Taylor Swift eras deathmatch! Making the case for the superstar’s best album
In a pair of cowboy boots, 16-year-old Taylor Swift stepped into Nashville’s country music scene, released her eponymous debut album and changed pop music. Swift’s debut is often written off for her excessive vocal twangs and banjo flourishes, but singles such as Tim McGraw, Teardrops on My Guitar and Our Song, which rocketed up both the country and pop charts in 2006, have stood the test of nearly two decades. Many of the lyrical motifs that recur throughout Swift’s discography have roots in her debut: Cold as You’s pouring rain; Mary’s Song’s 2am time check; Our Song’s meta take on artistic inspiration. The sophisticated songwriting of her debut remains impressive but it was Swift’s expression of adolescent emotional intensity that connected with young listeners like me. Today, with the likes of Olivia Rodrigo and Billie Eilish dominating pop, the idea of a teenager making music for other teenagers is commonplace. But in 2006, it was cohorts of middle-aged men who were wri...