best taylor swift album (so far)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

voted, but forgot to register:

speak now
fearless
s/t
1989
red

red
fearless
speak now
1989
taylor swift

pretty good about this

feel pretty good*

lol results are how i'd rank em

Wonder how many people's #1 is the album where they first got fully on board. (Not mine fwiw -- but that's a pretty normal thing, and in her case I can especially imagine it.)

I first fully got on board with the debut - albeit in 2008 so I didn't have to wait long for the follow-up. Weirdly, even though I loved "Love Story" as a single, for quite a while I was a bit disappointed with Fearless; it didn't seem as feisty as the debut. It strikes me as the better album by some distance now, though I think both suffer from a run of less distinct tracks.

In that regard Red and 1989 are quite different: there are some active missteps which is not the case for the first few albums but there's nothing which I'd describe as indistinct. Speak Now is somewhere in between.

If I had to go with a favourite it would probably be Red on account of how the epic moments cover so much ground between them.

whoa missed this poll

"fearless" is her best record, front to back

I got on board somewhere between Speak Now and Red. The poll results are a good reflection of my own rankings in that I could make the case for any of the 3 most recent albums to be my favourite.

Fearless I acknowledge as a great record but being incognisant (and also a teenager keen for some reason to impress my knowledge and love of bands like Animal Collective for some reason) of her at the time it doesn't have the same memories attached to it as the later records do.

The fuck with ranking 198fucking9 over Fearless.

an outrage tbh

Wonder how many people's #1 is the album where they first got fully on board. (Not mine fwiw -- but that's a pretty normal thing, and in her case I can especially imagine it.)

― something of an astrological coup (tipsy mothra), Thursday, April 30, 2015 9:06 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

considering I fully got on board with 1989 and I think everything previous is either boring or actively awful, then yes

i got on board with fearless but every record since has been an improvement (or in the case of 1989 an effective variation) in execution, if not consistency.

If I had to go with a favourite it would probably be Red on account of how the epic moments cover so much ground between them.

otm

I've said elsewhere that Taylor's work grows in intensity for me with each album owing to an accumulative sense of connection with her: the personal bond just thickens with each release.

But part of that dynamic is that her songwriting capacity grows or extends: even if 1989 isn't my favourite album from hers I'm glad that the person who wrote "Hey Stephen" can also write "You Are In Love".

^^ otm

The fuck with ranking 198fucking9 over Fearless.

― how's life, Friday, May 1, 2015 4:48 AM (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

an outrage tbh

― lex pretend, Friday, May 1, 2015 5:26 AM (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i wanna see heads on platters

i feel the same way about "fearless", and the critical/popular response to her subsequent work, as i do about beyonce's b'day

I'm ok with this.

Ranking her albums....

I would almost literally reverse those rankings, LOL (would probably put Red at #1 and Reputation at #2)

red
fearless
1989
speak now
taylor swift
reputation

Got a list of T. Swift albums
You may say that I'm insane

everytime i hear delicate on the radio (which is a lot) i strain & cannot really figure out why it is so popular

see I've heard it on the radio but my Clear Channel station has not blasted it like other singles. It's by far her biggest airplay hit since last fall, no doubt.

Dive bar on the East Side, where you at?
Phone lights up my nightstand in the black
Come here, you can meet me in the back

I'm bugged by how an almost good lyric is soured by "...in the black," which is neither an idiomatic nor a poetic way of saying "in the dark"; it's just a clumsy line, b/c she needed a rhyme.

(Also, sleep experts advise that keeping your phone active at your bedside is detrimental to getting proper rest.)

So what? This means she has some acquaintance with the Bernard Sumner Center for Advanced Lyric Writing.