OK, so I messed up.
I had an album slotted neatly into my #1 slot for 2004. In fact, it was a no-brainer. I was looking forward to writing about it.
Then I discovered that, contrary to the date stamp in my iTunes library, the album was actually released in February of 2005. So it will make a lovely entry after I’ve worked my way through the 5s, but it would be premature to include it now.
I was struggling for a post to close out the week before I get to the 2021 movie-related content that will populate the blog for the next month or so.
Then I came across this Taylor Swift-assisted remix of the HAIM song ‘Gasoline,’ from their 2020 album Women in Music, Pt. III. That album was my favorite of 2020 and ‘Gasoline’ was my favorite song on it.
My final track in the Your Favorite Songs series is Taylor Swift’s ‘Begin Again,’ which showed up on both Amy and Madison’s lists. This is the final track, and second single, on Swift’s 2012 album Red.
Red is a fan favorite, perhaps because it gives equal weight to both her country roots and her shift toward pop. I placed it in the middle of the pack when ranking Swift’s albums last year.
After Taylor Swift blessed fans with two surprise full-length albums in 2020, the records were invariably paired up in interesting ways.
Swift called the second album, Evermore, a “sister record” to the earlier Folklore, prompting fans to match “sister songs” on the albums. Track 13 on one is about Swift’s grandfather, while track 13 on the other is about her grandmother. The video for ‘Willow’ picks up where ‘Cardigan’s video left off. Both albums feature duets with Bon Iver. And so on.
Happy New Year to all of my readers! Let’s hope 2021 finds us all happier and healthier.
And now, concluding my countdown of the songs on Taylor Swift’s Evermore…
#3. ‘Ivy’
This song is very reminiscent of ‘Invisible String,’ one of my favorite tracks on Folklore. I love the banjo and the chorus, both of which sound like classic Taylor. Swift plays the cheating wife in this song and sells the “illicit affair” with subtlety and mystery.
