The Cinematic Landscape of Taylor Swift's Albums
Painting a mental cinematic landscape for every Taylor Swift album prior to TTPD.
I am excited for Taylor Swift’s upcoming eleventh studio album, The Tortured Poets Department. In preparation for this release, I have been listening to her entire discography again. I like to paint a mental cinematic landscape for music that I listen to, and I will do that for each Taylor Swift album in chronological order of initial release.
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Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift’s debut album paints a pastoral image in my head. Rolling meadows on a temperate summer afternoon. Driving while the sun dips below the horizon, shafts of watery light painting the world golden like a 1980s Hollywood love film. A wide-eyed girl in a small town looking up at the morning sky and wondering what her special someone is currently doing out in the vast and unexplored world.
The songs have a sense of eagerness to them. You can hear the hope and wonder in Taylor’s voice, especially since the re-recorded version is not currently available to the public at the time of this article’s publication. I wonder how the songs would take new life in Taylor’s Version.
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Fearless (Taylor’s Version)
Fearless conjures up images of greenhouses brimming with viridian life, community gardens being tended to by local teenagers who are preparing for prom next week. It is bouquets of multicolored roses exchanged between young lovers. It is dancing on wet pavement after a long night drive in the rain. It is going to your favorite restaurant with old friends in the hometown you left behind upon moving to college. It is running your fingers along the spine of new books at your local indie book shop while the earthy aroma of coffee wafts under your nose. It is staying up until 3 in the morning, laughing with your partner over fun memories until your stomach ache. It is opening a new leather-bound journal and seeing the possibilities that would fill the blank pages.
This album definitely exudes an early springtime vibe when the ice is just thawing, and the birds are singing a little louder, and the trees are donning their green suits again, and the animals are stirring awake from hibernation.
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Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)
Speak Now gives off major winter vibes. Gathering around the hearth with the kids in your extended family, your hands around a steaming mug of hot chocolate, the firelight casting a glow on the Christmas stockings hanging over the fireplace, everyone’s names stitched onto the cotton cuffs. Watching the New Years Eve fireworks on the boardwalk. Goofing off with a co-worker while you both clean the restaurant after a long shift. Making funny faces in the photo booth after a fun night out. Watching the first snow of winter on a park bench together at midnight.
This is definitely an album to listen to during the holiday season right after Thanksgiving and before the New Year.
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Red (Taylor’s Version)
Red makes me think of a girl who had just been dumped by a boy. The boy is walking away, and her face is streaked in tears as she reaches for his retreating back. It is sitting at a cafe with tan walls covered in flickering fairy lights, looking out at a couple chatting and smiling on the city streets, remembering what you once had. It is turning in your sheets in the middle of the night, delirious as your arm falls on the other side of the bed, which is cold and unoccupied. It is wondering whether you truly loved them, and whether they had meant it when they said they loved you back.
This is an autumn album. The leaves are turning brown, and the days are getting cold. Pumpkin spice latte is coming to mind.
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1989 (Taylor’s Version)
1989 is my favorite Taylor Swift album. It evokes the scene of dancing barefoot on an empty beach, the sea breeze tickling your cheeks and the sun smiling on the cerulean sky. It is gulls uttering heartfelt cries. It is walking around your college campus and seeing your fellow students having picnics on the grass. It is laughing out loud when spring break comes. It is the sigh of absolute relief after working out a problem that has been plaguing your life for quite a while.
This is a late spring album verging on the spectacular heat of the summer holidays.
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Reputation
Reputation is sashaying into a newspaper company in stilettos, thumbing the spark wheel of your lighter and tossing your hair over your shoulder. Writers in brown suits gape at you, their fingers frozen over their typewriters. It is walking out of a burning building with your girl gang after stealing the diamond while looking sexy. It is punching your wall in the dead of night, your knuckles bruised and your throat hoarse from yelling. It is the graffiti in the girl’s bathroom stalls. It is the primal roar uttered by the feminine collective.
This is a late autumn album. The leaves are all dead. The animals are asleep. Winter is encroaching on all the things that used to be warm.
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Lover
Lover is the kiss from your partner on a sticky summer night. It is marveling at sparklers in the dark. Pool parties and class reunions. A strawberry banana smoothie cooling your palms on a hot day. It is belting out your favorite songs at a karoake bar. It is sitting on your porch with a friend in the twilit hours of the day, talking about an upcoming camping trip.
This is definitely a summer album. A cruel summer album.
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Folklore & Evermore
Folklore and Evermore are losing your way in the woods, surrounded by birdsong. It is the scent of musk, the squelching of mud underneath your boots, the cool breeze nipping at your cheeks, the palms of peace cradling your heart. It is stumbling across an ancient tome on a tree trunk in the clearing, opening the book, and being engulfed in a radiant light that transports you to a cottage where a handsome stranger awaits you with a steaming cup of tea.
This is definitely a late summer, early autumn pair of albums that capture the wonders of the imagination and the grit of the human condition.
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Midnights (Til Dawn Edition)
Midnights, as the title and album artwork suggest, are candlelight and sleepless nights. Bath bombs coloring the water red, and LED lights flickering on the walls. It is neon signs outside shop fronts. Walking on an empty metropolis street. It is grabbing a drink by yourself in the bar while everyone else chatters on with a companion. It is staring out the window of your apartment on the tenth floor, listening to lo-fi music on repeat. It is looking up at the stars and feeling that you are both infinite and finite, that you hold so much power, yet your existence is but a tiny droplet in this cosmic ocean.
I view this as an year-long album during the long nights when the shadows grow teeth and the outside world seems so far away.
These are the cinematic landscapes that I painted for all the Taylor Swift albums leading up to The Tortured Poets Department.
Take care of yourself, lovelies!