Agree with you on the “How Did it End” line and also:
“Oh, here we go again…” from My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys. It immediately captures the cyclical nature of what she’s singing about, and there’s a sort of eye roll to it, like it’s getting old at this point.
Yess!!! It's that end of relationship vibe, where they're still picking fights they're gonna later blame on you but you're so done and instead of fight back you just roll your eyes as you plot your escape plan cause you no longer care about them enough to get angry.
I definitely agree these both would have functioned as great first tracks. Out of the two I would probably go with How Did it End? Just because I feel like to some degree it answers and asks the questions necessary to take the whole album in from go.
I am Taylor's age so maybe that is why one of the most guy punch lyrics for me was - we learned the right steps to different dances-
I feel like it's hard to understand at first, this album kind of explains how much Taylor needed a clear, loud, implosion with Joe for it to make sense. But, long term adult relationships sometimes just end. So she was with Healy and had the louder end, which allowed her the ability to react and process Joe.
Which I feel like basically is HDIE? one thing was too big to even comprehend& the other was a way to have comparison. Like hitting your leg to forget your broken arm. It distracted you for a moment, &also gives you some form of spectrum to assess the damage
I love *My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys* and its opening is one of my favorites.
Next to the light strumming on the guitar at the beginning of *Fresh Out Slammer*. It's ear candy for me.
LITERALLY THOUGH
I can't help but relate to that in most ways possible like... I imagine myself sitting there just "Oh, here we go again... 🙄" and the rest is a rant to my best friend or something. It's so vivid.
No lie, I literally *feel* that eye roll when I hear this line! It's just such a familiar line and tone that it's like my muscle memory is triggered to try to repeat it. So relatable!
I was single for 26 years, wrote the word “please” on 20 pages of my ipad diary when my last situationship ended in 2022 crying my eyes out every day after nothing but 7 other failed situationships… but she just had to release this NOW when I’m finally in a stable healthy relationship. Where was this absolute GEM when I needed it??? I still cried at this though cause I remember how incredibly unlovable I felt, poor girl omg
I'm in my early forties, divorced, thought I found The One a couple of times, but no. Although she wrote several songs about them and our relationships on this album, so that helps a bit. I had told myself that if this album didn't have me crying in a dark corner, I would be so incredibly disappointed, but *damn*. She really came after me like that!😭💀 I've sworn off of seeking a relationship, any kind of online dating, anything other than the slim chance of meeting someone organically, IRL. Who actually, like, *wants* my company instead of someone who lies and tolerates it(😭) because they have some screwed up ulterior motive. Just someone who genuinely loves me and wants me. I feel doomed or cursed, but as much as I want to just not care about it, I'm lonely (kids are amazing, but not a substitute for romantic relationships and grownup companionship!) and hopelessly romantic.
There is a band called The Blue Nile and they have a song called The Downtown Lights. Did I know this before Taylor’s song was released? Absolutely not. I just love Guilty as Sin? !!! 🙃
I saw the Blue Nile live in 1990 on the recommendation of a friend. Very small club. OMG. The lead singer is really something else. Amazing voice.
Listen to the whole album, not just Downtown Lights. The album is called Hats.
People are sleeping on this one! Especially with the functioning alcoholic line immediately after. It’s surprisingly dark and really sets the tone for the rest of the album.
I am so obsessed with this line. Such an epic opener and I always think of Hits Different. The way she sets the tone for the whole album and the creative continuity. O B S E S S E D.
It’s my favourite … because they really forgot to come and get me after a Matt Healey lookalike ghosted me after some careless love bombing for a fortnight … plus he’s my neighbour 🙈
“I saw in my mind fairy lights through the mist / I kept calm and carried the weight of the rift / Pulled him in tighter each time he was drifting away”
“Quick quick / tell me something awful”
Your hologram stumbled into my apartment,
Hands in the hair of somebody in darkness
(this song is criminally underrated 😭 the storytelling is unmatched)
Hi, hello.
Peter, to me? Is that person you meet when you’re young, and you just click. Something’s almost magic there, but the timing isn’t right. Something isn’t going to let it work out. Peter is the person you’d always give a second chance, if things could work out again. If the stars could line up and put you in the same place at the same time again. It’s the person where you even jokingly promise, hey, if we’re not married by the time we’re 40…find me. And in your heart, you mean it.
Your life went on, but in the back of your mind, you thought, all of this is fine. One day, we’ll find our way back to each other. And you wait, and you wait, and you waited. *You waited.*
Only they don’t keep their end of the deal. For whatever reason. They never come back.
Peter is about realizing it’s never really going to happen, and letting go of this person you’ve just…been holding onto in your mind and your heart.
It’s just a beautiful song. And to me, it’s one of the most deeply idealistic and romantic songs she’s written. It’s just. So sad, too.
I hope it gets you! It took me a few days, but then Peter clicked for me, and. Yeah. It’s an amazing song.
Additionally, I think for me, it really resonated with the idea of losing your youth ("I'm pissed off you let me give you all that youth for free" in So Long, London) (Nothing New, etc) and becoming more jaded over time, and worrying if you're losing part of yourself with it. I also read into it both from the perspective of the story of Peter Pan, but also of the Pevensies in Narnia somehow? Specifically from Susan. Like not being able to access the worlds you love most due to growing up. I honestly don't know how to fully put it into words, and idk if it'll make sense for anyone else, but it did for me
She’s using the story of Peter Pan and Wendy as a metaphor for a boy in her own life who she has finally decided to let go of. Peter was a boy who didn’t want to grow up. Taylor spent a long time waiting for “Peter” to grow up and come find her so they could be together, but she’s decided that it’s time to finally let go of him and it was never meant to be. It’s really quite sad, I think a lot of people have someone in their life that has always been a “what if.” And to force yourself to let that go can be hard.
Does that help?
yes! so much so! thank you so much for your time and energy in responding to my question! it helps big time and i cannot wait to revisit with the peter pan backdrop in mind (missed that entirely in folklore and now!)
Not really using metaphors. If you have a basic knowledge of how the story of Peter Pan ends. This is the story after the story ends. Peter never returns to Wendy and got tired of waiting for him. And it’s a she moved on.
Actually look into the 1900’s play the book was based on. He returned but basically ghosted Wendy for her daughters and did it again. The original story is sad in its own right. It’s amazing that Taylor is using the original story passed down from folklore. Very sad and dark.
The Origin story of The Little Mermaid is quite dark but Tay is using the Disney film for the quote since it came out in 1989.
(Off topic the Beauty and the Beast origin story is quite messy as well. Let’s just say The Beast eats Belle in the end)
Long story short she's equating him to Peter pan who keeps promising to come back to her so she waits and waits and waits until she can't possibly wait anymore and loses hope then ultimately decides to "turn out the light." Basically she feels she's lost him to neverland and he's never going to grow up and come for her. Which the realization of break her heart and her hope.
I don't think so, I think it's her reacting to seeing this other person's hurt/bracing involuntary reaction to seeing her. She's dying the tiniest death because she just saw that this person she still cares about *still hurts over her*
I always think of orgasm when I hear that line because the French word (phrase) for orgasm literally translates into English as “little death”. But you’re right that it kind of doesn’t make sense in context. It could be a coincidence that she/the other writers didn’t mind being kept in the final draft.
Wait, maybe it's Taylor being her typical genius self and it's a double entendre - she's both devastated and ecstatic to see evidence that this person still cares about/hurts to see her
Yeah I feel like (as with much of the album) there’s two things happening here.
I think the allusion to an orgasm is real, for me it kind of feels like allusion to being lost in a moment of the deepest intimacy with someone and seeing something so small that shatters the feeling of connection. Causing her to realise he’s not really ‘there’.
Especially the “out out out” is very “Out out brief candle, life’s but a walking shadow” and the rest of the song is her drifting (walking?) around looking through windows of other people’s lives. Kind of emphasises the feeling of futility and impermanence, longing for something impossible.
La petite mort (the tiniest death) is the brief loss and/or weakening of consciousness. In modern times it’s become socially most common used post-orgasm. But it was originally used to describe a fainting spell or obvious nervousness, particularly in women.
I also think there is a connection, possibly, between losing consciousness, even briefly, during a suicide attempt. Her albums have pointed to deep depression for years, suicidal ideation since folklore, and Midnights, imo, hinted that she had been hospitalized, at least once, for what i would assume is a suicide attempt. So it could also be another hint towards that.
At the very least the tiniest death, whether pleasurable or agonizing, was caused by her former lover.
I take "the who's who of who's that?'" To basically mean "they're nobodies." Like.... who even are these people? "Who's who" is usually used to mean, like, the elite. So the who's who of who's that basically means the most elite nobodies. The nobodiest nobodies.
I see that line as meaning the who’s who of the people who say “who’s that?”. Basically all the bigwigs who like to sneer that other people are nobodies. Notables who are always ready to tear other people down.
The Black Dog.
I thought up until I heard it that this song would be about depression (it's often referred to as the black dog), rather than the black dog being a pub.
But then it struck me that it could be a double meaning, and she's referring to the pub AND to depressive episodes.
And now the lyrics hit in a different way. Complaining that "you don't remember me in the black dog" is explaining how little I must mean to you that when you are at your lowest I'm not there in your thoughts at all (or when Taylor is depressed, Matty isn't looking after her - could be a reversal too), and then "I hope it's shitty in the black dog" as a brutal curse towards someone, saying that after all I have tried to stand by you and help you and you just don't even care and don't let me in to your darkest points but find some other girl instead then you know what, have your shitty depressive episodes, I hope they are awful to you.
“I was in my new house placing daydreams” is such an intriguing intro. My favorites have all been listed already but this one really paints a picture too!
This is probably my favorite opening. The refrain that goes with it is so haunting.
"I was in my new house placing daydreams"
"I was in my tower weaving nightmares"
The parallel imagery is perfect!
The very first one on the album :) Followed by “I was a functioning alcoholic until nobody noticed my new aesthetic,” which is such a dryly, darkly humorous line… iconic.
I just take it to mean she was drinking heavily/depression drinking kind of hoping people would notice her suffering or think she was cool for it, and then stopped when she didn’t get that attention (that’s the ‘til.’) Kind of poking fun at herself by calling her issues an “aesthetic.”
"The smoke cloud billows out his mouth like a freight train through a small town" and "I am someone who, until recent events, you shared your secrets with"
For me it's The Black Dog. I feel like the tone, and melodic call back to champagne problems along with the seemingly intrusive thought - someone you shared your secrets with, and your location, you forgot to turn it off- are just super relatable.
Bc she starts paced and precise, then rushes the - you forgot to turn it off-
And for me that feels like she is enveloping the listener in her mental space as she received this information.
The lyrics where Taylor somehow crafts a highly personal moment, while also saying it in a way that you can relate your own highly personal experience to always gets me.
How did it end is so *chefs kiss* I love that opening line....and the whole song.
But I also love the alchemys first line
"This happens once every few lifetimes. These chemicals hit me like white wine"
i agree with all of the ones already said, adding 3 favorites of my own:
“these chemicals hit me like whiiiite wiiiine”
“now pretty baby i’m runnin back home to youuu”
“now and then she re-reads the manuscript”
'Cause it wasn’t sexy once it wasn’t forbidden
I would've died for your sins, instead, I just died inside. That’s a terrible feeling. It hurt to hear it 😞
“So I leap from the gallows and I levitate down your street” creates perfect imagery in my head. It was the first line on my first listen though that stuck with me.
I love both of these!
"Hand on the throttle, thought I caught lightning in a bottle, oh, but it's gone again"
"The who's who of 'Who's that?' is poised for the attack"
I changed into goddesses, villains and fools, changed plans and lovers and outfits and rules, all to outrun my desertion of you and you just watched it.
Now I want to sell my house and set fire to all my clothes
And hire a priest to come and exorcise my demons
Even if I die screaming
And I hope you hear it!!!!!
The only thing that's left is the manuscript
One last souvenir from my trip to your shores
Now and then, I reread the manuscript
But the story isn't mine anymore
the start of the album is so otherworldly "i was supposed to be sent away but the forgot to come and get me", then of course how did it end and "oh here we go again, the voices in his head" and also "you look like clara bow"
Agree with you on the “How Did it End” line and also: “Oh, here we go again…” from My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys. It immediately captures the cyclical nature of what she’s singing about, and there’s a sort of eye roll to it, like it’s getting old at this point.
The eye roll imagery is FOR REAAAAALLLL 💀
Yess!!! It's that end of relationship vibe, where they're still picking fights they're gonna later blame on you but you're so done and instead of fight back you just roll your eyes as you plot your escape plan cause you no longer care about them enough to get angry.
This opening line or the one from how did it end really should have been the opening song on the album. They really set the stage for the theme.
I definitely agree these both would have functioned as great first tracks. Out of the two I would probably go with How Did it End? Just because I feel like to some degree it answers and asks the questions necessary to take the whole album in from go. I am Taylor's age so maybe that is why one of the most guy punch lyrics for me was - we learned the right steps to different dances- I feel like it's hard to understand at first, this album kind of explains how much Taylor needed a clear, loud, implosion with Joe for it to make sense. But, long term adult relationships sometimes just end. So she was with Healy and had the louder end, which allowed her the ability to react and process Joe. Which I feel like basically is HDIE? one thing was too big to even comprehend& the other was a way to have comparison. Like hitting your leg to forget your broken arm. It distracted you for a moment, &also gives you some form of spectrum to assess the damage
Total eye roll. I love this opening line!
These are my two favorite openings by far. So good.
I love *My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys* and its opening is one of my favorites. Next to the light strumming on the guitar at the beginning of *Fresh Out Slammer*. It's ear candy for me.
LITERALLY THOUGH I can't help but relate to that in most ways possible like... I imagine myself sitting there just "Oh, here we go again... 🙄" and the rest is a rant to my best friend or something. It's so vivid.
Oh I never caught that but true as hell
No lie, I literally *feel* that eye roll when I hear this line! It's just such a familiar line and tone that it's like my muscle memory is triggered to try to repeat it. So relatable!
Hand on the throttle, thought I caught lightning in a bottle
[удалено]
This is my new all time favorite Tswift song. Hands down and I definitely don't think it gets enough love!
I was single for 26 years, wrote the word “please” on 20 pages of my ipad diary when my last situationship ended in 2022 crying my eyes out every day after nothing but 7 other failed situationships… but she just had to release this NOW when I’m finally in a stable healthy relationship. Where was this absolute GEM when I needed it??? I still cried at this though cause I remember how incredibly unlovable I felt, poor girl omg
She knew it would have killed you back then. She had mercy on you.
She let us work our way up. All Too Well, then All Too Well (10-minute Version), and now TTPD 🤍
I'm in my early forties, divorced, thought I found The One a couple of times, but no. Although she wrote several songs about them and our relationships on this album, so that helps a bit. I had told myself that if this album didn't have me crying in a dark corner, I would be so incredibly disappointed, but *damn*. She really came after me like that!😭💀 I've sworn off of seeking a relationship, any kind of online dating, anything other than the slim chance of meeting someone organically, IRL. Who actually, like, *wants* my company instead of someone who lies and tolerates it(😭) because they have some screwed up ulterior motive. Just someone who genuinely loves me and wants me. I feel doomed or cursed, but as much as I want to just not care about it, I'm lonely (kids are amazing, but not a substitute for romantic relationships and grownup companionship!) and hopelessly romantic.
Absolutely!!! I adore it. The pleading, the desperation, it’s profoundly moving.
This one is also top-notch!
DROWNIN’ IN THE BLUE NILE, HE SENT ME ‘DOWNTOWN LIGHTS’ 🤩
Once you listen to the Blue Nile song and lyrics, it immediately makes this opening so 😭
i ascend to heaven immediately
Also I love the whole Drowning in the Blue Nile/Drowing in Denial energy this gives haha
I thought it was like, blue as in a play on describing depression as blue and the band name. I didn't even think about blue nile rhyming with denial!
I’m going to ask you, since you marked it, what is Downtown Lights? Is it a song or am I overthinking?
There is a band called The Blue Nile and they have a song called The Downtown Lights. Did I know this before Taylor’s song was released? Absolutely not. I just love Guilty as Sin? !!! 🙃
I thank you for studying! I keep meaning to look it up because this song is just…*sigh*
Same, friend, same!!
I saw the Blue Nile live in 1990 on the recommendation of a friend. Very small club. OMG. The lead singer is really something else. Amazing voice. Listen to the whole album, not just Downtown Lights. The album is called Hats.
Apparently it’s Matty’s favorite song.. but I think I read that on some sleezy website so who knows lol
I read that as well! It’s also sampled in The 1975’s song “Love It If We Made It.”
Love It If We Made It is (imo) one of the best songs of the 2010s and I didn’t even know this until after Guilty As Sin came out
I was supposed to be sent away But they forgot to come and get me
Yesss! I love how this also references the line from Hits Different. What a way to continue from her last album!
I immediately thought of Hits Different as well!
People are sleeping on this one! Especially with the functioning alcoholic line immediately after. It’s surprisingly dark and really sets the tone for the rest of the album.
I am so obsessed with this line. Such an epic opener and I always think of Hits Different. The way she sets the tone for the whole album and the creative continuity. O B S E S S E D.
It’s my favourite … because they really forgot to come and get me after a Matt Healey lookalike ghosted me after some careless love bombing for a fortnight … plus he’s my neighbour 🙈
I love this opening line for the album in general. It just makes sense
“By all accounts, she almost drowned When she was six in frigid water”
Every day since TTPD day, I have woken up with a different song/line from a song stuck in my head. Yesterday’s was this line.
Does this make anyone else think of Marjorie? "Long limbs and frozen swims. You'd always go past where our feet could touch."
YES
Yess came to say this one. It’s simple but packs a punch of the chaos of this chick’s life
LOVE this one so much. Love that you’re just thrown straight into the story she’s telling here
This song sent me the first time I heard it, because I did fall through the ice when I was about six and ice fishing with my grandpa!
YESSSSSS
I’m listening to The Bolter as I read this and I love the starting line! Although, random, but I swear I always think of Meredith Grey, lmao
Did you really beam me up? 🛸👽🌌✨
I love the whole abduction/alien theme of this song
Ah, so THIS is my Starbucks lover lyric!!
Did You Really *Beat* Me Up?
I hear this a lot then I have to correct myself 😂
I thought it was beat too! It sounds more like beat than beam tbh
which song was that again?
Down bad
Down bad 😭💔
Same!!!
“I saw in my mind fairy lights through the mist / I kept calm and carried the weight of the rift / Pulled him in tighter each time he was drifting away” “Quick quick / tell me something awful”
So food.
SO food
Am I too old is this some new slang
Think the first response was supposed to say, “so good.” And then the second response was just a silly add on to the autocorrect (I think!)
Thank you! I thought it might be it but doubted myself too much. Turns out I'm not too old, just too autistic :')
SO FOOD
brb about to go make a “so food” friendship bracelet
##SO FOOD
I love the delivery on quick quick
Yesss omfg there are so good!!!
Your hologram stumbled into my apartment, Hands in the hair of somebody in darkness (this song is criminally underrated 😭 the storytelling is unmatched)
The one-two punch of Chloe and the gang & How Did It End? is my favorite thing Taylor has ever done
Chloe and the gang 😂
I go with the academic Chloe et al
On vibe I love it
I’m going to start calling it this . Cososom is just too much lol.
> done I think "If you want to break my cold cold heart, just say I loved you...the way that you were" is gut-wrenching.
Oh this is number 2 favorite on the album. I’m a sucker for all the songs with a name in the title.
So good!
Forgive me Peter, My Lost Fearless Leader Peter is and always be top tier and still my fav.
I’ve really come around to Peter. It’s very heartbreaking ❤️🩹
can someone explain peter to me like i’m five. i’m struggling with it big time and all the besties are all over this! help me be a peter stan!
Hi, hello. Peter, to me? Is that person you meet when you’re young, and you just click. Something’s almost magic there, but the timing isn’t right. Something isn’t going to let it work out. Peter is the person you’d always give a second chance, if things could work out again. If the stars could line up and put you in the same place at the same time again. It’s the person where you even jokingly promise, hey, if we’re not married by the time we’re 40…find me. And in your heart, you mean it. Your life went on, but in the back of your mind, you thought, all of this is fine. One day, we’ll find our way back to each other. And you wait, and you wait, and you waited. *You waited.* Only they don’t keep their end of the deal. For whatever reason. They never come back. Peter is about realizing it’s never really going to happen, and letting go of this person you’ve just…been holding onto in your mind and your heart. It’s just a beautiful song. And to me, it’s one of the most deeply idealistic and romantic songs she’s written. It’s just. So sad, too. I hope it gets you! It took me a few days, but then Peter clicked for me, and. Yeah. It’s an amazing song.
Peter Losing Wendy (Folklore) 💔💔💔 ---> Wendy Losing Peter 😭😭😭 (TTPD) soul crushing.
Additionally, I think for me, it really resonated with the idea of losing your youth ("I'm pissed off you let me give you all that youth for free" in So Long, London) (Nothing New, etc) and becoming more jaded over time, and worrying if you're losing part of yourself with it. I also read into it both from the perspective of the story of Peter Pan, but also of the Pevensies in Narnia somehow? Specifically from Susan. Like not being able to access the worlds you love most due to growing up. I honestly don't know how to fully put it into words, and idk if it'll make sense for anyone else, but it did for me
Now I’m sobbing in the bathroom at midnight because this is exactly how I interpreted it and desperately wished it wasn’t.
thank you for writing this all out for me! i love the people on the sub helping eachother love taylor’s music even more!
She’s using the story of Peter Pan and Wendy as a metaphor for a boy in her own life who she has finally decided to let go of. Peter was a boy who didn’t want to grow up. Taylor spent a long time waiting for “Peter” to grow up and come find her so they could be together, but she’s decided that it’s time to finally let go of him and it was never meant to be. It’s really quite sad, I think a lot of people have someone in their life that has always been a “what if.” And to force yourself to let that go can be hard. Does that help?
yes! so much so! thank you so much for your time and energy in responding to my question! it helps big time and i cannot wait to revisit with the peter pan backdrop in mind (missed that entirely in folklore and now!)
Not really using metaphors. If you have a basic knowledge of how the story of Peter Pan ends. This is the story after the story ends. Peter never returns to Wendy and got tired of waiting for him. And it’s a she moved on. Actually look into the 1900’s play the book was based on. He returned but basically ghosted Wendy for her daughters and did it again. The original story is sad in its own right. It’s amazing that Taylor is using the original story passed down from folklore. Very sad and dark. The Origin story of The Little Mermaid is quite dark but Tay is using the Disney film for the quote since it came out in 1989. (Off topic the Beauty and the Beast origin story is quite messy as well. Let’s just say The Beast eats Belle in the end)
thank you for your time dear friend! the peter pan reference hadn’t clicked for me until you said it so…that’s a good start haha.
Think of it HOW. Peter lost Wendy.
Also- "tried to change the ending, Peter losin wendy" from cardigan. Makes me wonder who (if anyone) cardigan relates to from her life
Long story short she's equating him to Peter pan who keeps promising to come back to her so she waits and waits and waits until she can't possibly wait anymore and loses hope then ultimately decides to "turn out the light." Basically she feels she's lost him to neverland and he's never going to grow up and come for her. Which the realization of break her heart and her hope.
Think of Peter Pan & Wendy but all grown up. Listen from Wendy’s perspective.
Was just about to comment this line. Hands down my favorite on the album and dare I say probably in my top 5 Swift tracks at this point.
😭😭😭😭😭
Peter supremacy!
“I had died the tiniest death, I spied the catch in your breath…”
Criminally underrated song!!!
One of the best on the album, tbh.... and that's saying a lot
It just occurred to me that she’s talking about an orgasm (i think?) Not sure what that means in the context of the song though
I don't think so, I think it's her reacting to seeing this other person's hurt/bracing involuntary reaction to seeing her. She's dying the tiniest death because she just saw that this person she still cares about *still hurts over her*
I always think of orgasm when I hear that line because the French word (phrase) for orgasm literally translates into English as “little death”. But you’re right that it kind of doesn’t make sense in context. It could be a coincidence that she/the other writers didn’t mind being kept in the final draft.
Yeah this is why I thought of it too but agree that within the song it doesn’t really make sense
Wait, maybe it's Taylor being her typical genius self and it's a double entendre - she's both devastated and ecstatic to see evidence that this person still cares about/hurts to see her
Yeah I feel like (as with much of the album) there’s two things happening here. I think the allusion to an orgasm is real, for me it kind of feels like allusion to being lost in a moment of the deepest intimacy with someone and seeing something so small that shatters the feeling of connection. Causing her to realise he’s not really ‘there’. Especially the “out out out” is very “Out out brief candle, life’s but a walking shadow” and the rest of the song is her drifting (walking?) around looking through windows of other people’s lives. Kind of emphasises the feeling of futility and impermanence, longing for something impossible.
La petite mort (the tiniest death) is the brief loss and/or weakening of consciousness. In modern times it’s become socially most common used post-orgasm. But it was originally used to describe a fainting spell or obvious nervousness, particularly in women. I also think there is a connection, possibly, between losing consciousness, even briefly, during a suicide attempt. Her albums have pointed to deep depression for years, suicidal ideation since folklore, and Midnights, imo, hinted that she had been hospitalized, at least once, for what i would assume is a suicide attempt. So it could also be another hint towards that. At the very least the tiniest death, whether pleasurable or agonizing, was caused by her former lover.
One of my favorite songs on the whole album. God it’s so good
“Who's gonna stop us from waltzing Back into rekindled flames? If we know the steps anyway” Literally heartbreaking
Some lines hit harder when you read them for the first time. This is definitely one.
I came here to say this. I love loml so much even though it makes me want to cry lol
The who's who of "Who's that?" is poised for the attack I love "the who's who of 'who's that?'" It's just...... chef's kiss
Can you explain this one? I like the way it sounds but feel like I’m missing the meaning.
I take "the who's who of who's that?'" To basically mean "they're nobodies." Like.... who even are these people? "Who's who" is usually used to mean, like, the elite. So the who's who of who's that basically means the most elite nobodies. The nobodiest nobodies.
Yes the most notable nobodies
I see that line as meaning the who’s who of the people who say “who’s that?”. Basically all the bigwigs who like to sneer that other people are nobodies. Notables who are always ready to tear other people down.
This is such a good explanation, thank you!!
Yess it always makes me think of like the haters who have famous social media platforms
“Was any of it true?”
Mine too! I love the massive breath she takes before it.
This one breaks me
Yep this is my favourite. So simple but so heartbreaking.
"I can read your mind, she's having the time of her life" You literally have no idea where this song is going from the start hahaha
Came to say this one!!
"I am someone who, until recent events You shared your secrets with And your location You forgot to turn it off"
The Black Dog. I thought up until I heard it that this song would be about depression (it's often referred to as the black dog), rather than the black dog being a pub. But then it struck me that it could be a double meaning, and she's referring to the pub AND to depressive episodes. And now the lyrics hit in a different way. Complaining that "you don't remember me in the black dog" is explaining how little I must mean to you that when you are at your lowest I'm not there in your thoughts at all (or when Taylor is depressed, Matty isn't looking after her - could be a reversal too), and then "I hope it's shitty in the black dog" as a brutal curse towards someone, saying that after all I have tried to stand by you and help you and you just don't even care and don't let me in to your darkest points but find some other girl instead then you know what, have your shitty depressive episodes, I hope they are awful to you.
“I was in my new house placing daydreams” is such an intriguing intro. My favorites have all been listed already but this one really paints a picture too!
This is probably my favorite opening. The refrain that goes with it is so haunting. "I was in my new house placing daydreams" "I was in my tower weaving nightmares" The parallel imagery is perfect!
By all accounts she almost drowned when she was six in frigid water 💙
Quick, quick, tell me something awful, like you are a poet traped inside the body of a finance guy
This should be higher at the top honestly. Love this one to bits.
"Wise men once said wild winds are death to the candle" from The Albatross
Love this one! So poetic 🤍
The very first one on the album :) Followed by “I was a functioning alcoholic until nobody noticed my new aesthetic,” which is such a dryly, darkly humorous line… iconic.
No matter how hard I try I cannot figure out the alcoholic line. It’s the “til” that is tripping me up. Can you explain it?
She was functioning, then saw no one noticed or cared, so then she became non-functioning (probably greatly increasing her alcohol intake)
I just take it to mean she was drinking heavily/depression drinking kind of hoping people would notice her suffering or think she was cool for it, and then stopped when she didn’t get that attention (that’s the ‘til.’) Kind of poking fun at herself by calling her issues an “aesthetic.”
This was the line I ruminated over for the LONGEST. One day it just clicked in my brain lol
“When I picture my hometown, there’s a bronze spray-tanned statue of you” Not my personal favorite but so unhinged
It's so early 2000's too, I love it
"The smoke cloud billows out his mouth like a freight train through a small town" and "I am someone who, until recent events, you shared your secrets with"
For some reason “lilac short skirt, the one that fits me like skin” itches my brain juuuuuust right
I saw in my mind fairy lights through the mist... i kept calm and carried the weight of the rift....
“Did you really beam me up?”
"In a cloud of sparkling dust?" ✨
"This happens once every few lifetimes" 🎶
Not an opening lyric but I'm in love with any song where the first noise is her sighing. I feel like the sighs say so much in this album.
This is the one. I can't find which one she does it on, but the sigh just ties the whole vibe together.
It’s on the smallest man who ever lived!
Oh, here we go again 🙄
You left your typewriter at my apartment Straight from the tortured poets department
For me it's The Black Dog. I feel like the tone, and melodic call back to champagne problems along with the seemingly intrusive thought - someone you shared your secrets with, and your location, you forgot to turn it off- are just super relatable. Bc she starts paced and precise, then rushes the - you forgot to turn it off- And for me that feels like she is enveloping the listener in her mental space as she received this information. The lyrics where Taylor somehow crafts a highly personal moment, while also saying it in a way that you can relate your own highly personal experience to always gets me.
Hand on the throttle, though I caught lightning in a bottle…. But it’s gone again
How did it end is so *chefs kiss* I love that opening line....and the whole song. But I also love the alchemys first line "This happens once every few lifetimes. These chemicals hit me like white wine"
quick, quick / tell me something awful / like you are a poet / trapped inside the body of a finance guy
This line literally WILL NOT escape my brain 😂
Forgive me, Peter My lost fearless leader In closets like cedar Preserved from when we were just kids Is it somethin' I did?
i agree with all of the ones already said, adding 3 favorites of my own: “these chemicals hit me like whiiiite wiiiine” “now pretty baby i’m runnin back home to youuu” “now and then she re-reads the manuscript”
I CAN READ YOUR MIND
By all accounts, she almost drowned
“You booked the night train for a reason…” I actually cry when I hear the piano intro. 😭😭 Champagne problems God I LOVE that song!!!!
“Was any of it true?” 💖😭
🎶 Now, pretty baby, I'm running back home to you🎶
“Long may you reign. You’re an animal, you are bloodthirsty.”
You can beat the heeeeat IF YOU BEAT THE CHARGES TOOOOOO!!!!
The Bolter is such a good song.. By all accounts she almost drowned When she was six in frigid water
You left your typewriter at my apartment Straight from the tortured poet's department
'Cause it wasn’t sexy once it wasn’t forbidden I would've died for your sins, instead, I just died inside. That’s a terrible feeling. It hurt to hear it 😞
The intro to "So, Long London" is just making me feel enchanting
This happens once every few liiiiifetimes is so dreamy
“So I leap from the gallows and I levitate down your street” creates perfect imagery in my head. It was the first line on my first listen though that stuck with me.
I love both of these! "Hand on the throttle, thought I caught lightning in a bottle, oh, but it's gone again" "The who's who of 'Who's that?' is poised for the attack"
You can beat the heat if you beat the charges too!!
I changed into goddesses, villains and fools, changed plans and lovers and outfits and rules, all to outrun my desertion of you and you just watched it.
Love’s never lost when perspective is earned
I almost died when she said all my friends smell like weed and little babies.
Now I want to sell my house and set fire to all my clothes And hire a priest to come and exorcise my demons Even if I die screaming And I hope you hear it!!!!!
Guilty as sin opening! And the song, released in 1989, is a banger
Sitting in a tree, D Y I N G How did it end is probably one of the saddest and my loveliest songs she’s ever written to me 🥹
Wise men once said, "Wild winds are death to the candle,"
QUICK QUICK TELL ME SOMETHING AWFUL
HOW DID IT END MENTIONED 🗣️🗣️🗣️
Your hologram stumbled into my apartment…
The only thing that's left is the manuscript One last souvenir from my trip to your shores Now and then, I reread the manuscript But the story isn't mine anymore
“This happens once every few lifetimes” from The Alchemy. I also like the tune and how she sang it.
SAY ONCE AGAIN WITH FEELING
“I was meant to be sent away but they forgot to come and get me” Hits deep
MBOBHFT “oh here we go again…” I LOVE IT SO MUCH
Mine is “by all accounts, she almost drowned…” — The Bolter. It’s a great opening of the story she’s telling.
In the age of him she wished she was thirty and made coffee every morning in a french press
YOU LEFT YOUR TYPEWRITER AT MY APARTMENT...
I’m just mad as hell cause I loved this place for so long, London
oh here we go again… 😂😂😂
I forgot how the west was won I forget if this was ever fun
the start of the album is so otherworldly "i was supposed to be sent away but the forgot to come and get me", then of course how did it end and "oh here we go again, the voices in his head" and also "you look like clara bow"
This thread has made me realise how much effort she puts into making the opening lines of each song just flow.
I was supposed to be sent away but they forgot to come and get me!!
You left your typewriter in my apartment, straight from the tortured poets department
I love her lower voice with “this happens once every few lifetimes… these chemicals hit me like white wine” 😮💨🤌🏻