After listening to the album for a week now, the songs in the anthology collection are growing on me more. I think what was turning me off of the album at first was the was the standard version is produced. Most of the album is monotonously sounding with the synths. I’m reading the credits now and I’m seeing this is mostly Jack Antonoff’s work. Dessner produced the majority of the anthology collection and I enjoy the more organic production with just the guitar and piano better. Jack’s involvement in the beginning is really what dragged the album down for me. This reminds me of when Midnights came out I enjoyed the 3 am songs more and those were the Dessner produced songs. The lyrics and melodies in the standard version are actually fine, they’re great actually but I just hate the production style she chose to go with it. It makes me think of what would the album sound like if Dessner produced the entire album without the boring synth beats.

Tl;dr Dessner > Antonoff I really wish Taylor experiment with different producers next album. Antonoff’s magic from Reputation and Lover just isn’t there anymore.