#like evermore her most ????????? album in terms of

[whiskeyswifty]

I cannot believe cowboy like me exists. I cannot believe she wrote a whole song about telling people what they want to hear for money. I cannot believe she refers to her pursuit of fame and fortune as the work of a bandit. A hustle. I can’t believe she refers to the love she gave to men she had dated in the past as swindling them. I can’t believe she wrote a whole song about a partnership that nobody will ever be able to prove was real or not and if they ever do she’ll be long gone with the money and all we will have left is the story in the songs. I cannot believe she referred to that partnership as a con. I cannot believe

[tayloralisonswift]

What are some of the songs you think are most likely about Karlie?

Ooooooooooh i love this question sm! thank you 🫶

i’m gonna break it down by album ! this is gonna be a long post lol. disclaimer that this is my interpretation of the songs and if it's not yours, that's ok! but this is my post.

also disclaimer i'm gonna use the term 'motif' loosely.

1989 /

welcome to new york (the beginning of the new york motif; you can want who you want)

you are in love ("on the way home" caption; beginning of the best friend in love motif)

new romantics (switch sides like a record changer; uses the same plural first person pronouns as wtny)

now that we don’t talk (totally influenced by a fic i read last night that said the 'do you feel anxious though, on the way home' was about being anxious that people saw them together; can't pretend it's platonic)

reputation /

end game (joe didn't have a big reputation before they met. he just didn't)

don’t blame me (daisyyyyy; is it a sin to love you motif; everyone thinks that they know us but they know nothing motif)

so it goes (cages motif! gold motif! wear her like a necklace!)

king of my heart (boys never did it like you did motif; trying on clothes; love is a secret)

dancing with our hands tied (this could be about dianna, too - it's about a relationship that's over now imo, ripped apart because it's queer)

dress (best friend motif; everyone thinks they know us motif; so much secrecy and pining)

lover /

cruel summer (unsure if karlie is the devil or the angel but she's present in this for sure; love is a secret)

paper rings (i'd marry you with an imaginary ring, i'd choose you in every lifetime including the one where our love is a secret)

cornelia street (new york motif!!!!!!!!)

false god (new york motif!!!!!!!; it's a sin to love you motif; everyone thinks that they know us motif)

it’s nice to have a friend (best friend motif)

daylight (i don't think daylight is DIRECTLY about karlie. i think it's more a coming out song, even if it's a coming out to yourself song.)

folklore /

the 1 (rose flowing with your chosen dinner with the kushners)

cardigan (gold cage motif; you broke me worse than they did)

exile (like he's just your understudy???????)

my tears ricochet (wedding motif; about karlie's betrayal; you broke me worse than they did)

august (other woman motif)

illicit affairs (other woman motif)

peace (love is a secret)

hoax (you broke me worse than they did, new york motif)

evermore /

champagne problems (i personally think this was written from karlie's pov. taylor was putting herself in that perspective to better understand it imo) (all of this is imo)

gold rush (gold motif; hair falling into place; it just is about karlie this is a fact)

happiness (hope you and your baby are happy motif!!!!!!! it happens twice but i'm calling it a motif anyway)

coney island (failedcomingoutlor, apologizing to karlie)

ivy (other woman motif; cheating on a male partner; it's about gay sex)

cowboy like me (another one that could be about dianna too - definitely a girlfriend)

closure (oh she was mad mad)

right where you left me (hope you and your baby are happy!!!!, hair pin drop????????)

it's time to go (the twin lyric hits hard after down bad)

midnights /

maroon (best friends motif; new york motif; lips so scarlet?????)

bigger than the whole sky :(

paris (where the culture's clever???)

glitch (best friends motif)

hits different (boys never did it like you did motif, the karrrrr lyric that exists only in my daydreams) :(

ttpd /

my boy only breaks his favorite toys (best friends motif; boys never did it like you did motif)

down bad (LIKE I LOST MY TWIN?? also everyone thinks that they know us)

loml :(

imgonnagetyouback (closets? bubbly? this one could go either way - karlie or matty - but i prefer the kaylor interpretation)

thank you aimee (explanation here)

i look in people’s windows (secrecy and pining) :(

peter (secrecy and pining, reference to dwoht with 25; closets mention)

[crumblinggothicarchitecture]

Seeing people genuinely saying that TTPD is her best work lyrically and that it tops Folklore and Evermore is just WILD to me. Like, am I missing something? Are there two different versions of this album out and I’m listening to the bad one? Because???? TTPD is such a let down. It’s not clever, it’s not even catchy. I like one song and the rest are kind of…are forgettable. I heard “like a tattooed golden retriever” and burst out laughing-like there’s no way we went from folklore and evermore to THAT. I had to stop listening because I just don’t like it. I don’t get it and I’m tired of people telling me that I’m too dumb to understand her genius. I don’t think this album is genius by any means-that’s not to say it doesn’t make sense (although it doesn’t make sense to me at times) but mostly I just don’t get it in terms of like why and what happened to the beautiful writing of folklore and evermore to…this. Folklore and evermore actually resonated with me on such an emotional level and it felt very adult and like Taylor was nuanced in her writing and that she moved on from all her problems stemming from men and “jealous women” and now TTPD just feels like I revisited one a conversation I’ve had with my friends in middle school thinking we were so deep and misunderstood.

Yeah, listen... you're not missing anything

I truly think that the people enjoying the album are blinded by the aesthetic of the album. She's obfuscating the poor writing, and basically incoherent imagery, by using the watered-down cottage core/ dark academia aesthetics. It's almost laughable the way she changes everything about herself just to fit the most popular aesthetic of the day.

She hides bad writing by name-dropping great writers and hoping that, through the power of vague allusion, the names alone will make people think she's in the same league.

She was guilty of this back on Folklore, as well. To be honest the first time I heard "tell me what are my Wordsworth" ("The Lakes), I laughed out loud because it's sooooo silly to make a pun out of one of the most important Romantic Poets of all time. I let it slide back then, because I thought it was a one-off. Still, it's really funny that she apparently knows who Wordsworth is, yet the best she can do with that information is make a pun out of his name.

And now I see her name-dropping, lack luster writing is just the best she can do. I hate that she really thinks of herself as a poet....

As someone who has studied poetry, and written literary criticisms about Emily Dickinson's poetry, it actually makes me angry to see she compares herself to Dickinson. I'm gonna write a post about that problem too.

I have a lot more to say about the gross lyricism of this album.

I have several different analyses that I plan to publish soon.... because it makes me so angry the way she is such phony-baloney nonsense.

More to the point, I'm angry I fell for it. All the use of intense aesthetics and the money she pours into promo, and I fell for it. I was a fan.

Not anymore.

[tiktaalic]

I get the basic theories for tswift flop. But as someone who genuinely really liked Lover and Folklore and liked Evermore (if I remember correctly you did too, with perhaps additional fondness for Evermore), do you have a theory for how she dredged up that upswing before crashing so so hard to her lowest point?

I lovedddddddd lover. I didn’t even listen to it in the age of #hype I fully heard lover for the first time and was streaming it like it was my job in 2023. Folklore I like evermore I couldn’t name a single song from but it’s good I guess. My theory. I think lover and reputation are actually pretty similar quality wise. You show me reputation and say and then she made LOVER. and I go. Yeah okay. Some solid goofy chunks on both which is fine yeah Taylor let’s get goofy. Some solid bangers on both. Some solid yearners on both. I think. I think a lot about how her reaction to rep losing a Grammy was to immediately start writing a new album. Lover a direct response to reputation not getting rewarded. She was trying to outdo herself. And. I think. My theory. Is that a switch flipped at Some Point post folkevermore. Because people liked those I think I’m pretty sure people were giving those good scores. And instead of trying to Make A Better Record. She has since been trying to Make A Relevant Record. I think something happened to her and she got scared about failing at Being The Best Artist but said but by god can I churn out stuff that will make me the Most Popular Talked About Culturally Relevant Artist. I fully think she’s switched metrics because she’s thinking in terms of cultural capital. Idk WHY. because she’s doing fuck all with it except complain about it and ink nfl sponsorships to get More Obscene Amount Of Money. But I don’t think she’s approaching albums as art anymore I think she’s just kind of putting in the effort of a little hobby in terms of songwriting / performance. Because I do think she is experiencing more and more worry about being toppled, especially because she is, in terms of popularity, The Top right now. And she doesn’t feel confident in her ability to maintain The Top through quality bc her previous attempts at quality did not do as well as she wanted. There’s also the fact that quality requires time Away from the spotlight where you become less relevant. For an album that might not even do well. I think also maybe her lesson from red rerelease doing well was not “people like red because it’s good songs because I spent lots of time on it” but “oh people like 31 song albums”. So .

[bettyshoweduptotheparty]

Reputation to Midnights and Final TPD Predictions

With 4 days until the Tortured Poets Department and two lines of lyrics we have so far, here are my thoughts on how we got here over the last 5 albums and final predictions for what's coming on Friday:

2016 changed the game - reputation era and long-term bearding

Many people might disagree, but I think the year 2016 changed a lot of things for Taylor. Without going into detail about snakegate, a possible failed coming out and scrapped album and the presidential election, her music has had a different tone ever since reputation (and I don't just mean sonically). As someone who writes a lot about love and relationships, the way she was writing about them changed from fairy tale love, pining and heartbreak to forever/long-term love, commitment/endame, 'us against the world' sort of love. And I do think she wanted to put that album out in 2016 but can't really do that when you're newly single and writing about wanting forever with someone... so in came Joe Alwyn who became the free pass for writing songs about long-term relationships, marriage and kids for the next six years. But LWYMMD (the song and the mv) made it pretty clear that this was not her first choice. Whatever happened, she had her agency taken from her, and she was mad about it. She may have made one hell of a comeback, but rep Taylor was on a revenge mission, and she has been ever since. Now, add to that the very same people foiled her coming out (possibly) a second time in 2019, I can well imagine the tortured poet that Taylor became during the pandemic with all that built up anger and misery pouring out into the folklore and evermore albums. And my guess is that with the plan to re-record the first 6 albums came an idea of how she could possibly get her revenge after all, which brings us to Midnights and TPD.

Midnights and Tortured Poets Department - Reflection and melancholia

Midnights had a similar tone to me than what we have seen of TPD so far: introspective, sombre and looking back on happier times and missed opportunities (hence the whole '13 nights throughout my life' concept). There is a lot of wondering about what ifs and regrets and always with a sense of vengeance in the background, which shows how Taylor clearly holds a grudge and has a hard time letting things go that have hurt her. And this continues in the two lines we have seen from TPD so far. The 'full eclipse' gives me love blackout vibes and this line

is so similar to many folkmore and Midnights songs where she talks about not being able to move on from a traumatic event (failed coming out *cough cough*). So, this album clearly continues the theme of reflection, regrets and vengeance, but with an additional touch of reckoning or impending judgment. I've seen some people say it seems like Taylor is putting someone (else or herself) on trial, and both the evidence file esthetics and the legal language she has been using in the hidden words puzzle on Apple Music have been feeding that theory:

She told us back in February she'd be entering all of her defenses and her muses into evidence, so is she the one being trialed and we are the jury? Or is she presenting evidence in her defense and accusing someone else? I initially thought the former, but now I'm thinking it could be either or both.

The songs will tell the story of the most painful times of her life and we will be able to decide if she chose her suffering or if the context/industry is to blame. My favourite swifties pointed out this morning that the ‘un-recall’ lyric is a parallel to CIWYW “I recall late November”. So what is she trying to forget? The 2016 election. The start of the love blackout. Much like the ‘full eclipse’ lyric. They almost had it all but then her plans got foiled and Tr*mp was elected which forced them underground. And where did she run off to? London. And what’s track 5 called? So long, London…

So, a lot of this album so far gives 2016 vibes. And I’ve said in a previous post (here) that the visuals seem very rep-inverted. Black vs white and the half yin-yang ☯️ in the logo. It’s looking likely that this is going to be the reflection on that time where her vendetta originated before she goes for revenge. And I’m not trying to clown but the rep parallels haven’t stopped:

This QR code mural in Chicago is very rep-cover coded and leads to a website that has the same 321 error message as the TS website the night of the Grammys. The message then was red herring. And not to sound too crazy, but I've said from the start that something feels off with this album. The absence of proper promo or merch is still weird. And would an entire album as a red herring be too crazy? Probably. But is she a crazy woman? Definitely! 😉

[sharonccrter]

As an ex swiftie that has reconciled with the fact she’s not a good person and now all her music just leaves a bad taste, it’s very easy to see Taylor measures her value on romantic relationships. She seeks validation out of men. She cannot be alone. And one thing I keep getting proven is that she bases her personality on the man she’s dating. In 2019 I genuinely thought the backlash plus the thing with her masters made her be more genuine and grounded and I was happy she seemed to be making steps to use her platform but all of that was just Joe’s influence on her. It wasn’t real for her but was just a reflection of Joe. Folklore and Evermore being her most mature and complex albums isn’t even funny when you know Joe was in it during the whole creative process. Folklore being an album where I felt this was her most authentic self. All of that has been erased the moment she broke up with him. She went problematic again just like Matty and now she’s playing NFL wife and promoting that disgusting association. She finally found a man arrogant enough to match her own narcissism.

Here's the thing: I think we are all influenced by our partners, and they can either make us worse or better people. However, I just find it weird that Swifties say we shouldn't define her by the men she dates when she's literally defining herself that way. Regardless of the fact that TTPS was, on the whole, more about Matty, it's obvious she knew most people would think it was about Joe, especially because of the WhatsApp group, and she marketed it as such. It's a big part of her brand. Same with All Too Well, the 10-minute version, she cast someone who looks a hell of a lot like Jake on purpose. She clearly defines herself by the men she dates.

I agree. I think Folklore was the way that it was because she was influenced by the music Joe liked. That doesn't mean I'm taking away from her achievement with this album. Folklore and Evermore have some of my favourite music from her. However, I think the tone and the maturity of that album leds me to believe Joe heavily influenced it. TTPS is a major step back in terms of those things. There are about six or seven songs I adore. However, if you look at the TC songs, they are immature; they are so high school (sorry, I couldn't resist). The thing is, during the Folklore, Evermore, and even Lover era (and I might even extend that to Midnights...) she had self-awareness - she was saying neither of them are perfect people. TTPS is a return to her "it's all your fault" era. It's a regression IMO.

[foxes-that-run]

Since you're losing me was written and recorded in Dec 2021, does that change who you think it is about / timeline on the different things?

Thanks anon, I hadn't seen the detail on December 2021. Jack's Story added below - thanks @leftamarkonme She might have shared it now so people stop being trauma-core about her Eras performances saying she was crying when she wasn't.

To be honest, if You're Losing me was written in 2021 would not surprise me or change how I view it. He wasn't at the All to Well SNL launch but I thought it was too cynical to say it was over 18 months before the announcement, even if I thought it. Because I think Glitch was written after the Brits in May 2021.

Also, they were seen looking frosty AF at a 2022 Oscars Party and 2022 VMA after party. Maybe she wrote it and they continued to try to make it work for another couple of months to May. Or maybe it was over and they had agreed engagements to give themselves some privacy while they recovered before it went public. I actually hope it is the later because I think making space herself is fantastic.

This is the timeline I had with midnights post:

2020

25 November - In the Long Pond Session Taylor said Joe was William Bowery

16 December - Taylor said to Zane Lowe that Happiness is about ending a long term relationship, she switched to first person

2021

15 March - Grammy's Joe had never come & it was COVID limited, but he won a Grammy for *Album of the year* & I'd say she has the pull for a ticket for a producer of it

April - Folklore credits update to add Joe as producer on 6 songs, including 3 William Bowery wrote, Grammy eligible. No credits for midnights and evermore.

12 May - Taylor was honored with a Global Icon award at the Brits. Harry also there and won. Joe left to film in Belfast the week before

21 August - Joe actually seen with Taylor

14 September - Taylor seen in ireland, seen at conversations with friends cast party

14 November - Blake, Ryan, Sophie & Selena join Taylor at the SNL All to Well launch party. Joe A was filming in Panama.

5 December - You're Losing me written here

2022

27 March - They went to the Vanity Fair Oscars pre-party, but Taylor skipped the 2022 Grammy's, Brit Awards and Oscars. It's interesting that the only photos of Taylor are of getting out of the car with Joe squinting, they bypassed the press line.

Taylor stopped liking Joes IG posts here

18 May - Taylor receives an honorary doctorate from NYU, while not a party it is a massive deal. In her speech she smiled at a particular part of the audience when she referenced friends and family, but Joe was at a Rising Hollywood party in LA.

31 August - VMAs afterparty - Joe & Taylor's unglamourous run to a car. The VMAs have been important to Taylor since 2009. She was on the cusp of winning the most VMAs ever, announced Midnights and All to Well won. I wonder if Midnights was already done though.

20 October - Midnights pap walk where Joe uses a coffee table book to shield his hand from being held.

2023

9 February - Grammy afterparty- she wore his jacket, the huge deal made out of this is enough to say it was already over.

31 March - The 1 replaces Invisible String.

8 April - break up announced said it occured 'weeks earlier'

[taylorrepdetective]

As a gaylor, I always felt Sweet Nothing was a sad song because the line “all that you ever wanted from me…” is past tense. I found it really interesting that she said publicly that she wrote it with Joe as if to make it sound so romantic when I’ve always viewed it as pretty melancholy. She’s a master with words and getting across the stories that she wants to, and it would have been so easy to write “all that you’ve ever wanted” and make it present tense, but she didn’t. I don’t have any strong opinions about behind the scenes things but I just wanted to say that I can see why hetlors are saying it’s actually sad when no longer believing T & J are in love, I guess

Yes! You can believe this. It’s fine to have this sort of interpretation of any Taylor song. Take one word or tone or twist (in this case it feels past tense) and adjust its meaning away from the most obvious. She does this and we shouldn’t ignore it. So I am fully supportive of you having this interpretation. It’s not my interpretation. But that’s fine!

But more of what I’ve been talking about (and have talked about for years):

She writes songs that almost always have some sort of sad, “haunting” quality about them. But you also have to look at it in complete context. You can’t see evermore as the saddest breakup album of all time and just ignore the existence of Long Story Short and the last verse of Evermore. You can’t only see Maroon and ignore Mastermind and Paris. You shouldn’t ignore all the other context clues we get from her in her performances and videos, interviews, dates she does things, and merch etc… It’s hard to figure her out because she makes it hard. But she does seem to like to give clues that can be obvious but also gives her plausible deniability.

But it’s specifically the blanket retconning that gets me. One day an album comes out and people who believe she’s in a happy long term relationship interpret songs as straightforward happy songs (Lover, Peace, there are so many), while ignoring a song that is devastating like DBATC, Exile or Hoax, or Happiness, and just attribute them to fiction or about a friend or about the distant past or about her masters, but then later when they decide that she wasn’t in such a happy long term relationship like they thought, then they take that inherent sadness and haunting quality and turn it the whole thing into a breakup album, ignoring the fact that she can be singing about fiction or about a friend or about the distant past or about her masters.

The songs haven’t changed, only their perspective changed. I see it over and over and over again. And when this happens over and over and over again, maybe people should take a step back and think A) well maybe all of her love songs have this haunting quality because of a deep basic reason about the situation she finds herself in that no matter how solid a relationship might be, there’s always this THING hanging over it that won’t allow her to just be happy. That thing might be crippling depression, it might be trauma, being in an incredibly complicated situation, it might be fame, she might be gay, or you know ALL OF THE ABOVE. But it doesn’t mean that she’s not basically happy with the muse of that song. Especially in private like described in Sweet Nothing. B) sometimes she writes a song about a devastating moment but it doesn’t mean it’s the end of a relationship moment. C) sometimes she makes a song that’s about something completely unrelatable to a normal person, and she changes it to be about something that is relatable because her job is to sell records. And D) maybe we don’t know everything about her private life and aren’t good at figuring it out through her lyrics because she doesn’t want us to know everything, and so we should approach things using words like “maybe, I think, I could be wrong, here are a few possibilities, who knows?” Etc etc etc instead making our account’s entire personality about being an expert on Taylor swift’s life like you have been there in the room with her during it all.

When I say this I am thinking of a few different specific blogs and TikToks, mostly on the Toe side of the spectrum, but we see it on the gaylor side just as much. I am guilty of it sometimes too (more so in the past I think, but you know I do have strong opinions too and sometimes I unequivocally state them.)

All that being said, I have chosen to take the most straightforward interpretation of Sweet Nothing. It’s about her private home life being an oasis from the craziness of her life outside and one of the best things about her lover is that they don’t want anything from her other than her. It’s “you like me for me” expanded out. I interpret it as she just really really values this “normalness” she gets at home, and that normalness really is something only the muse of this song has been able to give her. And as always, home doesn’t have to be a physical place. And, luckily for us, because it’s from the album midnights that she said is about different midnights throughout life, you can choose to make this scene be happening at any time when she was happy with her lover. It doesn’t need to be the way things were at the moment she sat down to write it. It doesn’t have to be turned into some sort of sad song about the process of breaking up because you believe she broke up with the subject. This is why her writing ever since she sat down to write DBATC, and explained it to us,is so much more interesting to me. She very specifically told us with that song (the last known song written for lover) that she was going to be writing things that can be seen as hypotheticals in the future so we’d better get used to it! Folklore!!! That’s why it’s my pinned post.

[soulmvtes]

different anon but i'd say taylor's lyrics were always her strong point and i guess this is why this album is disappointing bcs so many of these new lyrics are cringe

i feel like she's mostly always cringe tho (which isn't a bad thing btw i love most of it) but usually like the culmination of the production saves it. in terms of good lyricism, like folklore/evermore are good but the rest isn't as good as people make it out to be imo

[allamericansbitch]

i want to preface this by saying that i became a fan of taylor after lover (which is ironic because it's one of my bottom 2 albums by her) but honestly i don't really care for taylor anymore, i saw her in july last year and enjoyed the concert and everything but again that was mainly because of the experience of it being my first big stadium show and the vibes of everyone dancing and singing along. and i'm really glad that i did have that experience. but i literally listened to ttpd once and i can't stand midnights for the most part, and my dislike for the music coupled with the way she's acted in the past year has really turned me off of her.

that being said, i think it's fascinating how taylor coopts whatever is big in the moment as part of her aesthetic for that album. like for lover era she was huge on politics and activism and lgbtq/women's rights because that kind of advocacy was really mainstream and popular at the time. and now it's been like four years since then and she doesn't really outwardly express any political sentiment one way or another. for folklore and evermore she really leaned into the quiet/homey/cottagecore aesthetic that was so popular during quarantine. and for midnights and the poets album she is really leaning into that whole depression/mental illness vibe that's really popular on social media right now, especially with the i'm just a girl rhetoric that's huge on tiktok. i can't really articulate that link super well but i feel like it's definitely there lol

all that to say, taylor's choice in aesthetics are so varied and that's fine in some cases i guess , but in some cases switching up like that out of nowhere is outright harmful - like her not caring about politics anymore, or romanticizing the "mental illness aesthetic" like she's doing right now. i don't know what i'm trying to get at here, but i feel like she wants to make sure she's as "in" as possible without considering how with such a large platform she is actively offending hundreds of thousands if not millions of people. and sure maybe she's disconnected from reality because of her fame so she can't really understand the impact of her actions (personally i don't think this, just a counterargument) but what i really don't understand is why someone on her team or a friend doesn't just say this to her. does no one care?

i totally agree and while reading this i may have thought of a possible reason she does this. i feel like this trend you're talking about really kicked into high gear with lover and making the entire theme of the album involve something very hot in the culture at the time, and what also kicked off at the time was Taylor being worried about her aging out of the industry and not being allowed to be successful anymore, like her talking about lover being her last chance for a hit album. so i think she, consciously or not, wanted to make sure she was keeping up with trends and being young.

and like you said this extends to now where it's very obvious she's not learning what the actual mental health terms mean and is more using them in a trendy way, she's not giving them any weight or making it known that she's serious, because serious mental health conversations aren't trendy, using them for dramatic purposes is. calling yourself 'delusional', 'manic' or having intrusive thoughts for comedic, dramatized purposes is what everyone is doing and now she's including herself in this trend of casual ableism and has also now crossed a line into blatantly using it for aesthetic purposes.

again whether this is a conscious choice or not, she's really just coming across as so un-self-aware and has no feet on the ground whatsoever, to the point where she'll just go with what's trendy to fit in with the young generation and make them like her and it's gotten to the point of no return it feels like

[msoliviaswift]

i understand that the most recent albums an artist puts out there are usually not the ones that fans like the most, it's okay, it needs time. but i desperately need for people to realise what a good album Midnights is. i love concept albums and even though i thought Midnights was a little bit chaotic the first time i listened to it i soon realised it is a really cohesive album in terms of lyrics, sound and mood or whatever you want to call it. it simply is an album about life, not only Taylor's but whoever feels represented on it. if Midnights was a person it would be a sad, playful and angry person all at the same time because it represents the memories someone comes back to in the middle of the night when they are not asleep but still not dreaming either. the memories of childhood, adolescence and adulthood. all the insecurities, fears, experiences, love stories and pain that a person carries inside of them throughout their life.

the image that comes to my mind when i'm listening to Midnights is of a person in the middle of the night dreaming about revenge because they still carry with them the pain someone caused on them (Vigilante Shit), then waking up and remembering and old love whose memories are still inside of that person's mind very vividly (Maroon), then feeling sad and nostalgic for their younger self and the insecurities they still have to face even in adulthood (You're Own Your Own, Kid) and finally going back to sleep thinking fuck this let's dance and have fun because life is too short to be sad all the time (Bejeweled). as Taylor said, these are the things that keep us up at night.

and besides this, Midnights is also the album that i think sumps up the most how far Taylor has come in her career and i think that is the reason why this first era of her music is ending with Midnights. the lyrics and the sound are a collective memory of Debut, Fearless, Speak Now, Red, 1989, Reputation, Lover, Folklore and Evermore. all of them are here. i think Taylor is talking to us in the most honest way she's ever done with the most beautiful words she's ever used and using the most unique sound we've ever heard. it sums up everything. her life but also her music.

and that is why i freaking love this album.

(sorry for my English, is not my first language)

[joesalw]

Reading your transition from fan to critic of Taylor is basically how I feel. I became a fan of her in 2017 right before reputation came out. I somehow missed how “hated” she was. I really didn’t pay much attention to her beforehand other than knowing her hits. Her earlier albums were not my music taste (I did listen to Red TV and loved it though, aside from a few songs I’m sure you can guess lol). And even reputation I didn’t love right away. It took me some time and then I heard All Too Well and really started appreciating her songwriting.

Since then I have really enjoyed her music, absolutely love folklore and evermore, and saw her in public but she never felt like a huge popstar with how she lived her everyday life which I really respected. Flash forward to now…I think a lot of us who became fans around 2016 are struggling the most to remain fans. The way she has acted publicly since the breakup has really turned me off. It’s giving mean, popular girl in high school. I thought if anyone would not get the ex treatment it would be Joe. While she hasn’t said much about it, other than You’re Losing Me which sounds like a very normal song to articulate problems in a long term relationship, her actions have spoken volumes. I can’t even talk about the Matty Healy thing lol I knew at that point I would look at her differently forever. Which is very dramatic but sounds fitting when we are discussing Taylor.

The way fans are treating Joe now is disgusting and spews immaturity. I really don’t know how he stays quiet. He must have a great support system. I would love to see some spiteful behavior with some PDA with someone but he’s better than I am haha While I don’t think Travis is a bad guy, I think a lot of us can see the writing on the wall that this scenario doesn’t seem to have a lot of foundation to be a long-lasting relationship. She has not healed and wants to avoid her feelings and keeps jumping into situations where she can distract herself because she thought Joe was the one. And now she’s embarrassed. So the only way she can sing these songs about her love for him on tour is if the public thinks she doesn’t care and is over it. Totally get that but come on girl we have all been there and see through it lol The sympathy for her gets older along with her. Anti Hero seemed to show that she got it but then she refuses to break that pattern. All I know is if I’ve ever seen anyone needing a therapist it is her lol

exactly!!! 👏👏👏

[wavesoutbeingtossed]

what was your view of coney island when it was released and what is it now?

because with all the new information we have about that relationship I honestly think this song is kind of the mother of midnights. the reference to old relationships in the bridge and knowing that he wrote or contributed in some way today makes me think that that reflection on the song was about them

idk, for me there is a bridge between coney island -> most of the tracks of midnights -> dear reader -> hits different -> ttpd

makes sense to you? I thought about asking about this song when you were talking about cold in some other song that I don't remember which one it was, but it reminded me of “and it gets colder and colder when the sun goes down” 😂

OK so one thing to know about me is that despite the fact that I've been listening to Taylor casually since Debut, was a huge fan of 1989, and consider myself a pretty serious fan since at least Lover (as in that's when I started following her more online and not just for the music), I really didn't know much about the personal lore until after folklore 😂 I loved her music, but I wasn't the type to be like, "omg this song is about this person!! Or this event!!" when I'd listen to it. Obviously, some of them were obvious to me (e.g. LWYMMD, Paper Rings, Bad Blood, etc.) but what I'm saying is that I didn't dissect the muses or inspiration as much as I connected with the lyrics.

And the next thing to know about me is that even though evermore is my favourite album... Coney Island is not a song I think about a lot 😂 I know, that's going to send me to Swiftie jail. I don't dislike it! It's just not one of the ones I gravitate towards generally unless I'm listening to the album in full. So when evermore came out, I honestly just thought it was a complex story about a relationship breakdown that she wrote with the dudes from The National. 😂 Obviously I knew a lot of Taylor's music was personal, but I was also of the belief (and still am tbh) that while she may have taken emotions and situations she's experienced and put them into her songs, the actual details/circumstances aren't always factual. (Hence, folkmore. I clocked that before it was cool haha.)

So back to Coney Island. I would say that when it came out, I didn't think of it at all in terms of her personal relationship. I could certainly believe some personal feelings infused in it, because like I said that's what writers do. But it wasn't a song that, like, gave me pause. (As opposed to, say, False God, which immediately sent red flags up to me when Lover came out.) And tbh, I still don't know, precisely because it was written collaboratively. I think I see it sort of like The Alcott -- you can certainly see where her influence is, and can infer what inspired it, but I'm not sure how much of the story is hers and how much is Aaron/Bryce/Matt?/or Joe's writing. Looking at the credits, I don't know if Taylor wrote it all and the National dudes just got credit because of the music as is often the case when they get credit, or if they all wrote it collaboratively or what.

Reading the lyrics now, like really reading them, it's kind of a lot tbh lol. "And if this is the long haul, how'd we get here so soon?" is a lyric that has always stuck with me, like suddenly coming to an impasse you didn't even know was on the horizon. I'm actually like, processing this song for the first time I think, which is a little scary four years down the line lol. So thanks for that I guess? 🥴 j/k.

I guess it's hard for me to really deconstruct in this context just because I'm not entirely sure where it falls on the inspiration line. But I do think that it may be quite telling and I can see the pipeline to Midnights you mention. And, um, the quiet resentment. "The question pounds my head, 'What's a lifetime of achievement?' if I pushed you to the edge, but you were too polite to leave me," is ooooooooof. Like. Yeah. Because that's kind of the crux of a lot of Midnights, which culminates in TTPD. The golden age coming to a whimpering end before you know it, the distance, the miscommunication, the misunderstanding, the lack of consideration, but still the kernel of love underneath it all that makes it so hard to let go.

Thanks for this! It definitely gave me something to think about! What was your line of thinking on it?

[miss-andromeda]

Andi and Don Headcanons

Inspired by the amazing @kikithedreamerwriter! Thank you for the brilliant idea 🩷

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(P.S. Andi's face claim is Maddy Kendzior, in case you were wondering who this is 😊)

Note: Most, if not all, of these do not take place in the established universe of the show, this is purely for fun. Most are goofy and chaotic, but regardless, do reflect on their relationship. 

Both Andi and Don are huge fans of Stranger Things - and they often quote lines to each other for the fun of it, like “I am on a curiosity voyage, and I need my paddles to travel,” “You know that means you suck, right?”, “Mornings are for coffee and contemplation,” and calling each other mouthbreathers to make fun of each other. 

That being said, Andi’s favorite characters are Max (she finds it funny that her voice and Max’s are the same - if you know, you know 😌), Eleven (she audibly cheered when she heard “I dump your ass” in season 3,) Robin, Dustin, and Erica 

Donnie’s are Dustin, Nancy (mostly because she reminds him so much of Andi,) Max, Will, and Joyce (he’s a diehard Jopper shipper)

They have clashing music tastes - and will often debate what music is better. Donnie’s tastes are eclectic, ranging from classical music to hip-hop and hard rock. Andi is more focused; she loves indie and alternative pop and rock. They’ll have literal debates analyzing every detail of what they listen to - like the history of the genres, important figures, and how significant it’s been to the musical landscape. More often than not, though, the other boys and April will side with Andi, purely because Donnie’s tastes are so left-field. 

Their relationship is a mix of two different dynamics; the overly sweet couple that makes you wonder if they’re “goals” or are just annoying, and the sarcastic couple that can/will be mean to those around them - except to each other.

Andi’s personality type is ISTJ-T (Turbulent Logistician), while Donnie’s is ISFJ-T (Turbulent Defender)

It’s canon that they’re both extremely intelligent - and while it’s not often, they would sometimes have competitions and debates to see who is smarter. So far, they’re tied in debates (they’ve both won 3 each,) but Donnie is winning in terms of competitions, as he’s won 7 while Andi’s only won 5.

They often do nerdy things like read together and stargaze, but one of their best memories was raising a group of butterflies together - they were named Cornelius, Meredith and Oliver. And yes, both of them teared up when they were let go into the world.

Both of them are not morning people in the slightest. Unless the two of them have their preferred drinks immediately after going into the kitchen (Donnie his cup of coffee and Andi her tea,) they will scowl at anyone who tries to talk to them or groan at any questions asked of them.

(Because it's me,) Donnie would be a casual Swiftie - not a diehard fan, but likes the singles, and some songs off each album (though he absolutely adores folklore and evermore, and seven, the lakes, peace, ivy and coney island (especially when Andi learns the lyrics and duets with him) are his favorite songs.

To follow up, he's converting Andi into a Swiftie as well - her favorite albums at the moment are Red and Midnights, and her favorite songs from each are State of Grace and Paris (though she relates the most to I Almost Do and You're On Your Own, Kid)

They are fiercely protective of each other - and will likely kill anyone who messes with their partner. Andi’s more frequent in resorting to such measures, but when Donnie’s pushed that far, he’s more dangerous.

They have considered hacking into a national database - and threatened to do so on many occasions.

It’s rare that the two of them get into a fight, but on the off chance that it does happen, it’d be quiet, but intense - lots of glaring (mostly from Andi) and teary eyes. One of three instances will happen, depending on who was at fault.

If Andi was the one who was wrong, it’ll take a while for her to apologize - her stubbornness is cranked up to 11 in a fight. But eventually, she’ll trudge over and apologize, putting her arms around Donnie and explaining why she got so upset. 

If Donnie was at fault, he’ll grovel at her feet - begging for her forgiveness and doing everything he can to tell her that he was wrong for hurting her and that he’ll do anything to make it up to her. 

If both of them were at fault, Andi would request that the two of them just stay away from each other, and as much as it would hurt Donnie, he would reluctantly agree. They’d spend upward of a week away from each other - and then when the distance gets to be too much for them, one of them will text the other and whoever received the message will book it to where the other person is - either Andi’s apartment or the lab in the lair. 

Playing off that desperation of seeing each other, they can be quite clingy with each other. Donnie is more clingy naturally, but when Andi goes through something traumatic (which, spoiler alert, will happen in her story…multiple times,) she will cling to him like she’s gonna lose him if she lets go. 

Overall, while their relationship has a smidge of fairy-tale wonder to it, they have an undying love for each other that’s as real as anything - regardless of what (or who) tries to break it.

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Once again, this is just for fun! As always, if you'd like to join my taglist, feel free to message me or send me an ask. Thanks again to @kikithedreamerwriter for the idea - and your permission to do my own list 🩷💜

@tinkabelle19 @m1dnyt3-w0lf @happymoonangel @eveandtheturtles @raphsmuneca @jasminarts01 @thelaundrybitch @android-cap-007

[jyndor]

gotta say that midnights seemed slightly off to me from the get go. like I remember thinking the themes felt like a step backwards in terms of emotional growth after folklore and evermore, and bejeweled immediately had my mind going ???? because it was giving me sorry off of lemonade vibes, like not necessarily the same context or sound but something about it kept reminding me of sorry. that like, fuck being taken for granted, I'm gonna go be cute in the club like of thing.

and midnights does have this melancholy thing throughout which resonated with me deeply but it was also hard to swallow question and bejeweled and even tbh maroon and lavender haze (specifically the 1950s shit line from a woman who has never been shy in her music about wanting that traditional fairytale ending, but i just assumed she had grown into understanding that love doesn't have a fairytale ending, its ever evolving and takes on different forms over time).

but knowing what we likely know now, midnights can reflect the deeply complicated and often contradictory way that relationships work and don't work. you don't just go from love to resentment overnight, and sometimes it's both.

and I'm definitely not speculating, have no interest in learning what happened (it's not our business) but I wanted to share my moment of clarity on the album because I finally had it last night. I always liked it, but I couldn't get over how disjointed it felt. now it makes more sense to me.

maybe I have some young followers and I just want to say I've seen some really heartbreaking and concerning behavior from swifties since the news. I'm not gonna shame someone for getting too caught up in a parasocial relationship with a songwriter who has always put a lot of her personal life and emotions into her works, even if they are fictionalized and reworked into something she can sell. it's understandable that people would feel so connected to her, that's her business model. it isn't healthy which is why she's pulled back so much, but its still part of how her brand works. that carefully curated authenticity.

many of her fans are young, literal children. I don't want them to think that this idealized kind of golden love is possible to begin with - it is IDEALIZED. even with how realistic she has made their relationship sound in contrast to the fairytale loves she wrote about when she was younger, we don't know what they were actually like. you don't know. it's like thinking of their relationship as something from fiction, because in many ways what she wrote IS fiction - it's inspired by reality but fictionalized all the same.

there's a study that looked into when relationships tend to end on average. it's five years. it makes sense, after five years people really do know each other for the most part and likely have grown into more mature people. five years is a long time. five years ago I was just getting my esthetics license and now I'm a business owner. I know more about who I am and what my goals are. my goals have changed. sometimes people's goals become incompatible. it's normal and it doesn't make the love any less real.

this was probably her first serious and mature relationship. by all accounts she was at her lowest point when they met, and she's clearly grown a lot in the time since. that is not even taking into account his own journey and growth. again, this is normal and sometimes people can work through those changes, and sometimes people can't. it's not black and white though, it doesn't have to mean that what they had wasn't real love.

we weren't there, we don't know her or him and we shouldn't. taylor lets us see what she wants us to see. she's a mastermind, right? you don't know her and this is a great example of that. so hopefully younger fans especially can take some time to reflect on how to set better boundaries in the future to avoid feeling so hopeless and full of grief over someone else's relationship.

[keepingsecretstokeepyoutk]

These are just my thoughts, I understand that many others feel differently.

There have been times in the past that I’ve felt frustration or anxiety about Taylor not coming out potentially ever, while continuing to drop “hints”.

(I personally feel like she has unofficially come out and is only not officially coming out because of all of the many many other closeted people she would be betraying if she really told her truth, AND for the purpose of privacy, which is in no way exclusive to closeting, straight entertainers also have PR relationships and keep their personal lives to themselves as is their right to do. But that is only background on how I feel about why Taylor is doing what she is doing, and why I don’t feel in any way entitled to her coming out. This post is just about my personal emotional experience of coming to peaceful terms with being an attentive fan in this situation.)

I have always *loved* following the lyrical and other Easter eggs to Taylor’s truth. While I went through a couple of album cycles of disappointment when the build up didn’t culminate with an official coming out, I have grown to truly be at peace with this little upside down world/wonderland/Narnia that we live in as fans who see a deeper meaning to her work.

I’ve seen some people express that if she isn’t going to come out they would rather her not leave Easter eggs at all. I very wholeheartedly disagree.

On a selfish/personal level, continuing to see the sapphic themes we’ve identified in her songs, the symbols for her truth in her branding and rollouts, reminds me that I’m not making all of this shit up. If she were to suddenly stop, I would personally feel a little ungrounded, like it must have all been coincidences. I would also have far less deeply relatable music from an unbelievably talented lyricist, to listen to.

Sure there are plenty of other sapphic writers/musicians I love, but Taylor is irreplaceable. Her work is unique as a closeted woman, because when you can’t name a feeling you have to describe it, when you can’t tell a story in plain language, you have to tell it in allegory and metaphor, leading to work that is not only relatable, it makes you understand your own experiences and feeling more deeply and in a way that other writing can’t.

On an empathetic level, it baffles me that anyone would ask Taylor to stop putting her real experiences and truth in her art. The same themes we see in folklore and evermore and midnights are present in her debut album. Taylor has always shown her true rainbow colors in her writing, whether she was doing so intentionally or not. Her whole life and happiness is her art, and her art includes not only her lyrics, but her music videos and her era aesthetics, and everything that goes into presenting her songs to her audience.

Her art is her outlet. Taylor has explicitly expressed that her writing holds her truth, it’s the only place she can emote genuinely. Being a visual artist myself, my work is the only place I can channel certain emotions. I can’t imagine censoring myself in that part of my life.

Taylor, by her own admission (in some of her most beautiful lyrics yet) has made many mistakes and unsavory compromises in her navigation of these choppy waters. I am not saying that she is blameless or flawless. She is human. Which is kind of my point.

I want to go on record that I will enjoy following her “hints”, for the rest of my life, if she never come out - or for many years to come if she one day chooses to unearth the roots of closeting in the entertainment industry with a tell all autobiography or docuseries.

I can’t wait to see what her next step is, and I’m honored that she entrusts us with everything that she does. Getting glimpses of her truth, and reading/listening to her endlessly impressive reflections on her experiences. Everyone longs to be seen and recognized by their community. I want her to know that i see her. So many of us see you. And we love you.