The Taylor Seminars

We have a special guest for this special song! Rob Sheffield is an author and music critic at Rolling Stone magazine. He's written many of your favorite Taylor Swift album reviews (⁠Folklore⁠, ⁠Red (Taylor's Version),⁠ ⁠The Tortured Poets Department⁠, but you might know him best from ⁠his ranking of TS songs⁠.

Rob also has a book coming out called ⁠Heartbreak is the National Anthem: How Taylor Swift Reinvented Pop Music⁠, which is coming out in November 2024 (and you can pre-order it now!).

We invited him onto "The Taylor Seminars" to talk about his new book as well as go in-depth into "The Prophecy," which is a track on The Tortured Poets Department: Anthology. This is one of Rob's favorite tracks (ours too!) and so we get deep into the song as we analyze the lyrics and performance.

We also talk about:

And be sure stay until the end when Rob shares what he considers to be "the most Taylor album."

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Art by Alef Vernon:

In this haunting song, the protagonist shivers in the cold as she stares into the warm living rooms of strangers. What is she doing out there? How did she get to be stranded outside? What will actually happen when she meets his eyes one last time?

Join Exquisite & Hannah as they discuss "I Look in People's Windows" track 25 from The Tortured Poets Department: Anthology and see if you too are addicted to the "if only"

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Art by Alef Vernon:

There's something special about "thanK you aIMee," and it's not just the unique spelling of the track from The Tortured Poets Department: Anthology. Join Exquisite & Hannah as they analyze this lighthearted and yet serious song that plays with the album's themes of violence, obstacles, and, of course, survival. Join us for lots of laughs in what is probably one of our most fun episodes.

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Art by Alef Vernon:

We're back in darkness for the track "I Hate It Here." Join Exquisite & Hannah as they analyze this often-misunderstood song and reveal how Taylor Swift writes powerfully and candidly about her inner turmoil, loneliness, and unhealthy escapism.

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Art by Alef Vernon:

We're giggling and kicking our feet as we go back to "So High School," track 22 of The Tortured Poets Department within the Anthology. Listen in to our analysis of this beautifully sweet and romantic song by Taylor Swift.

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@⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠exquisitewill ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠- Exquisite

Art by Alef Vernon:

We hereby conduct this post-mortem of a post-mortem. Join us as Hannah and Exquisite explore this painfully tragic song that examines the death of a relationship while also pointing at those who gather just to gawk. Listen in to our analysis of "How Did It End" by Taylor Swift. from The Tortured Poets Department Anthology

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Art by Alef Vernon:

We have a special guest for this episode! Elly McCausland is a professor of English Literature at Ghent University, Belgium where she teaches the course "English Literature (Taylor’s Version)."

Elly has a book coming out called "Stars Around My Scars," which annotates 46 of Swift's songs. When we heard about this project, we knew we had to have her on to discuss one of the most beautiful and heartbreaking songs on The Tortured Poets Department, "Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus."

Listen in as they discuss Elly's upcoming book and go through the song, line by line, analyzing the lyrics and poetic devices Taylor uses throughout this masterpiece.

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Art by Alef Vernon:

Hannah and Exquisite explore this beautifully evocative song that references poems like "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" and "The Albatross," Taylor's own "Blank Space" and "peace," and more.

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@⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sippingaugust ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠- Hannah

@⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠exquisitewill ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠- Exquisite

Art by Alef Vernon:

Hannah and Exquisite explore this extremely sexy, extremely chaotic song that's the second of the The Anthology tracks!

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@⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sippingaugust ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠- Hannah

@⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠exquisitewill ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠- Exquisite

Art by Alef Vernon:

We're finally on The Anthology tracks! Join Exquisite and Hannah as they discuss "The Black Dog" and how it's a perfect breakup song, with connections to "Sad Beautiful Tragic," "All Too Well," and an evermore song that made Exquisite almost cry. Oh, and stick around to the very end of the episode for a final connection to a Speak Now song!

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@⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠sippingaugust ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠- Hannah

@⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠exquisitewill ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠- Exquisite

Art by Alef Vernon: