Taylor Swift's Debut Album Turned 20
It's Tuesday 24th October 2006.
It's the start. It's the first album release by Taylor Swift. It's debut.
Who knew how things would be looking 20 years on? Unfortunately, I don't have a time machine, but I do have a Spotify subscription. So after having listened to debut again more recently, here are my highlights.
Tim McGraw. The first song. Her first single. This is the OG Taylor Swift storytelling which is something she is very proud of. As she should be. Story telling is her Unique Selling Point.
"When you think of Tim McGraw
I hope you think of me"
Taylor is reminiscing to an old love interest that even though they may not be together now or in the future, she hopes that when he hears Tim McGraw he thinks of her. The irony is that twenty years on, when the listener thinks Tim McGraw, we are thinking of Taylor.
This is the first mention of having a shared song or artist with someone that becomes "theirs". Another instance of Taylor singing about a shared song is Our Song. The iconic, signature song. Once used during a technical error on the Reputation Tour as she was unable to travel to the B Stage using her lift. So instead she acapella'd this and the whole crowd chirped up.
Picture to Burn is where Taylor gets sassy. For the uninitiated, early Taylor was very much this way in her younger years, and we loved her for it!
I love the bridge on this song:
"Coming back around here would be back for your health"
Yes girl, you tell him! Her country twang on this song is adorable although it is nowhere to be seen or heard from these days, which would make recording these songs interesting to say the least...
Moving onto A Place In This World and honestly, I wasn't familiar with this song until recently. Taylor sang a mashup with this song on the last show of the Eras Tour. Her vocals on the original are distinctly more younger and higher, I would love to hear her singing this in her mature voice. I'd love to hear that of all her debut tracks, in all honesty.
Imagine that... She could call it Taylor Swift (Taylor's Version)
Hint hint. Taylor. Hint hint.
Listening to debut in 2026 and funnily enough, Stay Beautiful has become a firm favourite for me. I love love love this song! It's so sweet.
I've only gotten into this song because of the eras tours although I wish I had this on my Argos MP3 player back in the day. (But I doubt modern day Taylor Swift™ would allow music to illegally be burned?! Maybe not)
All in all, I think debut is a good start for her country lore and is interesting to see where she has ended up over the last twenty years. My only complaint is it would have been quite cool to have 13 songs instead of 14. Just in keeping of 13 being her favourite number and introducing it everywhere excessively!
Now imagine your first album turning 20 years and you post... Nothing. Not a peep from Taylor.
You could even say "I've never heard silence quite this loud!"
Speak now soon,
Bryony
