Day 44: A Perfectly Good Song

I've said it before and I'm going to say it again. Taylor Swift's first album, the self-titled Taylor Swift isn't bad, but it doesn't usually impress me. One of my go-to songs when I think about this is A Perfectly Good Heart. It's so unbelievably average that most days I forget that it even exists.

But why? The topic of this song is pretty standard and the music is, if anything, slightly above average compared to it's contemporaries. So what's going on that hurts it?

Here are all the lyrics for the song. I usually paste them in only as needed, but seeing as the words themselves aren't the issue I thought it was necessary. What do you notice when you look at these lyrics? I immediately noticed two structural problems that I think contribute significantly to the song'd issues.

The first is the length. Going by word count, this is a short song. Curiously, if you sort by time it isn't short by any means. At 3:40 it's actually on the longer side for Taylor Swift, yet on the page it comes up short. The second big problem I have with the structure of this song is how repetitive it is. The chorus happens 4 times, which isn't a problem in a vacuum. The issue is how that's basically all there is. There's one full verse and a bridge added in, but this song is like 80% chorus, and that is a big problem.

Compare to Teardrops on My Guitar, which is 17 seconds shorter

If Taylor weren't so good at writing hooks, this song would be downright awful. Instead, it ends up being all bark and no bite. A good Taylor Swift song has a catchy hook that everyone remembers, but just as important as the hook are the details in between. Without more context the song ends up feeling generic and unrelatable. Finding the right amount of details to include is difficult and typically Taylor ends up including too many, but here it's the exact opposite. I don't care about this song because it never gives me a good reason to. Sure, it sounds alright, but there's nothing past that to keep me invested.

It's pretty disappointing to me because I know how much better Taylor can do. I think this song has a lot of potential, it just needed more attention. Without more substance, this songs ends up feeling like a beautiful, unfurnished house. It may be perfectly good, but there's no reason for me to stay very long. And that said, I think it's about time I go. Have a good one.

See you tomorrow,
-C