Date: November 8th, 2025 10:47 PM
Author: Poppy heaven milk
Good question because her past 3 albums are incredibly different. Beginning with the most recent:
TTPD -- the knee jerk criticism is that this 31 song double album is bloated and boring. "I want bops!" retards said. Yes it's way too long, but still, like 13 of the songs are really good. Easily a full album's worth. And it's not 1989 style pop rock, but it's also not music for sitting in front of a fireplace like Evermore. But Daddy I Love Him and Who's Afraid of Little Old Me are Taylor at her best: very catchy songs that tell a story and also have hilarious lyrics. It's a breakup album so a lot of the songs are tinged with sadness in different ways but still really listenable and creative, not cheap (The Black Dog, the title track, I Can Do It With A Broken Heart, the Prophecy, Down Bad). History will be very kind to TTPD both on its merits and because it showed her range and greatness that is so woefully missing from Showgirl.
Midnights -- my personal favorite. ~20 songs including bonus releases, and easily 2/3 are either really good or top tier iconic. Very wide range of synth pop bangers (Lavender Haze, Bejeweled, Karma), really intricately crafted lyrics with hypnotic melodies (Anti Hero, Vigilante Shit), and some of the saddest songs she's made without sacrificing how good they sound (Maroon -- on my Mount Rushmore of GOAT Taylor songs, Would've Should've Could've, You're on Your Own Kid)
Evermore -- Taylor called this a sister album with Folklore, which came out first. Continues the pacing and storytelling of Folklore, i.e., cottagecore long-form character studies. If you strictly look at Evermore without Folklore, then it's the weakest of these three, but still way better than Showgirl. Willow and Champagne Problems are in the top tier of GOAT Taylor songs (millions of fans would have Willow #1), and Tolerate It, Tis the Damn Season, and Marjorie are also really good. That's a quarter or a third of the album that is really good or great.
In contrast, Showgirl casts itself as some kind of victory lap that shows how happy and in love Taylor is, but it's cheap. Fate of Ophelia and Elizabeth Taylor are the best of the bunch, and they would not be out of place on Midnights, but they aren't nearly good enough to carry the album. Father Figure is a disgrace. Oh wow, the refrain is "...but my dick's bigger" wow so meaningful. If ur gonna cover an iconic song, you should have something interesting to say. Wood is a retarded Sabrina Carpenter knockoff but at least Sabrina's songs are funny. Wood manages to be an entire song about cock without being clever or subversive. The title track is similarly lazy ... it tries to use her patented storytelling but she somehow forgot to make the lyrics interesting at all. Objectively, the album is NOT pure shit, but when you have Taylor working with Max Martin and co, and it's a tight 45 minutes or whatever, it's inexcusable.
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5795098&forum_id=2...id#49413526)