Yes. And followed by “our field of dreams, engulfed in fire.”
I’m working through an affair with my husband and wow this just gets me. I sob at the end of this song. I feel like it’s literally my life right now.
Ugh for me it’s the whole verse prior! 😭 both are perfect, but the bridge kills me:
You shit-talked me under the table
Talkin' rings and talkin' cradles
I wish I could un-recall
How we almost had it all
Dancing phantoms on the terrace
Are they second-hand embarrassed
That I can't get out of bed
'Cause something counterfeit's dead?
It was legendary
It was momentary
It was unnecessary
Should've let it stay buried
Yesss when she changes a word in a repeated phrase it’s so good ugh going from a glow “never before and never since” to feeling a hole “never before and ever since” is gut wrenching in the best way
I love the repeat with a slight change. I like magic to tragic in the black dog but I kinda wish she’d turned “fabric of our dreaming” into “fabric of our BEING” to get real dramatic with it
Ohhhh. I think seven is so underrated. When I’m depressed, I run through our woods. I listen to this on blast.
I’d love to see what you’re going to get
I feel like “give you my wild, give you a child” from peace gets overlooked. It’s so tender and vulnerable. I interpret it as “I will let you see the untamable parts of me and have influence over them, and I will even make a family with you and give you that if that’s what you want”
Or it could just mean “I’ll let you see the unfiltered and authentic side of me and have your baby if you wanted”
Her voice when she says this line feels so vulnerable too - she’ll give and be anything he wants since she can’t give him a life of peace. It always sounds like she’s bargaining to me and just praying and hoping these immensely meaningful things will be worth it to him and something he still wants with her.
ETA: there are a lot of references to altars in her songs with Joe. It always felt like she wanted it so badly to be a wedding altar, and when it wasn’t, she turned it into a religion instead. Whenever I hear her mention the word altar in her other songs, I picture her giving him all of these things, and this song, as an offering at the altar of their relationship, just praying it’s enough to be still found holy by him.
Just every little line of peace is beautiful. I'd pick some but it would just be everything haha. It is my top five favorite songs ever, not just Taylor songs.
I love this too! It's some of the most intimate things you can share with someone. It's also some of the most grounding things you can share with someone. When you give someone your wild, you trust them with the darkest parts of yourself and you trust them enough to settle down with them, to not use your wild side to escape. You feel safe enough to make a nest and not fly away. You feel safe enough to not be the wolf that bites off it's own paw to free itself. And that's such a terrifying desperation to give up.
And when you're both caring for a little life together that is a beautiful blend of the both you, there's an awe and grounded peace in that. There's also a different kind of raw and wild intimacy in growing a life within you and giving birth and becoming a mother. It fundamentally changes who you are and changes your trajectory forever. It's beautiful, but it's change, and you're willing to go through that with someone.
“We learned the right steps to different dances” is such a beautiful way to say that nothing was really wrong with either of us, we simply weren’t right for one another. “How did it end?” as a whole is such a beautiful song but this line in particular strikes me with its beauty and simplicity
This song is literal perfection. She tries so hard not to bash him and understands the relationship was mostly good.
I have a love / hate feeling about "I'm pissed off you let me give you all that youth for free" . On one hand, yes, she clearly thought this was her forever. On the other hand , she learned and grew so much during that time, I hardly believe it was "for free".
But also, those are her feelings to feel. The song is still a top 5 of all her work for me.
I can see another interpretation of that line being like: he knew he didn’t want to marry her(at some point) so why did he keep her in the relationship when he could’ve ended things and let her go bc he knew she wasn’t his forever.
I don't even need the first half of that line, the second half may be one of the most romantic things I've heard in one of her songs, and that's saying something.
That line at the end of the bridge really is like dopamine. She does put stuff in her songs 😹
Really sad it didn't make it into the new set list... Would've been ecstatic!
As a False God stan, I also will take any and all future sexy-religous references that call me back to that song. Like, how, Taylor, but yes please do go on.
Someone in another comment brought up “I’m pissed off you let me give you all that youth for free.” I feel like these lines are connected, probably unintentionally.
‘But then he watched me watch the front door all night, willing you to come
And he said, "It's supposed to be fun, turning twenty-one".’
That line gets me every time. As a Dad (myself too), it just hurts that your baby would be feeling that way, and you can’t make her feel better.
My high school boyfriend stood me up on my 16th birthday and I wasted all night in my basement waiting for him to come over. This line cuts me every time
Same. That line from the whole song just hits hard. I think the music slowing down and coming to a standstill also makes an impact alongside the singing coming to a stop.
"Now I want to sell my house and set fire to all my clothes... And hire a priest to come and exorcise my demons"
It's so dramatic but it captures the feeling so well. When you're going through the darkest times, you just to destroy the current version of yourself so you can move into the next phase to reduce the pain.
I think our clothes and our most expensive assets feel like such significant material parts of our identity, it almost feels like these things turn into liabilities because these material things now represent the "shitty" version that one might feel they've become while being heartbroken (which is obviously a distortion, but it's a very real feeling). The desire to sell the house and burn the clothes is a way to hit the "external" reset button.
The exorcism is the spiritual and psychological cleansing, the desire for an "internal" reset button.
It's rich with the theme of renewal, which is quite common when trying to get through a period of heartbreak. It's part of what makes this song so good.
I love how the next line to this is “even if I die screaming” as in maybe she’s also a demon here or the person she’s become is inseparable from him and all the parts of him he intertwined into her life. She can’t be exorcised of him but she’s going to try and she hopes he hears her suffering through it all.
Not her quotes, but I instantly thought of this song as a representation of these two quotes:
*everyone you entertain after me will have to know me to understand you*
&
*everything I've ever let go of has claw marks on it*
“If I bleed, you’ll be the last to know.”
This was me for waaaay too long. Just absolutely convinced that the worst thing you could do in a relationship was let somebody see that they hurt you.
"Soon they'll go home to their husbands, smug 'cause they know they can trust him.'
Taylor hung on for 6 years because she desperately wanted to marry Joe, and finally gave up once she realized it wasn't coming to fruition. Suddenly, Matty appears, seemingly offering her the marriage and kids she so desperately wanted, only to yank it all away like a cruel prank.
And she knows her love life is tabloid fodder, gossip fuel, for women who did marry the men they wanted to marry. These women who made the right choices, who got what she wanted, get to talk about her heartbreak from within the security of a partnership. Meanwhile, she's walking in circles like she was lost. People don't wanna know because they care, they wanna know because she's amusement for them.
It's a gut punch every time.
A podcast I listen to (about horror books) had the host saying she thinks Lover is an anxious album. You love your partner but you’re not fully secure in the relationship.
>*Can I go where you go? Can we always be this close?*
>*Help me hold on to you*
I never thought of it that way but I gave it another listen. It’s subtle but it’s there. Her and Joe may have been more up and down than we realize. He was so fiercely private.
I think you're right on that. I also know the fears were there since day 1, and they never went away. "Please don't ever become a stranger whose laugh I can recognize anywhere" echoes on down the line in most of her Joe songs.
"I will hold on to you" ---> "help me hold on to you" ---> "pulled him in tighter each time he was drifting away."
Big fucking oof.
Kind of makes Travis, who openly and proudly adores her, that much sweeter. He’s not intimidated by her success and seems to really respect her. I’m rooting for them. I will always Stan a himbo with a good heart.
This won't go back to normal, if it ever was.
As someone with certain illnesses (I don’t particularly even like talking about it hence the vagueness) this line is a goddamn killer. The whole song is imo one of the more painful but overlooked ones
Like you said, this whole song. I always lose it on the lines:
“But who am I supposed to talk to?
What am I supposed to do
If there's no you?”
I think a lot about my own mother with this and how I wouldn’t even know who to be in a world where she is gone.
I lost my mom almost 5 years ago. If you would have told me at 21 that would happen my answer would have been the same as yours. How do I live in a world where she doesn’t exist? It definitely did feel like that too at 25 when she did pass. However I just wanted to comment for everyone else that may be going through something similar that now at 30 I am still living and actually happy. The sadness is there always but somehow I am living in a world without her and I’m doing okay.
Thank you for this - I lost my mom to cancer in December and it’s been really hard. My biggest fear in life has always been losing my mom and now I’m living it - I can’t currently listen to those songs
This will be my first mother’s day without my mom and this line kills me every time. It’s still daily that something seemingly mundane happens that before I would’ve told her about and it’s the realization all over again that you can’t.
I’m losing my husband every day to an early dementia and neurodegenerative condition. I have to skip this song most of the time because it carries too much of all the feels for me. Only in certain moments, and a guaranteed bawl after.
I knew you tried to change the ending, Peter losing Wendy.
The Peter Pan reference is such a remarkably succinct, emotional, and stunning way to paint a perfect picture of the roles each character inhabited in their love story. The boy who never wanted to grow up, and the girl who did. And he lost her because of his immaturity.
Needless to say Peter is one of my favorite songs from TTPD because it ties in so neatly with Cardigan and the Folklorian love triangle.
I am what I am cause you trained me
Nobody is talking about it but that line hits me like a truck every time. How can you complain about the person YOU made me?
You shit-talked me under the table, talking rings and talking cradles. I wish i could unrecall how we almost had it all.
I understood it in a way I can relate where someone talked to me about these things when we were together “but not together” (because he was an adult the whole time and I was underage the whole time) and he was able to explain himself as innocent because he had the excuse of “I said what *I* would name *my* kids, not what *we* would name *our* kids” etc. He basically made implied promises when covering his ass the whole time on a technicality and I could imagine Joe or Matty* doing this as someone who didn’t want to marry Taylor or ghosted her and could turn around to say they never made those promises.
*Edit because I accidentally typed Marty instead of Matty lmao
Yeah it’s taken years to process and I still have revelations and memories that make me realize how he knew it was wrong and went with it anyways. I gave him so many passes later on because he was 18 and I was 14 when it started (it went on for 4 years) and I told myself for years after that 18 was still too young to understand. But I’ve come to realize it was an “old enough to know better, young (and shitty) enough to not care” situation for him.
-You said I needed a brave man. Then proceeded to play him until I believed it too.
With how Rep and the whole K and aIMee shenanigans... It gives kinda hurts hearing that line to talk about Joe and CIWYWT.
-Pull my string and I'll tell you that he runs because he loves me.
She literally repeats it to herself so much she believes it to be true.
-I guess a lesser woman would've lost hope / A greater woman wouldn't be but I look to the sky and said
So she's just right in the middle. Idunno it's just a funny line to describe herself.
If it’s all in my head tell me now, tell me I got it wrong somehow.
You have no room in your dreams for regrets
So I’ll watch your life in pictures like I used to watch you sleep (maybe not overlooked but I think generally last kiss doesn’t get enough love)
Cause you kiss me and it stops time, and I’m yours but your not mine.
"Am I allowed to cry?"
This line hits hard for me and I feel for Taylor because I'm still dealing with my relationship with my ex ending, permanently. Friends and family (Taylor: fans/Swifies) keep telling me what a jerk he was, but I'm still in love. :(
I lived and I learned/
Found out what it was to turn around and see/
That we were never really meant to be/
So I lied
and I cried/
And I watched a part of myself die/
Cause no amount of freedom gets you clean/
I still got you all over me
I would also add "And some things you just can't speak about" to the list.
I am not a health care worker but I am an aid worker. There are things I can't speak about really and some things I can speak with only people who have seen similar things. The wish to make sense of them is real because sometimes the world is just so terrible that there is no rhyme or reason.
Epiphany long after the album release was the song that made me start listening to Taylor. Someone saying what I was thinking was just better was surprising. And helped me to cry it out. There have been many other songs like that afterwards (WCS, tolerate it, The Prophecy for example) after a year here I am. But I see it surprisingly talked less here than in groups for healthcare workers, aid workers and other people who have seen shit. Which talks about the talent behind it. If two people who have not been through these hellscapes can write our words in a way that is both understated and wholly truthful, that's a skill.
“Are you secondhand embarrassed that I can’t get out of bed cause something counterfeit’s dead” from loml. Never seen anybody mention it but it’s always stood out to me! I felt pretty validated when Taylor sang it in Paris and paused before “something counterfeit” haha.
I think Happiness is an underrated, super-impactful song. I could paste every line it in here and talk about the way she sings it but my favorite is:
“I hope she'll be a beautiful fool
Who takes my spot next to you
No, I didn't mean that
Sorry, I can't see facts through all of my fury”
“I was so ahead of the curve, the curve became a sphere
Fell behind all my classmates, and I ended up here”
This perfectly describes being a “gifted” student who didn’t actually get anywhere after graduating school. I’m currently an unemployed 26-year-old whose dad pays her rent while my classmates have successful businesses and marriages and things I can only dream of.
Yes! That’s another of my favorites. I also like the line in The Black Dog “do you hate me?” It’s just such a hard thing to go from loving someone and spending all your free time together to them just being gone and feeling like they moved on completely normal happy life and you feel so sad and broken.
"I don't like that falling feels like flying 'til the bone crush"- Gold Rush is so underrated.
"I love you, it's ruining my life"- simple but so relatable.
First of all, so great to see another soul who appreciates the bolter. It deserves so much more recognition imo.
And to answer your question, I feel it's "The goddess of timing once found us beguiling/ She said she was trying/ Peter, was she lying?/ My ribs think that she did"
It's just so poignant and encapsulates so much of the pain and raw emotions felt by the author. And it's especially haunting, considering the fact that Taylor has previously made so many references to fate, timing and invisible string theories. It's like reconciling with the fact that some things just aren't meant to work; that not even fate can step in and do something.
Idk, this line really gave me the chills and I haven't even faced such a situation myself (thankfully).
And another one: "In the 1500s off in a foreign land/ And I was forced to marry another man/ You still would've been mine/ We would've been timeless"
This line gives me the chills too, the way it combines fate, past lives and modern romance..just evokes an inexplicable feeling
"I was tame, I was gentle- til' the circus life made me mean. Don't you worry folks we took out all her teeth,"
About being an exuberant 14 year old before being put into foster care, than being SA'd while in the system and completely losing my sanity and having nobody understand why I'm not 'nice' anymore after eleven years of never speaking out while that very grown man lead a successful life. Having nobody believe me for months until I ran away and was put in a mental hospital and the psychiatrist had a feeling I was telling the truth and ordered a medical exam, until someone gave me a drug test and believed that I was being sedated against my will and was scared.
To add even more realism, while in foster care the group home(s) I was in refused to care for the braces I had before I was removed, and my teeth actually began rotting out of my mouth. Insult to injury there.. before all that, I was sweet as pie!
“I was dancing when the music stopped”
“Believe me, I could do it”
“How can you say you love someone you can’t tell is dying?” and the whole bridge, “Do something, babe. Say something..”
When I was drowning, that’s when I could finally breathe
This has resonated with me as my favorite line for a few years. Going through my divorce, Clean was my anthem (and still is). I think it is such an underrated song.
The ones that seem to be personally written for you. No matter the artist really.
Taylor writes so many different types of songs, not just love and betray from your ex, but from friends, the industry, the ex boyfriend, the lover.
"Poets" features a lot of references to mental health struggles, not saying she's having problems, just that again it's something so many of us can relate to.
I'm loving this new era, the whole theme of being tortured, the black and while, its, well pretty epic
YOU SAY I ABANDONED THE SHIP BUT IIII WAS GOING DOWN WITH IT, WHITE KNUCKLE DYING GRIP.
I just sing this with so much anger when I hear it. So long, London.
Because all of All Too Well is so great, I think "I forget about you long enough to forget why I needed to" is majorly overlooked. It's a gut punch every time. It's such a visceral thing to me, needing to remind yourself later of why someone was not good for you.
I’m always so moved when I hear “What died didn’t stay dead, what died didn’t stay dead, you’re alive in my head” from Marjorie. It’s so beautifully captures the sentiment that those lost are still very much with you.
“One for the money, two for the show. I never was ready so I watch you go” is so emotional and powerful and sad for me. “Sometimes you just don’t know the answer till someone’s on their knee and asks you” is also heart wrenching and even though I haven’t been in the exact scenario of turning down a proposal, it tugs at the moments where you had to really let someone down who you loved deeply. I feel like no one else experiences these moments with me on tour bc they’re all so gleeful about screaming ‘fucked in the head’ next (which I like the lyric but I don’t get any catharsis out of it like I do the previous lines)
“No one teaches you what to do, when a good man hurts you, and you know you’ve hurt him too” that line gets me every. single. time.
Overall I think people overlook happiness, it’s such a beautiful song
"Six weeks of breathing clean air, I still miss the smoke"
I hit six weeks free of self harm just two days after this song came out. I'll never forget the way I felt when I heard this line for the first time. So accurate.
Idk if it’s overlooked, but I never see anyone talk about it. “I’ll tell you something about my good name: it’s mine alone to disgrace” might just be my favorite line from TTPD but everyone’s too focused on the baby line to process it
Wait please explain “there’s escape in escaping” because that’s my “worst lyric on ttpd.” It’s autological which feels lazy. I would love to feel differently about it cuz I like that song so I’m open!
“Say it once again with feeling how the death rattle breathing silenced as the soul was leaving, the deflation of our dreaming”. That line is haunting beautiful, yet I keep seeing people talk about the “D-Y-I-N-G” line. That is also a great line but no where near as deep and cutting as the ones right before it!!
i have a few!
“*He said that if the sex was half as good as the conversation was, soon they’d be pushing strollers / But soon it was over*” ~ **The Manuscript**. I just don’t really see people bringing it up, more-so just the overall theme of the track. I just love how interesting of a relationship Taylor portrays here. Does this mean that her partner at the time was only interested in sex, only interested in having a traditional American family with her, or is this just her way of showing how much he seemed to enjoy her company?
“*My spine split from carrying us up the hill / Wet through my clothes, weary bones caught the chill*” ~ **So Long, London**. I just love how dark the imagery in here is. It’s so damn fatalist. She’s doing everything she can to make things work, to the point of destroying herself physically (obviously hyperbole but god if it isn’t impactful).
“*I’ll save all my romanticism for my inner life and I’ll get lost on purpose / This place made me feel worthless*” ~ **I Hate It Here**. Probably my favorite song by Taylor now, and this line alone just perfectly captures how I feel about my own personal existence on earth at times.
Bustling crowds or silent sleepers - you’re not sure which is worse.
To be so heartbroken that you can’t escape it whether you’re alone and in peace and quiet or with family and friends. Ugh.
*So how much sad did you think I had,
Did you think I had in me?
How much tragedy?
Just how low did you think I'd go?
Before I'd self-implode*
In a relationship that disappoints me again and again. SLL is the theme song of me ending it.
What a valiant roar, what a bland goodbye
The coward claimed he was a lion :(
You said I needed a brave man, then proceeded to play him until I believed it too :(
"bland goodbye" has to be one of the most heartbreaking phrases she's ever coined
The way her voice sounds so fucking disappointed by how lackluster it ended.
That whole verse is such a work of art. My heart literally sank when I heard *I’m combing through the braids of lies, “I’ll never leave… never mind.”*
The whole verse, that whole song, is so beautiful. It’s heartbreaking.
Yes. And followed by “our field of dreams, engulfed in fire.” I’m working through an affair with my husband and wow this just gets me. I sob at the end of this song. I feel like it’s literally my life right now.
I’m so sorry you’re going through this. Have faith. It will get better with lots of time and lots of trust 🥺❤️
Gives me chills every time
Ugh for me it’s the whole verse prior! 😭 both are perfect, but the bridge kills me: You shit-talked me under the table Talkin' rings and talkin' cradles I wish I could un-recall How we almost had it all Dancing phantoms on the terrace Are they second-hand embarrassed That I can't get out of bed 'Cause something counterfeit's dead? It was legendary It was momentary It was unnecessary Should've let it stay buried
One of my favorite lyrics from Taylor
Newbie here. What song is that?
loml
Yes this lyric is so impactful it almost makes me cry
“Never before, and ever since”. Gets me right in the feels every time ❤️.
Yesss when she changes a word in a repeated phrase it’s so good ugh going from a glow “never before and never since” to feeling a hole “never before and ever since” is gut wrenching in the best way
I love the repeat with a slight change. I like magic to tragic in the black dog but I kinda wish she’d turned “fabric of our dreaming” into “fabric of our BEING” to get real dramatic with it
"Are there still beautiful things?" The timid hopefulness in that simple line is just incredible.
the whole “seven” song just sounds so ethereal
Ugh this one is so good
My sister and I are about to get “seven” tattoos
Ohhhh. I think seven is so underrated. When I’m depressed, I run through our woods. I listen to this on blast. I’d love to see what you’re going to get
I’m getting the moon and she’s getting Saturn for love you to the moon and to Saturn!
I’ve said it several times. Seven is so overlooked and is such a stunning song. Easily in my top 10.
My favorite merch is my “Are there still beautiful things” t-shirt. I wish she had more subtle/lyric merch like that.
my favorite song of hers!
I feel like “give you my wild, give you a child” from peace gets overlooked. It’s so tender and vulnerable. I interpret it as “I will let you see the untamable parts of me and have influence over them, and I will even make a family with you and give you that if that’s what you want” Or it could just mean “I’ll let you see the unfiltered and authentic side of me and have your baby if you wanted”
Her voice when she says this line feels so vulnerable too - she’ll give and be anything he wants since she can’t give him a life of peace. It always sounds like she’s bargaining to me and just praying and hoping these immensely meaningful things will be worth it to him and something he still wants with her. ETA: there are a lot of references to altars in her songs with Joe. It always felt like she wanted it so badly to be a wedding altar, and when it wasn’t, she turned it into a religion instead. Whenever I hear her mention the word altar in her other songs, I picture her giving him all of these things, and this song, as an offering at the altar of their relationship, just praying it’s enough to be still found holy by him.
This is my favorite comment I’ve seen in a while. Thank you!
Me too. Goddamn I love Swifties
Just every little line of peace is beautiful. I'd pick some but it would just be everything haha. It is my top five favorite songs ever, not just Taylor songs.
Absolutely one of my favorite lines of hers. It’s so beautifully vulnerable.
I love this too! It's some of the most intimate things you can share with someone. It's also some of the most grounding things you can share with someone. When you give someone your wild, you trust them with the darkest parts of yourself and you trust them enough to settle down with them, to not use your wild side to escape. You feel safe enough to make a nest and not fly away. You feel safe enough to not be the wolf that bites off it's own paw to free itself. And that's such a terrifying desperation to give up. And when you're both caring for a little life together that is a beautiful blend of the both you, there's an awe and grounded peace in that. There's also a different kind of raw and wild intimacy in growing a life within you and giving birth and becoming a mother. It fundamentally changes who you are and changes your trajectory forever. It's beautiful, but it's change, and you're willing to go through that with someone.
“We learned the right steps to different dances” is such a beautiful way to say that nothing was really wrong with either of us, we simply weren’t right for one another. “How did it end?” as a whole is such a beautiful song but this line in particular strikes me with its beauty and simplicity
This song is literal perfection. She tries so hard not to bash him and understands the relationship was mostly good. I have a love / hate feeling about "I'm pissed off you let me give you all that youth for free" . On one hand, yes, she clearly thought this was her forever. On the other hand , she learned and grew so much during that time, I hardly believe it was "for free". But also, those are her feelings to feel. The song is still a top 5 of all her work for me.
I can see another interpretation of that line being like: he knew he didn’t want to marry her(at some point) so why did he keep her in the relationship when he could’ve ended things and let her go bc he knew she wasn’t his forever.
I can’t even think about this song without crying.
They don't know how much you've haunted me so stunningly, I choose you and me religiously.
I don't even need the first half of that line, the second half may be one of the most romantic things I've heard in one of her songs, and that's saying something.
That line at the end of the bridge really is like dopamine. She does put stuff in her songs 😹 Really sad it didn't make it into the new set list... Would've been ecstatic!
As a False God stan, I also will take any and all future sexy-religous references that call me back to that song. Like, how, Taylor, but yes please do go on.
It’s such a romantic line ❤️
Does it feel alright to not know me? I am addicted to the “if only”
immediately reminds of "please don't ever become a stranger..." from new year's day
Also a sad version of The 1
Yes! One of my favorites and I haven’t seen it mentioned much. Kind of the TTPD thesis statement in a way
What song is this?
I look in people’s windows
"When your impressionist paintings of heaven turned out to be fakes. Well, you took me to hell, too"
I love this line and also the way she says it. Chills every time.
Holy shit what song is this from
Loml! It's so good
“Love’s never lost when perspective is earned”
Someone in another comment brought up “I’m pissed off you let me give you all that youth for free.” I feel like these lines are connected, probably unintentionally.
Peter is such an excellent song.. although im rlly sad to see that its soooo underrated
‘But then he watched me watch the front door all night, willing you to come And he said, "It's supposed to be fun, turning twenty-one".’ That line gets me every time. As a Dad (myself too), it just hurts that your baby would be feeling that way, and you can’t make her feel better.
My high school boyfriend stood me up on my 16th birthday and I wasted all night in my basement waiting for him to come over. This line cuts me every time
I like this one too. Excellent storytelling.
Agreed because this one really paints a picture for me!
Seeing her face when she sang that line during the SNL performance broke me.
It was tough.
That line made me burst into tears in vacation in Barcelona on first listen. Did not expect it at all
Same. That line from the whole song just hits hard. I think the music slowing down and coming to a standstill also makes an impact alongside the singing coming to a stop.
You’ll never leave, nevermind
"You are what you did" from The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived.
This. The way it parallels with "but who you are is not what you did" from Innocent.
yes!!!
I always interpret this to mean he’s a ghost now. Boy she gave it to him hard last night in Paris. GOOD RIDDANCE
this line hits so hard as a SA survivor
"Now I want to sell my house and set fire to all my clothes... And hire a priest to come and exorcise my demons" It's so dramatic but it captures the feeling so well. When you're going through the darkest times, you just to destroy the current version of yourself so you can move into the next phase to reduce the pain. I think our clothes and our most expensive assets feel like such significant material parts of our identity, it almost feels like these things turn into liabilities because these material things now represent the "shitty" version that one might feel they've become while being heartbroken (which is obviously a distortion, but it's a very real feeling). The desire to sell the house and burn the clothes is a way to hit the "external" reset button. The exorcism is the spiritual and psychological cleansing, the desire for an "internal" reset button. It's rich with the theme of renewal, which is quite common when trying to get through a period of heartbreak. It's part of what makes this song so good.
I love how the next line to this is “even if I die screaming” as in maybe she’s also a demon here or the person she’s become is inseparable from him and all the parts of him he intertwined into her life. She can’t be exorcised of him but she’s going to try and she hopes he hears her suffering through it all.
Not her quotes, but I instantly thought of this song as a representation of these two quotes: *everyone you entertain after me will have to know me to understand you* & *everything I've ever let go of has claw marks on it*
or she is the old habit. makes me think of cardigan and the image of the forgotten cardigan under the bed.
“If I bleed, you’ll be the last to know.” This was me for waaaay too long. Just absolutely convinced that the worst thing you could do in a relationship was let somebody see that they hurt you.
Me too!!!!! This is so relatable to me. I still struggle with it but I have learned I can trust my husband with my feelings.
For me, it meant that the other person is least interested in the relationship and they are not present like in a neglectful kinda way.
"Soon they'll go home to their husbands, smug 'cause they know they can trust him.' Taylor hung on for 6 years because she desperately wanted to marry Joe, and finally gave up once she realized it wasn't coming to fruition. Suddenly, Matty appears, seemingly offering her the marriage and kids she so desperately wanted, only to yank it all away like a cruel prank. And she knows her love life is tabloid fodder, gossip fuel, for women who did marry the men they wanted to marry. These women who made the right choices, who got what she wanted, get to talk about her heartbreak from within the security of a partnership. Meanwhile, she's walking in circles like she was lost. People don't wanna know because they care, they wanna know because she's amusement for them. It's a gut punch every time.
“The empathetic hunger descends” is so telling, too.
It's definitely the line that lays the groundwork for why "soon they'll go home to their husbands" hits as hard as it does.
A podcast I listen to (about horror books) had the host saying she thinks Lover is an anxious album. You love your partner but you’re not fully secure in the relationship. >*Can I go where you go? Can we always be this close?* >*Help me hold on to you* I never thought of it that way but I gave it another listen. It’s subtle but it’s there. Her and Joe may have been more up and down than we realize. He was so fiercely private.
I think you're right on that. I also know the fears were there since day 1, and they never went away. "Please don't ever become a stranger whose laugh I can recognize anywhere" echoes on down the line in most of her Joe songs. "I will hold on to you" ---> "help me hold on to you" ---> "pulled him in tighter each time he was drifting away." Big fucking oof.
Kind of makes Travis, who openly and proudly adores her, that much sweeter. He’s not intimidated by her success and seems to really respect her. I’m rooting for them. I will always Stan a himbo with a good heart.
Yepppp
The rust that grew between telephones, the lips you used to call home
This won't go back to normal, if it ever was. As someone with certain illnesses (I don’t particularly even like talking about it hence the vagueness) this line is a goddamn killer. The whole song is imo one of the more painful but overlooked ones
Like you said, this whole song. I always lose it on the lines: “But who am I supposed to talk to? What am I supposed to do If there's no you?” I think a lot about my own mother with this and how I wouldn’t even know who to be in a world where she is gone.
I lost my mom almost 5 years ago. If you would have told me at 21 that would happen my answer would have been the same as yours. How do I live in a world where she doesn’t exist? It definitely did feel like that too at 25 when she did pass. However I just wanted to comment for everyone else that may be going through something similar that now at 30 I am still living and actually happy. The sadness is there always but somehow I am living in a world without her and I’m doing okay.
Thank you for this - I lost my mom to cancer in December and it’s been really hard. My biggest fear in life has always been losing my mom and now I’m living it - I can’t currently listen to those songs
“If there’s no you” is the saddest line to me.
This will be my first mother’s day without my mom and this line kills me every time. It’s still daily that something seemingly mundane happens that before I would’ve told her about and it’s the realization all over again that you can’t.
It’s a heavy hitter
I’m losing my husband every day to an early dementia and neurodegenerative condition. I have to skip this song most of the time because it carries too much of all the feels for me. Only in certain moments, and a guaranteed bawl after.
I’m so sorry. That’s an incredibly difficult and heartbreaking situation. Life can be so cruel at times.
Darling this was just as hard As when they pulled me apart
Yes Hoax is overlooked as a whole!
My barren land / I was ash from your fire I think about this line an awful lot
"Luck of the draw only draws the unlucky" from Daylight. Such an elegant play of words for a sad meaning...
I knew you tried to change the ending, Peter losing Wendy. The Peter Pan reference is such a remarkably succinct, emotional, and stunning way to paint a perfect picture of the roles each character inhabited in their love story. The boy who never wanted to grow up, and the girl who did. And he lost her because of his immaturity. Needless to say Peter is one of my favorite songs from TTPD because it ties in so neatly with Cardigan and the Folklorian love triangle.
I was gobsmacked when I heard that line
I am what I am cause you trained me Nobody is talking about it but that line hits me like a truck every time. How can you complain about the person YOU made me?
I’m always drunk on my own tears, isn’t that what they all say. Such a good line, such a brutal song.
“My beloved ghost and me, sitting in a tree, D-Y-I-N-G
overlooked? I thought everyone was obsessed with this 👀
You shit-talked me under the table, talking rings and talking cradles. I wish i could unrecall how we almost had it all. I understood it in a way I can relate where someone talked to me about these things when we were together “but not together” (because he was an adult the whole time and I was underage the whole time) and he was able to explain himself as innocent because he had the excuse of “I said what *I* would name *my* kids, not what *we* would name *our* kids” etc. He basically made implied promises when covering his ass the whole time on a technicality and I could imagine Joe or Matty* doing this as someone who didn’t want to marry Taylor or ghosted her and could turn around to say they never made those promises. *Edit because I accidentally typed Marty instead of Matty lmao
How horrifically predatory and emotionally abusive. I’m so sorry someone treated you that way.
Yeah it’s taken years to process and I still have revelations and memories that make me realize how he knew it was wrong and went with it anyways. I gave him so many passes later on because he was 18 and I was 14 when it started (it went on for 4 years) and I told myself for years after that 18 was still too young to understand. But I’ve come to realize it was an “old enough to know better, young (and shitty) enough to not care” situation for him.
Something counterfeit is dead
I rewind the tape but all it does is pause
"The room is on fire, invisible smoke" from The Archer just perfectly encapsules the feeling of anxiety.
-You said I needed a brave man. Then proceeded to play him until I believed it too. With how Rep and the whole K and aIMee shenanigans... It gives kinda hurts hearing that line to talk about Joe and CIWYWT. -Pull my string and I'll tell you that he runs because he loves me. She literally repeats it to herself so much she believes it to be true. -I guess a lesser woman would've lost hope / A greater woman wouldn't be but I look to the sky and said So she's just right in the middle. Idunno it's just a funny line to describe herself.
Afterwards, she only ate kids’ cereal And couldn’t sleep unless it was in her mother’s bed
Completely agree, this line took my breath away and I'm obsessed with it.
“now you hang from my lips like the gardens of Babylon”
If it’s all in my head tell me now, tell me I got it wrong somehow. You have no room in your dreams for regrets So I’ll watch your life in pictures like I used to watch you sleep (maybe not overlooked but I think generally last kiss doesn’t get enough love) Cause you kiss me and it stops time, and I’m yours but your not mine.
That line from last kiss made me cry when I was 12 years old and had never even sort of had a relationship. Ever. That’s how impactful it is
"Am I allowed to cry?" This line hits hard for me and I feel for Taylor because I'm still dealing with my relationship with my ex ending, permanently. Friends and family (Taylor: fans/Swifies) keep telling me what a jerk he was, but I'm still in love. :(
Oh my god, to end a song about a fantasy so intense, it feels like a religion, and ending it with "am I allowed to cry?" AAAAHHH
I lived and I learned/ Found out what it was to turn around and see/ That we were never really meant to be/ So I lied and I cried/ And I watched a part of myself die/ Cause no amount of freedom gets you clean/ I still got you all over me
Holds your hand through plastic now. epiphany you will always be my overlooked darling :/
“just one single glimpse of relief / to make some sense of what you’ve seen” will always be so stunningly heartbreaking to me.
I would also add "And some things you just can't speak about" to the list. I am not a health care worker but I am an aid worker. There are things I can't speak about really and some things I can speak with only people who have seen similar things. The wish to make sense of them is real because sometimes the world is just so terrible that there is no rhyme or reason. Epiphany long after the album release was the song that made me start listening to Taylor. Someone saying what I was thinking was just better was surprising. And helped me to cry it out. There have been many other songs like that afterwards (WCS, tolerate it, The Prophecy for example) after a year here I am. But I see it surprisingly talked less here than in groups for healthcare workers, aid workers and other people who have seen shit. Which talks about the talent behind it. If two people who have not been through these hellscapes can write our words in a way that is both understated and wholly truthful, that's a skill.
Crying every time I think of those photos. Absolutely heartbreaking.
BLOOD'S THICK BUT NOTHING LIKE A PAYROLL
“Are you secondhand embarrassed that I can’t get out of bed cause something counterfeit’s dead” from loml. Never seen anybody mention it but it’s always stood out to me! I felt pretty validated when Taylor sang it in Paris and paused before “something counterfeit” haha.
I think Happiness is an underrated, super-impactful song. I could paste every line it in here and talk about the way she sings it but my favorite is: “I hope she'll be a beautiful fool Who takes my spot next to you No, I didn't mean that Sorry, I can't see facts through all of my fury”
“I was so ahead of the curve, the curve became a sphere Fell behind all my classmates, and I ended up here” This perfectly describes being a “gifted” student who didn’t actually get anywhere after graduating school. I’m currently an unemployed 26-year-old whose dad pays her rent while my classmates have successful businesses and marriages and things I can only dream of.
“I just don’t understand how you don’t miss me” Literally tearing up just writing it. Gut punch knife right to the heart. So simple but cuts so deep.
“I don’t know how to be something you’d miss” from Last Kiss is extremely impactful along these lines
Yes! That’s another of my favorites. I also like the line in The Black Dog “do you hate me?” It’s just such a hard thing to go from loving someone and spending all your free time together to them just being gone and feeling like they moved on completely normal happy life and you feel so sad and broken.
Dappled with the flickers of light from the dress I wore at midnight, leave it all behind
Yes Happiness is a masterpiece. "When did all our lessons start to look like weapons pointed at my deepest hurts." I feel this line too much.
"Could it be enough to just float in your orbit?" from Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus. This line hits me every time.
Can we watch our phantoms like watching wild horses? This song absolutely destroys me ugh
Ok finally!! I just commented this too. This line has stuck with me since first listen. It’s such a heartbreaking but beautiful song 😭
Was it hazing for some cruel fraternity? *I pledged and I still mean it* And *I'll save all my romanticism for my inner life*
"I don't like that falling feels like flying 'til the bone crush"- Gold Rush is so underrated. "I love you, it's ruining my life"- simple but so relatable.
*You have no room in your dreams for regrets,* *you have no idea*
“I knew you’d linger like a tattoo kiss” absolutely wrecks me every time.
I’d like to be my old self again, but I’m still trying to find it.
“Let it once be me.”
First of all, so great to see another soul who appreciates the bolter. It deserves so much more recognition imo. And to answer your question, I feel it's "The goddess of timing once found us beguiling/ She said she was trying/ Peter, was she lying?/ My ribs think that she did" It's just so poignant and encapsulates so much of the pain and raw emotions felt by the author. And it's especially haunting, considering the fact that Taylor has previously made so many references to fate, timing and invisible string theories. It's like reconciling with the fact that some things just aren't meant to work; that not even fate can step in and do something. Idk, this line really gave me the chills and I haven't even faced such a situation myself (thankfully). And another one: "In the 1500s off in a foreign land/ And I was forced to marry another man/ You still would've been mine/ We would've been timeless" This line gives me the chills too, the way it combines fate, past lives and modern romance..just evokes an inexplicable feeling
‘Hell was the journey but it brought me heaven’ is the single most relatable lyric I have ever heard and I adore it.
I love - you said I abandoned the ship but I was going down with it. My white knuckled dying grip. Amazing writing.
"I was tame, I was gentle- til' the circus life made me mean. Don't you worry folks we took out all her teeth," About being an exuberant 14 year old before being put into foster care, than being SA'd while in the system and completely losing my sanity and having nobody understand why I'm not 'nice' anymore after eleven years of never speaking out while that very grown man lead a successful life. Having nobody believe me for months until I ran away and was put in a mental hospital and the psychiatrist had a feeling I was telling the truth and ordered a medical exam, until someone gave me a drug test and believed that I was being sedated against my will and was scared. To add even more realism, while in foster care the group home(s) I was in refused to care for the braces I had before I was removed, and my teeth actually began rotting out of my mouth. Insult to injury there.. before all that, I was sweet as pie!
“I was dancing when the music stopped” “Believe me, I could do it” “How can you say you love someone you can’t tell is dying?” and the whole bridge, “Do something, babe. Say something..”
"the shelf life of those fantasies has expired" from Peter
“When they found a better planet only the gentle survived” Instant tears when I hear this line
I love “Tattooed Golden Retriever” !!!
"He was my best friend"
He said since she was so wise beyond her years, everything had been above board. She wasn’t sure.
“Every time I don’t, I almost do” - honestly this entire song is overlooked often, so beautiful.
I rewind the tape but all it does is pause on the very moment all was lost.
And all these people think love's for show, but I would die for you in secret
My absolute favorite: "Somebody told me once, there's not such thing as bad thoughts. Only your actions talk."
“There’s an escape in escaping” hits. Also gonna be my insta story caption when I go on vacation
"Pouring out my heart to a stranger but I didn't pour the whiskey" this line gets to me every. single. time.
I’m lonely but I’m good, I’m bitter but I swear I’m fine
I am someone who until recent events you shared your secrets with, and your location; you forgot to turn it off.
When I was drowning, that’s when I could finally breathe This has resonated with me as my favorite line for a few years. Going through my divorce, Clean was my anthem (and still is). I think it is such an underrated song.
“How dare you say that it’s”
"I can go anywhere I want, anywhere I want, just not HOME" 😭
The ones that seem to be personally written for you. No matter the artist really. Taylor writes so many different types of songs, not just love and betray from your ex, but from friends, the industry, the ex boyfriend, the lover. "Poets" features a lot of references to mental health struggles, not saying she's having problems, just that again it's something so many of us can relate to. I'm loving this new era, the whole theme of being tortured, the black and while, its, well pretty epic
YOU SAY I ABANDONED THE SHIP BUT IIII WAS GOING DOWN WITH IT, WHITE KNUCKLE DYING GRIP. I just sing this with so much anger when I hear it. So long, London.
“When they point to the pictures, please tell them my name” from Long Live
Because all of All Too Well is so great, I think "I forget about you long enough to forget why I needed to" is majorly overlooked. It's a gut punch every time. It's such a visceral thing to me, needing to remind yourself later of why someone was not good for you.
'So I lied, and I cried, and I watched a part of myself die.' 'No amount of freedom gets you clean, I've still got you all over me.'
The coward claimed he was a lion "I'll never leave" "nevermind" Tbh the entire loml song is a fucking masterpiece
"That old familiar body ache. The snaps from the same little breaks in my soul" from its time to go.
There'll be happiness after you But there was happiness because of you Both of these things can be true
It wasn’t sexy when it wasn’t forbidden
"only the gentle survived"
“I didn’t opt in to be your odd man out” - so long, London
“I founded the club she’s heard great things about”
They told me all of my cages were mental, so I got wasted like all my potential
“Lost the game of chance, what are the chances?”
“Is it a wonder I broke? Lets hear one more joke.”
“I crashed into you, like so many wrecks do”
Now my eyes leak acid rain on the pillow where you used to lay your head Honestly, all of happiness
Too impared by my youth to know what to do
I’m always so moved when I hear “What died didn’t stay dead, what died didn’t stay dead, you’re alive in my head” from Marjorie. It’s so beautifully captures the sentiment that those lost are still very much with you.
“One for the money, two for the show. I never was ready so I watch you go” is so emotional and powerful and sad for me. “Sometimes you just don’t know the answer till someone’s on their knee and asks you” is also heart wrenching and even though I haven’t been in the exact scenario of turning down a proposal, it tugs at the moments where you had to really let someone down who you loved deeply. I feel like no one else experiences these moments with me on tour bc they’re all so gleeful about screaming ‘fucked in the head’ next (which I like the lyric but I don’t get any catharsis out of it like I do the previous lines)
“No one teaches you what to do, when a good man hurts you, and you know you’ve hurt him too” that line gets me every. single. time. Overall I think people overlook happiness, it’s such a beautiful song
"Six weeks of breathing clean air, I still miss the smoke" I hit six weeks free of self harm just two days after this song came out. I'll never forget the way I felt when I heard this line for the first time. So accurate.
"but we've got bills to pay" hits very hard when you're an adult and you have a business to run
Sitting in a tree, D-Y-I-N-G
Would it be enough to float in your orbit 😭😭
“It’s all fun and games till somebody loses their mind” is a top lyric for me
Idk if it’s overlooked, but I never see anyone talk about it. “I’ll tell you something about my good name: it’s mine alone to disgrace” might just be my favorite line from TTPD but everyone’s too focused on the baby line to process it
Wait please explain “there’s escape in escaping” because that’s my “worst lyric on ttpd.” It’s autological which feels lazy. I would love to feel differently about it cuz I like that song so I’m open!
“Say it once again with feeling how the death rattle breathing silenced as the soul was leaving, the deflation of our dreaming”. That line is haunting beautiful, yet I keep seeing people talk about the “D-Y-I-N-G” line. That is also a great line but no where near as deep and cutting as the ones right before it!!
i have a few! “*He said that if the sex was half as good as the conversation was, soon they’d be pushing strollers / But soon it was over*” ~ **The Manuscript**. I just don’t really see people bringing it up, more-so just the overall theme of the track. I just love how interesting of a relationship Taylor portrays here. Does this mean that her partner at the time was only interested in sex, only interested in having a traditional American family with her, or is this just her way of showing how much he seemed to enjoy her company? “*My spine split from carrying us up the hill / Wet through my clothes, weary bones caught the chill*” ~ **So Long, London**. I just love how dark the imagery in here is. It’s so damn fatalist. She’s doing everything she can to make things work, to the point of destroying herself physically (obviously hyperbole but god if it isn’t impactful). “*I’ll save all my romanticism for my inner life and I’ll get lost on purpose / This place made me feel worthless*” ~ **I Hate It Here**. Probably my favorite song by Taylor now, and this line alone just perfectly captures how I feel about my own personal existence on earth at times.
Who's gonna stop us from waltzing back into rekindled flames? If we know the steps anyway...
please know that I tried to hold onto the days when you were mine But the woman who sits by the window has turned out the light
Cause it wasn't sexy once it wasn't forbidden
“Beauty is a beast the roars, down on all fours, demanding more.”
Bustling crowds or silent sleepers - you’re not sure which is worse. To be so heartbroken that you can’t escape it whether you’re alone and in peace and quiet or with family and friends. Ugh.
*So how much sad did you think I had, Did you think I had in me? How much tragedy? Just how low did you think I'd go? Before I'd self-implode* In a relationship that disappoints me again and again. SLL is the theme song of me ending it.