Taylor Swift: s/t debut album poll

Missed the last few songs.

But I'll probably go for either "Tim McGraw" or "Our Song".

"Mary's Song", "Stay Beautiful", "Picture To Burn", "Cold As You" and "Invisible" not far behind.

I'm on the outside
I'm looking in
I can see through you
See your true colors
Cause inside you're ugly
You're ugly like me
I can see through you
See to the real you

Missed the last few songs.

Bonus tracks on the '08 repressing, right?

"Tim McGraw," which I sometimes think is still the best song she's ever written.

"tim mcgraw" vs "our song", yeah - everything about both of those is just breathtaking

Any love for "Teardrops" here?

"Tim McGraw" over "Our Song", for its ambiguity: is there really a lover being sung to here, or is it a song to herself, or to some past self? "That's a lie." And anyway what does she feel about this lover? She expresses no regret. The song is warm, but for what?

It's Our Song but i'll also rep for The Outside, Place In This World and Should've Said No which was a really good live closer. And all the other singles of course.

which was a really good live closer

How was the entire show??

(Did I mention I'm taking my little one to see her tonight? I am.)

Well it was about 2 months before she really got known in the UK so it was the approx 1500 capacity Shepherds Bush Empire :-) Annoyingly we missed out on seeing her in a tiny 400 capacity place a few months before; had no idea that was even happening until afterwards.

Aaaaanyway so yes, i think the tweens/teens over here had just realised the Miley connection so me and my lady were probably the oldest people there other than the small group of parents stood at the back. Lots of screaming. Lots. Take earplugs.

As for the show, reaally good fun and a ridiculously good setlist because she basically does nearly all of fearless plus the hits + should've said no from the debut. Its been a year or so since our show but i doubt the setlist will have changed much. Backing band were proficient enough but it often seemed like the main female violinist/backing vocalist REALLY wanted to be fronting the band and must have some uber taylor hate built up inside. As to be expected live Taylor's voice isn't spectacular compared to most country vocalists, but who gives a shit when the songs are so good and she's putting so much energy in. And to be honest most of the indie vocalists i'm usually watching are no better/are usually a lot worse. So yes, Taylor live = tons of fun.

Here's her current setlist (which is pretty much set in stone, apparently):

1. You Belong With Me
2. Our Song
3. Tell Me Why
4. Teardrops On My Guitar
5. Fearless
6. Forever and Always
7. Hey Stephen
8. Fifteen
9. Tim McGraw
10. White Horse
11. Love Story
12. The Way I Loved You
13. You're Not Sorry/What Goes Around Comes Around
14. Picture to Burn
15. Change (Not performed in the United Kingdom, Austrailia or second leg in North America)

* Encore

1. I'm Only Me When I'm With You (with Kellie Pickler and Gloriana, North America Only)
2. Today Was a Fairytale (Australia and second leg of North America)
3. Should've Said No

it often seemed like the main female violinist/backing vocalist REALLY wanted to be fronting the band and must have some uber taylor hate built up inside.

lulz!

i've still never listened to this

Concert was incredible. Biggest contrast to most things I see live is the amount of sheer enthusiasm from 20,000 insane screaming fans. Most anyone playing at a small club or theater is lucky to get the majority of the audience engaged and then hold their attention, keep them satisfied. Taylor Swift fans are INSANE, though... it's like, a 3-minute round of top-of-the-lungs screaming and waving glow sticks and "WOOOOO!!!!" is just par for the course after each of her better-known songs!

Did she do the part where she walks through the crowd, blessing the meek, healing the blind and the lame, and generally suffering the little children to come unto her?

If by "walks through the crowd, blessing the meek, healing the blind and the lame, and generally suffering the little children to come unto her" you mean "giving hugs to everyone," then... YES! ;-)

I did get a really good picture of the "Jesus pose" you mentioned before.

Going with "Picture To Burn," for being so mean and rocking.

Runnersup (admittedly not a very creative list):

Tim McGraw
Teardrops on My Guitar
Should've Said No
Our Song

Indeed, the five tracks from that album that she's been playing on tour. Won't argue as they're also my favorites. Honorable mention to "Mary's Song" but the rest of the album tracks, generally, don't hold a candle to your list.

LOVE "Mary's Song", which is odd because you'd think it'd be the most objectionable thing on the album by far.

Sentimental, reflective songs hardly work as thoroughly well as "Mary's Song" does. She repeats the trick with "The Best Day" off the new album, btw!

giving this a couple go-throughs and wow yes it is fantastic. so far 'picture to burn' is sticking out for its vitriol but it's too early to call a winner yet.

see i like "picture to burn" but i don't quite buy it -- the vitriol doesn't come as natural to her as to miranda lambert or carrie underwood. voted "tim mcgraw" because the flirty, winsome, teasing, adolescent nostalgia, that stuff is the air she breathes and it's a great song.

or carrie underwood

Carrie Underwood has vitriol?

http://www.webcastr.com/thumbnails/videos/carrie-underwood-before-he-cheats.jpg

"Before He Cheats" is great and everything but is there a less-believable human being than Carrie Underwood? Even in that video the look on her face is like "yes, I know I am unable to pull off anger, as it is an emotion."

Anyway this is very clearly "Tim McGraw" vs. "Our Song," with "Teardrops" coming in third, but I've got a real soft-spot for "Stay Beautiful."

Just voted "Teardrops" fwiw.

i think "before he cheats" is a pretty convincing vocal performance. more than "picture to burn." but that's just me.

I've got a real soft-spot for "Stay Beautiful."

this

Took a bunch of photos at Taylor's recent Houston TX show, for those interested -- here.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

the deadline has come too soon. nowhere close to picking a favorite. will have to wait for the repoll in 3 years, I guess.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Should've Said No 0

Good results but ^THIS^ is just so so wrong.

I really wish I'd voted "Stay Beautiful" so that "Tim McGraw" and "Our Song" would've tied, because it was agonizing choosing between the two.

should've voted should've said no.

She expresses no regret. The song is warm, but for what?

― Euler, Wednesday, May 26, 2010 11:17 PM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark

okay I think I'm ready to choose, and it's "Tim McGraw." I find the repetition of the opening triplet at the close of the song to be so damning, yet I can't hear any anger, any bitterness. it's acceptance, but also an admonition, but to whom?

also yeah, love the part in 'our song' where she breaks out of her singing voice... "real slow!~"

Lately I've been thinking of "Tim McGraw" architecturally: it's a song about what it would be to write a song about a long-ago romance, without having had experienced it at all. She has no such memories and she knows the listener knows that, so it's lesson on the artifice of the construction of memory, & in particular of the kind of memory that we know, from our pop histories, is supposed to seem meaningful. She's constructing a experience we're supposed to find meaningful, right before our eyes. So I guess ultimately it's a song about songwriting, the way that a building like the Centre Pompidou is a building about building: it wears its scaffolding on its sleeve.

and it's not just a song about songs about long-ago romances, it's a song that aspires to be the kind of song that becomes a touchstone for long-ago romances. she wants some future set of lapsed lovers to have her as their shared reference point. in that sense, "when you think tim mcgraw/i hope you think of me" becomes a sort of straightforward songwriter's fantasy: what she really wants is for her song to be on the radio in the truck with the boy and girl.

yes, totally! and she knows that it's obvious that she's trying to do this: this is what I meant about the scaffolding. Beyond the huge hooks of the song, it's this aspect that makes it such a great instance of pop songwriting craft.

I don't know what specific Tim McGraw song she's referencing, but I do agree w/ tipsy in that she is trying to supplant the very song she mentions in the chorus. I did have the same thought as you, Euler, that the song seemed... skeletal.

fwiw, in the interview appended at the end of the deluxe edition, she claims she wrote the song about a relationship she had during her freshman year of high school (!!!)

Yeah whether it's true or not Taylor is very insistent that all of this stuff comes from real experiences.

The song tells of Taylor's remembrance of a summer love, and how an un-named song by country music artist Tim McGraw (identified later on as "Can't Tell Me Nothin'" from his Live Like You Were Dying album[2]) brings back memories of that love.

You put up walls and paint them all a shade of grey
And I stood there loving you and wished them all away

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Great poll results - I love those top four songs.

I don't get why you'd "talk real slow" when it's late, and your mama don't know. Wouldn't you talk quietly? What's the point of talking slow?

"Heeeeyyyy baaayyybeee.... Hoooope noooo one knoooooows I'm onnnn the phoooooone..."