For anyone curious about my thoughts on TTPD: P1.
The Anthology has more folkmore vibes than the first album. It really lets a multitude of instruments have their moment, while the synth is almost non-existent. A lot of my Swiftie friends seemed to love The Anthology more in those first few days and weeks of listening. I was hopping all over because I loved songs from both right off the bat. In fact, if I HAD to pick songs from both to create just one perfect-to-me-album, guntotmyhead, this would be it:
- Florida!!!
- But Daddy I Love Him
- Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?
- Down Bad
- Fresh Out The Slammer
- I Can Do It With A Broken Heart
- The Tortured Poets Department
- loml
- Guilty As Sin
- The Black Dog
- So High School
- I Hate It Here
- I Look In People's Windows
- imgonnagetyouback
- The Bolter
TTPD wins with 9 songs but The Anthology is still solid with 6. So it goes.
Both albums are very cohesive in way of metaphors, poetic lyrics, literary references, and her signature easter eggs, but less so in the musicality and production of the songs. I don't say that as a judgement or dig - just as a fact; because I really do love both overall. However, I do feel that TTPD is stronger as a whole. Songs like Robin and thanK you aIMee are great songs and I appreciate both, but more as an every now and then listen. For me, they aren't on repeat and if I'm being honest, I will probably take them off of my phone entirely at some point because I'm never going to seek them out.
The fact that we actually got a double album is still mind-blowing, but not totally surprising with the speed Taylor can pop out a track. I mean, Midnights was kind of a double album or at least an album and a half, you know? And folklore and evermore came out within 5 months of one another and are known as sister albums. She feeds us a variety of mostly hearty meals, some junk food, and sweet little desserts on the reg. I am truly so grateful to be a Swiftie. I couldn't imagine those who have to wait 3-6 years in between albums of their favorite artist. Like what? I don't know that life and I never want to.
Check out this thread of all the crazy but actually good theories on this double album.
Interesting words: esoteric - intended for or likely to be understood by only a small number of people with specialized knowledge
exorcise - to expel an evil spirit by adjuration or religious or solemn ceremonies
Fave lyrics: Six weeks of breathing clean air
I still miss the smoke
Were you making fun of me with some esoteric joke?
Now I want to sell my house and set fire to all my clothes
And hire a priest to come and exorcise my demons
Even if I die screaming
Thoughts & theories: To say I was overwhelmed by this double album upon first release is an understatement; which is why I didn't even realize she mentioned the band at first, since the lyric videos had not been released yet. I remember liking The Black Dog a lot when I first heard it but I only found out about the TSL portion of it all because Dustin told me. Then my little giant head exploded. Taylor Swift referenced one of my fave pop-punk bands? Two worlds colliding? Swemos rise up!
This news really ignited something in me and so I did a very poor yet fast photoshop of Taylor as the girl on the cover of their album. And hours later came across a much better version on the interwebs.
The Starting Line's music, especially Say It Like You Mean It and Make Yourself At Home played such pivotal parts in my formative years. Those albums bring me back to high school, to 17, to seeing them live for the first time at Vans Warped Tour in '02, to my Isuzu I-Mark, to several lifetimes ago. It was only a few years later that Taylor came out with Tim McGraw and the rest is history.
The Starting Line played a 10th Anniversary tour of SILYMI in 2012 which I attended and even wrote about here. I even re-watched/uploaded the video from that performance to my YouTube in the middle of writing this. TSL has been dormant for years even though Ken has been doing his own solo thing, so that P.S. at the end of their letter to Taylor got me psyched.
It's definitely a Matty Healy song or at least mostly. This article talks about him covering TSL's 'The Best of Me' just last year. Now this is TSL's most popular song but also the lyrics the worst is over / you can have the best of me / we got older / but we're still young / we never grew out of this feeling that we won't give up which really correlates to the whole Matty theme of TTPD. '
Also I noticed the much more subtle use of TSL in Fresh Out The Slammer when she sings Now we're at the starting line / I did my time.
Interesting words: bygone - belonging to an earlier time
Fave lyrics: Flip the script and leave you like a dumb house party
Thoughts & theories: We all noticed the lilac short skirt in that Fortnight Tic-Tok she posted, right?
I personally thought the whole argument about stealing Olivia Rodrigo's song 'get him back' was laughable. Yes, both songs are about wanting to get back with someone; but they aren't sure if it's for love or revenge. That's it.
But the fact that the title is all smushed together and all lowercase is definitely on purpose; and clearly screams 'fallingforyou' by The 1975. She also sings I keep these longings locked / In lowercase inside a vault on 'Guilty as Sin'.
Interesting words: albatross - a very large oceanic bird
anoint - to select for an honor or role
persona non grata - an unacceptable or unwelcome person
hackles - erect hairs along the back of an animal that rise when it is angry
Fave lyrics: Cross your thoughtless heart
Thoughts & theories: This was the song I was most excited for based solely on the name after hearing when she was pushing the collector's edition CDs. It's not my favorite but certainly holds up to my expectation. This one is so literary heavy which you really only can start to understand once you follow along the lyrics and read a million articles like this one.
Interesting words: hologram - hologram is a picture of a "whole" object showing in 3 dimensions
desertion - abandonment without consent
glint - reflected at an angle from a surface
phantoms - something elusive or visionary
orbit - a circular path
Fave lyrics: If the glint in my eye traced the depths of your sigh
Down that passage in time
Back to the moment I crashed into you
Like so many wrecks do
Thoughts & theories: Another song about Ratty boy. Sigh.
Interesting words: post-mortem - done, occurring, or collected after death
maladies - a disease or disorder of the body
interlopers - one that intrudes in a place or sphere of activity
bereft - suffering the death of a loved one
Fave lyrics: My beloved ghost and me
Sitting in a tree
D-Y-I-N-G
Thoughts & theories: Reddit of course didn't disappoint with their interpretations. Someone posted it's about Taylor's experience with the media after a breakup and not being able to process the grief herself. Another person thinks this song isn't about one relationship but her luck with them. Whomever or whatever it's about it's a tried and true track five with that gut punch of a bridge.
Interesting words: stifle - restrain
Aristotle - Ancient Greek philosopher
Fave lyrics: I feel so high school
Every time I look at you
Thoughts & theories: Is this song cute as hell? Yes. Of course. BUT I think I connect with it even more because she is describing specific things from my own high school experience. I mean, she is only 4 years younger than me. American Pie on a Saturday night? First saw that in 9th grade when it came out. Every Saturday was spent at the movies back then. Touch me while your bros play Grand Theft Auto? Yep, totally remember the days of sneakily touching whenever we got the chance; and that game was super popular in the early aughts. Brand new, full throttle? I think of the band Brand New when I hear this because again high school is when I first got into them. Obviously she's not talking about the band (or maybe she is lol) and just describing the feeling of young love when it's just zero to sixty in no time. She even threw in a reference to the marry, kiss, or kill me moment.
Interesting words: consolation - the comfort received by a person after a loss or disappointment
debutant - a young woman who is making a formal entrance into society
precocious - indicative of early development
lucid - to think clearly again after a period of illness or confusion
Fave lyrics: I hate it here so I will go to
Secret gardens in my mind
People need a key to get to
The only one is mine
I'm lonely, but I'm good
I'm bitter, but I swear I'm fine
I'll save all my romanticism for my inner life
and I'll get lost on purpose
This place made me feel worthless
Thoughts & theories: I related to and loved this song immediately. For me, it's about depression. It's about the world being a shitshow and trying to create some semblance of joy in your brain. It reminds me of escapism that I enjoy in books and movies. The phrase "I hate it here" is a popular one amongst millennials and will probably trickle down to every generation henceforth. I, too, get lost in nostalgia but then when that blurred memory starts to focus, I realize even that time wasn't that great because of x, y, z. Her line is nostalgia is a mind trick but I keep singing it as mind fuck - because it is. It's a drug. It can distort your brain. It can hurl you further down the hole. But goddamn it's also fun as hell.
Interesting words: searing - severely critical
Fave lyrics: I built a legacy you can't undo
But when I count the scars
There's a moment of truth
That there wouldn't be this
If there hadn't been you
Thoughts & theories: On the surface this seems very cut and dry about Kim Kardashian. Bronze spray tanned statue, descriptions of a bully, and oh yeah the whole capitalization in the song title that literally spell out K-I-M. I read a theory that Taylor was probably re-recording reputation and that time period came back in full force and she was like yeah I'm not done writing about this. I kind of hate the fans who have called this one petty or the famous line everyone loves to hear when they've been through something traumatic JuST gEt ovEr iT! EYEROLL. Writing and singing is the way she processes things. It is essentially her form of therapy. Also I can list a bunch of other songs by just as well-known artists that go the petty route but they never get called out about that. I can totally see Taylor feeling like the world expects her to always take the high road and be this perfect little angel but she's not. She's as messy and petty and hurt as the rest of us. This song is catchy as hell but it's not a fave. It's one of those songs that I appreciate for what it is, but not one I will revisit often. Also saw a theory that the whole Kim K. thing is a red herring which I find fascinating. Taylor's brain!
Interesting words: transfixed
ponder
deranged
Fave lyrics: Does it feel alright to not know me?
I'm addicted to the "if only"
Thoughts & theories: I am constantly going over "what if" and "if only" in my head with just about every experience I've ever had. So when Taylor says she's addicted to it, I get that big time. There is something about it that is addicting. I am so inherently "a fixer" that I treat it like a problem that could be solved when really it is what it is. There is no going back and doing it different. We all have to accept reality but the daydreaming of different outcomes is so real. Also the whole picture she paints of hoping she will run into this person. Been there too! Haven't we all? You're still hurting from whatever happened and don't want to reach out intentionally; you just hope it'll be a natural run-in.
10. The Prophecy
Interesting words: pad - move along with a muffled step
prophecy - a prediction
greige - violin (although I keep thinking of the combination of gray and beige)
Fave lyrics: A greater woman stays cool
But I howl like a wolf at the moon
And I look unstable
Gathered with a coven round a sorcerers' table
Thoughts & theories: My interpretation is quite simply Taylor talking about how she's cursed in love, especially after such a long-term relationship that I'm assuming she thought would be much longer. And going back to my reddit buds, I found it interesting that someone mentioned she uses the word throttle in this and So High School, as if there could be a connection. She's mentioned in songs before being happy in relationships but having that anxiety as to when the other shoe is going to drop.
11. Cassandra
Fave lyrics: When the first stone thrown there's screamin'
In the streets there's a ragin' riot
When it's "Burn the bitch", they're shrieking
When the truth comes out it's quiet
Thoughts & theories: This whole song screams reputation - from the mention of witches and snakes to using the greek priestess, Cassandra, to tell her own story of being cursed (um callback to The Prophecy) and not being believed. All of that mixed with the line blood's thick but nothing like a payroll is giving another song about the Kardashians. I'm guessing a lot came up during those rep re-records. I can also see this being taken as a comment on the current political climate although I think that's just coincidence.
12. Peter
Interesting words: beguiling - charming or enchanting, often in a deceptive way
masqueraded -
Fave lyrics: And I won't confess that I waited
But I let the lamp burn
As the men masqueraded
I hoped you'd return
Thoughts & theories: Taylor and her metaphors is at it again! She uses the Peter Pan story to tell her own experience with waiting for someone for a lengthy period of time, presumably Ratty Healy. She also mentions Peter losing Wendy in folklore's The 1, which leads me to believe that that beautiful song also has a bit of Ratty in it as well.
13. The Bolter
Interesting words: reviled - criticize in an abusive or insulting manner
bewitching - enchanting or delightful
cad - a man who acts with deliberate disregard for another's feelings
Fave lyrics: Splendidly selfish, charmingly helpless
Excellent fun till you get to know her
Then she runs like it's a race
Thoughts & theories: It's such a bop of a melody but really goes hard on Taylor looking back on relationships she's bolted from. She uses the word "mate" so it definitely leads us Swifties to believe it's concerning a British guy...or maybe several. The way she sings All her fuckin' lives / Flashed before her eyes gives me chills every damn time. I hate to admit that I thought the lyric was he was a cat, wanted her fat / just like any good trophy hunter. 😹 And this is why I love to lay down with the lyric book and sing along to new albums, but since we didn't get physical lyrics for the anthology I started making up my own damn lyrics. But they make sense, right? RIGHT?
14. Robin
Interesting words: bloodthirsty - eager to shed blood
tethered - tie with a rope or chain so as to restrict movement
showmanship - theatrical presentation
just - fair or impartial
Fave lyrics: You have no room in your dreams for regrets
Thoughts & theories: It's well-known that this one is about or rather for Aaron Dessner's son Robin. However, the theory I like best is that it's actually about her cats. I will admit this was bottom of the barrel upon the first 20 listens through the albums. It's a sweet song and I do love the way she sings Way to go tiger but just didn't hit me personally in any special way...unless it really about her cats and then I'll change my tune.
15. The Manuscript
Interesting words: manuscript - a book, document, or piece of music
torrid - emotionally charged and passionate
good samaritan - one who voluntarily renders aid to another in distress under no duty to do so
above board - honest and not trying to deceive anyone
synchronicity - the simultaneous occurrence of events which appear
significantly related but have no discernible casual connection.
agony - extreme mental or physical suffering
souvenir - something kept as a reminder of a place one has visited
Fave lyrics: Looking backwards might be the only way to move forward
Thoughts & theories: I interpreted "the manuscript" in large part to be the lyrics of her entire discography but in small part also thought it could be her looking back on past text messages between her and another person (especially that first verse which seems like it might be verbatim). However, reddit is strong in their belief it's all about ATW10. But that's a Taylor Swift song for ya, they all could mean something different to each listener.
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