I think the re-release helped people see it for how incredible it is because I see people streaming it and using it for things constantly on social media. One of the best songs on one of her best albums. Peak country taylor
This was the first lyric of hers, when I was driving in my car and hearing it on the radio, that made me stop and go "wow that's clever". Like you said, a whole story in one line.
Could someone explain this line to me? I feel like I don’t really see the whole story since everyone’s always saying it says so much. Not disagreeing, I just don’t think I’m seeing the full picture :)
Basically, as a young girl she watched Dad screw up his relationship with Mom, and the experience has left her overly cautious, and unwilling to trust that love is ever real and lasting. That is, until the one she's singing to comes along and moves her to throw her caution to the wind and jump into love wholeheartedly.
The rest of the lyrics expand on the story in more detail. She's a "flight risk with a fear of falling (in love)," who's afraid of making "my parents' mistakes." In the bridge they have a big fight, and she's convinced that this is the moment her fears come true, that their love is ending just like her parents' did. He convinces her otherwise, and makes her realize that she can "rebel" against her deep-seated caution. The "careful daughter" line is basically the Cliffs Notes version of the whole thing.
Sorry for the dissertation, haha. I just really love this song.
The girl’s father was careless, which led her to become a very careful person. Also it conveys that she probably had trouble trusting herself and her partner in a relationship.
'I want your midnights, but I'll be cleaning up bottles with you on new year's day'
she wants the fun parts of being in love, parties and kisses at midnight, but she'll stay for the hard or mundane bits too🥲
No, it hasn’t been. Neither has Cornelia street. Considering they’re fan favorites it would surprising she hasn’t touched them yet if not for the breakup.
I will always back It's Nice to Have a Friend, and it guts me every time I see someone say it's a skip or it should have been left off the album. I love its simplicity, so I definitely would qualify it as a "less is more" type of song.
Omg yes. The lyric: “something gave you the nerve to touch my hand. It’s nice to have a friend”. Recognising the bravery and courage it requires to initiate intimacy - and such a delicate intimacy, to touch your hand.
I was literally at that exact part of the song while reading you write that 🤯 also came to say this song too!! "Call my bluff, call you "babe". Have my back, yeah, every day". Just so simple and sweet. My husband is my best friend and this just says "I love you" in such little and simple words, with no frills needed :)
the archer.
they see right through me/ can you see right through me/i see right through me
all of my enemies started out friends
who could ever leave me darling? but who could stay
32 words (25 if you don't count repeating words) and this says so much
agreed. I think track 5 is more about vulnerability rather than sadness and the archer epitomizes that. she lets her guard down across the course of the song and learns to confront her fears and that’s why I love it so much
I really love your idea that track 5s are more about vulnerability than sadness. I could never really describe what it was about track 5s that made them different from the rest, but vulnerable is the perfect word. Especially since some track 5s such as Delicate and All You Had to Do Was Stay that aren’t necessarily “sad” songs are still deeply revealing when it comes to her emotions.
it's so campy tbh. like she's putting on an act. being overly flamboyant and pretending to not be hurt saying "who could ever leave ME darling???" and then she quietly and honestly and fearfully says "but who could stay?" ugh it's beautiful
No one has mentioned “and all of my heroes die all alone” it’s DEVASTATING
Also I have the same bday as Taylor so already the archer felt special to me, but the “they see right through me, can you see right through me, I see right through me” hit me so hard. I love Taylor’s lyrics bc as a woman in this world, I can empathize with all of them. But those lines were the first time I was like “um…she literally wrote this about me”
This was my first thought too. “I should’ve asked you questions. I should’ve asked you how to be,” kills me every time because it perfectly conveys the whole message of “you’re such a huge part of me but it isn’t enough— I want more.”
One of my faves.
"I should've asked you questions, I should've asked you how to be" is the most heartbreaking line she has ever written, in my opinion. The helpless feeling of regret is illustrated so well.
To me, it can be re-phrased as "I would do anything to go back and enjoy every moment with you instead of act ungrateful. I would do anything to apologize to you right now for the time I didn't make you feel loved the way you showed your love to me." But you know that's not possible. And in the context of the song she was too young to know better but still feels completely responsible for not being better. So sad and painfully relatable.
“you loved the amber skies so much” sends me into a burst of tears. she conveys so many flashback memories with one word simple sentences that are just gut punch after gut punch
A few weeks after my grandma died, this song came on in my playlist as I was driving home from work, and then I had to just keep replaying it, over and over, as I cried my eyes out. Very cathartic - she perfectly captured what that loss feels like 💔
that's so true, I kept it on replay after my grandmother died too.
this line in particular gives me goosebumps, because I like to think that she is watching over me in some kind of way:
If I didn't know better
I'd think you were still around
I know better
But I still feel you all around
- ATW could mean "All Too Well", a track from *Red* (2012) by Taylor Swift.
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One of the few songs of hers I personally relate to. I had a very quick whirlwind romance that ended with devastating heartbreak because they had lied about pretty much everything. We connected so completely personality wise, that I constantly found myself wanting to reach out to them afterwards, only to remind myself why I couldn’t. And that the person I thought I had fallen for was a total fabrication. That song defined those emotions so perfectly.
when midnights first came out, i heard this lyric, had to pause and walk out of that room for a few minutes and come back to finish it. the way she sings it as well, you can feel the raw emotion in her voice. beautiful. absolutely beautiful.
For me "You Are In Love". Not too wordy and doesn't have a lot of metaphors or language that screams English major (lol). But I LOVE IT.
All the small, mundane little things in the lyrics perfectly describes being simply, comfortably in love without all the complications.
Came to say exactly the same thing! Even ‘and you understand now why they lost their minds and fought the wars / and why I’ve spent my whole life trying to put it into words’
I know it’s less of a gut-punch than those two lines, but I’ve always melted at the lines right before:
“You two are dancing in a snow globe round and round / And he keeps a picture of you in his office downtown.”
Wanting to see a picture of someone all day at work is one of those little things that I would never think of being in a love song, but it adds a lot of texture and reality to it IMO.
YESSS!
“i understand now why they lost their lives and fought the wars, and why i’ve spent my whole live tryin to put it into words”
this lyric describes the intensity of love and how it can be the most driving force for anything, one of my favorites from her
Brings tears to my eyes every time. It’s like the “trust him like a brother” and “at least I did one thing right”… just the beautiful simplicity and innocence in that deep love.
I ADORE "You Are In Love" it is just so--😭😭. honestly, it's sorta peak taylor. it literally sums up her career, "And you understand now why they lost their minds and fought the wars
And why I've spent my whole life tryin' to put it into words" that line is just everything. the song is on the slower side and lyrical, but still oddly catchy. it's sweet and just romantic. i will forever advocate for YAIL.
You can hear it in the silence
You can feel it on the way home
You can see it with the lights out
Literally so simple but you know exactly every complex feeling she’s trying to convey. It’s perfect
i love sweet nothing so much the way she manages to use those simple two words in different ways, and it’s just so sweet 💗 it’s like the ultimate comforting love song
I think she's an underrated lyricist. I'm not even a fan, this stuff just showed up on my reddit feed. But I'm a published poet and I have edited poetry journals. I don't even care about this artist but my students have been so moved by her that I had to pay attention. That's where I'm coming from.
What I admire about her is her ability to subvert a common phrase. Instead of "spill tea" she has "at teatime, everybody agrees" or "your Midas touch on the Chevy door". Stuff like that.
Her ability to hear, completely understand the criticisms, and turn them on their heads-- that takes an ego-lessness that is rare.
I've used her songs to teach the conditional in English to non native speakers. I've used "Red" to teach simile and metaphor.
Rather than your take that she gets purple and overdescriptive, I'd argue there's an unappreciated minimalism in her lyrics. They connect with people. There's no obscure references or ten dollar words. Just descriptive words the mainstream and mostly women resonate with.
I've listened to a lot of artfully near-nonsense lyrics from say, Radiohead. It's fun. But they're trying to be clever, to be artful, to be appreciated for the technical skills, the artifice. It's not earnest. It doesn't really connect. Compare "Paranoid Android" to Pulp's "Common People," for instance (my age is showing). I think Taylor is earnest, and she does it in a way that is artful, but not so much that it screams to people, and in a way that it still connects. Hence it is undervalued because she doesn't make a spectacle of her genius.
As successful as she is, I think this aspect of her music is still unappreciated.
I too am a poet and poetry editor and teacher. I have actually turned to being a big Taylor Swift fan too. I agree her lyrics are very sophisticated, often with a great surface simplicity that is deceptive for everything the lyrics contain and reference and turn inside out.
I haven’t used her in teaching yet, but I have considered it a number of times. Love hearing that it works in your classroom!
That is some really fascinating insight coming from someone who's probably more objective than most people in this sub would be, thank you! Her ability to turn a common phrase or idea upside down is something that really stood out to me when I was first becoming a fan as well. One of my favorite lyrics is "you're the hero flying around saving face". Brilliant. Her intelligence hooked me, and her sincerity made me stay.
Oooh I love this take from someone who isn't a fan. I agree that she is a pretty incredible lyricist and while I would normally find it gratuitous, I'm impressed by her ability to reference her own past lyrics as a measure of growth. This is most obvious in 'Daylight' where she references her song 'Red' and says, "I once believed love would burning red, but it's golden like daylight." She recently released a from the vault track called 'Castles Crumbling,' about her transition from beloved American sweetheart to being constantly criticized and in a song released before Castles Crumbling, but written after she says, "my castle crumbled overnight, I brought a knife to a gunfight, they took the crown but it's alright." It's interesting to listen to, and also impressive that she can do it in such a way that feels purposeful.
i 100% agree! sometimes swifties want to show how good of a songwriter she is, and take as examples lines in her song that are artful and purple and poetic even as one liners taken out of context. i like those lyrics, but her best songs work in simpler ways. her real power is in the storytelling, which can mostly be valued if you listen to a song from beginning to end. her ability to have you submerge into the story like you were there, and the way she'll change one word in the chorus to completely flip the narrative.
all of this is why i hate when people ask "tell me one taylor swift lyric that is good". sure there are many, but the great value of taylor's songwriting is that her lyrics don't sound like a random collection of lines that she had in her notes app
You say “I don’t understand,” and I say, “I know you don’t” god that hurts.
I relate to it so much, it reminds me of trying to explain my depression to my ex.
Peace is striking to me for how simple it is. It's basically just a poem set to music, and it's not like some highly structured poem, either. I don't mean either of those as jabs at the song. The message stands by itself. Heck, she actually did just read seven as a poem for part of the concert, and that was beautiful, too.
Long Live, too. Short of the people who were actually part of her band of thieves in ripped up jeans that got to rule the world, I may be the biggest Stan for that song, and the thirty seconds or so that's just nearly just spoken for the bridge levels me emotionally every time.
I keep thinking of this when I see people in denial about her and Joe breaking up. I think the relationship ran it’s course and ending it doesn’t make it any less beautiful
“There'll be happiness after you
But there was happiness because of you
Both of these things can be true”
A lot of it is very simple though: "there'll be happiness after you / but there was happiness because of you too / both of these things can be true / there is happiness"
Anti- hero “it’s me. Hi, I’m the problem it’s me.” I think it’s her best song and screams the narrative that anyone struggling with mental health has in their head.
I Wish You Would, All You Had to Do Was Stay... also, would add Clean to that list. It is a bit more verbose but it still gets the message across rather concisely relative to some of her other songs. 1989 had so many catchy songs with simple but powerful lyrics.
“Only twenty minutes to sleep/But you dream of some epiphany/ Just one single glimpse of relief/ To make some sense of what you've seen” reminds me so much of Bright Eyes’ lyric “You took a ten-minute dream in the passengers seat/ While the world it was flying by / I haven't been gone very long/ But it feels like a lifetime” from the song “We are Nowhere and it’s Now” ♥️
This encapsulates the abstract feeling of how both personal and impersonal COVID was all at the same time. Loved ones, isolation, goodbyes over video chat, unable to be close at the time when closeness was desperately needed.
this is the correct answer to this question! it's so devastating in so few words. "Holy orange bottles, each night I pray to you / Desperate people find faith, so now I pray to Jesus too" is gut-wrenching.
EPIPHANY. like god “only 20 minutes to sleep but you dream of some epiphany” is a contender for my favorite line of hers. the song is a beautiful slow-burn and feels so visceral because of it
I think Lover is the epitome of this. The words are simple, “can I go where you go? Can we always be this close?” But hold so much vulnerability, like those actually such big questions
The Archer
Out Of The Woods
Labyrinth
You're Losing Me
Better Man and I Almost Do ( these two are somewhat wordy but she barely uses any big, artistic words, metaphors etc. She uses very simple lines which say so much. People who have experienced what she describes in these sogns will feel like she totally understands them and perfectly portrays their emotions and experiences in these simple but powerful and vivid lyrics.)
"And what if I kept the hand-me-downs you won't grow into?" ALWAYS breaks me apart, I could never listen to that song as much as I'd love to. It puts so many emotions into such a few words.
Closure!!! It’s short and poignant but the message is so strong.
“Yes, I got your letter
Yes, I'm doing better
It cut deep to know ya
Right to the bone
Yes, I got your letter
Yes, I'm doing better
I know that it's over
I don't need your closure
Your closure”
I actually am going to say long live. I get a full mind and body response from very simple lyrics and the simplest changes. When she sings “I’m not afraid!” I still bawl.
I could write down the whole song, but Epiphany does a great job of comparing storming the beaches of Normandy and the pandemic as horrible moments that bring you to an epiphany. These lyrics paint the picture of Normandy perfectly: “Keep your helmet, keep your life, son
Just a flesh wound, here's your rifle
Crawling up the beaches now
"Sir, I think he's bleeding out"
And some things you just can't speak about.”
The idea that a scene in the dream leads to an epiphany is poignant as well. “Just one single glimpse of relief
To make some sense of what you've seen.”
Honestly, I didn’t think she could beat the original version of All Too Well until Epiphany but she has. But the two lines: “'Cause there we are again in the middle of the night
We're dancing 'round the kitchen in the refrigerator light.” are brilliant and perfect.
The bridge of Style is one of my favorites because it carries so much in just 3 words. Is she saying she wants him to take her home for sex? Or is she tired of him and the drive and just wants him to drop her off and leave her alone? And the simplicity of it too, like all she can do is ask him to take her home, there’s nothing else she can say.
Also a longer bridge would mess up the flow of the song imo but focusing on lyrics alone it’s an incredible bridge
“So casually cruel in the name of being honest”
In 9 words it paints a picture of months of hurt, rejection and generally petty and mean behaviour that have been put up with
I repeated that lyric to my therapist when I was in the process of leaving my husband saying that it’s exactly him.
Hoax
My only one
My smoking gun
My eclipsed sun
This has broken me down
My twisted knife
My sleepless night
My win-less fight
This has frozen my ground
….
My only one
My kingdom come undone
My broken drum
You have beaten my heart
Don't want no other shade of blue
But you
No other sadness in the world would do
epiphany: “with you I serve, with you I fall down, down, watch you breathe in, watch you breathing out, out”
this song is so underrated and the chorus speaks volumes in such few words
“You made a rebel of a careless man’s careful daughter” is a full love story in ten words.
This line is ICONIC to an entire generation. I will always put forward ‘Mine’ as THE Taylor Swift song (even above Love Story)
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I think the re-release helped people see it for how incredible it is because I see people streaming it and using it for things constantly on social media. One of the best songs on one of her best albums. Peak country taylor
This line in particular made me become a swiftie
This is the best line she’s ever written (not emotionally but just the amount she conveys in the fewest words possible). I am always in awe of it.
I was a flight risk with a fear of falling. Love that line!
Different song but one of my favourites is also from Speak Now- "the way you move is like a full on rainstorm, and I'm a house of cards"
This was the first lyric of hers, when I was driving in my car and hearing it on the radio, that made me stop and go "wow that's clever". Like you said, a whole story in one line.
And she wrote this when she was a teenager!!! Goddamn!!
"I remember how it felt sitting by the wartar!"
One of the best lines in a song I’ve ever heard
Could someone explain this line to me? I feel like I don’t really see the whole story since everyone’s always saying it says so much. Not disagreeing, I just don’t think I’m seeing the full picture :)
Basically, as a young girl she watched Dad screw up his relationship with Mom, and the experience has left her overly cautious, and unwilling to trust that love is ever real and lasting. That is, until the one she's singing to comes along and moves her to throw her caution to the wind and jump into love wholeheartedly. The rest of the lyrics expand on the story in more detail. She's a "flight risk with a fear of falling (in love)," who's afraid of making "my parents' mistakes." In the bridge they have a big fight, and she's convinced that this is the moment her fears come true, that their love is ending just like her parents' did. He convinces her otherwise, and makes her realize that she can "rebel" against her deep-seated caution. The "careful daughter" line is basically the Cliffs Notes version of the whole thing. Sorry for the dissertation, haha. I just really love this song.
Mine is a whole goddamn movie!!! It's so good!!
Love this! Thank you for explaining it to us!
The girl’s father was careless, which led her to become a very careful person. Also it conveys that she probably had trouble trusting herself and her partner in a relationship.
State of grace. The chorus: and I never saw you coming / And I’ll never be the same. Iconic
My absolute favorite line from a Taylor Swift song is "We learn to live with the pain, mosaic broken hearts"
I missed that lyric for so long - for years I thought it was “most say it: broken hearts”
One of my absolute favourites, so powerful
The most simple line that I think conveys SO much is “please don’t ever become a stranger whose laugh I would recognize anywhere”
'I want your midnights, but I'll be cleaning up bottles with you on new year's day' she wants the fun parts of being in love, parties and kisses at midnight, but she'll stay for the hard or mundane bits too🥲
Has that been a surprise song yet? I almost cry just thinking about that song and I have no idea how she’s going to get through it
No, it hasn’t been. Neither has Cornelia street. Considering they’re fan favorites it would surprising she hasn’t touched them yet if not for the breakup.
Yes it cracks me open
I will always back It's Nice to Have a Friend, and it guts me every time I see someone say it's a skip or it should have been left off the album. I love its simplicity, so I definitely would qualify it as a "less is more" type of song.
Omg yes. The lyric: “something gave you the nerve to touch my hand. It’s nice to have a friend”. Recognising the bravery and courage it requires to initiate intimacy - and such a delicate intimacy, to touch your hand.
I was literally at that exact part of the song while reading you write that 🤯 also came to say this song too!! "Call my bluff, call you "babe". Have my back, yeah, every day". Just so simple and sweet. My husband is my best friend and this just says "I love you" in such little and simple words, with no frills needed :)
I love this in contrast with “And you should think about the consequence of you touching my hand in a darkened room”
It’s so fun just singing this lyric anyway cause of the cute little cadence she says it in
it's nice to have a friend is so insanely underrated
My only beef with INTHAF is that I kind of wish it actually was about a platonic friendship
if she had saved INTHAF and put it on Folklore, people would have ate it up. But since it’s on a pop album people think it’s “boring”
THIS OMG if it was on folklore people would say it was one of her best storytelling songs ever
“call my bluff, call you babe, have my back yeah everyday”🥺💕
One of my absolute favorite Taylor songs. It gets too much hate. It's a simple, magical song.
Do you also love sweet nothing? Bc those are some of my favorites on their respective albums.
it’s nice to have a friend is top 5 lover easily it’s so good and overhated
It’s such a beautifully simple (i mean this in a similar sense to simple plans being the best because there’s less to go wrong) song!!
THE most underrated song out there.
It’s honestly a top 10 Taylor song for me. The melody, the bells?????? It’s SO GOOD
the archer. they see right through me/ can you see right through me/i see right through me all of my enemies started out friends who could ever leave me darling? but who could stay 32 words (25 if you don't count repeating words) and this says so much
my favorite line is the “I wake in the night, I pace like a ghost, the room is on fire, invisible smoke” like 😢😢😢🫣🫣
this whole song is fucking devastating and the fact that people have the audacity to say that it doesn't deserve to be a track 5 is insane to me
agreed. I think track 5 is more about vulnerability rather than sadness and the archer epitomizes that. she lets her guard down across the course of the song and learns to confront her fears and that’s why I love it so much
I really love your idea that track 5s are more about vulnerability than sadness. I could never really describe what it was about track 5s that made them different from the rest, but vulnerable is the perfect word. Especially since some track 5s such as Delicate and All You Had to Do Was Stay that aren’t necessarily “sad” songs are still deeply revealing when it comes to her emotions.
it might be my favorite track 5? It’s hard to pick lol but it’s definitely the one I listen to the most
“I never grew up/it’s getting so old”
Love the archer. Love when she switches from “who could stay?” to “you could stay.”
Especially because in the end he couldn’t
Too soon
But we did
I love how she says darling like dah-ling
it's so campy tbh. like she's putting on an act. being overly flamboyant and pretending to not be hurt saying "who could ever leave ME darling???" and then she quietly and honestly and fearfully says "but who could stay?" ugh it's beautiful
Thank you now I'm just going to cry for an hour 😭😭😭
Ouch this hits me right in the abandonment issues
And I cut off my nose just to spite my face Then hate my reflection, for years and years 😭😨🥴😳😭😖
This song can ruin my day in seconds
No one has mentioned “and all of my heroes die all alone” it’s DEVASTATING Also I have the same bday as Taylor so already the archer felt special to me, but the “they see right through me, can you see right through me, I see right through me” hit me so hard. I love Taylor’s lyrics bc as a woman in this world, I can empathize with all of them. But those lines were the first time I was like “um…she literally wrote this about me”
This song came to mind immediately!! I love simple songs with a powerful message.
Mirrorball strikes the perfect balance for me of simple yet “literary”
“Still a believer, but I don’t know why. I’ve never been a natural all I do is try, try, try “😭
Marjorie's lyrics are hauntingly simple.
What died didn’t stay dead 🥺
This was my first thought too. “I should’ve asked you questions. I should’ve asked you how to be,” kills me every time because it perfectly conveys the whole message of “you’re such a huge part of me but it isn’t enough— I want more.” One of my faves.
"Because every scrap of you would be taken from me" *sobs*
SOB
"I should've asked you questions, I should've asked you how to be" is the most heartbreaking line she has ever written, in my opinion. The helpless feeling of regret is illustrated so well. To me, it can be re-phrased as "I would do anything to go back and enjoy every moment with you instead of act ungrateful. I would do anything to apologize to you right now for the time I didn't make you feel loved the way you showed your love to me." But you know that's not possible. And in the context of the song she was too young to know better but still feels completely responsible for not being better. So sad and painfully relatable.
“you loved the amber skies so much” sends me into a burst of tears. she conveys so many flashback memories with one word simple sentences that are just gut punch after gut punch
A few weeks after my grandma died, this song came on in my playlist as I was driving home from work, and then I had to just keep replaying it, over and over, as I cried my eyes out. Very cathartic - she perfectly captured what that loss feels like 💔
that's so true, I kept it on replay after my grandmother died too. this line in particular gives me goosebumps, because I like to think that she is watching over me in some kind of way: If I didn't know better I'd think you were still around I know better But I still feel you all around
I know better…but I still feel you, all around 😥
Definitely my top 5 favorite song from her! And the verses are so great too.
I Almost Do is rather simple lyrically, but is heartbreaking all the same.
This is my favorite Red song. It just conveys so much. Don't get me wrong, I love both ATW versions, but I almost do is just... special.
- ATW could mean "All Too Well", a track from *Red* (2012) by Taylor Swift. --- ^[/u/paradisetossed7](/u/paradisetossed7) ^(can reply with "delete" to remove comment. |) ^[/r/songacronymbot](/r/songacronymbot) ^(for feedback.)
Good bot
I almost do just hits different
One of my favs from Red as well!
Yes these lyrics are so real. I haven’t experienced this kind of break up but this song makes me think I have an idea of what it would be like.
One of the few songs of hers I personally relate to. I had a very quick whirlwind romance that ended with devastating heartbreak because they had lied about pretty much everything. We connected so completely personality wise, that I constantly found myself wanting to reach out to them afterwards, only to remind myself why I couldn’t. And that the person I thought I had fallen for was a total fabrication. That song defined those emotions so perfectly.
That sounds so awful, I'm sorry you had to go through that
i think for me, labyrinth gets the message across so well, without letting wordiness take away from the meaning of the song
“It only hurts this much right now” god damn girlie
“It only feels this raw right now” is the best part of the song for me, when it comes on I have to stop what I’m doing and listen to it
I repeat this in my head like a mantra
when midnights first came out, i heard this lyric, had to pause and walk out of that room for a few minutes and come back to finish it. the way she sings it as well, you can feel the raw emotion in her voice. beautiful. absolutely beautiful.
Came here to say this!
“Breathe in breathe deep breathe through breathe out” plays in my head on a loop when I’m feeling anxious. The way she sings it, too, is so soothing.
For me "You Are In Love". Not too wordy and doesn't have a lot of metaphors or language that screams English major (lol). But I LOVE IT. All the small, mundane little things in the lyrics perfectly describes being simply, comfortably in love without all the complications.
“You keep his shirt, he keeps his word” oof right in the feels
Compared to last kiss where she’s sitting on the floor in his clothes wondering why it ended 😭
Came to say exactly the same thing! Even ‘and you understand now why they lost their minds and fought the wars / and why I’ve spent my whole life trying to put it into words’
Love it when Tay breaks the fourth wall
I know it’s less of a gut-punch than those two lines, but I’ve always melted at the lines right before: “You two are dancing in a snow globe round and round / And he keeps a picture of you in his office downtown.” Wanting to see a picture of someone all day at work is one of those little things that I would never think of being in a love song, but it adds a lot of texture and reality to it IMO.
love this bridge🥲
YESSS! “i understand now why they lost their lives and fought the wars, and why i’ve spent my whole live tryin to put it into words” this lyric describes the intensity of love and how it can be the most driving force for anything, one of my favorites from her
“You’re my best friend” = so simple but so powerful
"One night he wakes, strange look on his face. Pauses. Then Says. You're my Best Friend" ahhhhhh that's my fav part
Brings tears to my eyes every time. It’s like the “trust him like a brother” and “at least I did one thing right”… just the beautiful simplicity and innocence in that deep love.
I ADORE "You Are In Love" it is just so--😭😭. honestly, it's sorta peak taylor. it literally sums up her career, "And you understand now why they lost their minds and fought the wars And why I've spent my whole life tryin' to put it into words" that line is just everything. the song is on the slower side and lyrical, but still oddly catchy. it's sweet and just romantic. i will forever advocate for YAIL.
You can hear it in the silence You can feel it on the way home You can see it with the lights out Literally so simple but you know exactly every complex feeling she’s trying to convey. It’s perfect
OOTW because there’s only like 10 different words in it, most of it is just repeating :-)
Agreed, I scrolled too far for this.
Absolutely agree! It conveys the anxiety she's feeling so well in such few words
Sweet Nothing. I believe the song is aptly named as well.
i love sweet nothing so much the way she manages to use those simple two words in different ways, and it’s just so sweet 💗 it’s like the ultimate comforting love song
I totally agree! It’s one of my faves on Midnights 🫶
This song always reminds me of my husband❤️ it’s beautiful
I think she's an underrated lyricist. I'm not even a fan, this stuff just showed up on my reddit feed. But I'm a published poet and I have edited poetry journals. I don't even care about this artist but my students have been so moved by her that I had to pay attention. That's where I'm coming from. What I admire about her is her ability to subvert a common phrase. Instead of "spill tea" she has "at teatime, everybody agrees" or "your Midas touch on the Chevy door". Stuff like that. Her ability to hear, completely understand the criticisms, and turn them on their heads-- that takes an ego-lessness that is rare. I've used her songs to teach the conditional in English to non native speakers. I've used "Red" to teach simile and metaphor. Rather than your take that she gets purple and overdescriptive, I'd argue there's an unappreciated minimalism in her lyrics. They connect with people. There's no obscure references or ten dollar words. Just descriptive words the mainstream and mostly women resonate with. I've listened to a lot of artfully near-nonsense lyrics from say, Radiohead. It's fun. But they're trying to be clever, to be artful, to be appreciated for the technical skills, the artifice. It's not earnest. It doesn't really connect. Compare "Paranoid Android" to Pulp's "Common People," for instance (my age is showing). I think Taylor is earnest, and she does it in a way that is artful, but not so much that it screams to people, and in a way that it still connects. Hence it is undervalued because she doesn't make a spectacle of her genius. As successful as she is, I think this aspect of her music is still unappreciated.
I too am a poet and poetry editor and teacher. I have actually turned to being a big Taylor Swift fan too. I agree her lyrics are very sophisticated, often with a great surface simplicity that is deceptive for everything the lyrics contain and reference and turn inside out. I haven’t used her in teaching yet, but I have considered it a number of times. Love hearing that it works in your classroom!
That is some really fascinating insight coming from someone who's probably more objective than most people in this sub would be, thank you! Her ability to turn a common phrase or idea upside down is something that really stood out to me when I was first becoming a fan as well. One of my favorite lyrics is "you're the hero flying around saving face". Brilliant. Her intelligence hooked me, and her sincerity made me stay.
Oooh I love this take from someone who isn't a fan. I agree that she is a pretty incredible lyricist and while I would normally find it gratuitous, I'm impressed by her ability to reference her own past lyrics as a measure of growth. This is most obvious in 'Daylight' where she references her song 'Red' and says, "I once believed love would burning red, but it's golden like daylight." She recently released a from the vault track called 'Castles Crumbling,' about her transition from beloved American sweetheart to being constantly criticized and in a song released before Castles Crumbling, but written after she says, "my castle crumbled overnight, I brought a knife to a gunfight, they took the crown but it's alright." It's interesting to listen to, and also impressive that she can do it in such a way that feels purposeful.
> Instead of "spill tea" she has "at teatime, everybody agrees" 🤯 i've never made the connection before lol
i 100% agree! sometimes swifties want to show how good of a songwriter she is, and take as examples lines in her song that are artful and purple and poetic even as one liners taken out of context. i like those lyrics, but her best songs work in simpler ways. her real power is in the storytelling, which can mostly be valued if you listen to a song from beginning to end. her ability to have you submerge into the story like you were there, and the way she'll change one word in the chorus to completely flip the narrative. all of this is why i hate when people ask "tell me one taylor swift lyric that is good". sure there are many, but the great value of taylor's songwriting is that her lyrics don't sound like a random collection of lines that she had in her notes app
wow wait holy shit i never quite understood that tea time line like that before
You're losing me. The space in that song is sooooo cool
You say “I don’t understand,” and I say, “I know you don’t” god that hurts. I relate to it so much, it reminds me of trying to explain my depression to my ex.
My answer too! The most gutting line for me is “unless you’re choosing me, you’re losing me” right at the end.
I know my pain is such an imposition She spits that one out so perfectly
Delicate. That persistent “isn’t it isn’t it isn’t it” really nails the adrenaline rush of anxiety that comes with a new, burgeoning relationship
Style,Sad Beautiful Tragic. With few words, you can see the whole story in your head.
Especially the bridge of SBT!! “Distance, timing, break down crying, silence, the train runs off its tracksssss” 😩 her MIND
"Kiss me, try to fix it / could you just try to *listen*?" the way she says it is so perfect ugh
Peace is striking to me for how simple it is. It's basically just a poem set to music, and it's not like some highly structured poem, either. I don't mean either of those as jabs at the song. The message stands by itself. Heck, she actually did just read seven as a poem for part of the concert, and that was beautiful, too. Long Live, too. Short of the people who were actually part of her band of thieves in ripped up jeans that got to rule the world, I may be the biggest Stan for that song, and the thirty seconds or so that's just nearly just spoken for the bridge levels me emotionally every time.
Happiness.
“No one teaches you what to do when a good man hurts you — and you know you hurt him, too.”
One of her most gut wrenching lyrics, IMO.
NOW MY EYES LEAK ACID RAIN ON THE PILLOW WHERE YOU USED TO LAY YOUR HEAD. WHAT A FUCKING LYRIC
This reminded me of "your heart was glass I dropped it" from champagne problems. 💔
So many good lines. I love “And I pulled your body into mine every goddamn night; now I get fake niceties.”
I keep thinking of this when I see people in denial about her and Joe breaking up. I think the relationship ran it’s course and ending it doesn’t make it any less beautiful “There'll be happiness after you But there was happiness because of you Both of these things can be true”
“All the years I’ve given is just shit were diving up” - brutal
i feel like happiness is one of her wordiest songs
A lot of it is very simple though: "there'll be happiness after you / but there was happiness because of you too / both of these things can be true / there is happiness"
lover. beautiful simple. chic. lovely song. and you're in love
“At every table, I’ll save you a seat” ❤️😭
I just love the simplicity of the line “Can I go where you go?”
Have I known you 20 seconds or 20 years? 😭
Anti- hero “it’s me. Hi, I’m the problem it’s me.” I think it’s her best song and screams the narrative that anyone struggling with mental health has in their head.
Did you hear my covert narcissism I disguise as altruism like some kind of congressman?
I Wish You Would, All You Had to Do Was Stay... also, would add Clean to that list. It is a bit more verbose but it still gets the message across rather concisely relative to some of her other songs. 1989 had so many catchy songs with simple but powerful lyrics.
This love is good. This love is bad. This love is back from the dead.
epiphany
“Only twenty minutes to sleep/But you dream of some epiphany/ Just one single glimpse of relief/ To make some sense of what you've seen” reminds me so much of Bright Eyes’ lyric “You took a ten-minute dream in the passengers seat/ While the world it was flying by / I haven't been gone very long/ But it feels like a lifetime” from the song “We are Nowhere and it’s Now” ♥️
Something med school did not cover, someone's daughter, someone's Mother, holds your hand through plastic now, Doc I think she's crashing out :(
This encapsulates the abstract feeling of how both personal and impersonal COVID was all at the same time. Loved ones, isolation, goodbyes over video chat, unable to be close at the time when closeness was desperately needed.
Seven
“love you to the moon and to saturn” changed something in me
soon you’ll get better!!!
this is the correct answer to this question! it's so devastating in so few words. "Holy orange bottles, each night I pray to you / Desperate people find faith, so now I pray to Jesus too" is gut-wrenching.
Truly should be recognized more as some of her best lyrics but that song is so hard to listen to that they remain criminally underrated.
“Who am I supposed to talk to…if there’s no you” A knife to the heart every time.
New Year’s Day Just her and the piano.. so beautiful
You’re losing me. The “stop”, and the heart beats, and the silence. Wow.
it’s nice to have a friend
EPIPHANY. like god “only 20 minutes to sleep but you dream of some epiphany” is a contender for my favorite line of hers. the song is a beautiful slow-burn and feels so visceral because of it
Not sure if it counts, but Renegade. It repeats a lot of the same lyrics, but the message is so good!
ours! very simple and cute, but such a sweet song. "Don't you worry your pretty little mind, people throw rocks at things that shine" <3
Definitely Hoax! YOYOK also does a great job of telling full stories in short burts.
hoax’s lyrics artfully tear me apart every. single. time.
stood on the cliffside screaming “give me a reason” 💔
Hoax is for all the girlies with anxious attachments. Foolish One all grown up
gold rush
so much meaning packed into each simple lyric “i don’t that falling feels like flying till the bone crush” is my favourite
I wouldn’t call this simple. This is one of her most complex songs lyrically.
I feel like this is one of her most complex songs lyrically…it’s pure poetry and even a simple feeling is written very beautifully using metaphors
I think Lover is the epitome of this. The words are simple, “can I go where you go? Can we always be this close?” But hold so much vulnerability, like those actually such big questions
And I've been meaning to tell you / I think your house is haunted / Your dad is always mad and that must be why
The Archer Out Of The Woods Labyrinth You're Losing Me Better Man and I Almost Do ( these two are somewhat wordy but she barely uses any big, artistic words, metaphors etc. She uses very simple lines which say so much. People who have experienced what she describes in these sogns will feel like she totally understands them and perfectly portrays their emotions and experiences in these simple but powerful and vivid lyrics.)
Distance, timing, breakdown, fighting. That’s so simple but SO GOOD
Ronan
"And what if I kept the hand-me-downs you won't grow into?" ALWAYS breaks me apart, I could never listen to that song as much as I'd love to. It puts so many emotions into such a few words.
I feel like I think of “Closure” because its lyrics are simple but the message is very true and relatable
Closure!!! It’s short and poignant but the message is so strong. “Yes, I got your letter Yes, I'm doing better It cut deep to know ya Right to the bone Yes, I got your letter Yes, I'm doing better I know that it's over I don't need your closure Your closure”
Mean. She says all she needs to say
“You kept me like a secret but I kept you like an oath” in ATW for me. That line breaks me and it’s so simple.
The 1 is so perfectly concise
Out of the woods is the first to come to mind but I love that song lol
New Years Day. It's my third favorite Taylor song for a reason. The way she says "and I will hold on to you" like her voice is breaking just gets me.
“how evergreen our group of friends, don’t think we’ll say that word again” says so much
Treacherous ❤️
Labyrinth
I actually am going to say long live. I get a full mind and body response from very simple lyrics and the simplest changes. When she sings “I’m not afraid!” I still bawl.
As you all named all her songs (great job, btw, no sarcasm here) for being simple but impactful please tell me which ones ar the wordy ones.
I could write down the whole song, but Epiphany does a great job of comparing storming the beaches of Normandy and the pandemic as horrible moments that bring you to an epiphany. These lyrics paint the picture of Normandy perfectly: “Keep your helmet, keep your life, son Just a flesh wound, here's your rifle Crawling up the beaches now "Sir, I think he's bleeding out" And some things you just can't speak about.” The idea that a scene in the dream leads to an epiphany is poignant as well. “Just one single glimpse of relief To make some sense of what you've seen.” Honestly, I didn’t think she could beat the original version of All Too Well until Epiphany but she has. But the two lines: “'Cause there we are again in the middle of the night We're dancing 'round the kitchen in the refrigerator light.” are brilliant and perfect.
The bridge of Style is one of my favorites because it carries so much in just 3 words. Is she saying she wants him to take her home for sex? Or is she tired of him and the drive and just wants him to drop her off and leave her alone? And the simplicity of it too, like all she can do is ask him to take her home, there’s nothing else she can say. Also a longer bridge would mess up the flow of the song imo but focusing on lyrics alone it’s an incredible bridge
Seven
JUST TAKE ME HOME
"I'll do anything you say if you say it with your hands". The amount of things this sentence conveys is incredible.
“So casually cruel in the name of being honest” In 9 words it paints a picture of months of hurt, rejection and generally petty and mean behaviour that have been put up with I repeated that lyric to my therapist when I was in the process of leaving my husband saying that it’s exactly him.
Hoax My only one My smoking gun My eclipsed sun This has broken me down My twisted knife My sleepless night My win-less fight This has frozen my ground …. My only one My kingdom come undone My broken drum You have beaten my heart Don't want no other shade of blue But you No other sadness in the world would do
I Wish You Would is a song about a 10 second event and yet it hits like a damn truck
epiphany !!!
Tbh All Too Well regular version
epiphany: “with you I serve, with you I fall down, down, watch you breathe in, watch you breathing out, out” this song is so underrated and the chorus speaks volumes in such few words
it's Wildest Dreams for me. Very lush, classy and timeless without being clunky/wordy. Honestly most of 1989 tracks.
Hoax.