“every bait and switch was a work of art” dating tom hiddleston as a rebound/for pr but falling for joe behind the scenes. ugh her mind
also love the double entendres in this album. “your hometown skeptics called it champagne problems” can also be “your hometown skeptics CALLED IT. champagne problems.
“i never was ready so i watch you go sometimes you just don’t know the answer till someone’s on their knees and asks you she would have made such a lovely bride what a shame she’s fucked in the head” suicide. again very jo and laurie coded. girlhood is watching greta gerwigs little women and explaining to ppl how the hill scene happened to you irl.
i understand why she put no body no crime on this album bc it is a very heavy album. lyrically and emotionally. nbnc is a nice, fun, breather
“i escaped it too, remember how you watched me leave” plssss this album is sooooo deeply personal to me
“‘messy as the mud on your truck tires” callback to tim mcgraw “just a boy in a pickup truck that had a tendency of gettin stuck on backroads at night”
god we’re never getting tolerate it level writing again as long as travis is in the picture </3
That’s a very spicy take!! I wouldn’t say we won’t. She has a lot of stories to tell yet!
she’s so funny for writing a song called happiness only for it to be the most gut wrenching thing ever
“i haven’t met the new me yet” another great double entendre bc she could be talking about the new version of herself or his new girlfriend aka “the new her”
“haunted by the look in my eyes that would have loved you for a lifetime” brb killing myself
“do you ever stop and think about me” you can’t make new childhood best friends. we’re getting older and i’ll miss her forever. maybe me and her weren’t meant to grow old together bc we already grew up together.
“will you forgive my soul when you’re too wise to trust me and too old to care” she was cooking when she wrote this
“cause we were like the mall before the internet. it was the one place to be. the mischief, the gift wrapped suburban dreams. sorry for not winning you an arcade ring” i could write an entire thesis on how folklore, evermore, midnights, and ttpd all eerily mirror my own devastating relationship
loveee the callback to prior songs/relationships in coney island “were you standing in the hallway with a big cake, happy birthday” - jake gyllenhaal/all too well// “but then he watched me watch the front door all night willing you to come and he said, "It's supposed to be fun turnin' twenty-one" “did i paint your bluest skies the darkest grey?” - john mayer/dear john “you paint me a blue sky and go back and turn it to rain” “and when i got into the accident the sight that flashed before me was your face” - harry styles/out of the woods// “remember when you hit the brakes too soon, twenty stitches in the hospital room” “but when i walked up to the podium i think that i forgot to say your name” - calvin harris// when she didn’t mention him in her acceptance speech at the 2016 iheartmusic awards
this is also a common theme in a lot of her songs post 1989 where she talks about losing relationships due to putting her career first. we see it again more prominently in midnight rain “he wanted a bride, i was making my own name. chasing that fame, he stayed the same”
other ppl- “i think about them so much it’s driving me crazy” taylor- “oh i can’t stop you putting roots in my dreamland, my house of stone, your ivy grows and now im covered in you”
other ppl- “i look forward to the little moments we get to have with each other” taylor- “how’s one to know? i’d live and die for moments that we stole on begged and borrowed time”
also ivy is veryyyyyy cathy and heathcliff coded. this song is literally them. “so tell me to run or dare to sit and watch what will become and drink my husbands wine”
another double entendre <3 “you’re a bandit like me” also kinda sounds like “you’re abandoned like me”
other ppl- “i don’t feel like what we had was real/earnest” taylor- “now you hang from my lips like the gardens of babylon. with your boots beneath my bed. forever is the sweetest con”
everyone hates on long story short but unless you’ve been through your own cancellation you’re not gonna get it
“your nemeses will defeat themselves before you get a chance to swing” she was right, karma really is a relaxing thought
other ppl- “wherever i see your name im reminded of how much it hurt” taylor- “it’s been a long time and seeing the shape of your name still spells out pain”
“i replay my footsteps on each stepping stone, trying to find the one where i went wrong” shes an over thinker just like me <33
“i rewind the tape but all it does it pause on the very moment all was lost. sending signals to be double crossed” 2016 kimye phone call mention !!
“he’s got my past frozen behind glass but i got me” 🥺 im so glad she got her masters back 🫶🫶🫶🫶🫶🫶
fun fact. back in college i took public speaking and for my informative speech i decided to talk about the cancellation and resurrection of taylor swift and i specifically quoted this line.
top five ranking: 1. right where you left me 2. champagne problems 3. ivy 4. happiness 5. dorothea
final thoughts: 10/10 album. i’m a english lit girl who always took ap english classes so this album is everything to me lyrically. not one single skip. im probably going to sound so pretentious but i actually didn’t need a dictionary when this album and folklore came out 🙂↔️. sorry not sorry but i absolutely hate the lobotomization of taylor swift. i know some people say “you guys just don’t want her to be happy” but she wrote great songs when she was happy as well. i’m a lover defender. i thought it was such a great album when it came out. but i have to admit, i fear we will never get this level of penmanship that was demonstrated on this album again (or as along as shes with travis). joe and matty really were her best muses. taylor would have hated current taylor. and this is coming from someone who’s listened to her since i was 9 and fearless came out. god please bring our family back together (taylor, jack antonoff, aaron dresser, joe alwyn)