The Life of a Procrastinator

Third time’s the charm, right? Maybe this time (cue Liza) I’ll get myself on a regular newsletter-writing schedule, but until then, let’s dive into a topic you knew was bound to come up eventually: Taylor Swift. 

Really, I just want to use this as an excuse to write about my former coworker’s Taylor Swift cover band, the Anti-Heroes, but before I get into that I think it’s necessary to share my own thoughts on She Who Must Not Be Named. I don’t know what could possibly be said about her from a critical perspective that hasn’t already been said, so I’ll try to limit myself to my personal experiences with her rather than try to make a larger point about her as a Cultural Object. 

I first became aware of Taylor when “Love Story” was on the radio. The year was 2008, I was a senior in college, and at the time I thought she was 1) uncool and 2) not really a country singer. I’ll leave the rest of the galaxy to debate point 1, but history has proven me right about point 2. At that time, I did like “Love Story” in spite of myself, and when “You Belong With Me” came out I liked that even more. 

It wasn’t until Red, however, that I really came around to Taylor. For those somehow unversed in Taylor lore, that’s the one where she started to fully embrace pop — it’s got Max Martin, “22,” and “I Knew You Were Trouble” — but it’s also where, for me, the songwriting really started to hit. “All Too Well,” again, has been discussed to death, but it’s always been my favorite, and my love only deepened with the release of the 10-minute version. And if you’re wondering: I was 25 when Red came out.  

With all that in mind, here’s the conclusion I’ve slowly arrived at over the past several years: I have always been just slightly too old to enjoy Taylor Swift the way she is meant to be enjoyed. She’s only two and half-ish years younger than me, but so many of these songs are about real youth. “Fifteen.” The aforementioned “You Belong With Me.” On the new album, “Ruin the Friendship,” which is quite literally about someone she knew in high school. 

This is not to say that you can’t or shouldn’t enjoy her if you’re at a big age too! (Rob Sheffield, a fantastic Rolling Stone writer who is older than I am, loves Taylor more than perhaps any journalist alive and wrote an excellent book about it.) But I personally cannot get over the FOMO that courses through my veins every time I listen and remember I did not experience these lyrics while my frontal lobe was still developing. This was true even at The Eras Tour, where I had an absolute blast and traded friendship bracelets with kids and teared up when I found out the small child next to me was at her first concert. Even with all that, I couldn't stop thinking: This would be so much better with the memory of listening to this in middle school. 

For comparison’s sake — and purely for the chronology, not the talent — this is not how I feel when I hear Beyoncé. I had the immense privilege of listening to Beyoncé in middle school, when she was part of Destiny's Child. “Jumpin, Jumpin” was not a song I could relate to then (or now, let’s be real), but hearing it in 2025 still brings back memories of cranking the volume on the three-disc changer in my bedroom and calling 99.7 DJX to request “Say My Name.” When I heard the “Bills, Bills, Bills” snippet during “Thique” at the Cowboy Carter tour, the thrill was visceral, because I remember blasting that song on my car stereo while driving around with my friends. (The Writing’s on the Wall stayed on heavy rotation years after its release, OK?) 

I don’t think I’m ever going to have that with Taylor, but the Anti-Heroes get me close. Since they play at a bar, the crowd is already a little older than it is at a real Taylor show, which helps with that sense of “I’m too old to be here.” (Also, some of the band members’ parents come, and while I’m old enough to have a child, I’m not old enough to have a 30-year-old child, so that’s helpful.) 

The other thing I love about the Anti-Heroes is that they don’t just play the hits. At their recent show, they did the inescapable “The Fate of Ophelia,” but they also did “Holy Ground,” which is beloved by Taylor fans but has almost certainly never been heard by, say, the straight man I live with. It’s so much fun to scream along to a song like that with a bunch of Swifties who are unlikely to ever hear her play it again unless they acquire a time machine that can take them back to 2013 and the Red tour. (See also the Anti-Heroes’ version of “Is It Over Now?” which I would argue is both the best 1989 vault track and the best Taylor song allegedly about Harry Styles.)  

As mentioned, my former coworker is in the band and I think she’s extremely cool and super talented, so there’s some bias here, but going to an Anti-Heroes show is one of the most fun things you can do on a Saturday night if you like Taylor Swift even a little bit. It might seem weird to go see a cover band for an artist who’s still extremely active, but the key is the scarcity. Fighting the Ticketmaster bots for Taylor tickets is harder than getting into Harvard, probably, and she’s hinted she doesn’t plan to tour The Life of a Showgirl at all. So if you want to hear “Ruin the Friendship” live, an Anti-Heroes show might be your only chance! 

I also love that you get to hear the songs played with real instruments and without any of the million layers of production a typical Taylor song has. Ryan Adams got blasted to shit for doing an acoustic take on 1989 back in the day (and rightfully so, he sucks), but sometimes it is nice to hear Taylor’s lyrics clearly without all the bells and whistles. Her lyrics have always been what I like about her, so be able to hear that front and center is a great reminder that she is a generationally talented songwriter — especially in this era, when the lyrics of Showgirl are so…something that Ross Douthat of all people is writing op-eds about them. 

So yeah, I have complicated feelings about Her, but I love the Anti-Heroes and I will be attending their shows for as long as they’re playing them. If they’re reading this, I hope they play “All Too Well” next time.

On Repeat:

“Dopamine” by Robyn

This song is a parasite that has crawled into my mind and set up shop like RFK Jr.’s brain worm (complimentary). I have to listen to it at least twice a day to survive and I couldn’t be happier!

My Clippings:

I did a cover story with the great Lainey Wilson right before she cleaned up at the CMAs. It’s not on newsstands anymore but you can read it here!