#the ones for her folklore/evermore era fit the vibe and were lovely that way but this was just...great in a classic music video way

[actuallylorelaigilmore]

i truly cannot believe that i didn’t learn there was a music video for bejeweled until more than a week after the album came out and even then it wasn’t because of a youtube rec or my dash (@jicklet is a hero for bringing me the news instead) because HI LAURA DERN IS THERE in the most bonkers bridgerton-vibes cinderella intro and the elevator has 13 floors and basically the whole video is just a giant glitter bomb it is amazing

[bettyshoweduptotheparty]

Midnights vs Daylight

Thoughts on TS Midnights title and promotion (This will tie into my ‘Thoughts on the Eras tour’ theories)

I think we can all agree that folklore and evermore were pandemic products. If there had been no pandemic, it stands to reason that Lover would have led directly into Midnights (especially with the way the re-recording process has inspired this album). And that’s interesting because Lover was originally meant to be titled Daylight.

So instead of getting an album called Daylight, we now have an album called Midnights, the polar opposite. Could that be because daylight never came after all and she’s stuck in an eternal night?  

Midnights announcement and visuals

In the midnights announcement on socials, we got two images: the cover of Taylor holding the lighter, and the image under the announcement text from the promo photo shoot. Immediately, these two do not look like they are front and back of the same album. The cover image on white background has a modern classy but glamourous tone to it, and the announcement photo has a depressed 70s vibe. So the duality here is not hidden, and that confused me at first, but I do think this is deliberate and once we got the Anti Hero mv, it became clear why:

Midnights is about hiding your true self in favour of protecting a beloved public image and Taylor has perfected this to such a degree that her public and private personas have become two separate entities battling each other until they finally learn to co-exist, as we see in the two Taylors in the mv. One is the quiet contemplative one, the other is the loud party girl. One writes the songs, the other is the performer. One is the trusting people pleaser, the other knows that everyone will betray her. These two Taylors and their differences are the overarching theme of the video, and that theme carries over into the dichotomy of the midnights album style: Private vs public

Front: She’s wearing her glittery stage make up here so while we can’t see her outfit, I do think this is meant to be the performer Taylor. She’s holding the lighter open and looking at the flame, which to me feels a bit threatening, like she’s poured the fuel and is about to drop a match into it. And what did performance Taylor do this year on tour? Ah yes…burn the Lover house. (More on that HERE if you haven’t read my lover house theory). We should have seen it coming 😊

Back: The second image has even more to unpack, both in the photo and the text. I wasn’t a gaylor on the internet back in 2022 so forgive me if I’m repeating what other people have already pointed out. Taylor is inside with the curtains drawn, blocking out the outside world, looking hopeless with her head in her hand and phone in the other. The old phone could be a reference to the one she uses in the Anti Hero mv to call for help, so maybe she’s trying to call for help here and no one is answering. Or it could be a nod to the red phone from MMWM which many have pointed out could be a reference to the ‘red telephone’ Moscow-Washington hotline during Soviet times, which was used to deliver encoded messages. I like this interpretation, because the way she’s holding the receiver looking so devastated really gives me the vibe of someone who’s been on the phone with a person for ages who is just not getting the message. Almost like someone whose constant flags and encoded messages are falling on deaf ears (to a large majority)… I’ve also noticed that there is a framed photo of two people on the table in this house where she supposedly paces the floors alone at night, but can’t really make out enough to say anything more than that.

Now for the text: I’m by no means the first person to point out that the ‘lanterns lit… out searching’ is from one of Emily Dickinson’s letters to her lover Sue which seems a fitting comparison for Taylor, the writer of many lyrical love letters to her muse and lover. But what really gets me is the sentence

‘Just maybe, when the clock strikes twelve … we’ll meet ourselves.’ Why the ellipse? The sentence would have made perfect sense without this, so why add that deliberate suspense?  What happens when the clock strikes 12? In the following months we also got the ‘it’s a clock’ video announcing that the four midnights vinyl covers together make a clock, and then the Eras tour literally starts with a countdown to midnight. Clocks ticking down to 12 are also in both the Bejewelled and Karma mv, so safe to say this means something. The obvious one is the Cinderella connection, which was probably an Easter egg for the Bejewelled mv, but if that’s all it was then it could have stopped after the video was out. Notably also, Cinderella’s party ends at midnight, whereas Taylor’s starts both in the mv and on tour. Midnight is the first minute of a new day, so this seems a lot more about new beginnings for me, than eternal darkness. I’ve pointed out in a previous post that Taylor references the song ‘Naughty’ from Matilda the musical in her Eras tour performance of Anti Hero. That song not only references Cinderella heavily, it also includes the lyrics ‘Every day starts with a tick of a clock/ All escapes start with the click of a lock.’ So… interesting that the announcement post mentions both ticking clocks and cages. Is she escaping from her self-made cage at the strike of midnight? Which brings us to the final, but very loaded, sentence of the announcement.

Meet ME! At Midnight

Before you come at me, yes I know, that’s not how it’s written. It’s meet me, not ME!, but that would be first and foremost, way too obvious, wouldn’t it. I still think that this is where she is taking us with this sentence, back to the beginning of the Lover era, the dawn of daylight, if you will. If you need a reminder, ME! was the first single off of Lover and kickstarted the sunshine and rainbows parade that was meant to be her coming out with the glorious ME! OUT NOW post on Lesbian Visibility Day in April 2019. This whole summer has felt strangely similar to that, with cruel summer becoming a single and playing endlessly on the radio, Taylor being unashamedly queer in public and surrounding herself with other queer artists, gaylor discourse in mainstream media outlets, and then of course, Karlie Kloss of all people showing up to the last LA show. The congratulatory comments under GLAAD’s instagram post from the VMAs felt much the same to me as the ones under TN’s post of the ‘proud’ bracelet back in 2019. The people that get it, get it. We are officially in the soft launch period.

So, is there going to be a hard launch? Maybe. With all this open queerness I could totally see her just gradually turning it up until she gets photographed kissing a woman in public one day and it’ll just be a case of ‘deadass thought I made it obvious’… But the lesson from the 2019 (not so soft) soft launch was that a lot of people would still rather default to accusations of queerbaiting than assume that she is queer herself (as shown by what happened to Kit Connor last year), and I’m sure she wouldn’t want that again. For that reason, and the fact that she did have a plan to explicitly come out in the past, I think she may have another go in the future, whatever form that may take. One thing I will say, as it ties into this midnights to daylight theme, is this:

With all this clock/countdown imagery, it is notable that the three different versions we have so far of the midnights album are all chronological on a clock. Starting at the top, we have midnights, then the 3am edition, then ‘dawn’ which is around 6am, so to complete the circle we’d need a 9am (or near enough) version. I know that seems unlikely, as 9am is definitely morning and not night anymore, but maybe that’s the point, that at the end of midnights we have a daylight version. ‘You’re loosing me’ is still not officially out on streaming so there is a glimmer of hope that maybe one more version is coming.

What era are we actually in…?

It’s hard to remember that we are actually still in the midnights era with all the re-releases stealing the show and the throwback to lover with cruel summer. But given that the masters heist foiled her plans to come out and made Daylight into Lover, it makes total sense that the 'midnights to daylight' era is the one that includes those important re-releases to further this journey.

She has made so many positive changes and additions to these ‘Taylor’s versions’ that I think it’s just as much about owning her work, as it is about owning the narrative she puts out there. And on that note, it may not be a coincidence that the titles that Taylor has left to reclaim now are her birth year, her name and her reputation, all things that are intrinsically linked to her, and she has arguably never been more authentically queer out in the open. I’m not saying these next three re-releases are suddenly going to have she/her pronouns, but they may have vault tracks that would never have made the cut back in the day. And if we thought the 2017 version of rep was already unbelievably gay… I won’t make any predictions for the tv, but I have high hopes.😊 And I still think that if we end with debut (tv) in June 2024 (Pride month), then ‘TAYLOR SWIFT OUT NOW’ isn’t looking too far-fetched.  And I recon if I was putting out something called MY version of MY name, I'd want to make sure that it absolutely reflects who I am. It did surprise me initially that debut wasn't the first album to be re-released and it's in fact now looking likely to be the last one, but it makes sense if she is using it as an opportunity to go back to the beginning and re-write the story. What a boss move that would be: ‘My version of ME, OUT NOW’ and maybe she really means it this time.

My prediction is, that the end of the midnights era will also be the end of the re-releases (some time next year) and with the final one we end the night and step into the daylight. ☀🌈

[lucithornz]

I'd Lie and Taylor Swift

So you might be wondering why I'd Lie was tagged as "Taylor Swift-freeform". Well that's because I referenced 156 TS songs in IL.

I always think of scenarios and new ways to interpret Taylor's songs and I wanted a big project to be able to write just shitton of scenes inspired by her music. Some references are entire chapters that serve as songfics, some are just little easter eggs, others are somewhere in between(just one scene or line etc)

Then of course we have the titular song I'd Lie, which is an unreleased TS song from the debut era(well she released it on MySpace lol). It's fantastic give it a listen. But I was listening to it one day and was like “holy shit this fits DNF so well.” It's a pining song, and really fits the friends to lovers vibe. However I wanted the song to be from both perspectives, it applies to both Dream and George the way they see each other etc. The line “If you asked me if I love him I'd lie” is really just like everything to this fic.

It's funny I assumed everyone would know what the title meant, but it occurs to me that not everyone is aware of TS obscure tracks XD I wrote this whole fic like only obsessive Swifties were going to be reading picking up on every single little detail that I dropped(when that's obviously not that case lol). I just live in my own little world with her music. That's one of the things that made this project consistently so much fun.

I won't go over every song reference, those are easter eggs for you to discover(also there's well over 100, and this post would be 10k words) So I will share the most influential song from each album/era on this fic. Assume I'm talking about Taylor's version where applicable.

Debut – I'd Lie

Fearless – You Belong With Me

Speak Now – Electric Touch(from the vault)/Enchanted(It was Enchanted but then ET came out and changed everything)

Red – State of Grace

1989 – Out of the Woods

Reputation – Dancing with Our Hands Tied

Lover – Cruel Summer

Folklore – August

Evermore – Right Where You Left Me

Midnights – Hits Different

[sometayrecords]

Midnights chapters

In my mind, Midnights' tracks could be sorted into 3 chapters. These are:

-the "sequels" chapter -the "lost tracks" chapter -the "Midnights core theme" chapter

stick with me and I'll explain everything

Disclaimer: I know there are theories that support the same or different things concerning the following stories, I'm just gonna share what I personally believe :)

✩ The "sequels", or "album sequels", are the tracks that, like the title I gave them says, could be a sequel to a Taylor's old album, if that album was, like, a movie or a book.

Those tracks are:

You're On Your Own, Kid: if Taylor Swift album was a movie, this song would be the "15 years later" final scene.

Midnight Rain: the more I listen to it, the more I think it could be about the boy from Fifteen (Fearless album)

Would've, Could've, Should've is clearly about John Mayer, so it's a Speak Now sequel. it's the relationship that scared you for life, the one everyone told you to run from and you regret not having listened.

Maroon is most definitely about Jake, so it's a RED sequel. looking back at a relationship year's later, all the memories are still there, realizing that what the fire that was burning red was also filling the sky with smoke.

Question...? is probably about Harry Styles, so it's a 1989 sequel. the one that was striking as a meteor and gave you something to hope for, but things were too complicated for anything more to ever happen.

Sweet Nothing: the reputation sequel. Taylor and Joe have found a home in one another and are still sealing their relationship from the world, this time not to hide it, but to keep what matters to themselves.

✩ The "albums' lost tracks" are songs that, in my mind, could've been among Taylor's more recent albums' tracklist, because their lyrics and melody would really fit there.

In contrast to the 'sequels', which lyrically depict a more mature pov of past situations, the 'lost tracks', to me, sound like they could be a part of past albums, both lyrically and sonically, at the time those albums were released.

These tracks are:

Glitch: the whole song is giving jaylor in their pre-dating era, especially during autumn of 2016, so I could really see it in reputation.

Paris: undeniably a Lover's track which lost its way and ended up in Midnights. being happily in love and not letting anything else affect your peace of mind.

Lavender Haze: I could see this one as a bridge between reputation and Lover. It's keeping your private life under a mystery vale, but also reminds me a lot of I Think He Knows.

Snow on the Beach: its ethereal sound and its nature related & otherwordly imagery make me feel the song could fit in folklore.

The songs I think could fit evermore are:

Vigilante Shit (no body, no crime's missing sister)

The Great War (Renegade walked so this song could run)

and High Infidelity

all because of their narrative; everything that happens sounds like a movie or book plot, and everyone who's part of it sounds like a character of that fictional story.

I could kinda see Bigger Than the Whole Sky being among Fearless (Taylor's version) (from the vault) tracks. The hopelessness after losing someone that meant everything to you and trying to figure out what went wrong are really giving young Taylor, while the arrangement reminds me of Don't You.

And I could really see Hits Different being a RED TV (from the vault) track; I feel the lyrics resemble an era of a young Taylor (obviously before Joe) but at a time when, in the media, she was starting to appear as this girl who just 'switches boyfriends' as if she doesn't care about them, so she tries to appear cool and unbothered, while in reality she's losing her mind over the break up that completely broke her heart. And the whole vibe is really The Very First Night and I personally love it as much :,)

✩ The "Midnights core theme" tracks are the songs that, in my opinion, reflect Taylor's deepest feelings on where she currently is in life (not flashbacks of past events). They're the songs that I personally believe could summarize Midnights concept best. In a cohesive order, they are:

Anti-hero: doubting your worth, morality, and overall self image, and realizing half your problems are actually in your own mind.

Bejeweled: acknowledging your real value again, after the ones that hurt you almost took your shine away.

Labyrinth: all the past pain, trauma and insecurities coming to the surface, desperately wanting to heal and being understood, fearing to ever going through what hurt you before again.

Karma: A connection between the past and the present. Your actions brought you here and everyone eventually gets what they deserve.

Mastermind: Taylor admits a part of her intrusive thoughts, but concludes that all her actions (which have been fueled by what she feels are her most disposable, egotistical traits), have actually led her to the purest thing that ever happened to her. And that the person she's safest with could see right through her all along.

Dear Reader: a final letter to her past self, trying to remind her not to get lost in what her mind is telling her at her darkest times.

[sitpwgs]

Hi! I hope you had a good week! I hope you have a nice trip with your family and some down time in the upcoming week. Things are mostly fine..I just have to spend time doing a lot of spring cleaning that sometimes overwhelms me. I haven't had time to watch Poor Things or eras yet but will totally tell you what I think when I do. I'm really hoping by the end of this weekend. I've also heard mixed things and it might not be my kind of movie either but I will watch it for her and since it was up for awards. I saw it being compared to Barbie cuz the plot is kinda similar but it's also probably a lot weirder lol. Even if I end up not liking it, I think her performance can make up for that.

I don't really know because she didn't have a lot of singing as Gretchen in the movie or much part at all and I thought what's wrong with me was one of the most awkward parts of the movie besides Stupid with Love lol. But her voice is beautiful and probably better than or for Cady. I totally agree about It Roars! Changing her opening song added nothing..and she really did just seem like a new student, not even homeschooled really. They did try to show some of her awkwardness though. I honestly don't remember the actual scene in the musical for More is Better but I guess I agree cuz she didn't really have a reflection type moment at all, and all her relationships or friendships didn't seem as genuine. So basically the mathletes song would not have made sense in the movie. Like we didn't get to see her growth as the main character..I think Janis and Regina's changes were felt more..idk? So it's just kinda there for me too since the movie and musical already exist. But people seem to still like it, even as a musical or remake, so it's not totally bad. Haha I can't comment cuz that was my first introduction to Les Mis and so were a lot of other movie musicals, like Hairspray or Sweeney Todd. But I didn't even like Les Mis when I first watched it..I thought it was long and boring...l so I will say opinions can change haha.

Well I never had the chance to order and was able to pick the one I wanted since they were all already announced but I agree with your points. Usually I just wait until they're all announced anyway and I did that with 1989 too. I think she specifically wanted something new to announce at every country tour stop though so it kinda makes sense to spread it out. She announced Midnights and 1989 all at once I think...or at least we knew how many there were beforehand. This time I wasn't sure cuz I thought maybe there would only be two bonus tracks at first, similar to Evermore. So that makes it hard because we have to pick the version based on a song we haven't even heard yet. That's why I went with the cover I liked best, the Albatross and I never really play my vinyls anyway lol. I'm honestly still not sure what to think of these bonus tracks yet..like if they're all connected in some way like different endings like Folklore and Evermore or if it's more like 3AM..and they are just extras that didn't fit the album. They all have "the" in the title and seem pretty similar based on the concepts, which is almost like old fashioned words or phrases. It just gives me that vibe. but it also bothers me we won't get to hear them with the rest of the album on a first listen and how the vinyl will be missing other songs. But I think other artists do it and some people like the special edition vibe of each one.

Anyway the explicit tracks are the tortured poets department, Down Bad, But Daddy I Love Him, Florida, loml, I can do it with a broken heart, and the smallest man who ever lived. So I was already interested in the title track but this made me more interested since those are always my favorites. I also think the song will set the tone of the album maybe, like Fearless and Red in a way. Or it might be a single..but if it is, I would expect it to be similar to Cardigan in a way. A song I love with a lot of metaphors or her best lyrics. I also think the song could be about her career or how she uses writing songs to get through her life. But I also saw someone say it could be about how her and Joe loved being sad writing sad songs together so maybe it's a bad thing and a metaphor for their relationship or breakup. Either of these could be interesting to me! So it's hard to imagine her using harsh language for this song so I would guess it's minor. What do you think? I haven't thought much about Down Bad as a song..lol but maybe she will twist the phrase and what we would usually think it means? It's one of the ones that don't stand out to me so I guess this makes me more curious. But Daddy I love Him didn't shock me cuz it's very Lana. loml could be the same idea of down bad and she's changing the phrase, or the title is misleading. I feel like it's something she would do and that was one of the songs I was already excited for and same with Florida. I can do it with a broken heart also seems like one that will have minimal language to me but maybe i'm wrong. It wouldn't surprise me if she says fuck in smallest man who ever lived though. I think maybe two of these songs might say the f word and that's it. It seems to be the pattern from her last few albums. Anyway I can send you more of my thoughts on other songs later closer to the album coming out. But omg about rep! Do you still like some songs? I totally get it if it's not your vibe..but I personally love it. Maybe the rerecording will make you.like it hopefully. I just think it's one of her albums that I like as the full album..more than individual songs. I think half of this album seems like it could be kinda similar to rep almost? Like telling a full story in a way chronologically possibly in the way that rep does..the same way it kinda told the beginning of the relationship. Aww I hope you still have fun and enjoy listening to the new album when you come back! My sister and I started writing our thoughts while we listen to each song on texts to each other so we can remember our first impressions and we do it for albums we are really excited for!

We did it for the last few but sometimes like with the Kacey or Bleachers one there's not a lot to say. For Taylor, I like to get my first listen in and then write my thoughts so I'm not distracted but sometimes I can't always remember certain lyrics that stood out. It's kinda fun to look back at reactions and see which ones stood out and also sometimes helps keep track of which song is which or which ones we liked. My favorites usually stay the same but with Midnights there was so many i thought was just okay at first, like you're on your own kid or Antihero. What are you hoping to get at record store day?

I would definitely recommend the Eternal Sunshine movie! It kinda reminds me of a more weird kinda bleak version of 500 days of summer if you've seen that. But the movie is about erasing all of your memories and a person from your mind which was the concept of the song but didn't fit the whole album to me.

Well twenty one pilots has another new song and video out and I love it! They also announced their tour so that gives me something to look forward to. You can always listen to it or their other albums if you want and see what you think. Even if you play the two new songs, it shows they can do different genres and different sides to their music lol. I also spent the week listening to Beyonce's albums and I realized that I love when artists can do different genres. It shows their creativity and artistry and how much they care about music. I definitely felt that with her new album! It's pretty long but it was new and different for her and I admire how she made her version of country. It was also kinda split into sections with radio interludes. I only heard it once but I'm excited to listen to it again. I think I liked it more than my first listen of Renaissance actually and it has more slow songs and vocals so you might enjoy it! My favorites were Bodyguard, Alligator Tears, Levi's Jeans, Riverdance, and Hands II Heaven I but just on the first listen. I would also recommend Soccer Mommy and Best Coast which are alternative singer songwriters pretty similar to Paramore if you need more recommendations! don't worry about replying, since this ask got really long. I hope you have a good weekend enjoying time with family.

helloooo friend!! i hope you've been doing well 🤍 so sorry this has been so delayed 🤍

how have things been for you? what have you been up to? have you been listening to anything new? i've been essentially looping either cast recordings, schmigadoon (which i finally watched yesterday + today), espresso by sabrina carpenter & good luck babe by chappell roan. i listened to the new maggie rogers once and liked it, same with the new lizzy mcalpine, but haven't had the brain capacity to properly listen and learn lyrics and all that yet!

i haven't really done album of the day in like three weeks... oops? i think it started to feel more like a chore than something i was doing for fun. and that was also what happened to my hobonichi, but i've also been sick + out of town so i'm giving myself some slack there :( i feel like every time i talk to you i am sick and i'm sorry i keep complaining about it!!

i've always loved les mis, but i think i was predisposed to do so! i've only seen the sweeney film, and until recently haven't really been interested in it but i might hunt down a bootleg and see if i like it... we'll see. have we talked about schmigadoon yet? i feel like we have, but i can't remember. i'm currently sick (what else is new) which is why i finally sat down and watched schmigadoon — i might finally watch some bootlegs i've been meaning to watch for ages too.

happy tortured poets release week!! i'm still feeling a bit detached from the album and release week, but i'm excited to talk to you about it and hear your thoughts/your favorite songs! i saw the songwriter credit list came out today; i don't think my opinions on what songs i'm most intrigued by has changed, but i'm curious if yours has based on who worked on what!

i am no longer doing record store day since i'm sick :((((( but i'm hoping that a friend will be able to pick up a record or two for me, and maybe i'll luck out trying to hunt things down online the next day!

i listened to the new beyonce album while i was on vacation! i really liked it and i think the radio interludes were really cool! i'll have to do a couple more listens until i can pick a favorite though!!

did you get tickets to the 21p tour? i hope you did! 🤍 i'm so sorry this is short!! i have not been feeling well but i wanted to reply to this before it got even longer <3333 love you!

[bisluthq]

Happiness is about folklore era/the music; a lyric analysis.

So I see the song happiness confusing a lot of fans and I feel like it’s actually more straightforward than most of the other evermore songs. In order to understand it, though, we have to keep two things in mind:

She wrote it last and only finished it about a week before the album’s release. 

She said this in EW well prior to the album’s release: have this weird thing that I do when I create something where in order to create the next thing I kind of, in my head, attack the previous thing. I don't love that I do that but it is the thing that has kept me pivoting to another world every time I make an album. But with this one, I just still love it. I'm so proud of it. And so that feels very foreign to me. That doesn't feel like a normal experience that I've had with releasing albums.

Taylor has said this was the final thing she made for evermore, and she has also said that usually she wants to “destroy” the previous thing she made. In this case, that previous thing was folklore right? Now let’s look at the lyrics of the song. 

Honey, when I'm above the trees

I see this for what it is

But now I'm right down in it, all the years I've given

Is just shit we're dividin' up

Showed you all of my hiding spots

“Above the trees” is a callback to seven (where she’s both in the trees and high in the sky) and therefore to folklore - and she’s twisting it because again it’s “becoming folklore”, right? Even the recent past songs are not exempt from the treatment. 

“But now I’m right down in it, all the years I’ve given is just shit we’re dividin’ up” sounds like her current re-records situation. So essentially she seems to be saying that now that she is in the midst of the masters drama - re-recording her old stuff and all that, she’s being dredged into past mistakes and problems but she sees things more clearly when she is in the folklore era. 

The “hiding spots” are both a reference to folklore (and again the song seven) and the way she has mixed fact and fiction in this era to create a new narrative, allowing her to share very real truths but in a way that’s obscured through fictional characters AND a continuation of the thought above, where she was more confessional. She’s kinda toying with what it means to hide and what it means to show her truth and kinda suggests folklore era is the better experience of that. 

Then it gets even more explicit:

I was dancing when the music stopped

And in the disbelief, I can't face reinvention

I haven't met the new me yet

So the first line is mirrorball/her cancelled tour and the way she has continued working through “the disbelief”. And she “can’t face reinvention” - can’t do what she has always done as per the EW quote, and “hasn’t met the new her” yet. This seems confirms evermore and folklore are sister albums, right, and that this is one era. And that it’s the first time that has happened to her - that one era spilled into “another”. 

Then she says:

There'll be happiness after you

But there was happiness because of you

Both of these things can be true

There is happiness

She is enjoying this right now (there is happiness, in the last line, so it’s not just a past tense thing), but it’s a little bittersweet because she knows there will eventually be an era after this. She will move on and find new sources of inspiration and new musical ideas and styles and thoughts. And she also knows this happiness was given to her folklore and now is in evermore. But she’ll move on from the whole era eventually as well. 

After that, Taylor writes:

Past the blood and bruise

Past the curses and cries

Beyond the terror in the nightfall

Haunted by the look in my eyes

That would've loved you for a lifetime

Leave it all behind

And there is happiness

She is moving through all of her past hurts and mistakes and regrets - that’s what she’s doing on these albums, we’ve been saying she’s processing a lot of very old hurts and mistakes and experiences and finding happiness. 

Next, we get this:

Tell me, when did your winning smile

Begin to look like a smirk?

When did all our lessons start to look like weapons

Pointed at my deepest hurt?

Firstly, she is working through a lot of stuff on these albums so these are reasonable things to ask even in a vague way. But more than that, she is hinting at bow the way she worked her “winning smile” was no longer sustainable. That’s what she speaks to in this interview. She couldn’t keep writing pure autobiography or primarily autobiography (I have said she mixes facts and fiction before folklore and I stand by that, but the point is she framed it as such). The “lessons” she had learned started pointing out her hurts. She needed a new modus operandi. 

And so what happens in the next bit? She embraces that new storytelling device:

I hope she'll be your beautiful fool

Who takes my spot next to you

No, I didn't mean that

Sorry, I can't see facts through all of my fury

You haven't met the new me yet

We get a reference to Fitzgerald/Great Gatsby to distance herself from this (extremely) personal song. And then she immediately backtracks - “I didn’t mean that, sorry I can’t see facts” - she is on the fence about what the narrative device means. She isn’t completely comfortable adding in this fictional character into her songwriting. Her emotions - her “fury” - are obscuring that. And so she says we, her listeners, haven’t met the new her yet. We are still in folklore era. 

We get another twist on this bittersweet chorus:

There'll be happiness after me

But there was happiness because of me

Both of these things, I believe

There is happiness

Once more, there is happiness right now. But there’ll be happiness after this era - and maybe even after she stops making music - but she made an impact in this era (and in the past before) and she created happiness for us, her listeners. 

She continues with that theme:

In our history, across our great divide

There is a glorious sunrise

Dappled with the flickers of light

From the dress I wore at midnight, leave it all behind

And there is happiness

This seems to reference 1989, Reputation and possibly even Lover - so her last three eras and… possibly more. That’s “our history”, right, the way she has recreated herself over her career. The “great divide” separates this new era from her past ones. And then we get Wildest Dreams but folklorized - sunrise instead of sunset. And possibly Daylight - but the light is flickering now, so maybe it’s also DBATC. The dress I wore at midnight could be Wildest Dream’s “nice dress”, the one she bought so “you could take it off”, or one of the princess gowns from early eras…  like the Love Story one, even. Or even the one in Dear John. It’s both extremely specific and vague, and I think is purposefully what she’s about to “leave behind” right. She’s leaving “the girl in the dress” behind. 

And when she does leave her behind, there is happiness. But it’s still bittersweet. 

We then get:

I can't make it go away by making you a villain

I guess it's the price I paid for seven years in Heaven

Well the first line is very obviously the Reputation era, but it also fits all her other diss tracks and the drags of all kinds (like just the “write a song about you” vibes she gave off for a long time). 

And then the line that broke y’all - “seven years”.... Well, there were seven “confessional” albums. Where she was making “you” a villain and letting people in and now she is stepping back from that. Everyone is still trying to “pin” songs on people and that’s the price she paid for that time. A time she really, genuinely enjoyed. But which she wants to move on from now. 

Then:

And I pulled your body into mine

Every goddamn night, now I get fake niceties

No one teaches you what to do

When a good man hurts you

And you know you hurt him, too

I think this is in part that fictional narrative she started with in the Gatsby thing. Remember, this is deeply deeply personal but she has said that this album is always mixing fact and fiction. So as much as it’s that fictional aspect, she is also saying she used her romances as inspiration - and no one teaches you what to do when you get hurt by that. She used to write songs. But she knows that’s not the only way and you hurt people on the way too. So this is in part the protagonist singing, but it’s also referencing her songwriting style and inspiration and process. 

Taylor then goes back to her early images in the song and twists them a bit:

Honey, when I'm above the trees

I see it for what it is

But now my eyes leak acid rain on the pillow where you used to lay your head

After giving you the best I had

Tell me what to give after that

All you want from me now is the green light of forgiveness

You haven't met the new me yet

And I think she'll give you that

When she is in the folklore era she can “see it for what it is”. The “acid rain” seems to hark back to early albums that had very many songs about meeting up in and reconciling in the rain. She gave us the best she had but what should she do after that? Then we get the Gatsby thing that recurs through this with the green light. I think she’s also toying with the idea that many of her fans kinda want that confessional thing. Many of us want to be let in and to get a window into her life but she can’t quite do it - she’s masking it in Gatsby and characters. 

We - her listeners - haven’t me the new her yet. 

But maybe we’ll like that new her even more, Tay says, in a bittersweet way. 

This is the ode to folklore era again: 

There'll be happiness after you

But there was happiness because of you, too

Both of these things can be true

There is happiness

And again there is happiness. 

This bit is similar to the previous one, but again in the way she usually does in this song and era twisted somewhat:

In our history, across our great divide

There is a glorious sunrise

Dappled with the flickers of light

From the dress I wore at midnight, leave it all behind

Oh, leave it all behind

Leave it all behind

And there is happiness

What’s the twist? Leave it all behind is repeated. She is really insisting that in leaving the history behind she is finding happiness. Now. It is. It exists. But it is, again, somewhat bittersweet because she finds her relationship with this era so confusing - especially, I think, given she is currently re-recording. 

In conclusion, this reading makes the most sense to me and I’m curious what y’all think. 

[mooosicaldreamz]

We obviously need your song by song analysis of evermore please!

i got asked to do this about four times so here it is.....much anticipated. i know. please note that when i say that i hate her or despise her i don’t actually mean that. but i do

EVERMORE

OK LETS GO

WILLOW - ok, groovy first time you hear it, right? has a strong rumbly wiggle. let’s VIBE. the low of the verse, the high of the chorus…oh my goodness! what is she doing. she’s just out there! wow. “wherever you stray i follow” is a banger. “life was a willow and it bent right to your wind” with the overlay oof let’s go.!!!! a shockingly strong first entry of the record…best one since “welcome to new york” maybe!!! let’s just say it!!! for some reason “i come back stronger than a 90s trend” throws me off though…i don’t know. it’s just so moody pop, no one is doing it like her!!! i hate her

CHAMPAGNE PROBLEMS - every time i listen to this song i listen to it four times. not a joke. it’s perfect. i don’t think i need to convince anyone! it’s perfect!!!!! what are you doing? taylor swift, the most dramatic bitch, has been writing dramatic bitch songs since she was fourteen and yet, somehow, she contrives to write even more dramatic things as she ages. this song is a JOKE. there are not ENOUGH songs about denying proposals! it’s just simple and sad. oh my god. it’s insane. the fact that she wrote this with her boyfriend (i have a running theory that they are married, we are going to refer to joe as her Perfect and Glorious Husband from now on) …… come on. the ENTIRE BREAKDOWN. “YOUR MIDAS TOUCH ON THE CHEVY DOOR / NOVEMBER FLUSH YOUR FLANNEL CURE / THIS DORM WAS ONCE A MADHOUSE / I MADE A JOKE WELL ITS MADE FOR ME / HOW EVERGREEN OUR GROUP OF FRIENDS / DON’T THINK WE’LL SAY THAT WORD AGAIN / AND SOON THEY’LL HAVE THE NERVE TO DECK THE HALLS THAT WE ONCE WALKED THROUGH” ……. concluding with that absolute stabby killer “what a shame she’s fucked in the head” oh my god……….. and the song resolving in a very adult “you’ll find someone else” god

GOLD RUSH - ok so like this song is like ok it’s got the same groovy high /low that’s happening on willow but it’s so different! it’s so good! the pulse of the beat propelling the whole thing through and then the falling apart “oh what must it be like to grow up that beautiful”……………..ok. the visceral image of “my eagles t-shirt hanging from the door” …………. i admire very much taylor’s oncoming gift of moving through high/low imagery…… i love her so much? it’s so HARD. “my mind turns your life into folklore” beautiful! BEAUTIFUL! also i have some belief in me that this is about karlie kloss but i shall not dive into that hole.

TIS THE DAMN SEASON - oh so i’m supposed to LIVE with this song EXISTING. WHY!!!! HOW……..oh my god………..taylor was like, yes, i’m going to write a song about a famous girl going home and banging her high school flame for a week and jack and aaron were like oh ok. “i parked my car between the methodist and the school that used to be ours.” she is such a joke. “you could call me babe for the weekend” like ok emo!! emo!!! OK. I LOVE THIS SONG

TOLERATE IT - taylor really gave us the most depressing track 5, but it’s absolutely a banger and i love her! she is just vibing! oh my god. what a specific emotion to pinpoint with this song….it’s such a gift. no one is hitting this space

NO BODY NO CRIME - this song has no business being on this record but in the BEST WAY, like how daddy lessons mysteriously appears in the middle of lemonade. oh my goodness. this is just pure country revenge song. taylor was like oh actually i haven’t forgotten my roots and i hate men more than i ever have. and she got haim to sing with her. and it’s so good. the low “i think he did it” oh my goodness. this song is a joke. how is it real? it’s just a perfect radio song. it reminds me very much of “before he cheats” but it’s a lot more sonically calm

HAPPINESS - similar to “tolerate it” and i think “champagne problems” this song is beating on an emotional bush that is really really hard to hit the head of. like, so she collabed with the national and bon iver on this record and previous obvi, and i LOVE them, but their music can often be very………impressionistic? perhaps? is how i might put it. it’s sometimes hard to get a note of specificity from it. imo. but taylor loves a fucking story bro. and she has figured out how to tell made up stories. she can’t be stopped now. like…this space of a breakup and knowing that it’s for the best and being sad in this way? name a pop star who has a song this nuanced. for real! god. i despise her. “across a great divide / there is a glorious sunrise”

DOROTHEA - the other half to the far superior TIS THE DAMN SEASON and a banger all the same. it has the bouncy joy of the most buoyant national songs. in the same vein as the also far superior BETTY, she has her sweet dumb boy slurry and less intelligent voice. i love that she paints these narrators this way, it’s just nothing she would have ever reached for ever before this period. she has a Perfect and Glorious Husband now and she has begun to understand teenage boys, FINALLY.

CONEY ISLAND - i have upon many occasions opined that i love the national VERY MUCH. i once went to a festival with my gf and her sister to see them even though i was expressly not invited and you know what despite the fact that it caused a lot of angst, i got to see the national play TERRIBLE LOVE in the middle of the night and I SCREAMED IT. so like, listen. what is matt berninger doing here, to me, specifically????????? i was somewhat hesitant about how their voices might blend, but it works astonishingly well. and i think that it’s so wonderful, i can’t. the imagery of a dreary coney island…..”sorry for not winning you an arcade ring.” as taylor always proves, the bridge is spectacular. “were you standing in the hallway / with a big cake / happy birthday”……”and when i got into the accident / the sight that flashed before me was your face / but when i walked up to the podium / i think that i forgot to say your name” sorry to yOU calvin. she had ISSUES. and now she has a Perfect and Glorious Husband. also “sorry for not making you my centerfold” ok kaylor

IVY - this song is about emily dickinson and i DARE you to tell me that i’m wrong. I DARE YOU. I DARE YOU. you’d be wrong! embarrassing for you. taylor finally writing a probably legitimate queer song and it’s about fucking emily dickinson is so on brand…..it’s dripping with poetry and groove and she’s so fucking dumb i hate her so much. her narrative of ivy and poetry and the lakes district…….ok taylor. i know. i know you watched all the dickinson things that came out and you identified with her. the gentle sway of the “oh, goddamn” and the “oh, i can’t”……i CAN’T EITHER TAYLOR !!! i CAN”T TAYLOR!!!! “oh goddamn / my pain fits in the palm of your freezing hand / taking mine but it’s been promised to another / oh i can’t / stop you putting roots in my dreamland” TAYLOR. and then she says, “oh you didn’t realize this wasn’t gay?” “i want to know the fatal flaw that makes you long to be magnificently cursed” like @ emily yourself taylor “he wants what’s only yours”……TAYLOR. give me the entire catalogue of emily dickinson songs!!!!! i can’t do this. “springs breaks loose / but so does fear” “i’d live and die for moments that we stole / on begged and borrowed time / so tell me to run / or dare to sit and watch what we’ll become / and drink my husband’s wine.” taylor if you see this post, a, i love you, b, i need you to tell me about ivy, and c, PLEASE can i have tickets to your next tour in the year 2025 or whenever because my gf never buys me any to your shows……….i love this song if it isn’t clear. i think i’d love it if it wasn’t gay

COWBOY LIKE ME - ok this will sound weird and if you’ve read this far i’m going to assume that you don’t care about me being weird…but this song reminds me of the fanfiction STAY THE NIGHT by lynnearlington (maybe u’ve heard of it). please reply if you think about this and feel the same. “never wanted love / just a fancy car” “you had some tricks up your sleeve / takes one to know one / you’re a cowboy like me” the opening line re: the tent-like thing reminds me very strongly of the fourth of july at our family’s country club and they set up a tent over the parking lot and this song just makes me think of that vibe????? i don’t know. i have vibes. i love this song a lot, which is impressive because it follows after the gay euphoria of IVY. perhaps this is because it gives me its own gay euphoria. “now you hang from my lips like the garden babylon” ???? is one of the most gay, seductive, brutal lyrics i have ever heard. she wrote that down and was like, oh yeah, vibez, hundo p. she did that to me

LONG STORY SHORT - this song is an honorary sequel to I FORGOT THAT YOU EXISTED from the lover era (honestly i’m still in the lover era). but i actually think this song is better! so we are taking that. “actually i’ve always thought that i looked better from the rearview” ok taylor let’s access that feeling! “no more keeping score / i just keep you warm” is like, stupidly sweet.  rip to calvin but now taylor has a Perfect and Glorious Husband.

MARJORIE - made me cry, simple and beautiful. one of the more personal songs on the tracklist! and something that i had never considered that she would write about, but i think the quarantine period has allowed a lot of us to dig into our feelings, so….vibez. we’re vibing!

CLOSURE - this song’s production sounds a lot like bon iver’s recent productions, very tech-y and repetitive and spare. rip to karlie kloss but taylor has a Perfect and Glorious Husband and karlie’s legal last name is kushner so who really won? hmm? i love “i’m fine with my spite / and my tears / and my beers / and my candles” the inclusion of candles is just. vibez. there are four candles lit rn in our apartment!

EVERMORE - i think this song is very intriguing and i’m still puzzling with it! the simplicity of her depressive gray November phase and then the very ebullient and bold bon iver interlude……..really has a manic/depressive, sad/angry vibe???? it feels so on brand for this pandemic quarantine…..and it works shockingly well, except for that i’d rather listen to the bon iver part for 10 minutes more. “all my waves are being tossed / is there a line that i can just go cross” and then taylor’s sort of call and response with his interlude……should just be the whole song.  but it’s still good. that’s how annoying she is

[wasamontage]

what’s your taylor album ranking? as long as we agree on speak now supremacy your opinions are automatically top tier

okay okay so I love speak now but it might be a little low on my list solely because this list is based off of my personal love of the albums and that was very heavily influenced by if I experienced the album in real time which only really applied from rep on (I have another list thats a more objective ranking and speak now is much higher there)- but yeah here’s my very biased ranking hhhh

1. rep (I’m very biased towards rep bc I joined the fandom a bit late so rep was the first album I was here for the whole time- I also just really love how the album felt like it was just for her fans, like more so than any of her others, and how the media thinks it’s her angriest album but it’s actually one of her softest and happiest albums and it has such great songs and such a good era idk idk I just love this album so so much)

2. Lover (I know people don’t like lover and I personally don’t get it because I think it was such an amazing album and it’s lyrics were fantastic and she managed to have this mixture of fun super upbeat songs but also much slower and sometimes sadder songs and yet it was all so definitively lover- idk I don’t get the hate I love lover and I will defend her to the grave)

3. Folklore (I love evermore and folklore but I really like folklore man- like I’m obsessed with the vibes it gives off and I remember thinking when I was only 2 songs into my first listen I was like yeah I’m gonna fall in love with this album and I did- it’s just such a nice chill but also fun album to listen to and it’s amazing story wise and I love that)

4. Red (this is such a good album it’s objectively her best album in my opinion because the lyrics are incredible and some of the rawest of her career and honestly I love how sonically incohesive it is bc it just feels so genuine and messy but it also just fits so perfectly together)

5. Speak now (god speak now was on a whole other level- I love this album so so much and I think the only reason I have it so low is bc I didn’t get to experience it in real time which is my fault but it’s such a good album. And the fact that she wrote it all herself and had songs like ours, dear John, last kiss I just love this album and it deserves everything)

6. Evermore (I really do love evermore it’s a really really good album but just in comparison to her other albums it’s not as high for me at least not yet- doesn’t mean Im not still playing it on repeat since it came out bc I definitely have been- it also has wonderful storytelling that I’m obsessed with- mr alwyn can tell a good story)

7. Fearless (okay here’s where we start getting to the albums I kinda don’t care about- look I love fearless she’s really cute but idk I usually just don’t listen to this album- it does have great songs like white horse and the way I loved you which are wonderful but idk as a whole I don’t listen to it too much)

8. 1989 (unpopular opinion but I don’t like 1989 that much. Like it’s a good album but it’s really repetitive to me and I think if I just listened to this album by itself without knowing it was by Taylor I’d like it more but when I think about her other albums in comparison it just shoots this down to the bottom bc I know the lyrics she is capable of writing)

9. Debut (yeah no I don’t really like country taylor tbh I think I only really listen to Mary’s song and should’ve said no and cold as you? Sorry no Yeehaw for me)

But yeah as you can tell my ranking is very biased based on her most recent albums bc I was actually there to see the eras which definitely affected my opinions of them. I’m sorry I put speak now so low I promise it’s much higher on my objective ranking Skskeke

[lovenliterature]

evermore thoughts

willow

I wasn’t sold on this on first listen but I really liked it on second listen with more attention to lyrics

video is also really lovely, big fan of that

really really like the difference in melody for the diff appearances of “life was a willow and it bent right to your wind”

favourite lyric: “I come back stronger than a 90s trend” - the look she does at the camera cemented this as my fave line even more

champagne problems

down as one of my faves from the start

love love love the narrative

proper late night with cider, melancholy vibe

kind of like a grown up/worse feeling august in terms of vibes?? as in like the experience described feels like a more intense heartbreaking august in a way

really like the conclusion too

favourite lyric: I really struggled to pick here but: “you booked the night train for a reason/so you could sit there in this hurt” for sheer visceral emotion, “dom perignon you brought it” for the way its sung, “How evergreen, our group of friends/Don't think we'll say that word again” and “she’ll patch up your tapestry that I shred” for lyricism

gold rush

again, one i wasn’t super sold on the first listen, music and the vibe didn’t really interest me

first notes made me think of epiphany

but then i listened to it watching the lyric video and holy shit

now v appreciative of the melody and bass and the pace of the lyrics

really really like her embracing talking about jealousy

love love love the ending and beginning being the same holy shit

favourite lyrics: “at dinner parties, I call you out on your contrarian shit” and the way she sings “with your hair falling into place like dominoes”

‘tis the damn season

again preferred on second listen, wasn’t on the list of early faves

the best xmas late night walks vibe, walking through frosty streets at home between houses, embracing the only time you get to think, losing yourself in music and nighttime with freezing hands and cloudy breath

would’ve fit my 2019 xmas vibe too

melancholy and nostalgia

favourite lyrics: “sleep in half the day/just for old time’s sake” and “and the heart I know I’m breakin’ is my own”

tolerate it

god girl you deserve better

kinda like a sad last great american dynasty in terms of searching for approval

naive innocence taken advantage of

drunk in my garden walking round to try and forget my life kinda vibe

favourite lyrics: “i know my love should be celebrated/but you tolerate it” and “now I’m begging for footnotes in the story of your life” 

no body no crime

holy shit did i sleep on this at first but oh my god its so good

start gives me show of hands vibes which is great

her husbands acting different and it smells like infidelity - just the way she sings this is so so fucking good

this is the easiest song to listen to and holy shit its just great

favourite lyric: “she said “that ain’t my merlot on his mouth/that ain’t my jewellery on our joint account”

happiness

“all the years I’ve given/is just shit we’re dividin’ up” - v v true, you have to rebuild your life after every relationship and taking it all apart is so much more sudden than building it up

like an alternative to the 1 which I LOVE

but also some parallels to this is me trying: “I hope she’ll be a beautiful fool..... sorry I didn’t mean that” vs “my words shoot to kill when I’m mad”

the whole bridge is iconic - “I can’t make it go away by making you a villain” - in the short term, anger at an ex can help, but eventually you have to move on, and its easier to accept that there was good in the relationship after a while, and it makes looking back on it better

“no one teaches you what to do/when a good man hurts you/and you know you hurt him too” - blame on both sides is much harder to take and grieve and its hard to know how to cope with that. it also makes advice more complicated because there isn’t much you can say to help

favourite lyric: “both of these things can be true” - always love duality and nuance in literature and its nice to hear it acknowledged in a climate of binary oppositions and no shades of grey

dorothea

nostalgia for the future

now prob my most listened, gets stuck in my head and one of the few i do listen to in isolation - like august

Reminds me so much of Ella - each other’s history, not each other’s whole future but in there somewhere

again sapphic vibes, real strong esp because of the ella vibes its the whole in between romantic and platonic affection

“hey dorothea, do you ever stop and think about me” - that’s the way I think of people I love esp ella and people from that era of my life, and anyone where its kinda open ended or just grown apart

favourite lyric: “and damn dorothea, they all wanna be ya”

coney island

instant fave - marked down from first listen and probably still one i actively look forward to 

much like with exile, the male vocals GOT me

“did I shatter you” that line broke my goddamn heart

favourite lyrics: both for the sheer feelings of the vocals and the lyricism “were you standing in the hallway/with a big cake, happy birthday/did I paint your skies the darkest grey” and “and when I got into the accident/the sight that flashed before me was your face”

ivy

the way she sings goddamn could be the whole fucking song its so beautiful

“my pain fits in the palm of your freezing hand/taking mine, but it’s promised to another” - the passive here is great

“he wants what’s only yours”

the trilogy of these lyrics “what would he do if he found us out?”, “he’s gonna burn this house to the ground”, “and drink my husband’s wine”, the recklessness, the drinking his wine like a secret defiance

“my house of stone/your ivy grows/and now i’m covered in you” - fucking hell this is the best imagery - even with the strongest walls and foundations, the love crept through and grew inside her til she was covered in it

favourite lyric: quite literally just the words “oh, goddamn”

cowboy like me

“dancin’ is a dangerous game” - hell yeah I get so many feelings from this, it just reminds me of the intimacy of dancing and the feeling of swaying in someone’s arms

“and the skeletons in both our closets/plotted hard to fuck this up” - both like active interference of exes or just simply trauma, unresolved issues

“forever is the sweetest con” - believing hurts and everything ends but its worth it for the time you have

favourite lyrics: “now you hang from my lips/like the gardens of Babylon”

long story short

first notes make me think of between the saltmarsh and the sea even though its SO different but also a bit like august idk why

“if the shoe fits walk in it/til your high heels break” - i just love the imagery of this line

“fell down the rabbit hole” - living for this line and the wonderland vibe

“but if someone comes at us, this time i’m ready” - the vibe of like not looking for a fight but defending what you love

favourite lyric: “past me/I wanna tell you not to get lost in these petty things” - YES BITCH also the energy I give to past me and future me gives to me now or “long story short I survived”

marjorie

another song I come back to on its own

this is the exact wistful vibe i look for in calm ish songs, can be sad, can be happy depending on a mood and this is perfect

the video is incredible and marjorie providing the backing vocals made me cry also it being in the same place on the record as epiphany was on folklore

“never be so polite/you forget your power/never wield such power/you forget to be polite” - love the use of wield, it also feels like the medium women try to find between being a “bad bitch” and being ladylike, but not a medium society will accept bc fuck that, the exact way THEY wanna do it instead

really the song i needed after the year of so much grief, and i know it’s gonna bring me comfort when grandma goes, especially the line “what died didn’t stay dead”

favourite lyric: “watched as you signed your name: marjorie” - the way this is sung will literally stay with me forever, its like a legacy in one line

closure

again, instant fave

the vibe of you don’t owe someone shit just bc they feel guilty is so good

“yes I got your letter/yes I’m doing better” “I know that it’s over” - I’ve moved on and I don’t need your permission for that or your well wishes thanks

Moving on doesn’t mean forgiveness

I just love the melody so much and its such a good song agh

favourite lyric: “I know I’m just a wrinkle in your new life/staying friends would iron it out so nice”

evermore

“grey november/I’ve been down since July” - most explicit pandemicy vibes i get, I was home and it was almost possible to just regard it as a normalish summer, looking after the dog and living at home and now its coming up to Christmas and I’m living away from home, our family is split across 5 homes in 4 cities and its fucking hard (not even sure if its that type of down but that’s how it made me feel)

“writing letters/addressed to the fire” - literally just picked up on this lyric and has kinda a dual meaning for me. 1 -feeling shit about things you create, putting in effort, just to throw it away. 2 - tactic for tackling anxiety, just getting rid of thoughts and releasing them from my brain

“Cannot think of all the cost/And the things that will be lost/Oh, can we just get a pause?” - again, v pandemicy and so relevant to the fam’s 2018-2019, we just needed a pause, we had to keep going and not process what we’d lost or we’d never carry on

such a good depression song

favourite lyric: “staring out an open window/catching my death”

[wegotcrowns]

13 Going on 31

The past few days have been filled with many emotions with the release of folklore’s sister album, evermore. I’ve been trying to find a moment of complete stillness to where I’ve leveled myself out enough in order to sit down and write this blog post in the manner that it deserves. With today being TS’s birthday, I couldn’t think of a more perfect time. 

I’m going to take it back to Thursday morning for a second but before I do, I just really need to get this out of my system... WHAT IN THE ACTUAL FUCK TAYLOR. Okay, now that that’s out of the way, we can go on with our regularly scheduled programming. Where were we? Oh yeah, Thursday morning. I started to get notifications on my phone that TS was posting on her instagram page, so naturally, I dropped everything I was doing and started stalking her page. She was doing one of those things where you upload pictures as puzzle pieces that eventually create one full image when looking at the page. My first thought was, oh shit, she’s about to announce some of the re-recordings or maybe all of them???? In any case, I could feel my heart rate starting to pick up because I knew something big was about to happen. 

Never in a million and one years did I ever think she was about to release her NINTH STUDIO ALBUM!! Ya’ll when I tell you that I felt my soul leave my body, do a few jumping jacks, and then come back into my body, I’m not exaggerating. I actually felt like I was in a state of shock, but then all of the normal release day feelings showed themselves: the shaking hands, the lump in my throat, the heart palpitations, etc, etc. 

I’ve spent the last few days bonding with evermore, just like I do with any other new TS album. If you’re close to me, you know that I compare this type of bonding with the same way a mother / father would bond with their newborn baby. The idea of you already being SO in love with this precious new thing solely based on the fact of its identity and where it came from, but you still haven’t gotten to know it yet -- and that’s what this time is always about for me. 

The biggest takeaway that I’ve personally gotten from evermore and folklore is that TS has finally found her place as an artist and you are either here for the ride or saying sayonara. Ya’ll know I am the fucking captain of this ride but that’s besides the point, I just needed to make that clear. She’s finally at a place where she feels confident in who she is and has zero apologies to give out to anyone, nor should she feel the need to. It made me think that TS really needed to go through the reputation era in order to become this artist that she is today -- this fearless (hah, full circle moment), unapologetic, and bold artist that we’ve witnessed come out so neatly in just these last six months. This notion is so evident in even just the first lyrics off of folklore where TS says “I’m doing good, I’m on some new shit // been saying yes instead of no”. She talked a little about this on long ponds and explained how in the past she would always try to fit a certain persona, a certain artist that everyone needed her to be. But these days, that taylor is long gone. She is finally who SHE wants to be and all of her actions from this day forward are because SHE wants to make it happen in that way, not anyone else. 

There certainly was no lack of this new bold artist in evermore, which was very  refreshing to witness. Part of this new persona that TS has adopted includes her making small references to certain things in her past and having no shame to sort of make fun, or comment on her growth as a human being. This idea was very evident in “long story short” where TS writes “And I fell from the pedestal, right down the rabbit hole, long story short, it was a bad time // Pushed from the precipice, clung to the nearest lips, long story short, it was the wrong guy”. There is something extremely powerful about TS pointing out these huge life-altering events that she had to go through in her past and then talking about it so confidently in these new songs. To hear her speak so nonchalantly  about them makes us, as fans, feel good about it as well. It’s like she’s sending out a message to her fans saying, “Hey, it’s okay. i’m good now and we can finally move past this dark era. Let’s grow together now.” I’m not trying to make this about me or any other fan out there but TS has said time and time again that if it weren’t for her fans, she would not continue making music. We are the fuel that allows her to continue doing what she’s doing every day (her words, not mine) and there’s something so powerful about that. The fact that she’s giving us this much credit will always be one of the biggest honors of my life. 

To dive into some specifics, the song “tolerate it” is by far one of the more powerful songs for me from this album, and maybe even ever. One of the things that makes TS such a spectacular artist and writer is her ability to paint such a vivid picture when describing a feeling. Yes, a feeling. Let’s take a look at some of these lyrics before I explain any further: 

I wait by the door like I’m just a kid // Use my best colors for your portrait // Lay the table with the fancy shit // And watch you tolerate it // If it’s all in my head tell me now // Tell me I’ve got it wrong somehow // I know my love should be celebrated // But you tolerate it

I mean HOLYYYYYYYY FUCKKKKKKKKKK. WHAT!?!?!?!?!?!?!? That is so insane! TS literally just described a very specific type of loneliness so perfectly and you don’t even know she’s doing it until after the fact! I immediately recognized what TS was doing with this song because she literally painted this feeling that I personally have experienced many times with a past relationship of mine. This desperate feeling of wanting to be seen, wanting to be loved in the way that you know you deserve, and the constant thoughts of you doubting yourself, wondering if you two are actually in love or if it’s just all in your head.

I made you my temple, my mural, my sky // Now I’m begging for footnotes in the story of your life 

I mean. come. on. I know this because I’ve experienced it but being trapped in another person’s unwillingness to let someone go due to fear of being alone, uncertainty, and just pure selfishness is the loneliest type of lonely there is and TS was able to describe that so beautifully in this song. I will forever treasure this. 

Another song that stood out to me was “no body, no crime” because those country vibes that were so very prominent here made me feel a bit nostalgic to some of TS’ debut songs. Now please don’t take this as me saying I MiSs tHe oLd TaYloR sWiFt but more of a, thank you taylor for being a complete and utter badass to not be afraid to dip yourself into your roots and give your fans a little taste of the medicine that was used to get them addicted to you in the first place. It was refreshing, and fun. 

The last song I’m going to point out is “ivy” only because there is just something extremely magical about TS saying “goddamn” over and over. 

I’m going to end this blog post the same way I do many others, and that is by thanking TS for this album that is nothing short of a masterpiece. I know I’ve mentioned this in a previous blog post before, but TS will always point her creativity into a direction that her fans need the most. For example, we all know TS is currently living her fairytale life with Joe but she decided to walk through the “folklorian woods” for months to get her mind into a place where she can write these epic, imaginary tales that she knows will resonate with a lot of her fans right now. Also in case you have heard the phrase “Taylor saved 2020″ floating around anywhere on social media, I am here to confirm that that is in fact correct. 

Happy 31st birthday Taylor. I will love you forever.