Musical Moment: Taylor Swift's... Well Taylor Swift

Hello My Fellow Audiophile Friends,
Today we begin looking into the music of Taylor Swift. For the next five weeks, five cause I don't have Reputation yet, we will be looking into each of her albums the art and music. So Swifties strap in and join along and let's get this Taylor Train going. Up first naturally the one that started it all:

Artist: Taylor Swift
Album: Taylor Swift
Released: 2006

Cover: We have a close up of Taylor maybe at a river? There's a imprinted
(is that the right word?) design of butterflies and flowers in green fading into blue fading into white on the left side. The Artist Name/Album title is in white written with the artist actual signature.

Booklet: It's set up like a kind of scrapbook with song titles and some other labels "written" on pieces of tape, I'm not sure if it's a handwritten looking font or the artist's actual writing. Some of the photos are on mattes like you'd find in really well designed scrapbooks. On the thank you's page is a picture of her writing away on a piece of paper, I'm wondering if it's the thank you's she's writing there. Through out is also little hand drawn and written scribblings, I'm thinking by Taylor herself. The back page has her on a tractor with a barn, greenery and blue skies. Continuing with the butterfly theme from the cover she's in a butterfly dress. There's a Taylor quote written in blue, again don't know by the artist or a font, talking about complications and being her friend.

What I love about the booklet is within each song lyric Taylor has left a secret message for you to decipher, she's done it for all her albums at least through 1989. I won't tell you what they say, but it is fun to do and sometimes informative, sometimes though it is very cryptic and you really wanna know what the message means.

Back Cover:  Inside has Taylor in a white dress, at the river, holding a purple clover. I'm loving that charm bracelet she's got. There's some of the same imprint design like on the front cover. On the back the artist is in same outfit wading the river. Reminds me of rivers we'd go to in summer, except bluer. Taylor Swift is written in green in her own handwriting once again. The song titles and info are in sky blue, websites in black (wow the days of MySpace), in the same script as the inside song titles.

The Disk: We have a light blue photo of Taylor's feet there's a full colored one in the booklet. Actually it kinda puts me in mind of the disk art for the Dixie Chick's Fly CD. All the words are in black, save the Big Machine Records™   logo that's black an white. The album title/artist's name is of course her signature.

The Music:

Tim McGraw- This was the first single she put out if memory serves. What caught my eye was the title. You know a star's hit it big when they make it into another artist's song. I enjoy a lot of Tim McGraw's music, this song didn't make me a Swifty though, I for some reason didn't get too excited over though right now it's an ear wig since I've been listen to it, and I can't keep from singing it. If you somehow missed this tune wrote by Swift and Liz Rose, the pair also wrote the next two together, it's about how someone hopes an old love will think on them from time to time.

Picture To Burn- A ye olde breaking up song and the jaded feelings that follow, and in this case revenge plots. Every time I see the title I can't help think of the title of a book or album my sister was considering once upon a time she was gonna call the project Burning Daisies of something like that. I also remember watching the making of to this song's video I think on CMT. I know Taylor had issues with the video opening basically where she was having to look through binoculars. I think her friend Abigail is starring along with her, isn't awesome when you can drag friends along for you're stardom ride.

Teardrops On My Guitar- A girl pining after her I assume guy friend, but he's in love with another. Ehh the memories of teen love angst. I had my share of guys I crushed on, and  tended to be horribly tongue tied or awkward around them. But I don't think I ever crushed on the very few guy friends I had. I wonder how these peeps feel when she uses their names in songs? I don't have the guts to do that, except in the case of past celebrity crushes.

A Place In This Word- This is a finding your path song (written by Swift, Robert Ellis Orrall and someone known simply as Angelo). As I've mentioned in a previous post I have a special list of songs that really tell my lifes story, yes all our tunes is the sound track of our life, but only certain songs really tell our story or hold memories, and this one is one of them. I added this particular song to that list back in 2009. Mostly cause at the time and even now almost 10 years later am still trying to figure out where I belong, and who I am. Plus the description in the 2nd verse of listening to music and rocking jeans fits me.

Cold As You- Another Swift and Rose song where someone tries to love a person with too many walls up. I just suddenly had an image of Elsa flash before my face.

The Outside- This is written by just Swift. I'm trying to figure out if it's a song about wanting to be part of the in, or any, crowd, being on the outside of a relationship she wishes she can be a part of, or dealing with being an outsider for the first time...

Tied Together With a Smile- Tis Swift and Rose again. This song kind fits how I feel right now. To me it sounds like it's about a person who's held it all together, hid their pain, but now they can't keep it together.

Stay Beautiful- Our just mentioned writing duo with a song that makes me think of something someone may write in that senior year yearbook. You say what you need, wish them well, hope you come across them again, and... well the title says it.

Should've Said No- And this is why you don't cheat on your partners peeps they will find out! This a solo Swift written one about an ex of course, and what he should have done. I remember when she performed this song I wanna say on the CMA's, I think they used it for a music video, and that waterfall fell from the ceiling with the no's projected in it. I mean even King George Strait gave her a standing ovation for that!

Mary's Song (Oh My My My)- Swift, Rose, and Brian Maher giving us the story of a couple as their relationship progresses from childhood to marriage and how they hope the future will be. Reminds me of Bryan White's Tree of Hearts.

Our Song- I think I heard this song for the first time on the radio as I lay in bed after the New Year arrived. This is the song, just written by Swift, that go me on the Taylor Train. I still love it after all these years. I mean hey if what's already out there can't speak how you feel why not write it yourself. I loved the video too. It was so colorful and that sparkly guitar! Actually when VH1 did this video for their reboot of Pop Up Videos I think they said the jewels or what every they used kept coming off.

Extra Bits: Stick the CD in your computer and you 'll end up at a screen that has the image from the inside of the back cover and her signature in white, there's a white butterfly hangout on the corner of the video screen. There are two videos you can choose to watch. The first one is the Tim McGraw video, I actually think a lot of the album photos were taken when they shot the video. The second is a little video about her Grand Ole Opry debut. Seeing her walking the circumference of that great circle just reminded me that even though I've outgrown the dream of being a music artist I still get a longing to at least stand in that circle.

So Swifties, did we enjoy a romp down memory lane? Do you have memories or thoughts related to Taylor's first release? If ya do comment below. I hope you have a good week my friends may God bless you!
Ninja <[0000]---------------[0000]> Writer