#ballad of big nate

[coconuttyglittersmurf]

#nickelodeon #nicktoons #paramount plus #big nate #big nate season 2 #ballad of big nate #behind the scenes #storyboard

[busyasabbey]

Do you think you could ever love a boy/school like me?

Cropped because I couldn’t find it already done online and it’s a catchy asf song 

#big nate #bro-king up is hard to do #ballads #school songs #Elmer (Blade) Espinoza #fear (aka enslave) the mollusk

[newcountryradio]

New Country 27e jaargang  #T1218(S777) (C22)van 26 februari 2024  (wk 09) uitzending op Smelne fm & Crossroads Country Radio

Album van de week:  Jon Pardi - A Cowboy's Work Is Never Done (ep)

Classic album :  Lynn Anderson – Rose Garden  

Hits of the Year : 1981

Maandfavoriet :  tim McGraw – One Bad Habit     

Maandartiest : The Bellamy Brothers

3 in 1 : Lonestar  

The Bellamy Brothers – You Ain't Just Whistlin' Dixie    *maandartiest

Sara Evans – No Place That Far    #1 25 jaar

Morgan Wallen – Last Night     # 1 2023 

Lainey Wilson - Country’s Cool Again

Drake Milligan – What I Couldn’t Forget

Dylan Scott -This Towns Been Too Good To Us

The Castellows - No. 7 Road.

Beyonce – Texas Hold Em.  54

Nate Smith - World on Fire  9w    #1.

Jon Pardi - Cowboys and Plowboys  Album vd week

Jon Pardi - Dirt On My Boots  *album

Little Big Town- Girl Crush -      2015

Barbara Mandrell I Was Country When Country Wasnt Cool- 1981  

Johnny Cash - Ballad of a Teenage Queen    1932     

Merle Haggard – Workin’ Man Blues 

Tim McGraw – One Bad Habit     favoriet 

Tyler Wood – My Halleluja   sofi

Lynn Anderson - Rose Garden  classic album

Lynn Anderson - Sunday Morning Coming Down

The Western Swing Authority – Happy Chickens

T. Graham Brown - He'll Take Care Of You (Feat. Vince Gill).

Lonestar - What About Now    (3 in 1)

Lonestar -I’m Already There   

Lonestar - Amazed

Jon Pardi - Ain't Always The Cowboy  Album van de week

Morgan Wallen   - Man Made A Bar  f/eric church       #1 album.

Billy Currington - People Are Crazy.

Billy Dean - In The Name Of Love.

Billy Ray Cyrus - Busy Man.

Nitty Gritty Dirt Band – Baby’s Got a Hold On me

 Red Simpson – Roll Truck  Roll   Trucksong

The Bellamy Brothers – Kids Of The Baby Boom_ maandartiest

Caitlyn Smith  - Tacoma  juweeltje 

Corb Lund – El Viejo  *Album vorige week

Jon Pardi  -  . Call Me Country  Album vd week .

4 Wheel Drive  - How Many Men_Dutch corner

Change of Key - In The Mood for Food      .Dutch corner.

Ramblin Boots - This Is Country Music       Dutch corner

Willie Nelson - Sad Songs and Waltzes

Juice Newton - The Sweetest Thing 1981

Eddie Rabbitt- Step By Step. #4

Alabama - Love in The First Degree#3 

Kenny Rogers - I Don't Need You-  #2

Ronnie Milsap - (There's) No Gettin' Over Me #1

Freddy Weller - Games People Play

#playlist new country #maandagavond smelne's country avond #smelnefm #newcountry #maandagavond #countrymusic #playlist #cdvdweek #crossroads country radio #maandfavoriet

[nwdsc]

(▶︎ Quality Over Opinion | Louis coleから)

Quality Over Opinion by Louis cole

Louis Cole is a singer-songwriter and sickeningly talented multi-instrumentalist with a strong DIY aesthetic from Los Angeles, California. He is on a mission to create deep feelings through music and is the figurehead of an LA jazz-adjacent scene that includes Genevieve Artadi (with whom Cole co-founded the alt pop / electrofunk band KNOWER in 2009), Sam Gendel, Sam Wilkes, Jacob Mann, Dennis Hamm, Pedro Martins and more. He will release his new album “Quality Over Opinion” on 14th October 2022 on Brainfeeder Records. 20 tracks deep, it was written, performed and produced on his own in his modest home studio, but Louis did invite a handful of close friends to contribute, namely Genevieve Artadi (“my no.1 music collaborator”); saxophonist Sam Gendel – Cole’s friend for 17 years; pianist Chris Fishman; Nate Wood from the band Kneebody; Marlon Mackey (“a pillar of the Bakersfield music scene”); and guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel. “This album is a representation of me trying to make the best, most powerful and listenable music I can. For myself and also others,” he says. Louis’s main instrument is the drums and he has a background in jazz although the music he writes bears little resemblance to jazz in any pure or classical sense. His connection to the movement is more conceptual: “The root of jazz is pure freedom… no limits… just what you’re thinking right at that moment… a pure blast of limitlessness”. Accordingly Cole’s touchstones for “Quality Over Opinion” include boundary-pushing composers such as Gustav Mahler and György Ligeti alongside jazz icons like Miles Davis, the Swedish extreme metal band Meshuggah, Morten Lauridsen (distinguished professor of music and American Choral Master) and Super Mario Kart. “There is no continuous thread of a story on this album, each song expresses its own moment in my life and time,” explains Louis. “I was inspired by joy, pain and the constant mission to pull something out of life around me”. New single ‘I’m Tight’ arrives hot on the heels of ‘Let it Happen’ – “a timeless modern power ballad classic” released earlier this month. In contrast, ‘I’m Tight’ is a sleek, laser-focused Funk rocket, based on an utterly irresistible bassline. “It comes from me recording about 100 different cells of funk, choosing my favorite ones and quilting them together into a song,” says Louis. “I had to practice the bass part a lot for this one,” he adds, smiling. Cole’s insane musicianship is no secret – he’s been sharing performance videos on YouTube for a decade – growing a dedicated fanbase who appreciate both his craft and off-the-wall style. Drums, bass, keys… he has a monk-like attitude to practice and perfecting his art. Thundercat describes him as “one of Los Angeles's greatest musicians” and earlier this year invited him to play drums on his recent tour of Japan. The pair have frequently written together including on the aptly titled ‘I Love Louis Cole’ from Thundercat’s Grammy-winning album “It Is What It Is”, ‘Bus in the Streets’ and ‘Jameel’s Space Ride’ (from Thundercat’s 2017 opus “Drunk”) and ‘Tunnels in the Air’ for Louis’ 2018 album “Time”. Flying Lotus has also expressed admiration for Louis, calling him “super inspirational” during the writing of his 2019 album “Flamagra”. Touring incessantly, Louis sold out two shows at EartH Hackney (1k cap) in London during his last UK tour. He has also appeared at North Sea Jazz Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival, Newport Jazz Festival, Rock En Seine, Jazz a Vienne, Jazz à la Villette, Wonderfruit, Vancouver Jazz Festival, Maiden Voyage and more. Last year Louis embarked on his biggest collaboration to date with the Grammy-winning Metropole Orkest conducted by Jules Buckley, for a string of unique shows in the Netherlands, with more to come in 2023. This October he will tour the US with his big band. クレジット2022年10月14日リリース

#2210 #RC #*****

[readinginthereadyroom]

it’s the db cooper job (lev 5x06) and tho it might not appear so at first, this story is about eliot.

if you look carefully at the food metaphors hidden in the jobs about pretzels, the sandwich, and spring rolls you can start to see a pattern unfold. the not so subtextual story hidden underneath the story that’s being told.

I’m going to skip over all the parker and hardison pretzels. the hardison and eliot sandwich. the eliot and parker spring rolls. we know these stories.

because tho this story is a continuation of the triangle of food metaphors, it’s still mostly about eliot. because we’ve seen him struggle with his attraction to hardison. seen him acknowledge his attraction to parker. but he still has a lot of work to do on himself before he’ll ever be able to act on any of it.

and that’s what this story is about.

and like most leverage stories there are layers. eliot and parker are filling the roles of steve and stephanie reynolds. a married couple at the center of the db cooper case.

parker-as-stephanie doesn’t know why she cares. eliot-as-db is a scary man—he has a bomb and he could kill her. but eliot as steve shows her who he really is. tells her about the promises he swore to keep. smiles at her so softly. and she realizes that db is just a grift. it’s steve sitting next to her. 

eliot is not a nice man. he’s killed for country and for money. and probably for no reason at all. but parker has always seen right past his terrible reputation. bumps shoulders and leaps into his arms. she trusts that he’ll catch her and he does. every. single. time. 

has anyone else noticed that eliot predominately goes by his first name? it’s only the big bads from his past that call him spencer. almost as if there are two different versions of him—a bad guy and a good guy. 

because there’s also a sidebar happening between peter mcsweeten and nate. about seeing the good in people. about compassion and redemption. never forget to put yourselves in the shoes of the people we serve, and not just the victims, but the perpetrators as well. they’re all deserving of our mercy.

we hear this a lot during the ep. that even the bad guys can be redeemed. eliot as steve and nate as peter are starring in a 70s buddy cop version of cold case (also a good show that you should watch). steve is jaded—he sees the worst in people. peter’s an idealist—he wants to save everyone. you think too much of people.

only this story isn’t really about nate. more about what nate represents to eliot. the voice of conscience. the good guy struggling with being a bad guy. all that I’m not a thief from the early seasons. 

not that nate’s an especially good role model. but I think eliot understands him. how one bad day can change the trajectory of your whole life. how easy it is to forfeit your ideals in a cruel world. and how nate struggles with those things.

but eliot also respects nate. appreciates the role he’s played in bringing the team together. and how being a part of a team has changed eliot’s life. kept him accountable. kept him good. it’s fair to say that the day that peter mcsweeten knocked on my door, he saved my life.

which is why eliot is both steve “db cooper” reynolds AND agent peter mcsweeten. the good guy and the bad guy. the bad guy trying to redeem himself. the good guy who believes in that redemption.

eliot’s story arc is about leaving the past behind. during the big bang job (lev 3x15) he begs parker to leave his past as the past. don't ask me that. he’s just killed a dozen men and he’s so close to falling off his redemption wagon. to slipping back into spencer when he wants to be eliot.

people are like knives and eliot wants to run a gastropub. he wants to sing country ballads, play sports, ride horses, and collect muscle cars. he especially wants to tease hardison and he always always wants to catch parker. 

because everything is in context. and this is the story of eliot understanding his own context. because he’s db cooper and db cooper’s been brought to justice.

#I didn't even get into the parallels with #the van gogh job #how that's about parker's character development #eliot spencer #parker leverage #alec hardison #leverage ot3 #the db cooper job #also the LAYERS to some of these eps #stories within stories and subtext within subtext #and some of it isn't even subtext! #just kudos to all the writers #fingers crossed we get another flashback ep in s6 #with hardison and eliot to complete the narrative triangle

[youngboy-oldmind]

ALBUM REVIEW: Marshall Mathers LP2

“So, one last time, I'm back/ Fore it fades into black/ and it's all over, behold the/ final chapter in a saga/ Tryna recapture that lightning trapped in a bottle/ Twice, the magic that started/ It all, tragic portrait of an artist/ Tortured, trapped in his own drawings/ Tap into thoughts blacker and darker than anything imaginable/ Here goes a wild stab in the dark/ Uh, as we pick up where the last Mathers left off”

Overall Thoughts

The sequel to his massive success The Marshall Mathers LP, The Marshall Mathers LP2 is a gem in Eminem’s discography. Packed with humorous and emotional storytelling, superb penmanship, and top tier lyricism, The Marshall Mathers LP2 is often overlooked by its better predecessors (Slim Shady LP, Marshall Mathers LP, Eminem Show) or its worse follow ups (Revival, Kamikaze, Music to be Murdered By). But this 79 minute, 2013 underrated project is a top 3 personal favorite.

Unpopular opinion: I think the Marshall Mathers LP is slightly overrated. It’s his highest selling and often called the peak of his career. Hits like “Stan”, “The Way I Am”, “Real Slim Shady”, “I’m Back” are iconic, and other lesser known songs like “Bitch Please II” and “Who Knew” are great. But I could live without the rest of the track list. Both albums feature Eminem talking about himself and his life, but some of the “edgy” offensive material has decreased.

The central theme and topic in this album is Eminem’s life as a result of fame and success. Back in 2013, Eminem confirmed this album was not a sequel of The Marshall Mathers LP2. It has some songs that carry on where songs from the prequel left off, and there are plenty of references to his old albums, but ultimately doesn’t feel like a true sequel. It feels more like a 79 minute “Previously on Eminem’s Life...”

The overall sound in The Marshall Mathers LP2 is relatively inconsistent. However, his tone and themes throughout the project are consistent, so the production inconsistencies aren’t too noticeable. Through the span of four tracks: “Rhyme or Reason”, “So Much Better”, “Survival”, “Legacy”, the sound goes from a sample of the 1967 classic “Time of the Season”, to a banger track reminiscent of Dr. Dre’s production, to a hard rock sound with Liz Rodriguez’s vocals, to a soft piano ballad. It would be fair to dislike this project due to the inconsistent production and sound. Although it’s important to note none of the production is BAD per se, just scattered. Not like Chance’s The Big Day where the inconsistency is annoying.

As I mentioned earlier, the themes and tones are consistent from beginning to end. A big concept is his past impacting his present. The mistakes and choices he made in the past are catching up to him and impacting his life. Some impacts are humorous, while others are extremely sad (“So Far...” vs “Headlights”).  But overall Eminem dives into the depths of his life and reflects on his fame, relationship with his fans, friends, and families, and his place in the hip hop industry.

Eminem’s pen game on this record is consistently off the charts. Its very hard to quote his lyrics because he rhymes so untraditionally that its hard to visually show the rhyme scheme with simple line breaks. Almost every song is a high point lyrically, but some of my favorite lines come from “Rhyme or Reason”, “Brainless” and “Evil Twin”.

He also has a number of storytelling/narrative tracks: “Bad Guy”, “So Much Better”, “So Far...”, and “Love Game”. Each one brings something unique to the album; my favorite out of this bunch is “So Far...”, which is likely a top 3 favorite for me. The songs have different tones of maturity but there’s not a painful gap in tone like in his later release Revival. On Revival, he claimed to be disappointed people have high expectations of him and his music, just for him to make a song revolving around a woman with “big ol’ tits”. Here, he’s unapologetically talking about stress and trauma along with childish reactions to toxic relationships, painting a well rounded picture of the inner workings in his mind.

There’s only one other rap feature on The Marshall Mathers LP2, “Love Game” with Kendrick Lamar. The two make an interesting pair; their verses work well together and Kendrick’s verse is a high point on this project. Two other features, Rihanna and Skylar Grey, sound great on their respective songs. He’s worked with them in the past and Eminem’s collaborations with them tend to be stellar. Nate Ruess’ vocals on “Headlights” hit the soul and match the truly saddening topic of a lost connection with his mother. Overall, the features on this project were great.

I want to mention my only issue in this album. “Stronger Than I Was” is my least favorite song by far. I’ve only listened to this song all the way through once. In the past, Eminem has proved he has vocal talent, my favorite being “Hailie’s Song” off The Eminem Show. However, he does not cut it here, and its difficult to listen for all almost 6 minutes. If he removed this song, the track list would be perfect (not counting the deluxe version).

Definitely a high point in his career, The Marshall Mathers LP2 is often underrated of under-appreciated when people discuss albums of the 2010s and Eminem’s discography. But with nearly no weak spots, solid production, excellent lyricism, and an interesting theme he maintains through the project, this project definitely deserves praise.

Top 3 Songs:

1) So Far...

2) Brainless

3) Evil Twin

Overall Grade: A

#hip hop review #album review #music review #hip hop #eminem

[jkottke]

The Best Books of 2020

I'm guessing that for most of you, reading books was either a comfort or a near impossibility during this unprecedentedly long and tough year. For me, I got some good reading in earlier in the year and then, as my focus shifted to writing about and researching the pandemic for this site and managing the logistics of safely navigating this new world, my energy for books waned. The last thing I wanted to do at the end of most days was more reading, especially anything challenging.

I also kinda didn't know what to read, aside from the few obvious choices that were impossible to ignore. As I'm sure it is for many of you, a big part of my "getting the lay of the land" w/r/t books is seeing what my favorite bookstores were putting on their front tables -- and that's been difficult for the past several months. Looking through a bunch of end-of-2020 lists for what books everyone else recommended was especially valuable for me -- there really were so so many good books published this year that are worth seeking out. So, here's a selection of the best books of 2020 and links to the lists I used to find them. I hope you find this useful.

Let's start with the NY Times. Their 10 Best Books of 2020 includes Deacon King Kong by James McBride while their larger list of 100 Notable Books of 2020 has both Maria Konnikova's The Biggest Bluff and The End of Everything: (Astrophysically Speaking) by Katie Mack on it. The Times' critics have their own list for some reason; one of the books they featured is Anna Wiener's Uncanny Valley.

Isabel Wilkerson's masterful Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents and The Mirror & the Light by Hilary Mantel (two books I actually read this year) deservedly made almost every list out there, including Time's 100 Must-Read Books of 2020. Those two books are also, respectively, on Time's lists of The 10 Best Nonfiction Books of 2020 and The 10 Best Fiction Books of 2020.

The Guardian breaks down their list of the Best Books of 2020 into several categories. The list of the best science fiction and fantasy books of 2020 includes The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson and Kacen Callender's King of the Rising.

The year-end lists on Goodreads (Best Books of 2020, Most Popular Books Published In 2020) typically cast a wider net on what a broader audience is reading. Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett made their lists this year.

Kirkus has a bunch of categories in their Best Books of 2020 as well, including the timely Best Fiction for Quarantine Reading in 2020 -- I found What Are You Going Through by Sigrid Nunez ("Dryly funny and deeply tender; draining and worth it") on there.

The NYPL's Best Books of 2020 has separate lists for adults, teens, and kids. For adult poetry, Nate Marshall's Finna made their list. And for teen historical fiction: We Are Not Free by Traci Chee.

Some recommended books for kids from various lists (NYPL, NY Times, NPR): Shinsuke Yoshitake's There Must Be More Than That!, Before the Ever After by Jacqueline Woodson (my daughter is reading this one right now for her book club), and Echo Mountain by Lauren Wolk.

YA novel Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo and Homie by Danez Smith both made Book Riot's Best Books of 2020. Oh, and I'd missed that Zadie Smith published a book of pandemic-inspired essays called Intimations.

NPR's Book Concierge is always a great resource for finding gems across a wide spectrum of interests. Erik Larson's The Splendid and the Vile and The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante both made their Seriously Great Writing list and their Cookbooks & Food list includes Ottolenghi Flavor by Yotam Ottolenghi & Ixta Belfrage and Eat A Peach by David Chang.

Speaking of cookbooks and food, among the top titles for 2020 were In Bibi's Kitchen by Hawa Hassan & Julia Turshen and Falastin by Sami Tamimi & Tara Wigley. (Culled from Food & Wine's Favorite Cookbooks of 2020 and The Guardian's Best Cookbooks and Food Writing of 2020.

I saw Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia on several lists, including Library Journal's Best Books 2020.

The Book of Eels by Patrik Svensson and The Alchemy of Us by Ainissa Ramirez both made Smithsonian Magazine's The Ten Best Science Books of 2020.

Hyperallergic has selected Some of the Best Art Books of 2020, including Kuniyoshi by Matthi Forrer.

For the Times Literary Supplement's Books of the Year 2020, dozens of writers selected their favorite reads of the year. Elizabeth Lowry recommended Artemisia, the companion book to the exhibition of Artemisia Gentileschi's at The National Gallery and sadly the best way for most of us to be able to enjoy this show.

More lists: Audible's The Best of 2020 and Washington Post's The 10 Best Books of 2020. I'll update this post a couple of times in the next week with more lists as I run across them.

If you'd like to check out what I've read recently, take a look at my list on Bookshop.org.

Note: When you buy through links on kottke.org, I may earn an affiliate commission. This year, I'm linking mostly to Bookshop.org but if you read on the Kindle or Bookshop is out of stock, you can try Amazon. Thanks for supporting the site!

[homuncvlus]

My Favourite Songs From Musicals:

In The Heights

It Won't Be Long Now

When the Sun Goes Down

96,000

In the Heights

Carnaval Del Barrio

Everything I Know

When You're Home

Champagne

Benny's Dispatch

No Me Diga 

Wicked (literally every song is great...)

One Short Day

Thank Goodness

Dancing Through Life

I'm Not That Girl

No One Mourns The Wicked 

High Hopes

Finale "Wicked"

Wonderful

Defying Gravity

Popular

What Is This Feeling?

The Wizard And I 

Be More Chill

Voices in My Head (FAVOURITE FAVOURITE)

The Pitiful Children

Michael in the Bathroom

Halloween

Loser Geek Whatever

More Than Survive (Reprise) (AND THIS)

More Than Survive

The Phantom Of The Opera

Medley: Down Once More / Track Down This Murderer

The Music Of The Night

The Phantom Of The Opera

Think Of Me

Why Have You Brought Me Here/Raoul I've Been There

All I Ask Of You

The Point Of No Return/Chandelier Crash

Notes / Prima Donna

Overture

Notes / Twisted Every Way (hisflkjsadanl;k when the melody goes down 😋)

Avenue Q

If You Were Gay

Annie Get Your Gun

Anything You Can Do

Beetlejuice

Say My Name

Billy Elliot

The Stars Look Down

Electricity

Bonnie & Clyde

This World Will Remember Us (feat. Jeremy Jordan & Laura Osnes)

Too Late to Turn Back Now (feat. Laura Osnes & Jeremy Jordan)

Picture Show (feat. L. Osnes, J. Jordan, K. Fowler & T. Ackerman)

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

The Double Bubble Duchess

Chicago

Nowadays/Hot Honey Rag (Medley Title)

Roxie (Album Version)

Cell Block Tango

Nowadays (Roxie) (Album Version)

Mister Cellophane (Album Version)

Razzle Dazzle (Album Version)

Dear Evan Hansen

If I Could Tell Her

In the Bedroom Down the Hall (Demo)

Hairspray

Mama, I'm A Big Girl Now

Hamilton (EVERY SONG IS 👌👌👌 - i swear im not just copying the whole soundtrack 😳)

The World Was Wide Enough

Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story

Non-Stop

My Shot

My Shot (feat. Busta Rhymes, Joell Ortiz & Nate Ruess)

Guns and Ships

The Room Where It Happens

You'll Be Back

Helpless (feat. Ja Rule)

Stay Alive

Cabinet Battle #2

Aaron Burr, Sir

Washington on Your Side

Alexander Hamilton

Burn

Dear Theodosia (feat. Ben Folds)

We Know

Heathers

Beautiful

Kinky Boots

The History of Wrong Guys

Les Misérables

On My Own

On My Own (motion picture)

Bring Him Home

The Final Battle

One Day More

Miss Saigon

I'd Give My Life For You (Live)

The Movie In My Mind (Live)

Last Night Of The World (Live)

Pippin

No Time at All

Evita

Don't Cry For Me Argentina

Hair

Aquarius

Love Never Dies

Ladies...Gents! / The Coney Island Waltz (Reprise)

"Mother, Did You Watch?"

Heaven By The Sea (Reprise)

RENT

La Vie Boheme

Take Me or Leave Me

Seasons of Love

School Of Rock

Stick It to the Man

Singing In The Rain

Singin' In The Rain

Spring Awakening

Mama Who Bore Me (Reprise)

Don't Do Sadness/Blue Wind

Sweeney Todd

Johanna

By the Sea

The Ballad of Sweeney Todd

South Pacific

Some Enchanted Evening (from "South Pacific")

The Greatest Showman

A Million Dreams (Reprise)

Come Alive

The Other Side

Never Enough

Rewrite The Stars

A Million Dreams

The Greatest Show

This Is Me

SMASH (i think it counts...?)

Let Me Be Your Star

The Rocky Horror Show

Dammit Janet

Sweet Transvestite

Thoroughly Modern Millie

Gimme Gimme

Cats

Memory

Waitress

What Baking Can Do

The Negative

She Used to Be Mine

What's Inside

#i will be adding to this #i literally stopped doing hw just to act on my post idea 😔 #smh #AND IT TOOK ME LIKE AN HOUR SO NOW I GOTTA GO BACK TO STUDYING BYE #why did i do this #imagine if this didnt post #actually i dont want to jinx myself #someone remind me to keep this going every few weeks

[snarkwrites]

FFT: bachlorette party gone wrong or right; ray palmer

Notes

This was sent to the main ask by @vonschweetz​ and I gotta say... I truly enjoyed writing it it turned into something fun and fluffy, for a character there’s just not a lot of fanfic love for on the internets. So duh, it was going on here. Maybe one day I’ll make something with my lance!original female character and ray or cisco, who knows..

Summary

Sara and Alex are getting married. Ray and Alyssa, Sara’s sister, wind up meeting / commiserating during the bachlorette party. A heated dance makeout ensues.

Pairing

Ray Palmer x Lance!OFC, Alyssa.

Warnings

alcohol tw, shenanigans.

“ Why are we doing this again?” Ray fidgeted and Mick smirked as he did so. Scoping out the party, Ray cringed at the varying levels of drunk that all of Sara’s friends seemed to be. Mick nudged him and then leaned in and whispered, “We’re doin it, haircut, because Sara is a friend.. And she specifically said she was not interested in any shenanigans tonight.. But what’s a bachlorette party without ‘em, huh? A tragedy, that’s what. So suck it up, buttercup. We’re goin out in a few minutes.”

“I’m gonna… go find some alcohol.” Ray told Mick over the music. He turned to walk away from the noise and the  dancing and the whole thing in general because he wasn’t exactly in a party frame of mind, and just as he wandered up the stairs of Sara’s childhood home, intending to find a quiet room to kind of.. Gather himself..

He collided with a blonde. A blonde he’d seen in pictures all around Sara’s house. A blonde he’d seen wandering past the comm screen on a video call in a  towel just one too many times. He tugged at his tie and she tilted her head to the side a little, staring up at him intently.

“I bet you came up to escape, didn’t ya? I was goin down to sneak up a bottle of rum. Makes studying infinitely more fun if the words are all blurry and I find myself bursting into spontaneous fits of giggles or singing “Where has the rum gone?”

Ray chuckled and leaned in a little. He could barely hear himself think over the noise in the little two story townhouse right now. Truth be told, he’d never really been that into crowds or parties. Then again, he thought to himself, to be fair, he’d never been invited to many.

… He is.. Even more handsome in person. And I’m willing to bet he thinks I’m just some dumb bimbo right now…

“Your name is Alyssa right?”

“Yeah.. My sister is one of the brides.. Kind of planned this entire thing and then totally forgot to plan myself an convenient escape, so I’ve been hiding in my room. Tonight is abou Sara and Alex… I don’t wanna.. Be in the way. Wouldn’t be much of a party guest as I’m not feeling very festive at the moment.” Alyssa shrugged it off. Ray’s collar was crooked and it bugged her, so she rose to tiptoe and straightened it, nearly toppling into him as Felicity and Thea and Kaitlyn all raced upstairs, probably trying to beat one another to the bathroom. The end result was Alyssa, pressed against Ray and Ray’s back against the wall. She gave a sheepish little giggle and he shrugged, letting her know it was alright and he wasn’t bothered, his hands on her hips to keep her steady.

The mention of studying perked his interest and he asked about it.

“Yeah.. I picked one hell of a career path. I had no clue I’d have to go through so much school to get a teaching degree.. Especially considering I wanna work with at risk kids or  kids with disabilities.. There’s just.. So much that goes into it all and I want to be the teacher that makes a difference.” she shuffled her feet, twisted a blonde curl around her fingertip as she stared up at him.

Ray grinned and then nodded to the party in full swing down below. “Doesn’t all the noise make it hard to study?”

“It’s no noisier than my dorm used to be.” Alyssa shrugged and then sighed and admitted with a nod, “Okay, yeah.. It does, but my sister is.. She’s the happiest I’ve seen her.”

“I get it. If you want to take a break, maybe we could talk or something? I mean, if you want to.”

“I’d love that, actually.. Do you drink, Dr. Palmer? Because I bartended and I’ve been told I make a pretty mean mixed drink.. If you wanna venture down and into the kitchen? I need to check the batch of jello shots I made earlier anyway.”

Before he could stop himself, he was nodding and following along.

The kitchen was empty and Alyssa set to opening the refrigerator and pulling out the shots, sitting them on a counter. When she turned back around, she found herself body to body with Ray, who towered over her. She nodded to a higher cabinet.

“If you want.. There’s some bourbon in that cabinet. I just can’t quite reach. Short girl problems.” Alyssa shrugged and Ray laughed, reaching over her to grab the bottle. Alyssa took it, grabbed for a two liter of Dr. Pepper sitting nearby and poured the two into a glass, putting a cube of ice into it, holding it out to him.

“That’s actually not that bad.”

“You should be here on the Fourth of July. Did a drunk watermelon last year and.. My sister passed out on the stairs because she ate like half.”

“Oh wow..”

��Yeah.” Alyssa found herself fidgeting, not sure what to do with her hands. Once she had her own drink poured, she took a long sip and then eyed the laughing and dancing crowd in the living  room before looking back at Ray. “So.. What’s Mick’s big plan? Sara knows he’s up to something…”

“Magic Mike.. that is.. All I’m allowed to say. I’m not even gonna attempt to figure out how he and Snart talked me into it.”

“Oh my god.. They roped you into doing it too? Interesting.” Alyssa felt her cheeks heating up at the mental images in her head. Ray rubbed his hand over the back of his head and he shrugged. “I tried telling them I literally cannot.. Dance like that. Snart insists that we all have to do it. It’s tradition, Mick said. I say, if Sara wanted us all to shake our asses like that…” Ray trailed off, taking a bigger sip of the drink. Alyssa did the same, but it didn’t take her mind out of where her mind had went, and as a result, she choked and started coughing.

Ray patted her on the back and eyed her with concern. “Are you okay?”

“It went down wrong.” Alyssa giggled and when she found herself pressed right against Ray, she stared up at him a few seconds. Every part of her was beyond tempted to raise to tiptoe and fluff his hair or play with his tie, to touch him in some way.

“Yeah, well.. Be careful.” Ray chuckled as he said it. Her body brushed completely against his and she muttered quietly, “I fucking love this song.” as some older power ballad song he didn’t really recognize came on. She met his gaze and bit her lip, almost as if she wanted to ask something. Ray cleared his throat.

“If you wanna dance..” he suggested, trying to be casual about it.

“Yeah, I was kind of hinting… at that..” Alyssa admitted, giving that soft laugh again as she let him pull her closer.

From behind them, Sara cleared her throat. “So you did come down from your room, huh? And I see you finally met Ray face to face.” Sara flashed a grin at both of them and Ray looked from Sara to Alyssa, noting the blush and the way she gave her sister a slightly dirty look in teasing. He chuckled and spoke up. “Yeah, Alyssa and I were just talking.”

“It looked like you two were dancing to me. Come into the room with the actual party, you two are my family and I do want you here tonight.”

Alyssa and Ray shared a look and Ray slipped his arm around Alyssa, the two of them making their way to the next room. Mick gave him a smirk and Ray mouthed, “You and Snart and Nate can dance.”

“Wasn’t gonna make ya, haircut.. Just wanted to get ya livened up again. Been kinda down lately. Thought you could use tonight.” Mick muttered as he moved to stand next to Ray. Ray nodded and answered quietly, “Yeah. I think I did need it.” as he stole a glance at Alyssa, who was standing opposite her sister Sara, the two of them about to take a shot at the same time and he smiled to himself.

It felt good to smile again. It felt really good.

#ray palmer fanfiction #ray palmer fanfic #ray palmer fic #ray palmer oneshot #ray palmer imagine #// this is cute af. of course it was going on here #//lance!ofc #// alcohol tw #// shenanigans.

[crampdown]

Cramp’s Comic Recommendations For Fans Of Classic Rock And Co.

Allright here we go. This is my current list of comics/manga/graphic novels you might enjoy if you’re into classic rock. Before we get started I’d just like to let you all know:

- This list is far from being complete. I’m sure there are many more groovy comics out there that I’m simply not aware of yet so if you have any suggestions feel free to add them :)

- I know I said “Classic Rock” but some of my choices may drift into other musical directions

- Needless to say I do not own any of the following images. They all belong to their rightfull owners and I’ll use them as visual reference material only.

- Sorry for eventual misspelling

Let’s go ^^

1. Bob Dylan Revisited 

Let’s start with an obvious choice. This is a collection of 13 well-known Dylan Songs, each of them graphically interpreted by a different artist. The most striking feature therefore is the high variety of different art styles. Some of them are cartoony, some are very abstract while others are almost photo realistic.

Dylan’s mesmerizing lyrics have always been inspirational and these beautiful depictions truly are a sight to see. 

Including works of Thierry Murat, Lorenzo Mattotti, Nicolas Nemiri, François Avril, Jean-Claude Götting, Christopher,  Bézian, Dave McKean, Alfred, Raphaëlle Le Rio, Maël Le Mae, and Henri Meunier, Gradimir Smudju, Benjamin Flao, Jean-Phillippe Bramanti and Zep.

Zep’s take on “Not Dark Yet”

Jean-Phillippe Bramanti’s interpretation of “Knocking On Heaven’s Door”

Definitely worth checking out not only for Bob Dylan Fans.

2. Baby’s In Black” by Arne Bellstorf

I’ve seen several people in the Beatles fandom complain about the lack of Stuart Sutcliffe material when it comes to early Beatles history. 

Well, here it is: a graphic novel that focuses on the relationship between Stuart Sutcliffe and fotographer Astrid Kirchherr who took the very first professional photos of the Beatles during their time in Hamburg (1960-61).

Told mostly from Astrid’s point of view this comic presents itself in a grey and melancholic tone that fits the rather sad story. Bellstorf’s drawings are simplified and charming (they remind me of early sixties children book illustrations which suits the setting’s time period)

If you’re interested in early Beatles history (especially their Hamburg days) you should give this one a try.

3. Blue Monday by Chynna Clugston Flores

I really wish I had known about this amazing comic series a few years earlier, not only because this is a slice of life/coming of age story with teenage characters who are actually likeable and relateable but also because “Blue Monday” is an overall highly entertaining depiction of early nineties teen culture/rebellion in an American suburb that comes with a lot of references to Britpop, mod culture, Buster Keaton movies and Adam Ant (to name only a few).

To quote the author herself: “It’s like Archie on crack, with cursing and smokes”.

The art style of Chynna Clugston Flores is very vivid and expressive and has a certain stylistic touch of anime/manga (like a lot of comics from the early 2000s). I also really enjoy all of the graphic fashion details in this one. Plus, this is the first comic with it’s own soundtrack and that’s always a nice bonus.

I’d recommend “Blue Monday” for fans of Britpop, Punk, New Wave and early 1990′s culture.

4. Punk Rock And Trailer Parks by Derf Backderf

Another story about growing up in American small town madness, this time set in 1980s gritty Punk subculture of the former rubber city of Akron, Ohio. Protagonist Otto who likes to refer to himself as “The Baron” becomes fascinated with Punk after attending a Ramones concert. He meets several Pubk icons (thus as The Clash, The Plasmatics, rock journalist Lester Bangs and many more) and becomes someting of a local punk star himself.

Derf Backderf (who is best known for his highly acclaimed graphic novel “My Friend Dahmer” and his Eisner award winning comic “Trashed”) created a comic that is as “raw and dirty as punk itself”. His art style is an unique combination of expressionism, underground cartoons and punk magazines.

“Punk Rock And Trailer Parks” is a must-have for punk fans (especially if you’re into The Ramones and The Clash. It made me a huge fan of both of them).

5. “CASH - I See A Darkness” and “Nick Cave - Mercy On Me” by Reinhard Kleist

Two biographical graphic novels by Reinhard Kleist, both of them tell the story of a fascinating personality in rock history and both of them are incredibly well drawn. Kleist’s art is full of life and movement and very atmospheric due to his impressive use of stark contrasts. 

I personally love his semirealistic way of drawing people and I’d highly suggest you to check out his other works too. He made a lot of biographical comics that really amazed me.

CASH

Cave

Definetly worth reading. Not only for Johnny Cash and Nick Cave fans.

6. Nowhere Men by Eric Stephenson, Nate Bellegarde, Jordie Bellaire and Fonografiks

I talked about this one a while ago but I’ll gladly do it again since it’s just too cool. “Nowhere Men” is set in an alternative past/present and future where scientists became as popular as pop stars (catchphrase “Science is the new Rock n` Roll”) but somewhere along the way something definetly went wrong. 

The hype of science shares obvious similarities with the beatlemania of the 60s and the founding of Apple back then. Furthermore, the characters are partly inspired by well-known personalities of Rock history. There are many more or less hidden nods and references to musical popculture wich is why I put it on this list.

Nowhere Men is a thrilling sci-fi dystopian that requires an observant reader because there is a lot of jumping back and forth i time and inbetween information. The art style is realistic and full of very vibrant colours.

I found myself reading this multiple times to get all of the details in the world building. A thoughtful and brilliant writing indeed. 

7. P.I.L. by Mari Yamazaki

Japan 1983: 17-year-old Nanami couldn’t be more frustrated. Her grandfather loves to spend all of their household money on useless luxury junk and her strict school criticizes her messy hairstyle. Caught between teenage rebellion and responsibility as she tries different side jobs to earn at least a little bit of money, Nanami also has a thing for punk music and overall everything originated from England.

P.I.L. tells the story of conflict between two generations who aren’t as different as they might seem. Sometimes funny and heartwarming, sometimes with a bit of drama this is a charming slice of life/ coming of age josei with a more simplistic but aesthetical pleasing art style.

as the title might suggest, Nanami is a big fan of P.I.L. and other bands of the punk, neo punk and new wave movement such as The Stranglers and The Killing Joke

8. Yellow Submarine by Bill Morrison

A comic adaptation of an animated film such as Yellow Submarine? Yeah, I was skeptical at first too but hear me out: This is really great. Morrison did an amazing job at capturing the trippy and psychedelic feeling of the legendary Beatles film. As the 1968 film used the medium of animation as an actual form of art to accomplish things only animation can do, Morrison did the same thing and used the advantages of the comic medium to accomplish things only comics can do. And it works. It really works.

Every single page of this colourful book has a different panel layout. Some of them are so beautiful and creative that I’d love to have a full-size poster version of them :’D

If you liked the film, if you love the psychedelic age, you’ll probably like the comic too. 

9. In The Pines by Erik Kriek

“In the pines, in the pines, where the sun never shines...”

5 Murder Ballads, some might call them dark Country Music, each of them beautifully illustrated by Erik Kriek. Atmospheric, dark and gritty and always on point to match the spine-chilling western-like storytelling of these ballads, great for fans of horror literature a la E.A.Poe.

10. Andy - A Factual Fairy Tale by Typex

Allright folks this is it:

Typex’s “Andy” is by far one of the best comics/graphic novels I’ve ever red. It defenitely is my personal favourite reading of 2019 (and tbh I kinda doubt anything will top this anytime soon)

This is more than just a biographical take on of the most enigmatic pop-art artists of 20th centuary’s America, this is a portrait of the 20th centuary itself. There are so many references to art, history, literature, music and more that I could fill a book counting them all. And of course this is a monument for the medium of comic itself. Typex really managed to show what comic’s are capable of (At this point I’m really sorry I can’t explain it better I’m not good in writing stuff like this yet...)

Visually one of the most appealing things are the different art styles Typex manages to pull off so well for every chapter in Warhol’s life because each of them are a mirror of their zeitgeist. The introduction of Warhol’s childhood during the 30s is drawn in a cartoony style of old news paper comic strips. The chapter of 1967 has a psychedelic edge. The chapter of the early 60s shows similarities with the works of Roy Liechtenstein

So many icons from the 1930s-1980s have a cameo in this graphic novel it’s just amazing. If you’re even remotely interested in anything of this time period you’d definitely should read this. (seriously, READ THIS). But at this point I’d also like to mention that this comic does not shy away from showing very explicit content and sensetive topics (please keep in mind this has a mature rating for a reason)

Yeah so I couldn’t give this piece of art enough praise. It is absolutely brilliant, a masterpiece in every sense and word.I wasn’t too aware of Typex before but appearentely he also did a graphic novel on Rembrandt. I’m gonna read this too.

Some honorable mentions:

California Dreamin` by Penelope Bagieu

I haven’t red this one yet so I can’t say anything more about it. But I wanted to let you know that a graphic novel about the life of Cass Elliot exists.

Before Watchmen: Silk Spectre by Darwyn Cooke and Amanda Conner

One of the prequels of the legendary “Watchmen” by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. It’ “only” an honorable mention because you’ll have to be familiar with the Watchmen universe to fully get all of the story. This prequel focuses on Laurie Jupeczyk, the second Silk Spectre and her own adventures during 1967, the summer of love in San Francisco.

Hip Hop Family Tree by Ed Piskor

Another one I haven’t fully red yet, but so far I’m loving it. It basically tells the history of Rap and Hip Hop from the early 70s to the mid 80s. The art style is intentionally old-school wich really fits it’s tone and setting.

Fritz The Cat by Robert Crumb

I suppose I can’t make a list like this without at least mentioning an absolut icon of the underground comix movement. Crumb created the adventures of this nasty junky cat during the 60s. Fritz can be seen as a satirical mirror of counter-culture’s zeitgeist.

and speaking of Crumb, his “Heroes of Blues, Jazz and Country” trading cards are neat too...

allright that’s it for now. like I said, if you have anymore suggestions, feel free to add ^^

#long post #Cramp talks #classic rock fandom #comic #thierry murat #lorenzo mattotti #nicolas nemiri #francois avril #jean-claude götting #christopher #bezian #dave mckean #alfred #raphaelle le rio #mael le mae #henri meunier #eric stephenson #Nate Bellegarde #jordie bellaire #fonografiks #ed piskor #erik kriek #derf backderf #arne bellstorf #penelope bagieu #mari yamazaki #robert crumb #typex #reinhard kleist #chynna clugston flores

[andrewrosswatson1987]

REVISIT: EMINEM UNVEILED THE MARSHALL MATHERS LP THIS DAY IN 2000

Eminem released his third album, The Marshall Mathers LP, which came out today (May 23) in 2000, released via labels, Aftermath/Interscope. Worldwide, it’s sold over thirty-five million copies to date. Singles for this album were “The Real Slim Shady”, “The Way I Am”, “Stan”, “I’m Back” and “B*tch Please II”. “Kill You” opens with “When I just a little baby boy my momma used to tell me these crazy things; she used to tell me my daddy was an evil man, she used to tell me he hated me, but then I got a little bit older and I realised she was the crazy one; but there was nothin’ I could do or say to try to change it, ‘cos that's just the way she was”.  That’s only the start. “Just bend over and take it like a slut; okay, Ma? Oh, now he’s raping his own mother,” for example.  “Texas Chainsaw, left his brains all danglin’ from his neck, while his head barely hangs on; blood, guts, guns, cuts/Knives, lives, wives, nuns, sluts,” more so.  “Buck with me, I been through hell, shut the hell up; I’m tryin’ to develop these pictures of the Devil to sell ‘em” darker yet, to the depths of the hell, licks of guitar and bobbing bass ominous. 

“Stan”, featuring Dido, opens with pouring rain and the latter singing mournfully.  The descending bassline adding to that effect.  The fan, indeed, descends from infatuation to the incensed.  This evidenced in, “Dear Slim, you still ain’t called or wrote, I hope you have a chance/I ain’t mad, I just think it's f*cked up you don’t answer fans”.  Real invective as he swears at his idol. “Remember when we met in Denver, you said if I’d write you you would write back; see, I’m just like you in a way, I never knew my father, neither/He used to always cheat on my mom and beat her”. “See everything you say is real, and I respect you ‘cos you tell it/My girlfriend’s jealous ‘cos I talk about you 24/7,” coming between Stan and his other half. “It’s been six months and still no word, I don’t deserve it/I know you got my last two letters, I wrote the addresses on ‘em perfect” and “You ruined it, now; I hope you can’t sleep and you dream about it/And when you dream I hope you can’t sleep and you scream about it/I hope your conscience eats at you and you can’t breathe without me” progressively impassioned, voice breaking and all. Eminem finally writes back.  “You got some issues, Stan, I think you need some counselling/To help your ass from bouncing off the walls when you get down some” like idol turned counsellor.   “Who Knew” is harsh hit of programmed drum with sparse guitar and bass. The lyrical bent equally harsh, no blunt instruments.  “I’m like, guidance/Ain’t they got the same moms and dads who got mad when I asked if they liked violence”.  Then, “And told me that my tape taught ‘em to swear/What about the makeup you allow your twelve-year-old daughter to wear” proving universal hypocrisy.  “Wasn’t me; Slim Shady said to do it, again/Damn, how much damage can you do with a pen,” perhaps turning inwards, once again. 

The dark thoughts of “The Way I Am” is cyclical of piano, tolling of bell.  “I’m not Mr. Friendly, I can be a pr*ck” demonstrating this.  “I’m lifting you ten feet in the air/I don’t care/Who was there/And who saw me, just jaw you; go call you a lawyer, file you a lawsuit” getting irate.  “When a dude’s getting bullied and shoots up his school,” to the point.  “I’m racin’/I’m pacin’, I stand and I sit/And I’m thankful for every fan that I get/But I can’t take a sh*t/In the bathroom without someone standing by it” ramping this up. “Remember Me?”, featuring RBX and Sticky Fingaz, takes it back. Deep, dark and sinister.  “I’m tryin’ to clean up my f*ckin’ image/So I promised the f*ckin’ critics I wouldn’t say, f*ckin’, for six minutes” has him willing to compromise.  Then, “F*ck that” has him exploding, going back, seemingly, on his word. Then the biting invective in “I’m Back”, with wayward, conspiratorial guitar with regimented bass and drum forming the basis of the no compromise feel.  “You better get rid of that nine it ain’t gonna help/What good is it gonna do against a man that strangles himself” dark and twisted.  “I used to get punked and bullied on my block, ‘til I cut a kitten’s head off and stuck it in this kid’s mailbox” definitely more so.  “I take seven kids from Columbine/Stand ‘em all in line/Add an AK-47, a revolver, a nine/A MAC-11 and it oughta solve the problem of mine/And that’s a whole school of bullies shot up all at one time” censored even in the explicit version. “Marshall Mathers” is contemplative and what seems fretless bass.  “Yo, you might see me joggin’/You might see me walkin’, you might see me walkin’ a dead Rottweiler dog with its head chopped off in the park with a spiked collar, hollerin’ at him ‘cos the sonofabitch won’t quit barkin’” peaking early, quick to rise to anger.  “Drivin’ up the block in the car that they shot ‘Pac in, looking for Big’s killers, dressin’ ridiculous/Blue and red, like I don’t see what the big deal is” leads to, “...watchin’ all these cheap imitations get rich off ‘em”.  “The New Kids On The Block sucked a lot of d*ck/Boy, girl groups make me sick/And I can’t wait ‘til I catch all you f*ggots in public/I’ma love it” both arresting and vile. “I think I was put here to annoy the world/And destroy your little four-year-old boy or girl” devastating, “Talkin’ about I fabricated my past/He’s just aggravated I won’t ejaculate in his ass” more impossibly so.  The bass breaks out latterly, twice in fact. Dark ode to Detroit, “Amityville”, featuring Bizarre, resounds with the sound of drum, sparse as if to fuel paranoia.  “That’s why we’re crowned the murder capital, still/This ain't Detroit, this is mother*ckin’ Hamburger Hill” like revelling in local reputation.  The infamy of it all.  Rock guitar embellishes the closing moments. “Bitch Please II”, featuring Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Xzibit and Nate Dogg, has classic written all over just looking at the cameo list and it doesn’t disappoint.  Melding the white and black audiences, like Dre in, “Throw on “Guilty Conscience” at concerts/And watch mosh pits/’til mother*ckers knock eachother unconscious/Some of these crowds that Slim draws is rowdy as Crenshaw Boulevard/When it’s packed and full of cars”. Track, “Criminal”, has funereal organ.  Criminal?  “You goddamn right,” the response.  “How many records you expecting to sell/After your second LP sends you directly to jail” details his past transgressions.  Has he learned? Nope. Then an intermission with him robbing a bank, the song faded to the background and popping the bank clerk in the face.  “Sh*t, half the sh*t I say, I just make it up to make you mad, so kiss my white naked ass/And if it’s not a rapper that I make it as/I’ma be a fuckin’ rapist in a Jason mask” incendiary and waving his rear in full view of white Middle America. The overall highlights are “Kill You”, “Stan”, “Who Knew”, “The Way I Am”, “The Real Slim Shady”, “Remember Me”, “I’m Back”, “Marshall Mathers”, “Drug Ballad”, “Amityville”, “Bitch Please II”, “Under The Influence” and “Criminal”.

Eminem’s The Marshall Mathers LP album can be bought on iTunes, here.

#Eminem #Marshall Mathers #Marshall Mathers LP #The Marshall Mathers LP #Marshall Bruce Mathers III #Marshall Mathers III #Slim Shady #Slim Shady LP #The Slim Shady LP #Slim Shady EP #Aftermath #Interscope #Dido #Onyx #Sticky Fingaz #RBX #New Kids On The Block #D12 #Bizarre #Dr. Dre #Dr Dre #Snoop Dogg #Snoop Doggy Dogg #Xzibit #Nate Dogg

[coconuttyglittersmurf]

#nickelodeon #nicktoons #paramount plus #big nate #big nate season 2 #ballad of big nate #youtube #Youtube

[suffering-and-happy-about-it]

Two broken hearts, a man and a woman (Some big ol' Samuel Drake headcanon story)

A/N: I am not broken-hearted, don't take it as such. I don't even have a relationship and most likely a heart. This is for my dear friend who is through that shit. She asked for this, so I am only delivering.

Mood for this: Shallow and Always Remember Us This Way by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, bcs I'm not over that fucking movie even after a month I've seen it.

❕If you're sensitive, be aware that this doesn't have a happy ending, alright?❕

Let's start from the begging, not from the end.

You haven't met by a coincidence, to be honest.

Your friends were far too clever for that (those little bitches).

You've been single for a long time and they were like:

"Ah, that Drake boyo is a dreamy one. Funny, charming, nice..."

"Shut up, Carmen. Not interested."

But they didn't listen tho. They arranged a concert of some not-so-known couple in a pub near to your home. So you couldn't say that I can't come bcs I would get home late and I'm actually working, Carmen, one of us must be the adult one, ya know?. Sly foxes, those friends of yours.

And then, all of a sudden, there that man was.

Maybe he was a bit too much older for you. Maybe more experienced. Maybe more sympathetic than you were. But that was something that attracted you to him.

He told you that his name is Sam, but a sweet little princess like you can call him Sammy. (And you chuckled, didn't you? Don't lie to me. I heard you.)

So you sat on those bar stools, drank beer and listened to those sweet ballads that were sung by the couple for the other one.

"They're kinda sweet, I'm not gonna lie," he said.

"Yeah. I feel how I am melting because of their love."

He was drinking beer in a sexy manner as well as he was smoking his cigarettes. You didn't mind that he's a smoker, because one of your exes was. He spoke in a sexy manner... Girl, you were into him big time.

Carmen was right apparently.

He walked with you to your home, covering you in his denim jacket, because it was raining heavily. You laughed and run through the streets, laughing like two children.

That's when you told yourself that you didn't see him for the last time.

And fuck, that kiss at your door. He held your face in his palms tightly as he tried to make-out, your breath away. Your tongues danced in a weird manner because it was your first kiss.

You had to learn a lot of things about each other. How to kiss each other, how to make him laugh, his routines and strange addictions and so on.

At the end of that kiss, you both laughed as crazy and you actually rose your hands up and danced and sang in the rain.

Your old neighbor wasn't glad.

"Can I see you again, miss Y/N?"

"I think I can arrange that, somehow. You know, I have a lot of work and I am a bit busy these days."

"So you're a busy and a bossy woman, I see. I kinda am into that, just to let you know."

"Go!" You cried out, laughing. He was unbelievable. "Go or you'll miss your bus."

Later you realized that you kept his jacket.

And you smelled to it all night long, even tho it was so wet that water was dripping from it.

And so, you were falling in love again. And it felt so good.

He was really funny and charming. And even tho he looked like the biggest womanizer of them all, he was actually a sensitive and romantic soul.

Him playing on guitar for was a sure thing. (Maan, just imagine him singing Shallow for you as if it was meant to be sung only for you... Gee.

His voice mesmerized you and you always curled up into a ball when he started to sing, smiling at him and running fingers through your hair. Your eyes were shining as you watched his fucking long fingers smoothing the guitar.

You had your spot under a tree on a cliff above the town, where you sat and sung because you thought that no-one will hear your terrible voice there; but to him, it was angelic.

He even sang a song that he wrote for you at that place for the first time. You cried like a little girl.

He bought you a bouquet of flowers for every chance he got. Your birthday? Yep. Your name day? Of course. Something big happened at work? A beautiful bouquet of sunflowers was a sure thing. When he couldn't think about anything else than you? Expect some delivery service dropping off flowers at your door.

When he felt like it, he cooked for you.

He must help your hand every time you were out in public together.

Sometimes he disappeared for a month or two, because of his work, but you could expect some darn expensive stuff coming by mail almost every week. And a ton of calls and sweet texts, images of the surroundings... He couldn't think about anything but you. He was into you just as much as you were into him.

And his kisses were deeper and much sweeter when he got home.

You guys moved together after a year of dating (Camila yelled Finally! when you told her.)

He had a lot of things and even though you joked that maybe he'll have to throw out a lot of them because you hadn't the space for that, it finally felt like home. You weren't alone at all and it felt right.

He tidied up after himself, his clothes were neat and he was the dishwasher of your home. Those were the ground rules.

Only after he moved in, you started to make love to each other.

He didn't want to rush at all. Just... When you felt like sleeping with him, then you two started to love each other physically.

He was a really tender lover per se. He was ghosting over your skin when there was a rainy night and you two couldn't fall asleep. He loved to kiss you gently on those sweet spots on your chin and shoulders.

Most of the times, you were the one touching the stars in the end, because he lived for the sight of your body trembling and your lips whispering his name like if you were praying to god.

But when you felt like, he was into everything you wanted. When you were curious and wanted to try something new? Let's do it!

First I love you came about after a year and a half of your dating.

You were just sitting on your balcony, playing with your hair and reading a book when he came with an ice-cream in his hands, slowly licking it from his spoon.

"I am in love with you," he said and you shot your look at him with your opened as if you misheard what he said. You loved him as well, sure thing. It could be felt within your touches and laugh, he was making you happy. You felt like if you were flying in the clouds when you were with him. "You know that, right?"

"Samuel, I-I... I love you as well, hope that you're aware of that, baby."

"Lovely!" He exclaimed as if it was one thing off the list and even tho you saw the joy in his eyes. He couldn't be more excited and the joy just brightened him up instantly. "You up for some Brooklyn Nine-Nine?"

"Sure thing."

You two were something that everyone wants to find in their lives.

You were the funny and dork couple who laughed and joked around a lot, but even tho, could be seen that you're so madly in love that nothing else mattered when you were together. He was caring and you were empathic, he had a lot of crazy ideas and you just agreed. It was like if you were just made for each other.

Almost every one of your friends loved to spend evenings with you two. You even weren't that much of kisses and touches in front of people, you kissed only once a time and he was hugging your shoulder, that was the most intimate you got in society, leaving the rest to your flat.

Maybe you were the favorite couple because you didn't make others awkward. Who knows?

If I say that his family loved you, then I'll not be using the right words. They adored you.

Especially his younger brother Nate, who was still a lot older than you, and his niece Cassie, who even started to sleep over at your place.

He played with her on a knight who killed dragons and sometimes they were pirates.

He kissed you a lot when they were running through your place and Cassie was yelling her lungs out.

"Let that innocent woman be, you dirty dog!" Cassie yelled at him a shoved the tip of her wooden sword to Samuel's leg as he was hugging your waist, kissing your neck and whispering you about how you two will be playing when the night comes and Cassie finally falls asleep. You were laughing and that made his heart jump happily.

"Oy, I can't, I think she's that red big X on my map."

"Let her be, you sea rat!"

"Cassie, for a British soldier, you know a bit too much of pirates' slang."

Nathan became your best friend more than a brother-in-law. He was more of an outside person, more than Samuel - the couch person, so Nate took you on trips on the bike, roller skates, hiking and visiting some old places. His wife Elena usually went as well; you let Cassie on Samuel's neck.

But he was totally ok with it.

On your second anniversary, he took you to the pub where you met - and this time, you were the couple who was singing. He played his guitar and you were shy from the start - but you totally rocked in the end. (YOU DEFINITELY SANG SHALLOW.)

And since then, they let you sing there every month. You built a friendship with the workers who were there and this pub became your all-time favorite.

Around seven months later, he started to act weird. He didn't look as happy as always, he was working a bit too much, leaving early and coming back late in the night.

So one night you have just waited for him:

"What's happening with us? Are you tired of me? Are you tired of this? Of us? Speak up your colors, Samuel Drake."

"Y/N, are you even listening to yourself? What's gotten into you?"

"You tell me, you aren't at home all the time, you stopped calling me during the day, you pretty much don't cook, I feel like I'm living here all alone. You just come home at night, you let me suck your dick and then you go to sleep - and then repeat."

"Y/N," he inhaled slowly and sat on the opposite side of your table, taking your hand in his and looking directly at you. Your stomach shrank and you were about to cry because of how afraid you were. "I was just wondering about something and you don't have to be afraid at all. I love you, you remember? Good. We know each other for almost three years now, but it feels like forever. I want you to become one of the Drake's, to be mine, to become my wife."

And so you were engaged all of a sudden. You couldn't feel happier, you loved that man, cared for him deeply and there was no one more important than him.

And he felt the same way as well. He was sure that you were the woman who he was searching for all the time. He was sure of it. He knew it. You were the first thing he saw in the morning and the last person on his mind every day of his life with you. He wasn't sure if you would agree and he was so worried that you wouldn't that he couldn't be at home - but it was alright after that.

He bought you a beautiful diamond ring which suited your hand as no one before you.

All got into the same point you were before - but now, he was your fiancé.

Life felt the same, loving and sunny, but the wedding was quickly approaching.

Then it started - his alcohol addiction.

You told yourself that it is a phase because he was a free man; that he must've been nervous because he was about to become only yours. You told yourself it was pre-wedding stress.

But it was way worse when you started to prepare the details of your big day (dress, theme and the church was already booked) and you prepared it with Nathan because Samuel was constantly almost poisoned with alcohol.

He woked you up in the middle of nights because he wasn't even able to go home on his own feet.

You sat next to him, holding his hand and smiling at him, helping him to vomit, cleaning his face with a wet towel, hoping that it'll be over soon.

You were seriously in love with him even after all the drunk escapades he had and after all that public humiliation he caused you. You were blind, so blind.

About your wedding day - it was a catastrophe. He didn't even come and you became one of the brides, who were left in the church all alone only to cry their eyes out.

You couldn't find him after that, running the downtown in those snow white princess dress with your make up smudged. You were crying all the way home - and he sat there on the bed with his face in his hands and completely red eyes.

Nathan just nodded at you, mimicked that he'll be behind the door just in case that Samuel even started to take some drugs.

"You stupid, selfish, ignorant cock. You left me there, waiting for you two hour in front of that dumb altar and crying my eyes out. Where, for fuck's sake, have you even been?!" You yelled at him, throwing the bouquet of white roses to the corner. He looked at you, looking like a kicked dog with eyes red from crying, a hand in front of his mouth.

"I think that we have to talk, princess," Samuel smiled at you sadly and he was about to cry again. He was even sober and you almost couldn't believe your eyes.

"I'm listening, my love," you kneeled in front of him and you smoothed his chin in a gentle manner. Your heart pounded heavily as you were afraid of what he's about to say.

"I didn't come today, because of one reason. I think that you don't need a selfish, idiotic, ignorant utter cock in your life. I'm sure of it. You're a perfect woman who is funny, lovely, so hot and so intelligent it isn't even possible and I don't want you to waste your life with a dick like me. You shouldn't be kneeling, because you're not going to like the things that I'm about to tell you, lovely floweret," he stood up and left you on the ground as you started crying like a child.

"Samuel, what's wrong? I love you so much, are you even aware of that? Now you are scaring the living hell out of me." You whispered in a broken voice as you watched his back. He always smiled at this - but not this time.

"The problem is that I am completely aware of your love for me, Y/N. And I just can't live with it anymore, I can't live with myself when I am lying to the woman whom I love," he took a glass and smashed it on the ground. "The truth is that I fucked and I am fucking another woman. I swear to you that it is not emotional, at least not for me. We fucked once a few days before I decided to make you mine and mine only. But now... She's pregnant." He smoothed his face and you stopped crying. You weren't even breathing. You were shocked as you tore the dress from your body, you threw the high heels far away and you put on some old shirt, you didn't know if it's his or yours and jeans, leaving immediately.

What hurt the most? He didn't try to stop you. He didn't run after you. He wasn't calling your name. He hasn't done a single thing.

He knew he fucked up so much that you were not able to ever forgive him. He dug is own grave when he let that bitch lure him into her bed and that pregnancy? That was the last inch before falling off the cliff.

And he hoped that the alcohol will scare you away. But you stayed even tho because you were just so pure and so in love.

So he had to break your heart ultimately for you to realize that he is a selfish dick who just poisoned you and with whom you lost almost three years.

You run away that evening to the woods even tho it was raining, still having that beautiful braid on, sitting under a tree and looked over the town, crying your eyes out.

Sully nor Nathan couldn't find you, because that was your place; now it was only yours.

You came to Nate's place when it was midnight, almost froze out because of the rain, you slept in the living room, quietly kissing the engagement ring and slowly drown in the pain.

The other day you went to your place - and he was already gone. His things all gone- from his toothbrush to his trainers. Only the smell indicated that he visited that place. You just stood there and cried to your very own palms.

You were all alone again. That flat felt empty and you did as well. For a solid week, you didn't leave it, just laying in your bad, eating sweets and watched some romcoms.

Carmen and Nathan took care of you and they promised it will be better with time, which you didn't believe. You felt like shit.

But after a month or two... Your life was back on and you were able to talk and smile, even tho your heart hurt still. But you slowly started meeting new people, new places, you slowly became a normal human being again, still wearing that ring, only wore him on your right hand.

You didn't love him anymore, but it kept sweet memories, just as your photo collection you loved so much. You and Nate went through it a dozen of times when all of it happened six months ago. He was your love for three years, maybe he was the love of your life. You had some fond memories with him which made you laugh.

The baby wasn't his in the end. It was some black-skinned senator and she just wanted Samuel to be to one bcs the senator did not want to be seen with her or his child.

You didn't have any relationship ever since you just wanted to be free and careless.

When a year passes by, you were a new woman. You changed your hair by cutting it down, you completely changed your wardrobe to more racy and tight, squeezing your body right and you exercised a lot. You felt as good as never before.

And somehow, you found yourself in the pub. I mean, THE PUB. You didn't even realize, but Carmen knew. It brought only the best memories and Carmen cracked when you tell them to her.

All of a sudden you felt guitar movements so crawled under your skin, that you wouldn't change it with anyone else's style of plucking. Carmen knew all along because he never stopped the monthly visits.

He looked like a broken man, with his thick beard and long hair. He had some silver in it. He aged almost ten years since you broke up. You weren't disgusted, he looked sexy even after all of that, but you felt pity in your heart.

And then he plucked the right strings and your world stopped. You looked at him, almost freaked out, without breath and you felt your heart pounding happily. He closed his eyes and sung that duet from that Bradley Cooper movie he loved. You always sang it together. So you smiled, even more, got up and went to him.

You smiled at the faces you known a year ago, and they even had a problem recognizing you with such short hair. You looked like someone else. But as soon as they figured it out, everyone started clapping a whistling loudly, which made Samuel get from his inner space as he watched the high heels on your legs.

You smiled to your hand and waved at everyone, looking at Samuel after that. He stopped playing, putting the guitar aside and inviting you with his look.

So you sat on his knee as you always did, hugging his shoulder tight and smiling as your mood slowly lowered to a romantic one. You put your right hand on his messy beard as you supported guitar with your thigh and started to sing her part as he started playing.

It was very intense. You held him like a lover holds lover, your stare didn't leave his the whole time and his body felt hot as his dick got completely hard because of your presence. You still did some magic to him.

You almost kissed Samuel when he was playing the last chords like you always did before. But you stopped a few centimeters from his lips as you felt the beard scratching them. Instead of that you smiled lazily, lowered his head with your palm and you let your lips kiss his forehead as he gracefully leaned into your body. It was almost like if he dies and God let him to heaven. Everyone was almost crying because you hugged him tightly, you played with his hair and then he kissed your long and beautiful neck as thanks.

But you were his heaven. Heaven that forbidden entrance for him.

There was no need for words after that as you smiled and stood up from his lap. You smoothed his hair behind his ear and smiled, opening his hand for you.

You slowly got the engagement ring off your hand and gave it to him, slowly closing his palm. Then you walked away. And he felt like everything ended.

But then you looked at him again when you were leaving with Carmen and he knew the language your eyes spoke.

Maybe you damned and you'll never be able to love him again. Maybe he fucked it up too much. Maybe this was the end.

But you encouraged him with a witty smile and shining eyes because you felt that connection when you sang as well as he did.

So he kissed that ring and hid it on a safe place, thinking about his next move.

#uncharted #samuel drake #sam drake #hell yeah #uncharted fanfiction #a thief's end #have a lovely day #samuel drake x reader #samuel #samuel drake headcanons #uncharted 4 #i love him #i love

[amuseoffyre]

Honestly, this ballads compilation album is making my day. Not a single song I would consider skipping. Look at this track list:

CD1 Livin’ on a Prayer (Bon Jovi) - Just Give Me a Reason (P!nk/Nate Ruess) - Total Eclipse of the Heart (Bonnie Tyler) - How You Remind Me (Nickelback) - Torn (Natalie Imbruglia) - Died in Your Arms Tonight (Cutting Crew) - Alone (Heart) - Rule the World (Take That) - Complicated (Avril Lavigne) - Show Me Heaven (Maria McKee) - Beneath Your Beautiful (Labrinth/Emile Sande) - Girl on Fire (Alicia Keys) - Eternal Flame (The Bangles) - All Coming Back To Me Now (Celine) - Time After Time (Cyndi Lauper) - China in your Hand (T’Pau) - Sowing The Seeds of Love (Tears for Fears)

CD2 You’re Still the One (Shania Twain) - Need You Now (Lady Antebellum) - America (Razorlight) - Angels (Robbie Williams) - The Power of Love (Jennifer Rush) - The Best (Tine Turner) - Hot Summer Night (Meatloaf) - We Built This City (Starship) - Rosanna (Toto) - I Want You To Want Me (Cheap Trick) - The Power of Love (Huey Lewis and the News) - I Don’t Want a Lover (Texas) - Runaway Train (Soul Asylum) - John Waite (Missing You) - One of Us (Joan Osbourne) - Listen To Your Heart (Roxette)

CD 3 Don’t You Forget About Me (Simple Minds) - Is This Love (Whitesnake) - I Want To Know What Love Is (Foreigner) - More Than a Feeling (Boston) - Don’t Fear the Reaper (Blue Oyster Cult) - Because The Night (Patti Smith Group) - Can’t Fight This Feeling (REO Speedwagon) - We’re All Alone (Rita Coolidge) - She’s The One (Robbie Williams) - I Have Nothing (Whitney) - Stop (Sam Brown) - Up Where We Belong (Joe Cocker & Jennifer Warnes) - You’re the Voice (John Farnham) - Hard Habit to Break (Chicago) - Sweet Home Alabama (Lynyrd Skynyrd) - Addicted to Love (Robert Palmer) - Big in Japan (Alphaville)

And I still have three more CDs to listen to in the set, which feature Africa, Bitch, Wrecking Ball, All Out of Love, Since you Been Gone, Eye of the Tiger and Final Countdown :D Best. Screamalong. Album. Ever.

#music

[tumblunni]

OKAY OFFICIALLY EPISODE 10 IS WHEN THEY START USING THE GOOD THEME SONG

This is one of the few times ive ever hated the japanese accurate song and really loved the dub change?? Plus thats the one they use for the games themselves so im kinda nostalgic for it i guess. (As nostalgic as you can be for a game you only started playing a few months ago, lol)

I dunno why but i just dislike almost all of the japanese vocal songs, even though the rest of the soundtrack is damn awesome. I just think its cos they suffer from "everything syndrome", so to speak. Gera gera po is catchy at..yknow..the gera gera po part, but then it keeps flying off into different genres that dont have any connection whatsoever lyricially. Like suddenly its rap and then a soulful depressing ballad and then we FINALLY get back to gera gera goddamn po, but the vibe is totally dead now. At least the game theme sticks to one consistant chorus!

Oh and this episode was actuallly pretty decent too! Buhu is one of the cutest yokai and im glad her episode went by without any really horrible moments of trash awfuls. Also nice that she was portrayed sympathetically and also super soft and cute and good ans great. I would hug her forever even if she brings bad luck!! Im so sad for her being unable to control her bad luck even on herself! Poor bean!

And shogunyan's episode was cute! "Super legendary cake cutting sharing friendship splitterrrrr!" Tho it was confusing whether he's actually jibanyan in cosplay or like jibanyan possesses his bloodline or something and he appears like an alternate personality? In the manga he was actually a ghost type yokai that had to possess bodies in order to use his sword, which was confusing cos apparantly he used to be a non ghost and also they say he's like a 'real ghost' as opppsed to whisper?? Can yokai double die??

Also im starting to get kinda sad at poor komasan's episodes! He keeps trying to be the cool big bro who knows how everything works in the human world but then his lil bro keeps being better at everything on his first try and he has to hide that he lied about knowing how it works and just NOOOO im feeling so much second hand embarassment!! Please give him an episode where he finally succeeds at something!!

...okay wtf lol, apparantly theyre having an episode advertising Yokai Watch 2 within the universe,via a proxy of some identical game with a slightly different name. "Yolo Watch 2", holy shit. Also aww Spenp is another one of my fave designs! It was fun watching all the ridiculously stupid inventions everyone was wasting their money on, and i like that they made the bizarre yet genius choice to make Spenp talk like a baby boomer and ramble about everyone being a communist and "trickle down economics works!" Holy shitttttt

Randomly i really like the designs of a lot of the background characters! I wanna rewatch all these episodes when i get my pc sorted out, so i can take some screenies of the cute outfits!! Also i like how nate wears slightly different outfits sometimes too, tho he only seems to have like.. Two. And the second one is just the first but with a jacket and the shirt is orange now. Its funny how katie seems to have more outfits EVEN MORE EVIDENCE SHE'D BE BETTER AS THE PROTAGONIST YO! Also i like how her winter jacket has the same colours as dr maddiman for no apparant reason. Now i wanna see him wearing it, lol!

Also i liked that the solution to the Noway episode was to use reverse psychology. Hooray for nate having a moment of strategicness for once! Seriously he's such a selfish lazy asshole protagonist in some episodes and then in others he's like saintlike nice or super smart or whatever. It doesnt seem like intentional character development cos it never sticks in the next episode...

OMG much as i hate manjimutt episodes where he's an asshole pervert, sometimes his jokes are really funny. The universal studios logo but with manjimutt?? And when his entire episode was a spoof of one of those Deep Powerful Artisan Painter Man Lives In The Mountains And Makes TRUE ART type movies except all he made was pottery shaped like boobs and asses. That was the only time him being a horrible person was legitimately funny! Also i like the two random policemen who can see yokai but treat it like a super mundane thing. "Yeah that human faced dog is causing trouble again, stick him in the paddy wagon"

[makistar2018]

All 125 Taylor Swift Songs, Ranked From Worst to Best

By NATE JONES April 30, 2019

In this business, there are two subjects that will boost your page views like nothing else: Game of Thrones and Taylor Swift. One of them is a massive, multi-million-dollar enterprise filled with violence and betrayal, and the other airs on HBO. I find it hard to explain why exactly, and I’m sure Swift would, too: Somehow, this one 27-year-old woman from Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, keeps finding herself at the center of our national conversations about race, gender, celebrity, victimhood, even the economics of the tech industry. And, outside the legions of fans who eat up everything she puts out, no take on her ever stays solid for long. She was a precocious teenager, and the ultimate embodiment of white privilege. She’s been feminism’s worst nightmare, and an advocate for victims of sexual assault. Some people say she’s a goddess of the alt-right. Other people say she’s Jewish.

And yet, unlike Madonna or Bowie, Swift got through the first 11 years of her career without any major reinventions. (For 1989, she embraced feminism and threw away the last vestiges of her Nashville sound, but those were basically just aesthetic changes.) If the word on her has shifted since her debut, it’s because we’ve changed, not her. Swift — or at least the version of Swift on her albums — has remained largely the same person since her debut: a thin-skinned, bighearted obsessive, with a penchant for huge romantic moments. People don’t slowly ease into a relationship in her songs; they show up at each other’s doors late at night and they kiss in the rain. An unworthy suitor won’t just say something thoughtless; he’ll skip a birthday party or leave a teenage girl crying alone in a hotel room. Listen to her songs and you’ll ache at the resemblance to the most dramatic moments in your own private history. Listen to too many and you might ache again at the nagging feeling that those stories of yours have all been a bit uneventful and drab by comparison. What sort of real life can stand up against fantasies like these?

So, uh, I don’t recommend you listen to this list top to bottom.

But I do recommend sampling as many of these songs as you see fit. Even with the widespread critical embrace of poptimism — a development I suspect has as much to do with the economics of online media as it does with the shifting winds of taste — there are still those who see Swift as just another industry widget, a Miley or Katy with the tuner set to “girl with a guitar.” If this list does anything, I hope it convinces you that, underneath all the thinkpieces, exes, and feuds, she is one of our era’s great singer-songwriters. She may not have the raw vocal power of some of her competitors, but what she lacks in Mariah-level range she makes up for in versatility and personality. (A carpetbagger from the Pennsylvania suburbs, she became an expert code-switcher early in her career and never looked back.) And when it comes to writing instantly memorable pop songs, her only peers are a few anonymous Swedish guys, none of whom perform their own stuff. I count at least ten stone-cold classics in her discography. Others might see more. No matter how high your defenses, I guarantee you’ll find at least one that breaks them down. 

Some ground rules: We’re ranking every Taylor Swift song that’s ever been released with her name on it — which means we must sadly leave out the unreleased 9/11 song “Didn’t They” as well as Nils Sjöberg’s “This Is What You Came For” — excluding tracks where Swift is merely “featured” (no one’s reading this list for B.o.B.’s “Both of Us”) but including a few duets where she gets an “and” credit. Songwriting is an important part of Swift’s spellbook, so covers are treated more harshly than originals. Because Swift’s career began so young, we’re left in the awkward position of judging work done by a literal high-schooler, which can feel at times like punching down. I’ll try to make slight allowances for age, reserving the harshest criticism for the songs written when Swift was an adult millionaire.

125. “Look What You Made Me Do,” Reputation (2017): “There’s a mistake that I see artists make when they’re on their fourth or fifth record, and they think innovation is more important than solid songwriting,” Swift told New York back in 2013. “The most terrible letdown as a listener for me is when I’m listening to a song and I see what they were trying to do.” To Swift’s credit, it took her six records to get to this point. On a conceptual level, the mission here is clear: After the Kim-Kanye feud made her the thinking person’s least-favorite pop star, this comeback single would be her grand heel turn. But the villain costume sits uneasily on Swift’s shoulders, and even worse, the songwriting just isn’t there. The verses are vacuous, the insults have no teeth, and just when the whole thing seems to be leading up to a gigantic redemptive chorus, suddenly pop! The air goes out of it and we’re left with a taunting Right Said Fred reference — the musical equivalent of pulling a Looney Tunes gag on the listener. Other Swift songs have clunkier rhymes, or worse production values, but none of them have such a gaping hole at the center. (I do dig the gleeful “Cuz she’s dead!” though.)

124. “Umbrella,” iTunes Live From Soho (2008): Swift has recorded plenty of covers in her career, and none are less essential than this 90-second rendition of the Rihanna hit recorded at the peak of the song’s popularity. It’s pure college-campus coffeehouse.

123. “Christmas Must Mean Something More,” The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection (2007): One of two originals on Swift’s early-career Christmas album, “Something More” is a plea to put the Christ back in Christmas. Or as she puts it: “What if happiness came in a cardboard box? / Then I think there is something we all forgot.” In the future, Swift would get better at holding onto some empathy when she was casting a critical eye at the silly things people care about; here, the vibe is judgmental in a way that will be familiar to anyone who’s ever reread their teenage diary.

122. “Better Than Revenge,” Speak Now (2010): A nasty little song that has not aged well. Whether a straightforward imitation of Avril Lavigne’s style or an early attempt at “Blank Space”–style self-satirization, the barbs never go beyond bratty. (As in “Look What You Made Me Do,” the revenge turns out to be the song itself, which feels hollow.) Best known now for the line about “the things she does on the mattress,” which I suspect has been cited in blog posts more times than the song itself has been listened to lately.

121. “American Girl,” Non-album digital single (2009): Why would you cover this song and make it slower?

120. “I Want You Back,” Speak Now World Tour – Live (2011): Another 90-second cover of a pop song that does not particularly benefit from a stripped-down arrangement.

119. “Santa Baby,” The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection (2007): Before Ariana Grande’s “Santa Tell Me,” there was only one holiday song about falling in love with Santa, and for some reason, we spent decades making all our young female singers cover it. Swift’s version leans out of the awkwardness by leaning into the materialism; she puts most of her vocal emphasis on the nice presents she hopes Santa will bring her. (The relationship seems to be fairly quid pro quo: She’ll believe in him if he gives her good gifts — even at this early stage, Swift possessed a savvy business sense.) Otherwise, this is a by-the-numbers holiday cover, complete with sleigh bells in the mix.

118. “Sweet Escape,” Speak Now World Tour – Live; Target edition DVD (2011): Swift’s sedate cover of the 2006 Gwen Stefani hit — those “ooh-ooh”s are pitched way down from Akon’s falsetto in the original — invests the song with a bittersweet vibe, though like anyone who’s ever tried the song at karaoke, she stumbles on the rapid-fire triplets in the first verse.

117. “Silent Night,” The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection (2007): Swift’s cover of the Christmas classic veers significantly away from Franz Xaver Gruber’s original melody, and even gives it a Big Taylor Swift Finale. Points for ambition, but sometimes you just want to hear the old standards the way you remember them.

116. “The Last Time,” Red (2012): Red is Swift’s strongest album, but it suffers a bit from pacing issues: The back half is full of interminable ballads that you’ve got to slog through to get to the end. Worst of all is this duet with po-faced Ulsterman Gary Lightbody, which feels about ten minutes long.

115. “Invisible,” Taylor Swift: Special Edition (2006): A bonus track from the debut that plays like a proto–”You Belong With Me.” The “show you” / “know you” rhymes mark this as an early effort.

114. “…Ready for It?,” Reputation (2017): The second straight misfire off the Reputation rollout, this one sees Swift try her hand at rapping, with some ill-advised bars about Elizabeth Taylor and a flow she borrowed from Jay-Z. (Try to rap “Younger than my exes” without spilling into “rest in peace, Bob Marley.”) Bumped up a spot or two for the chorus, a big Swift hook that sounds just like her best work — in this case, because it bites heavily from “Wildest Dreams.”

113. “I Heart ?,” Beautiful Eyes EP (2008): Swift code-switches like a champ on this charmingly shallow country song, which comes from the Walmart-exclusive EP she released between her first two albums. Her vocals get pretty rough in the chorus, but at least we’re left with the delightful line, “Wake up and smell the breakup.”

112. “Bad Blood,” 1989 (2014): When Swift teamed up with Max Martin and Shellback, the marriage of their dark eldritch songcraft nearly broke the pop charts. But when they misfire, the results can be brutal. The lyric here indulges the worst habits of late-period Swift — an eagerness to play the victim, a slight lack of resemblance to anything approaching real life — attached to a schoolyard-chant melody that will never leave your head, even when you may want it to. The remix hollows out the production and replaces Swift’s verses with two from Kendrick Lamar; it’s less embarrassing than the original, which does not make it more memorable.

111. “White Christmas,” The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection (2007):The most bluegrass of Swift’s Christmas tunes, this gentle rendition sees Swift’s vocals cede center stage to the mandolin and fiddle.

110. “Crazier,” Hannah Montana: The Movie soundtrack (2009): When approached by the filmmakers about contributing a song to the Hannah Montana movie, Swift sent in this track, seemingly a holdover from the Fearless sessions. In an admirable bit of dedication, she also showed up to play it in the film’s climax. It’s kind of a snooze on its own, but compared to the other songs on the soundtrack, even Swift’s leftovers shine.

109. “I’d Lie,” Taylor Swift (2006): A bonus track only available to people who bought Swift’s debut at Best Buy. It’s as cute as a study-hall MASH game, and just as easily disposable.

108. “Highway Don’t Care,” Tim McGraw’s Two Lanes of Freedom(2013): After joining Big Machine, McGraw gave Swift an “and” credit here as a professional courtesy. Though her backing vocals are very pleasant, this is 100 percent a Tim McGraw song.

107. “Superman,” Speak Now: Deluxe Edition (2010): A bonus track that’s not gonna make anyone forget Five for Fighting any time soon.

106. “Change,” Fearless (2008): A bit of paint-by-numbers inspiration that apparently did its job of spurring the 2008 U.S. Olympic team to greatness. They won 36 gold medals!

105. “End Game,” Reputation (2017): Swift tries out her blaccent alongside Future and Ed Sheeran, on a track that sounds unmistakably like a Rihanna reject. The only silver lining? She’s better at rapping here than on “…Ready for It?”

104. “The Lucky One,” Red (2012): A plight-of-fame ballad from the back half of Red, with details that never rise above cliché and a melody that borrows from the one Swift cooked up for “Untouchable.”

103. “A Place in This World,” Taylor Swift (2006): Swift’s version of “Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman,” this one feels like it missed its chance to be the theme tune for an ABC Family show.

102. “I Don’t Wanna Live Forever,” Fifty Shades Darker soundtrack (2017): In Fifty Shades Darker, this wan duet soundtracks a scene where Christian Grey and Anastasia Steele go for a sunny boat ride while wearing fabulous sweaters. On brand!

101. “Last Christmas,” The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection (2007): Swift does George Michael proud with this reverent cover of the Wham! classic.

100. “Breathless,” Hope for Haiti Now (2010): Swift covered this Better Than Ezra deep cut for the Hope for Haiti telethon. With only one take to get it right, she did not let the people of Haiti down.

99. “Bette Davis Eyes,” Speak Now World Tour – Live (2012): “There’s some unbelievable music that has come out of artists who are from L.A., did you know that?” Swift asks the audience at the beginning of this live track. The crowd, not being idiots, responds with an enthusiastic yes. This cover loses the two most famous parts of Kim Carnes’s original — the synths and Carnes’s throaty delivery — but the acoustic arrangement and Swift’s intimate vocals bring out the best qualities of the tune.

98. “Eyes Open,” The Hunger Games: Songs From District 12 and Beyond (2012): One of two songs Swift contributed to the first Hunger Games soundtrack. With guitars seemingly ripped straight out of 1998 alt-rock radio, this one’s most interesting now as a preview of Swift’s Red sound.

97. “Beautiful Eyes,” Beautiful Eyes EP (2008): The title track of Swift’s early-career EP finds the young songwriter getting a lot of mileage out of one single vowel sound: Besides the eyes of the title, we’ve got I, why, fly, cry, lullaby, even sometimes. A spirited vocal performance in the outro saves the song from feeling like homework.

96. “The Outside,” Taylor Swift (2006): If you thought you felt weird judging songs by a high-schooler, here’s one by an actual sixth-grader. “The Outside” was the second song Swift ever wrote, and though the lyrics edge into self-pity at times, this is still probably the best song written by a 12-year-old since Mozart’s “Symphony No. 7 in D Major.”

95. “SuperStar,” Fearless: Platinum Edition (2008): This bonus track is a relic of an unfamiliar time when Swift could conceivably be the less-famous person in a relationship.

94. “Starlight,” Red (2012): Never forget that one of the most critically acclaimed albums of 2012 contains a piece of Ethel Kennedy fanfiction. The real story of Bobby and Ethel has more rough spots than you’ll find in this resolutely rose-colored track, but that’s what happens when you spend a summer hanging in Hyannis Port.

93. “Sad Beautiful Tragic,” Red (2012): Another glacially paced song from the back half of Red that somehow pulls off rhyming “magic” with “tragic.”

92. “Innocent,” Speak Now (2010): The disparate reactions to Kanye West stage-crashing Swift at the 2009 VMAs speaks to the Rorschachian nature of Swift’s star image. Was Swift a teenage girl whose moment was ruined by an older man who couldn’t control himself? Or was she a white woman playing the victim to demonize an outspoken black man? Both are correct, which is why everyone’s spent so much time arguing about it. Unfortunately, Swift did herself no favors when she premiered “Innocent” at the next year’s VMAs, opening with footage of the incident, which couldn’t help but feel like she was milking it. (Fairly or not, the comparison to West’s own artistic response hardly earns any points in the song’s favor.) Stripped of all this context, “Innocent” is fine: Swift turns in a tender vocal performance, though the lyrics could stand to be less patronizing.

91. “Girl at Home,” Red: Deluxe Edition (2012): This Red bonus track offers a foreshadowing of Swift’s interest in sparkly ’80s-style production. A singsongy melody accompanies a largely forgettable lyric, except for one hilariously blunt line: “It would be a fine proposition … if I was a stupid girl.”

90. “A Perfectly Good Heart,” Taylor Swift: Special Edition (2006): A pleading breakup song with one killer turn of phrase and not much else.

89. “Mary’s Song (Oh My Oh My),” Taylor Swift (2006): This early track was inspired by Swift’s elderly neighbors. Like “Starlight,” it’s a young person’s vision of lifelong love, skipping straight from proposal to old age.

88. “Come in With the Rain,” Fearless: Platinum Edition (2008): An ode to a long-lost lover that follows the Swift template a tad too slavishly.

87. “Dancing With Our Hands Tied,” Reputation (2017): Reputation sags a bit in the middle, never more than on this forgettable ’80s-inspired track.

86. “Welcome to New York,” 1989 (2014): In retrospect, there could not have been a song more perfectly designed to tick off the authenticity police — didn’t Swift know that real New Yorkers stayed up till 3 a.m. doing drugs with Fabrizio Moretti in the bathroom of Mars Bar? I hope you’re sitting down when I tell you this, but it’s possible the initial response to a Taylor Swift song might have been a little reactionary. When it’s not taken as a mission statement, “Welcome to New York” is totally tolerable, a glimmering confetti throwaway with lovely synths.

85. “Tied Together With a Smile,” Taylor Swift (2006): When she was just a teenager with a development deal, Swift hooked up with veteran Nashville songwriter Liz Rose. The two would collaborate on much of Swift’s first two albums. “We wrote and figured out that it really worked. She figured out she could write Taylor Swift songs, and I wouldn’t get in the way,” Rose said later. “She’d say a line and I’d say, ‘What if we say it like this?’ It’s kind of like editing.” This early ballad about a friend with bulimia sees Swift and Rose experimenting with metaphor. Most of them work.

84. “King of My Heart,” Reputation (2017): Swift is fond of saying that “songs are what you think of on the drive home — you know, the Great Afterthought.” (She says it’s a Joni Mitchell quote, but I haven’t been able to find it.) Anyway, I think that’s why some of the love songs on Reputationdon’t quite land: Swift is writing about a relationship from inside of it, instead of with hindsight. It’s a different skill, which could explain why the boyfriend character here is less vividly sketched than some of her other ones.

83. “Come Back … Be Here,” Red: Deluxe Edition (2012): A vulnerable track about long-distance love, with simple sentiments overwhelmed by extravagant production.

82. “Breathe,” Fearless (2008): A Colbie Caillat collaboration that’s remarkable mostly for being a rare Swift song about a friend breakup. It’s like if “Bad Blood” contained actual human emotions.

81. “Stay Beautiful,” Taylor Swift (2006): Nathan Chapman was a Nashville session guitarist before he started working with Swift. He produced her early demos, and she fought for him to sit behind the controls on her debut; the two would work together on every Swift album until 1989, when his role was largely taken over by Max Martin and Shellback. Here, he brings a sprightly arrangement to Swift’s ode to an achingly good-looking man.

80. “Nashville,” Speak Now World Tour – Live; Target edition DVD (2011): Swift gives some shine to singer-songwriter David Mead with a cover of his 2004 ballad. (Listen to the screams during the chorus and try to guess where this one was recorded.) She treats it with a delicate respect, like she’s handling her grandmother’s china.

79. “So It Goes,” Reputation (2017): Unfortunately not a Nick Lowe cover, this one comes and goes without making much of an impact, but if you don’t love that whispered “1-2-3,” I don’t know what to tell you.

78. “You’re Not Sorry,” Fearless (2008): An unflinching kiss-off song that got a gothic remix for Swift’s appearance as an ill-fated teen on CSI. It shouldn’t work, but it does.

77. “Drops of Jupiter,” Speak Now World Tour – Live (2012): The best of the covers on the live album sees Swift commit to the Train hit like she’d written it herself. If you had forgotten that this song came out in 2001, she keeps the line about Tae Bo.

76. “The Other Side of the Door,” Fearless: Platinum Edition (2008): A bonus track saved from mediocrity by a gutsy outro that hints that Swift, like any good millennial, was a big fan of “Semi-Charmed Life.”

75. “Gorgeous,” Reputation (2017): In the misbegotten rollout for Reputation, “Gorgeous” righted the ship by not being completely terrible. Max Martin and Shellback pack the track with all sorts of amusing audio doodads, but the melody is a little too horizontal to stick, and the lyrics have a touch of first draft about them. (You’d be forgiven for preferring the actual first draft, which is slightly more open and real.)

74. “I Wish You Would,” 1989 (2014): Like “You Are in Love,” this one originated as a Jack Antonoff instrumental track, and the finished version retains his fingerprints. Perhaps too much — you get the sense it might work better as a Bleachers song.

73. “Cold As You,” Taylor Swift (2006): A dead-serious breakup song that proved the teenage Swift (with help from Rose, who’s got a co-writing credit) could produce barbs sharper than most adults: “You come away with a great little story / Of a mess of a dreamer with the nerve to adore you.” Jesus.

72. “Haunted,” Speak Now (2010): In which Swift tries her hand at Evanescence-style goth-rock. She almost pulls it off, but at this point in Swift’s career her voice wasn’t quite strong enough to give the unrestrained performance the song calls for.

71. “This Love,” 1989 (2014): Began life as a poem before evolving into an atmospheric 1989 deep cut. Like an imperfectly poached egg, it’s shapeless but still quite appetizing.

70. “Untouchable,” Fearless: Platinum Edition (2008): Technically a Luna Halo cover (don’t worry about it), though Swift discards everything but the bones of the original. Her subsequent renovation job is worthy of HGTV: It’s nearly impossible to believe this was ever not a Taylor Swift song.

69. “Wonderland,” 1989: Deluxe Edition (2014): A deranged bonus track that sees Swift doing the absolute most. This song has everything: Alice in Wonderland metaphors, Rihanna chants, a zigzag bridge that recalls “I Knew You Were Trouble,” screams. As she puts it, “It’s all fun and games ’til somebody loses their MIND!”

68. “Sweeter Than Fiction,” One Chance soundtrack (2013): Swift’s first collaboration with Jack Antonoff is appropriately ’80s-inspired, and so sugary that a well-placed key change in the chorus is the only thing that staves off a toothache.

67. “I’m Only Me When I’m With You,” Taylor Swift: Special Edition(2006): A rollicking pop-rock tune that recalls early Kelly Clarkson. As if to reassure nervous country fans, the fiddle goes absolutely nuts.

66. “Tell Me Why,” Fearless (2008): A bog-standard tale of an annoyingly clueless guy, but it’s paired with one of Swift and Rose’s most winning melodies.

65. “If This Was a Movie,” Speak Now: Deluxe Edition (2010): The mirror image of “White Horse,” which makes it feel oddly superfluous.

64. “How You Get the Girl,” 1989 (2014): The breeziest and least complicated of Swift’s guy-standing-on-a-doorstep songs, which contributed to the feeling that 1989 was something of an emotional regression. You probably shouldn’t take it as an instruction manual unless you’re Harry Styles.

63. “Don’t Blame Me,” Reputation (2017): A woozy if slightly anonymous love song that comes off as a sexier “Take Me to Church.” [A dozen Hozier fans storm out of the room.]

62. “The Way I Loved You,” Fearless (2008): Written in collaboration with Big and Rich’s John Rich, which may explain how stately and mid-tempo this one is. (There’s even a martial drumbeat.) Here, she’s faced with a choice between a too-perfect guy — he’s close to her mother and talks business with her father — and a tempestuous relationship full of “screaming and fighting and kissing in the rain,” and if you don’t know which one she prefers I suggest you listen to more Taylor Swift songs. Swift often plays guessing games about which parts of her songs are autobiographical, but this one is explicitly a fantasy.

61. “New Romantics,” 1989: Deluxe Edition (2014): Like “22,” an attempt at writing a big generational anthem. That it was left off the album proper suggests Swift didn’t think it quite got there, though it did its job of extending the singles cycle of 1989 a few more months. Despite what anyone says about “Welcome to New York,” the line here about waiting for “trains that just aren’t coming” indicates its writer has had at least one authentic New York experience.

60. “Sparks Fly,” Speak Now (2010): This one dates back to Swift’s high-school days, and was destined for obscurity until fans fell in love with the live version. After what seems like a lot of tinkering, it finally got a proper studio release on Swift’s third album. It’s like “True Love Waits,” but with more kissing in the rain.

59. “Me!,” Untitled Seventh Album (2019): Well, what did we expect? The run-up to “Me!” was preceded by a weeks-long guessing game about what precisely would be the nature of Swift’s April 26 announcement. Would she come out? Would she come out and reveal she had once dated Karlie Kloss? Cut to the fateful day, and the news was … Swift, who is a pop singer, was releasing a new pop song. After the Sturm und Drang of the Reputation era, “Me!” is a return to anodyne sweetness, a mission statement that says, “I’m through making mission statements.” The result is blandly inoffensive, emphasis on the bland.

58. “All You Had to Do Was Stay,” 1989 (2014): Just like the melody to “Yesterday” and the “Satisfaction” riff, the high-pitched “Stay!” here came to its writer in a dream. Inspiration works in mysterious ways.

57. “Delicate, Reputation (2017): With multitracked, breathy vocals, this is Swift at her most tentative. Would any other album’s Taylor be asking, “Is it cool that I said all that?”

56. “Stay Stay Stay,” Red (2012): Swift broke out her southern accent one last time for this attempt at homespun folk, which is marred by production that’s so clean it’s practically antiseptic. In an alternate universe where a less-ambitious Swift took a 9-to-5 job writing ad jingles, this one soundtracked a TV spot for the new AT&T family plan.

55. “Call It What You Want,” Reputation (2017): Many of the Reputationsingles aim at sexy; this airy slow jam about losing yourself in love after a scandal is the only one that gets there, though the saltiness in the verses (“all the liars are calling me one”) occasionally betrays the sentiment.

54. “Ours,” Speak Now: Deluxe Edition (2010): It’s not this song’s fault that the extended version of Speak Now has songs called both “Mine” and “Ours,” and while “Ours” is good … well, it’s no “Mine.” Still, even if this song never rises above cuteness, it is incredibly cute. I think Dad’ll get over the tattoos.

53. “The Best Day,��� Fearless (2008): Swift’s parents moved the family to Tennessee so she could follow her musical dreams, and she paid them back with this tender tribute. Mom gets the verses while Dad is relegated to the middle eight — even in song, the Mother’s Day–Father’s Day disparity holds up.

52. “Everything Has Changed,” Red (2012): “We good to go?” For many American listeners, this was the first introduction to a redheaded crooner named Ed Sheeran. It’s a sweet duet and Sheeran’s got a roughness that goes well with Swift’s cleaner vocals, but the harmonies are a bit bland.

51. “Today Was a Fairytale,” Valentine’s Day soundtrack (2010): How much of a roll was Swift on during the Fearless era? This song didn’t make the album, and sat in the vault for a year until Swift signed on for a small role in a Garry Marshall rom-com and offered it up for the soundtrack. Despite the extravagant title, the date described here is charmingly low-key: The dude wears a T-shirt, and his grand gestures are showing up on time and being nice.

50. “Last Kiss,” Speak Now (2010): A good-bye waltz with an understated arrangement that suits the starkness of the lyrics.

49. “You Are in Love,” 1989: Deluxe Edition (2014): The best of Swift’s songs idealizing someone else’s love story (see “Starlight” and “Mary’s Song”), this bonus track sketches Jack Antonoff and Lena Dunham’s relationship in flashes of moments. The production and vocals are appropriately restrained — sometimes, simplicity works.

48. “The Story of Us,” Speak Now (2010): The deluxe edition of Speak Now features both U.S. and international versions of some of the singles, which gives you a sense of how fine-tuned Swift’s operation was by this point. My ears can’t quite hear the difference between the two versions of this exuberant breakup jam, but I suspect the U.S. mix contains some sort of ultrasonic frequencies designed to … sorry, I’ve already said too much.

47. “Clean,” 1989 (2014): Co-written with Imogen Heap, who contributes backup vocals. This is 1989’s big end-of-album-catharsis song, and the water imagery of the lyrics goes well with the drip-drip-drip production. I’d be curious to hear a version where Heap sings lead; the minimalist sound might be better suited for her voice, which has a little more texture.

46. “Getaway Car,” Reputation (2017): Another very Antonoff-y track, but I’m not mad at it. We start with a vocoder she must have stolen from Imogen Heap and end with one of Swift’s most rocking outros, and in between we even get a rare key change.

45. “I Almost Do,” Red (2012): The kind of plaintive breakup song Swift could write in her sleep at this point in her career, with standout guitar work and impressive vulnerability in both lyrics and performance.

44. “Long Live (We Will Be Remembered),” Speak Now (2010):Ostensibly written about Swift’s experiences touring with her band, but universal enough that it’s been taken as a graduation song by pretty much everyone else. Turns out, adolescent self-mythologizing is the same no matter where you are — no surprise that Swift could pull it off despite leaving school after sophomore year.

43. “The Moment I Knew,” Red: Deluxe Edition (2012): An epic account of being stood up that makes a terrible birthday party seem like something approximating the Fall of Troy. If you’re the type of person who stays up at night remembering every inconsiderate thing you’ve ever done, the level of excruciating detail here is like a needle to the heart.

42. “Jump Then Fall,” Fearless: Platinum Edition (2006): An effervescent banjo-driven love song. I get a silly kick out of the gag in the chorus, when Swift’s voice leaps to the top of her register every time she says “jump.”

41. “Never Grow Up,” Speak Now (2010): Swift’s songs where she’s romanticizing childhood come off better than the ones where she’s romanticizing old age. (Possibly because she’s been a child before.) This one is so well-observed and wistful about the idea of children aging that you’d swear she was secretly a 39-year-old mom.

40. “Should’ve Said No,” Taylor Swift (2006): Written in a rush of emotion near the end of recording for the debut, what this early single lacks in nuance it makes up for in backbone. I appreciate the way the end of each verse holds out hope for the cheating ex — “given ooonnne chaaance, it was a moment of weeaaknesssss” — before the chorus slams the door in the dumb lunk’s face.

39. “Back to December,” Speak Now (2010): At the time, this one was billed as a big step for Swift: the first song where she’s the bad guy! Now that the novelty has worn off “Back to December” doesn’t feel so groundbreaking, but it does show her evolving sensitivity. The key to a good apology has always been sincerity, and whatever faults Swift may have, a lack of sincerity has never been one of them.

38. “Holy Ground,” Red (2012): This chugging rocker nails the feeling of reconnecting with an ex and romanticizing the times you shared, and it livens up the back half of Red a bit. Probably ranked too high, but this is my list and I’ll do what I want.

37. “Enchanted,” Speak Now (2010): Originally the title track for Swift’s third album until her label told her, more or less, to cut it with the fairy-tale stuff. It’s a glittery ode to a meet-cute that probably didn’t need to be six minutes long, but at least the extended length gives us extra time to soak up the heavenly coda, with its multi-tracked “Please don’t be in love in with someone else.”

36. “I Know Places,” 1989 (2014): No attempts of universality here — this trip-hop song about trying to find a place to make out when you’re a massive celebrity is only relatable to a couple dozen people. No matter. As a slice of gothic pop-star paranoia, it gives a much-needed bit of edge to 1989. Bumped up a couple of spots for the line about vultures, which I can only assume is a shout-out.

35. “Treacherous,” Red (2012): Swift has rarely been so tactile as on this intimate ballad, seemingly constructed entirely out of sighs.

34. “Dress,” Reputation (2017): An appropriately slinky track that gives us an unexpected payoff for years of lyrics about party dresses: “I only bought this dress so you could take it off,” she says in the chorus. The way the whole song starts and stops is an obvious trick, but I like it.

33. “Speak Now,” Speak Now (2010): The rest of the band plays it so straight that it might take a second listen to realize that this song is, frankly, bonkers. First, Swift sneaks into a wedding to find a bridezilla, “wearing a gown shaped like a pastry,” snarling at the bridesmaids. Then it turns out she’s been uninvited — oops — so she decides to hide in the curtains. Finally, at a pivotal moment she stands up in front of everyone and protests the impending union. Luckily the guy is cool with it, so we get a happy ending! All this nonsense undercuts the admittedly charming chorus, but it’s hard not to smile at the unabashed silliness.

32. “22,” Red (2012): Another collaboration with Martin and Shellback, another absurdly catchy single. Still, there’s enough personality in the machine for this to still feel like a Taylor song, for better (“breakfast at midnight” being the epitome of adult freedom) and for worse (the obsession with “cool kids”). Mostly for better.

31. “Christmases When You Were Mine,” The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection (2007): The clear standout of Swift’s Christmas album, with an endearingly winsome riff and lyrics that paint a poignant picture of yuletide heartbreak. If you’ve ever been alone on Christmas, this is your song.

30. “White Horse,” Fearless (2008): You’d never call Swift a genre deconstructionist, but her best work digs deeper into romantic tropes than she gets credit for. In just her second album, she and Rose gave us this clear-eyed look at the emptiness of symbolic gestures, allegedly finished in a mere 45 minutes. Almost left off the album, but saved thanks to Shonda Rhimes.

29. “I Knew You Were Trouble,” Red (2012): The guiding principle on much of Red seems to have been to throw absolutely every idea a person could think of into a song and see what worked. Here, we go from Kelly Clarkson verses to a roller-coaster chorus to a dubstep breakdown that dates the song as surely as radiocarbon — then back again. It shouldn’t hang together, but the gutsy vocals and vivid lyrics keep the track from going off the rails.

28. “Teardrops on My Guitar,” Taylor Swift (2006): An evocative portrait of high-school heartbreak, equal parts mundane — no adult songwriter would have named the crush “Drew” — and melodramatic. It’s also the best example of Swift and Rose’s early songwriting cheat code, when they switch the words of the chorus around at the end of the song. “It just makes the listener feel like the writer and the artist care about the song,” Rose told Billboard. “That they’re like, “Okay, you’ve heard it, but wait a minute — ’cause I want you know that this really affected me, I’m gonna dig the knife in just a little bit deeper.’” (In a fitting twist, “Teardrops” ended up inspiring a moment that could have come straight out of a Taylor Swift song, when the real Drew showed up outside her house one night. “I hadn’t talked to him in two-and-a-half years,” she told the Washington Post. “He was like: ‘Hey, how’s it going?’ And I’m like: ‘Wow, you’re late? Good to see you?’”)

27. “Begin Again,” Red (2012): Swift’s sequencing genius strikes again: After the emotional roller coaster of Red, this gentle ballad plays like a cleansing shower. (It works so well she’d repeat the trick on 1989, slightly more obviously.) Of all Swift’s date songs, this one feels the most true to life; anyone who’s ever been on a good first date can recall the precise moment their nervousness melted into relief.

26. “New Year’s Day,” Reputation (2017): Like a prestige cable drama, Swift likes to use her final track as a kind of quiet summing-up of all that’s come before. Here, she saves the album’s most convincing love song for last: “I want your midnights / but I’ll be cleaning up bottles with you on New Year’s Day” is a great way to describe a healthy relationship. The lovely back-and-forth vocals in the outro help break the tie with “Begin Again.”

25. “Shake It Off,” 1989 (2014): Swift’s second No. 1 was greeted with widespread critical sighs: After the heights of Red, why was she serving up cotton-candy fluff about dancing your way past the haters? (Never mind that Red had its own sugary singles.) Now that we’ve all gotten some distance, the purpose of “Shake It Off” is clear: This is a wedding song, empty-headed fun designed to get both Grandma and Lil Jayden on the dance floor. Docked ten or so spots for the spoken-word bridge and cheerleader breakdown, which might be the worst 24 seconds of the entire album.

24. “Safe and Sound,” The Hunger Games: Songs From District 12 and Beyond (2012): Swift’s collaboration with folk duo the Civil Wars is her best soundtrack cut by a country mile. Freed from the constraints of her usual mode, her vocals paint in corners you didn’t think she could reach, especially when she tries out a high-pitched vibrato that blends beautifully with Joy Williams and John Paul White’s hushed harmonies. Swift has worked in a variety of emotional palettes in her career, but this is the only time she’s ever been spooky.

23. “Picture to Burn,” Taylor Swift (2006): Swift’s breakup songs rarely get more acidic than they do in this country hit. By the time she’s twanging a line about dating all her ex’s friends, things have gotten downright rowdy. The original lyrics — “Go and tell your friends that I’m obsessive and crazy / That’s fine, I’ll tell mine you’re gay” — show how far standards for acceptable speech in nice young people have shifted in the past decade.

22. “Fearless,” Fearless (2008): The title track from Swift’s second album has more of her favorite images — in one memorable twofer, she’s dancing in the rain while wearing her best dress — but she invests them with so much emotion that you’d swear she was using them for the first time. The exuberance of the lyrics is matched in the way she tumbles from line to line into the chorus.

21. “Tim McGraw,” Taylor Swift (2006): If you by chance ever happen to meet Taylor Swift, there is one thing you should know: Do not, under any circumstances, call her “calculating.” “Am I shooting from the hip?” she once asked GQ when confronted with the word. “Would any of this have happened if I was? … You can be accidentally successful for three or four years. Accidents happen. But careers take hard work.” However, since the title of her first single apparently came from label head Scott Borchetta — “I told Taylor, ‘They won’t immediately remember your name, they’ll say who’s this young girl with this song about Tim McGraw?’” — I think we’re allowed to break out the c-word: Calling it “Tim McGraw” was the first genius calculation in a career that would turn out to be full of them. Still, there would have been no getting anywhere with it if the song weren’t good. Even as a teenager, Swift was savvy enough to know that country fans love nothing more than listening to songs about listening to country music. And the very first line marks her as more of a skeptic than you might expect: “He said the way my blue eyes shined put those Georgia pines to shame that night / I said, ‘That’s a lie.’”

20. “Dear John,” Speak Now (2010): “I’ve never named names,” Swift once told GQ. “The fact that I’ve never confirmed who those songs are about makes me feel like there is still one card I’m holding.” That may technically be true, but she came pretty dang close with this seven-minute epic. (John Mayer said he felt “humiliated” by the song, after which Swift told Glamour it was “presumptuous” of him to think that the song his ex wrote, that used his first name, was about him.) She sings the hell out of it, but when it comes to songs where Swift systematically outlines all the ways in which an older male celebrity is an inadequate partner, I think I prefer “All Too Well,” which is less wallow-y. I’ve seen it speculated that the guitar noodling on this track is meant as a parody of Mayer’s own late-’00s output, which if true would be deliciously petty.

19. “Red,” Red (2012): Re-eh-eh-ed, re-eh-eh-ed. Red’s title track sees the album’s maximalist style in full effect — who in their right mind would put Auto-Tune and banjos on the same track? But somehow, the overstuffing works here; it’s the audio equivalent of the lyrics’ synesthesia.

18. “I Did Something Bad,” Reputation (2017): It’s too bad Rihanna already has an album called Unapologetic, because that would have been a perfect title for Reputation, or maybe just this jubilant “Blank Space” sequel. Why the hell she didn’t release this one instead of “Look What You Made Me Do,” I’ll never know — not only does “Something Bad” sell the lack of remorse much better, it bangs harder than any other song on pop radio this summer except “Bodak Yellow.” Is that a raga chant? Are those fucking gunshots? Docked a spot or two for “They’re burning all the witches even if you aren’t one,” which doth protest too much, but bumped up just as much for Swift’s first on-the-record “shit.”

17. “Forever & Always,” Fearless (2008): This blistering breakup song was the one that solidified Swift’s image as the pop star you dump at your own peril. (The boys in the debut were just Nashville randos; this one was about a Jonas Brother, back when that really meant something.) Obligatory fiddles aside, the original version is just about a perfect piece of pop-rock — dig how the guitars drop out at a pivotal moment — though the extended edition of Fearless also contains a piano version if you feel like having your guts ripped out. I have no idea what the lines about “rain in your bedroom” mean, but like the best lyrics, they make sense on an instinctual level. And to top it off, the track marks the introduction of Swift’s colloquial style — “Where is this GOoO-ING?” — that would serve her so well in the years to come.

16. “Mean,” Speak Now (2010): It takes some chutzpah to put a song complaining about mean people on the same album as “Better Than Revenge,” but lack of chutzpah has never been Swift’s problem. Get past that and you’ll find one of Swift’s most naturally appealing melodies and the joyful catharsis that comes with giving a bully what’s coming to them. (Some listeners have interpreted the “big enough so you can’t hit me” line to mean the song’s about abuse, but I’ve always read it as a figure of speech, as in “hit piece.”)

15. “Wildest Dreams,” 1989 (2014): Swift is in full control of her instrument here, with so much yearning in her voice that you’d swear every breath was about to be her last. For a singer often slammed as being sexless, those sighs in the chorus tell us everything we need to know. Bumped up a few spots for the invigorating double-time bridge, the best on 1989.

14. “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things,” Reputation (2017): Put aside the title, which can’t help but remind me of the time Hillary Clinton tweeted “delete your account.” The same way “I Did Something Bad” is the best possible version of “Look What You Made Me Do,” this is a much better rewrite of “Bad Blood.” Swift brings back the school-yard voice in the chorus, but also so much more: She does exaggerated politeness in the bridge, she spins the “Runaway” toast, she says the words “Therein lies the issue” like she’s been listening to Hamilton. The high point comes when she contemplates forgiving a hater, then bursts into an incredulous guffaw. Reader, I laughed out loud.

13. “Style,” 1989 (2014): The much-ballyhooed ’80s sound on 1989 often turned out to just mean Swift was using more synths than usual, but she nailed the vibe on this slinky single, which could have soundtracked a particularly romantic episode of Miami Vice. Despite the dress-up games in the chorus, this is one of the rare Swift love songs to feel truly adult: Both she and the guy have been down this road too many times to bullshit anymore. That road imagery is haunted by the prospect of death lurking around every hairpin turn — what’s sex without a little danger?

12. “Hey Stephen,” Fearless (2008): Who knew so many words rhymed with Stephen? They all come so naturally here. Swift is in the zone as a writer, performer, and producer on this winning deep cut, which gives us some wonderful sideways rhymes (“look like an angel” goes with “kiss you in the rain, so”), a trusty Hammond organ in the background, and a bunch of endearing little ad-libs, to say nothing of the kicker: “All those other girls, well they’re beautiful / But would they write a song for you?” For once, the mid-song laugh is entirely appropriate.

11. “Out of the Woods,” 1989 (2014): Like Max Martin, Antonoff’s influence as a collaborator has not been wholly positive: His penchant for big anthemic sounds can drown out the subtlety of Swift, and he’s been at the controls for some of her biggest misfires. But boy, does his Jack Antonoff thing work here, bringing a whole forest of drums to support Swift’s rapid-fire string of memories. The song’s bridge was apparently inspired by a snowmobile accident Swift was in with Harry Styles, an incident that never made the tabloids despite what seemed like round-the-clock coverage of the couple — a subtler reminder of the limits of media narratives than anything on Reputation.

10. “Love Story,” Fearless (2008): Full disclosure: This was the first Taylor Swift song I ever heard. (It was a freezing day in early 2009; I was buying shoes; basically, the situation was the total antithesis of anything that’s ever happened in a Taylor Swift song.) I didn’t like it at first. Who’s this girl singing about Romeo and Juliet, and doesn’t she know they die in the end?What I would soon learn was: not here they don’t, as Swift employs a key change so powerful it literally rewrites Shakespeare. The jury’s still out on the question of if she’s ever read the play, but she definitely hasn’t read The Scarlet Letter.

9. “State of Grace,” Red (2012): Swift’s songs are always full of interesting little nuggets you don’t notice until your 11th listen or so — a lyrical twist, maybe, or an unconventional drum fill — but most of them are fundamentally meant to be heard on the radio, which demands a certain type of songwriting and a certain type of sound. What a surprise it was, then, that Red opened with this big, expansive rock track, which sent dozens of Joshua Tree fans searching for their nearest pair of headphones. Another surprise: that she never tried to sound like this again. Having proven she could nail it on her first try, Swift set out to find other giants to slay.

8. “Ronan,” non-album digital single (2012): A collage of lines pulled from the blog of Maya Thompson, whose 3-year-old son had died of cancer, this charity single sees Swift turn herself into an effective conduit for the other woman’s grief. (Thompson gets a co-writing credit.) One of the most empathetic songs in Swift’s catalogue, as well as her most reliable tearjerker.

7. “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” Red (2012): Flash back to 2012. Carly Rae Jepsen had a No. 1 hit. Freaking Gotye had a No. 1 hit. LMFAO had two. And yet Swift, arguably the biggest pop star in the country, had never had a No. 1 hit. (“You Belong With Me” and “Today Was a Fairytale” had both peaked at No. 2.) And so she called up Swedish pop cyborg Max Martin, the man who makes hits as regularly as you and I forget our car keys. The first song they wrote together is still their masterpiece, though it feels wrong to say that “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” was written; better to say that it was designed, as Swift and Martin turn almost every single second of the song’s 3:12 run time into a hook. Think of that guitar loop, the snippets of millennial-speak in the margins (“cuz like”), those spiraling “ooh”s, the spoken-word bit that could have been overheard at any brunch in America, and towering over it all, that gigantic “we.” Like all hyper-efficient products it feels like a visitor from some cold algorithmic future: The sense of joy here is so perfectly engineered that you get the sense it did not come entirely from human hands.

6. “Our Song,” Taylor Swift (2006): Swift wrote this one for her ninth-grade talent show, and I have a lovely time imagining all the other competitors getting the disappointment of their lives once they realized what they were up against. (“But nice job with that Green Day cover, Andy.”) Even at this early stage Swift had a knack for matching her biggest melodic hooks to sentences that would make them soar; that “’cause it’s late and your mama don’t know” is absolutely ecstatic. She’s said she heard the entire production in her head while writing, and on the record Nathan Chapman brings out all the tricks in the Nashville handbook, and even some that aren’t, like the compressed hip-hop drums in the final refrain.

5. “Mine,” Speak Now (2010): As catchy as her Max Martin songs, but with more of a soul, “Mine” wins a narrow victory over “Our Song” on account of having a better bridge. This one’s another fantasy, and you can kind of tell, but who cares — Paul McCartney didn’t really fall in love with a meter maid, either. Swift packs in so many captivating turns of phrase here, and she does it so naturally: It’s hard to believe no one else got to “you are the best thing that’s ever been mine” before her, and the line about “a careless man’s careful daughter” is so perfect that you instantly know everything about the guy. Let’s give a special shout-out to Nathan Chapman again: His backup vocals are the secret weapon of Speak Now, and they’re at their very best here.

4. “Blank Space,” 1989 (2014): You know how almost every other song that’s even a little bit like “Blank Space” ranks very low on this list? Yeah, that’s how hard a trick Swift pulls off on this 1989 single, which manages to satirize her man-eater image while also demonstrating exactly what makes that image so appealing. The gag takes a perfectly tuned barometer for tone: “Look What You Made Me Do” collapsed under the weight of its own self-obsession; “Better Than Revenge” didn’t quite get the right amount of humor in. But Swift’s long history of code-switching works wonders for her here, as she gives each line just the right spin — enough irony for us to get the jokes, enough sincerity that we’ll all sing along anyway. Martin and Shellback bring their usual bells and whistles, but they leave enough empty space in the mix for the words to ring out. Who wouldn’t want to write their name?

3. “Fifteen,” Fearless (2008): For many young people, the real experience of romance is the thinking about it, not the actual doing it. (For an increasing number, the thinking about it is all they’re doing.) Swift gets this almost instinctively, and never more than on this early ballad about her freshman year of high school, which plays like a gentle memoir. Listen to how the emotional high point of the second verse is not something that happens, but her reaction to it: “He’s got a car and you feel like flyyying.” She knows that the real thing is awkward, occasionally unpleasant, and almost guaranteed to disappoint you — the first sentence she wrote for this one was “Abigail gave everything she had to a boy who changed his mind / We both cried,” a line that became exhibit B in the case of Taylor Swift v. Feminism — and she knows how fantasies can sustain you when nothing else will. “In your life you’ll do things greater than dating the boy on the football team / but I didn’t know it at 15,” she sings, even though she’s only 18 herself. That there are plenty of people who spent their teenage years making out, smoking cigarettes, and reading Anaïs Nin doesn’t negate the fact that, for a lot of us squares, even the prospect of holding someone else’s hand could get us through an entire semester. Virgins need love songs, too.

2. “All Too Well,” Red (2012): It’s no wonder that music writers love this one: This is Swift at her most literary, with a string of impeccably observed details that could have come out of a New Yorker short story. “All Too Well” was the first song Swift wrote for Red; she hadn’t worked with Liz Rose since Fearless, but she called up her old collaborator to help her make sense of her jumble of memories from a relationship recently exploded. “She had a story and she wanted to say something specific. She had a lot of information,” Rose told Rolling Stone later. “I just let her go.” The original version featured something like eight verses; together the two women edited it down to a more manageable three, while still retaining its propulsive momentum. The finished song is a kaleidoscopic swirl of images — baby pictures at his parents’ house, “nights where you made me your own,” a scarf left in a drawer — always coming back to the insistence that these things happened, and they mattered: “I was there, I remember it all too well.” The words are so strong that the band mostly plays support; they don’t need anything flashier than a 4/4 thump and a big crescendo for each chorus. There are few moments on Red better than the one where Swift jumps into her upper register to deliver the knockout blow in the bridge. Just like the scarf, you can’t get rid of this song.

1. “You Belong With Me,” Fearless (2008): Swift was hanging out with a male friend one day when he took a call from his girlfriend. “He was completely on the defensive saying, ‘No, baby … I had to get off the phone really quickly … I tried to call you right back … Of course I love you. More than anything! Baby, I’m so sorry,’” she recalled. “She was just yelling at him! I felt so bad for him at that moment.” Out of that feeling, a classic was born. Swift had written great songs drawn from life before, but here she gave us a story of high school at its most archetypal: A sensitive underdog facing off with some prissy hot chick, in a battle to see which one of them really got a cute boy’s jokes. (Swift would play both women in the video; she had enough self-awareness to know that most outcasts are not tall, willowy blonde girls.) Rose says the song “just flowed out of” Swift, and you can feel that rush of inspiration in the way the lines bleed into each other, but there’s some subtle songcraft at work, too: Besides the lyrical switcheroos about who wears what, we also only get half the chorus the first go-round, just to save one more wallop for later. The line about short skirts and T-shirts will likely be mentioned in Swift’s obituary one day, and I think it’s key to the song’s, and by extension Swift’s, appeal: In my high school, even the most popular kids wore T-shirts.

Vulture

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