Anyone who knows me well, knows that I am a freak for Tswift.  I have Tshirts, I’ve seen her in concert more times than an adult should be willing to admit to, I have all her albums, I set her songs as my ringtones and my alarms in the morning, and I have driven my past roommates and current neighbors to the brink of insanity by constantly blasting her music for impromptu, solitary dance parties.  So, now I will list my top ten fifteen sixteen favorite Tswift songs, explain why I love them, and highlight the best lyrics from each 🙂 Caveat: This list is constantly in flux, but here’s how it looks today. Why go to all this time and trouble to outline my favorite Tswift songs, you ask? Because I fucking feel like it. And it’s the end of semester and I have tons of other work to be doing. So, press play, and enjoy my skills of procrastination at their finest 🙂

LOVE SONGS:

Sparks Fly: EVERY WORD OF THIS SONG IS FLAWLESS and it never fails to make me giddy. Also, great for listening to on repeat and having an impromptu dance party or shouting along to while cooking, alone in the car, or anywhere really. Full volume.

favorite lyrics: seriously, EVERY WORD OF THE SONG, also:  “get me with those green eyes baby as the lights go down, give me something that’ll haunt me when you’re not around”

“my mind forgets to remind me, you’re a bad idea”

“and I could wait patiently but I really wish you would…”  ((Taylor gets me))

Everything has changed: Ed Sheeran is adorable and rocks my socks.

favorite lyrics: “All I know is you said hello, and your eyes look like coming home”

“And all I feel in my stomach is butterflies, the beautiful kind, making up for lost time, taking flight, making me feel right”

“So dust off your highest hopes”

“All I know is a found grace, all my days I’ll know your face.”  Really, every word of this song is beautiful.

Love Story: A pop anthem.

favorite lyrics: “This love is difficult, but it’s real.”

Enchanted: Mandatory listening for anyone who’s ever had a crush

favorite lyrics: “The lingering question kept me up, 2am who do you love? I wonder til I’m wide awake….”

“This night is flawless, don’t you let it go, I’m wonderstruck dancing ’round all alone…”

“these are the words I held back, as I was leaving too soon, I was enchanted to meet you”

I’d Lie: overly adorable.

favorite lyrics: “He sees everything black and white never let nobody see him cry, I don’t let nobody see me wishing he was mine”

Mary’s Song (Oh My My My): just a beautiful love story about not just two people but two families coming together

favorite lyrics: “and our daddies used to joke about the two of us, never believed we’d really fall in love, and our mamas smiled and rolled their eyes, and said oh my my my.”

“And all I need is you next to me”

“Just two kids you and I, oh my my my”

Fearless: Happy and lighthearted:

favorite lyrics: “We’re driving down the road, I wonder if you know I’m trying so hard not to get caught up now, But you’re just so cool, run your hands through your hair, absent-mindedly making me want you”

“in this moment now, capture it, remember it, cause I don’t know how it gets better than this, you take my hand and drag me head first fearless”

“and you stood there with me in the doorway, my hands shake, I’m not usually this way, you pull me in and I’m a little more brave, it’s the first kiss, it’s flawless, really something, it’s fearless”

Beautiful Eyes: Cute happy innocent and honest. Taylor.

favorite lyrics: “Your beautiful eyes stare right into my eyes, And sometimes, I think of you late at night, I don’t know whyyyyyyyyy. I wanna be somewhere where you are”

“I wake up, I’m alive, in only a little while, I’ll cry, cause you’re my lullaby, so baby come hold me tight”

BREAK UP SONGS

The Way I Loved You: Best happy break up song of all time: MUST BE LISTENED TO WITH THE VOLUME TURNED ALL THE WAY UP:

favorite lyrics: “so in love that you act insane, breaking down and coming undone it’s a roller coaster kind of rush, and I never knew I could feel that much, and that’s the way I loved you” “and you were wild crazy, just so frustrating, intoxicating, complicated got away by some mistake and now…”

All too well: Best sad break up song ever: Long, slow, kind of mature, and agonizing, but so cathartic in the end.

favorite lyrics: “And I might be ok, but I’m not fine at all….”

“and I know it’s long gone and there was nothing else I could, I forget about you long enough to forget why I needed to…”

“maybe we got lost in translation, maybe i asked for too much, but maybe this thing was a masterpiece til you tore it all up, running scared, I was there, I remember it all too well, now you call me up again just to break me like a promise, so casually cruel in the name of being honest”

“Time won’t fly, it’s like I’m paralyzed by it, I’d like to be my old self again, but I’m still tryna find it…It was rare I was there, I remember it all too well”

Come in with the Rain: Heartbreaking and exhausting to listen too. Great one to put on a sleep/bedtime playlist.

favorite lyrics: “And I’ve got you down, I know you by heart, and you don’t even know where I start”

Dear John:  Nice specific window into Taylor’s real life and break up with John Mayer.

favorite lyrics: “I’m shining like fireworks over your sad empty  town”

Begin Again: hopeful but gut wrenching. I just like the overall feel of this one.

favorite lyrics: “We tell stories and you don’t know why, I’m coming off a little shy, but I do”

COMING OF AGE SONGS:

State of Grace: more even-keeled and grown up somehow than most of her other songs. The overall tone is just less anxt-y and more at peace.

favorite lyrics: “And I never saw you coming, and I’ll never be the same”

“So you were never a saint, and I loved in shades of wrong, we learned to live with the pain, mostly in broken hearts, but this love is brave and wild, and I never saw you coming, and I’ll never be the same”

22: They say that as a woman, each year of your life is better than the last. This song is about having fun when that chronological progression fails you from time to time.

favorite lyrics:”Yeah, we’re happy free confused and lonely at the same time, it’s miserable and magical oh yeah”

A Place in this World: This song served as no less than a feminist anthem for me when I was 19.

favorite lyrics: “I don’t know what I want, so don’t ask me, cause I’m still tryna figure it out”

“I’m alone, on my own, and that’s all I know, I’ll be strong, I’ll be wrong, Oh but life goes on, Oh I’m just a girl, tryna a find a place in this world.”

“Got the radio on, my old blue jeans, and I’m wearing my heart on my sleeve”  ((The proud certainty of this statement shows that Taylor knows my soul. Overemotional and owning it)).