Mental illness hour #445423 since becoming a swiftie (Patreon)

It's time to share my personal listening order for 1989 Taylor's Version which is now *checks watch* less than a month away from coming out!! For those of you who do not know, for pretty much every album release other than Folklore and Evermore and actually Midnights too for some fucking reason, I've rearranged the tracklist for my first listen!!! I would explain my process and thought behind these decisions but, frankly, I really can't, and I doubt anyone could. I DON'T KNOW why I listened to Wildest Dreams first on my very first listen through of 1989 on release night, but boy am I glad I fucking did!!!!!! It set the tone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Although I may be done doing it for future LP's (I doubt that........the mental illness is stirring....) I do find it REALLY enjoyable to do for the Taylor's version because the listening experience is so unique to listening to an ACTUAL total brand new album. When listening to a TV, I guess there are different things to take into consideration....

1.) How badly could this re-do of a particular song be botched, and do I want to be disappointed or impressed by it now, or later?

2.) How much of an improvement could have possibly been made on a particular song? 

3.) How excited / not excited am I for a vault track? (where there's lore behind a song, like there was for Castles Crumbling and I Bet You Think About Me, a vault track is immediately skyrocketed near the top of a listening order...but all of these vaults are brand new titles with NO lore so we're going in raw...) 

Now, for 1989.............................well....................I have some questions.....................

First of all, I don't think she got Max Martin back. I do not think she shelled out those coins and put him back in the studio, but, if she did, we will clap and cheer like we have never clapped and cheered before. So far from 1989, we have experienced parts of Bad Blood TV, all of This Love TV and Wildest Dreams TV. This Love as a song I was never that emotionally attached to, so I think the TV is fine but I have heard from some This Love soldiers that the TV was botched. On the flip side, I am a militant Wildest Dreams stan and that fucking TV is the worst thing I've ever heard in my entire life, but, those who have always just been casual enjoyers like Zack claim that it's "not that bad." It could be that the level to which you're threatened or offended by a TV depends on how important the original recording was to you, how many times you've listened to it, if it was your mental breakdown song for 5 straight years, etc etc. I've found that it's newer fans who haven't sat with the originals for years and years that can really tolerate them and even enjoy the WORST TV's no matter what, and I'm soooo happy for them, but unfortunately for me and Zack, we both got swiftie brain rot in our most formative years, so, sadly, I can't listen to the TV of You Belong With Me without it feeling like I'm in a Las Vegas bar at 3 in the morning listening to a cover band perform it. 

ALL THAT SAID, I feel that we as a fandom have experienced enough TV'S now to know how it goes...very few, like VERYYYYY few...songs are ever IMRPOVED upon. This happened on Fearless with Tell Me Why and The Other Side of the Door, but I wouldn't say ANYTHING on Red was made BETTER nor that anything on Speak Now was made BETTER on the TV's. More frequent is the potential for a song to be AS GOOD as the original, like Sad Beautiful Tragic. I listen to either one, depending on my mood. Then there are the ones that are fine, just different, kinda like Enchanted, Fearless, Red the song, etc etc. 

Then there are the botches.

Every single TV has had botches. If only we could get Taylor alone in a room and force her to tell us why she sabotaged IKYWT and YBWM the way that she did, considering they are some of her BIGGEST hits and ostensibly the ones she'd want to actually use to replace the originals, but alas, we cannot ask her, and we will NEVER know why Holy Ground TV sounds like that. Of the Max Martin replacements we've had (IKYWT, 22, WANEGBT, Wildest Dreams) ....well...........to me, they are all botches. Like botched botched. Like demand your money back botched. 

I think Zack has said many times he has feared for the 1989 TV the most, and I tend to agree, if only because I can't fathom these songs being anywhere near what they were without the help of Martin and Shellback. Which isn't a commentary on the producers she's been turning to for TV's, like Jack and Aaron, but more a commentary on that if you had someone other than DaVinci try to recreate the Mona Lisa, it wouldn't go very well, would it? To that end, 1989 TV is the TV I am dreading the most; and not reputation, if you can believe that, only because I am clapping like a seal at the zoo for that rep vault....open it.........

Whether the re-do's on 1989 wind up being good or bad, she's still getting my coins and streams, and I OWN 6 entire physical and digital copies of the original 1989, so it really has no bearing on my life if they're bad or not (outside of Tik Tok where you are stoned for saying you prefer the OG to a TV), but we are here to kiki and share our opinions, so I hope no one takes it toooo seriously!!! Without further adieu, here is MYYY brainrot listening order for 1989TV release night!!! 

1.) I want to start out on a high note, but I was gazing upon the tracklist at all the songs trying to come up with who should go first, a sense of ice cold dread filled my entire body...I thought...ohhh baby I think these are all gonna be at least a LITTLE botched...like just a smidgen...BUT I have very, very positive feelings towards I Wish You Would because it was Zack and I'd first surprise song in Chicago and it makes me sooo happy when I hear it now, so, first up, I WISH YOU WOULD!!! It's all in the name of getting me off to a good start and going into the record with a positive outlook!! And I do really fucks with it now, I mean I always fucksed with it because it's a great song, but lately it's going to like my top 5 on 1989 which kills me because it NEVER was before. 

2.) This is not a high note. But. Welcome To New York. I feel it's - well - the thing about it is that...I mean....sooooooooo.........well, it's a song!!!! Definitely one of my LEAST favs from 1989 but it's cute and fun and it's Ryan Tedder produced and he was def invited back, so!! It'll probably be pretty comparable to the original! 

3.) This is just a case of getting it out of the way...Shake It Off. Girls I really don't want to get too much into this, but, I think this has a very high capability of being the worst thing ever made. 

4.) Blank Space. Also just getting it out of the way. To see a work of art tarnished like a piece of silver just stuffed into a closet will hurt me like a death in the family and I just know it can't EVERR be as good as the original so I am going to sit there like I'm getting a tattoo and just get it over with. 

5.) ....Style....I think she loves this song. Boy I do. So maybe she went in there and said I will accept nothing less than perfection to whomstever is producting it (...Jack....when I find you...) 

Now at this point I'd like to allow myself to enter the vault tracks. I'm going in with my gloves on. 

6.) Suburban Legends - it might shock you that I'm not starting right off the bat with SLUT! but, I think if Slut! turns out to not be the legendary song I'm expecting it to be, it'll set a really bad tone for going forward with the vault, and I'm REALLY curious about Suburban Legends, so she's up first from the vault for me!!!!! 

7.) Slut! - DUHHHHHH I can't keep myself from this song for too long otherwise I'll turn into that baboon in a cage at the zoo rattling my bars and screaming with my ass out 

8.) Now That We Don't Talk - I'm curious!!!!!!!! Very curious...VERY curious....

9.) Say Don't Do - this one I'm skeptical on, that's why I'm putting it second to last. If it's a disappointment well she's got one more song left that I might really fuck with!!!

10.) Is It Over Now? - gotta keep the intended last song last for this one. I think this one will either be a sad kind of ballad or reminiscent song OR it will be kind of celebratory. Either way is good with me for a closing track!!!!!!!! 

From there, I think I will just listen to the rest of the songs in any order. Out of the Woods it was nice knowing ya but I think you're going to sound bizarro on the TV. I Know Places...she could serve...she could serve...Clean. I don't know, that one I don't even want to think about LMFAOOOO. 

In any case, THAT'S my order, and I am sticking to it!!!! For me, making my own order really keeps my head in check (if my assumptions are right...which they rarely are...LMFAOOOO) and makes the listening process a bit more fun, so I'm not sitting there just thinking about how many songs I have left until we get to a song I REALLY wanna hear. If you guys have your own orders, feel free to share below, I find it interesting to see what other people are doing, as well!! All in all I cannot WAAITTTT for 1989TV and really just can't wait for October in general. Halloween, my birthday, Zack's birthday, 1989, I meaaannnnn.... 

-M