“Swiftie,” updated
ST. JOHN’S , NL—I do not jump on bandwagons, but I do appreciate good music, no matter who makes it.
Long before 2012, when the term “Swifties” was coined; long before Taylor Swift became mega-, mega-, mega-famous through her Eras Tour “era”; and long before she drew the ire of the MAGA crowd after Trump’s victory, I had already been collecting all her albums on CD—and later on vinyl.
Here are the Taylor Swift records in my vinyl collection so far (in chronological order, from left to right):
After the lukewarm public reception of reputation, I kinda lost interest in Taylor Swift.
Then came her intriguing projects folklore and evermore, but at the time, I was reluctant to spend money on anything nonessential because of the pandemic.
After the pandemic, I simply couldn’t keep up anymore. Aside from the rapid pace at which her new music was being released, we were also inundated with re-recordings of her earlier albums—not to mention the countless variants and editions that accompanied them. It was all too much.
Still, I have been setting aside money since the Eras Tour began last year, as completing my Taylor Swift vinyl collection has become one of my goals whenever I return home for vacation.
I opted for the editions that feature the official and representative album covers. I still haven’t unwrapped them or placed them in protective plastic sleeves—but at last, here are the LPs for which I penny-pinched for months:
The most expensive was her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department. The standard edition was already difficult enough to save for, but—along with its endless gimmicky variants—it also came in an “essential” four-disc, 31-song expanded edition that was, quite fittingly, torturously pricey:
So there—my Taylor Swift vinyl collection is finally up to date. I’m now all set for the release of The Life of a Showgirl this October.