Welcome back to another Taylor Swift album reaction! I have minimal prior exposure to her music beyond what’s played on the radio or what popular songs people talk about. This is my first intentional, close listen-through of her entire discography. I do not claim to be a Taylor Swift expert, nor can I promise that my impressions of each song will be considered “socially acceptable” by her fans.
Each song will be scored out of 10, adding decimals as I see fit. Examples of songs that I would rate a 10 include “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Sound of Silence” for reference. Anything five or higher means I like the song! I listened to the album in track order, so my reactions and scores match accordingly.
Last time, I listened to her debut album, “Taylor Swift.” Today, I’ll be listening and reacting to her second album, “Fearless” (the Platinum Edition), for the first time!
- Jump Then Fall
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I like the overall effect of this song. It’s well constructed and nothing stands out in a bad way. The lyrics are kind of cliche, but it was fun to listen to! In general, it’s not super memorable, but I would enjoy listening to this again. Rating: 6.25/10
- Untouchable
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While I was hoping for a quieter song based on the intro, I enjoyed its chill, almost ethereal vibe. One of the highlights for me was the guitar feature. Other than that, I found “Untouchable” somewhat repetitive, but I still liked the tone and mood. Rating: 6.75/10
- Forever and Always – Piano Version
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I was excited about this because I love piano-based songs! While I don’t think the vocals had a great flow to start out with, they improved about a minute in. Past the three-minute mark, I enjoyed the song a little less, but I still liked it since I’m biased toward piano covers. Rating: 6.75/10
- Come In With The Rain
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The song got off to a nice start! It gave me country vibes without being annoying, thankfully. I don’t mind it, but it’s not my favorite, probably because I’m not generally a country person. It’s a good mix of Taylor Swift and country, so it’s still a good song even if you don’t love country music. Rating: 5.75/10
- SuperStar
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The title “SuperStar” made me laugh. Other than that, I don’t have many strong opinions on this song. The instrumental beat isn’t my favorite, but I liked the vocals. Rating: 5.75/10
- The Other Side Of The Door
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Whenever she heavily features male backup vocals, I enjoy the song more, and I wish she would do it more often. The song was pretty catchy overall. Even though it had a banjo in it, it was used tastefully, so I can tolerate it. The instrumental I didn’t enjoy this time around was the guitar solo. Rating: 6.25/10 (deductions for the guitar and banjo)
- Fearless
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I definitely heard this song before, but I still appreciate the song’s departure from the rest of the album thus far. While I disliked the vocals at the beginning, I enjoyed this guitar solo a lot more than the solo in “The Other Side Of The Door.” Rating: 6.75/10
- Fifteen
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I like acoustic songs a lot, so this song immediately started on a good note for me! The lyric, “you’re gonna be here for the next four years,” really hit hard since I’m a second-semester freshman. I also related to this song because I have a redheaded friend named Abigail who loves Taylor Swift! Rating: 6.5/10
- Love Story
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“Love Story” is such a classic. I know it pretty well, even without having intentionally listened to it myself. It lowkey sounds like the banjo at the start of “Rainbow Connection” at the beginning, which is one of my favorite songs. I do think it’s interesting that she picked “Romeo and Juliet” to focus on. Even though their story is one of the greatest romantic stories, it doesn’t give off romantic vibes to me, probably because I know they both die. Rating: 6.75/10 (deductions for romanticizing “Romeo and Juliet” when the outcome is two deaths, additions for sounding like “Rainbow Connection” at the beginning)
- Hey Stephen
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This song also makes me laugh because my fake nemesis is named Stephen. It has a nice beat, but again, if I have an amusing association with the title, I cannot listen to the song as it’s meant to be listened to. I like the overall vibe of the song despite my personal aversion to the name. Rating: 6.75/10 (would’ve been a 7, but I just had to deduct points for choosing the name Stephen)
- White Horse
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I was VERY excited to hear a cello in the intro! I appreciate the change of pace with this one and find the lyrical premise of this especially engaging. Although I really like this song’s vibe, nothing really happens in it either, which prevents me from falling in love with it. Rating: 6.75/10
- You Belong With Me
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I have heard this one before! I’ve also listened to some covers, some of which I think I enjoy more than the original. Topically, I don’t like the idea of pitting girls against each other, but other than that, this is a catchy, chaotic song that I will always enjoy. I might be a little biased because this is the song I knew the best heading into this blog, but it still outranks a lot of the others I’ve listened to on this album. Rating: 7.25/10
- Breathe
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Again, I love acoustics. They bring a nice, chill vibe to the song. Despite my love for the instrumentation, I wish there was a little more variation and intrigue to listen to. Rating: 6.75/10
- Tell Me Why
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The intro reminded me of a hoedown at first, and the title reminds me of “I Want It That Way”, so I started out listening to this song with a smile already! Unfortunately, that didn’t last long during my first listen-through. I found it too aggressive, especially since “Breathe” was the song right before it.
On my second listen, I enjoyed the upbeat, cool energy of the song. I think my life experiences developed between the first time I listened and the second time, so I related to the lyrics more. Rating: 5.5/10 the first time, 7/10 the second time
- You’re Not Sorry
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I was very excited to hear the piano at the beginning but found myself deceived after getting more into the song. I wasn’t sure what to think about the aggressive strings paired with the aggressive guitar. Overall, I found this song a little too intense and was confused by the quietness of the beginning and end. Rating: 5.5/10
- The Way I Loved You
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A lot of the songs on this album, including this one, have intros that don’t really match the rest of the song, which is something that’s started to bother me. This is definitely not a bad song, but I don’t really like the vocals or the guitar solo. They seem kind of disjointed, and the guitar didn’t really seem to fit right. There are times where I liked the song and other times where it threw me off a little bit. Rating: 6/10
- Forever & Always
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I really enjoyed the chorus. Other than that, I didn’t like the introductory vocals or the vocals after the halfway mark. The end was also not my favorite choice, but the song scores high because despite some vocal flaws, I continued to like the chorus. Rating: 6.25/10
- The Best Day
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The visual imagery in this song stood out the most to me. While it’s not the strongest bop, it definitely has one of the strongest narrative progressions on the album. I really liked the tone of this. The song had very serene, cute vibes. Rating: 6.75/10
- Change
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Again, this song’s intro is very different from the rest of the song, which is a common characteristic of this album. I didn’t love the vocals. They reminded me of an angry cat noise. They didn’t seem to come easily to Taylor, which could be part of it. If I’m being honest, the quieter parts of the song prevent it from being rated below a 5. Rating: 5.5/10
Average rating: 6.07/10
Favorite song (based on rating): “You Belong With Me”
I liked “Fearless Platinum Edition” a lot better than “Taylor Swift.” I appreciated the greater variety and difference in tone, especially since I’m not a country fan. In general, the songs were more memorable and catchier than those on “Taylor Swift.” One issue I had with this album was that a lot of the intros didn’t match the tone of the rest of the song, but that’s my only qualm. I’m excited to see what she comes up with next!