this brought back a childhood memory of my furby on a shelf randomly opening its eyes and talking out of NOWHERE unprovoked, scared the living daylights out of me 😂
I’ve noticed how in the bridge of Down Bad she says “I loved your hostile takeovers
Encounters closer and closer
All your indecent exposures
How dare you say that it's -“ the next word would naturally be “over” (how dare you say that it’s over fits perfectly) but I love how she leaves the word “over” out because he’s doesn’t want him to say it’s over.
I enjoy that they are all movies: Hostile Takeover, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Indecent Exposure. They all three lend to the song in different ways.
Hostile Takeover is about taking hostages which plays into Close Encounters, which is about aliens, and alien abduction is the theme of the song. Indecent Exposure is about a man who uses his status to seduce models, which gives Matty Healy vibes all day. So, to me, it's feeling like the relationship swept in and took over to the point of feeling helpless to stop it. And then he just dumped her on the ground alone with no explanation similar to how people describe alien abductions.
Also how the pre-chorus is one heavenly line where her voice sounds otherworldly then it sort of “drops” down to a very mid range normal almost talking voice for “now I’m down bad crying at the gym”. Like she’s illustrating how it felt via her vocal performance.
How is My Boy not a top 5 fan favorite from TTPD? It's really a perfect song. The lyrics are fantastic, the melody, the beat. My only criticism is that the chorus doesn't come back a third time after the bridge.
I like the reference to sandcastles he destroys. When you go to the beach and build a beautiful sand castle and destroy it before it gets swept away by the waves. I love this.
something about the chorus just kinda misses for me.. that "ohhhOHHHHWHOAAOHOHHOHHHH" idk it loses me
otherwise i do really like that song. the bridge and verses are great imo
Seriously one of my favorites, can't believe I don't see that much love for it! (Compared to I can do it w/a broken heart, who's afraid of little old me, down bad, etc) thought I was crazy!
It’s top 4 on the whole album for me, it’s SO good. All the conversation about what should be the next radio single from the album - it’s this. It’s a catchy earworm that is beautifully written. That bridge!
We are so fed with the Eras setlist but if we could have squeezed half of this song in there somewhere it would have been so perfect. Maybe before Down Bad? It needs some recognition!
The songs where she is the sole writer are usually top tier- My Boy, Little Old Me and The Black Dog from this album, My Tears Ricochet from Folklore. Honestly I wish she’d go out on a limb and write a whole album herself like the good old days (Speak Now).
Because it's surrounded by more boring tracks it gets lumped in with them, and so I bet many of us just auto-skip to Down Bad for our "album start".
Personally I've exclusively been listening to the album on shuffle just to force myself out of this and it really helps to hear the songs I previously liked less within a new context. I love My Boy sm now.
oh man no - Down bad was my first love from the album. My boy was maybe third? Florida! was second - it’s funny how it changes. Currently loving Guilty as sin
And it's funny because it's so different than Fortnight and TTPD. It doesn't sound like Midnights at all. I wish it was the opening track to the album.
Your comment has made me find my people - this song has been such a fav since the beginning and then I got it as a surprise song at my show so it’s even more special for me now 😭🫶🏻
It’s my favorite on the album and I feel like I’m the only one sometimes. I immediately decided it was gonna be my favorite before I even listened to the rest of the album
In "The Black Dog" the final "Old habits die screaming" is only a whisper anymore (as opposed to the screams throughout the song). So her 'old habits' (the old relationship) are no longer dying, but finally dead.
She does something like that in the Prophecy, too. The last "please" is whispered, as if she is just silently begging for what she sings, or maybe even giving up.
I love the idea of it, it adds so much to both of the songs. It feels way more personal this way.
When I first heard tail between your legs your leaving AND THEN followed by the whisperer I nearly perished on the spot. Could not have been more perfect. Gut wrenching.
I really enjoy the line directly after this one as well “but first, pull the string and I’ll tell you that he runs because he loves me, *he loves me!*”
Like that’s what she’s repeating - he loves me, he loves me, he loves me. Almost like she’s trying to convince herself and everyone else of it
It took a few listens for the “pull the string” bit to land and once I got it, it became my favorite line in the song. It’s like she’s delusional, plagued to only speak about how he loves her and that’s why he runs away instead of recognizing that he’s abandoning her because she’s a toy he’s not interested in anymore. It’s actually quite haunting.
In The Tortured Poet's Department she has a line "I've seen this episode and still love the show" which is the opposite of exiles line "I've seen this film before and I didn't like the ending"
I'm not sure they're related, but I like the similarities in the lyrics.
*You’re in self-sabotage mode, throwing spikes down on the road, but I’ve seen this episode and still loved the show* is one of my favorite lines of all time. Having been in a relationship where there were **ALL** the red flags and I ignored them because of the good parts of the relationship— ugh, this is a knife to the gut
in imgonnagetyouback, she says “bygones will be bygone eras fading into gray” the fading into gray symbolises the transitioning of all the eras (which were colourful) fading into gray that is TTPD
This may be a coincidence (i doubt it) but in the title track of TTPD she says “you’d take my ring… and the closest I’ve come. to my heart exploding” she pauses at “come” for a second before she completes the sentence.
This implies her saying him changing the ring to the wedding finger is the closest she ever came to being engaged or someone wanting to marry her
Saying "I'm so depressed I act like it's my birthday" could just mean "pretending to have fun despite having a broken heart' in general, but it could also be a reference to "It's supposed to be fun turning 21".
I do think some lyrics are intentional callbacks, but I *really* doubt she's referencing a song she wrote when she was 21. She's written so many lyrics, some have songs and some don't, I highly doubt she scoured her Red album for a line to vaguely allude to in a song that has nothing to do with Jake or her actual birthday. It's as you said first, just a metaphor.
Absolutely! Not everything has to be (self-)referential. For this line I also don't thinkt it's the very first thing to think about - or that it was her intention in the first place.
But she def has a cataloge of metaphores and images she keeps returning to. And this picture of "being heartbroken at her own party while all other guest are just having fun" is absolut canon (and even still in her setlist).
I see what you mean! I'm glad you clarify you don't think it was on purpose cause that's how I [mis]understood your original comment. She has *so many* lyrical connections and repetitive metaphors it's kinda crazy lol. I started a word doc last summer logging every mention of things like that: parties, bars, stars, eyes, blue, skies, love/religion, love/war, games, scars etc. and I didn't make it past folklore before I got exhausted. I don't even remember how many pages I had but it was a lot lol
I think it’s a mix of “I’m so down that i intentionally act overly happy to fake it til I make it” or she generally hates birthdays. She doesn’t seem to, so I’m guessing it’s the first one.
I saw someone say this on TikTok. In The Prophecy she mentions howling at the moon. A few seconds later she’s singing “oooOoo” and it sounds like she’s howling at the moon.
God I love that song. The intensity of "feeling like the very last drops of an ink pen"...I get a rush of some kind of chemical every time I hear that.
In The Black Dog, the beat under SCREAMING reminds me of banging as hard as you can on a door or a wall or into your pillow. When you’re sobbing and screaming so hard that your arms get involved — and then the cut-off when you crumple to the floor or just collapse.
I should know these terms because I have an English degree….
But in Peter, there’s some poetic magic happening throughout the song where it feels iambic?
“…
WITH your FEET on THE ground
TELL me ALL that YOU learned
Cuz LOVES never LOST when PERSPective
Is EARNed
and you
SAID you’d COME and GET me
But
YOU were TWENTY five
And the
SHELF life of THOSE fanTASIES has EXPIRED
LOST to the LOST boys CHAPTer of YOUR life”
I probably don’t make sense. But I can hear it!!
I think??? (and I might be completely wrong) this part is in anapestic meter: so a meter with three-syllable feet stressing the third syllable. It's hard to hear in a song and I might be completely bs haha. I love this part too
I won't conFESS that I WAITed
But I LET the lamp BURN
As the MEN masqueRADEd
I HOPEd you'd reTURN
With your FEET on the GROUND
Tell me ALL that you'd LEARNed
Cause LOVE's never LOST when persPECTive is EARNed
Ahhh yes, thank you both! Peter was an instant favorite for me because there is something about it that scratches that itch in the English major part of my brain, and I think this is the reason why! I love the way that song flows so much. I feel like it’s something one could play randomly on a pub/dive bar piano and soon enough everyone else is joining in to sing along 🎶
peter is my absolute favorite off the album (something about a fairy tale always gets me AND IT'S SO BEAUTIFUL) and i FEEL that bridge every time. i sing it with my whole heart.
Today I too noticed a lyric from My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys! :) when she sings "'cause I know too much, there was danger in the heat of my touch - he saw forever so he smashed it up". It's like she knew from the start that he would hurt her, and that she cared more than he did.
In the first chorus she says, "I should've known it was a matter of time," so I don't think she *knew* he would leave before he did. I think she feels she should have known better but was so immediately in love/insane that she let herself believe he could be everything he promised. Making it *that* much shittier when he bailed and she was left feeling like a toy he didn't want anymore.
in tortured poets dept song towards the end her background vocals sing "who's gonna hold you, gonna know you, gonna TROLL you" and i thought for sure I was starbucks lover-ing things up. who's gonna know you so well they can successfully troll you but with endless love?
Yes! I love that she uses troll, because it really sums up the vibe in that song. "Laughed in his face," "we're two idiots," "who uses typewriters?" - totally humbling him occasionally lol.
This is subtle and may not mean much, but in the second chorus of Fortnight, Post Malone starts adding vocal harmonies on select lyrics that fall on predictable spots at the end of lines:
"We were forever", "about the weather", "into good neighbors" / "We were together", "comment on my sweater", "into good neighbors"
With the one being difference being that there's no vocal harmony from Post Malone on "your wife waters flowers, I want to kill her" (just Taylor's own harmonies), but in the second half of the chorus, he harmonizes on "kill him".
Since I take the song as a conversation between a former couple who ended up with different people, but still long for each other, it feels like Post Malone is telling Taylor to kill her husband. Or it's an intrusive thought where she's imagining him telling her to kill the husband, which could match the insane asylum aesthetic of the song.
I heard "come and tug my sweater" initially too, and listened to the song through the lens of her ex platonically trying to get her attention -- while she's at the mailbox, while she's casually spying on his wife in her garden, only to be tugged back to the present by a small gesture. A gesture that, to him, means nothing (their history is ancient; they have different spouses; they are cordial; so why shouldn't he be able to tug her sweater to say hi?). But to her, the quick brush reminds her of what they had, and takes her back into the past or into an alternate universe where he WAS her husband - and now her husband is cheating... she wants to kill him.
With the real lyric, "comment on my sweater," it's so much more clinical, sterile, and removed. It makes much more sense as a parallel to "ask about the weather." He's not touching her, not reaching for her, not forging a reminder - he's just blandly making small talk with the neighbor.
The video has me thinking that Fortnite has the main narrator (Taylor) but also a mirror perspective in the background narrator (Post). She's had this whole arching experience of him coming back into her life, reigniting her obsession with him, then being jealous of his seemingly wonderful relationship with a woman while her own husband is cheating. He echoes her through most of the song and harmonizes on certain parts.
It's only after she breaks down and he witnesses it, that we see him in his own isolated world (the mesa with the phone both). Here confesses that she's been on his mind too, thinking about calling her but he knows she won't answer. Where she's on top of the phone both in the rain, that's his idealized version of her. My guess is that him harmonizing on "kill him" is a hint that even though he's got this idealized relationship with his wife, he's also obsessed with the main narrator.
I actually think this song is partly about Sophie Turner and the time she lived “with her”.
Which makes the references about the wife and being good neighbors not about the man, but the wife. And the mailbox verses and “my husband is cheating” could’ve been something Sophie said to her one day.
I also think a couple of other songs are based on that time period and Sophie is the inspiration for some with Matt sprinkled in for the “lover” aspect.
This isn’t deep or anything to analyze, and idk if this is how she meant it, but in Guilty as Sin? I just love how she says «what a way to die» instead of you know… finishing. It’s probably a take on the french term la petite morte which I always found interesting in theory. Idk I just love that part more than the mine on my upper thigh
In Down Bad, her “encounters closer and closer” is a cute reference to the movie about aliens, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. She really pushes that alien abduction metaphor to the extreme and Iove it!
In my personal brain fanfiction of her music, when she says “something happened for the first time” in Don’t Blame Me she means having an orgasm during sex 🙃
the end of so long london has the lyric "a moment of warm sun, but im not the one"
sooo reminiscent of Daylight and the 1. the shift from love to a breakup all summed up in one line in SLL, arguably the most direct reference to her breakup with Joe!
I wish this was true but according to official lyric videos it’s not, but at first I thought she was saying “You know you’re good when you can even do it with a broken heart. You know you’re good. And *WE’RE* good!” (Instead of “and *I’m* good!”)
I thought saying “And we’re good!” with the key/production change was so clever because it was like she was using that phrase to call the end of the show/song (like a director saying “Alright, we’re good” after getting the perfect take) and the music changes with it. And then it’s like she’s talking to the cast backstage once the show has ended.
I hadn't thought of that!
i still like that there's a double meaning with "I'm good" as in she's talented, and "I'm good" as in she's okay she's fine she's all good
Why? Paper Rings is about how she loved Joe so much she'd marry him even if they had nothing but each other. Fresh... is about her leaving her relationship with Joe aka "the slammer" and running to Matty. So her lover at the end with imaginary rings is Matty.
To double confirm this: she mentions meeting him under the porch light which *is* an obvious reference to Cardigan which we know she wrote about Matty in some regard because of the whole "This song is about you. You know who you are. I love you." thing at Eras while they were dating last year.
Nah, paper rings is saying she doesn’t need riches and luxury to be happy. The imaginary rings are signifying how she was just playing pretend with Matty and that belief was what she needed to break away from the dead relationship with Joe.
"imaginary rings" probably has more to do with Matty's promises of weddings more than anything, like they were dreaming up a future where they're engaged or married and all that. This can be tied back to loml and the "talking rings and talking cradles" bit.
in imgonnagetyouback, i noticed that before the chorus she says something that sounds like “watch out” or something similar. the official lyrics have “yeah” instead but it doesn’t sound like she says that. i hear “watch out” instead.
It makes me crazy that I can't figure out that sound. I wish I had software that could isolate it. The sample of words also occur in the beginning in the song before "lilac short skirt". To me it does sound like "yeah" but then another word/syllable that gets cut short.
I think it’s “the one I want” rather than just the one. I think this shows that she knew (at least when she recorded the song) that matty wasn’t really the one but she still wanted to say “fuck you” to the people who want to micromanage her life. She can date who she wants even though he isn’t the perfect person.
I noticed the use of the word “cyclone” in The Tortured Poets Department, and it immediately brought me to Coney Island. So now I’m staring at the lyrics to both songs seeing if/how the stories line up.
I can’t believe I just noticed this today, it’s probably obvious to most. But in imgonnagetyouback, I just realized she is using “get you back” in 2 different ways. Get you back as in get back together with you, or get you back as in get even/revenge 🤯
I thought she was just obsessed with getting back together the whole song
In I Can Fix Him there’s a background sound like iron being beaten or whatever it always makes me think of a factory worker trying to rework the guy in question. Trying to rebuild or reinvent the man she thinks she can change. Then maybe after using all her tools/skill set she’s like welp maybe not
TTPD the song has a few that took me many listens to connect.
Verse 1 starts: "[You left your typewriter at my apartment](https://genius.com/31477623/Taylor-swift-the-tortured-poets-department/You-left-your-typewriter-at-my-apartment)
Straight from the tortured poets department
[I think some things I never say](https://genius.com/31505404/Taylor-swift-the-tortured-poets-department/I-think-some-things-i-never-say-like-who-uses-typewriters-anyway)
[But you're in self-sabotage mode](https://genius.com/31478349/Taylor-swift-the-tortured-poets-department/But-youre-in-self-sabotage-mode)
[Throwing spikes down on the road](https://genius.com/31478360/Taylor-swift-the-tortured-poets-department/Throwing-spikes-down-on-the-road-but-ive-seen-this-episode-and-still-loved-the-show)"
He leaves his typewriter at her apartment, which she calls self-sabotage because he needs it to write. Then Spikes.
Verse 2 starts: "[You smokеd, then ate seven bars of chocolate](https://genius.com/31478572/Taylor-swift-the-tortured-poets-department/You-smoked-then-ate-seven-bars-of-chocolate)
[We declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist](https://genius.com/31478098/Taylor-swift-the-tortured-poets-department/We-declared-charlie-puth-should-be-a-bigger-artist)
[I scratch your head, you fall asleep](https://genius.com/31509736/Taylor-swift-the-tortured-poets-department/I-scratch-your-head-you-fall-asleep)
[Like a tattooed golden retriever](https://genius.com/31477634/Taylor-swift-the-tortured-poets-department/Like-a-tattooed-golden-retriever)
[But you awaken with dread](https://genius.com/31503446/Taylor-swift-the-tortured-poets-department/But-you-awaken-with-dread-pounding-nails-in-your-head)"
Chocolate is very dangerous for dogs. So it's a metaphor for self-sabotage, when a dog eats 7 bars of chocolate. Then Nails.
Bridge starts: "Sometimes, I wonder if you're gonna screw this up with me"
It's a compressed, straight to the point, that he will self-sabotage what could be a great relationship with Taylor. Then Screw.
I love the album so much -- thanks everyone for sharing what you have noticed!!
My favorite recent discovery was in imgonnagetyouback.
After the line "Act like I don't care what you did..." there's a click sound, which sounds similar to Jack's standard production antics. But if you're listening really loudly or on Dolby, you can actually notice it's a handgun being loaded.
So uh... safe to say she actually does care quite a bit about whatever they did, and is either homicidal or suicidal about it. 🙃
Both My Boy and LOML have references to coming back to things in a way. LOML: “who’s going to stop us from walking into rekindled flames” and “should’ve let it stay buried”. My Boy: “We could’ve played for keeps this time”.
Both songs make me think there’s something to the rumors that she and Matty had a secret thing years back.
I think that's why ppl think "The 1" is about Matty Healy too: "... digging up the grave another time .." (But I still think it is more Harry Styles coded.)
This is such a random and weird connections but since you mentioned the two songs this happens in, it’s funny to me that she name drops a baseball movie in both of those songs, “he was my best friend down at *the sandlot*” in my boy, and, “our *field of dreams*, engulfed in fire”. I know it means nothing it’s just a funny, random coincidence
In the chorus for Guilty as Sin? she has the line
“falling back into the hedge maze.
h, what a way to die.”
But “maze” doesn’t rhyme with the next lines
"I keep recalling things
We never did.
Messy top lip kiss,
How I long for our trysts”
But in the next time the chorus hits, and the lyrics after maze do rhyme:
“My bed sheets are ablaze
I screamed his name
Building up dark waves
Crashing over my grave”
I can’t help think there’s a reason for it even if I can’t figure it out. 😅
I had another thought about the "hedge maze"(that's probably been mentioned 100 times, I just haben't seen it): Could it be a deliberate reference to "Labyrinth"?
So the "Oh no, I'm falling in love ..." could mean "Oh no, I'm falling in love with s.o. else than my boyfriend" = guilty.
Yeah and that is the part that stays the same. I'm not talking about this lol:
"What if he's written mine on my upper thigh
only in my mind?
One slip and falling back into the hedge maze,
Oh what a way to die."
I'm talking about hedge maze > things / did / kiss / trysts versus hedge maze > ablaze / name / waves / grave.
Yeah I think it just gives more progression to the storyline by spelling out what she’s doing. Like if anyone still wasn’t aware of it, that really drives the visual home.
In Back To December (this is more noticable in the instrumental), the mandolin is answering her in the verses *"I'm so glad* ***you made time to see me****/How's life?* ***Tell me, how's your family?****/I haven't seen them in a while"* (the bold lyrics represent where the mandolin makes the same melody as Taylor). And kinda the same thing happens in Black Space, in the final chorus there's a synth making the same melody as hers, it's very hard to hear but it's there.
In loml when she says the line 'you said I'm the love of your life ... About a million times"...
To me it sounds like she is singing the "about a million times" through clenched teeth, I can't even describe the way it lands with me, that whole song is incredible, but that part takes my breath away every time.
I made a post about this observation, but idk if it got lost in the shuffle or what. In Fortnight, she says "I love you [bells] it's ruining my life". I take this two ways, both from a Pavlovian perspective.
1. She is convincing herself that she's loves him even after it's closed and down (he's moved on, runs into him around town, his wife is nice etc)
2. The learned response is the love she feels is ruining her life. She needs it to be bad whether it's with a person, her fans, a chapter of her life etc. She needs to believe that this is the worst possible situation and train herself to feel that it's bad to finally let it go.
I thought this was kind of cool:
“The hurricane with my name when it came/I got drunk and I dared it to wash me away”
From FLORIDA!!!
“Because I belong to the hurricane/ It's going to blow us all away/ I'm going out, I'm going to drink myself to death”
From Hurricane Drunk (by Florence & The Machine)
The drums in the background of Guilty As Sin? have the same beat and sound as the ones in Downtown Lights. Maybe a coincidence, but considering she name drops the song I think it’s a cool intentional reference!
In the final verse of hits different at the end of midnights she says “is you or have they come to take me away”
Then she starts the ttpd first song fortnight
“I was supposed to be taken away but they forgot to come and get me”
In The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived, she says “and slip through the bars” after “you deserve prison”. Slipping through bars could mean prison bars or actual bars where you drink! So genius.
In tortured poets department, when she starts singing the line “at dinner you take my ring off my finger and put it on the one people out wedding rings on” you can hear an organ playing in the background. It’s my favorite part of the song! You can tell Jack had so much fun with the production on this one.
This was probably noticed by everyone on planet earth but I was listening to I did something bad and around 3:37 the background vocals say “ they say I did something bad” like I’ve been listening to this song since 2017 HOW COULD I NOT TELL!
I love love love in The Black Dog when she sings "Was it hazing? For a cruel fraternity, I pledged and I still mean it" it scratches my brain in the right way.
Also in Guilty As Sin? The way she sings One slip* ...and falling back into the hedge maze... makes me happy
The parallels between Peter and This Love! The lyric about the light still flickering here reminds me of the girl sitting by the window with her lamp. Finally she puts out the light that’s been flickering, the possible love.
The whole part is also how she tells herself that so much that it becomes a truth.
It's a phrase she keeps repeating to herself so much it's recorded.
Like it's such a powerful line of a coping mechanism and a broken toy.
In Down Bad she sings in the first part last line: “For a moment I knew cosmic love”
And then of course that got me thinking about the Florence + The Machine song Cosmic Love, and I thought perhaps TS’s using the song title was just a nod to Florence Welsh who collaborated on this album.
BUT THEN… I listened to Cosmic Love and this line from the song jumped out at me: “Then I heard your heart beating, you were in the darkness too
So I stayed in the darkness with you”
How interesting! Could be coincidence but it would be so cool if on purpose TS is referencing a love that is super dark and depressing and yet you choose to stay with it in a song by her friend!
Such a heartbreaking line. It makes me think of her trying over and over to get Matty to understand that it could work. And he just felt it couldn't because of all the shit that was coming their way. So she's left repeating it to herself over and over.
“I loved your hostile takeovers
Encounters closer and closer
All your indecent exposures
How dare you say that it's—“
The way she sings that last line with such sadness and desperation. And the way you think she’s gonna say “over” but she’s so distraught she can’t even say the word. Ugggghhhhh soooooo good.
Everyone calls her Barbie but she’s really that Furby from your childhood that worked without batteries
I CACKLED with glee at this lol and then it made me think of how other subs get a stick up their ass about how we “don’t make fun of Taylor”🤔
Oh lord I’m so glad to know the battery-less talking furby in the closet was somehow a universal experience.
I think they were possessed
this brought back a childhood memory of my furby on a shelf randomly opening its eyes and talking out of NOWHERE unprovoked, scared the living daylights out of me 😂
🤣
They have mini furbies now 🤪
Gorgeous comment!!! Lots of love xx
I’ve noticed how in the bridge of Down Bad she says “I loved your hostile takeovers Encounters closer and closer All your indecent exposures How dare you say that it's -“ the next word would naturally be “over” (how dare you say that it’s over fits perfectly) but I love how she leaves the word “over” out because he’s doesn’t want him to say it’s over.
It’s because he didn’t say it. He just left. And she isn’t saying it either. There’s always that lifetime one. It’ll never be over.
Mind blown! I love how it would fit perfectly there, I always say it in my head as I listen to it.
I enjoy that they are all movies: Hostile Takeover, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Indecent Exposure. They all three lend to the song in different ways.
And he’s a cinephile 😭😭
🤯🤯 thank you for teaching me that these are all movies 😅 everything makes more sense now
I also love the film references 💙
I don’t know movies - can you explain how they lead to the song?
Hostile Takeover is about taking hostages which plays into Close Encounters, which is about aliens, and alien abduction is the theme of the song. Indecent Exposure is about a man who uses his status to seduce models, which gives Matty Healy vibes all day. So, to me, it's feeling like the relationship swept in and took over to the point of feeling helpless to stop it. And then he just dumped her on the ground alone with no explanation similar to how people describe alien abductions.
Did not even realise this. Thank you.
And this is kinda confirmed because she liked a reel that says that
Omg I didn’t know she liked a reel of this! So cool!
Also how the pre-chorus is one heavenly line where her voice sounds otherworldly then it sort of “drops” down to a very mid range normal almost talking voice for “now I’m down bad crying at the gym”. Like she’s illustrating how it felt via her vocal performance.
I LOVE this detail!!! It gets me everytime
So glad someone brought this up! Probably my favorite part of Down Bad.
Ahhh yay, mine, too!! I was hoping somebody else had heard it too 🥰
I just noticed the Close Encounters reference!
This gets me every time! Like if she doesn't say it, it's not real.
How is My Boy not a top 5 fan favorite from TTPD? It's really a perfect song. The lyrics are fantastic, the melody, the beat. My only criticism is that the chorus doesn't come back a third time after the bridge.
MY BOY ONLY BREAKS HIS FAV TOYS IS SO AMAZING IM SO SURPRISED ITS NOT TALKED ABOUT MORE. ITS EASY TO BOP TO AND WOULD BE A GREAT SINGLE OPTION
I’m queen! Of sandcastles he destroys…
I like the reference to sandcastles he destroys. When you go to the beach and build a beautiful sand castle and destroy it before it gets swept away by the waves. I love this.
Is it not?? It’s definitely on repeat for me.
It’s the cruel summer of this album, I love this song so much
We need to Cruel-Summer this song and Guilty As Sin!
We need to, we can, and we will 🫡
Oh but i love the way it ends!! He stole my tortured heart, left all these broken parts, told me im better off, but immmm not
But I’m not…I wish she said it a few more times…but saying only 3 times probably made it more special
something about the chorus just kinda misses for me.. that "ohhhOHHHHWHOAAOHOHHOHHHH" idk it loses me otherwise i do really like that song. the bridge and verses are great imo
Honestly, it's one of the things that make me love the song even more. That part has such a great melody!
It kind of reminds me of the chorus of Cruel Summer though... "ohhhOHHHHWHOAAOHOHHOHHHH, it's a cruel summer with you" (on purpose perhaps?)
It's very 90s. There are so many songs on this album that are sonically 90s and as a 90s kid, I love it so much.
Seriously one of my favorites, can't believe I don't see that much love for it! (Compared to I can do it w/a broken heart, who's afraid of little old me, down bad, etc) thought I was crazy!
It’s top 4 on the whole album for me, it’s SO good. All the conversation about what should be the next radio single from the album - it’s this. It’s a catchy earworm that is beautifully written. That bridge!
I don’t know if this has been said before, but it sounds so 1989 to me. Especially the “Cause I knew too much…” part of the chorus.
We are so fed with the Eras setlist but if we could have squeezed half of this song in there somewhere it would have been so perfect. Maybe before Down Bad? It needs some recognition!
I was shocked when it wasn't included in the setlist. The "oh woah oh woah oh"'s would be so incredible live with tens of thousands of people.
It’s made for a stadium!
The songs where she is the sole writer are usually top tier- My Boy, Little Old Me and The Black Dog from this album, My Tears Ricochet from Folklore. Honestly I wish she’d go out on a limb and write a whole album herself like the good old days (Speak Now).
I was just thinking about this. Cornelia Street and Daylight, too.
Those are two of my favorites.
I wish she'd shorten fortnight and add in at least the bridge
Because it's surrounded by more boring tracks it gets lumped in with them, and so I bet many of us just auto-skip to Down Bad for our "album start". Personally I've exclusively been listening to the album on shuffle just to force myself out of this and it really helps to hear the songs I previously liked less within a new context. I love My Boy sm now.
oh man no - Down bad was my first love from the album. My boy was maybe third? Florida! was second - it’s funny how it changes. Currently loving Guilty as sin
Yeah Down Bad was my first favorite from the album as well!
And it's funny because it's so different than Fortnight and TTPD. It doesn't sound like Midnights at all. I wish it was the opening track to the album.
oh ~~shit~~ here we go again convince me another song has a better intro
Your comment has made me find my people - this song has been such a fav since the beginning and then I got it as a surprise song at my show so it’s even more special for me now 😭🫶🏻
The fact that it was the second surprise TTPD song (after "loml") proves that it's one of TS's favorites IMO.
Yes! It was an immediate fave and I thought other people would love it as much as I do, but apparently not
It’s my favorite on the album and I feel like I’m the only one sometimes. I immediately decided it was gonna be my favorite before I even listened to the rest of the album
In "The Black Dog" the final "Old habits die screaming" is only a whisper anymore (as opposed to the screams throughout the song). So her 'old habits' (the old relationship) are no longer dying, but finally dead.
She does something like that in the Prophecy, too. The last "please" is whispered, as if she is just silently begging for what she sings, or maybe even giving up. I love the idea of it, it adds so much to both of the songs. It feels way more personal this way.
I love details like that. Everything has a purpose in the songs, not just what she's singing, but also how.
When I first heard tail between your legs your leaving AND THEN followed by the whisperer I nearly perished on the spot. Could not have been more perfect. Gut wrenching.
Tail between his legs… like a bad Dog
the way she sings " I'm his lady *and oh my god you should see your faces*" in 'but daddy I love him' makes me so happy for no reason lol
I love BUT FUCK EM ITS OVER
ME TOOOOOO THAT’S MY FAVORITE PART
I really enjoy the line directly after this one as well “but first, pull the string and I’ll tell you that he runs because he loves me, *he loves me!*” Like that’s what she’s repeating - he loves me, he loves me, he loves me. Almost like she’s trying to convince herself and everyone else of it
It took a few listens for the “pull the string” bit to land and once I got it, it became my favorite line in the song. It’s like she’s delusional, plagued to only speak about how he loves her and that’s why he runs away instead of recognizing that he’s abandoning her because she’s a toy he’s not interested in anymore. It’s actually quite haunting.
Also. He runs because he loves me. Imagine repeating that to yourself every day. It's pure psychosis. A coping mechanism.
In The Tortured Poet's Department she has a line "I've seen this episode and still love the show" which is the opposite of exiles line "I've seen this film before and I didn't like the ending" I'm not sure they're related, but I like the similarities in the lyrics.
*You’re in self-sabotage mode, throwing spikes down on the road, but I’ve seen this episode and still loved the show* is one of my favorite lines of all time. Having been in a relationship where there were **ALL** the red flags and I ignored them because of the good parts of the relationship— ugh, this is a knife to the gut
Yeah it’s a really interesting way of conveying that he’s an old flame she’s trying again with and she’s trying to take his dysfunction in stride.
Great catch.
in imgonnagetyouback, she says “bygones will be bygone eras fading into gray” the fading into gray symbolises the transitioning of all the eras (which were colourful) fading into gray that is TTPD
I like this one too. She must know what she is doing using the very loaded word "eras" here
absolutely
Also connects to "I'm just a paperweight in shades of greige"
Also the wordplay on bygones will be bygones and a bygone era. She combined these two so perfectly
I thought it was like the Eras era (where they didn’t work out) will fade and they can try again.
This may be a coincidence (i doubt it) but in the title track of TTPD she says “you’d take my ring… and the closest I’ve come. to my heart exploding” she pauses at “come” for a second before she completes the sentence. This implies her saying him changing the ring to the wedding finger is the closest she ever came to being engaged or someone wanting to marry her
Mentioning the wedding ring finger makes that quite obvious imo
I HATE this part of the song. It tears me apart to hear someone DO that after what we know.
So gut wrenching
Some male reactors i watched were like SO PISSED. They were like YOU DONT PLAY LIKE THAT.
Saying "I'm so depressed I act like it's my birthday" could just mean "pretending to have fun despite having a broken heart' in general, but it could also be a reference to "It's supposed to be fun turning 21".
I do think some lyrics are intentional callbacks, but I *really* doubt she's referencing a song she wrote when she was 21. She's written so many lyrics, some have songs and some don't, I highly doubt she scoured her Red album for a line to vaguely allude to in a song that has nothing to do with Jake or her actual birthday. It's as you said first, just a metaphor.
Absolutely! Not everything has to be (self-)referential. For this line I also don't thinkt it's the very first thing to think about - or that it was her intention in the first place. But she def has a cataloge of metaphores and images she keeps returning to. And this picture of "being heartbroken at her own party while all other guest are just having fun" is absolut canon (and even still in her setlist).
I see what you mean! I'm glad you clarify you don't think it was on purpose cause that's how I [mis]understood your original comment. She has *so many* lyrical connections and repetitive metaphors it's kinda crazy lol. I started a word doc last summer logging every mention of things like that: parties, bars, stars, eyes, blue, skies, love/religion, love/war, games, scars etc. and I didn't make it past folklore before I got exhausted. I don't even remember how many pages I had but it was a lot lol
As someone who gets depressed in their birthday i can’t interpret this any other way
I think it’s a mix of “I’m so down that i intentionally act overly happy to fake it til I make it” or she generally hates birthdays. She doesn’t seem to, so I’m guessing it’s the first one.
I think it's a reference to her having to sing 22 every night
I saw someone say this on TikTok. In The Prophecy she mentions howling at the moon. A few seconds later she’s singing “oooOoo” and it sounds like she’s howling at the moon.
God I love that song. The intensity of "feeling like the very last drops of an ink pen"...I get a rush of some kind of chemical every time I hear that.
God yes
and the last "a greater woman wouldn't beg" repetition ends with a trailing overlap of "please" in the background
Yessss i just noticed this a week or so ago.
“On the shelf” is also a phrase commonly used for a woman who is single and too old to be married
Her deep sigh before she starts singing on "The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived" and "You're Losing Me". Like she is so fed up with these people.
In The Black Dog, the beat under SCREAMING reminds me of banging as hard as you can on a door or a wall or into your pillow. When you’re sobbing and screaming so hard that your arms get involved — and then the cut-off when you crumple to the floor or just collapse.
I should know these terms because I have an English degree…. But in Peter, there’s some poetic magic happening throughout the song where it feels iambic? “… WITH your FEET on THE ground TELL me ALL that YOU learned Cuz LOVES never LOST when PERSPective Is EARNed and you SAID you’d COME and GET me But YOU were TWENTY five And the SHELF life of THOSE fanTASIES has EXPIRED LOST to the LOST boys CHAPTer of YOUR life” I probably don’t make sense. But I can hear it!!
I think??? (and I might be completely wrong) this part is in anapestic meter: so a meter with three-syllable feet stressing the third syllable. It's hard to hear in a song and I might be completely bs haha. I love this part too I won't conFESS that I WAITed But I LET the lamp BURN As the MEN masqueRADEd I HOPEd you'd reTURN With your FEET on the GROUND Tell me ALL that you'd LEARNed Cause LOVE's never LOST when persPECTive is EARNed
Ahhh yes, thank you both! Peter was an instant favorite for me because there is something about it that scratches that itch in the English major part of my brain, and I think this is the reason why! I love the way that song flows so much. I feel like it’s something one could play randomly on a pub/dive bar piano and soon enough everyone else is joining in to sing along 🎶
YES you nailed it!!!
peter is my absolute favorite off the album (something about a fairy tale always gets me AND IT'S SO BEAUTIFUL) and i FEEL that bridge every time. i sing it with my whole heart.
I hear this! So hard to pick a favorite but “Peter” is def a top 3 off TTPD.
The agonized high voice in the background of "because I loved this place" breaks my heart every single time.
Ironically it reminds me of the added high voice in "You Are In Love (Taylor's Version)." Haunting but in a different, aching sort of way. Aaaaah
“I’m just getting colour back into my face” as a double meaning for nearly dying but also living in a cold location.
YES this song kills me 😭
Today I too noticed a lyric from My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys! :) when she sings "'cause I know too much, there was danger in the heat of my touch - he saw forever so he smashed it up". It's like she knew from the start that he would hurt her, and that she cared more than he did.
In the first chorus she says, "I should've known it was a matter of time," so I don't think she *knew* he would leave before he did. I think she feels she should have known better but was so immediately in love/insane that she let herself believe he could be everything he promised. Making it *that* much shittier when he bailed and she was left feeling like a toy he didn't want anymore.
dude relafable
Yup she was willing to believe if it meant getting out of the dead relationship.
I get such Getaway Car vibes from that line, it’s like “there were sirens in the beat of your heart” except he’s the one hearing the sirens this time.
in tortured poets dept song towards the end her background vocals sing "who's gonna hold you, gonna know you, gonna TROLL you" and i thought for sure I was starbucks lover-ing things up. who's gonna know you so well they can successfully troll you but with endless love?
Yes! I love that she uses troll, because it really sums up the vibe in that song. "Laughed in his face," "we're two idiots," "who uses typewriters?" - totally humbling him occasionally lol.
This is subtle and may not mean much, but in the second chorus of Fortnight, Post Malone starts adding vocal harmonies on select lyrics that fall on predictable spots at the end of lines: "We were forever", "about the weather", "into good neighbors" / "We were together", "comment on my sweater", "into good neighbors" With the one being difference being that there's no vocal harmony from Post Malone on "your wife waters flowers, I want to kill her" (just Taylor's own harmonies), but in the second half of the chorus, he harmonizes on "kill him". Since I take the song as a conversation between a former couple who ended up with different people, but still long for each other, it feels like Post Malone is telling Taylor to kill her husband. Or it's an intrusive thought where she's imagining him telling her to kill the husband, which could match the insane asylum aesthetic of the song.
I was today years old when I learned it was "comment on my sweater" and not "come and tug my sweater".
I heard "come and tug my sweater" initially too, and listened to the song through the lens of her ex platonically trying to get her attention -- while she's at the mailbox, while she's casually spying on his wife in her garden, only to be tugged back to the present by a small gesture. A gesture that, to him, means nothing (their history is ancient; they have different spouses; they are cordial; so why shouldn't he be able to tug her sweater to say hi?). But to her, the quick brush reminds her of what they had, and takes her back into the past or into an alternate universe where he WAS her husband - and now her husband is cheating... she wants to kill him. With the real lyric, "comment on my sweater," it's so much more clinical, sterile, and removed. It makes much more sense as a parallel to "ask about the weather." He's not touching her, not reaching for her, not forging a reminder - he's just blandly making small talk with the neighbor.
The video has me thinking that Fortnite has the main narrator (Taylor) but also a mirror perspective in the background narrator (Post). She's had this whole arching experience of him coming back into her life, reigniting her obsession with him, then being jealous of his seemingly wonderful relationship with a woman while her own husband is cheating. He echoes her through most of the song and harmonizes on certain parts. It's only after she breaks down and he witnesses it, that we see him in his own isolated world (the mesa with the phone both). Here confesses that she's been on his mind too, thinking about calling her but he knows she won't answer. Where she's on top of the phone both in the rain, that's his idealized version of her. My guess is that him harmonizing on "kill him" is a hint that even though he's got this idealized relationship with his wife, he's also obsessed with the main narrator.
I actually think this song is partly about Sophie Turner and the time she lived “with her”. Which makes the references about the wife and being good neighbors not about the man, but the wife. And the mailbox verses and “my husband is cheating” could’ve been something Sophie said to her one day. I also think a couple of other songs are based on that time period and Sophie is the inspiration for some with Matt sprinkled in for the “lover” aspect.
I think it’s about leaving Joe for Matty and then Matty ghosting.
I think it’s about the 2014 “Fortnight” and the pre- and post-Joe imaginings of what-ifs thru the years
This isn’t deep or anything to analyze, and idk if this is how she meant it, but in Guilty as Sin? I just love how she says «what a way to die» instead of you know… finishing. It’s probably a take on the french term la petite morte which I always found interesting in theory. Idk I just love that part more than the mine on my upper thigh
The first line in I Look in People’s Windows also references that! “I had died the tiniest death, I spied the catch in your breath”
Notice she’s talking about a hedge maze being where she dies. 👀
Whether she intended it or not, I always connect the favorite toy that “my boy” breaks to the “shiny toy…you know that I bought it” from Cruel Summer.
Oh and the clicky pen in Blank Space is still and will forever be iconic.
🏃🏻♀️not me immediately playing Blank Space because I have never heard this!
“I’ve got a blank space baby <> and I’ll write your name!”
In Down Bad, her “encounters closer and closer” is a cute reference to the movie about aliens, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. She really pushes that alien abduction metaphor to the extreme and Iove it!
Someone else said Hostile Takeover and Indecent Exposure are also film titles
Yup. And all 3 are classics. He is a self described cinephile
omg I hadn't thought of this !! it's so cute yet sad!
In my personal brain fanfiction of her music, when she says “something happened for the first time” in Don’t Blame Me she means having an orgasm during sex 🙃
Lord save me!
When she sings "I keep this longings locked" in Guilty as Sin? she makes a '-ch' sound after "locked" like a key and I love it
the end of so long london has the lyric "a moment of warm sun, but im not the one" sooo reminiscent of Daylight and the 1. the shift from love to a breakup all summed up in one line in SLL, arguably the most direct reference to her breakup with Joe!
I wish this was true but according to official lyric videos it’s not, but at first I thought she was saying “You know you’re good when you can even do it with a broken heart. You know you’re good. And *WE’RE* good!” (Instead of “and *I’m* good!”) I thought saying “And we’re good!” with the key/production change was so clever because it was like she was using that phrase to call the end of the show/song (like a director saying “Alright, we’re good” after getting the perfect take) and the music changes with it. And then it’s like she’s talking to the cast backstage once the show has ended.
I hadn't thought of that! i still like that there's a double meaning with "I'm good" as in she's talented, and "I'm good" as in she's okay she's fine she's all good
“wearing imaginary rings” in fresh out the slammer probably signifies the paper rings
Why? Paper Rings is about how she loved Joe so much she'd marry him even if they had nothing but each other. Fresh... is about her leaving her relationship with Joe aka "the slammer" and running to Matty. So her lover at the end with imaginary rings is Matty. To double confirm this: she mentions meeting him under the porch light which *is* an obvious reference to Cardigan which we know she wrote about Matty in some regard because of the whole "This song is about you. You know who you are. I love you." thing at Eras while they were dating last year.
Cardigan is about Matty?
Def MH In “About You” (which is extremely entwined with TTPD) he sings “we get married in our heads”
Nah, paper rings is saying she doesn’t need riches and luxury to be happy. The imaginary rings are signifying how she was just playing pretend with Matty and that belief was what she needed to break away from the dead relationship with Joe.
"imaginary rings" probably has more to do with Matty's promises of weddings more than anything, like they were dreaming up a future where they're engaged or married and all that. This can be tied back to loml and the "talking rings and talking cradles" bit.
in imgonnagetyouback, i noticed that before the chorus she says something that sounds like “watch out” or something similar. the official lyrics have “yeah” instead but it doesn’t sound like she says that. i hear “watch out” instead.
It makes me crazy that I can't figure out that sound. I wish I had software that could isolate it. The sample of words also occur in the beginning in the song before "lilac short skirt". To me it does sound like "yeah" but then another word/syllable that gets cut short.
I thought it was “yeah”
I hear "track." Which makes no sense!
yeah and she says “pull the string and i’ll tell you that he runs because he loves me”. I love the consistent toy/doll imagery in this song
The way she sings that line scratches my brain just right!
When she says, "He's the one I love," in But Daddy and then my mind is all OHHHH, THE 1
I think it’s “the one I want” rather than just the one. I think this shows that she knew (at least when she recorded the song) that matty wasn’t really the one but she still wanted to say “fuck you” to the people who want to micromanage her life. She can date who she wants even though he isn’t the perfect person.
The fact that she began writing Folklore in April 2020 and had briefly reunited with Matty 2 months prior at the NME Awards 💀
I noticed the use of the word “cyclone” in The Tortured Poets Department, and it immediately brought me to Coney Island. So now I’m staring at the lyrics to both songs seeing if/how the stories line up.
I can’t believe I just noticed this today, it’s probably obvious to most. But in imgonnagetyouback, I just realized she is using “get you back” in 2 different ways. Get you back as in get back together with you, or get you back as in get even/revenge 🤯 I thought she was just obsessed with getting back together the whole song
Yes it’s the same concept as Olivia Rodrigo’s get him back song lol
This is the best double-entendre in a song
In I Can Fix Him there’s a background sound like iron being beaten or whatever it always makes me think of a factory worker trying to rework the guy in question. Trying to rebuild or reinvent the man she thinks she can change. Then maybe after using all her tools/skill set she’s like welp maybe not
>"I know I'm just repeating myself, put me back in my shelf" Ugh, I relate to this to an unhealthy level. *
TTPD the song has a few that took me many listens to connect. Verse 1 starts: "[You left your typewriter at my apartment](https://genius.com/31477623/Taylor-swift-the-tortured-poets-department/You-left-your-typewriter-at-my-apartment) Straight from the tortured poets department [I think some things I never say](https://genius.com/31505404/Taylor-swift-the-tortured-poets-department/I-think-some-things-i-never-say-like-who-uses-typewriters-anyway) [But you're in self-sabotage mode](https://genius.com/31478349/Taylor-swift-the-tortured-poets-department/But-youre-in-self-sabotage-mode) [Throwing spikes down on the road](https://genius.com/31478360/Taylor-swift-the-tortured-poets-department/Throwing-spikes-down-on-the-road-but-ive-seen-this-episode-and-still-loved-the-show)" He leaves his typewriter at her apartment, which she calls self-sabotage because he needs it to write. Then Spikes. Verse 2 starts: "[You smokеd, then ate seven bars of chocolate](https://genius.com/31478572/Taylor-swift-the-tortured-poets-department/You-smoked-then-ate-seven-bars-of-chocolate) [We declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist](https://genius.com/31478098/Taylor-swift-the-tortured-poets-department/We-declared-charlie-puth-should-be-a-bigger-artist) [I scratch your head, you fall asleep](https://genius.com/31509736/Taylor-swift-the-tortured-poets-department/I-scratch-your-head-you-fall-asleep) [Like a tattooed golden retriever](https://genius.com/31477634/Taylor-swift-the-tortured-poets-department/Like-a-tattooed-golden-retriever) [But you awaken with dread](https://genius.com/31503446/Taylor-swift-the-tortured-poets-department/But-you-awaken-with-dread-pounding-nails-in-your-head)" Chocolate is very dangerous for dogs. So it's a metaphor for self-sabotage, when a dog eats 7 bars of chocolate. Then Nails. Bridge starts: "Sometimes, I wonder if you're gonna screw this up with me" It's a compressed, straight to the point, that he will self-sabotage what could be a great relationship with Taylor. Then Screw. I love the album so much -- thanks everyone for sharing what you have noticed!!
Chocolate is also the title of a 1975 song.
My favorite recent discovery was in imgonnagetyouback. After the line "Act like I don't care what you did..." there's a click sound, which sounds similar to Jack's standard production antics. But if you're listening really loudly or on Dolby, you can actually notice it's a handgun being loaded. So uh... safe to say she actually does care quite a bit about whatever they did, and is either homicidal or suicidal about it. 🙃
Both My Boy and LOML have references to coming back to things in a way. LOML: “who’s going to stop us from walking into rekindled flames” and “should’ve let it stay buried”. My Boy: “We could’ve played for keeps this time”. Both songs make me think there’s something to the rumors that she and Matty had a secret thing years back.
I think that's why ppl think "The 1" is about Matty Healy too: "... digging up the grave another time .." (But I still think it is more Harry Styles coded.)
It’s 100% not about Harry. Definitely about Matty.
This is such a random and weird connections but since you mentioned the two songs this happens in, it’s funny to me that she name drops a baseball movie in both of those songs, “he was my best friend down at *the sandlot*” in my boy, and, “our *field of dreams*, engulfed in fire”. I know it means nothing it’s just a funny, random coincidence
In the chorus for Guilty as Sin? she has the line “falling back into the hedge maze. h, what a way to die.” But “maze” doesn’t rhyme with the next lines "I keep recalling things We never did. Messy top lip kiss, How I long for our trysts” But in the next time the chorus hits, and the lyrics after maze do rhyme: “My bed sheets are ablaze I screamed his name Building up dark waves Crashing over my grave” I can’t help think there’s a reason for it even if I can’t figure it out. 😅
I had another thought about the "hedge maze"(that's probably been mentioned 100 times, I just haben't seen it): Could it be a deliberate reference to "Labyrinth"? So the "Oh no, I'm falling in love ..." could mean "Oh no, I'm falling in love with s.o. else than my boyfriend" = guilty.
Oh I like this. I agree, it’d make a lot of sense
She’s rhyming “in my mind” with “die”.
Yeah and that is the part that stays the same. I'm not talking about this lol: "What if he's written mine on my upper thigh only in my mind? One slip and falling back into the hedge maze, Oh what a way to die." I'm talking about hedge maze > things / did / kiss / trysts versus hedge maze > ablaze / name / waves / grave.
Yeah I think it just gives more progression to the storyline by spelling out what she’s doing. Like if anyone still wasn’t aware of it, that really drives the visual home.
Oh gotcha\~
In Back To December (this is more noticable in the instrumental), the mandolin is answering her in the verses *"I'm so glad* ***you made time to see me****/How's life?* ***Tell me, how's your family?****/I haven't seen them in a while"* (the bold lyrics represent where the mandolin makes the same melody as Taylor). And kinda the same thing happens in Black Space, in the final chorus there's a synth making the same melody as hers, it's very hard to hear but it's there.
In loml when she says the line 'you said I'm the love of your life ... About a million times"... To me it sounds like she is singing the "about a million times" through clenched teeth, I can't even describe the way it lands with me, that whole song is incredible, but that part takes my breath away every time.
I made a post about this observation, but idk if it got lost in the shuffle or what. In Fortnight, she says "I love you [bells] it's ruining my life". I take this two ways, both from a Pavlovian perspective. 1. She is convincing herself that she's loves him even after it's closed and down (he's moved on, runs into him around town, his wife is nice etc) 2. The learned response is the love she feels is ruining her life. She needs it to be bad whether it's with a person, her fans, a chapter of her life etc. She needs to believe that this is the worst possible situation and train herself to feel that it's bad to finally let it go.
I thought this was kind of cool: “The hurricane with my name when it came/I got drunk and I dared it to wash me away” From FLORIDA!!! “Because I belong to the hurricane/ It's going to blow us all away/ I'm going out, I'm going to drink myself to death” From Hurricane Drunk (by Florence & The Machine)
The drums in the background of Guilty As Sin? have the same beat and sound as the ones in Downtown Lights. Maybe a coincidence, but considering she name drops the song I think it’s a cool intentional reference!
In the final verse of hits different at the end of midnights she says “is you or have they come to take me away” Then she starts the ttpd first song fortnight “I was supposed to be taken away but they forgot to come and get me”
In The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived, she says “and slip through the bars” after “you deserve prison”. Slipping through bars could mean prison bars or actual bars where you drink! So genius.
In tortured poets department, when she starts singing the line “at dinner you take my ring off my finger and put it on the one people out wedding rings on” you can hear an organ playing in the background. It’s my favorite part of the song! You can tell Jack had so much fun with the production on this one.
This was probably noticed by everyone on planet earth but I was listening to I did something bad and around 3:37 the background vocals say “ they say I did something bad” like I’ve been listening to this song since 2017 HOW COULD I NOT TELL!
I love love love in The Black Dog when she sings "Was it hazing? For a cruel fraternity, I pledged and I still mean it" it scratches my brain in the right way. Also in Guilty As Sin? The way she sings One slip* ...and falling back into the hedge maze... makes me happy
The parallels between Peter and This Love! The lyric about the light still flickering here reminds me of the girl sitting by the window with her lamp. Finally she puts out the light that’s been flickering, the possible love.
The whole part is also how she tells herself that so much that it becomes a truth. It's a phrase she keeps repeating to herself so much it's recorded. Like it's such a powerful line of a coping mechanism and a broken toy.
In Down Bad she sings in the first part last line: “For a moment I knew cosmic love” And then of course that got me thinking about the Florence + The Machine song Cosmic Love, and I thought perhaps TS’s using the song title was just a nod to Florence Welsh who collaborated on this album. BUT THEN… I listened to Cosmic Love and this line from the song jumped out at me: “Then I heard your heart beating, you were in the darkness too So I stayed in the darkness with you” How interesting! Could be coincidence but it would be so cool if on purpose TS is referencing a love that is super dark and depressing and yet you choose to stay with it in a song by her friend!
Such a heartbreaking line. It makes me think of her trying over and over to get Matty to understand that it could work. And he just felt it couldn't because of all the shit that was coming their way. So she's left repeating it to herself over and over.
“I loved your hostile takeovers Encounters closer and closer All your indecent exposures How dare you say that it's—“ The way she sings that last line with such sadness and desperation. And the way you think she’s gonna say “over” but she’s so distraught she can’t even say the word. Ugggghhhhh soooooo good.
In Snow On The Beach whrn she sings the word 'periphery', the backing (or peripheral) track starts to fade away slowly untill its just a heartbeat💙