1. I Forgot That You Existed

• catchy AF with the da-da-da in the beginning
• “Free rent, living in my mind”
• love how she sings “and quieeeetttt”
• “It isn’t love, it isn’t hate, it’s just indifference”
• “I forgot that you sent me a clear message, taught me some hard lessons”
• The “So, yeah” at the end is gold, like vocally shrugging

2. Cruel Summer 

• Pure BOP!
• Feeling that bass in my soul
• “I’m always waiting for you to be waiting below” - 80s John Hughes movie style!
• “Devils roll the dice, angels roll their eyes” is perfect
• The whole chorus floats and soars and I love it so much
• “You say that we’ll just screw it up in these trying times, we’re not trying” - SUCH A GOOD LINE
• “So cut the headlights, summer’s knife, I’m always waiting for you just to cut to the bone” Ouf!
• “I don’t wanna keep secrets just to keep you”
• The raspy roar in her voice when she sings “He looks up, grinning like a devil”

3. Lover

• Quiet and precious and sweet and lovely and cozy
• So happy we have an album with a title song again

4. The Man

• “They’d say I played the field before i found someone to commit to”
• “Every conquest I had made would make me more of a boss to you”
• “I’m so sick of running as fast as I can, wondering if I’d get there quicker if I was a man” - MY MOTTO FROM NOW ON, just running through my head constantly
• “What I was wearing, if I was rude” - I feel like this also doubles for her sexual assault case against that radio DJ (blaming the victim)
• “I’d be just like Leo in Saint-Tropez” LOL
• The whole bridge, when she switches from “And getting bitches and models” to “If I was out flashing my dollars, I’d be a bitch not a baller” OUF
• MY INHERENT FEMALE ANGER AT THE INJUSTICE OF THE PATRIARCHY IS ALIVE AND WELL

5. The Archer

• This is one of my favourites, even though I’ve had it longer than most cause it was released earlier
• Lyrically, best or second best on the album
• Destroys me every time, goddamnit

6. I Think He Knows

• “I am an architect, I’m drawing up the plans”
• I love how she sings “skipping down 16th avenue”, like so specific and wonderful but universal
• I like how she owns how much of a catch she herself is in the second verse - like yassss girl
• “Lyrical smile, indigo eyes, hand on my thigh, we can follow the sparks (SPARKS FLYYYYYYYY), I’ll smile”

7. Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince

• The way it starts, it made me think of The Killers “Well somebody told me that you had a boyfriend who looked like a girlfriend…”
• “American glory faded before me” - her fall from the spotlight
• “I saw the scoreboard and ran for my life” - hiding away from media and everyone
• I like how she incorporates the “OKAY” school chant in the background of the chorus
• This has a lot of “I Know Places” vibes, especially second verse
• The switch in the bridge from “And I don’t want you to (Go), I don’t really wanna (Fight), ‘Cause nobody’s gonna (Win)” to “And I’ll never let you (Go), ‘Cause I know this is a (Fight),” That somebody we’re gonna (Win)”
• Wish she’d held the the last note that she started before entering back into final chorus (it sounded like it was going to go on longer

8. Paper Rings

• Makes me think of the happiness of “Stay, Stay, Stay” with a dash of “Holy Ground” energy
• Easily one of my faves
• Jack Antonoff counting us into the chorus, just love him
• Just such fun, every lyric and beat
• “I like shiny things but I’d marry you with paper rings” and “I hate accidents except when we went from friends to this” SO CUTE
• “Honey, without all the exes, fights, and flaws, we wouldn’t be standing here so tall” - so mature and wonderful and she’s so happy now!
• I love that she brings it up an octave starting at the bridge and into the final chorus
• I can’t help but smile listening to this over and over again
• Like, I want Lover as my wedding song and Paper Rings as a choreographed 20s swing dance with my future husband

9. Cornelia Street 

• Hit me the second time more than the first, like wow I actually love this
• “‘I rent a place on Cornelia Street,’ I say casually in the car” CUTEEEEE
• “That’s the kinda heartbreak time could never mend, I’d never walk Cornelia Street again”
• Second half of the chorus makes me think of Dress
• “Windows swung right open, autumn air, jacket ‘round my shoulders is yours” - ALL TOO WELL callback
• “Back when we were card sharks, playing games, I thought you were leading me one, I packed my bags, left Cornelia Street before you even knew I was gone” - makes me think of when she sings “If I had known what I know now, I never would have played so nonchalant” in Come Back, Be Here
• “Barefoot in the kitchen” - makes me think of All Too Well “dancing in the refrigerator light”
• I also think Cornelia Street doubles for love itself, like this is it for her, this is the one big love for her and there won’t be another so she wants to get it right and keep it safe

10. Death By A Thousand Cuts

• Ignore the lyrics and you almost think it’s a happy song (classic Jack Antonoff Bleachers thing to do)
• “I look through the windows of this love, even though we boarded them up, chandelier still flickering here” - brilliant
• THE PIANOOOOOOOOOOOOO (very Bleachers ‘Wild Heart’ outro)
• She goes from “We were a fresh page on the desk, filling in the blanks as we go” in Cornelia Street to “But if the story’s over, why am I still writing pages?” in Death By A Thousand Cuts, and that kills me
• “My heart, my hips, my body, my love, Tryna find a part of me that you didn’t touch”
• “Our songs, our films, united, we stand, our country, guess it was a lawless land”
• “Why are my fears at the touch of your hands? Paper cut stains from my paper-thin plans” - some of the best lyrics on the album right there, IMO
• “My time, my wine, my sprit, my trust, Tryna find a part of me you didn’t take up” - this destroyed me more than I thought it would because it was so unexpected and raw, especially the second half of the line, like she’s realizing that he took too much and it hurts but it wasn’t good to lose herself like that

11. London Boy

• Is the voice talking in the beginning Idris Elba?
• “They say home is where the heart is, But that’s not where mine lives” - she says the second half like a secret she’s sharing with us over wine
• Gotta go back to London STAT
• “Doesn’t have to be Louis V up on Bond Street” LOL fancy baller line

12. Soon You’ll Get Better

• This and The Archer are the two songs I cried during, just gutted
• “The buttons of my coat were tangled in my hair” - how we think of the mundane things when the worst things are happening to try and distract ourselves
• “Holy orange bottles, each night, I pray to you” - I don’t know what to say
• “…’Cause you have to”
• I love that the Dixie Chicks are lightly assisting the chorus without taking the song away from Taylor and its focus
• The bridge and pre-final-chorus have me crying the most and I don’t know what to do
• This remind me a lot of Ronan mixed with Never Grow Up and Fleetwood Mac’s Landslide

13. False God

• Sax is a bit like the sax in Bleachers’ Everybody Lost Somebody (not complaining at all)
• “We were stupid to jump in the ocean separating us
• I get Dress sexy vibes from this (“The altar is my hips”)
• The feathery way she sings the second “this loooovee)
• Reminds me of “So It Goes…”

14. You Need to Calm Down

• Still a bop, and always will be a bop - just so fun

15. Afterglow

• I like that she owns up to her mistakes and destructive tendency
• Makes me think of the Lover lyric “And I’m highly suspicious that everyone who sees you wants you” and in the music video it’s her jealousy that leads to a fight
• “Fighting with a true love is boxing with no gloves”
• “I lived like an island, punished you in silence”

16. ME!

• Lyrically and musically, exactly like what happened with Look What You Made Me Do and Reputation - almost like a red herring to put us off the sonic trail of her album until single 2 came out

17. It’s Nice To Have a Friend

• We get a story again! I’ve missed story song! (think Mary’s Song and Everything Has Changed mixed together)
• Lovely chill indie vibes
• “Something gave you the nerve to touch my hand”
• Love me some trumpet
• “Church bells ring, carry me home” (like third verse of Mary’s Song)
• “Rice on the ground looks like snow” - poetic cute

18. Daylight

• “My love was a cruel as the cities I lived in, everyone looked worse in the light” - like Cruel Summer and Getaway Car and even Back to December, she wanted something and got it, only find it wasn’t what she wanted and she ended up hurting someone in the process
• Chorus makes me think of You Are in Love floating synth
• “I wounded the good and I trusted the wicked” (Back to December, Getaway Car, I Knew You Were Trouble)
• “Clearing the air, I breathed in the smoke” harkens back to The Archer’s “The room is on fire, invisible smoke”
• “Threw out our cloaks and our daggers because it’s morning now” - she no longer needs I Know Places, no fear or hiding
• “I once believe love would be (Black and white) But it’s (Golden) […] I once believed love would be (Burning red) But it’s golden” - Burning red calls back to Red (duh!), Golden calls back to Dress “Made your mark on me, a golden tattoo”, End Game “It’s like your eyes are liquor, it’s like your body is gold”, So It Goes… “Gold cage, hostage to my feelings” and Dancing With Our Hands Tied “Deep blue, but you painted me golden”
• “You gotta step into the daylight and let it go” - remind me of the poem The Trick to Holding On that she wrote for Vogue (“The trick to holding on Was all that letting go”)
• The talking outro is very Jack Antonoff/Bleachers’ Strange Desire, cause he threads introspective talking throughout, especially when she says “I wanna be defined by the things that I love” and he sings “I wanna be grateful for the experiences that I’ve had” in You’re Still a Mystery