Just over one year ago, I published my review of Taylor Swift’s ninth studio album evermore. Since last year, this album has continued to marinate in my mind, and it has slowly become both my favorite album of Swift’s and my favorite album of all time.

The main reason that this album has become my favorite are the emotional ties I have to it, and the strength of the album’s cohesion as a whole helps with the objective portion as well. I will never forget listening to evermore for the first time in my room, completely by myself, and feeling each song sink deeper into me. Every single song either relates to my life or describes such rich and emotional stories that I can not help but empathize. It is this well of emotion that this album creates that ties both nostalgia and an endless love for this album for me. I’ve never had an album feel more targeted towards me and my taste, and I am eternally grateful for it.

For my reflections on each song, I will start with the album opener, “willow.” I am very lucky to have had some literature and English classes dealing with more complex rhetorical devices over the past year, and these classes have made me appreciate this song, as well as the rest of the songs on the album, because I can now understand and appreciate the stunning metaphors Swift paints. The lyric “Life was a willow, and it bent right to your wind” compares Swift’s life being bent, like a willow tree, to the wind or “love” of the person she is speaking about. I am very grateful to have understood this element this song that much better, and it has made me appreciate it even more.

evermore’s second track, “champagne problems,” as well as “gold rush,” “‘tis the damn season,” and “tolerate it” have grown for me because of the experiences I have had in my life over the last year. I have experienced a lot of growing up with preparing for college and meeting new people, so I have experienced a lot of the feelings that Swift represents in these songs. They hit a lot deeper than they did when I first listened to them, and they will continue to become more intense as I grow older.

Track 6, “no body, no crime,” was one of my favorites when I first listened to the album, and I still adore it, but the story of revenge that Swift tells has become more dull because of how many times I have listened to it. I tend to listen to it every once and a while and enjoy it when I do, but I do not have it on repeat as much.

Track 7 “happiness,” as well as “dorothea,” “coney island,” and “ivy” have a similar feeling of hitting harder and deeper than before. Especially “coney island” and “happiness,” I feel that they have soaked more in my brain, and my love for them has only grown. I also have found a lot more details and Easter eggs to Swift’s previous songs in these songs, as I have listened to them more and more, and I look forward to making more connections.

Track 11, “cowboy like me,” is absolutely the song that has changed the most for me. When I first listened to the album, I thought it was fine, and this time last year, I thought it was really good, but now it is by far my favorite song on the album and in Swift’s discography as a whole. Swift tells the story of two con artists who unexpectedly fall in love with each other, and the love that she illustrates between them is so pure and unexpected that it fills me with warmth every time. Lyrics like “Eyes full of stars / Hustling for the good life” and “Now you hang from my lips / Like the Gardens of Babylon / With your boots beneath my bed / Forever is the sweetest con” are the best of Swift’s songwriting by far, and I wish this song was more appreciated.

Tracks 12, 13, and 14, “long story short,” “marjoire,” and “closure,” have continued to grow on me as well, but especially “marjoire.” I related “marjoire” to my past losses in a major way, but especially after this year of losing family members, it paints the pain of loss so beautifully. Swift can put words to feelings so flawlessly, and “marjoire” is a perfect example of that.

The final track on the album, “evermore,” and the two bonus tracks “it’s time to go” and “right where you left me” give me similar feelings to “cowboy like me,” especially “right where you left me.” The story Swift paints with this song of a woman frozen in time, wishing her past love would come back for her, is almost more heartbreaking now than the first time I heard it. This element makes this song that much more personal to me.

Overall, this album has become even better for me over the past year, and having these songs sit with me for so long has made them that much closer to my heart. Especially after Swift’s recent release, Midnights, evermore has still managed to come out in top for me. Everything from the storytelling, the language, and the intense sounds of each song work for me every time.

I am excited to see how this album marinates over the next year, and all the years to come.