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Monday, December 16, 2024

Taylor Swift - "Eras" (2006-2024)

Just last week, Taylor Swift finished up her Eras Tour, a tour that lasted well over a year and a half, covering all of her albums up to that point, including the recently released The Tortured Poets Department. We're not sure what she'll be doing come the new year, but we can almost bet that she'll finally release Reputation (Taylor's Version), having hinted at that for about a year now. But in the meantime, I've put together a compilation titled Eras, based upon the tour, and not only does it serve as an audio alternative to the concert film Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, it also acts as an introduction to Taylor's music career.

Any songs marked with an asterisk (*) indicate that they are "Taylor's Version".

Disc 1: Acts I-IV (Lover, Fearless, Evermore and Reputation)
1. Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince - 3:54
2. Cruel Summer - 2:58
3. The Man - 3:10
4. You Need to Calm Down - 2:51
5. Lover - 3:41
6. The Archer - 3:31 [later performed as a surprise song on 7/4/24 and 8/19/24]
7. Fearless* - 4:01
8. You Belong with Me* - 3:51
9. Love Story* - 3:55
10. 'Tis the Damn Season - 3:49 [later performed as a surprise song on 6/7/24 and 11/14/24]
11. Willow - 3:34
12. Marjorie - 4:17
13. Champagne Problems - 4:04
14. Tolerate It - 4:05
15. ...Ready for It? - 3:28
16. Delicate - 3:52
17. Don't Blame Me - 3:56
18. Look What You Made Me Do - 3:31
Total length: 66:28

"The Archer", "'Tis the Damn Season" and "Tolerate It" were all dropped from the main setlist when it was revamped to include songs from The Tortured Poets Department, and unlike the first two, "Tolerate It" was never played as a surprise song. For the most part, I will be retaining the original setlist order pre-May 2024.

For the shows opened by Haim in Seattle, Santa Clara and Inglewood, "'Tis the Damn Season" was replaced with "No Body, No Crime". The song was later played as a surprise song in Liverpool (June 15, 2024).

Disc 2: Acts V-VII (Speak Now, Red and Folklore)
1. Enchanted* - 5:53
2. Long Live* - 5:17 [later performed as a surprise song on 5/25/24, 8/19/24 and 12/8/24]
3. 22* - 3:50
4. We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together* - 3:13
5. I Knew You Were Trouble* - 3:39
6. Nothing New - 4:18 [later performed as a surprise song on 7/24/24]
7. All Too Well (10 Minute Version) - 10:13
8. Betty - 4:54
9. The Last Great American Dynasty - 3:51 [later performed as a surprise song on 7/24/24 and 11/22/24]
10. August - 4:21
11. Illicit Affairs - 3:10
12. My Tears Ricochet - 4:15
13. Cardigan - 3:59
Total length: 60:53

For the Folklore act, "Invisible String" was replaced with "The 1" beginning with the Arlington shows (March 31 to April 2, 2023), with the sole exception being the second Nashville show (May 6, 2023), in which Taylor performed "Invisible String" in honor of the bench at Centennial Park dedicated to her. "The 1" was later dropped from the revamped setlist, in which Folklore and Evermore were merged into a single act, but was performed as a surprise song on July 13, 2024. "The Last Great American Dynasty" was also dropped in the revamped setlist, but I retained it per the original setlist.

"Long Live" was added to the setlist following the release of Speak Now (Taylor's Version), beginning with the Kansas City shows (July 7 and 8, 2023), before being dropped in the revamped setlist. "Nothing New" was performed during shows opened by Phoebe Bridgers throughout May 2023.

Disc 3: Acts VIII-X (1989, Tortured Poets and Midnights)
1. Style* - 3:51
2. Blank Space* - 3:51
3. Shake It Off* - 3:39
4. Wildest Dreams* - 3:40
5. Bad Blood* - 3:31
6. But Daddy I Love Him - 5:40
7. So High School - 3:48
8. Who's Afraid of Little Old Me? - 5:34
9. Down Bad - 4:21
10. Fortnight - 3:48
11. The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived - 4:05
12. I Can Do It with a Broken Heart - 3:38
13. Lavender Haze - 3:22
14. Anti-Hero - 3:20
15. Midnight Rain - 2:54
16. Vigilante Shit - 2:44
17. Bejeweled - 3:14
18. Mastermind - 3:11
19. Karma - 3:24
Total length: 71:35

In the original setlist, the 1989 act was moved up to make room for the Tortured Poets act. For this playlist, the 1989 act remains the eighth, and the Tortured Poets act becomes the ninth instead. Midnights is still the final act, per both setlists. Virtually nothing changes in regards to the track listing orders.

Disc 4: Surprise Songs
1. Tim McGraw - 3:54 [Taylor Swift; performed on 3/17/23, 3/9/24 and 10/18/24]
2. Our Song - 3:24 [Taylor Swift; performed on 3/24/23, 8/4/23, 5/30/24 and 10/25/24]
3. White Horse* - 3:54 [Fearless; performed on 3/25/23, 2/23/24 and 10/19/24]
4. The Other Side of the Door* - 3:58 [Fearless; performed on 4/28/23, 2/17/24 and 5/24/24]
5. Sparks Fly* - 4:21 [Speak Now; performed on 5/5/23, 3/8/24, 5/29/24 and11/23/24]
6. Teardrops on My Guitar - 3:35 [Taylor Swift; performed on 5/5/23, 2/18/24 and7/23/24]
7. Out of the Woods* - 3:55 [1989; performed on 5/6/23, 11/11/23, 5/10/24, 6/23/24, 7/14/24, 10/20/24 and 11/16/24]
8. Fifteen* - 4:54 [Fearless; performed on 5/6/23, 3/7/24 and 6/2/24]
9. Mine* - 3:51 [Speak Now; performed on 5/7/23, 3/2/24, 6/13/24 and 11/15/24]
10. Come Back... Be Here* - 3:43 [Red; performed on 5/12/23, 2/18/24, 5/24/24 and 6/21/24]
11. Should've Said No - 4:02 [Taylor Swift; performed on 5/19/23, 2/24/24 and 10/19/24]
12. Red* - 3:43 [Red; performed on 5/21/23, 2/16/24, 6/15/24, 7/14/24 and 8/2/24]
13. Getaway Car - 3:53 [Reputation; performed on 5/26/23, 2/17/24, 6/8/24, 7/14/24 and 8/20/24]
14. Haunted* - 4:05 [Speak Now; performed on 6/9/23, 2/25/24, 6/9/24, 10/25/24 and 12/6/24]
Total length: 55:12

Out of all of her eleven studio albums, Taylor's self-titled debut from 2006 is the only one without an act dedicated to it. To fill that gap, I picked out the songs that were most performed as surprise songs throughout The Eras Tour, and they ended up being "Tim McGraw", "Our Song", "Teardrops on My Guitar" (her first crossover hit) and "Should've Said No". Most other songs from that era were performed either once or twice, and I wanted to pick songs that were performed at least three times, so I also set about giving the rest of her Big Machine era (2006-2017) some greater representation, that way every album was equally represented (at least 33%!)

From Fearless, I picked out "White Horse", "Fifteen" and "The Other Side of the Door", the first two of which were Top 40 hits, while the last was later included as part of Fearless (Taylor's Version). I've felt that Speak Now got the short end of the stick out of her early albums, so to compensate, I've included the singles "Sparks Fly" and "Mine", and the lyrically dark "Haunted", which helps to add some musical variety. Red has two additional songs added; the title track (which was, again, a single) and the bonus track "Come Back... Be Here". Reputation had quite a few songs that were played as surprise songs, so I went with the one that was played most - "Getaway Car", which showed up at five performances.

The last surprise song is "Out of the Woods" from 1989, which was played at a staggering seven shows. I'm not quite sure why that is; maybe Taylor was really fond of it out of all the songs that appeared on that album? Who knows? There were two other songs I considered for inclusion - "Hey Stephen" from Fearless and "I Can See You" from Speak Now (Taylor's Version) - but I opted not to as I felt both albums were now already well represented enough. Feel free to add them in if you so desire.

All fourteen songs are meant to be played between "I Can Do It with a Broken Heart" and "Lavender Haze", as the penultimate act. I just put the surprise songs on a separate disc as I picture it being a bonus alongside the main three discs, which I feel are the real showstoppers.

This is similar to Surprise Songs above, minus the text underneath. This is meant to be the cover for the playlist as a whole.
Final Thoughts
In total, Eras runs at over four hours, and is meant to be played in playlist order, which you can listen to here. If you want to play it on shuffle, you can, but either way, it shows just how prolific Taylor Swift is a singer-songwriter. Here's hoping she keeps this up for as long as possible!