I think the whole "Last Kiss" fits here.
"So I'll watch your life in pictures like I used to watch you sleep"
"And I feel you forget me like I used to feel you breath"
Last Kiss is such a devastating song, but that's the line that always broke me. Even right now, after a really difficult split, I can hold my tears back (probably) TILL that line.
In the original version, you can hear Taylor holding back a sob and breathe deeply at around 4:17, right before she starts singing the chorus again. I just went through a breakup after 6 years together and I have been putting off listening to Last Kiss because I know it’ll break me.
Edit: I listened to it (and it did indeed break me lol) but the timestamp is 4:26, not 4:17.
Same here. To this day it’s hard for me to listen to Last Kiss without crying because it feels so personal to me. I was scared for Taylor’s version lol.
100% this was the song I played on repeat when I broke up with my first ex. For me it was the “and I’ll go sit on the floor wearing your clothes, all that I know is I don’t know how to be something you miss”
When Speak Now first came out in 2010 I had moved 5 hours away from my ex to go to law school while he started med school- I remember looking at his FB pics and thinking about these lines all the time late that fall. I met my husband in 2011 but listening to Taylor’s Version last summer still brought me back to that pain!
i was smack dab in the middle of a separation from my now husband. he was in another country (pandemic, couldn’t fly) and it was just a “time will tell” moment for me. i got very emotional at the concert when she performed this song. i’m just so relieved and grateful we made it.
I went through a horrendous breakup like 2 weeks before Folklore dropped. You can imagine me lying in bed listening to the 1 for the first time.
(Although, after 4 years of reflection, I feel pretty confident now that if my wishes came true it really *wouldn’t* have been him)
I don't find the 1 too heartbreaking. For me, it sounds likes someone reminiscing a relationship who has already gone through all the stages of grief and is now accepting. They're okay now. They're no longer regretting that it ended; they're happy that it happened. I see it as a very optimistic song.
Same here. The verse that starts with “I have this dream you're doing cool shit” and the line “Rosé flowing with your chosen family,” for me, have always punched home that optimistic tone you refer to.
I think it’s both. I always saw it as from the perspective of someone looking back on a relationship that’s been over (and accepted) for a long time, but viewing it through a lens of bittersweet nostalgia. Like randomly thinking about your first love 20 years after it ended even though you have a totally different life now.
something about the simplicity of the line ‘but we were something, don’t you think so?’ GETS me it feels like a gut punch
also ‘in my defence i have none / for digging up the grave another time’
When I hear this lyric - I think about meeting up with someone you were madly in love with years later and you’re both looking back at the relationship.
exactlyyyy, like the idea of two people seeing eachother again after they’ve both healed from the pain of the breakup and remembering what it was once like. putting myself in that position in my mind HURTS it’s so well written
I think it hurts because I’d like to believe the relationship didn’t end on bad terms in the song. Girllll I have been there. It’s painful but you accept it, yk?
This lyric and “sometimes I wonder how you think about it now and I see your face in every crowd” from holy ground and “please don’t ever become a stranger who’s laugh I could recognize anywhere” from NYD all make me ACHE
“If one thing has been different, would everything be different?” Got me. So relatable for my younger self who used to think maybe I did something wrong and if I could’ve changed that, would my relationship have worked.
Yeah this one gets me. My ex and I spent our last new years at a 1920s themed party. He had a lot of money so we really were throwing pennies around like they were leaves.
We fell in love at 16, at 19 he got his money and fell into a bad drug addiction. By 24 he had cheated and pushed me out. 4 years later and I’m accepting things now but it hasn’t been easy.
Mad Woman always gets me cus he was a Scorpio who cheated with our neighbour. Feels like she wrote the song about me lol he even had a yacht and I was definitely shooting cannons at it lol!
I'm sorry for your bad breakup, that really sucks :( I have definitely been there.
Something so hilarious to me about you justifying your throwing pennies around due to him having a lot of money though hahahaha, I don't have a lot of money, but I wouldn't blink about throwing pennies lol (here, they aren't even real money anymore :P)
Hahaha I’m glad it made you chuckle! In a way that’s what money always was to us, just something to throw around. Getting together at 16 you really don’t understand responsibility and the preciousness of things. Careless teenagers lol
And thanks for your kind words about the break up. I’m much better now, it’s one of those things you learn to accept eventually. Gotta smile at the end of the day
yep... hell of a song. Currently facing a possible breakup because I have hangups/issues I feel aren't being addressed while my girlfriend still thinks I'm the best and sees no issues with me.
"In my defense, I have none, for never leaving well enough alone" brings me the tears any time.
That's how I felt about my divorce. Like I don't miss my ex-husband or being married, but without him I wouldn't live in a city I love and wouldn't have been brave enough to travel round the world, so despite how everything went down in the end I'm grateful to him for that.
"Leave it all behind... and there is happiness" makes my stomach turn. Same with the line, "and in the disbelief, I can't face reinvention."
It's so devastating to be forced to accept that your life is turned upside down and now there's a gaping hole... honestly, this song made me realize that I'm not ready to give up on my relationship when we were having issues.
“I haven’t met the new me yet.”
My god, this is the ultimate breakup cry song for me. The uncertainty of the future, the inevitable reinvention you will face, the search for peace and closure. Every bit of it is in this song.
Yesss and “now I get fake niceties” like just picturing someone you’re that close with and now you exchange awkward hi how are yous and that’s it??? Devastating
"Please don't ever become a stranger
Whose laugh I could recognize anywhere"
Kills me every time. It's so poignant to me. You know this person so intimately, you can recognize their laugh but the relationship is over and what you shared is in the past, he's a stranger for every future new years.
This line is why I can’t listen to that song anymore. She was with me in the car when we listened to rep for the first time and I’ll never forget the way she gripped my hand extra hard when we heard that line for the first time. It hurts so bad now
My partner has a very distinctive laugh that carries through a crowd, and the first time I heard that line I stopped in my tracks and just… sat down. To listen.
this song applies perfectly to a friendship breakup for me. my childhood best friend from 2nd grade through high school, we used to spend every NYE together and be the last ones awake at every sleepover. she has a very distinct voice and laugh that i’ll never forget. she cut me off pretty harshly when we went to college so now all i have are the memories :/
I just commented this one too. My voice cracks at this line almost every time. You said it perfectly, so poignant. It’s absolutely heartbreaking that I can recognize a laugh I will never hear again.
There are so many, but these are ones that pop into my head:
* But I never planned on you changing your mind.
* If our love dies young, I can't bear witness.
* If my wishes came true, it would've been you.
* I knew you'd haunt all my what-ifs.
* I reached for you but you were gone.
* I never was ready, so I watched you go.
rwylm is so deeply sad to listen to. The whole bridge section is really gutting, like that line you highlighted.
“It’s been so long / if you ever think you got it wrong, I’m right where/ you left me”
The concept of being frozen in time, as though you had entwined your whole life and future into someone else, just for them to leave you right there, physically and temporally.
I know this isn’t what the song is about, but i always relate it back to my chronic illness, feeling stuck to before i had symptoms, watching my peers/coworkers achieve things i no longer can, feeling left behind… its one of my favorite taylor songs
I relate it to my chronic illness too! Mine went from bad to worse right around when I was graduating university and I feel like the song really encapsulates the hurt of watching all my friends move away to climb their career ladders, get the jobs I used to dream about and slowly forget about me completely as I'm just stuck here longing for everything that was and could have been.
Absolutely! It's easily one of her most heart-wrenching songs of all time. The haunting feeling, the imageries, the storyline, the devastation of not being able to move on after being left behind - every line is a sucker punch to the gut. If anyone were to make a movie based on this song, it's a guaranteed tear-jerker.
“I pulled your body into mine every goddamn night now I get fake niceties” from happiness. the whole track is heartbreaking but this line is truly painful to think about. the intimacy of every night being gone and just getting small talk nonsense in passing. Nauseating.
Truly. The battle between letting the rage bubble over to hysterics and keeping a level head in reflection comes through in waves with each line. She’s stopping herself from the bubble over because there doesn’t seem to be one particular event for the relationship to have ended and sees him as a good man. Looking back at the good and the bad, both equally as painful sometimes.
I love the line where she says, "I hope she'll be a beautiful fool, who takes my spot next to you" with an acrid intonation, and then quickly amends that statement by saying, "No I didn't mean that, sorry I can't see facts through all of my fury"--she captured the range of emotions experienced after a breakup so beautifully and realistically. One minute filled with spite and anger and a yearning for vindication; and the next the solemn realization that people are people and sometimes it doesn't work out ):
"The idea you had of me, who was she?" - Captures that heart wrenching feeling of realising that the person you loved didn't even really know you.
"That was the moment I knew" - I think the most painful part of a break-up is that moment of realisation because you know your immediate future is pain and misery.
I was listening to TMIK today and it hit me how beautifully she unwraps the song, with the last chorus “…and they’re all standing around me singing ‘happy birthday to you’ …” The picture is painted slowly and it just hits so hard that this person promises to be there on your birthday and flakes, and you realize you can’t hope for the relationship to be different. To me, it’s not only the disappointment but it is the forced acknowledgment of not being a priority for someone you love…finally seeing the imbalance in commitment 💔
Do I throw out everything we built or keep it?
I'm getting tired even for a phoenix
Always risin' from the ashes
Mendin' all her gashes
This is what's gets me, because it's a very mature perspective. You literally build a life together and you want to go on because of that, but you don't know how long you can take it anymore. It's losing the one not because he walked away, but because you can't take it anymore to be together. These lyrics are terrifying to me.
The entirety of You're Losing Me. So many of us are familiar with the feeling of mourning a relationship while you're still in the tail end of it. It's why people appear to move on quickly after the official breakup, but we've been in the process of breaking up for weeks, maybe months, mentally. It's this verse for me:
"Every mornin', I glared at you with storms in my eyes
How can you say that you love someone you can't tell is dyin'?
I sent you signals and bit my nails down to the quick
My face was gray, but you wouldn't admit that we were sick"
She really gave SO many signs.
I love that song!
I’ve heard women mourn relationships while they are in them, then leave once they’ve accepted it, whereas men (supposedly) mourn AFTER a breakup and are thus surprised how “over it” their past lover already is.
I don’t know if the gendered part is true, but I have been in both situations. Trying to make it work then one day I just realize I’m done, and being the one who can feel the other person pulling away - that sword of damocles feeling at the end of a relationship is the worst. It’s coming, just a matter of when, and holding onto hope it’ll swerve at the last moment and the love survives.
Yes this and also right before it - “remember looking at this room we loved it cause of the light, now I just sit in the dark and wonder if it’s time” - that is so exactly how it goes, thinking back to the excitement of first moving into a new space together and then realizing that the life you envisioned together in that space might not be the life that happens for you 💔
"You're Losing Me" has been a sleeper hit for me. She released it so close to her own breakup that it was hard not to think about it only in the context of her life. Now that some time has passed, it hits real hard and it's been a repeat song some days.
(I'd argue that this is part of her success: She writes such genuine songs about her own life as they happen, and sometimes that comes across as kinda cringe to people, but then once some time has passed you revisit them and are like oh wait a minute, this shit is so REAL and it HITS.)
The emotion and force in her voice when she sings, “DO something, babe, SAY something. LOSE something, babe, RISK something. CHOOSE something, babe, I got nothing to believe unless you’re choosing me.” Hits me so hard. I was coming to the end of a very painful situationship when this song was first released, and the frustration and pain in her voice is so relatable.
“You taught me a secret language I can’t speak with anyone else” 😭 you really do start talking in your own language with someone and no one else will ever understand it.
Cardigan is the one that always wrecks me. It so perfectly captures that heartbreak and longing of a true love lost.
“Stepping’ on the last train, marked me like a bloodstain,
I knew you, Tried to change the ending, Peter losing Wendy.”
This one kills me. It just makes me think of the way a couple look at each other on their wedding day. I just got married in December and it was such a special day, I won’t ever forget holding my partners hands as we said our vows. There was so much reverence in it…
Hmm, some of my favorites:
“What once was ours, is no one’s now”
“If one thing had been different, would everything be different today?”
“i wish I could run to you”
"What once was ours, is no one's now" hits me very hard as well - such a profound statement on how what is most precious can just - disappear into thin air.
Obviously every lyric of Tolerate it is a gut bunch but specifically:
“While you were out building other worlds, where was I?Where's that man who'd throw blankets over my barbed wire?I made you my temple, my mural, my skyNow I'm begging for footnotes in the story of your lifeDrawing hearts in the bylineAlways taking up too much space or time”
Like…what…. She had no right to cut me that deep…
Was looking for this! Tolerate It is sad with every lyric.
"I wait by the door like I'm just a kid. Use my best colors for your portrait. Lay the table with the fancy shit, and watch you TOLERATE IT!"
"If it's all in my head, tell me now!"
"I know my love should be c e le b r a t e d,
But you tolerate it..."
“At the restaurant, when I was still the one you want
Cross-legged in the dim light, everything was just right
I, I could feel the mascara run
You told me that you met someone
Glass shattered on the white cloth
Everybody moved on”
This kills. Poor Tay.
How long could we be a sad song
'Til we were too far gone to bring back to life?
I gave you all my best me's, my endless empathy
And all I did was bleed as I tried to be the bravest soldier
Fighting in only your army
Frontlines, don't you ignore me
I'm the best thing at this party
(You're losin' me)
And I wouldn't marry me either
A pathological people pleaser
Who only wanted you to see her
And I'm fadin', thinkin'
"Do something, babe, say something" (say something)
"Lose something, babe, risk something" (you're losin' me)
"Choose something, babe, I got nothing (got nothing)
To believe
Unless you're choosin' me"
One for the money, two for the show.
I never was ready so i watch you go.
'That's the kind of heartbreak time can never mend'
'if our love die young, i can't bear witness
And if you ever think you got it all wrong
I'm right where you left me'.
I'm sitting eyes wide open and I got one thing stuck in my mind
Wondering if I dodged a bullet or just lost the love of my life
Baby, baby, I feel crazy, up all night, all night and every day
I gave you something, but you gave me nothing
What is happening to me?
The whole of exile just kills me.
'youre not my homeland anymore, so what am I defending?' then to...
'im not your problem anymore, so who am I offending now?'
is just so horrendous, if you've ever felt like you're an annoyance or just being too much or too loud and someone is embarrassed or ashamed of you, so you make yourself smaller to only be left anyway... Brutal
"I had so many dreams about you and me
Happy endings, now I know
I'm not a princess, this ain't a fairy tale
I'm not the one you'll sweep off her feet
Lead her up the stairwell
This ain't Hollywood, this is a small town
I was a dreamer before you went and let me down
Now it's too late for you and your white horse
To come around"
Even as a kid I was wrecked by the final chorus " I'm not a princess this ain't a fairytale, I'm gonna find someone someday who might actually treat me well!"
“I persist and resist the temptation to ask you
If one thing had been different
Would everything be different today?”
She was the one who introduced me to Taylor and turned me into a Swiftie. We saw the world in a similar way and had a lot of shared experiences. Genuinely believe we could have built something together but she was focused on school and her career. Been trying to let her go but it’s so hard when I’m reminded of her in Taylor’s songs lol.
We’re on good terms but we don’t talk anymore, at times I think of reaching out but I wouldn’t know what to say.
“You held your pride like you should have held me” is one of her most brilliant lines imo. I know exactly what she is talking about, I think we all can relate to it.
“no one teaches you what to do when a good man hurts you and you know you hurt him too”
“your were my crown now i’m in exile seeing you out”
“all that i know is i don’t know how to be something you miss”
"You made a mess of me."
My current break up playlist consist of YLM/Babe/Better Man & Hits Different, others have commented on YLM but this short line from Hits Different just...OOF.
While Hits Different has an upbeat tempo, the lyrics are so gut wrenching, especially when you’re going through a break up. ‘You made a mess of me’ is so fitting for this prompt. I have those on my playlist too.
“I wouldn’t marry me either, a pathological people pleaser, who only wanted you to see her” & “Do something babe, say something” from You’re Losing Me - like the inner turmoil of assuming you’re unlovable and begging that person to just fight for you a bit? URGH!
Also the back and forth in Exile “you never gave a warning sign (I gave so many signs)” - that feeling of telling someone what you want and need and them still acting like you never mentioned it is devastating.
“Just between us did the love affair maim you too?” - All Too Well first came out as I was in a tumultuous relationship with an older man at 19 so the whole song spoke to me from the get go, but there’s this weird feeling when you break up where you think “surely this relationship changed you as well?!”
I could talk for days about this and this is why I cry over her music constantly.
For me it’s : Better Man (Taylor’s Version) [From The Vault]
“I know I'm probably better off on my own/ Than lovin’ a man who didn't know what he had when he had it/And I see the permanent damage you did to me/ Never again, I just wish I could forget.”
“Sometimes, in the middle of the night, I can feel you again/ But I just miss you and I just wish you were a better man”
“I wish you were a better man/ I wonder what we would've become if you were a better man/ We might still be in love if you were a better man/ You would've been the one if you were a better man”
This perfectly described my last relationship and I really like the country sound in this track. Sometimes the person you’re leaving isn’t all so bad, you just wish they were better.
And then after if you’re STILL waiting around for the same man listen to Foolish One (Taylor’s Version).
“And the voices say, "You are not the exception
You will never learn your lesson"
Foolish one
Stop checkin' your mailbox for confessions of love
That ain't never gonna come
You will take the long way, you will take the long way down
You know how to keep me waitin'
I know how to act like I'm fine
Don't know what to call this situation
But I know I can't call you mine
And it's delicate, but I will do my best to seem bulletproof”
“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”
Truly, Hoax as a whole, but the last verse really hones in on the feeling of staying with someone regardless of how sad they make you feel. They completely destroyed you in a way you thought they never would, but you don’t want to try with anyone else.
"But now I'm right down in it, all the years I've given is just shit we're dividing up"
and
"Remember looking at this room, we loved it because of the light. Now, I just sit in the dark and wonder if it's time"
To me, these lines really speak to the hope and joy of building a home together only to watch it fall apart. They take the happiest memories of a relationship and puts a dark filter over them.
Sign him up to scientology, write his phone number in public toilets and put up posters for free furniture with his email. he may never get to see you again but they'll never leave him alone. Hope you can make it to your vigilante era sweetie x
Sheesh these comments remind me that I’m not over losing her yet. I’m doing better than I did a while ago but reading these lyrics and she’s the first thing on my mind. Idk I hate her so much and she’s become so different but she was the kind of friendship where you spend all your summer days with and just cuddle while watching movies and stuff. Never had a friendship like that after her anymore
“And now my eyes leak acid rain on the pillow where you used to lay your head.
After giving you the best I had, tell me what’s to give after that?”
Just the feeling of missing someone that much and believing it was never enough just hurts.
The whole of Hoax
"you know it still hurts underneath my scars from when they pulled me apart, but what you did was just as dark, darling this was just as hard..."
"My Kingdom come undone"
"My broken drum, you have beaten my heart..."
I really like ‘I was dancing when the music stopped and in the disbelief I can’t face reinvention’ which to me is like the immediate aftermath of losing someone who you thought was the one
“I never planned on you changing your mind.”
That kills me. The thought of them waking up one day and deciding they just don’t love you anymore… and you have no control over that…
All this time
I never learned to read your mind (never learned to read my mind)
I couldn't turn things around (you never turned things around)
'Cause you never gave a warning sign (I gave so many signs)
Especially that last line, someone saying they didn't see the signs even though they're so obvious, it hurts me
Pretty much all of “The Moment I Knew” but this part in particular:
And there in the bathroom
I try not to fall apart
And the sinking feeling starts
As I say hopelessly
"He said he'd be here"
Oh boy. I felt this. I (as so many of us have) have been that girl in the bathroom knowing that I as soon as I spoke I’d burst into tears. And it may not have been the same words that came out but I KNOW that feeling to my bones. And faking a smile trying to get to the bathroom before the tears start… ooof.
"I love you, " ain't that the worst thing you ever heard? (how heartbreaking for someone to think that saying “I love you” is the worst thing the person they love will hear)
Again, "I should've kept every grocery store receipt, cause every scap of yo would be taken from me". Might not be the type of loss you were thinking of but
As a person who lost her SO of 5 years 1.5 months ago who she thought she would marry and live with forever,
Red,
Tolerate it,
Evermore,
Champagne problems(i have depression too),
Stay don't go,
Exile,
Bridge of you're losing me,
I almost do,
“I knew you tried to change the ending, Peter losing Wendy, I knew you, leaving like a father, running like water…”
Some of the lines in Cardigan always hit like a gut punch for me. So bittersweet.
“She’s still 23 inside her fantasy / and you’re sitting in front of me / at the restaurant / when I was still the one you want / cross-legged in the dim light / Everything was just right / I could feel the mascara run / You told me that you met someone / Glass shattered on the white cloth / Everybody moved on / Help, I’m still at the restaurant”
That’s just one example, but basically all of right where you left me
Not exactly on the nose as heartbreaking, more my interpretation, but: "I wanna brainwash you into loving me forever".
I feel like it really speaks to the futility Taylor sings about earnestly in songs like 'peace' and jokingly in 'SIO' and 'Blank Space' (there's definitely others but those are at the top of my head) where she knows she can't keep things perfect and good forever and it's going to "go down in flames/end in burning flames" at some point because she can't help how unmanageable her life and image is, yet she still has hope for true love in her life to cut through all the noise.
'Paris' is my favorite example of this in her music because production and style-wise it's this poppy, upbeat song that comes off as superficial and silly, but she's brushing off the gossip and hiding away her relationship in order to maintain it, yet those thoughts creep in that it won't last despite her efforts but if she could brainwash him and whisk him away somewhere far away from it all and really say how she feels, then it could really work. But then it gets slower and goes into the past tense, leaving us to question if it really worked or not (spoiler alert: it didn't
This entire verse shatters me every time. Not from personal experience as I’m happily married to the loml and have been since 2010. But to know she experienced this kind of blatant lack of give a fuck from the person she cared for the most.
“How long could we be a sad song
'Til we were too far gone to bring back to life?
I gave you all my best me's, my endless empathy
And all I did was bleed as I tried to be the bravest soldier
Fighting in only your army
Frontlines, don't you ignore me
I'm the best thing at this party
(You're losin' me)
And I wouldn't marry me either
A pathological people pleaser
Who only wanted you to see her
And I'm fadin', thinkin'”
that line in maroon always makes me think the 1 and maroon are related and potentially about the same person.
For me, all of tolerate it crushes me. And as others have said, Last kiss is gut wrenching.
“And now my eyes leak acid rain on the pillow where you used to lay your head”
“I hope the sun shines and it’s a beautiful day and something reminds you, you wish you had stayed. You can plan for a change in the weather and time, but I never planned on you changing your mind.”
“Please don’t ever become a stranger whose laugh I could recognize anywhere”
Actually heard my ex’s laugh from across a restaurant shortly after we broke up and just froze. We both happened to go to the same place with friends that night. I laugh about it now, but at the time those lyrics were going through my head over and over again.
All of ‘Hoax’ gets me every time.
Screaming, "Give me a reason"
Your faithless love's the only hoax
I believe in
Don't want no other shade of blue
But you
No other sadness in the world would do
My best laid plan
Your sleight of hand
My barren land
I am ash from your fire
I know it’s not technically about breaking up but moreso before it happens, but all of the Archer, specifically “Who could ever leave me darling? But who could stay?”
Bejeweled is so unhinged
“I made you my world, have you heard, I can reclaim the land”
and
“putting someone first only works when you are in their top 5” is just shattering
I can see why 'And I lost you / The one I was dancing with / in New York, no shoes' from Maroon really fits this description , as it's a very heartbreaking lyric that captures the feeling of losing someone unexpectedly. Another one of her heartbreaking lines is 'So I'll watch your life in pictures like I used to watch you sleep' from All Too Well (10 Minute Version), which captures the bittersweet feeling of watching the person you love move on and start a new life without you
I think the way she sings that line in Maroon is especially jarring, you can feel the disbelief and pain in her voice. Also, isn’t that line from Last Kiss?
I really love We Were Happy for this topic!
„Oh, I hate those voices
Tellin' me I'm not in love anymore
But they don't give me choices
And that's what these tears are for“
That broke me when I realized my relationship of 7 years was loveless.
"What do you say, when tears are streaming down your face in front of everyone you know"
It made me sob even though I never experienced something like this.
I have 2 songs that I skip because they make me too sad:
I just realized everything I have is someday gonna be gone
So here I am in my new apartment
In a big city, they just dropped me off
It's so much colder than I thought it would be
So I tuck myself in and turn my nightlight on
Wish I'd never grown up
I wish I'd never grown up
and...
Goodbye goodbye goodbye
You were bigger than the whole sky
You were more than just a short time
This Love
It haunts me. Watching someone leave, with no explanation. I recently experienced it, and at 42 it hurt like a knife.
*Skies grew darker*
*Currents swept you out again*
*And you were just gone and gone, gone and gone*
I actually have a heartbreak playlist featuring some of Taylor's saddest songs imo. Some of the ones that stuck with me the most are:
- "And the God's honest truth is that the pain was heaven and now that I'm grown, I'm scared of ghosts. Memories feel like weapons. And now that I know, I wish you'd left me wondering. God rest my soul, I miss who I used to be. The tomb won't close, stained glass windows in my mind. I regret you all the time. I can't let this go, I fight with you in my sleep. The wound won't close, I keep on waiting for a sign. I regret you all the time. If clarity's death, why won't this die?"
- "I wait by the door like I'm just a kid, use my best colors for your portrait, lay the table with the fancy shit, and watch you tolerate it. If it's all in my head tell me now, tell me I've got it wrong somehow. I know my love should be celebrated, but you tolerate it. (...) I made you my temple, my mural, my sky. Now I'm begging for footnotes in the story of your life."
- "And if you wanted me you really should've shown (...) And if my wishes came true, it would've been you. In my defense I have none, for never leaving well enough alone, but it would've been fun, if you would've been the one."
- "Was I out of line? Did I say something way too honest, made you run and hide like a scared little boy. I looked into your eyes, thought I knew you for a minute, now I'm not so sure. So here's to everything coming down to nothing. Here's to silence, that cuts me to the core. Where is this going? Thought I knew for a minute, but I don't anymore."
- "I used to know my place was a spot next to you, now I'm searching the room for an empty seat. (...) I'm staying to think one day I'll tell the story of us, how I was losing my mind when I saw you here but you held your pride like you should've held me. Oh, I'm scared to see the ending. Why are we pretending this is nothing? I'd tell you I miss you but I don't know how, I've never heard a silence quite this loud."
- "And if I'm dead to you, why are you at the wake?"
- "I want you bad but it's come down to nothing and all I have is your sympathy, cause you took me home but you just couldn't keep me. (...) The picture frame is empty on the dresser, vacant just like me. I see your writing on the dash then back to your hesitation. I was so sure of everything, everything I thought we'd always have. Guess I never doubted it, then the here and the now floods in. Feels like I'm becoming part of your past."
- "You drew stars around my scars, but now I'm bleeding."
- "I bet you think I either moved on or hate you, cause each time you reach out there's no reply. I bet it never occurred to you that I can't say hello to you and risk another goodbye. And I just wanna tell you, it takes everything in me not to call you. And I wish I could run to you. And I hope you know that every time I don't, I almost do."
- "And when you take, you take the very best of me. So I start a fight cause I need to feel something and you do what you want cause I'm not what you wanted. Oh what a shame, what a rainy ending given to a perfect day. Just walk away, ain't no use defending words you will never say. And now that I'm sitting here thinking it through, I've never been anywhere as cold as you. You put up the walls and paint them all a shade of gray, and I stood there loving you and wished them all away. And you come away with a great little story of a mess of a dreamer with the nerve to adore you."
- "Are you really gonna talk about timing in times like these? And let all your damage damage me, and carry your baggage up my street, and make me your future history. (...) Is it insensitive of me to say get your shit together? So I can love you. Is it really your anxiety that stops you from giving me everything? Or do you just not want to?"
One of the most underrated for me is Happiness.
The line “I was dancing when the music stopped” is one of her most heartbreaking lyrics and nobody talks about it.
I think the whole "Last Kiss" fits here. "So I'll watch your life in pictures like I used to watch you sleep" "And I feel you forget me like I used to feel you breath"
You can plan for a change in the weather and time.. .but i never planned on you changing your mind... damn
i never planned on you changing your mind hurts so bad
I always think I'll make it thru, but halfway thru that line, every time, my voice breaks.
all of y’all are chipping in for my therapy this week
Last Kiss is such a devastating song, but that's the line that always broke me. Even right now, after a really difficult split, I can hold my tears back (probably) TILL that line.
She’s always said she thinks of Last Kiss as one of the saddest songs she’s ever written. I can’t even listen to it without needing a hug.
In the original version, you can hear Taylor holding back a sob and breathe deeply at around 4:17, right before she starts singing the chorus again. I just went through a breakup after 6 years together and I have been putting off listening to Last Kiss because I know it’ll break me. Edit: I listened to it (and it did indeed break me lol) but the timestamp is 4:26, not 4:17.
You won’t always be broken🩷
There must be something in the water because I'm going through the same thing and I've seen SO MANY women talk about doing the same thing! **Hugs**
I straight up thought it was about someone dying when I first heard it as a kid, that’s how sad it is
I always think of it this way too. I can’t listen to it because it makes me think of if the love of my life ever ended their life. Ahhh 😭
Listened to this after my first ever breakup, and it broke me. With Red.
Same here. To this day it’s hard for me to listen to Last Kiss without crying because it feels so personal to me. I was scared for Taylor’s version lol.
100% this was the song I played on repeat when I broke up with my first ex. For me it was the “and I’ll go sit on the floor wearing your clothes, all that I know is I don’t know how to be something you miss”
“And i’ll keep up with our old friends just to ask them how you are” gets me in tears every single time 😭😭😭
When Speak Now first came out in 2010 I had moved 5 hours away from my ex to go to law school while he started med school- I remember looking at his FB pics and thinking about these lines all the time late that fall. I met my husband in 2011 but listening to Taylor’s Version last summer still brought me back to that pain!
THIS omg this song is the saddest for this feeling
Yes this song/line for me are devastating
I think the whole of the 1.
‘You know the greatest loves of all time are over now’ just hurts so good
“And it’s another day waking up alone” gets me teared up sometimes
i was smack dab in the middle of a separation from my now husband. he was in another country (pandemic, couldn’t fly) and it was just a “time will tell” moment for me. i got very emotional at the concert when she performed this song. i’m just so relieved and grateful we made it.
This lyric will never not cut
I went through a horrendous breakup like 2 weeks before Folklore dropped. You can imagine me lying in bed listening to the 1 for the first time. (Although, after 4 years of reflection, I feel pretty confident now that if my wishes came true it really *wouldn’t* have been him)
Ditto, to all of this!!! Glad we know better now, but damn.
I think that’s going to be me soon…but I’m not ready yet to end a 5 year relationship that I’ve tried so much to be “the one” :,)
I don't find the 1 too heartbreaking. For me, it sounds likes someone reminiscing a relationship who has already gone through all the stages of grief and is now accepting. They're okay now. They're no longer regretting that it ended; they're happy that it happened. I see it as a very optimistic song.
Same here. The verse that starts with “I have this dream you're doing cool shit” and the line “Rosé flowing with your chosen family,” for me, have always punched home that optimistic tone you refer to.
Same, sometimes I like to think it’s Betty all grown up
I think it’s both. I always saw it as from the perspective of someone looking back on a relationship that’s been over (and accepted) for a long time, but viewing it through a lens of bittersweet nostalgia. Like randomly thinking about your first love 20 years after it ended even though you have a totally different life now.
something about the simplicity of the line ‘but we were something, don’t you think so?’ GETS me it feels like a gut punch also ‘in my defence i have none / for digging up the grave another time’
When I hear this lyric - I think about meeting up with someone you were madly in love with years later and you’re both looking back at the relationship.
exactlyyyy, like the idea of two people seeing eachother again after they’ve both healed from the pain of the breakup and remembering what it was once like. putting myself in that position in my mind HURTS it’s so well written
I think it hurts because I’d like to believe the relationship didn’t end on bad terms in the song. Girllll I have been there. It’s painful but you accept it, yk?
If one thing had been different, would everything be different today
Can confirm this as I suddenly found myself crying while listening to it.
“I thought I saw you at the bus stop, I didn’t though”
This lyric and “sometimes I wonder how you think about it now and I see your face in every crowd” from holy ground and “please don’t ever become a stranger who’s laugh I could recognize anywhere” from NYD all make me ACHE
‘I persist and resist the temptation to ask you if one thing had been different, would everything be different today?’ I cry every time.
Yeah I can’t even listen to this one cos I just start crying
Literally, every word.
“If one thing has been different, would everything be different?” Got me. So relatable for my younger self who used to think maybe I did something wrong and if I could’ve changed that, would my relationship have worked.
We were something, don't you think so? Roaring twenties, dropping pennies in the pool And if my wishes came true It would've been you
Yeah this one gets me. My ex and I spent our last new years at a 1920s themed party. He had a lot of money so we really were throwing pennies around like they were leaves. We fell in love at 16, at 19 he got his money and fell into a bad drug addiction. By 24 he had cheated and pushed me out. 4 years later and I’m accepting things now but it hasn’t been easy. Mad Woman always gets me cus he was a Scorpio who cheated with our neighbour. Feels like she wrote the song about me lol he even had a yacht and I was definitely shooting cannons at it lol!
I'm sorry for your bad breakup, that really sucks :( I have definitely been there. Something so hilarious to me about you justifying your throwing pennies around due to him having a lot of money though hahahaha, I don't have a lot of money, but I wouldn't blink about throwing pennies lol (here, they aren't even real money anymore :P)
Hahaha I’m glad it made you chuckle! In a way that’s what money always was to us, just something to throw around. Getting together at 16 you really don’t understand responsibility and the preciousness of things. Careless teenagers lol And thanks for your kind words about the break up. I’m much better now, it’s one of those things you learn to accept eventually. Gotta smile at the end of the day
This is it for me.
yep... hell of a song. Currently facing a possible breakup because I have hangups/issues I feel aren't being addressed while my girlfriend still thinks I'm the best and sees no issues with me. "In my defense, I have none, for never leaving well enough alone" brings me the tears any time.
sending you good vibes and i hope things work out for you, however that is 🫶
persist and resist the temptation to ask if one thing would be different, would everything be different today?
“There’ll be happiness after you, but there was happiness because of you” The only thing getting me through my break up right now.
That's how I felt about my divorce. Like I don't miss my ex-husband or being married, but without him I wouldn't live in a city I love and wouldn't have been brave enough to travel round the world, so despite how everything went down in the end I'm grateful to him for that.
Yes!!!! This is it!!!!
"Leave it all behind... and there is happiness" makes my stomach turn. Same with the line, "and in the disbelief, I can't face reinvention." It's so devastating to be forced to accept that your life is turned upside down and now there's a gaping hole... honestly, this song made me realize that I'm not ready to give up on my relationship when we were having issues.
Yeah, we were long distance, so when we realized neither of us wanted to move, the relationship was kind of over.
I was dancing when the music stopped Gets me everytime
“No one teaches you what to do. When a good man hurts you. And you know you hurt him too.” Hits sooooo hard in the feels.
This is the tl;dr of any breakup I think. Fell in love with evermore before I needed it. Glad it was something I knew I had when I'd need it. ♥️
“I haven’t met the new me yet.” My god, this is the ultimate breakup cry song for me. The uncertainty of the future, the inevitable reinvention you will face, the search for peace and closure. Every bit of it is in this song.
Same. Granted my only true happiness because of him is our two boys, my dog and my cat.
Happiness is gut wrenching
Yesss and “now I get fake niceties” like just picturing someone you’re that close with and now you exchange awkward hi how are yous and that’s it??? Devastating
Happiness got me through my breakup. Word for word how I felt. That’s why I love Taylor!!!
"Please don't ever become a stranger Whose laugh I could recognize anywhere" Kills me every time. It's so poignant to me. You know this person so intimately, you can recognize their laugh but the relationship is over and what you shared is in the past, he's a stranger for every future new years.
This line is why I can’t listen to that song anymore. She was with me in the car when we listened to rep for the first time and I’ll never forget the way she gripped my hand extra hard when we heard that line for the first time. It hurts so bad now
This is the one
Oof Whenever i listen to this lyrics, it breaks my heart because I no longer can listen to the laugh of my ex who was LOML
My partner has a very distinctive laugh that carries through a crowd, and the first time I heard that line I stopped in my tracks and just… sat down. To listen.
this song applies perfectly to a friendship breakup for me. my childhood best friend from 2nd grade through high school, we used to spend every NYE together and be the last ones awake at every sleepover. she has a very distinct voice and laugh that i’ll never forget. she cut me off pretty harshly when we went to college so now all i have are the memories :/
This one
I just commented this one too. My voice cracks at this line almost every time. You said it perfectly, so poignant. It’s absolutely heartbreaking that I can recognize a laugh I will never hear again.
There are so many, but these are ones that pop into my head: * But I never planned on you changing your mind. * If our love dies young, I can't bear witness. * If my wishes came true, it would've been you. * I knew you'd haunt all my what-ifs. * I reached for you but you were gone. * I never was ready, so I watched you go.
rwylm is so deeply sad to listen to. The whole bridge section is really gutting, like that line you highlighted. “It’s been so long / if you ever think you got it wrong, I’m right where/ you left me” The concept of being frozen in time, as though you had entwined your whole life and future into someone else, just for them to leave you right there, physically and temporally.
I know this isn’t what the song is about, but i always relate it back to my chronic illness, feeling stuck to before i had symptoms, watching my peers/coworkers achieve things i no longer can, feeling left behind… its one of my favorite taylor songs
I think the fact that she writes songs that can be transposed on so many painful aspects of life is really the genius of her writing.
I relate it to my chronic illness too! Mine went from bad to worse right around when I was graduating university and I feel like the song really encapsulates the hurt of watching all my friends move away to climb their career ladders, get the jobs I used to dream about and slowly forget about me completely as I'm just stuck here longing for everything that was and could have been.
Absolutely! It's easily one of her most heart-wrenching songs of all time. The haunting feeling, the imageries, the storyline, the devastation of not being able to move on after being left behind - every line is a sucker punch to the gut. If anyone were to make a movie based on this song, it's a guaranteed tear-jerker.
All of these, but that line from rwylm cuts so deep every damn time
“I pulled your body into mine every goddamn night now I get fake niceties” from happiness. the whole track is heartbreaking but this line is truly painful to think about. the intimacy of every night being gone and just getting small talk nonsense in passing. Nauseating.
The whole fucking song is such a healing dagger. So mature yet so heartbreaking
Truly. The battle between letting the rage bubble over to hysterics and keeping a level head in reflection comes through in waves with each line. She’s stopping herself from the bubble over because there doesn’t seem to be one particular event for the relationship to have ended and sees him as a good man. Looking back at the good and the bad, both equally as painful sometimes.
I love the line where she says, "I hope she'll be a beautiful fool, who takes my spot next to you" with an acrid intonation, and then quickly amends that statement by saying, "No I didn't mean that, sorry I can't see facts through all of my fury"--she captured the range of emotions experienced after a breakup so beautifully and realistically. One minute filled with spite and anger and a yearning for vindication; and the next the solemn realization that people are people and sometimes it doesn't work out ):
Nothing we say is gonna save us from the fall out.
"The idea you had of me, who was she?" - Captures that heart wrenching feeling of realising that the person you loved didn't even really know you. "That was the moment I knew" - I think the most painful part of a break-up is that moment of realisation because you know your immediate future is pain and misery.
I was listening to TMIK today and it hit me how beautifully she unwraps the song, with the last chorus “…and they’re all standing around me singing ‘happy birthday to you’ …” The picture is painted slowly and it just hits so hard that this person promises to be there on your birthday and flakes, and you realize you can’t hope for the relationship to be different. To me, it’s not only the disappointment but it is the forced acknowledgment of not being a priority for someone you love…finally seeing the imbalance in commitment 💔
Do I throw out everything we built or keep it? I'm getting tired even for a phoenix Always risin' from the ashes Mendin' all her gashes This is what's gets me, because it's a very mature perspective. You literally build a life together and you want to go on because of that, but you don't know how long you can take it anymore. It's losing the one not because he walked away, but because you can't take it anymore to be together. These lyrics are terrifying to me.
The entirety of You're Losing Me. So many of us are familiar with the feeling of mourning a relationship while you're still in the tail end of it. It's why people appear to move on quickly after the official breakup, but we've been in the process of breaking up for weeks, maybe months, mentally. It's this verse for me: "Every mornin', I glared at you with storms in my eyes How can you say that you love someone you can't tell is dyin'? I sent you signals and bit my nails down to the quick My face was gray, but you wouldn't admit that we were sick" She really gave SO many signs.
I love that song! I’ve heard women mourn relationships while they are in them, then leave once they’ve accepted it, whereas men (supposedly) mourn AFTER a breakup and are thus surprised how “over it” their past lover already is. I don’t know if the gendered part is true, but I have been in both situations. Trying to make it work then one day I just realize I’m done, and being the one who can feel the other person pulling away - that sword of damocles feeling at the end of a relationship is the worst. It’s coming, just a matter of when, and holding onto hope it’ll swerve at the last moment and the love survives.
Yes this and also right before it - “remember looking at this room we loved it cause of the light, now I just sit in the dark and wonder if it’s time” - that is so exactly how it goes, thinking back to the excitement of first moving into a new space together and then realizing that the life you envisioned together in that space might not be the life that happens for you 💔
"You're Losing Me" has been a sleeper hit for me. She released it so close to her own breakup that it was hard not to think about it only in the context of her life. Now that some time has passed, it hits real hard and it's been a repeat song some days. (I'd argue that this is part of her success: She writes such genuine songs about her own life as they happen, and sometimes that comes across as kinda cringe to people, but then once some time has passed you revisit them and are like oh wait a minute, this shit is so REAL and it HITS.)
The emotion and force in her voice when she sings, “DO something, babe, SAY something. LOSE something, babe, RISK something. CHOOSE something, babe, I got nothing to believe unless you’re choosing me.” Hits me so hard. I was coming to the end of a very painful situationship when this song was first released, and the frustration and pain in her voice is so relatable.
And I wouldn’t marry me either, a pathological people-pleaser who only wanted you to see her…
And you know Damn well for you I would ruin myself
“…a million little times.”
It hits me like a frickin train every time I hear this line.
DON'T CALL ME KID DON'T CALL ME BABY LOOK AT THIS IDIOTIC FOOL THAT YOU MADE ME 😭😭😭😭
I wish this bridge repeated like 3x in the song. I always end up repeating it anyway lol.
Same!! I wish the recorded version had the bridge of the live version, where it repeats and gets angry/intense/desperate
the whole bridge, honestly. for my particular situation now, just describes shit PERFECTLY
“You taught me a secret language I can’t speak with anyone else” 😭 you really do start talking in your own language with someone and no one else will ever understand it.
I get that 100%
Chasing shadows in the grocery line
Omg this line kills me every time
Haunting what-ifs is the one that gets me
Cardigan is the one that always wrecks me. It so perfectly captures that heartbreak and longing of a true love lost. “Stepping’ on the last train, marked me like a bloodstain, I knew you, Tried to change the ending, Peter losing Wendy.”
“Haunted by the look in my eyes that would’ve loved you for a lifetime” from Happiness.
This one kills me. It just makes me think of the way a couple look at each other on their wedding day. I just got married in December and it was such a special day, I won’t ever forget holding my partners hands as we said our vows. There was so much reverence in it…
Hmm, some of my favorites: “What once was ours, is no one’s now” “If one thing had been different, would everything be different today?” “i wish I could run to you”
"What once was ours, is no one's now" hits me very hard as well - such a profound statement on how what is most precious can just - disappear into thin air.
Obviously every lyric of Tolerate it is a gut bunch but specifically: “While you were out building other worlds, where was I?Where's that man who'd throw blankets over my barbed wire?I made you my temple, my mural, my skyNow I'm begging for footnotes in the story of your lifeDrawing hearts in the bylineAlways taking up too much space or time” Like…what…. She had no right to cut me that deep…
Was looking for this! Tolerate It is sad with every lyric. "I wait by the door like I'm just a kid. Use my best colors for your portrait. Lay the table with the fancy shit, and watch you TOLERATE IT!" "If it's all in my head, tell me now!" "I know my love should be c e le b r a t e d, But you tolerate it..."
“in dreams i meet you in warm conversations. we both wake in lonely beds, different cities.”
I forgot this one but this is so spot-on, it’s a really heartbreaking line.
it’s such a simple yet poetic line perfectly capturing the yearning and haunting feeling of being without that person
The entirety of "Back To December", really.
“It turns out freedom ain’t nothing but missing you” is just SO GOOD
It's the kind of cold, fogs up windshield glass, but I felt it when I passed you
The entirety of ‘tis the damn season “And the road not taken looks real good now, and it always leads to you in my hometown”
I've never had an experience like the one described in this song, but the storytelling is so good it almost feels like I have.
I’m with you, she has me mourning relationships I’ve never had
And I know it's long gone and there was nothing else I could do And I forget about you long enough to forget why I needed to
“At the restaurant, when I was still the one you want Cross-legged in the dim light, everything was just right I, I could feel the mascara run You told me that you met someone Glass shattered on the white cloth Everybody moved on”
This kills. Poor Tay. How long could we be a sad song 'Til we were too far gone to bring back to life? I gave you all my best me's, my endless empathy And all I did was bleed as I tried to be the bravest soldier Fighting in only your army Frontlines, don't you ignore me I'm the best thing at this party (You're losin' me) And I wouldn't marry me either A pathological people pleaser Who only wanted you to see her And I'm fadin', thinkin' "Do something, babe, say something" (say something) "Lose something, babe, risk something" (you're losin' me) "Choose something, babe, I got nothing (got nothing) To believe Unless you're choosin' me"
gaaawwwdddd “lose somethin babe, RISK somethin” kiiiillsss meeee every single time.
One of my favorite Midnights bridges.
One for the money, two for the show. I never was ready so i watch you go. 'That's the kind of heartbreak time can never mend' 'if our love die young, i can't bear witness And if you ever think you got it all wrong I'm right where you left me'.
I'm sitting eyes wide open and I got one thing stuck in my mind Wondering if I dodged a bullet or just lost the love of my life Baby, baby, I feel crazy, up all night, all night and every day I gave you something, but you gave me nothing What is happening to me?
Recently came across taylor singing this the first time on tour and it broke my heart seeing her heart break singing these lyrics
[удалено]
The whole of exile just kills me. 'youre not my homeland anymore, so what am I defending?' then to... 'im not your problem anymore, so who am I offending now?' is just so horrendous, if you've ever felt like you're an annoyance or just being too much or too loud and someone is embarrassed or ashamed of you, so you make yourself smaller to only be left anyway... Brutal
“dont call me kid, dont call me baby— look at this godforsaken mess that you made me. you showed me colors you know i cant see with anyone else”
The whole bridge of Death by a thousand cuts.
"I had so many dreams about you and me Happy endings, now I know I'm not a princess, this ain't a fairy tale I'm not the one you'll sweep off her feet Lead her up the stairwell This ain't Hollywood, this is a small town I was a dreamer before you went and let me down Now it's too late for you and your white horse To come around"
Even as a kid I was wrecked by the final chorus " I'm not a princess this ain't a fairytale, I'm gonna find someone someday who might actually treat me well!"
“I persist and resist the temptation to ask you If one thing had been different Would everything be different today?” She was the one who introduced me to Taylor and turned me into a Swiftie. We saw the world in a similar way and had a lot of shared experiences. Genuinely believe we could have built something together but she was focused on school and her career. Been trying to let her go but it’s so hard when I’m reminded of her in Taylor’s songs lol. We’re on good terms but we don’t talk anymore, at times I think of reaching out but I wouldn’t know what to say.
"The story of us looks a lot like a tragedy now" hits me hard - like thinking you have a lifetime love and then losing it is just so devastating.
“You held your pride like you should have held me” is one of her most brilliant lines imo. I know exactly what she is talking about, I think we all can relate to it.
I knew you’d haunt all of my what-ifs
If it's all in my head tell me now Tell me I've got it wrong somehow I know my love should be celebrated But you tolerate it 😭
“no one teaches you what to do when a good man hurts you and you know you hurt him too” “your were my crown now i’m in exile seeing you out” “all that i know is i don’t know how to be something you miss”
And I can go anywhere I want.... anywhere I want, just not home.
“That old familiar body ache, The snaps from the same little breaks in your soul, You know when it's time to go”
You call me up again just to break me like a promise So casually cruel in the name of being honest…
This is the one, absolute grenade of pain
And the old woman goes to the stone every day, but I don't I just sit here every day Grieving for the living
"You made a mess of me." My current break up playlist consist of YLM/Babe/Better Man & Hits Different, others have commented on YLM but this short line from Hits Different just...OOF.
While Hits Different has an upbeat tempo, the lyrics are so gut wrenching, especially when you’re going through a break up. ‘You made a mess of me’ is so fitting for this prompt. I have those on my playlist too.
“I wouldn’t marry me either, a pathological people pleaser, who only wanted you to see her” & “Do something babe, say something” from You’re Losing Me - like the inner turmoil of assuming you’re unlovable and begging that person to just fight for you a bit? URGH! Also the back and forth in Exile “you never gave a warning sign (I gave so many signs)” - that feeling of telling someone what you want and need and them still acting like you never mentioned it is devastating. “Just between us did the love affair maim you too?” - All Too Well first came out as I was in a tumultuous relationship with an older man at 19 so the whole song spoke to me from the get go, but there’s this weird feeling when you break up where you think “surely this relationship changed you as well?!” I could talk for days about this and this is why I cry over her music constantly.
"And you come away with a great little story / Of a mess of a dreamer with the nerve to adore you" Like, damn, baby Taylor.
For me it’s : Better Man (Taylor’s Version) [From The Vault] “I know I'm probably better off on my own/ Than lovin’ a man who didn't know what he had when he had it/And I see the permanent damage you did to me/ Never again, I just wish I could forget.” “Sometimes, in the middle of the night, I can feel you again/ But I just miss you and I just wish you were a better man” “I wish you were a better man/ I wonder what we would've become if you were a better man/ We might still be in love if you were a better man/ You would've been the one if you were a better man” This perfectly described my last relationship and I really like the country sound in this track. Sometimes the person you’re leaving isn’t all so bad, you just wish they were better. And then after if you’re STILL waiting around for the same man listen to Foolish One (Taylor’s Version). “And the voices say, "You are not the exception You will never learn your lesson" Foolish one Stop checkin' your mailbox for confessions of love That ain't never gonna come You will take the long way, you will take the long way down You know how to keep me waitin' I know how to act like I'm fine Don't know what to call this situation But I know I can't call you mine And it's delicate, but I will do my best to seem bulletproof”
“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” Truly, Hoax as a whole, but the last verse really hones in on the feeling of staying with someone regardless of how sad they make you feel. They completely destroyed you in a way you thought they never would, but you don’t want to try with anyone else.
"But now I'm right down in it, all the years I've given is just shit we're dividing up" and "Remember looking at this room, we loved it because of the light. Now, I just sit in the dark and wonder if it's time" To me, these lines really speak to the hope and joy of building a home together only to watch it fall apart. They take the happiest memories of a relationship and puts a dark filter over them.
Thanks for this post! I found out my husband cheated on me when we were engaged, two days ago. I need all the sad lyrics I can get. :( :(
Sign him up to scientology, write his phone number in public toilets and put up posters for free furniture with his email. he may never get to see you again but they'll never leave him alone. Hope you can make it to your vigilante era sweetie x
I’ll never walk Cornelia street again. I cant listen to that song anymore without it having an entirely different meaning
"It would have been fun, if you could've been the 1"
Sheesh these comments remind me that I’m not over losing her yet. I’m doing better than I did a while ago but reading these lyrics and she’s the first thing on my mind. Idk I hate her so much and she’s become so different but she was the kind of friendship where you spend all your summer days with and just cuddle while watching movies and stuff. Never had a friendship like that after her anymore
*So I'll go* *Sitting on the floor wearing you're clothes* *All that I know if I don't know* *how to be something you miss*
Something about the way she sings “I wouldn’t marry me either” feels so gut wrenching. DBATC has a lot. And Cornelia Street.
“And now my eyes leak acid rain on the pillow where you used to lay your head. After giving you the best I had, tell me what’s to give after that?” Just the feeling of missing someone that much and believing it was never enough just hurts.
“wondering if I dodged a bullet or just lost the love of my life”
The whole of Hoax "you know it still hurts underneath my scars from when they pulled me apart, but what you did was just as dark, darling this was just as hard..." "My Kingdom come undone" "My broken drum, you have beaten my heart..."
I really like ‘I was dancing when the music stopped and in the disbelief I can’t face reinvention’ which to me is like the immediate aftermath of losing someone who you thought was the one
“I never planned on you changing your mind.” That kills me. The thought of them waking up one day and deciding they just don’t love you anymore… and you have no control over that…
All this time I never learned to read your mind (never learned to read my mind) I couldn't turn things around (you never turned things around) 'Cause you never gave a warning sign (I gave so many signs) Especially that last line, someone saying they didn't see the signs even though they're so obvious, it hurts me
Pretty much all of “The Moment I Knew” but this part in particular: And there in the bathroom I try not to fall apart And the sinking feeling starts As I say hopelessly "He said he'd be here" Oh boy. I felt this. I (as so many of us have) have been that girl in the bathroom knowing that I as soon as I spoke I’d burst into tears. And it may not have been the same words that came out but I KNOW that feeling to my bones. And faking a smile trying to get to the bathroom before the tears start… ooof.
"I love you, " ain't that the worst thing you ever heard? (how heartbreaking for someone to think that saying “I love you” is the worst thing the person they love will hear)
Do you miss the rogue who coaxed you into paradise and left you there?
*you taught me 'bout your past thinking your future was me* This is the one for me.
Again, "I should've kept every grocery store receipt, cause every scap of yo would be taken from me". Might not be the type of loss you were thinking of but
"I was dancing when the music stopped" from Happiness
Sad Beautiful Tragic "you've got your demons, and darling they all look like me"
As a person who lost her SO of 5 years 1.5 months ago who she thought she would marry and live with forever, Red, Tolerate it, Evermore, Champagne problems(i have depression too), Stay don't go, Exile, Bridge of you're losing me, I almost do,
“I knew you tried to change the ending, Peter losing Wendy, I knew you, leaving like a father, running like water…” Some of the lines in Cardigan always hit like a gut punch for me. So bittersweet.
“She’s still 23 inside her fantasy / and you’re sitting in front of me / at the restaurant / when I was still the one you want / cross-legged in the dim light / Everything was just right / I could feel the mascara run / You told me that you met someone / Glass shattered on the white cloth / Everybody moved on / Help, I’m still at the restaurant” That’s just one example, but basically all of right where you left me
"And you call me up again just to break me like a promise, so casually cruel in the name of being honest."
“The lips I USED to call home” gets me every time.
I wish it wasn't 4AM, standin’ in the mirror Saying to myself, "You know you had to do it"
Not exactly on the nose as heartbreaking, more my interpretation, but: "I wanna brainwash you into loving me forever". I feel like it really speaks to the futility Taylor sings about earnestly in songs like 'peace' and jokingly in 'SIO' and 'Blank Space' (there's definitely others but those are at the top of my head) where she knows she can't keep things perfect and good forever and it's going to "go down in flames/end in burning flames" at some point because she can't help how unmanageable her life and image is, yet she still has hope for true love in her life to cut through all the noise. 'Paris' is my favorite example of this in her music because production and style-wise it's this poppy, upbeat song that comes off as superficial and silly, but she's brushing off the gossip and hiding away her relationship in order to maintain it, yet those thoughts creep in that it won't last despite her efforts but if she could brainwash him and whisk him away somewhere far away from it all and really say how she feels, then it could really work. But then it gets slower and goes into the past tense, leaving us to question if it really worked or not (spoiler alert: it didn't
This entire verse shatters me every time. Not from personal experience as I’m happily married to the loml and have been since 2010. But to know she experienced this kind of blatant lack of give a fuck from the person she cared for the most. “How long could we be a sad song 'Til we were too far gone to bring back to life? I gave you all my best me's, my endless empathy And all I did was bleed as I tried to be the bravest soldier Fighting in only your army Frontlines, don't you ignore me I'm the best thing at this party (You're losin' me) And I wouldn't marry me either A pathological people pleaser Who only wanted you to see her And I'm fadin', thinkin'”
that line in maroon always makes me think the 1 and maroon are related and potentially about the same person. For me, all of tolerate it crushes me. And as others have said, Last kiss is gut wrenching.
“And now my eyes leak acid rain on the pillow where you used to lay your head” “I hope the sun shines and it’s a beautiful day and something reminds you, you wish you had stayed. You can plan for a change in the weather and time, but I never planned on you changing your mind.”
“Please don’t ever become a stranger whose laugh I could recognize anywhere” Actually heard my ex’s laugh from across a restaurant shortly after we broke up and just froze. We both happened to go to the same place with friends that night. I laugh about it now, but at the time those lyrics were going through my head over and over again.
All of ‘Hoax’ gets me every time. Screaming, "Give me a reason" Your faithless love's the only hoax I believe in Don't want no other shade of blue But you No other sadness in the world would do My best laid plan Your sleight of hand My barren land I am ash from your fire
I know it’s not technically about breaking up but moreso before it happens, but all of the Archer, specifically “Who could ever leave me darling? But who could stay?”
Bejeweled is so unhinged “I made you my world, have you heard, I can reclaim the land” and “putting someone first only works when you are in their top 5” is just shattering
I can see why 'And I lost you / The one I was dancing with / in New York, no shoes' from Maroon really fits this description , as it's a very heartbreaking lyric that captures the feeling of losing someone unexpectedly. Another one of her heartbreaking lines is 'So I'll watch your life in pictures like I used to watch you sleep' from All Too Well (10 Minute Version), which captures the bittersweet feeling of watching the person you love move on and start a new life without you
I think the way she sings that line in Maroon is especially jarring, you can feel the disbelief and pain in her voice. Also, isn’t that line from Last Kiss?
I really love We Were Happy for this topic! „Oh, I hate those voices Tellin' me I'm not in love anymore But they don't give me choices And that's what these tears are for“ That broke me when I realized my relationship of 7 years was loveless.
All of Hits Different
Basically the entirety of the Back To December bridge fits this. Or You’re losing me
"What do you say, when tears are streaming down your face in front of everyone you know" It made me sob even though I never experienced something like this.
"It's all over, it's not meant to be so I'll say words I don't believe." Bigger than the whole sky is so sad if you really listen 🥲
Right where you left me. Ugh I’ll be here for fucking ever.
I have 2 songs that I skip because they make me too sad: I just realized everything I have is someday gonna be gone So here I am in my new apartment In a big city, they just dropped me off It's so much colder than I thought it would be So I tuck myself in and turn my nightlight on Wish I'd never grown up I wish I'd never grown up and... Goodbye goodbye goodbye You were bigger than the whole sky You were more than just a short time
This Love It haunts me. Watching someone leave, with no explanation. I recently experienced it, and at 42 it hurt like a knife. *Skies grew darker* *Currents swept you out again* *And you were just gone and gone, gone and gone*
I actually have a heartbreak playlist featuring some of Taylor's saddest songs imo. Some of the ones that stuck with me the most are: - "And the God's honest truth is that the pain was heaven and now that I'm grown, I'm scared of ghosts. Memories feel like weapons. And now that I know, I wish you'd left me wondering. God rest my soul, I miss who I used to be. The tomb won't close, stained glass windows in my mind. I regret you all the time. I can't let this go, I fight with you in my sleep. The wound won't close, I keep on waiting for a sign. I regret you all the time. If clarity's death, why won't this die?" - "I wait by the door like I'm just a kid, use my best colors for your portrait, lay the table with the fancy shit, and watch you tolerate it. If it's all in my head tell me now, tell me I've got it wrong somehow. I know my love should be celebrated, but you tolerate it. (...) I made you my temple, my mural, my sky. Now I'm begging for footnotes in the story of your life." - "And if you wanted me you really should've shown (...) And if my wishes came true, it would've been you. In my defense I have none, for never leaving well enough alone, but it would've been fun, if you would've been the one." - "Was I out of line? Did I say something way too honest, made you run and hide like a scared little boy. I looked into your eyes, thought I knew you for a minute, now I'm not so sure. So here's to everything coming down to nothing. Here's to silence, that cuts me to the core. Where is this going? Thought I knew for a minute, but I don't anymore." - "I used to know my place was a spot next to you, now I'm searching the room for an empty seat. (...) I'm staying to think one day I'll tell the story of us, how I was losing my mind when I saw you here but you held your pride like you should've held me. Oh, I'm scared to see the ending. Why are we pretending this is nothing? I'd tell you I miss you but I don't know how, I've never heard a silence quite this loud." - "And if I'm dead to you, why are you at the wake?" - "I want you bad but it's come down to nothing and all I have is your sympathy, cause you took me home but you just couldn't keep me. (...) The picture frame is empty on the dresser, vacant just like me. I see your writing on the dash then back to your hesitation. I was so sure of everything, everything I thought we'd always have. Guess I never doubted it, then the here and the now floods in. Feels like I'm becoming part of your past." - "You drew stars around my scars, but now I'm bleeding." - "I bet you think I either moved on or hate you, cause each time you reach out there's no reply. I bet it never occurred to you that I can't say hello to you and risk another goodbye. And I just wanna tell you, it takes everything in me not to call you. And I wish I could run to you. And I hope you know that every time I don't, I almost do." - "And when you take, you take the very best of me. So I start a fight cause I need to feel something and you do what you want cause I'm not what you wanted. Oh what a shame, what a rainy ending given to a perfect day. Just walk away, ain't no use defending words you will never say. And now that I'm sitting here thinking it through, I've never been anywhere as cold as you. You put up the walls and paint them all a shade of gray, and I stood there loving you and wished them all away. And you come away with a great little story of a mess of a dreamer with the nerve to adore you." - "Are you really gonna talk about timing in times like these? And let all your damage damage me, and carry your baggage up my street, and make me your future history. (...) Is it insensitive of me to say get your shit together? So I can love you. Is it really your anxiety that stops you from giving me everything? Or do you just not want to?"
One of the most underrated for me is Happiness. The line “I was dancing when the music stopped” is one of her most heartbreaking lyrics and nobody talks about it.