\u2019s The Way I Loved You
The \u201cstuff you memorized about the crush who has you in the friendzone\u201d and even the specific phrase \u201call his favorite songs\u201d was YBWM
Honestly \u201che looks around the room/innocently overlooks the truth\u201d doesn\u2019t have a perfect match but it still reminds me of Enchanted and The Story of Us and Teardrops on My Guitar