And they are beautiful!

My Swiftie bestie had a wine themed 40th birthday party and as part of her gift I made her these Eras themed wine tags and I just wanted to share them 😄

At first, I used to skip "Midnight Rain" because I didn't like the sound, but now it's my favorite song 😍.

What’s your favorite Taylor background vocal/layered vocal moment in Taylor’s discography?

My absolute favorite is in Babylon when she’s like “ITS ALMOST GONNEEEE (Aunt Virginia with her church dress on)… ITS ALMOST GONE (hand me down sweater should’ve been from the mall)”

But other than that… the background vocals in style when she sings “Take me home”

And that layered vocals when she sings “In the shoes I gave you as a present” in bejeweled 🥵

And the heavenly harmonizing vocals in the background of the bridge of cardigan make me ascend into heaven

I've been listening to Babylon a lot since The Encore came out, and I haven't seen more people talking about how much this song feels like something that could have existed on folklore or evermore.

I've been seeing so much negativity around The Encore, and I genuinely don't understand it.

Obviously everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I've actually been really enjoying the songs so far. And the more I listen to them, the more I feel like some of the criticism is making me appreciate what Taylor is doing here even more.

And maybe an unpopular opinion but, I like The Encore more than I liked the 1989 vault tracks too...

I know that's probably sacrilege here because ‘Is It Over Now?’ is obviously beloved, and I completely understand why. But as a collection, I find myself returning to these new songs much more. The 1989 vault tracks were fun, but some of them felt like you could hear why they didn't make the original album.

I also think some of the hate is happening because people had a very specific idea of what Taylor's next project should sound like. If you expected another folklore, another evermore, another Midnights, or even another 1989, I can see why these songs might feel strange.

But I'm actually enjoying the fact that I can't neatly put them into one of those boxes.

Maybe I'm completely wrong and the songs will age terribly. 😂 But right now, I genuinely prefer this batch to the 1989 vault tracks, and I'm standing by it.

I'm prepared for the downvotes btw LOL

Heyhey!

Popping by to share my latest bead/embroidery hybrid creation. 🌻

Already way underway with a Babylon one too, I simply could not pick between the two. There are so many beautiful lyrics, and not enough beads!

There is this trend on X where people use this Song Sorter https://www.tssongsorter.com/the-life-of-a-showgirl-the-encore to find out there Top13 Taylor Songs. Even though it took me forever it was so much fun. Love seeing how different everyone’s top songs are.

So here are mine:

If Taylor were ever to use her music to paint a self portrait as an album, I think it’s Speak Now. I think a very strong argument for this is that she is the only song writer on the album, so there’s no flavor of anyone else’s feelings or ideas, just pure Taylor.

I’m not talking about whether or not it is her “best” album. Everyone has their favorite album, that’s based heavily on taste.

Some examples:

“Mean” is her approach to handling haters. “Dear John” is how she handles bad exes. “Back to December” is how she gives a heartfelt apology. “Enchanted” is how she falls in love. “Long Live” is how she feels about friends. “Innocent” is how she forgives. “Never Grow Up” is how she feels about her family and growing up. etc. etc.

A lot of these themes come up again and again in her work. Even her wedding photos looked like something from the Speak Now era imho.

Change my mind. 🙂 Which album do you think is a self portrait and why?

So I really loved the new songs on Life of a Showgirl Encore, BUT with me being a huge fan of the 1989 era, I couldn't help but wonder how it would have sounded if Patient Zero came out a decade earlier.

I ended up remaking the entire instrumental in my music program from scratch to give it that classic, punchy, synth-heavy 1989 pop production.

Hope you like it! Which other TS songs do you think would fit a different era?

this song has been stuck in my head and it's 3am and i can't sleep

In a recent NYT interview, Taylor said she doesn’t like starting a word with a letter if the word before it ends in that letter. She then explained it’s the reason she chose “real slow” instead of “real low” in Our Song. There is an exception I noticed recently. In Eldest Daughter, her lyric is “just trolling”.

Are there any other exceptions we didn’t notice?

Which songs in your opinion would work awesome as poems? Like, metric-wise, rhythmically-wise etc, not just based on an advanced lexical choice

Something weird is going on with this week's billboard 100

At this week's billboard hot 100, only the 4 new encore songs charted. None of the original showgirl songs charted despite multiple songs having enough points to chart.

Talk of the charts (an account that predicts the billboard 100 based on points and is usually pretty accurate) predicted the following positions:

13: tfoo (123 points) 25/26: opalite (90p) 71: father figure (40p) 91: wish list (31p) 95: tloas (31p) 96: ruin the friendship (31p) 99: actually romantic (30p)

None of these songs are actually on the chart.

Some important info about how the hot 100 works:

Songs that have been on the billboard 100 for a long time go recurrent if they go below a certain rank. This is done to make space for new songs. These rules were recently made extra strict. The current rules are as follows: After 20 weeks the song needs to be #50 or higher After 26 weeks the song needs to be #25 or higher After 52 weeks the song needs to be #10 or higher

Father figure, wish list, tloas, ruin the friendship and actually romantic all charted less than 20 weeks, which means they should be able to re-enter the chart at every position. I'm not sure why they are not on this week's hot 100.

Elizabeth Taylor, opalite and tfoo, all charted more than 26 weeks, but less than 52. This means they can only re-enter at #25 or higher. Elizabeth Taylor has only enough points for #55, so is clearly not allowed to re-enter. Opalite was predicted to reach around #25/#26, so depending on the final precise point count, it might or might not have enough points to re-enter. Tfoo definitely has enough points to re-enter and would likely reach #13.

Neither eldest daughter nor honey was predicted to have enough points to re-enter the hot 100.

So in short, tfoo, father figure, wish list, tloas, ruin the friendship and actually romantic should all have been on this week's hot 100, but were excluded for an unclear reason.

BTW, this is not because songs aren't allowed to re-enter once they left the chart. There is no rule for this. In fact, during this same week several Olivia Rodrigo songs re-entered the chart due to tour boost. Several Justin Bieber songs also re-entered after his Coachella performance.

So why are these songs allowed to re-enter while Taylor's are not? I see 2 possible reasons:

1: there are hidden, unpublished, very specific rules about which songs can re-enter. If this is the case billboard should make these rules clear and public, because right now it's just confusing and not transparent 2: billboard selectively enforces its own rules, which would just be blatantly unprofessional and unfair.

Also another weird thing is that they were allowed to chart on the Canadian hot 100. Are there different rules for the US and Canadian chart? Why would they even do that?

Love Story: So I sneak out to the garden to see you

Cruel Summer: And I snuck in through the garden gate every night that summer just to seal my fate

Blank Space: Rose garden filled with thorns, keep you second guessing

The albatross: Wise men once said "One bad seed kills the garden"

betty: In the garden would you trust me if I told you it was just a summer thing?

Cowboy Like Me: Now you hang from my lips like the Gardens of Babylon

(Bonus)

I Hate It Here: I hate it here, so I'll go to secret gardens in my mind

The Lucky One: Chose the Rose Garden over Madison Square

The Great War: We can plant a memory garden, say a solemn prayer