Top 5 Songs to Kill Yourself To

Well, my old mistress is in town again. I thought I shook her long ago but she tracked me down, found my new address. I've been thinking about killing myself now more often than I have since I was probably 18, and that's unfortunate.

This article may sound glib, even comedic. I assure you, that is not the intention, nor the spirit with which this is delivered. It may sound like I take the subject too lightly, but it's a haunt that's been following me for decades and I've long since lost the squeamishness that might afflict the lesser acquainted. And music, music is one of the greatest tools in this fight. It makes us feel intimately understood at a stage when we could hardly feel any less connected to people.

It goes without saying that the song you choose to kill yourself to is one of the most personal choices you'll ever make, and it's going to be wildly subjective. These aren't my picks for everyone, these are simply my picks.


#5 Nobody Home
by Pink Floyd



Most of us who don't want to live probably know what it's like to be living in this kind of apathetic squalor. The plodding pace and malaised, petering delivery of the tune makes it sound as though the singer of this song has already taken the sleeping pills and may drift into the final sleep at any moment, so you'll feel right at home making this your final track.

And if you're a truly disturbed person, there's an extra dark irony in the fact that once you're dead, you'll be reversing the song and people will be calling you, but getting no answer.

(Pro-Tip: If you care about your family, you'll box up all of your worldly possessions before you end your life, so that they don't have to spend months going through your old things and, in doing so, facing their loss a hundred extra times. Boxing up your things will also give you time to think over your decision and decide whether you truly want to die, or if you just needed time to heal. Also, schedule some sort of social media post to appear after you're dead so that your body doesn't decompose before it's found, that's an important issue of courtesy.)


#4 The Outside
by Taylor Swift



Seeing Taylor Swift in this discussion may surprise you, and this isn't even in the top 10 saddest Taylor songs -- if all you listen to is the instrumentation. The Outside sounds like a cheery, resiliant song. But like Led Zeppelin's Celebration Day (a song that's actually about the holocaust) the tone betrays a set of lyrics that are genuinely sinister. The Outside is full of the lamentations of someone who is not merely discouraged, but who appears to have decided to kill herself. And on a personal level, it happens to coincide with my greatest failings in life, namely my inability to form meaningful relationships.

First Taylor disavows her struggle against the tide of an uncaring and conformist society and acknowledges the fact that her ambitions in life have conclusively failed. "I didn't know what I would find when I went looking for a reason." "I tried to take the road less traveled by, but nothing seems to work ..."

And then she laments on the fact that she never really even had a chance, because her attempts to reach out were met with indifference. "How can I ever try to be better if nobody ever lets me in?" "You saw me there, but you never knew I would give it all up to be a part of this, a part of you."

Finally, she confirms her intentions to kill herslf, with the unequivocable decleration that "it's all too late so you see, you could've helped if you had wanted to but no one notices until it's too late to do anything." She's basically saying "Don't cry for me, I'm already dead."


#3 Campaigner
by Neil Young



There's nothing inherently suicidal about this song. But it does describe the sort of quivering failure that has marked my life, the complete inability to progress even to the most basic level of human functionality in a world where even a hateful curmudgeon like Richard Nixon rose to the level of President. You might think "Hey, if Nixon can do it, that gives hope to all us curmudgeons, right?" But, no, the rise of Nixon proves that there's a game being played, one that is so woefully and universally indecipherable to me that by the time I've made the first step, everyone else has crossed the finish line. Campaigner has that kind of bittersweet mentality where I could spend my last moments wistfully thinking "There may have been something, somewhere for me in this world, but if it had ever been within my ability to unearth it, I had already missed that chance before I even knew it was there."


#2 When I Die
by GG Allin



Whether he's a tortured genius, the lowest possible version of gimmicky shock rock, or just a midlevel, unremarkable punk rocker, that's for you to decide. But no matter your assessment, it's hard to deny the truth in this bare bones acoustic ballad as GG recounts his life of debauchery without any illusions of self-worth or decency. In a way, the song is proof that even the hardest among us yearn for warmth. And it's a sentiment that rings true for so many of us who think of suicide, the wish that we could convince people not to mourn our deaths, just by saying so.


#1 Serpentine
by Ani Difranco



Ani is the undisputed Queen of writing eloquent songs about depression. But this isn't her most depressed song. It's worse: it's her most hopeless one. As a political progressive and a perennial shadowboxer, even in her darkest moments Ani grasps for the dawn, and doubles down on her will to fight. In one of her most depressed tunes (Bodily), she fights back against the gloom by appreciating even the most simple things -- like "the deep mahogany sheen of a roach!" That is some serious dedication to looking on the bright side. But in Serpentine, in the aftermath of 9/11 and the new age of American interventionism, Ani throws her hands up and gives in. She walls herself in her room alone and refuses to answer the phone. The serpentine thread of broken systems and uncaring voids that this 10 minute song doles out is second to none. Everything has become corrupted, and there doesn't seem to be a way out. If Ani, the strongest among us, can't push ahead, what hope is there left for me? 

The wall of fatigue seeps even into the recording of the song itself, where the characteristically meticulous Ani leaves this complex epic less polished than her usual soundscape perfection. I'd be honored to have this biting, glorious dirge as the last thing I hear.

"And the difference between you and me, baby, is I get fucked up when I'm alone."

Battle Power 1 Million: Taylor Swift's Second Form (1989 Tour Review 6/6/15)

While it had some notable highlights, 2013's Red tour reeked of half-measure. Reaching for something new, but unwilling to give up her signature style, Red was an album which languished in mid-sentence, never fully committing to either side. With songs like I Knew You Were Trouble which added electronic elements on top of what was clearly just a typical chugging Taylor guitar rhythm, I wondered if she would ever be able to break free from her origin as a corn-fed Pennsylvanian songster, writing ditties in her bedroom on an acoustic guitar.

Flash forward two years and Taylor hits her home state again, landing so hard it leaves a crater the size of Heinz Field. This time she returns with an ethos, a fire in her eyes, and something left to prove. This isn't the earnest rocker I saw here on 2011's Speak Now tour, and it certainly wasn't the mere victory lap which was the Red tour. This is a whole new Taylor and she's waging war on her past.

If you didn't buy her new album, don't bother buying a ticket to 2015's 1989 tour. This isn't a "greatest hits" set. Out of the 16 songs on her new album, Taylor played 15 of them. That includes the bonus tracks.

From bygone days she played exactly three tracks: Two hits from the still quite recent Red, which leaves Love Story as the sole representation from Taylor's first six years (3 albums, 2 EPs) as a pop star. But her classic style just wouldn't do for Taylor's new ethos, so she reworked the songs as well. I Knew You Were Trouble reemerged as a dark, pulsing industrial track, far superior to the original version. Love Story became sort of a moody keyboard ballad, not the best take on this already often reworked song. We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together fared better, becoming a rancorous electric guitar jam. I hope this tour gets a live CD 'cause some of these versions seriously need to be preserved.




For the rest of the gig, it was all 1989 -- except when she brought on country band Little Big Town to play their weird hit Pontoon. Not a favorite song of mine but it's a fun party tune and I was glad we finally got a special guest -- it's the kind of thing that usually happens in other cities but not in Pittsburgh.

Unlike the old tracks, Taylor's new songs were very faithful to their studio counterparts, except they often featured spectacular, pounding EDM intros. It's really good to hear gorgeous deep cuts like New Romantics, Clean and my personal favorite, All You Had to Do Was Stay, because you have to imagine... for the rest of her entire career, how many times will these songs ever be played after this tour? Maybe, maybe one of them might ocassionally slip in as a fringe rotating song on some 2021 setlist or they might be on the shortlist for a 2035 20th annivery 1989 tour. But those are going to be in the extreme minority if they even happen at all. And with every passing year Taylor has more and more she needs to fit into setlists that are, for all intents and purposes, of a finite, unchanging length.

And, about that... It's funny, but as the years go by, Taylor's playing less and less of her old music. And I don't mean her old music as in her first two albums. I'm talking about anything but her brand new material. The more hits Taylor has, the fewer hits she plays! By her fourth album you could already have filled an 18 song setlist with 18 top 20 singles and still leave 2 hits out. By age 25 you could fill that set with 14 bonafide top 10 singles and still leave room for 4 or 5 album cuts from the new record!

But Taylor's not going to play that game. She's not going to run these songs into the ground before she's even old. And as someone who plans to see every tour she does from 2011 to the day I die, I thank her for that. It means I'll be excited to hear the hits even ten, fifteen years from now. I've seen her three times and she's never played my personal favorite, and one of her biggest hits, Teardrops on My Guitar. Can you imagine when I finally see it, some years down the road? It may be my 10th Taylor show but I'll still be flipping out over it because there'll still be new things to discover.

The new record is spectacular and the tour is poised to match. For 1989 she's reinvented herself as a smoky dance beast and she has fully comitted to that role, fully committed to her new music. For now. What she'll change into next, time will tell. She'll obviously stick with pop for a good while but I don't believe this will be her final form. At the very least, when she grows older she'll naturally become more introspective and probably go into another acoustic phase, but in a more mature, folkier vein.

Now that Taylor has revealed herself to be a genuine chameleon, there's real potential here for me as a fan. The #1 thing that keeps me coming back, is having new material to explore. Because exciting new material reups my interest and I get back into the old material as well. Taylor's not only been putting out great new material but she does it like clockwork, too. If she can keep up this pace then she's a shoo-in for the all-time greats. Nobody'll ever beat my personal 1 & 2 (Neil Young and Tom Petty), but right now it doesn't look like Taylor has any competition for #3. Unless Ani Difranco can have a resurgence and put out something really exciting. Or if, I don't know, Pink Floyd or The Doors come back from the dead.

The only disadvantage with getting to live Taylor's career in the moment (which, granted, has so many unparalleled advantages!) is that I'll have to wait decades for the rarities box sets and live albums. And the bootleg market seems pretty DOA these days. If you can find torrents of Taylor live gigs then clearly you're a better man than I, 'cause I sure can't.

Taylor Swift's 15 Perfect Tracks

In honor of seeing my upcoming third Taylor tour next Saturday, I've decided to compile her best 15 songs. Before we start, let's state the obvious. Taylor has a lot of freakin' awesome songs. Many intriguing, unique tracks that deserve to be on this list but were just narrowly edged out by slightly superior jams. Also, as I'm a hardcore fan, you're going to see a lot of deep cuts here. And a lot of smash hits that didn't make the cut.

Keep an eye on my special category, I fitted each track with the best lyric contained therein. 'Cause Taylor's song topics may be perpetually simplistic and even at times circular (how many times as she essentially rewritten 'Teardrops on My Guitar?')... but what makes Taylor's music hit so close to home and capture the heart of the world is that she always mixes in, with the basic archetypes, a few lines that are either uniquely personal or cogently human: little bits and pieces that imbue these experiences with the genuine touch.

Now... this...!

Honorable mention: Ronan

Origin: Single (2012)

Best lyric: "(audible sigh)."

-- Much ado is made over Taylor only singing songs about heartache. Some people clearly have never heard this charity single Taylor wrote to help fight against cancer. She wrote it based on the blog of Ronan Thompson's mother, whose boy died at the age of four. It's easily as articulate as anything Taylor's written, and it's incredibly, painfully, heartbreaking. At one point the accompaniment momentarily dwindles to nothing and Taylor lets out a heavy sigh, it's the most genuine sound she has yet committed to record and it's almost enough to make me shed a tear.

#15 New Romantics

Origin: 1989 [Deluxe Edition] (2014)

Best lyric: "Baby I could build a castle out of all the bricks they threw at me."

-- An archetypal T-Swift bouncy lament, on this tune she celebrates her perpetual unluckiness in love and resolves defiantly to make life into a dance party. It's catchy and fun and it captures the ethos of her current era flawlessly.

#14 Long Live

Origin: Speak Now (2010)

Best lyric: "If you have children someday... When they point to the pictures, please tell them my name."

-- With a sobering tone and a loitering guitar line, Long Live is a slow burn of an epic farewell, an earnest ode to the immeasurable heights and climatic cataclysms of youth: footballs games and parties, first dates and prom, LSD & Burning Man, whatever floats your boat, this heartfelt song is the anthem for you. "I had the time of my life fighting dragons with you," Tay sings. It's one of the most perfect finale songs I can imagine, I hope  Taylor will incorporate it into many of her future tours even though it was never a big hit.

#13 Fearless

Origin: Fearless (2008)

Best lyric: "Run your hands through your hair, absent-mindedly making me want you."

-- Taylor wrote Fearless as her fantasy of the perfect date. And in that, it spectacularly succeeds. It's a dreamy ditty both superfluous and strong, articulate and effortless. It really encapsulates Taylor's youthful naivete and charm, but it's also a song that lends her a fair bit of power. We could all use a bit of fearlessness, especially in love.

#12 All You Had To Do Was Stay

Origin: 1989 (2014)

Best lyric: "You had me in the palm of your hand, then, why'd you have to go and lock me out when I let you in?"

-- Taylor's first foray into true, pure pop, the 1989 album, is essentially one big effort to channel the dance pop stylings of Tegan & Sara's recent work, a duo she's actually played songs with who share many of the hallmarks she mined on this record. To that end, All You Had To Do Was Stay is her most successful song, in that it perfectly captures the exuberant restraint and audacious heartbreak of T&S's (that's Tegan & Sara, not Taylor & Swift) Heartthrob album. The lyrics hit especially home for me and it's just such a fun, forceful, bam pop slam of a lovelorn lament.

#11 Hey Stephen

Origin: Fearless (2008)

Best lyric: "'Cause I can't help it if you look like an angel."

-- Taylor's self-titled debut was a genuine country affair, but by the time her sophomore album came out she had settled on her more well-known amalgam of folk, pop, rock, and a little of her native country. Hey Stephen is something of a folk-pop masterpiece with a smooth cascading melody worthy of The Beatles, a carefree hummed vocal, a grooving bassline and the most adorable lyrics about a crush and Tay's unwavering resolve to win him yet.

#10 Haunted

Origin: Speak Now (2011)

Best lyric: "It's getting dark and it's all too quiet."

-- Despite carrying all of Taylor's characteristic flairs, Speak Now was an interesting album in that she pumped it with a lot of variety. It reminds me of (esoteric reference, but) in Megaman games how at the end you fight all these blank robots implanted with the powers & personalities of the past bosses. It's like Taylor was challenging herself to match other artists. On Haunted, she recreates the bombastic, balls-out approach to catastrophic longing which is part and parcel to 90s alternative band The Cranberries. One of her most exasperated, strongest, and just plain coolest songs, Haunted is a unique marvel in her collection, with symphonic accompaniment and wailing, desperate vocals.

#9 All Too Well

Origin: Red (2012)

Best lyric: "There we are again, in the middle of the night. We're dancing around the kitchen in the refrigerator light."

-- Brooding, bittersweet ballads have become something of a staple for Tay. And while she seems to wing them out with an effortless zeal, she managed to really tap the vein of something special with All Too Well. On this piano dirge enhanced by crawling electric guitar leads, Taylor spins the tale of two lovers who've spent much of their lives in the shadow of what seemed like the fate that they were meant for each other. But things fell apart, as things so often do, and it's a shadow that they'll never be able to outreach, for better... for worse... for life. It's almost like Bruce Springsteen all-time great haunting ballad, The River.

#8 Clean

Origin: 1989 (2014)

Best lyric: "When I was drowning, that's when I could finally breathe." {or} "When the butterflies turned to dust that covered my whole room, so I punched a hole in the roof."

-- On Clean Taylor collaborated with Imogen Heap, the #1 go-to name for hazy, atmospheric, sensually dark pop electronica. Not unexpectedly, it strikes me as one of Taylor's most mature tracks, a solid allegory between drug addiction and losing someone you've come to depend on as much as any addiction. But on a subtler level it sounds a lot like it could be about a suicide attempt, and the aftermath thereof.

#7 Highway Don't Care

Origin: Two lanes of Freedom (2013)

Best lyric: "The highway don't care if you're coming home, but I do."

-- Sure, you could argue it doesn't count as a Taylor song. But her presence on the track is absolute, and it's a pretty significant moment for her: she started out singing songs about Tim McGraw, now she's singing songs WITH him. If that ain't the definition of fame... Anyhoo, built around a clever song-within-a-song ruse (Taylor's singing the song that Tim's song's protagonist is listening to on the radio), Highway Don't Care is a pure slab of country romance and it's such a frickin' solid song. It bristles with a strong summer evening atmosphere and the taste of asphalt road, I can never get enough of it.

#6 Better Than Revenge (Live)

Origin: Speak Now World Tour Live (2011)

Best lyric: "Let's hear the applause."

-- On this song Taylor Swift does her best darn impression of Paramore. And it's a fantastic facsimile from the pounding chords, the roaring chorus, to the familiar Paramore themes of romantic rancor and battling over a beaux. It's unquestionably Taylor's hardest rocking song to date, and this live version takes it up to 11 with dueling guitar fury and an added instrumental section. Oh so fine. Added bonus: a lyric like "let's hear the applause" plays oh too perfectly for a live show, it's great to have it preserved in that form here (particularly since it's unlikely to make it onto any other Taylor setlists at least until the 2040 Speak Now 20th anniversary tour). 

#5 Forever & Always (Piano Version)

Origin: Fearless [Platinum Edition] (2009)

Best lyric: "And I stare at the phone. He still hasn't called. Then you feel so low you can't feel nothing at all."

-- When Fearless became Taylor's breakout hit album, an expanded edition became obligatory. But unlike her other bonus track versions, for Fearless she actually went back into the studio to record new tracks, and this set of songs was uncannily just as strong as the original album. The first version of Forever & Always was a decent mid-tempo rocker, but this piano version ranks as Taylor's all-time best, bleakest, and most elemental ballad. It's one of her rawest tracks to date, a sparser than sparse piano line with a lightly multi-tracked vocal that emotes such painfully acute sorrow it's almost a religious experience.

#4 Untouchable

Origin: Fearless [Platinum Edition] (2009)

Best lyric: "In the middle of the night when I'm in this dream, it's like a million little stars spelling out your name."

Well this is a surprise. Taylor's only studio-recorded cover song to-date and boy is it an interesting one. Completely, 180 degrees removed from any semblance of the modern rock slush of Luna Halo's generic original version, Tay's Untouchable is the earthiest, folkiest, most translucently ethereal ghost ballad in her discography. The somberly giddy tune calls out to the night with a spark of the divine. Pure magic... a strangely solitary moment in Taylor's entire catalog, like the pilot track of some tragically scrapped folk/seance album, in collaboration with the Indigo Girls. Where's the rest of it, Tay? It's actually folkier than her real collaboration with The Civil Wars -- a real folk band.

#3 Blank Space

Origin: 1989 (2014)

Best lyric: "Find out what you want, be that girl for a month."

-- Taylor's written a lot of songs about a lot of boys, but for this ditty she coyly turned the microscope around at the media circus surrounding her and wrote a song from the perspective of the twisted, love-crazed perversion of herself that she's accused of being! Pretty meta for Swifty and it also happens to be... holy shit, one of the best damn singles she'll ever make. Catchier than machine gun fire sprayed into a crowded room, it's also imbued with the utter glory of youth and that fun whirlwind of chaotic romance. It's Taylor's first genuine pop jingle masterpiece since her second album.

#2 You Belong With Me

Origin: Fearless (2008)

Best lyric: "Laughing on a park bench, thinking to myself, 'Hey, isn't this easy?'"

-- The first Taylor song I fell in love with and still nearly her all-time best. The soft verse, pulsating chorus and simple guitar chords harken back to the genius pop sensibilities of Nirvana, but with a 'bit' less melancholy. The story it tells of being in love with a friend who just can't seem to realize you'd be everything they could ever want if only they'd give you a chance at romance... it hits close to home for all of us, and is so eloquently worded here.

#1 Teardrops on My Guitar (Pop Version)

Origin: Taylor Swift (2006)

Best lyric: "And there he goes, so perfectly... the kind of flawless I wish I could be." {or} "The only one who's got enough of me to break my heart."

-- "Universal" doesn't even begin to describe it. Aside from being a masterclass in ear-catching popcraft, Taylor Swift's very first achey, wistful hit ranks among the all-time pantheon of unrequited love songs and, amazingly, it remains her best effort even a prolific eight years later. As Kramer once asked George, "have you ever yearned?" 'Teardrops' reminds us that we all have, even if it was just as a kid playing at crushes. Who's never played the fool for the one they love? If you've never had this experience in life, you're probably legitimately aromantic. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Taylor Swift's Ironic Path to Being Taken Seriously

If you've been living under a rock, Taylor Swift has finally made the switch from her archetypal vague mix of country, soft-rock, folk, pop-rock and bubblegum pop. Now she's playing real bubblegum dance pop, with bouncing edm beats and carefree lyrics, like Katy Perry or Lady Gaga.

Taylor Swift's organic pop style is the main thing that drew me to her initially. The soft-verse/loud-chorus dynamic of You Belong With Me was a picturesque and spot-on reiteration of the proud tradition typified in rock music by Led Zeppelin and Nirvana. Up until very recently, all her songs boasted a rich, full, live-sounding rock band behind them with drums, bass, and many guitars. Today's indie and modern rock sounds more like U2 and Yes than it does like my favorite rock artists: countrified crooners Neil Young and Tom Petty. But Taylor's music shares many of the qualities I adored about the music I grew up on from Petty & Neil: folksy organic instrumentations, straight-forward honest lyrics about life & love, and catchy verse/chorus structure. Tom Petty actually writes more love songs than Taylor.

Pop Theory

That being said, I love dance pop very much. And I was thrilled that Taylor finally changed up her style. I love her first four records, but I'm someone who craves varity. Besides, let's face it, she's been playing the same style for at least 3 records, but the first of that ilk is still by far the best: 2009's Fearless. It was time for her to change her style, she's done all she can in the old format right now. When she comes back to organic pop in the future, it'll be fresh and she'll be better equipped to make it really awesome.

When Red came out in 2012, it was supposed to be her transformation into pop. But instead, all the songs were the same as before. A couple of them had some electronic elements thrown on top, but listen closely to I Knew You Were Trouble -- hear that rhythm guitar holding the song together? Even her forays into dance pop still sounded like she wrote them in her bedroom on an acoustic guitar. So when the first single for her 2014 album came out, and it was real, EDM-pumping dance pop, I was thrilled. I'm really glad that Taylor is capable of doing different styles of music, and I'm excited to hear what she's going to do with this one. If nothing else, this will be her best dance pop album to date (since it's her only one), and that's worth more to me than just being her second, third, or fourth best pop-rock album.

A lot of fans aren't happy about the new direction. These are people who've been growing up with Taylor and wanting her to go in a more mature direction with her music. To a Taylor fan, going from deep songs like Ronan and All Too Well, to the bubblegum pop of Shake It Off, is a step down. But as a more critical connisseur of modern pop, I think I see the hidden agenda behind the switch. Don't get me wrong -- the primary reason Taylor is moving to dance pop is so she can fulfill her prophecy as the Stallion Who Mounts the World and finally conquer all four corners of the globe. Every new record thus far has seen a huge jump in her popularity and now her style will be the most accessible of all; she's going to be bigger than Jesus. But there's another advantage to making that switch. In the long-term, Taylor may finally get the respect she deserves.

Pop Hierarchy

One thing that has always annoyed me is how bubblegum dance-pop artists like Lady Gaga are touted as 'legitimate pop artisans' whereas Taylor Swift, who writes much more of her own music, plays much more of her own instrumentations, and writes equally-if-not-more complex lyrics, has roundly been written-off as a children's fad by the mainstream pop press. Even when they're praising her business ingenuity or inescapable popularity, it's done with an implied asterisk of "she's popular because little kids like her." Obviously, all branches of Top 40 have a huge youth audience. But there's an understanding that EDM, R&B-tinged artists like Gaga, Bruno Mars or Rihanna skew more into the teens, 20s, and adult contemporary audiences, while Taylor is placed closer to the children's market with the likes of Jonas Brothers and Justin Bieber.

As time has gone on, and Taylor's enduring popularity has proven steadfast, pop critics have slowly warmed up to her charms. Even so, she doesn't get credit for playing organic music like Adele, and she still doesn't get credit for crafting her style like Gaga. Presumably this is because Taylor comes from a country background. Will switching to pop change her perception? Yes, but not that much. She's still being touted as an extra-fluffy form of bubblegum. Thus far she's not winning over critics merely by matching beats with Gaga and Britney.

The real secret comes in when Taylor inevitably makes her switch back to a more acoustic, more organic, more live-band style. This may not come for many years. She has to go on her Napoleonic reign of conquest first. It could be five, ten, twenty years until she abandons bubblegum. But it is utterly, incontrovertibly, incorruptibly inevitable that eventually Taylor will go back to writing songs on acoustic guitar in her bedroom, like has been so instrumental to her throughout most of her life. When she's getting older, you can absolutely guarantee that Taylor will have a home studio and she'll take her guitar in their to pen lush, introspective records about life and the autumn of youth.

New Beginning

A lot of fans wanted Taylor to get more mature, instead of going pop. But the thing is, it wouldn't have made the impact it deserves. If she got more acoustic, more organic, more introspective right now, the media en masse would see it as nothing but more of her teenage diary entry songwriting style. However, after becoming a pop artist, when she does go back to her organic style and her confessional lyrics, finally it will be seen in the proper context. She'll be praised for writing all her own songs (like she did on Speak Now, to little fanfare), and critics will marvel at the sparse, haunting instrumentations. What's more, after playing dance pop, Taylor will naturally be inclined to be especially deep, especially complex, especially rich and organic. Because eventually she'll want to turn away from her new pop style, just as much as she wanted to turn away from her old style. And that's one reason why all Taylor fans should be happy about this change. Even if you're not keen on the style itself, this is part of a larger arc that is going to turn out in Taylor's favor, in many meaningful ways.

The Best Part of Breaking Up: Taylor Swift's Greatest Hits

Generally I like to make compilations of my *own* favorite songs from one of my favorite artists. But then, most of my favorite artists have been playing for 30 years and have 20 albums. At this point in Taylor's career I'm really more curious about what her actual greatest hits album will eventually look like, because her legacy is still in the process of being written. So I compiled one.

The Best Part of Breaking Up: Taylor Swift's Greatest Hits

1. Love Story

2. We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together

3. Teardrops on My Guitar (Pop Version)

4. You Belong With Me

5. Mine

6. Today Was a Fairytale

7. I Knew You Were Trouble

8. Ours

9. Mean

10. Fifteen

11. Sparks Fly

12. Our Song 

13. White Horse

14. Begin Again

15. Back to December (Speak Now World Tour Live)

16. Should've Said No (Live in SoHo)

Deluxe Edition Bonus Disc

1. Highway Don't Care (Tim McGraw featuring Taylor Swift and Keith Urban)

2. Two Is Better Than One (Boys Like Girls featuring Taylor Swift)

3. Both of Us (B.o.B featuring Taylor Swift)

4. Fearless

5. Red

6. I Heart Question Mark

7. Eyes Open (Vh1 Storytellers)

8. Picture to Burn feat. Def Leppard (CMT Crossroads)

It's an interesting question. How do you approach an artist who already has so many important songs? How do you segregate the hits, when Taylor's entire albums chart? I'm not talking about on Billboard's Top 200 Albums, I'm talking about each track, individually!

Furthermore how do you mediate between Taylor's "country" side and her "pop" side? The songs that were hits on both sides of the aisle are easy, but then what do you do with songs that were #1 on the country chart, and only #65 on the Top 100? Or songs that were #15 on the 100, but didn't chart or underperformed in the country market?

I tried to be as objective as possible. The mitigating factors were sales, chart position, and longevity (thus far). And then I loaded up the bonus disc with interesting rarities while also using the opportunity to score a bunch of the biggest hits that hadn't been quite big enough to make the first cut.

It will actually be a lot easier to come up with an album like this in 10 or 15 years. A lot of midlevel songs that were genuine hits at the time, don't ultimately enter the cultural canon; and some songs that were minor hits upon release, end up becoming ubiquitous standards. Take Tom Petty for example, have you ever heard the song Jammin' Me? In 1987 that jaunty rocker was actually one of Tom's biggest hits. But it was left off of 1993's Greatest Hits and it has rarely (if ever) been played live after 1999. Meanwhile, believe it or not but American Girl didn't even chart in the US.

And that brings up another point: a greatest hits album wields influence. What's included and what's left off, can and will alter an artist's legacy. Hits left off the Best Of disc become deep cuts, and deep cuts that get included? Well, to new fans they're seen as hits. (See: Listen To Her Heart, Here Comes My Girl).

One issue that this really brings to light... Taylor is often accused of writing too many breakup songs. But here are all of her biggest hits, and most of them are love songs. Out of 24 songs here, only 8 of them could be considered breakup songs. That means 2/3rds of them *aren't* breakup songs.

Burning Red: Taylor Swift Returns to Heinz Field (An In-Depth Fanalysis)

The first time I saw Taylor Swift was not only the single best concert I've ever seen, it was one of the more magical nights of my life. So you can imagine how excited I was to see her descend upon Heinz Field once again to bring back the fury for 50,000-some good ole' country girls (and me). Can I say that this show was as good as the last one? No, but you know what they say, you never really get over your first. And one thing I can say is that Taylor impressed me in ways I certainly never expected her to.

In 2011 Taylor brought us the Speak Now tour. 2013 brings us the Red tour. While all of Taylor's releases run the traditional gamut from ballad to barn burner, so far every one of her full-length albums has had its own particular lean or mode. Self-titled was more country. Fearless was more soft-rock or folky. Speak Now was more rock. And Red, Red is more pop.

In proper form, everything here was predicated on Red. The sets and interludes were lavish like olde Hollywood, the classic conception of the idyllic mainstream. Even Taylor's look is more pop these days, foregoing her country curls for Gaga-esque straightness(though if you've seen Red's music videos, you already knew that). Even the old songs were duly Red-ified. Once-common banjos were relegated mostly to exile as Taylor trotted out a solo-acoustic rendition of Our Song and played the pop mix version of Love Story. She also gave us a bizarre burlesque sort of pop version for You Belong With Me, as opposed to its guitar-heavy original mix.

Of 17 songs performed, 12 were from Red. This is, of course, precisely as it should be. That's the most important part of an album tour. Us superfans will have decades to hear the greatest hits, but this could be one of very few chances to hear Red's glorious deepcuts in all their wanton obscurity. And Taylor saw fit to oblige us, bringing out the top 3 deep cuts from Red: a pumped up, electronified version of Holy Ground, a spot on performance of the meditative ballad called The Lucky One, and best of all a powerhouse, entrenchant rendition of Taylor's #1 best melancholic story-song to date, All Too Well.

The hits from Red also shined in rare form last night, with a balls out, dubstep-enhanced barn-burning performance of I Knew You Were Trouble,  and a startlingly spectacular take on the soft, enchanting Begin Again.

This was pretty much exactly the concert that Red deserved. And I'm grateful for that, because Red deserves a great concert. That being said, Red is not as good of an album as Speak Now, and so it isn't as good of a tour either. But to be fair, I'm more of a rock and folk fan, so naturally I lean towards Speak Now and Fearless over Red and self-titled.

The really surprising thing about the Red tour is that Taylor just throws the hitlist out the dang window, to my joyous chagrin. In 2011 I was only a little surprised that formidable midlevel hits like Teardrops on My Guitar and Today Was a Fairytale were left out of the set... in 2013 I was dumbfounded to find Taylor had jettisoned several of her all-time biggest hits. And it's not even like she's excluding hits strictly in favor of her new songs. She's pulling out album cuts like Sparks Fly, and then not playing EITHER of that same album's BIGGEST hits: Back to December and Mine. When I saw Taylor in '11 I specifically thought to myself "she'll probably play Fifteen at every show she ever does from this point on." I don't think she's played it once on this whole tour.

This just holy fucking what, speechless jibberish fjkjdlfjl. She's even pulling out deep cuts (on other dates of the tour) like Cold As You, Forever & Always, and bizarre cover songs, all the while ignoring half of her hit songs. Hits? What are those? Anyone who was under the impression that Taylor Swift was just a mindless pop sensation, you can put your dunce cap on now, consider yourself obliteratingly debunked. If The Beatles and Tom Petty haven't already convinced you that writing three minute love songs for 90% of your career is *not* incompatible with integrity as an artist, then you haven't been paying attention.

While I might not have preferred the songs Taylor picked for this particular concert (God what I would have given to hear Cold As You!!), this was still a jaw-dropping development for me because it has massively wide-reaching implications for the rest of Taylor's career. Think about it, Taylor Swift already has nearly enough hits to pack a 17 song setlist. If she felt beholden to her radio songs the way many artists do, after one more record we'd pretty much have Taylor's setlist written in stone for the rest of her life. Now we know it's not going to be that way, we know that Taylor has no qualms about dropping hits left and right in order to give an interesting and unpredictable show. I can't wait to find out what she'll play next!

Equally important, we also see that Taylor is not going to completely ignore her old album cuts until the proverbial 30th anniversary "classic albums in their entirety" tour(s). I may have missed the self-titled and Fearless tours, but there's a chance that someday I could still get to see my favorite deep cuts like A Place in This World, Hey Stephen, and The Way I Loved You! Now that I know this... God, next tour I'm going to have to go see her in Cleveland and possibly NYC as well!

As a nerd with a particular interest and appreciation for the construction of setlists and the consequences therein, I'm pretty impressed with Taylor's work in that area. The one way that I do think Taylor should change her approach to these setlists is: include some off-album tracks. Not only has Taylor had some pretty huge off-album hits (Ours, Today Was a Fairytale, Safe & Sound), but Red has its host of deluxe edition bonus tracks, and if she doesn't play any of them on this tour, will she ever play them?

The Red Tour has a slot that changes from night to night, it would be a good idea to include some off-album tracks into the rotation. Other than that though, I'm impressed with the picks for this slot. In particular, she did once played the song that she did with Tim McGraw, without Tim McGraw. Which should tell us she'd be open to playing Safe & Sound without The Civil Wars, and The Last Time without Gary Lightbody.

Long story short... It was a great show. Compelling, enthused, and certainly unpredictable. Nowhere near as good as last time, but even so, the extent to which I am genuinely impressed with Taylor Swift continues to surpass itself by exponents. She wields both willful confidence, and unmistakable talent. I am downright giddy to see where her career goes. I know we're 25 years early, but I feel like Taylor might be an artist to get even better in the twilight of her career. Being relieved of the duty to master the charts could empower her to become even bolder, as it did for Tom Petty.

Setlist

{7/6/13 at Heinz Field, Pittsburgh PA}

• 1. State of Grace 
  2. Holy Ground 
  3. Red 
  4. You Belong with Me 
  5. The Lucky One 
  6. Mean 
  7. Stay Stay Stay / Ho Hey 
  8. 22 
  9. Our Song (Solo-Acoustic)
  10. Everything Has Changed 
  11. Begin Again 
  12. Sparks Fly 
  13. I Knew You Were Trouble 
  14. All Too Well 
  15. Love Story 
  16. Treacherous 
  17. We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together 
      
      

The actual, legit Hunger Games Soundtrack

After I read The Hunger Games trilogy last year, I I fashioned for each book its own little soundtrack. As if intent on outdoing me, the forces behind The Hunger Games film invented "Songs From District 12 And Beyond," hands down one of the most amazing film soundtracks ever compiled. They put together an album strictly of brand new original songs by most of the biggest names in modern music. How did they even do it? I don't know. But I remain impressed. Almost every song on here is excellent, which is very rare even for compilation-style (i.e. previously released material) soundtracks, let alone new songs.

1. Arcade Fire – “Abraham’s Daughter”
2. The Secret Sisters – “Tomorrow Will Be Kinder”
3. Neko Case – “Nothing To Remember”
4. Taylor Swift featuring The Civil Wars – “Safe & Sound”
5. Kid Cudi – “The Ruler and The Killer”
6. Punch Brothers – “Dark Days”
7. The Decemberists – “One Engine”
8. The Carolina Chocolate Drops – “Daughter’s Lament”
9. The Civil Wars – “Kingdom Come”
10. Glen Hansard – “Take The Heartland”
11. Maroon 5 featuring Rozzi Crane – “Come Away To The Water”
12. Miranda Lambert featuring Pistol Annies – “Run Daddy Run”
13. Jayme Dee – “Rules”
14. Taylor Swift – “Eyes Open”
15. The Low Anthem – “Lover Is Childlike”
16. Birdy – “Just A Game”

Only three of the songs are actually featured in the film (and solely in the credits), but it's not simply a soundtrack, it's a bloody concept album. The majority of the record maintains a surprisingly legitimate folk music sound. I'm not talking about the Neil Young/Leonard Cohen "acoustic rock is folk music" mentality, I'm talking about the folk music you would hear at a Newport Folk Festival in the 60s, real old school chizz. In fact I'm pretty sure the implication is that these are songs actually being played IN District 12, by its downtrodden sub-depression denizens. Astoundingly, many of the songs seem to have been written specifically about The Hunger Games. Most notable among them is "Daughter's Lament," by The Carolina Chocolate Drops an iconically a capella (save a very subtle backdrop) powerfully belted folk tune detailing the day Katniss's father died. But the concept doesn't ebb quite yet. The grim, deadly serious tone of the album seems to embellish on the movie's content, filling in certain emotional blanks that the film adaption didn't have time to dig deeply into.

My Hunger Games soundtracks were based around the series' dichotomy between anthemic gore and maudlin aftermath, expressed by pairing fist-pumping heavy metal with melancholic ballads. You won't exactly find any Slayer or Mastodon on Songs From District 12, but interestingly enough, there is a stark dichotomy: the album is divided among organic folk music with a centuries' old feel, and modern indie rock. It even gets into genuinely heavy material with Glen Hansard's rip-roaring 'Danzig mixed with Pixies-styled' "Take The Heartland," quite possibly my favorite song on the album. In addition to getting class-A artists to write songs about The Hunger Games, I'm also curious how they coerced such jaw-dropping collaborations. Miranda Lambert teams up with Pistol Annies for the haunting and catchy "Run Daddy Run." Taylor Swift teams up with The Civil Wars -- themselves the masterful artisans behind another of the album's absolute best tracks -- for the tour de force of the record, "Safe & Sound." With icy folk picking and chilling phrases like "Don't you dare look out your window, darling everything's on fire," it's a beautiful and deadly track. It cultivates peace of mind amidst a bed of turmoil and perfectly fits with The Hunger Games.

With a first act like this, what could they possibly be planning for the companion albums to Catching Fire, and Mockingjay? Will the folk genre carry over or will it be completely different each time? In any case, if they intend to repeat the splendor of the original soundtrack, I can honestly say I'm more excited about the new soundtracks than I am about the new films! And that is, of course, saying something.


Here's what they SHOULD do, since I'm such a snotty little soundtrack compiler in my own right (let's ignore the fact that they already trounced me in the first round),

1- Continue to court Taylor Swift, The Civil Wars, The Carolina Chocolate Drops, and Glen Hansard. They provided the 'genius' moments on Songs From District 12 and should be strongly encouraged to do likewise again. But don't rely heavily on acts from the first record, the best track should be by new additions.

2- Grab those top-name artists you missed this time around. Katy Perry is actually more than adept at acoustic material. Paramore has done a variety of soundtrack work. Rihanna is a natural choice. Kelly Clarkson seems empowered enough to put out a self-assurance anthem at least as fitting as Eyes Open. Definitely drop Arcade Fire and The Decemberists for Bon Iver and MGMT. Add in Foster The People, Mumford & Sons, and Andrew Bird. I'm feeling Green Day, too. Throw a bone to some heavy artists as well such as Five Finger Death Punch, Lamb of God, and DevilDriver.

3 - Dig slightly deeper into the past. You have a lot of the best modern names already. Older acts are less likely to come out with a new good song, but can you imagine a Hunger Games soundtrack populated by legends such as Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, Paul McCartney, Mariah Carey, Pearl Jam, and Sonic Youth. Bruce's epic working class sentimentalism is born for The Hunger Games. And if you really want to do something to beat the spectacle of this first record, try reuniting Pixies, My Bloody Valentine, and heck....... Pink Floyd.

Taylor Swift at Heinz Field, 6/15/11

It's taken me nearly six months to find the proper words with which to describe the rather bit of fun I had at the Taylor Swift concert I attended. Not that I've been working on writing this all that time, but rather that until now, the event was so fresh and vivid, writing about it appeared simply unnecessary, as though it would dumb it down. I saw a number of great concerts this year, and I may get around to describing the rest, but the best was clearly this.

Taylor Swift w/ Needtobreathe, Randy Montana and Danny Gokey at Heinz Field
June 15th, 2011, Pittsburgh PA


SETLIST


1. Sparks Fly
2. Mine
3. The Story of Us
4. Our Song
5. Mean
6. Back to December (incl. Apologize and You're Not Sorry)
7. Better Than Revenge
8. Speak Now
9. Fearless (incl. Hey, Soul Sister and I'm Yours)
10. Last Kiss
11. You Belong With Me
12. Dear John
13. Enchanted
14. Haunted
15. Long Live


16. Fifteen
17. Love Story

I'm about to gush uncontrollably for a handful of paragrphs, but it's not hyperbole, nor is it even the result of fanatical appreciation (prior to this show, Taylor wasn't even one of my first tier favorites, the concert is what made me into this much of a fan).... That night at Heinz Field with Taylor Swift was one of the most magical experiences of my life. It's the kind of thing I am liable to reminisce over for the rest of my days, that's how beautiful it was. But let's backtrack a moment...

For this concert I went alone, resolved to assuage some of the self-conciousness that had dogged me at the Miranda Cosgrove concert (which I attended with a good, but rather uninterested friend). The choice worked out perfectly. Having someone with me, even if they had been a great friend and a big Taylor fan to share the experience with, would have drawn attention away from the subtle magic of the venue. To avoid congestion from city traffic, I arrived to (and later left) the venue by taking a nicely-sized brisk walk along one of Pittsburgh's majestic rivers, a perfect primer and coda to an electric night.

The open air stadium treated me to a picture-perfect summer evening with just the right warmth, the right measure of softly meandering wind, to conjure up all those wistful feelings of formative summers spent as a youth, when the world seemed alive with wonder. But instead of inspiring ideas of lost innocence and regret, as those wistful summer winds most often do, I was instilled with a sense of glory, because the event I was engorssed in was -- for once -- worthy of those lost summer days, typified by Taylor's set-closing Long Live, an indellibly brilliant ode to the very experience we were all in the midst of living.

The setlist was pefect, even better than I hoped. With enthralling hit after hit after hit, it felt like the first time I saw the great Tom Petty. Except instead of reiterating past glories the umpteenth time like Tom, Taylor was in the midst of her very first victory lap. Undeniably at the peak of her powers, more culturally relevant than anyone in her field, playing all of her newest material, touring her greatest album yet made, still vital and alive and meaning it, this was Taylor's first outing after she had soured to the summit of Earth's good graces with her career-defining Fearless album and tour. It was almost like seeing Pink Floyd tour Wish You Where Here in 1975, or witnessing Nirvana tour In Utero in 1993.

Like In Utero, Speak Now repeats the basic formula from its preceeding masterpiece album, but transfuses it with a wealth of newfound maturity and nuance. There's no question, Fearless boasts Taylor's best few songs. But Speak Now is a stronger, smarter, more consistent album throughout: featuring her most arresting lyrics and her most divine instrumentations. Plus it rocks the hardest, making for the best live experience. Which means it's pretty amazing we got to see her play nearly every track, plus the best of Fearless.

The show featured a total of 5 tracks from her two hit-packed previous albums, even though she could have easily and reasonably spent more than half the show recapping their biggest cuts. That means we got 12 of the 14 songs from Taylor's new album -- this is how a hungry young artist works, they don't dwell on last year's triumph. We got to see Speak Now done as powerfully as the band will ever be able to play it. Many of these incredible album cuts may never be seen again in concert, and I feel privileged to have recieved them. A sprawling, ferocious extended rendition of the pounding 'Better Than Revenge,' all the symphonic punch of 'Haunted' tapped to fill a football stadium, the tender textures of 'Dear John' enhanced with firework firepower... plus an earnest, solo ukelele version of 'Fearless,' it was an expert set.

I look anxiously forward to going back and seeing Taylor's shows year after year, as I have with Tom Petty. And while by 2020 I'm sure I'll be about as sick of hearing You Belong With Me and Fearless as can be (despite these being two of the best songs ever made), I can't wait to see all the incredible album cuts from Taylor's next albums. And I can't wait to complain about how boring her Greatest Hits setlists are in 2030, if she goes that route (and while I'd prefer she didn't, she will). I want to be there to witness it all. I can't wait to become an enduring part of this phenomenon, because this phenomenon may have become an enduring part of me.