Favorite opening track from a TS album?
You didn't ask for a ranking, but I'm doing it anyway:
To the surprise of no one, my Reputation bias shows itself again. The entire album is such a crazy move with how different it is from the rest of Taylor's discography, but she commited to it and the opening track is THE perfect exemple of it. The beat makes me crazy, I absolutely ADORE the lyrics (especially the second verse), and it gains soooo many points for TWO great live performances (Reputaton Tour and Eras Tour) and I blast at dangerously loud volumes constantly.
"What if echolalia was a song?" I sing this goddamn thing all day every day, if I got money for each time I watched the music video I'd be able to afford a private jet myself, it's the perfect bridge the album that comes before it and the one it is an opening to. Best song on Showgirl AND one of the best of Taylor's entire career, haters can cry about it.
I would marry this song if I could, ESPECIALLY the re-recording, holy shit, that instrumental can (and often does) cure my depression. The second verse and bridge are everything to me, absolute thesis statement of the album.
The sound of this one makes me ferral, I like the cheekiness of the first line in the Midnights being "Meet me at midnight", and Taylor starting the album with "All they keep asking me is if I'm gonna be your bride" and ending it with "I wouldn't marry me either" was fucking insane.
One of the few Taylor songs I knew, and loved with all my heart, before going full Swiftie, could quote the whole thing in my sleep, the rare type of song that manages to be both a perfect opening and a perfect closer.
I love this one so, so, so, so much, the Eras Tour version made said love grow even more, I adore the witchy vibe, I love how Taylor changes the way she sings the chorus, but the "I come back stronger than a 90s trend" lyrics leads to a facepalm each and every time. Why, Taylor, why?
Beautiful, amazing, showstopping, perfect at setting the tone, theme and sound of the album, but DEPRESSING.
I usually don't count deluxes as their own thing, but since TTPD is a full on double album, I felt the need to count Anthology as it's own thing, at least to some extent. Apply everything I said about The 1 to this but make it twice as depressing.
Loooove the callback to the ending of Midnights, love how it sounds, it's a neat duet, BUT it can be a bit too mellow/confusing on the first listen, took a bit to grow on me.
Thesis statement of the album, catchy and fun, but not my favorite lyrics wise. Nothing too eggregious, just a bit of a "Oh yeah, this WAS written by a teenager."
Classic, sweet, cute. Debut in a nutshell... but while it does 100% work at the opening, from the first time I heard it, I thought it worked BETTER as an album closer instead of being equally perfect as both.
Neat song, I like it a lot, makes perfect sense as an intro... or at least it WOULD, if Blank Space wasn't the song immediately after it, which makes me skip it, or at least not hear it as the first song, when I relisten to 1989.
12 - I Forgot That You Existed
The song is okay and I understand it was the opening as a way to connect it to the previous album... but whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy? A song that could have been cut from the album without the listener missing much has zero business being the opening track. Especially with Cruel Summer right after it.
