This is one of the most challenging posts I’ve ever written.
A few months ago Jen told me she started listening to Taylor Swift and I squealed with delight because I love Taylor Swift. I don’t know if I’d call myself a Swiftie, like I don’t know weird things about her, and I can’t listen to a song of hers and know exactly who she’s talking about. But I’ve been listening to her since her second album Fearless came out in 2008, and I enjoy her very much.
You know how it goes when a friend discovers something you’ve liked for a long time — you want to tell them what you love the most so they can experience it too. So every time Jen mentions her, I tell her she needs to listen to this song or that song. But then I thought, why don’t I write a post highlighting my top 10 favorite songs? That way, you can all respond and put your favorites in the comments section. I thought it would be fun — until I started making my list.
I started making my list last night at 8 o’clock. After reviewing every album and picking my favorite songs, I had 42 songs on my list. I thought I was being selective too, as it’s only 25% of her catalog, but clearly it needed more scrutiny.
The first thing I did was cut songs that I included because they are iconic, but not necessarily my favorites. Somewhere along the way I felt I needed these, like All Too Well for example, because it’s about Jake Gyllenhaal and that GD red scarf. Any Swiftie worth their salt would put it on a must-listen list. But then I remembered, this isn’t a must-listen list. It’s a my favorites list.
The next cut I made required me to differentiate between my favorite songs and songs I like to sing in the car. This was hard to do because I enjoy singing my favorite songs in the car too. And if I love singing certain songs in the car, shouldn't they also be on my list of favorites? I decided no. For example, You Need to Calm Down is one of these songs. I love singing it. It’s super popular. But is it in my top 10? No. So off the list it went.
By midnight I had narrowed it down to 25 songs and didn’t think I could cut any further. So I went to bed and decided to revisit it in the morning.
Today I woke up at 6 o’clock and got back to work. I whittled it down to 15, and then did another pass and got it down to ten. The last few cuts were like Sophie’s Choice. It was tough.
So here you go, Jen. These are my top 10 favorite Taylor Swift songs. I listed them by release date, because organizing them by most beloved would cause many more hours of anxiety, and I can’t do that to myself. Please enjoy.
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