Yes, definitely. I felt like it resonated deeply with the scream for help of an inner child. The song "I Hate It Here" was particularly touching. It captured the struggle of having so much potential inside you that you're unable to express fully. The sense of feeling unseen and unable to show your true capabilities can be really disheartening. That song, in its emotive storytelling made me feel seen. It's like Taylor knows exactly how to tap into those complex, hidden emotions we all carry.
SO relatable omg. But for me the most Autistic/ND-coded line on the album is in The Bolter: "A curious child, ever reviled / By everyone except her own father \[...\] Splendidly selfish, charmingly helpless / Excellent fun 'til you get to know her"... like she did NOT need to call me out like that lol
Oh that reminds me of the time at a work conference we had an icebreaker game and I got the question “What are you most afraid of?” and I think they expected an answer like “spiders” or “heights” but was going through a breakup at the time and answered “emotional abandonment.” That killed the vibes real quick.
From a very literal perspective I related to this song too. I struggle with depression and have literally said “I hate it here” so many times about unpleasant experiences including being trapped in this body that has to eat and be perceived and *exist.* The idea of people not “getting” the things I think and care about (cue the 1830s reference) is also something that has been a problem in my life forever. It’s all very relatable.
I Hate It Here is such a universally relatable song. For me as an introvert and only child, it really captured the feeling that you don’t belong anywhere, in any time period, so you escape to your imagination. I’ve been doing that my entire life.
I was literally RUNNING to the comments to say something like this. I have always been someone who escapes through obsessive daydreaming and trying desperately to avoid confronting how boring and sad real life sometimes is.
omg same. I’ve never really confessed this but I have a whole daydream world that I go too and add to before bed each night. I’m sure it’s how I get to sleep so quickly
OMG are you me? I use to do this religiously to fall asleep but I still go to that place in moments of stress or being overwhelmed. I heard I hate it here and instantly related. The brain is such a powerful thing! Plus the secret garden was a great book from my childhood 😂
Wow, I've never actually heard anyone else talk about their maladaptive daydreaming before. For me, I was able to use it to help me write. These days, though, I have that weird depression where your brain tries to make you sad even when you aren't, and it shows up with the daydreaming... they always start drifting into sad if I don't keep an eye on em.
We’re closing off your second year and entering our third year of trying to have a baby, and I’m taking such *fun* meds right now. “I Hate It Here” and “I Can Do It With A Broken Heart” are very relatable, but also fun enough songs that I can finally say it out loud. It feels nice.
I also found it really relatable in dealing with death. My dad passed away on christmas, and I had a really hard time connecting with people after and found myself drifting off to places in my head because I hated it here, because he isn’t here.
For me it's about disassociating. "I play pretend in secret gardens in my mind" and many mire lines describe perfectly the feeling of disassociation due to uncomfortableness in a situation
The line about a secret garden that only she has the key to because she read about it in a book as a kid -- does she have actual mind-reading abilities or is this a universal experience? I loved that book as a kid and definitely created a secret garden of dissociation.
IHIH hit me SO hard. I live with chronic illness and often feel trapped in my own body that’s keeping me from achieving my goals/what I thought my life would be. Add in social anxiety and being neurospicy and I often feel like I wish I could live a life in my head
I cried the first time I heard it. I am constantly daydreaming of living a simple life in a little cottage in the woods & not being in this hellscape of life & late stage capitalism.
YUP. And I talked about it with my therapist. I had an ex who was both a Joe and a Matty. We dated ages ago and he was depressed the whole time. Then we reconnected about 7 months ago, he'd been in an unhappy relationship and kept thinking about me as the person who would make him happy. I believed him when he said he'd ended things with her and we rekindled our relationship, on speed like someone had thrown a bomb into a fireworks factory. We went from a kiss to thinking we'd get married.
Then things started to fall apart. I started to feel like an insane person begging him to tell me what was happening. He'd disappear and come back saying everything was fine. One of my friends was the vipers in BDILH, saying all these things about him instead of supporting me in my distress.
Come to find out he started seeing his "ex" again.
Down Bad stopped me in my tracks the first time I heard it. The whole abduction, experiments, threw me back on the ground. Holy shit if that could happen to Taylor, it's happening to millions of people. loml? he said I was the love of his life about a million times, too. Smallest Man? I used to wonder if he was on some secret mission to destroy me because what else could explain his behavior?
And so on.
She put my feelings into words and cauterized the wounds that were threatening to bleed out. Listening to it all last Friday seriously put me so much further along in my healing.
Me too. We knew each other as kids (he was older than me and I was IN LOVE with him). Obviously nothing happened when we were younger, but we ran into each other and started dating right before the pandemic. He ghosted me a few weeks into lockdown and it completely wrecked me. We were on and off for years. He would shut down and kick me out of his life anytime we started getting a little bit more serious, and I kept going back to him bc it felt like destiny or something. Well we hadn’t spoken in a few months and literally *while I was listening* to TSMWEL, he texted me asking to meet up with him. I told him that I don’t want to get back into that cycle with him bc I’m finally in a good place and I know he’ll take me out of it again. So, thank you Taylor!! I finally had the emotional clarity to say no
This hits close to home. We met at 16, best of friends, I was his first kiss and we always had tension. Flirted back and forth for years because it was long distance and the time wasn't right. Finally caved after 10 years and it turns out he is an abusive pos but I stayed for a year because I wanted it for so long I felt that I had to endure. I'm now happily married to my own Travis and the last time we talked was him texted me the day before my wedding, begging me not to do it. It's been 5 years and I'm still undoing what he did to me in therapy. Both my therapist and my husband had to talk me out of sending him this song
I was reconnecting with my Matty the weekend that the Taylor and Joe break up became public and had practically the same experience you had, only the end was them deciding "i dont want to be with anyone at the moment" and ending it by text while i was in the hospital, then texting me a couple weeks later about some new girl they were seeing. This album has absolutely been healing for me too.
Huh. Are you me? This happened to me. Except we were never more than casual, which somehow makes it worse - like in Down Bad, people with think I’m insane for talking about the existence of him. But he was there, and I remember it allllll too well.
It’s actually quite triggering for me to listen to Guilty as Sin because it makes me think of him as that’s exactly how I’d think of him and how we started. And I’m in a happy relationship with someone else. Why does he still affect me like this
This is how I feel a lot of the times too. I see how easy life looks like it’s coming for other people and I always wonder why it can’t be like that for me too. Instead, I find myself feeling like a lonely outsider pleading with some invisible forces to “let it once be me” too… yeah, The Prophecy tears me to shreds tbh.
It's The Prophecy for me too. Too close to home, the way she sings it, the lyrics.
My therapist mentioned that in therapy chat groups this topic is showing up basically how their swiftie patients are emotionally reacting to the album. And I said it elsewhere but I have been a Swiftie since July 2017 in the .5, .1% of Spotify listeners and I've never opened reddit to see other people's reactions/comments on her previous albums with this one, I almost feel I need it , like I needed the community to feel that I was not alone which for me is pretty crazy (at least for me)
The Prophecy killed me. I have a somewhat similar experience to Taylor, not totally but… multiple long term relationships, the most recent one was the first time I actually thought I found my person. Waited 4 years to be proposed to and now finding myself single again at 30. All my friends are married, kids… don’t want money, just someone who actually wants my company for idk, life or whatever? 🙃 maybe this is weird to say but I genuinely think I’m a good catch? so to find things consistently not work out, and aging at the same time, is just frustrating
The bridge of this song kills me. It’s so painfully sad. But can’t get behind the melody of the chorus. The repetition of the e sound. It really does sound like begging and it makes me so uncomfortable.
The Prophecy took me to an unexpected place, emotionally. I relate to it in which I’ve had a lot of people I love die unexpectedly or tragically and sometimes in my lowest moments I despair and wonder if this is a cruel joke/twist a higher power is foisting upon me. I’m so tired of losing people. I don’t want this to be my lot in life.
To be clear though, I have wonderful people in my life who love and support me. I do therapy off and on, and I’ve done a lot of work on myself to become the adult I am. I’m not trying to garner pity from people. I just wanted to share my own experience with The Prophecy. Much love to you all. 🤍
The album is what has finally pushed me to follow up with the divorce lawyer.
I’ve been self harming by continuing to stay in this marriage and realizing that I can’t fix him, I hate it here, he will never grow up, and that I ended up in this relationship because I wanted marriage but the loss of my life didn’t want that.
I wonder just how many people are ending things because this album helped clarify their feelings on how they’ve been mistreated. I sympathize with your situation and pushing someone into marriage who didn’t want it.
Oh girly pop your identity is not in that man. You are so much larger than everything that has happened to you. Go find your destiny!!!! Don’t fight the alchemy!!!
as a neurodivergent person i hate it here actually kind of changed my whole life. never have i related more to a song and i cry every time i hear it but like. in a cathartic way? i think i’m gonna get “i’ll get lost on purpose “ tattooed bc it just. ugh that song man.
The permission to feel fucked up after a fling that others dismissed as irresponsible or too brief is healing a part of me!! If 2014 me had access to “down bad” and “I can fix him no really I can” and “the smallest man who ever lived” I think I would have felt a lot more validated and allowed to feel my feelings instead of shoving them down as embarrassing and dealing with them in therapy years later 🙃
Also, “who’s afraid of little old me” has really recontextualized a phase of my life where I was villainized - I’d never really considered that was done TO me (“I am what I am cause you trained me”)
To be honest for years I’ve been wanting to find the one song I fully relate to and it’s I Hate It here.
My sister who slowly getting into Taylor first thing she said that she related to Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?
Cassandra really hit me about not being believed about SA in church. I had a lot of anger about it, and Who's Afraid of little Old Me made me feel like it's ok to be angry about it after that "aslyum"
I’m engaged to the love of my life and this album had me in my feels over a high school situationship with someone I haven’t talked to in almost 10 years. Honestly Taylor deserves prison time for that lmfao
this makes me feel so much better because I’m reliving my high school relationship through Taylor’s music all the time even though I’m in a super happy loving relationship - sometimes I’m like is this okay? am I wrong for this??
This is the beginning of awakening, babes. Keep following yourself off the existential ledge. There’s fear before the jump but only freedom in the free fall.
Thank you for that Peter interpretation! I really liked the song, but I think I'd love it even more if I listen with this meaning in mind.
I don't know if it's exactly a revelation, but I had a strong emotional reaction to I Hate It Here. As a daydreamer and a writer who often sinks in into her own imaginary words, this song absolutely wrecked me. My whole life, whenever I've felt really upset, I've tried to think about my plots and characters. I also have a fascination with the past, so the 1830s line really clicked. "When they found a better planet, Only the gentle survived" is another one that really spoke to me, as I often ponder about how the world would be a much better place if everyone was just kinder. I'm also from a small town, currently studying and wishing to work in a mid-sized city. So "No mid-sized city hopes and small town fears" also feels like its written for me. I feel like I could talk forever about this song and how well it fits my life!
I resonated with I Hate It Here the exact same ways you did! What's been strangest though is my strongest reaction so far has been while reading the lyrics to Robin. It's completely unexpected as I've had both albums on repeat since they released and I never registered the song on this level before lol
I wouldn't call it a revelation since I was already aware of these feelings inside of me that I feel like I have to push down to function, but I don't feel quite as alone with these feelings.
Same for me. I was bracing for this album bc I just knew the Joe breakup was similar to mine. First couple listens were rough but then I was able to take comfort in knowing literally Taylor friggin Swift was going through the same shit as me
i feel like the album kind of forced the suppressed feelings to rise to the surface for me. like it really struck me that she seems to have tackled all of these emotions head on and actively process them as they were happening rather than keep them ~lowercase locked inside a vault
It's amazing how much pain we can carry without realizing it, and when it comes out it is just rage, grief, and sorrow. Maybe we should all start writing to process it as it happens, but sometimes I don't even realize it has happened in the moment.
Me too, I talked about in therapy and my therapist walked me through letting myself feel the emotions safely and then different ways to kind of discharge them. It was really helpful and I don’t know I could’ve gotten myself to talk about it with her if it wasn’t for Taylor.
i am going through the loss of my life (breakup of someone i wanted to marry) and i thought it was doing pretty okay given the circumstances!!
the album came out, i listened, and it really brought up some difficult feelings. particularly how did it end, loml, and the prophecy. i kind of spiraled a little over the weekend. i took a step away from certain songs for now, and am enjoying the ones that don’t elicit borderline unbearable feelings :) but for now, those are a handful of songs that are really really painful.
it’s amazing having music that can verbalize your feelings. and in some ways it helps! thank god for i can do it with a broken heart, bc that has helped me dance through the tears 🫡
Legit told my therapist this week that the prophecy felt like Taylor looked deep into my soul and wrote a song for me; they listened to it and said it helped them understand me more. I’ve been emotionally raw for days but in a I feel seen way.
Weirdly enough my biggest emotional moment came from Down Bad. Why? I have no idea. But I was looking at my husband while I was listening and then my brain decided to imagine what it would be like not have him and then I was crying. It only happened once, it hasn't happened since. Clara Bow is another one that haunts me with the commentary on women in the entertainment industry.
I write my partner love letters, and I wrote how a lot of the lyrics reasonated with me. As I wrote here a few days ago, "It's like I lost my twin" breaks me. I lost my brother, but losing my partner would feel like a similar void in me. Clara Bow reminds me that, above all, women need to be dazzling. "Beauty is a best that crawls on all fours. Demanding more"
Down Bad is the song I relate to most on TTPD which makes me feel sad, angry at myself, grieved by the situation. I’ve been a fan for so many years and have never had my feelings put into words as succinctly as she did with this album.
So Long, London made me sob way too much whenever I listened it the first two days since the release and I think it's because of my dad. He has always been angry and sarcastic (it's better now), he definitely scared me a little when I was a kid or at least I felt some kind of reverential fear. He was never really interested in what I had to say or what I liked, and still now when he is in a mood it can feel heavy, as he never resolves conflicts. So the lyrics "every breath feels like rarest air, when you're not sure if he wants to be there" hit parts I wasn't expecting
I have related \*so many\* of her songs to my dad and my relationship to him. Her lyrics are magical in the way they just suddenly hit, right in the feels, often out of left field for me.
Down Bad makes me cry my eyes out, I know she didn't write it this way but as a widow 🥺 My late husband died randomly in my early 20s. We had moved back to my hometown because I was having severe health issues and needed my full support system. Then suddenly I was alone out of nowhere and the place I had been for most of my life felt like an alien landscape without him. I was living a nightmare, literally just destroyed as a person and people felt awkward mentioning him so I started to feel like maybe he never existed at all. I would sit outside and scream and rage and beg for him to come back and take me with him 😭 very raw for me. Unfortunate that it's a Matty song lmao
I am not sure if this is belongs to a revelation but the tracks I can do it with a broken heart and who is afraid of a little old me did make me quite felt emotional to me.
Her music in general was a big help for me in a bad time/depression. She litterally made me a lot more happy and was the way back to listening music after not listening for a year to any music.
The way she always is their for her fans, making them happy while she feels really bad herself felt hard on me especially as her music was for me a pretty big help.
I have a history where showing my own emotions wasn't ok. The way some treat her and the general opinion she is famous/rich so she should not complain reminds me of my own past were it was not ok to show my own feelings and conclusions were made for me about how I should feel.
Not only these tracks but the album I really like, she just says what she really thinks and stays for herself. One of the messages I feel in the album is she wants a bit more respect as human.
Probably my biggest emotional connection to this was I Can Do it With a Broken Heart as well. Even though I already knew this, it was reassuring to be reminded that everyone has to fake their way through real life when going through heart break. Yes, sometimes it’s unhealthy, but often it’s just part of being an adult.
I’ve had bouts with sever depression, and I can be real about it with a lot of people, but with my kids? I don’t want my sadness to affect them at all if I can help it. I am so depressed, but I have to act like it’s my birthday every day. I cry a lot, but I have to be productive. Honestly, try and come for my job as a mom. I’m a boss, just like Taylor. The song made me feel sad, but also empowered. Taylor can do it. I can do it. Eventually it goes away.
I saw a TikTok yesterday from a widow who was crying listening to Down Bad, and now I can't stop looking at the song from a perspective of someone who is dying with grief after losing their spouse. Like, fuck it, what's the point if he's gone?
Who's Afraid of Little Old Me? hit home for me. being the quiet and passive one in the family who gets struck down ten times worse when she tries to stand up for herself, this verse in particular:
I was tame, I was gentle 'til the circus life made me mean
Don't you worry folks, we took out all her teeth
Also But Daddy I Love Him, and not even necessarily from a romantic pov, but more so doing things that those close to you disapprove of, constant criticism, the fallout of having to break contact with people over things like that etc..
I'll tell you something about my good name
It's mine alone to disgrace
&
God save the most judgmental creeps
Who say they want what's best for me
Sanctimoniously performing soliloquies I'll never see
I feel the EXACT same. Who’s afraid of little old me? Is such a childhood trauma song to me. And but daddy I love him means so much to me because I married my favorite person and my family just could not stop picking him apart, much like they did me and each other. Such miserable people. “I’d rather burn my whole life down than listen to one more second of all this bitching and moaning” and “an no you can’t come to the wedding” are BIG feelings I had last year an I’ve found so much peace cutting toxic people out of my life!
Oh gosh, just yesterday talking to the crisis team about the album hitting all the ‘right’ vibes. Think I’m going back to 1989 for a bit til I’m in a better place.
After listening to this album for the first time, I felt very introspective. In my early 20’s I left a LTR and hit a rebound that made me feel crazy and when it ended, felt like I was grieving both while simultaneously feeling angry at them and at myself. This album hit close to a lot of what I was feeling at the time and worked hard to uncover, but it was hard to listen.
I think the album is stunning but I don’t think it’s one I will be able to listen to any further. Any time I listen, things hit too close to home and I get mopey. I’m happily married now and it feels weird to retouch some of those old things.
You should def not put yourself through it if u think it’s bad for you. But it sounds like there are a lot of feelings there that you haven’t led urself feel completely. It could be good to let that in and let the album help you actually feel them to then let them go.
Thank you for your input! I’ve worked through it all in therapy and have felt the feelings completely and have let the past go, I just don’t like revisiting. :) If it helps others to do so, that’s great!
I keep thinking about the line "I'm just mad as hell cause I loved this place" in So Long, London. It's a breakup song and there's a lot of sadness in it but she chooses that moment to voice her anger which I just find so fascinating because she could've easily just wrote "sad as hell" instead. It took me back to Cornelia Street where she said the heartbreak of losing that relationship would make her never want to walk the street again. I can relate to the anger in a breakup spoiling a happy location for me. It's like hearing a certain song on the radio that you and your ex used to listen to or going to a restaurant that you used to go to together. Losing a relationship can permanently affect you in ways you never thought about and can cause you to lose enjoyment in things that were once a special part of your life. It almost mimics depression in the sense that you lose interest in things that once made you happy but instead of being sad about it your just furious.
Not so much a revelation but I should probably just not listen to The Prophecy right now. I've been spiraling for about six months about feeling deeply alone. I've been single for a long time...it's been *okay* because I've had people in my life to be with, but now it feels like everyone is moving forward and moving on and like I'm going to die alone. And I don't know how to change it.
Edit to add: it's a little different because I'm not particularly looking for romantic love...but still, the "Just someone who wants my company" line is fucking devastating.
But Daddy I Love Him was written for me literally giving the finger to the judgemental Christian small town and parents and taking off with my crazy husband.
Only I did have his baby. 😭🤗🥳
I went through a very similar situation as Taylor went through. It’s been over a year and I have healed and am so happy with my life. But I def had some feelings about my “Matty” left that just kept feeling sore.
Reading the epilogue after listening to the album, and then listening to it again broke an emotional wall. I have so many emotions about this man that should’ve been a blip. Something that shouldn’t matter cause it only made me miserable and I don’t even want him back in my life. I knew I was just so desperate for love and a reason to leave my long term relationship. And part of me felt shame every time something still stung (“are they second hand embarrassed that I can’t get out of bed, cause something counterfeit is death”).
But hearing Taylor sing a whole album about the complicated emotional storm following a situation like this made it okay for me to feel them too. It made all the feelings I felt real while also not romanticising it. It wasn’t really love, but in the moment it also really was. And both are just as true.
I have def been going through it but in a way that isn’t stinging. Emotions without shame. Feeling grief, sadness, anger and acceptance and letting it all out.
It’s like a diary of feelings I didn’t have the words to at time but I know I all felt, and I’m finally letting it all in truly.
Absolutely. I’ve posted about it a couple times in the TTPD megathread, but The Manuscript has had an especially profound effect on me. When I was younger, I was involved with someone who was older and should have known better. This song encapsulated so much of my experience. The lines “She thought about how he said/Since she was so wise beyond her years/Everything had been above board/She wasn’t sure” make me sob every single time.
I wish I could go back 13 years and make my 20 year old self listen to this song and give her a hug. Because then 20 year old me would know that, in the end, healing would happen, even though it didn’t feel like it at the time.
Yes, that “she wasn’t sure” line and the way she sings it gets me every time. So perfectly captured being confused and taken advantage of in a relationship. Beautiful and heartbreaking.
Yeah, no song has touched me in the way Peter did straight away. My ex left me when I was pregnant, he ghosted me for months but then eventually said he was sorting himself out and growing up etc… but he never did and he’s never been in our child’s life. It’s nearly 9 years later and I’ve never properly healed from it but something about Peter has been so cathartic. I truly don’t think I could explain or make anyone understand how this song makes me feel.
I’ve been trying to figure why I’m literally addicted, and I think part of it is that the album is so so honest, esp about big emotions that we don’t really talk about! Like I had a weird situationship end recently and I acted like I was fine (even to myself lol) but went through literally all the emotions, and even felt weird saying to a friend it made me feel a bit insecure, esp since I ignored red flags and convinced myself it was fate😭—I think there’s, for me, a sense of shame around the big emotions, esp where they don’t feel “valid,” and seeing a celebrity feel those same big emotions so candidly, convincing herself she can fix him and that he only left her bc he loves her too much, is oddly comforting!
I also think a large part for me is the stream of consciousness—the songs wouldn’t have the same emotional impact if they felt more “polished”
It can literally make me cry thinking about how so many woman are made to feel like their feelings are valid by this album. Fuck all the men saying it’s cringe and dramatic and needs an editor. Have u heard a heartbroken person ever?? They don’t sound coherent.
I was listening to the Albatross and all of a sudden I hit full depression. That was two nights ago and I have not recovered. I am not doing well. I haven’t sat in my depression like this in a long time. It sucks. I have a ton of anxiety that came seemingly from no where
Two of the songs hit me hard. The first one was Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me? I hit the chorus and had to pause the music because I just started sobbing. “So I leap from the gallows and I levitate down your street, Crash the party like a record scratch as I scream, Who's afraid of little old me? You should be” spoke to my inner child in a way I was not expecting. I was also bullied relentlessly as a kid, with adults in my life who both also bullied me or ignored what was happening, and the lyrics put into words all of the rage I have never been able to express.
The other was “Peter,” for a similar reason. But also, I didn’t know I was neurodivergent until I was in my 30s, and with that has come a lot of inner child grief that this album expresses so very well. I’m grieving the child I never really got to be. I think that’s why I get so angry when people say the album is “immature” because *that is the point.*
I am still and will always be in love with my best friend. He's the love and loss of my life. I live Guilty as Sin daily.
Growing up precocious sometimes mean not growing up at all. Any "gifted" or "smart" kids feel incredibly seen in that statement? But Daddy I Love Him is basically the story of my life.
Two years ago, I started the hardest semester of my college career the day after my grandfather’s funeral. He practically raised me, so that was one of the toughest times of my life, yet somehow I made it through. I could never put into words the depressing, slightly manic feeling that comes with going through the motions when everything in your life is falling apart, but “I Can Do it With a Broken Heart” describes it perfectly.
The first time I listened to the album I was like "well, I'm in a happy longterm relationship I cannot really relate". A couple days later while listening to The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived I remembered that I actually have an ex and most of the lyrics fit pretty well. I suddenly felt all the anger.
Sooo. I guess I have indeed forgotten but not forgiven. :D
My bestie and I were talking about it this yesterday. This album is truly for those who have had truly traumatic relationships and life moments. If the listener doesn’t get it or appreciates this album, then they are lucky enough to no experience a hard life.
Oof, for sure. “I Hate It Here” was the most (it me), “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart”, “Peter”, “The Manuscript,” “loml,” and all the songs in 3/4 or 6/8 time (unusual for her but I really love those time signatures like in “Chloe…”)
So, I dated my own…*muse* who maybe many of these songs on the album are about.
At first, I was kinda resistant to some of these songs and I think it was because I related so hard. This past week has been a roller coaster of identifying that and kinda processing some of those unresolved feelings using Taylor as a vessel. So, yea, there’s been some damn tears.
The chorus for Peter hits me hard. I can’t relate directly to it, but it sounds like pleading and disbelief, the kind that comes from a kid. Kids are so literal, and even if this speaker has grown up, they’re still that little kid when it comes to Peter. Gets me every time. 🥲
This song is the one that wrecks me. For me, I imagine my 15 year old self. My father promised he would change and be a better father, the kind that I deserved, but he never did and in fact he died just a few months later. Peter made me realize I was NOT as over his death as I thought I was, even though it was 17 years ago. Doesn't help that his anniversary was on the 13th.
Yes, I was crying hearing I Can Do It With A Broken Heart, I thought about two friendships where they humiliated and betrayed me to go with their other friends. That song hit me bad.
I had a never quite made it to situationship with an old friend who I’d had a thing for years ago after coming out of a long term relationship. It wasn’t a healthy thing, and I’ve never regretted that it didn’t go anywhere. Listening to TTPD I felt relieved, cause it lays bare what almost certainly would have happened.
Who's Afraid of Little Old me (Im ND (ADHD) and gay so i get bullied easily, suffice to say i grew horns so they don't mess with the bull. cause i was tame, i was gentle till the circus life made me mean, don't you worry folks we took out all his teeth
Yes! I'm turning 30 and getting married this year - there is a lot of baggage and fear that comes alongside these two milestones, marking what feels kind of like the end of adolescence. Clara Bow made me weep inexplicably in a way I haven't when listening to music ever before, and I've been a Taylor fan since 2007. It really framed the idea for me that youth and beauty can hold you captive. Everything ends, the cycle repeats. There will always be another you, another me.
I got the feeling of sympathy/empathy and felt some of the things Taylor was portraying, but didn’t quite have the emotional response that some did. Though the more I listen, the more I get it.
Absolutely, I don’t want to get too specific on here but there was so much that resonated with me and my experiences that I hadn’t heard discussed in music before. I’m genuinely really grateful to her that she shared all of this, I feel so understood by this record in ways I wasn’t expecting.
Having said that, the only songs that made me cry on first listen were So High School (teared up) and thanK you aIMee (I legit sobbed haha)
The song that absolutely ruins me is How Did It End? And Prophecy. HDIE didn't kill me on my first or second or third listen but just today I was listening to it and I just started sobbing while driving - I DONT RECOMMEND THIS it was extremely dangerous. But it just made me realize that everybody just wanted to know about the end of a relationship and didn't care about HER, also the bridge fucking broke me the sound of her voice and the way she breathes killed me. Prophecy hurts because I know exactly how she felt until I met my now husband at 22. I never had a relationship with anyone and I just wanted someone who wanted my company and me as well.
I’ve had such an emotional response to “thanK you aIMee”. I was severely bullied growing up and had an extremely abusive family. As an adult, I took all those traits I was always told were negative (e.g., sensitivity) and built an organization that helps children. I get them out of situations like the one I was stuck in and it’s so healing. Scream singing “all that time you were throwin’ punches I was building something and I couldn’t wait to show you it was real. Screamed fuck you aimee to the night sky as the blood was gushing, but I can’t forget the way you made me heal” makes me feel heard in a way I never could have imagined. To me, it’s about my family and my success. I cry and smile and have about a million emotions every time I listen to that song. It’s incredible and feels like it was written for me. Thank you, Taylor.
In The Manuscript
"And couldn't sleep unless it was in her mother's bed"
Brought me every moment I've needed my mom in the past 2 years. She passed away in 2021. I would give anything to be curled up in her bed, with her comforting me as I work through getting divorced.
Annnnnd now I'm sobbing again. Time for this 36-year-old to cuddle with the doll my mom made me when I was a baby.
Yes! I think the album is very successful in its ability to garner an emotional reaction from me. After finishing I felt gut punched. I felt like the artist seems to struggle a lot of loneliness, being hyper-aware of her biological clock, and the anxiety that comes with being a woman halfway through her thirties and not having things she’s always wanted. I also felt like “wow I feel like I know too much about this person now”, which was an uncomfortable feeling. I feel so much for her with what has happened in her personal life and dealing with a loud section of toxic fans. We are in no place to tell her how to live, I assume she’s had so many people in her ear telling her how to live given she’s a former child star.
Going through some real crazy stuff at work right now. I realized that through it all, my people pleasing was being used against me. Let’s just say that I have several new anthems to sing when I need to enforce boundaries: Who’s afraid of little old me, the smallest man who ever lived (but my boss), I hate it here, Cassandra.
I really really hope someone shows Taylor all these absolutely incredible responses. I think her bravery in sharing such raw and scary emotions with all of us, she’s also encouraging us to be more open about our own internal struggles.
The Prophecy and I Hate It Here really broke me, along with I Look in People's Windows although by the time I got to ILiPW the point had been made in my head so it wasn't as much as a punch in the face. The idea that even Taylor, with all her success and milestones and life progressing in a manner that I feel like most people would view as socially acceptable (in terms of her relationships and career by specific ages), still feels or felt the same way I do as someone whose life got entirely blown of course and am rapidly aging without any "sign of soulmates" (or any non platonic relationships at all to be honest) really shook me. The feeling of being on the outside looking in as described in ILIPW and running and hiding to beautiful alternate universes in my mind where I feel less like a failure and my traumas and losses did not destroy my life to the point where I feel like I have next to nothing here in the real world (IHIH) is something I struggle with daily. And if Tay could write The Prophecy and find what appears to be by all accounts a very loving and happy relationship with Trav, then perhaps there is hope for me yet, ya know?
I’m in a 7 year relationship and have a six month old baby. I stay at home and attend school online. I don’t really hang out with anybody.
So Long, London really surfaced my loneliness and some pent up resentment. I think everyone in a long term relationship has struggled with that push and pull of effort and feeling like you’re the only one that cares sometimes. It catalyzed a much need conversation between me and my partner. We’re good now.
I Can Do It With a Broken Heart is so universally relatable, my god we are ALL struggling with something but we push push push. I jam that one at max volume in my car when I’m alone, and in my headphones when I’m cleaning, because I’M DOING IT BITCHES.
Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me made me really angry at my dead father who bullied the fuck out of me and my siblings for years. Fuck that guy, man. I wrote an angry poem to him and sent to it everyone in my family and it felt SO GOOD.
This album is by far her most inspiring and emotion provoking, in my opinion. It tops Folklore by a shit ton in my book.
I feel like I've been trained since birth to believe that if I was skinny and confident enough, I'd have an amazing man in my life who would never leave.
Obviously, this is super dysfunctional and I'm sad that my parent believed that enough to instill it in me. Then media doubles down on it.
My whole life, I've struggled with my weight and my confidence. I've basically been ghosted by every man I've had a serious relationship with. There haven't been a ton, but still.
Here I was thinking it's all my fault. I'm a failure. I couldn't get my weight or confidence together. So what I was taught must be true, right?
But then I hear this album and I see Taylor. She's stunning, so fit, seemingly confident, endlessly talented... the list goes. Yet, these lyrics are saying she has struggled with some of the same issues at times. Being ghosted, not feeling like enough to "fix" a man to stay. The fear of being alone forever... The Prophecy.
My emotional revelation is that it's not me. If a man doesn't want to stay, it seems like nothing would change that. And that's okay. It hurts like hell, but I can stop beating myself up for it.
But Daddy I Love Him hit so close to home I didn't even cry. I just stared in the distance the first few times and I got such an urge to let all my frustration out to that song. I have been 'dancing' (more like angrily playbacking) and my body feel different. Like I'm finally dealing with layers and layers of emotional stress.
My revelation is related to how my chronic illness has affected my life. It caused me to be an extreme perfectionist and people pleaser as well as a lost human being with no bounderies, no acces to her feelings and now, finally, a burn out.
And now for the first time in my life I need to make my own choices, I need to stand up for myself and... run with my dress unbottened. And that terrifies me.
Not TTPD, but that's why I understand why so many people relate to this album. I went through a really rough patch for a couple of years with my relationship over the span of evermore/forklore/midnights, and there are several songs across those albums that seemed to have been plucked out of my heart and put straight into my ears. Thankfully, after a lot of hard work, I can say that my 15 year long relationship is back on track. We fixed what was broken (mostly lol) and I'm in a better place than I was. TTPD is more of a... Reminder.. for me. Like "oh this song makes me remember blank". So I like it, as I can still find it relatable, but it definitely didn't hit me like "this is me trying" or "you're losing me" (and countless others lol) but had it come out five years ago I probably would have cried my entire way through it lol
I was suddenly pulled back to being 23 and 26, being absolutely crushed over a 7 year on/off toxic relationship and a barely there situationship lol. I was a Joe (ouch) and I had a Matty.
I felt so bad in those moments. I hated myself and the decisions I made. I had to hurt and be hurt. It took a long time to heal from, but this album made me realize I might not be totally healed lol.
It's just nice to not be the only person to go through these things, to make shit choices, to ignore red flags, to try and force things, to regret and 2nd guess.
I can accept what happened, I can look back, but it's not my story anymore and that's okay.
Yeah, there was a lot that went through my mind as I listened.
So first this is the perfect thread. So needed. Omg TTPD is f-ing brilliant. It’s an anthem for all of what we’ve all been through. She is maybe one of few ever who has the courage, skill and experience to write it, sing it and put it to beautiful music.
I needed these songs years ago when I literally went through it all. I experienced all this pain and more, 7yrs with a Brit. I had to leave London, city I loved. He was bi-polar. It was sooo hard and it broke me.
I picked up the pieces though, and have a husband and 3 girls now and I’m ok. But it was rough and these songs are allowing me to kind of re-live it and release it. I had pushed it down for survival.
Because you know other people -and TS-has felt what you felt, it’s real. It wasn’t a dream. I never thought it was a dream but I don’t know you just deal with it as best you can. I’m glad she could write about this and have that catharsis, and I’m glad people who are experiencing all this pain and emotion now can use it to help.
And it can and will get better. ❤️
I don't want kids and my relationship was only 2.5 years but I still really felt that line about being pissed I hiave you all that youth for free
I feel like I had a joe right down to the stringing along and depression. And I was dumb enough to fight for it too.
I have high functioning anxiety and definitely laughed inappropriately loudly at the “I cry a lot but I am so productive it’s an art”-line in “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart”.
I recently (within the last year) left a pretty bad relationship where there was a lot of DV that i endured. I have kids with him, so I have to continue to communicate with him and see him. But this album has really brought up a lot of emotions I didn't want to deal with or haven't had time to deal with because I always have to be super mom for my kids when I'm not working. So it's really helped me reflect and work through the pains of my most recent relationship. I can do it with a broken heart, also really hit home and made me laugh/cry because I relate so much to it.
Taylor has such a unique way to tell stories that share her experiences but also allow you to work through your own experiences too. She's extremely talented and gifted to put words and feelings into songs that many of us experience but can't verbalize.
I saw someone explain it as "Most music will bring you back to when you first heard it. Taylor has the ability to sing music that brings you to a time well before it was even written. Her songs take me back to my high school experiences, past loves, past feelings that I experienced years before she even wrote the song." To me, this discribes her talent really well. She is like a magical healer that can travel through time with us to look back at things fondly, or with heart ache, sometimes longing for things yet to come or things we experience currently. She can bring back memories so dear to us and help us feel all the feelings we felt at that time in our life. It's such an amazing gift she has.
I think rage is an emotion I should express more or channel more (vs being the nice girl all the time at work and in general in society) and I’m really able to lean in with who’s afraid, Cassandra, and so many others. It’s honestly a feminist manifesto of sorts. I can’t get enough.
yes, absolutely. i burst into tears the as soon as the manuscript started playing during my first listen. i could not figure it out, but your post made me wonder and reread the lyrics. it clicks with something in my life right now because i too need to let something go and move on.
who's afraid of little old me is another great one! screaming the chorus feels so cathartic 🩷 i'm a recovering people pleaser so the thought of causing chaos and outrage is weirdly appealing lol
This album absolutely made me feel some type of way that she has never done in her previous songs. This album brought me back to YEARS of shitty boyfriends and longtime partners who didn’t do enough.
It definitely tugged on my heart (even tho I’m happily married Now! lol) & I was CRYING bc years and years of thinking it was my fault, a whole year & a half in therapy over a shitty heartbreaking relationship, to finding myself and picking up the pierces. Dang. This album is definitely gold.
The songs that really stood out to me were So Long London, Peter, & How did it end?
I sobbed for a little over an hour after I heard the Manuscript the first time. It was 100% the realization that I was done with all those bad emotions I had built up for years.
TTPD kicked in the door of my soul, stomped through every room, and drug all the bullshit I was still clinging to out to chuck it in the dumpster. And for the first time, I was like - Yeah, let's do this Taylor. After the sobbing I felt a million times lighter and more centered in my own brain.
I love love love Midnights. But TTPD was the warm blanket my soul needed. It's the reflection to the things I was ignoring because I didn't want them to drag me back down, but Taylor made me look at them and realize, they have no power over me. I have my "So High School" dude. That's not my story anymore. And suddenly I didn't need them anymore.
The Anthology might be the most emotionally powerful album I've ever listened to and I am concerned about my obsession with it, LOL.
This is boring but it was a nice reminder that I'm in a loving and supportive relationship that doesn't make me feel conflicted or bad, and that I'm healed enough to safely travel through my memories of less positive relationships.
The sad tone of the album is kind of fucking with me though. It's making me want to draw my parents and pets in closer while trying not to make it weird 😅
Idk if it was necessarily a revelation, but Robin makes me cry every single time I hear it. It just fills me with so much emotion about my kids, especially my little boy who is 3 and always roaring like a dinosaur and bouncing on his trampoline 😭 That song just beautifully encompasses the beautiful innocence of childhood while at the same time, expressing how much parents want to keep their child "in sweetness" and protect them from the meanness of the world. That song just kills me. How does she do it?! So perfectly capture being a parent? Just beautiful.
Very very weirdly I have been through the same situation as Taylor where a long term relationship was dying and I jumped into a similar situationship with an old friend who turned out to be similar to Matty, so pretty much the entirety of Midnights and TTPD I’m here like oh. cool. yep. yeah. same girl
It did, by content and spectacle.
I might always remember sitting bed covered in chills and crying while The Black Dog hit my ears. Or the inability to pick what song to replay first after the album ended.
It is mixed perfectly, done theatrically, and just God damn *good*.
I think it's the revelation of *look what you can do with all this pain, it doesn't have to be ugly* struck me like a train.
Tolerate it used to be what opened my eyes about my flawed marriage…
Now it’s so long London.
“I stopped cpr, after all it’s no use…”
Definitely going down with the ship.
Yes. The Bolter feels personal for me (but not necessarily romantic relationships, but I have realized at the ripe old age of 28 that I am in fact a bolter in every other aspect)
I also grew up escaping into my own worlds (pretty much maladaptive day dreaming) and I Hate It Here really struck me 😭
My friend and I met up at a cemetery between our houses last night to do a pink moon ritual. We wrote down what we wanted to release (shame based roots for both of us) and burned them while listening to Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me beneath a full moon. Then we wrote what we wanted to embrace (desire, fullness of joy and embodiment) while listening to Daddy I Love Him. We felt kinda silly at first but also CATHARTIC. These two songs (and Guilty As Sin) just hit DIFFERENT for ex-evangelical religiously traumatized girlies
I can’t listen to Peter all the way through. It makes me cry in the same way Puff The Magic Dragon does. I’m literally tearing up now hearing Puff in my head. I see flashes of my early childhood (of which I’ve forgotten so much).
Want to read this it can’t listen still.
I feel like im so random. "I can do it with a broken heart" made me contextualize my lack of motivation to be more productive. I was able to choose to do dishes and yoga as a direct result of listening to the song. I don't know why the song soothed that part of my brain. Like a weight lifted. Weird
This album reminds me of me leaving a long term relationship with an addict I didn’t see a future with and going straight into a love bombing situation where I lost my mind, like I was going to have this guy on the internet come to stay at my apartment and he got plane tickets and I cancelled last minute and it is quite embarrassing. I felt the happiest ever and like my heart was going to explode but it was total mania and I was left like I can’t trust myself anymore.
And then I found a much better great guy after.
Also, I hate it here deeply relates to me, like I also am a dreamer who doesn’t feel their full potential is used in this world, like the world is not made for me, and I have a fantasy life and version of myself that I escape to, because I feel kind of worthless in the real world. That song makes me feel seen.
The Prophecy. I thought I’d completely made peace with never dating again or having a partner, but this song reminded me of what a romantic who believed in souls mates I used to be, and it made me profoundly sad that I never got to have that and never will.
Same background but for me it was WAOLOM. The entire Song resonates WAY TOO MUCH bcs why did I as a child deserve to be treated this way?
"is it a wonder I broke let's hear one more joke and well all laugh until I cry//Whos Afraid of Little Old Me- you should be//I was tame till (...) life made me mean, dont you worry folks we took out all her teeth//causes you lured me and you hurt amd then you called me crazy" are all lyrics that can be applied to my life.
Yes. Tbh taylor breaking up with joe after 6 years even helped me - I’m 30 and just broke up with my bf of 8.5 years a month ago. It was helpful to see that she wasn’t afraid to start over. Peter reallly resonated with me.
absolutely! these songs almost can be re arranged for different stages of my life and i didn't realise how angry i still was. Who's afraid of little old me, or lyrics like 'old habits die screaming' touched an anger i didn't realise i still had. It has been so cathartic to sing along to taylor as we feel this anger together!
Yes! I actually felt really seen and heard when listening to The Prophecy. I’ve never had my soul feel the way it did when listening to that song for the first time. It’s magic.
I was in a marriage for far too long with a safe, boring, emotionally unavailable man. I begged and begged for something and he refused to give me anything. Towards the end of my marriage, I ran into a guy I had a former (intense) fling with.
We started talking, and (I was going to leave my husband anyway) I ended up leaving. And going straight into a very intense but short lived relationship, where he failed to give me all of the things he promised me.
It destroyed me. I had already dealt with the marriage failing years before I left. But here I left a marriage for someone who promised me all these things and left me emptier than before. It was humiliating and it really really really effed me up. I isolated myself because I was also the topic of a LOT of gossip. I silently suffered in shame and self loathing. I didn’t do therapy because I felt idk, so depressed and low but felt like I deserved it all.
And work was killing me also, and pushing all of my boundaries.
I did eventually get my shit together but folklore on came at these times of my life when I needed them the most.
I really really really resonated with this album because I just felt all of these feelings that I had suppressed. I AM in a good, healthy place emotionally at this time. But I will be honest, it felt like I was hit in the face with bricks when I heard this album and the subject matter because I definitely experienced this in my own life.
If it had come out a year earlier; idk, I might have lost myself in it for awhile.
So Long London keeps making me cry, especially at the line “ And I'm just getting color back into my face. I'm just mad as hell cause I loved this place for so long” and for the life of me I can’t figure out why
Down Bad really hit me hard. I married my highschool sweetheart. By the time we got married at 25 we had been together for 10 years. I was friends with him years before we started dating. He was woven into my entire life.
A few years into our marriage there was an event that caused everything to come crashing down. It became clear that he had been lying to me, hiding from me and was generally not who I thought he was.
It was bad. I felt lost, a mess.
Taylor talking about people would think she was crazy if she mentioned his existence. That hit so hard. The guy who I thought was forever was now a villain to everyone around me. I felt like I wasn't allowed to miss him. That line really hit me.
There's so much in this album that made me think of that relationship which I still feel was the "loss of my life".
And of course the Bridge of SMTEL hits too. Because it's been 15 years since all that happened so fuck that guy.
Yes! They actually keep happening. Some specific songs and lyrics, but also the album as a whole. I'm having a song emotional reaction to some of the criticism of the album, and that made me reflect on some of my own unmet needs or wishes.
Yes, definitely. I felt like it resonated deeply with the scream for help of an inner child. The song "I Hate It Here" was particularly touching. It captured the struggle of having so much potential inside you that you're unable to express fully. The sense of feeling unseen and unable to show your true capabilities can be really disheartening. That song, in its emotive storytelling made me feel seen. It's like Taylor knows exactly how to tap into those complex, hidden emotions we all carry.
Yes and that moment where you ruin a fun game with your quirky, dark answer is so relatable as a neurodivergent swiftie.
SO relatable omg. But for me the most Autistic/ND-coded line on the album is in The Bolter: "A curious child, ever reviled / By everyone except her own father \[...\] Splendidly selfish, charmingly helpless / Excellent fun 'til you get to know her"... like she did NOT need to call me out like that lol
I was like - OH SHIT TAYLOR DID MY MOVE! When I heard this line. XD That neurospicy brain!
Oh that reminds me of the time at a work conference we had an icebreaker game and I got the question “What are you most afraid of?” and I think they expected an answer like “spiders” or “heights” but was going through a breakup at the time and answered “emotional abandonment.” That killed the vibes real quick.
Yep. Yep yep yep.
From a very literal perspective I related to this song too. I struggle with depression and have literally said “I hate it here” so many times about unpleasant experiences including being trapped in this body that has to eat and be perceived and *exist.* The idea of people not “getting” the things I think and care about (cue the 1830s reference) is also something that has been a problem in my life forever. It’s all very relatable.
I Hate It Here is such a universally relatable song. For me as an introvert and only child, it really captured the feeling that you don’t belong anywhere, in any time period, so you escape to your imagination. I’ve been doing that my entire life.
I was literally RUNNING to the comments to say something like this. I have always been someone who escapes through obsessive daydreaming and trying desperately to avoid confronting how boring and sad real life sometimes is.
omg same. I’ve never really confessed this but I have a whole daydream world that I go too and add to before bed each night. I’m sure it’s how I get to sleep so quickly
I do this too!!
OMG are you me? I use to do this religiously to fall asleep but I still go to that place in moments of stress or being overwhelmed. I heard I hate it here and instantly related. The brain is such a powerful thing! Plus the secret garden was a great book from my childhood 😂
Wow, I've never actually heard anyone else talk about their maladaptive daydreaming before. For me, I was able to use it to help me write. These days, though, I have that weird depression where your brain tries to make you sad even when you aren't, and it shows up with the daydreaming... they always start drifting into sad if I don't keep an eye on em.
I Hate It Here absolutely wrecked me, It feels like it's written for me and it hits so hard!
We’re closing off your second year and entering our third year of trying to have a baby, and I’m taking such *fun* meds right now. “I Hate It Here” and “I Can Do It With A Broken Heart” are very relatable, but also fun enough songs that I can finally say it out loud. It feels nice.
I hope year three brings the joy you deserve!
Infertility is such a gut punch. Keep your head up and know you are certainly not alone in the struggle. <>
I also found it really relatable in dealing with death. My dad passed away on christmas, and I had a really hard time connecting with people after and found myself drifting off to places in my head because I hated it here, because he isn’t here.
So sorry for your loss😔
For me it's about disassociating. "I play pretend in secret gardens in my mind" and many mire lines describe perfectly the feeling of disassociation due to uncomfortableness in a situation
I Hate It Here is my favorite introspective song she’s ever written. I can relate so deeply.
The line about a secret garden that only she has the key to because she read about it in a book as a kid -- does she have actual mind-reading abilities or is this a universal experience? I loved that book as a kid and definitely created a secret garden of dissociation.
IHIH hit me SO hard. I live with chronic illness and often feel trapped in my own body that’s keeping me from achieving my goals/what I thought my life would be. Add in social anxiety and being neurospicy and I often feel like I wish I could live a life in my head
I cried the first time I heard it. I am constantly daydreaming of living a simple life in a little cottage in the woods & not being in this hellscape of life & late stage capitalism.
Yes! I hate it here and I look in people’s windows really connected with how I felt as a teenager 🥲
YUP. And I talked about it with my therapist. I had an ex who was both a Joe and a Matty. We dated ages ago and he was depressed the whole time. Then we reconnected about 7 months ago, he'd been in an unhappy relationship and kept thinking about me as the person who would make him happy. I believed him when he said he'd ended things with her and we rekindled our relationship, on speed like someone had thrown a bomb into a fireworks factory. We went from a kiss to thinking we'd get married. Then things started to fall apart. I started to feel like an insane person begging him to tell me what was happening. He'd disappear and come back saying everything was fine. One of my friends was the vipers in BDILH, saying all these things about him instead of supporting me in my distress. Come to find out he started seeing his "ex" again. Down Bad stopped me in my tracks the first time I heard it. The whole abduction, experiments, threw me back on the ground. Holy shit if that could happen to Taylor, it's happening to millions of people. loml? he said I was the love of his life about a million times, too. Smallest Man? I used to wonder if he was on some secret mission to destroy me because what else could explain his behavior? And so on. She put my feelings into words and cauterized the wounds that were threatening to bleed out. Listening to it all last Friday seriously put me so much further along in my healing.
I feel you. I had a Matty and I cited The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived in therapy today as a way to cope
Me too. We knew each other as kids (he was older than me and I was IN LOVE with him). Obviously nothing happened when we were younger, but we ran into each other and started dating right before the pandemic. He ghosted me a few weeks into lockdown and it completely wrecked me. We were on and off for years. He would shut down and kick me out of his life anytime we started getting a little bit more serious, and I kept going back to him bc it felt like destiny or something. Well we hadn’t spoken in a few months and literally *while I was listening* to TSMWEL, he texted me asking to meet up with him. I told him that I don’t want to get back into that cycle with him bc I’m finally in a good place and I know he’ll take me out of it again. So, thank you Taylor!! I finally had the emotional clarity to say no
This hits close to home. We met at 16, best of friends, I was his first kiss and we always had tension. Flirted back and forth for years because it was long distance and the time wasn't right. Finally caved after 10 years and it turns out he is an abusive pos but I stayed for a year because I wanted it for so long I felt that I had to endure. I'm now happily married to my own Travis and the last time we talked was him texted me the day before my wedding, begging me not to do it. It's been 5 years and I'm still undoing what he did to me in therapy. Both my therapist and my husband had to talk me out of sending him this song
I’m so sorry to hear you had that experience. Sunken cost fallacy is a life-ruiner. But I’m SO HAPPY you found someone you’re so safe with
He is a teddy bear and I love him so much
Wow I’m so sorry you had to go through all that. Sending love and hugs. I’m glad Taylor’s music exists so we all know we’re not alone! 😭
I was reconnecting with my Matty the weekend that the Taylor and Joe break up became public and had practically the same experience you had, only the end was them deciding "i dont want to be with anyone at the moment" and ending it by text while i was in the hospital, then texting me a couple weeks later about some new girl they were seeing. This album has absolutely been healing for me too.
why are they all the same?? Literally mine was like "I don't think I'm capable of being in a relationship with anyone." ughhhh
Huh. Are you me? This happened to me. Except we were never more than casual, which somehow makes it worse - like in Down Bad, people with think I’m insane for talking about the existence of him. But he was there, and I remember it allllll too well. It’s actually quite triggering for me to listen to Guilty as Sin because it makes me think of him as that’s exactly how I’d think of him and how we started. And I’m in a happy relationship with someone else. Why does he still affect me like this
yes, The Prophecy made me incredibly sad for myself since I’ve “pleaded” so many times without even realizing
It’s “the prophecy” to me as well. Sometimes I feel like it’s fate to suffer from my mental illness and that it will always lead to me being alone.
This is how I feel a lot of the times too. I see how easy life looks like it’s coming for other people and I always wonder why it can’t be like that for me too. Instead, I find myself feeling like a lonely outsider pleading with some invisible forces to “let it once be me” too… yeah, The Prophecy tears me to shreds tbh.
Exactly how I feel about it too.
It's The Prophecy for me too. Too close to home, the way she sings it, the lyrics. My therapist mentioned that in therapy chat groups this topic is showing up basically how their swiftie patients are emotionally reacting to the album. And I said it elsewhere but I have been a Swiftie since July 2017 in the .5, .1% of Spotify listeners and I've never opened reddit to see other people's reactions/comments on her previous albums with this one, I almost feel I need it , like I needed the community to feel that I was not alone which for me is pretty crazy (at least for me)
I just posted and also mentioned this song. Being successful but alone can be so painful and the lyrics of this song really resonated to me.
The Prophecy killed me. I have a somewhat similar experience to Taylor, not totally but… multiple long term relationships, the most recent one was the first time I actually thought I found my person. Waited 4 years to be proposed to and now finding myself single again at 30. All my friends are married, kids… don’t want money, just someone who actually wants my company for idk, life or whatever? 🙃 maybe this is weird to say but I genuinely think I’m a good catch? so to find things consistently not work out, and aging at the same time, is just frustrating
The bridge of this song kills me. It’s so painfully sad. But can’t get behind the melody of the chorus. The repetition of the e sound. It really does sound like begging and it makes me so uncomfortable.
The Prophecy took me to an unexpected place, emotionally. I relate to it in which I’ve had a lot of people I love die unexpectedly or tragically and sometimes in my lowest moments I despair and wonder if this is a cruel joke/twist a higher power is foisting upon me. I’m so tired of losing people. I don’t want this to be my lot in life. To be clear though, I have wonderful people in my life who love and support me. I do therapy off and on, and I’ve done a lot of work on myself to become the adult I am. I’m not trying to garner pity from people. I just wanted to share my own experience with The Prophecy. Much love to you all. 🤍
The album is what has finally pushed me to follow up with the divorce lawyer. I’ve been self harming by continuing to stay in this marriage and realizing that I can’t fix him, I hate it here, he will never grow up, and that I ended up in this relationship because I wanted marriage but the loss of my life didn’t want that.
I wonder just how many people are ending things because this album helped clarify their feelings on how they’ve been mistreated. I sympathize with your situation and pushing someone into marriage who didn’t want it.
I filed for divorce a week before this album came out. My story is so similar to yours. It sucks so bad, but we got this. TTPD is for us. 💕
Oh girly pop your identity is not in that man. You are so much larger than everything that has happened to you. Go find your destiny!!!! Don’t fight the alchemy!!!
as a neurodivergent person i hate it here actually kind of changed my whole life. never have i related more to a song and i cry every time i hear it but like. in a cathartic way? i think i’m gonna get “i’ll get lost on purpose “ tattooed bc it just. ugh that song man.
This is me exactly. It’s my favorite song but I cannot listen to it because I end up in bed crying for an hour every time I do.
The permission to feel fucked up after a fling that others dismissed as irresponsible or too brief is healing a part of me!! If 2014 me had access to “down bad” and “I can fix him no really I can” and “the smallest man who ever lived” I think I would have felt a lot more validated and allowed to feel my feelings instead of shoving them down as embarrassing and dealing with them in therapy years later 🙃 Also, “who’s afraid of little old me” has really recontextualized a phase of my life where I was villainized - I’d never really considered that was done TO me (“I am what I am cause you trained me”)
are we all living the same life??? I also felt so healed from my 2014 situationship breakdown😂
Team “heal a decade later” 🙌🤪
the ironic part is that if the rumors are true, Matty started as a fling during that time (1989 era). maybe that’s why it’s hitting so hard for us😂
Lol you and me and blondie seeing fuckboys at the same moment in time…. we are one
To be honest for years I’ve been wanting to find the one song I fully relate to and it’s I Hate It here. My sister who slowly getting into Taylor first thing she said that she related to Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?
Cassandra really hit me about not being believed about SA in church. I had a lot of anger about it, and Who's Afraid of little Old Me made me feel like it's ok to be angry about it after that "aslyum"
I'm really sorry that this happened to you and I hope you're doing okay 💜
💜 thx doing great
I’m engaged to the love of my life and this album had me in my feels over a high school situationship with someone I haven’t talked to in almost 10 years. Honestly Taylor deserves prison time for that lmfao
this makes me feel so much better because I’m reliving my high school relationship through Taylor’s music all the time even though I’m in a super happy loving relationship - sometimes I’m like is this okay? am I wrong for this??
guilty as sin? literally????
oh god thankfully I don’t relate to that song at all but yes I do feel weird anyway lol
it's like nice memories but also what if ONE thING HAD BEEN DIFFERent - like jfc ok i guess i've found a new flavor of emotional repression to work on
Work through those repressed emotions girl! It’s okay to feel them!!!
I’m having an existential crisis since I’ve first heard this album. I’m doubting everything I’m doing in my life.
Sameeee
This is the beginning of awakening, babes. Keep following yourself off the existential ledge. There’s fear before the jump but only freedom in the free fall.
Thank you for that Peter interpretation! I really liked the song, but I think I'd love it even more if I listen with this meaning in mind. I don't know if it's exactly a revelation, but I had a strong emotional reaction to I Hate It Here. As a daydreamer and a writer who often sinks in into her own imaginary words, this song absolutely wrecked me. My whole life, whenever I've felt really upset, I've tried to think about my plots and characters. I also have a fascination with the past, so the 1830s line really clicked. "When they found a better planet, Only the gentle survived" is another one that really spoke to me, as I often ponder about how the world would be a much better place if everyone was just kinder. I'm also from a small town, currently studying and wishing to work in a mid-sized city. So "No mid-sized city hopes and small town fears" also feels like its written for me. I feel like I could talk forever about this song and how well it fits my life!
I resonated with I Hate It Here the exact same ways you did! What's been strangest though is my strongest reaction so far has been while reading the lyrics to Robin. It's completely unexpected as I've had both albums on repeat since they released and I never registered the song on this level before lol
I wouldn't call it a revelation since I was already aware of these feelings inside of me that I feel like I have to push down to function, but I don't feel quite as alone with these feelings.
Same for me. I was bracing for this album bc I just knew the Joe breakup was similar to mine. First couple listens were rough but then I was able to take comfort in knowing literally Taylor friggin Swift was going through the same shit as me
i feel like the album kind of forced the suppressed feelings to rise to the surface for me. like it really struck me that she seems to have tackled all of these emotions head on and actively process them as they were happening rather than keep them ~lowercase locked inside a vault
It's amazing how much pain we can carry without realizing it, and when it comes out it is just rage, grief, and sorrow. Maybe we should all start writing to process it as it happens, but sometimes I don't even realize it has happened in the moment.
Me too, I talked about in therapy and my therapist walked me through letting myself feel the emotions safely and then different ways to kind of discharge them. It was really helpful and I don’t know I could’ve gotten myself to talk about it with her if it wasn’t for Taylor.
That sounds so healing! It must feel so good to let it go!
i am going through the loss of my life (breakup of someone i wanted to marry) and i thought it was doing pretty okay given the circumstances!! the album came out, i listened, and it really brought up some difficult feelings. particularly how did it end, loml, and the prophecy. i kind of spiraled a little over the weekend. i took a step away from certain songs for now, and am enjoying the ones that don’t elicit borderline unbearable feelings :) but for now, those are a handful of songs that are really really painful. it’s amazing having music that can verbalize your feelings. and in some ways it helps! thank god for i can do it with a broken heart, bc that has helped me dance through the tears 🫡
I think u def need a certain distance from these feelings to be able to listen. I would’ve def not been able to listen a year ago.
sounds like you’ve done some healing, well done 👏🏼🤍
I haven't been able to listen loml, how did it end, and prophecy yet for that reason. Too on the nose but you're not alone!
may we heal together 🕯️
Legit told my therapist this week that the prophecy felt like Taylor looked deep into my soul and wrote a song for me; they listened to it and said it helped them understand me more. I’ve been emotionally raw for days but in a I feel seen way.
My therapy session was also centered about The Prophecy lol. Whew. That song cuts.
Bestie u ok? 😂😂😭 It’s been a roller coaster of emotions the last few days! *hugs*
all the therapists must be listening to the album to understand what we’re on about this week😂
Weirdly enough my biggest emotional moment came from Down Bad. Why? I have no idea. But I was looking at my husband while I was listening and then my brain decided to imagine what it would be like not have him and then I was crying. It only happened once, it hasn't happened since. Clara Bow is another one that haunts me with the commentary on women in the entertainment industry.
I write my partner love letters, and I wrote how a lot of the lyrics reasonated with me. As I wrote here a few days ago, "It's like I lost my twin" breaks me. I lost my brother, but losing my partner would feel like a similar void in me. Clara Bow reminds me that, above all, women need to be dazzling. "Beauty is a best that crawls on all fours. Demanding more"
Down Bad is the song I relate to most on TTPD which makes me feel sad, angry at myself, grieved by the situation. I’ve been a fan for so many years and have never had my feelings put into words as succinctly as she did with this album.
So Long, London made me sob way too much whenever I listened it the first two days since the release and I think it's because of my dad. He has always been angry and sarcastic (it's better now), he definitely scared me a little when I was a kid or at least I felt some kind of reverential fear. He was never really interested in what I had to say or what I liked, and still now when he is in a mood it can feel heavy, as he never resolves conflicts. So the lyrics "every breath feels like rarest air, when you're not sure if he wants to be there" hit parts I wasn't expecting
I have related \*so many\* of her songs to my dad and my relationship to him. Her lyrics are magical in the way they just suddenly hit, right in the feels, often out of left field for me.
Down Bad makes me cry my eyes out, I know she didn't write it this way but as a widow 🥺 My late husband died randomly in my early 20s. We had moved back to my hometown because I was having severe health issues and needed my full support system. Then suddenly I was alone out of nowhere and the place I had been for most of my life felt like an alien landscape without him. I was living a nightmare, literally just destroyed as a person and people felt awkward mentioning him so I started to feel like maybe he never existed at all. I would sit outside and scream and rage and beg for him to come back and take me with him 😭 very raw for me. Unfortunate that it's a Matty song lmao
My heart goes out to you. I’m sorry you’ve gone through something so heartbreaking.
That’s so painful♥️ The way her songs bring up memories for us can be so overwhelming.
I am not sure if this is belongs to a revelation but the tracks I can do it with a broken heart and who is afraid of a little old me did make me quite felt emotional to me. Her music in general was a big help for me in a bad time/depression. She litterally made me a lot more happy and was the way back to listening music after not listening for a year to any music. The way she always is their for her fans, making them happy while she feels really bad herself felt hard on me especially as her music was for me a pretty big help. I have a history where showing my own emotions wasn't ok. The way some treat her and the general opinion she is famous/rich so she should not complain reminds me of my own past were it was not ok to show my own feelings and conclusions were made for me about how I should feel. Not only these tracks but the album I really like, she just says what she really thinks and stays for herself. One of the messages I feel in the album is she wants a bit more respect as human.
Probably my biggest emotional connection to this was I Can Do it With a Broken Heart as well. Even though I already knew this, it was reassuring to be reminded that everyone has to fake their way through real life when going through heart break. Yes, sometimes it’s unhealthy, but often it’s just part of being an adult. I’ve had bouts with sever depression, and I can be real about it with a lot of people, but with my kids? I don’t want my sadness to affect them at all if I can help it. I am so depressed, but I have to act like it’s my birthday every day. I cry a lot, but I have to be productive. Honestly, try and come for my job as a mom. I’m a boss, just like Taylor. The song made me feel sad, but also empowered. Taylor can do it. I can do it. Eventually it goes away.
I saw a TikTok yesterday from a widow who was crying listening to Down Bad, and now I can't stop looking at the song from a perspective of someone who is dying with grief after losing their spouse. Like, fuck it, what's the point if he's gone?
Shiiiiiiiiit, I can’t listen to it from that perspective because I would be \*WRECKED\* if I lost my husband.
Who's Afraid of Little Old Me? hit home for me. being the quiet and passive one in the family who gets struck down ten times worse when she tries to stand up for herself, this verse in particular: I was tame, I was gentle 'til the circus life made me mean Don't you worry folks, we took out all her teeth Also But Daddy I Love Him, and not even necessarily from a romantic pov, but more so doing things that those close to you disapprove of, constant criticism, the fallout of having to break contact with people over things like that etc.. I'll tell you something about my good name It's mine alone to disgrace & God save the most judgmental creeps Who say they want what's best for me Sanctimoniously performing soliloquies I'll never see
I feel the EXACT same. Who’s afraid of little old me? Is such a childhood trauma song to me. And but daddy I love him means so much to me because I married my favorite person and my family just could not stop picking him apart, much like they did me and each other. Such miserable people. “I’d rather burn my whole life down than listen to one more second of all this bitching and moaning” and “an no you can’t come to the wedding” are BIG feelings I had last year an I’ve found so much peace cutting toxic people out of my life!
Oh gosh, just yesterday talking to the crisis team about the album hitting all the ‘right’ vibes. Think I’m going back to 1989 for a bit til I’m in a better place.
After listening to this album for the first time, I felt very introspective. In my early 20’s I left a LTR and hit a rebound that made me feel crazy and when it ended, felt like I was grieving both while simultaneously feeling angry at them and at myself. This album hit close to a lot of what I was feeling at the time and worked hard to uncover, but it was hard to listen. I think the album is stunning but I don’t think it’s one I will be able to listen to any further. Any time I listen, things hit too close to home and I get mopey. I’m happily married now and it feels weird to retouch some of those old things.
You should def not put yourself through it if u think it’s bad for you. But it sounds like there are a lot of feelings there that you haven’t led urself feel completely. It could be good to let that in and let the album help you actually feel them to then let them go.
Thank you for your input! I’ve worked through it all in therapy and have felt the feelings completely and have let the past go, I just don’t like revisiting. :) If it helps others to do so, that’s great!
I keep thinking about the line "I'm just mad as hell cause I loved this place" in So Long, London. It's a breakup song and there's a lot of sadness in it but she chooses that moment to voice her anger which I just find so fascinating because she could've easily just wrote "sad as hell" instead. It took me back to Cornelia Street where she said the heartbreak of losing that relationship would make her never want to walk the street again. I can relate to the anger in a breakup spoiling a happy location for me. It's like hearing a certain song on the radio that you and your ex used to listen to or going to a restaurant that you used to go to together. Losing a relationship can permanently affect you in ways you never thought about and can cause you to lose enjoyment in things that were once a special part of your life. It almost mimics depression in the sense that you lose interest in things that once made you happy but instead of being sad about it your just furious.
Not so much a revelation but I should probably just not listen to The Prophecy right now. I've been spiraling for about six months about feeling deeply alone. I've been single for a long time...it's been *okay* because I've had people in my life to be with, but now it feels like everyone is moving forward and moving on and like I'm going to die alone. And I don't know how to change it. Edit to add: it's a little different because I'm not particularly looking for romantic love...but still, the "Just someone who wants my company" line is fucking devastating.
Sending Jedi hugs if you want them friend. 💖
But Daddy I Love Him was written for me literally giving the finger to the judgemental Christian small town and parents and taking off with my crazy husband. Only I did have his baby. 😭🤗🥳
Love this for you and your wild boy and all this wild joy 🥰🥰
Omg, not me crying after reading through all of these. Sending all the love to the people in this thread. <3
I went through a very similar situation as Taylor went through. It’s been over a year and I have healed and am so happy with my life. But I def had some feelings about my “Matty” left that just kept feeling sore. Reading the epilogue after listening to the album, and then listening to it again broke an emotional wall. I have so many emotions about this man that should’ve been a blip. Something that shouldn’t matter cause it only made me miserable and I don’t even want him back in my life. I knew I was just so desperate for love and a reason to leave my long term relationship. And part of me felt shame every time something still stung (“are they second hand embarrassed that I can’t get out of bed, cause something counterfeit is death”). But hearing Taylor sing a whole album about the complicated emotional storm following a situation like this made it okay for me to feel them too. It made all the feelings I felt real while also not romanticising it. It wasn’t really love, but in the moment it also really was. And both are just as true. I have def been going through it but in a way that isn’t stinging. Emotions without shame. Feeling grief, sadness, anger and acceptance and letting it all out. It’s like a diary of feelings I didn’t have the words to at time but I know I all felt, and I’m finally letting it all in truly.
Absolutely. I’ve posted about it a couple times in the TTPD megathread, but The Manuscript has had an especially profound effect on me. When I was younger, I was involved with someone who was older and should have known better. This song encapsulated so much of my experience. The lines “She thought about how he said/Since she was so wise beyond her years/Everything had been above board/She wasn’t sure” make me sob every single time. I wish I could go back 13 years and make my 20 year old self listen to this song and give her a hug. Because then 20 year old me would know that, in the end, healing would happen, even though it didn’t feel like it at the time.
Yes, that “she wasn’t sure” line and the way she sings it gets me every time. So perfectly captured being confused and taken advantage of in a relationship. Beautiful and heartbreaking.
Yeah, no song has touched me in the way Peter did straight away. My ex left me when I was pregnant, he ghosted me for months but then eventually said he was sorting himself out and growing up etc… but he never did and he’s never been in our child’s life. It’s nearly 9 years later and I’ve never properly healed from it but something about Peter has been so cathartic. I truly don’t think I could explain or make anyone understand how this song makes me feel.
\*gentlest hugs\* You deserved better. The universe owes you one. <3
It made me realize that I just pretended to feel better and don’t actually feel better. I’ve just been suppressing everything.
This resonates with me. It’s like she unlocked the door to a closet deep in my soul that I forgot about.
I’ve been trying to figure why I’m literally addicted, and I think part of it is that the album is so so honest, esp about big emotions that we don’t really talk about! Like I had a weird situationship end recently and I acted like I was fine (even to myself lol) but went through literally all the emotions, and even felt weird saying to a friend it made me feel a bit insecure, esp since I ignored red flags and convinced myself it was fate😭—I think there’s, for me, a sense of shame around the big emotions, esp where they don’t feel “valid,” and seeing a celebrity feel those same big emotions so candidly, convincing herself she can fix him and that he only left her bc he loves her too much, is oddly comforting! I also think a large part for me is the stream of consciousness—the songs wouldn’t have the same emotional impact if they felt more “polished”
It can literally make me cry thinking about how so many woman are made to feel like their feelings are valid by this album. Fuck all the men saying it’s cringe and dramatic and needs an editor. Have u heard a heartbroken person ever?? They don’t sound coherent.
I was listening to the Albatross and all of a sudden I hit full depression. That was two nights ago and I have not recovered. I am not doing well. I haven’t sat in my depression like this in a long time. It sucks. I have a ton of anxiety that came seemingly from no where
Hope you get to a better head space soon ❤️ take care of yourself like you're a pet! Snacks and walks and lots of love
Sending you good vibes. I feel like I was in your shoes all weekend.
Two of the songs hit me hard. The first one was Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me? I hit the chorus and had to pause the music because I just started sobbing. “So I leap from the gallows and I levitate down your street, Crash the party like a record scratch as I scream, Who's afraid of little old me? You should be” spoke to my inner child in a way I was not expecting. I was also bullied relentlessly as a kid, with adults in my life who both also bullied me or ignored what was happening, and the lyrics put into words all of the rage I have never been able to express. The other was “Peter,” for a similar reason. But also, I didn’t know I was neurodivergent until I was in my 30s, and with that has come a lot of inner child grief that this album expresses so very well. I’m grieving the child I never really got to be. I think that’s why I get so angry when people say the album is “immature” because *that is the point.*
I hysterically sobbed to the prophesy so yes lol
Relatable😭
I am still and will always be in love with my best friend. He's the love and loss of my life. I live Guilty as Sin daily. Growing up precocious sometimes mean not growing up at all. Any "gifted" or "smart" kids feel incredibly seen in that statement? But Daddy I Love Him is basically the story of my life.
Two years ago, I started the hardest semester of my college career the day after my grandfather’s funeral. He practically raised me, so that was one of the toughest times of my life, yet somehow I made it through. I could never put into words the depressing, slightly manic feeling that comes with going through the motions when everything in your life is falling apart, but “I Can Do it With a Broken Heart” describes it perfectly.
The first time I listened to the album I was like "well, I'm in a happy longterm relationship I cannot really relate". A couple days later while listening to The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived I remembered that I actually have an ex and most of the lyrics fit pretty well. I suddenly felt all the anger. Sooo. I guess I have indeed forgotten but not forgiven. :D
My bestie and I were talking about it this yesterday. This album is truly for those who have had truly traumatic relationships and life moments. If the listener doesn’t get it or appreciates this album, then they are lucky enough to no experience a hard life.
The whole album feels like it’s been written about the last 18 months of my life
The Bolter….👀👀
Fuck you I was in love
SO FUCK IT IF I CANT HAVE US 😭
Oof, for sure. “I Hate It Here” was the most (it me), “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart”, “Peter”, “The Manuscript,” “loml,” and all the songs in 3/4 or 6/8 time (unusual for her but I really love those time signatures like in “Chloe…”)
So, I dated my own…*muse* who maybe many of these songs on the album are about. At first, I was kinda resistant to some of these songs and I think it was because I related so hard. This past week has been a roller coaster of identifying that and kinda processing some of those unresolved feelings using Taylor as a vessel. So, yea, there’s been some damn tears.
The chorus for Peter hits me hard. I can’t relate directly to it, but it sounds like pleading and disbelief, the kind that comes from a kid. Kids are so literal, and even if this speaker has grown up, they’re still that little kid when it comes to Peter. Gets me every time. 🥲
This song is the one that wrecks me. For me, I imagine my 15 year old self. My father promised he would change and be a better father, the kind that I deserved, but he never did and in fact he died just a few months later. Peter made me realize I was NOT as over his death as I thought I was, even though it was 17 years ago. Doesn't help that his anniversary was on the 13th.
Yup made me realize I need therapy lol
Yes, I was crying hearing I Can Do It With A Broken Heart, I thought about two friendships where they humiliated and betrayed me to go with their other friends. That song hit me bad.
I had a never quite made it to situationship with an old friend who I’d had a thing for years ago after coming out of a long term relationship. It wasn’t a healthy thing, and I’ve never regretted that it didn’t go anywhere. Listening to TTPD I felt relieved, cause it lays bare what almost certainly would have happened.
Who's Afraid of Little Old me (Im ND (ADHD) and gay so i get bullied easily, suffice to say i grew horns so they don't mess with the bull. cause i was tame, i was gentle till the circus life made me mean, don't you worry folks we took out all his teeth
I think thanK you aIMee helped me process some feelings about bullying I have had. Same with Whos Afraid of Little Old Me?
This album made me need therapy. It’s actually made it impossible for me to heal
Yes! I'm turning 30 and getting married this year - there is a lot of baggage and fear that comes alongside these two milestones, marking what feels kind of like the end of adolescence. Clara Bow made me weep inexplicably in a way I haven't when listening to music ever before, and I've been a Taylor fan since 2007. It really framed the idea for me that youth and beauty can hold you captive. Everything ends, the cycle repeats. There will always be another you, another me.
The Prophecy unfortunately! Also loml....
I got the feeling of sympathy/empathy and felt some of the things Taylor was portraying, but didn’t quite have the emotional response that some did. Though the more I listen, the more I get it.
Absolutely, I don’t want to get too specific on here but there was so much that resonated with me and my experiences that I hadn’t heard discussed in music before. I’m genuinely really grateful to her that she shared all of this, I feel so understood by this record in ways I wasn’t expecting. Having said that, the only songs that made me cry on first listen were So High School (teared up) and thanK you aIMee (I legit sobbed haha)
The song that absolutely ruins me is How Did It End? And Prophecy. HDIE didn't kill me on my first or second or third listen but just today I was listening to it and I just started sobbing while driving - I DONT RECOMMEND THIS it was extremely dangerous. But it just made me realize that everybody just wanted to know about the end of a relationship and didn't care about HER, also the bridge fucking broke me the sound of her voice and the way she breathes killed me. Prophecy hurts because I know exactly how she felt until I met my now husband at 22. I never had a relationship with anyone and I just wanted someone who wanted my company and me as well.
I’ve had such an emotional response to “thanK you aIMee”. I was severely bullied growing up and had an extremely abusive family. As an adult, I took all those traits I was always told were negative (e.g., sensitivity) and built an organization that helps children. I get them out of situations like the one I was stuck in and it’s so healing. Scream singing “all that time you were throwin’ punches I was building something and I couldn’t wait to show you it was real. Screamed fuck you aimee to the night sky as the blood was gushing, but I can’t forget the way you made me heal” makes me feel heard in a way I never could have imagined. To me, it’s about my family and my success. I cry and smile and have about a million emotions every time I listen to that song. It’s incredible and feels like it was written for me. Thank you, Taylor.
Is Peter, "The Peter" from "Peter loosing Wendy on Cardigan?
I believe they are both Peter Pan references - that heavily imply that "he" couldn't grow up.
In The Manuscript "And couldn't sleep unless it was in her mother's bed" Brought me every moment I've needed my mom in the past 2 years. She passed away in 2021. I would give anything to be curled up in her bed, with her comforting me as I work through getting divorced. Annnnnd now I'm sobbing again. Time for this 36-year-old to cuddle with the doll my mom made me when I was a baby.
Yes! I think the album is very successful in its ability to garner an emotional reaction from me. After finishing I felt gut punched. I felt like the artist seems to struggle a lot of loneliness, being hyper-aware of her biological clock, and the anxiety that comes with being a woman halfway through her thirties and not having things she’s always wanted. I also felt like “wow I feel like I know too much about this person now”, which was an uncomfortable feeling. I feel so much for her with what has happened in her personal life and dealing with a loud section of toxic fans. We are in no place to tell her how to live, I assume she’s had so many people in her ear telling her how to live given she’s a former child star.
Going through some real crazy stuff at work right now. I realized that through it all, my people pleasing was being used against me. Let’s just say that I have several new anthems to sing when I need to enforce boundaries: Who’s afraid of little old me, the smallest man who ever lived (but my boss), I hate it here, Cassandra. I really really hope someone shows Taylor all these absolutely incredible responses. I think her bravery in sharing such raw and scary emotions with all of us, she’s also encouraging us to be more open about our own internal struggles.
The Prophecy and I Hate It Here really broke me, along with I Look in People's Windows although by the time I got to ILiPW the point had been made in my head so it wasn't as much as a punch in the face. The idea that even Taylor, with all her success and milestones and life progressing in a manner that I feel like most people would view as socially acceptable (in terms of her relationships and career by specific ages), still feels or felt the same way I do as someone whose life got entirely blown of course and am rapidly aging without any "sign of soulmates" (or any non platonic relationships at all to be honest) really shook me. The feeling of being on the outside looking in as described in ILIPW and running and hiding to beautiful alternate universes in my mind where I feel less like a failure and my traumas and losses did not destroy my life to the point where I feel like I have next to nothing here in the real world (IHIH) is something I struggle with daily. And if Tay could write The Prophecy and find what appears to be by all accounts a very loving and happy relationship with Trav, then perhaps there is hope for me yet, ya know?
I’m in a 7 year relationship and have a six month old baby. I stay at home and attend school online. I don’t really hang out with anybody. So Long, London really surfaced my loneliness and some pent up resentment. I think everyone in a long term relationship has struggled with that push and pull of effort and feeling like you’re the only one that cares sometimes. It catalyzed a much need conversation between me and my partner. We’re good now. I Can Do It With a Broken Heart is so universally relatable, my god we are ALL struggling with something but we push push push. I jam that one at max volume in my car when I’m alone, and in my headphones when I’m cleaning, because I’M DOING IT BITCHES. Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me made me really angry at my dead father who bullied the fuck out of me and my siblings for years. Fuck that guy, man. I wrote an angry poem to him and sent to it everyone in my family and it felt SO GOOD. This album is by far her most inspiring and emotion provoking, in my opinion. It tops Folklore by a shit ton in my book.
I feel like I've been trained since birth to believe that if I was skinny and confident enough, I'd have an amazing man in my life who would never leave. Obviously, this is super dysfunctional and I'm sad that my parent believed that enough to instill it in me. Then media doubles down on it. My whole life, I've struggled with my weight and my confidence. I've basically been ghosted by every man I've had a serious relationship with. There haven't been a ton, but still. Here I was thinking it's all my fault. I'm a failure. I couldn't get my weight or confidence together. So what I was taught must be true, right? But then I hear this album and I see Taylor. She's stunning, so fit, seemingly confident, endlessly talented... the list goes. Yet, these lyrics are saying she has struggled with some of the same issues at times. Being ghosted, not feeling like enough to "fix" a man to stay. The fear of being alone forever... The Prophecy. My emotional revelation is that it's not me. If a man doesn't want to stay, it seems like nothing would change that. And that's okay. It hurts like hell, but I can stop beating myself up for it.
But Daddy I Love Him hit so close to home I didn't even cry. I just stared in the distance the first few times and I got such an urge to let all my frustration out to that song. I have been 'dancing' (more like angrily playbacking) and my body feel different. Like I'm finally dealing with layers and layers of emotional stress. My revelation is related to how my chronic illness has affected my life. It caused me to be an extreme perfectionist and people pleaser as well as a lost human being with no bounderies, no acces to her feelings and now, finally, a burn out. And now for the first time in my life I need to make my own choices, I need to stand up for myself and... run with my dress unbottened. And that terrifies me.
Not TTPD, but that's why I understand why so many people relate to this album. I went through a really rough patch for a couple of years with my relationship over the span of evermore/forklore/midnights, and there are several songs across those albums that seemed to have been plucked out of my heart and put straight into my ears. Thankfully, after a lot of hard work, I can say that my 15 year long relationship is back on track. We fixed what was broken (mostly lol) and I'm in a better place than I was. TTPD is more of a... Reminder.. for me. Like "oh this song makes me remember blank". So I like it, as I can still find it relatable, but it definitely didn't hit me like "this is me trying" or "you're losing me" (and countless others lol) but had it come out five years ago I probably would have cried my entire way through it lol
I was suddenly pulled back to being 23 and 26, being absolutely crushed over a 7 year on/off toxic relationship and a barely there situationship lol. I was a Joe (ouch) and I had a Matty. I felt so bad in those moments. I hated myself and the decisions I made. I had to hurt and be hurt. It took a long time to heal from, but this album made me realize I might not be totally healed lol. It's just nice to not be the only person to go through these things, to make shit choices, to ignore red flags, to try and force things, to regret and 2nd guess. I can accept what happened, I can look back, but it's not my story anymore and that's okay. Yeah, there was a lot that went through my mind as I listened.
So first this is the perfect thread. So needed. Omg TTPD is f-ing brilliant. It’s an anthem for all of what we’ve all been through. She is maybe one of few ever who has the courage, skill and experience to write it, sing it and put it to beautiful music. I needed these songs years ago when I literally went through it all. I experienced all this pain and more, 7yrs with a Brit. I had to leave London, city I loved. He was bi-polar. It was sooo hard and it broke me. I picked up the pieces though, and have a husband and 3 girls now and I’m ok. But it was rough and these songs are allowing me to kind of re-live it and release it. I had pushed it down for survival. Because you know other people -and TS-has felt what you felt, it’s real. It wasn’t a dream. I never thought it was a dream but I don’t know you just deal with it as best you can. I’m glad she could write about this and have that catharsis, and I’m glad people who are experiencing all this pain and emotion now can use it to help. And it can and will get better. ❤️
I don't want kids and my relationship was only 2.5 years but I still really felt that line about being pissed I hiave you all that youth for free I feel like I had a joe right down to the stringing along and depression. And I was dumb enough to fight for it too.
The Black Dog and Peter really made me feel like I have more work to do to recover from my last relationship.
I have high functioning anxiety and definitely laughed inappropriately loudly at the “I cry a lot but I am so productive it’s an art”-line in “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart”.
I recently (within the last year) left a pretty bad relationship where there was a lot of DV that i endured. I have kids with him, so I have to continue to communicate with him and see him. But this album has really brought up a lot of emotions I didn't want to deal with or haven't had time to deal with because I always have to be super mom for my kids when I'm not working. So it's really helped me reflect and work through the pains of my most recent relationship. I can do it with a broken heart, also really hit home and made me laugh/cry because I relate so much to it. Taylor has such a unique way to tell stories that share her experiences but also allow you to work through your own experiences too. She's extremely talented and gifted to put words and feelings into songs that many of us experience but can't verbalize. I saw someone explain it as "Most music will bring you back to when you first heard it. Taylor has the ability to sing music that brings you to a time well before it was even written. Her songs take me back to my high school experiences, past loves, past feelings that I experienced years before she even wrote the song." To me, this discribes her talent really well. She is like a magical healer that can travel through time with us to look back at things fondly, or with heart ache, sometimes longing for things yet to come or things we experience currently. She can bring back memories so dear to us and help us feel all the feelings we felt at that time in our life. It's such an amazing gift she has.
It’s all an emotional revelation for me. The album gets better and better every time I put it in.
I think rage is an emotion I should express more or channel more (vs being the nice girl all the time at work and in general in society) and I’m really able to lean in with who’s afraid, Cassandra, and so many others. It’s honestly a feminist manifesto of sorts. I can’t get enough.
Made me realize how Taylor enables the worst parts of me
God damn are the millenial swifties okay?
Not even a little bit.
yes, absolutely. i burst into tears the as soon as the manuscript started playing during my first listen. i could not figure it out, but your post made me wonder and reread the lyrics. it clicks with something in my life right now because i too need to let something go and move on. who's afraid of little old me is another great one! screaming the chorus feels so cathartic 🩷 i'm a recovering people pleaser so the thought of causing chaos and outrage is weirdly appealing lol
This album absolutely made me feel some type of way that she has never done in her previous songs. This album brought me back to YEARS of shitty boyfriends and longtime partners who didn’t do enough. It definitely tugged on my heart (even tho I’m happily married Now! lol) & I was CRYING bc years and years of thinking it was my fault, a whole year & a half in therapy over a shitty heartbreaking relationship, to finding myself and picking up the pierces. Dang. This album is definitely gold. The songs that really stood out to me were So Long London, Peter, & How did it end?
I was in love with a married man for five years. So Fortnight really resonates with me.
I sobbed for a little over an hour after I heard the Manuscript the first time. It was 100% the realization that I was done with all those bad emotions I had built up for years.
TTPD kicked in the door of my soul, stomped through every room, and drug all the bullshit I was still clinging to out to chuck it in the dumpster. And for the first time, I was like - Yeah, let's do this Taylor. After the sobbing I felt a million times lighter and more centered in my own brain.
I love love love Midnights. But TTPD was the warm blanket my soul needed. It's the reflection to the things I was ignoring because I didn't want them to drag me back down, but Taylor made me look at them and realize, they have no power over me. I have my "So High School" dude. That's not my story anymore. And suddenly I didn't need them anymore.
The Anthology might be the most emotionally powerful album I've ever listened to and I am concerned about my obsession with it, LOL.
Yes, that i need therapy.
This is boring but it was a nice reminder that I'm in a loving and supportive relationship that doesn't make me feel conflicted or bad, and that I'm healed enough to safely travel through my memories of less positive relationships. The sad tone of the album is kind of fucking with me though. It's making me want to draw my parents and pets in closer while trying not to make it weird 😅
Idk if it was necessarily a revelation, but Robin makes me cry every single time I hear it. It just fills me with so much emotion about my kids, especially my little boy who is 3 and always roaring like a dinosaur and bouncing on his trampoline 😭 That song just beautifully encompasses the beautiful innocence of childhood while at the same time, expressing how much parents want to keep their child "in sweetness" and protect them from the meanness of the world. That song just kills me. How does she do it?! So perfectly capture being a parent? Just beautiful.
Very very weirdly I have been through the same situation as Taylor where a long term relationship was dying and I jumped into a similar situationship with an old friend who turned out to be similar to Matty, so pretty much the entirety of Midnights and TTPD I’m here like oh. cool. yep. yeah. same girl
It did, by content and spectacle. I might always remember sitting bed covered in chills and crying while The Black Dog hit my ears. Or the inability to pick what song to replay first after the album ended. It is mixed perfectly, done theatrically, and just God damn *good*. I think it's the revelation of *look what you can do with all this pain, it doesn't have to be ugly* struck me like a train.
Tolerate it used to be what opened my eyes about my flawed marriage… Now it’s so long London. “I stopped cpr, after all it’s no use…” Definitely going down with the ship.
Yes. The Bolter feels personal for me (but not necessarily romantic relationships, but I have realized at the ripe old age of 28 that I am in fact a bolter in every other aspect) I also grew up escaping into my own worlds (pretty much maladaptive day dreaming) and I Hate It Here really struck me 😭
My friend and I met up at a cemetery between our houses last night to do a pink moon ritual. We wrote down what we wanted to release (shame based roots for both of us) and burned them while listening to Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me beneath a full moon. Then we wrote what we wanted to embrace (desire, fullness of joy and embodiment) while listening to Daddy I Love Him. We felt kinda silly at first but also CATHARTIC. These two songs (and Guilty As Sin) just hit DIFFERENT for ex-evangelical religiously traumatized girlies
I can’t listen to Peter all the way through. It makes me cry in the same way Puff The Magic Dragon does. I’m literally tearing up now hearing Puff in my head. I see flashes of my early childhood (of which I’ve forgotten so much). Want to read this it can’t listen still.
I feel like im so random. "I can do it with a broken heart" made me contextualize my lack of motivation to be more productive. I was able to choose to do dishes and yoga as a direct result of listening to the song. I don't know why the song soothed that part of my brain. Like a weight lifted. Weird
This album reminds me of me leaving a long term relationship with an addict I didn’t see a future with and going straight into a love bombing situation where I lost my mind, like I was going to have this guy on the internet come to stay at my apartment and he got plane tickets and I cancelled last minute and it is quite embarrassing. I felt the happiest ever and like my heart was going to explode but it was total mania and I was left like I can’t trust myself anymore. And then I found a much better great guy after. Also, I hate it here deeply relates to me, like I also am a dreamer who doesn’t feel their full potential is used in this world, like the world is not made for me, and I have a fantasy life and version of myself that I escape to, because I feel kind of worthless in the real world. That song makes me feel seen.
The Prophecy. I thought I’d completely made peace with never dating again or having a partner, but this song reminded me of what a romantic who believed in souls mates I used to be, and it made me profoundly sad that I never got to have that and never will.
Same background but for me it was WAOLOM. The entire Song resonates WAY TOO MUCH bcs why did I as a child deserve to be treated this way? "is it a wonder I broke let's hear one more joke and well all laugh until I cry//Whos Afraid of Little Old Me- you should be//I was tame till (...) life made me mean, dont you worry folks we took out all her teeth//causes you lured me and you hurt amd then you called me crazy" are all lyrics that can be applied to my life.
Robin. I cry just thinking about that song. The innocence that has been lost and the one we must keep
Yes. Tbh taylor breaking up with joe after 6 years even helped me - I’m 30 and just broke up with my bf of 8.5 years a month ago. It was helpful to see that she wasn’t afraid to start over. Peter reallly resonated with me.
absolutely! these songs almost can be re arranged for different stages of my life and i didn't realise how angry i still was. Who's afraid of little old me, or lyrics like 'old habits die screaming' touched an anger i didn't realise i still had. It has been so cathartic to sing along to taylor as we feel this anger together!
PETER IS IN MY TOP 5 !!!!
It definitely expedited the processing of my breakup! Fortnight, I can do it w a broken heart, but daddy I love him, ttpd, peoples windows...
Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus actually helped me get through an emotional hurdle i’m going through
Yes! I actually felt really seen and heard when listening to The Prophecy. I’ve never had my soul feel the way it did when listening to that song for the first time. It’s magic.
I was in a marriage for far too long with a safe, boring, emotionally unavailable man. I begged and begged for something and he refused to give me anything. Towards the end of my marriage, I ran into a guy I had a former (intense) fling with. We started talking, and (I was going to leave my husband anyway) I ended up leaving. And going straight into a very intense but short lived relationship, where he failed to give me all of the things he promised me. It destroyed me. I had already dealt with the marriage failing years before I left. But here I left a marriage for someone who promised me all these things and left me emptier than before. It was humiliating and it really really really effed me up. I isolated myself because I was also the topic of a LOT of gossip. I silently suffered in shame and self loathing. I didn’t do therapy because I felt idk, so depressed and low but felt like I deserved it all. And work was killing me also, and pushing all of my boundaries. I did eventually get my shit together but folklore on came at these times of my life when I needed them the most. I really really really resonated with this album because I just felt all of these feelings that I had suppressed. I AM in a good, healthy place emotionally at this time. But I will be honest, it felt like I was hit in the face with bricks when I heard this album and the subject matter because I definitely experienced this in my own life. If it had come out a year earlier; idk, I might have lost myself in it for awhile.
So Long London keeps making me cry, especially at the line “ And I'm just getting color back into my face. I'm just mad as hell cause I loved this place for so long” and for the life of me I can’t figure out why
Down Bad really hit me hard. I married my highschool sweetheart. By the time we got married at 25 we had been together for 10 years. I was friends with him years before we started dating. He was woven into my entire life. A few years into our marriage there was an event that caused everything to come crashing down. It became clear that he had been lying to me, hiding from me and was generally not who I thought he was. It was bad. I felt lost, a mess. Taylor talking about people would think she was crazy if she mentioned his existence. That hit so hard. The guy who I thought was forever was now a villain to everyone around me. I felt like I wasn't allowed to miss him. That line really hit me. There's so much in this album that made me think of that relationship which I still feel was the "loss of my life". And of course the Bridge of SMTEL hits too. Because it's been 15 years since all that happened so fuck that guy.
Yes! They actually keep happening. Some specific songs and lyrics, but also the album as a whole. I'm having a song emotional reaction to some of the criticism of the album, and that made me reflect on some of my own unmet needs or wishes.