It’s that time of year again, another Taylor album release! TS12 has arrived. At the time of writing this, 48 hours have gone by since the album dropped, and various opinions are already underway. I have a few of my own, and I’m here to share them with you. Starting this off with a little disclaimer: everyone is entitled to their own opinions!
Having been an avid listener of Taylor since 1989 and calling myself a Swiftie since the Evermore era, I have lived through quite a few album releases. That being said, I’ve found that history tends to repeat itself. Upon first listen, I wasn’t very drawn to any particular song on the album. Usually, there are maybe one or two that stick out to me, but I’ve accepted this indifference to be part of the experience, and then love them as I listen to them more. Two days later, I can safely say that “CANCELLED!” and “Elizabeth Taylor” are stuck in my head, so I was proven right. Opinions on TikTok are divided, with some experiencing love at first listen, ranging to others bashing the album (and Taylor) endlessly.
Here’s my take on the haters: a lot of them will change their minds and then go on to claim that they’ve loved the album since the beginning. I saw it with Midnights and with The Tortured Poets Department, so I have no doubt that we’ll see it again. I don’t know whether to find it funny or annoying when the switch-up inevitably occurs. I personally loved Midnights from the very beginning and was indifferent towards TTPD upon first release, but grew to love it. So I have very little doubt that I’ll grow to love this one. That being said, I have my own critiques on the album, so I definitely understand where some people are coming from; however, some opinions are just a bit much.
I think it’s unreasonable for people to wish that Taylor was still depressed and heartbroken (claiming that that was what made her lyrics/music so good). Hello? “Daylight” and “Call it What You Want” exist, and they’re also happy songs! I don’t have a problem with the lyrics not being that “deep” (they’re glitter gel pen songs after all), but there were some lyrics that definitely made me cringe.
For example, in “CANCELLED!,” the lyric “did you girl-boss too close to the sun?” was a hard listen. It dates the song to this specific era where that term is used. The same applies to “Eldest Daughter,” which I have not seen a lot of conversation about online. This is “a track five,” a fan-noticed tradition where the fifth track on a Taylor Swift album is usually the most sentimental. In the chorus, we have the lyrics, “I’m not a bad b*tch, and this isn’t savage”. At least in “CANCELLED!,” the line appeared once, and you could pretend it didn’t exist at all. However, this is not the case here. I don’t feel like the line matches the vibe of the song, and knowing that she is a stellar songwriter, I cringe and wonder why she didn’t use something else. The clean version, replacing “bad b*tch” with “baddest” is slightly more tolerable. Otherwise, I really liked that song (especially as an eldest daughter).
My final negative opinion is that I do not like the album cover. I personally feel that the green makes it look tacky; I wish she had used the photo of her in the orange feathers, which she used to announce the track titles, as the cover instead.
A lot of people were expecting the album to have a jazz or burlesque feel to it, but Taylor stated from the get-go that this was going to be a pop album with the Max Martin. I love pop, so I couldn’t be mad there. Some people found “Wood” to be a bit too vulgar, but I just found it funny. I completely misinterpreted “Ruin the Friendship” and did not view it as being a sad song until I saw a TikTok about it (insert crying face emoji). I could see it being a track five, as the comments of that video were suggesting.
Overall, do I think that this album will become one of my favorites of all time? Time will tell, but it seems unlikely. However, I will say that none of the songs are a skip, and they will all be shuffled into my regular rotation. TS12 has arrived, and while I don’t think it’s a perfect album, it’s a good day to be a Swiftie and have experienced another release to bless my ears.
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