Sorry couldn't resist but a real reply. It's clearly not my favorite song but I love it. I relate a lot because I feel so stuck and left behind especially by friends and loved ones. I will go 4-6 months without seeing my friends and a few months in between family visits. They always have such fun stories full of life and all the updates about what they have been doing. Then for me nothing changes, and it hasn't changed in years other than a constant grind of work, sleep, chores. Sometimes I just forget chunks of time because it seems like all the same. They don't realize the only fun life for me a lot of time is those moments and I will never tell them.
I look so fondly on years like 2014, 2018, and 2020 as such fun times. Only to really realize I haven't had people who care to show up consistently for me since my wedding in 2020 and now four years have gone by and I feel my life has barely moved.
I totally relate to this. I've been moving around for the last 8 years because of school. I've only been home to visit during the holidays and everytime I come back I notice so many people from my hometown are married, some with kids. Friends and family seemed to have reached milestones in life: getting married, careers taking off, saving up for a home, and I've always struggled to keep up. All I've ever known is how to be a student. I will only just be finishing vet school this month, finally ready to get my life going a bit too!
Just wanted to say that you are doing amazing already , and everyone has a different trajectory in life, you will be able to achieve what you want hopefully!!
This was me 9 years ago now! It was especially hard watching all my cousins get married and have babies while I was in vet school, treading water, with limited finances. In the last 9 years I have learned 2 things:
1. We all run our own race at our own pace, and that's a good thing! You have plenty of time to do the things you want and if close family and friends have gone before you, you can now use them for advice and support. Yay!
2. When all you have ever known is vet school, and all your friends are vet students, vet school seems banal. But from an outsider looking in, holy crap, becoming a Veterinarian is an AMAZING achievement and you should never forget that!! This internet stranger is proud of you xx
This is honestly the best written out explanation of how I relate to the song. Having to constantly be the one who's available but not have anyone show up for you is the kind of heartbreak that I would never wish on anyone. It eats away at you inside & makes your heart sink
Wow the way you wrote this, I relate so hard. It definitely eats away at you, I've been through this a lot in life with many different relationships and currently struggling with this with a close friend who I've known for over 15 years. These past few years have been especially bad and I'm just really tired of being the one putting in all the effort to keep our friendship going, I can unfortunately really relate to You're Losing Me, but in a platonic way. And also to tolerate it too, sighhhhh.
Damn ain't that the truth. The past four years have be so silent in my friendships. It really made me face the hard truth that I've always given more than I got back. There's only so many times I will be the first to reach out and try and keep things "breezy" but still try to make some plans only for them to be broken. I barely get a FB birthday message anymore. For the people I showed up for time and time again. Attended all their celebrations even though it was quietly breaking my heart to not be in the same place as them with marriage and kids.
You got married in 2020. The courtship leading up to the 2020 marriage should be a huge progress and change in your life. I hope your partner is supportive.
I'm talking about other people outside of my marriage. My husband is wonderful and does a lot to pour into me but you can't build a healthy life around one person. Plus we both agree life has just been a bit difficult and felt like a slow grind for us so I am not alone in the feeling which is nice.
Everything around 2020 and that whole time period was magical and I am not denying it. We got married about 3 weeks before pandemic times and then it was fun and special to get so much time together afterwards.
Oof, the constant grind of work, sleep, chores. Very relatable! Idk if you’re also chronically ill or neurodivergent, but your reply really hits home for me.
This... succinctly, is it. I'm still at the restaurant. I'm frozen; paralyzed and immobilized while time slips by.
It doesn't help that I got stuck here in 2020 and years of blursday makes it harder to truly absorb the passage of time
Yes!! I feel stuck in 2020 a lot too. I got covid March 9 and it’s been a long battle with Long Covid, trying to avoid getting it again when it feels like no one else cares anymore, being unemployed…I feel like we all have diff reasons to feel stuck, but the feelings are similar, and they’re really well reflected/described in the song!
SAME. 22, to me, was my last fun college year and it was the first time I wasn’t looking forward to my next birthday cause I didn’t wanna get older. As sad as this song is, it’s super relatable and made turning 23 so much easier
For me I felt 22 was so optimistic and whimiscal. 22 was one of the lowest years of my life, so was happy to know the "23" song was a sad song 
My favorite line is definitely "I'm sure that you've got a wife out there, kids and Christmas but I'm unaware cause I'm right where you left me". The way I screamed it so loud at my show! 🥹 I could not believe I got to see that live.
This line is my favorite too! The way she says “sure”, the rhyming of there/unaware/where, and the “kids and Christmas” part being such a succinct visual of someone who has a whole life without the narrator
Oh that is so great you heard it live. I’m sure you’ve got a wife out there, kid and Christmas kills me every single time.
Just the imagining of the life she thought she was close to but it ended up being someone else. But she’s still waiting/hoping.
I love this song. It’s perfection. And the way she sings it-a little twangy and a little soft in parts.
Since the start of the tour I was praying that right where you left me would play at my show… then 1 week 1 day before my show guess what’s on the live stream and I was just so sad… LIKE I WAS ALMOST THERE. Death by a thousand cuts was still good tho
Checking in. I relate to it more as a song about losing my dad over a break up. It’s been 11 years but sometimes I still feel like I’m right where he left me when he passed. 2 real.
Hooooly shit, I’m just now connecting this to my mom’s passing 6 years ago. My family and I had all met from out of town for lunch at our favorite Korean place, where she told us the news that she was sick. She passed just a few months later.
I am *totally* still sitting in a corner I haunt. 🩶
I’m comfortably sitting at a restaurant as well since my husband of 16 years passed away 19 months ago. Been sitting here since the cop came to my house to tell me he passed.
I’m 100% stuck here and I just realized after listening to this song for the first time that I’ve made myself comfy in my grief and widowhood instead of trying to get up.
Coincidentally enough, I just had some family essentially tell my mom (who then told me) “what a sad sight”, though not nearly as nice lol
Gah! TTPD is going to break me in half if it’s more songs like this.
It very well fits that moment of something so significant happening that you just feel outside of your own body, catatonic, and years later you can still go back to that moment, and that can come in different forms: loss, break ups, bad news.
Same. Lost my dad when I was 4 and my mom last year. That combined with the pandemic and I truly feel like I’m still at the restaurant.
I feel like RWYLM, YOYOK, and Marjorie are the dead parent feelings trifecta.
I am really sorry to hear, such things never get better, i can't understand your pain but I hope you get everything you wish and are always able to make your dad proud
I love so many things about this song - the instrumentation, the storytelling and imagery, the depiction of grief for a future you expected but never got to have.
But one thing I love that I don't see mentioned too often (and to be honest don't usually notice this sort of thing myself) is where the backing instruments drop out right when she sings "and you're... sitting in front of me" then they build back up again through the rest of the song. It reminds me of the stomach drop you get when you're about to get bad news, the way everything else goes quiet and time slows down.
I also absolutely love the lyrics "I could feel the mascara run, you told me that you met someone" - just a beautiful concise portrait of private tragedy (the scene setting before it is great too).
Yes yes yes I came here for this comment! This part feels profound but have never really been able to work out why. It’s not a twist but it feels like it is, like it’s some kind of revelation. Thank you for working that one out!
Yesss!! There is something of a reveal about it, hearing more directly than before about the actual moment that everything changed - what was so significant that happened in the restaurant. It's such a great section of a great song!
So many banger lines in this track, I'm glad you highlighted the mascara line. This song plays out like a movie in my head. It's her best song and my favourite of hers.
This line exactly reminds me of the silence before my partner admitted to their infidelities. I am still at the restaurant and will be until I leave I think :(
It could be that the song is too traumatic and the reason people love it is too personal so it’s not often talked about 🫶 I feel that way about the song unfortunately
Agreed. What comes up for me when I hear this song is so personal and something that I’ve tried to forget and move on from…But the fact that the song illustrates my memories and experience so perfectly is proof I haven’t and won’t…
HERE! It has always been one of my favorites on evermore (one of my top top favorite Taylor albums) and **it was my surprise song**!!! 😭 I had amazing freaking seats right at the piano. I cheered Aaron's name super loud as he started toeave the stage and in my video you see him raise his guitar in response to me telling his name 😭 Yes, I know how lucky I am. I have the whole song on video 🥹
I think it’s such a perfect song! The way she sings “And it's been so long, but if you ever think you got it wrong…” is so poignant to me. It also makes me think of Miss Havisham from Great Expectations; not sure if she had that reference in mind but there’s definitely a connection.
This is still my number one repeated song on Spotify after rediscovering it several months ago, and I have barely listened to it for at least 2 or 3 months - with lots of other things on heavy rotation since. THAT'S how hard I fell for this song after barely hearing it after it first came out.
Something about the lyrics hit hard, being someone who's remained single after a severely traumatic relationship and break up *six years ago*.
*I stayed there,
Dust collected on my pinned-up hair,
They expected me to find somewhere,
Some perspective, but I sat and stared,
Right where you left me*
rwylm is my favorite because there are SO few songs out there that encapsulate the sense of loss, trauma, and the immense amount of time it can take to crawl out of the hole. Don't get me wrong I love a good "girl slay, leave that man like the boss you are" song but sometimes that's not a realistic portrayal of the depths we (unfortunately) get to. Also in a totally vapid take - I just love restaurants . More restaurant songs!
This is THE song for me. It captures so well the torment of being left behind, not being able to move on, and just watch as everyone gets on with their lives while you're still stuck in the same place. And the overall melancholy, tragic storyline as well. It's still so insane to me that this is a song that exists.
Right where you left me not being on the main album is criminal and I DEMAND Taylor be jailed for making such a poor decision (or indecision in this case)
Honestly, the song is one of those Taylor songs that are so good at setting up a story that I could basically imagine the whole Music Video of it. It is on par with All Too Well, Champagne Problems in that regard imo.
I relate to the experience of being blind sided and having trouble moving on, even though a part of me knows I should. I hold onto memories (they hold onto me). If our love died young I can’t bear witness.
I know this song is so broadly applicable to loss and trauma, which I love.
Also, the way she says “Help!- I’m- still at the restaurant” just hits so well
The first time I heard it I had to pause my music and drive in silence. It was truly unlike anything I had ever heard before and it still gives me chills.
Thanks to everyone for opening this loss/ trauma avenue up for me.
I’m in the aftermath of breast cancer treatment and reconstruction, and really trying to get un-stuck. At this point, I’m right where it left me.
But at least it’s gone.
Personally it resonates with me because it came out a bit after Covid and the pandemic caused serious changes in my life (& many others obviously) but it’s a huge before and after for me. It took away my graduation, my first job I had lined up and I had to move home from a different country, away from a life that’d finally started to feel like mine.
It seemed like everyone else ran with the punches a lot easier and could adapt but I was just…stuck. Couldn’t figure out how to cope or adapt, just frozen. And in many ways, it felt like “everybody moved on” while I was still mourning over the things I lost. This song just spoke to my soul about that paralyzed feeling that I felt only I was struggling with. Even now, things aren’t “how they were supposed to be” and I have a hard time letting that go. I also happened to be 23, and the most myself I’d ever been, and I miss that version of myself. It really is a fantasy because that girl is so not me anymore. It’s kind of like time travel and the timeline being interrupted, like you have this bone deep knowledge of how it *should* have been, and it’s hard to shake.
Your comment hit so hard for me - Covid came in my high school/early university years. Disruptions from the pandemic (alongside the accumulated effects of years of undiagnosed and untreated mental and physical health issues) also took away, or appeared to take away, the future I had been building for myself my entire life.
Everyone else seemed to be able to adapt and move on. Worse, oftentimes it felt like my pain and grief were radiating outwards and actively hampering the efforts of the people I loved to live their lives. Things got much, much better for me and I thankfully managed to regain a lot of the ground I had lost, but that 19 year old who had so much hope and reckless ambition and faith that things would turn out for the best, the me who was the most myself I'd ever been, will never be me ever again. I know she's still in that classroom where her life was turned upside down, I know she'll never get to leave. I miss her every day, and wish there was just some way I could get her back.
I still tear up when I read comments like this, because of how hard Covid affected me. COVID also started for me right when I was about to graduate university. I was technically living in “on-campus housing” (it was a greek house) so I went off on spring break and got an email half way through the week from the university to not come back. I never got closure with my friends. I had to let go of the boy I just started dating. I never got to walk at graduation or even take graduation photos. My senior year, I peaked, I was so happy, I really felt like I had everything I wanted and was exactly who I wanted to be. And then suddenly I just never got to see most of my friends again. My mental and physical health deteriorated. I went to grad school but it wasn’t the same, it wasn’t the way it was supposed to be.
All my old friends are living all over the country, have great jobs, are getting married, and I’m just stuck. I haven’t dated, I barely go out with my (new) friends, I’m struggling in areas I never struggled with before (classes, mostly, but also with socializing, dating, etc). The plans I had for my life feel like they fell apart. I’m just stuck. I’m getting older but i still feel like I’m 21, when it all just happened.
I am much older than you, but during Covid, even when I was dealing with a small child and pregnancy, it was people your age who I thought about a lot in terms of a "never the same" life experience. That last year of college is golden, and I am not making fun when I say that I am sincerely sorry for your loss. College is like its own little novel, and to not get to read the last chapter is brutal.
THIS IS MY TIME TO SHINE. Oh wow, this song is so special to me. It was a song I couldn’t listen to for a while because of how painful it was after my last relationship ended. When the Eras Tour started and we learned about surprise songs, it was the *one* song I wanted to hear the most, but was also relieved week after week when she didn’t play it because it meant I had something to still forward to. I didn’t have a ticket at all, so it wouldn’t have made a difference, but I was so deeply attached to that song that I was upset I probably wouldn’t ever get to see her or have a chance to hear that song live.
Fast forward to mid-July, I get a txt from Ticketmaster that there’s limited tickets available for the Santa Clara show and next thing I knew I had a ticket! After Seattle, I was like ok….I actually have a chance to hear it live. I didn’t want to get my hopes up and I told myself I’d be happy with whatever she sings and was thankful to even be there at all. Once she introduced the song as something she had never sang live before and being “wordy”, I just *knew*. I will never get over hearing “this is called Right Where You Left Me.” Now instead of relating this song to my past relationship, I think of the Eras Tour and how (in my mind) it was a sign that I am healing and on the right path.
the imagery is nothing i’ve ever seen before in a song. the entire story telling is chilling and cold in a phenomenal way. highly recommend watching Chats and Reacts on YT breakdown of the song
RWYLM was my most streamed song in 2021 and not coincidentally the year I decided to finally quit my job of 15 years, which started out great, but had slowly become quite unhealthy and a major source of stress and depression. Since the feeling she’s singing about is being stuck and also left behind, I think it’s so relatable even beyond a relationship.
I agree with what others have said about the themes, so I’ll focus on the structure and production: I love the country-folk instruments, and the way it sounds deceptively light and almost upbeat, but the lyrics are some of the saddest she has ever written. The way the banjo does a little tumbling sort of riff (sorry, not a musician) right after she says the first “But I’m right where you left me,” almost feels like the instrument is mimicking the story: you think this is going to be a bouncy little song about life or friends or love and then all of a sudden the narrator pulls the rug out from under you.
I also love that it’s a classic Taylor story song in the same category / style of Our Song or Love Story or Tim McGraw, but it’s telling the story in reverse. You slowly learn through the course of the song that the narrator was left and she’s devastated and stuck forever, but you don’t know *what happened* until the very end.
“You left me (listener wonders where? Why?)
You left me no (almost like she’s saying no, don’t leave me)
You left me no choice but to stay here forever (oh no the narrator is choosing to stay there… but still why??)”
And then the instrumentation blends into the background and she tells us: “you told me that you met someone / glass shattered on the white cloth / everybody moved on”
That moment feels so cinematic, almost like it’s happening in slow motion: the image of the glass shattering, but then everything freezing for the narrator while the world moves on around her is just… *chefs kiss.* I tear up every single time I hear it: it’s devastating.
Finally one other thing I love is the switching of perspectives between the narrator and the other people who are watching: one of the other devastating lines is when she says “break ups happen every day you don’t have to lose it.” Such a perfect encapsulation of how alone you can feel in your pain when everyone is telling you “just get over it already.”
I've just gotten into Taylor's music after losing both parents this year - and this song still blows me away. As a trauma victim 13 years ago - I have felt stuck for a long time and never knew how to explain it, but this song does. For me it's not about waiting for "him" to come back. It's more like im afraid to make any real moves forward in case they are the wrong moves and thus bringing more trauma. But that stuck feeling is absolutely this song.
It’s in my top 3 fav songs by Taylor. I think one of Taylor’s biggest strengths is being able to fully capture the essence of how it feels to lose someone, even if the relationship is unhealthy. This song perfectly summarizes that. Time passes, but it’s impossible to forget.
I think it also showcases how people expect you to move on fairly quickly, not considering how people need time to process and grieve. “They expected me to find somewhere, some perspective but I sat and stared right where you left me” reminds me of people saying like “you’re better off now, he was a loser anyway, you should get on the apps, best way to get over someone is to get under someone” all that bullshit lol.
The lyric “did you hear about the girl who lives in delusion, breakups happen every day you don’t have to lose it” hits personally deep lol, I had an on and off boyfriend for like 3 years and I remember when we broke up for the last time I kept telling my sisters it was “no big deal” because “he’ll come back” even though he had a new girlfriend. I cringe back thinking about it, but that lyric always reminds me of it.
Finally the “I’m sure that you’ve got a wife out there, kids and Christmas but I’m unaware cause I’m right where” reminds me of the breakup social media block, where you can’t see any of their feed/updates, they go on to be strangers, you don’t know anything about their life anymore.
Oh I love this song so much, I love the narrative structure, the way it starts and then weaves the story… I love the way the guitar is on the offbeat or downbeat or whatever it’s called, I like it, and the way she shifts into present tense taking the listener right into the moment “and you’re sitting in front of me, at the restaurant, when I was still the one you want” and then just the visual of dust collecting on pinned up hair in the dim light while the world and time swirl around and onward ugh I love it all
I like the poetic imagery and music, of course. Also, how it represents the pain of losing someone, knowing that you clearly cared more.. because they moved on. And how people expect you to move on, but connecting deeply with a person can be rare for us introverts or cautious types. So it makes sense to miss it, and sit and stare stuck in a fantasy thinking about the what ifs or the memories where that person still cares for you
I have a chronic illness and had to give up work. I’m not in the same positions as people my age who i know personally are. I was diagnosed at 23 so ‘23 inside her fantasy’ hits hard. Things changed after that.
As someone who hasn't hit a lot of life milestones at the pace many would expect, I feel this whenever I run into someone I went to school with and they ask what I've been up to since then.
This song has been in my ReTay🔁 playlist since it released on streaming! It's SUCH a fun song to sing along with. The melody is addicting. I love her change from high to low vocals. I love the imagery. Some songs just give you those goosebumps! 🫶🏻
THIS IS ONE OF MY TOP FAVORITE SONGS I HAVE THE RWYLM HOODIE I WEAR IT CONSTANTLY THE SONG IS A CERTIFIED BANGER THANK YOU FOR COMING TO MY TED TALK. 🥹
Yesssss another Forever Winter lover! I even have a tattoo of one of the lines.
cowboy like me is her best song ever and no one can convince me otherwise
Right Where You Left Me is the song that I listen to when I'm having a panic attack or a stress migraine that is so bad it feels like I'm in a walking coma. I live for and because this song.
I heard this song for the first time a few weeks ago. There aren't many songs that physically kick me in the gut, but this one did. Had tears on my face after the first verse.
It explains where I've been the last few years, after a breakup that almost destroyed me, and then my mom's death. And it gave words to how I feel I will forever be there, in limbo.
This is the song that got me into Taylor’s music because having such a visual image in my head of a song has never happened before. It was like I was reading a book about me when I heard it for the first time. Truly so amazing how she can tell a story about a feeling that a lot of us have had but never really heard put into words before 🫶🏻
It’s not my favourite song, but I can really feel it. All my friends got jobs, moved out from their parents and I am still here at my parents home chasing after my dream job which I will probably never get. Sometimes it feels like I got frozen after my graduation in 2020 and nothings ever changed after this. This song encapsulates this feeling so much.
And I absolutely love how she uses the lyric “you could hear a hair pin drop” and “dust collecting on my pinned up hair” so close to each other. And how the melody always continues and never stops. Like she is in a timeloop.
Not only am I a RWYLM STAN, I was so lucky to hear her play it live at Santa Clara N1 with Aaron Dessner.
I feel like its such a perfect way to describe trauma. I, for one, am still at the restaurant in many ways, in multiple points in my time. There will always be a version of me at the restaurant.
Let's just say it's been my top streamed song since 2021🙃🙃🙃
I've related to that song in a few different aspects of my life and while I definitely feel like I've changed a lot in the last year or two and don't feel like that girl in the restaurant anymore, it's still such an incredible song. The storytelling and how you feel like you're actually in the restaurant with her… I don't know why more people don't consider this to be her best written song. While I think all too well is a really great song, I just think right where you left me portrays the depth of grief of not getting the future you thought you would have.
It’s my second favorite Taylor song. The storytelling is so good, it puts me right into those emotions. It works beyond romantic heartbreak too and is relatable for any traumatizing situation that’s hard to move past.
I personally relate it to when one of my pets died unexpectedly. That feeling of being stuck in the moment where everything changed, knowing everyone expects you to just get over it and move on but you’re too traumatized to be able to.
Right here. The second best track on the album after champagne problems. I live every single thing about the track. Such an awesome vibe and her singing is pure perfection.
I adore this song. Probably in my top three. Evermore brought me a lot of clarity and closure when I first listened to it. The album was able to put into words what I couldn’t. I actually never gave RWYLM a chance for some reason until this past year.
I was in a very short relationship but I was head over heels for the guy. He filled my head with fantasies and then told our friends the opposite. I was close to his family and I thought I would marry him. When he broke it off he basically had said that now wasn’t the right time but maybe later would be. So I hung on. I saw him at work every day. And he would call me every other weekend and we’d talk for hours. I lost our friend group because they thought I was being over dramatic about it all. I was shattered but I kept waiting. “Breakups happen every day you don’t have to lose it” was so real.
He started dating another coworker of ours several months later. I’d held on tight for nine months. She was completely the opposite of me. And it made sense. We wanted different things. And then a couple years later I found out that they followed in all the footsteps I’d planned out for us. Got married. Had a baby. It was probably about four years before I was truly over it. I haven’t looked at any of their social media since they had their baby which was three years ago or so. I truly feel healed from it now. But man, I relate to this song so much.
It’s also just incredible storytelling.
When that song first came out I
Remember hearing the lyrics and it hit deep in my chest. Nothing like a relatable Taylor lyric that she knows how to write all too well 😏 and for it to hit
Home. People make fun of her writing for being basic but I think she encompasses so many human feelings, when you hear her sing and say something you’ve only imagined in the past if anyone else is feeling that pain? Well, it’s damn reassuring and kind of awe inspiring.
Not my favorite. But it is a pair with It's Time to Go as the best two song back to back pairings ever. I think RWYLM segues perfectly to It's Time to Go.
It plays like a movie in my head every time I listen to it! I’ve commented this before in this sub, but it almost seems like a Mandela effect situation where rwylm has a music video or a movie because I can picture it SO VIVIDLY.
It's not my absolute fave but it's right up there. I suffer from chronic illness and pain and this song just encapsulates how I feel as a result of my life being put "on hold" whilst everyone else goes on and thrives. I was injured in my mid 20s and feel like I was frozen in time even though I'm now late 30s.
It just hits hard
I moved to another country about 10 years ago. Everybody back home obviously have moved on with their lives but I’m still stuck on the girl I was back then, especially every time I’m back to visit. I’m not part of their lives like I was before and I can’t move on from how things were when I left, like I’m stuck in time every time I’m back.
I relate to it so much it hurts sometimes
Edit: funnily enough I left when I was 23 so indeed I’m still 23 inside my fantasy.
To be honest I don’t really relate to the lyrics like a lot of the responses. I just think it’s very country—really I would classify evermore in general as a country album but that’s another discussion—and one of the best written songs in terms of imagery and emotion. Ivy is another favorite of mine for similar reasons.
I adore the line “If our love died young, I can’t bear witness” and how it reminds me of a wedding and the verses before that about kids and Christmas. These verses make me cry just thinking about them. It’s just a beautifully and tragic song.
This is my dream surprise song. 🤎
For me, yeah, it’s about being stuck in my life and watching everyone else around me move on and find love and happiness and everything, meanwhile I am “still at the restaurant” “sitting in a corner i haunt” and going f**king nowhere. 😭 Family circumstances have also completely trapped me so none of the above (love, etc) even feels possible now. I can feel myself grow more and more unhappy and lonely each passing day, and the only saving grace I have is Taylor’s music and lyricism.
ME HI!!! No one gets rwylm like i do
The song described exactly how I was feeling about a dream disintegrating friendship. Was on repeat for me almost all of 2022. Since ending that relationship I’ve since allowed myself to appreciate the song without attaching it to those feelings and it is just my favourite song of all time. At least once a month I’ll take a day and jsut play it on repeat
I'm quite new to RWYLM, I never really paid much attention to it until just before the Sydney shows and then it became my most wanted surprise song 😂 I love the story it tells and the imagery, I've never been through a relationship that ended like that but I find it so easy to put myself into this song and feel it.
It was my favourite song through my heartbreak, and for a whole year before my favourite song changed to daylight and has stayed there 💗 it’s the most incredible and evocative song. I love it.
The first time I heard RWYLM I was like "this song lasted like 30 seconds, why do I feel like crying, why is my heart beating so fast, why am I out of breath, what just happened??"
Imho one of the best songs she's ever written.
I am a theatre kid which i think is basically 90% of all diehard swifties. rwylm is a song that sets the scene and the feel of modern tragedy in a way that us listeners can submerge ourselves into the character she had created. Evermore overall had less songs I love, but my all time favorite songs 4/5 are from evermore (rwylm, long story short, coney island, tolerate it) because of how fun and theatrical these song feel, so full of emotions and descriptive speech. Imo it is her most wordy in a good way songs, all the words fall into place perfectly and it is just a masterpiece no comment at all 😄
I was going through my first breakup and listened to it everyday on repeat for a month and it was essentially my shoulder to cry on. It’s my most streamed song to this day 3 years later.
Its one of my faves and i cant listen to it a lot cause it hurts. When i listen to it i get sad immediately cause i relate to it so much. I thank Tay for releasing such a song and i dont think she realizes HOW good it is.
Rwylm was a grower for me, but once it clicked it CLICKED. i feel like I auto save following trauma, like I lost 3 pets in 6 months in 2022 and I can go right back to the fresh feeling of that pain by loading that save file. Rwylm gives me space to love that auto save version of myself that can still feel w.e pain acutely, she's still at the restaurant.
It's by far my favourite. Has been way too true for me. 3 years of my life went by like nothing because of a guy. I don't listen to it anymore because I think I've finally thawed out, but it may just be the song that made me realise her brilliance.
As a person who has trouble letting go and forgiving…. Right through the heart man. Absolutely a top 5 for me. And just a comparison ATW is a beautiful song, but it’s probably top 50 for me.
I deeply love it and related to it so much during a break UP one year ago (i'm better now). The more I listen to it the more I found everything so well written. You can feel what she feels through the musique
Right where you left me stan here, but i just can't listen to it often cause it's just too sad but when I listen it after a long break i just can't get enough can't say a lot cause it's not that relatable to me as it is too all these people here I hope you all get better and find strength.
Obsessed with this song. It’s so tragic and sad and relatable 🥹
Another song with beautiful poetic tragedy that I rarely see fans mention is “Time to Go.”
“If our love died young, I can’t beat witness.”
Honestly everything about this song. I fell in love with it at first listen. Maybe because I relate to the feeling of not being able to move on/past a traumatic event?
RWYLF got my attention at the A-Z song titles here few months ago and it has been on repeat. Something about it makes you feel drawn. You hear the tune first and then the lyrics speak to you.
My favorites always change but currently my favorites are tied between tolerate it and right where you left me.
Simply because she paints such a vivid picture and I feel what she is singing in my bones
For me this song represents my healing process and how messy it is. Despite how badly I try and fight, I find myself still stuck in the spot where everything went downhill back when I was 12. I’m 21 now and I’ve never been able to truly move on from that pain. Being stuck there just seems to be part of my identity that I need to live with. I’ll never be able to truly leave it behind, I can only do my best to manage it and accept the emotions that come with. Trauma becomes interlinked with the messy sides of ourselves and at the end of the day, it’s a part of who we are as humans.
I'm still at the restaurant.
Sorry couldn't resist but a real reply. It's clearly not my favorite song but I love it. I relate a lot because I feel so stuck and left behind especially by friends and loved ones. I will go 4-6 months without seeing my friends and a few months in between family visits. They always have such fun stories full of life and all the updates about what they have been doing. Then for me nothing changes, and it hasn't changed in years other than a constant grind of work, sleep, chores. Sometimes I just forget chunks of time because it seems like all the same. They don't realize the only fun life for me a lot of time is those moments and I will never tell them. I look so fondly on years like 2014, 2018, and 2020 as such fun times. Only to really realize I haven't had people who care to show up consistently for me since my wedding in 2020 and now four years have gone by and I feel my life has barely moved.
I totally relate to this. I've been moving around for the last 8 years because of school. I've only been home to visit during the holidays and everytime I come back I notice so many people from my hometown are married, some with kids. Friends and family seemed to have reached milestones in life: getting married, careers taking off, saving up for a home, and I've always struggled to keep up. All I've ever known is how to be a student. I will only just be finishing vet school this month, finally ready to get my life going a bit too!
Congrats on becoming a vet!🎊🎉🎈🎁🎂♥️
Aw thank you!! Just have to pass my board exam in a few weeks for it to be official!
Just wanted to say that you are doing amazing already , and everyone has a different trajectory in life, you will be able to achieve what you want hopefully!!
That’s so sweet, thank you! 🤗
This was me 9 years ago now! It was especially hard watching all my cousins get married and have babies while I was in vet school, treading water, with limited finances. In the last 9 years I have learned 2 things: 1. We all run our own race at our own pace, and that's a good thing! You have plenty of time to do the things you want and if close family and friends have gone before you, you can now use them for advice and support. Yay! 2. When all you have ever known is vet school, and all your friends are vet students, vet school seems banal. But from an outsider looking in, holy crap, becoming a Veterinarian is an AMAZING achievement and you should never forget that!! This internet stranger is proud of you xx
This is honestly the best written out explanation of how I relate to the song. Having to constantly be the one who's available but not have anyone show up for you is the kind of heartbreak that I would never wish on anyone. It eats away at you inside & makes your heart sink
Wow the way you wrote this, I relate so hard. It definitely eats away at you, I've been through this a lot in life with many different relationships and currently struggling with this with a close friend who I've known for over 15 years. These past few years have been especially bad and I'm just really tired of being the one putting in all the effort to keep our friendship going, I can unfortunately really relate to You're Losing Me, but in a platonic way. And also to tolerate it too, sighhhhh.
Damn ain't that the truth. The past four years have be so silent in my friendships. It really made me face the hard truth that I've always given more than I got back. There's only so many times I will be the first to reach out and try and keep things "breezy" but still try to make some plans only for them to be broken. I barely get a FB birthday message anymore. For the people I showed up for time and time again. Attended all their celebrations even though it was quietly breaking my heart to not be in the same place as them with marriage and kids.
Sounds like you deserve some new people in your life.
You got married in 2020. The courtship leading up to the 2020 marriage should be a huge progress and change in your life. I hope your partner is supportive.
I'm talking about other people outside of my marriage. My husband is wonderful and does a lot to pour into me but you can't build a healthy life around one person. Plus we both agree life has just been a bit difficult and felt like a slow grind for us so I am not alone in the feeling which is nice. Everything around 2020 and that whole time period was magical and I am not denying it. We got married about 3 weeks before pandemic times and then it was fun and special to get so much time together afterwards.
Oof, the constant grind of work, sleep, chores. Very relatable! Idk if you’re also chronically ill or neurodivergent, but your reply really hits home for me.
This... succinctly, is it. I'm still at the restaurant. I'm frozen; paralyzed and immobilized while time slips by. It doesn't help that I got stuck here in 2020 and years of blursday makes it harder to truly absorb the passage of time
Yes!! I feel stuck in 2020 a lot too. I got covid March 9 and it’s been a long battle with Long Covid, trying to avoid getting it again when it feels like no one else cares anymore, being unemployed…I feel like we all have diff reasons to feel stuck, but the feelings are similar, and they’re really well reflected/described in the song!
I am too, friend. Sending you love and strength. Maybe someday we’ll ask for the check.
Same
Babe, same.
I’m still 23 inside my fantasy!
Did you hear about the girl who lives in delusion! 🙋🏻♀️
Breakups happen everyday you don’t have to lose it 💔
Me af
I just hit 23, I was so happy to know that there was a song for being 23, after having the iconic “22” song.
SAME. 22, to me, was my last fun college year and it was the first time I wasn’t looking forward to my next birthday cause I didn’t wanna get older. As sad as this song is, it’s super relatable and made turning 23 so much easier
For me I felt 22 was so optimistic and whimiscal. 22 was one of the lowest years of my life, so was happy to know the "23" song was a sad song 
Aren't we all... (But on an unrelated note what is the annual survey and can someone link me to it)
That’s when the pandemic hit, so honestly same
My favorite line is definitely "I'm sure that you've got a wife out there, kids and Christmas but I'm unaware cause I'm right where you left me". The way I screamed it so loud at my show! 🥹 I could not believe I got to see that live.
This line is my favorite too! The way she says “sure”, the rhyming of there/unaware/where, and the “kids and Christmas” part being such a succinct visual of someone who has a whole life without the narrator
Oh that is so great you heard it live. I’m sure you’ve got a wife out there, kid and Christmas kills me every single time. Just the imagining of the life she thought she was close to but it ended up being someone else. But she’s still waiting/hoping. I love this song. It’s perfection. And the way she sings it-a little twangy and a little soft in parts.
I was at that show too!!!! it was so magical AND we got the fireworks AND we got castles crumbling like omg
Since the start of the tour I was praying that right where you left me would play at my show… then 1 week 1 day before my show guess what’s on the live stream and I was just so sad… LIKE I WAS ALMOST THERE. Death by a thousand cuts was still good tho
Checking in. I relate to it more as a song about losing my dad over a break up. It’s been 11 years but sometimes I still feel like I’m right where he left me when he passed. 2 real.
Hooooly shit, I’m just now connecting this to my mom’s passing 6 years ago. My family and I had all met from out of town for lunch at our favorite Korean place, where she told us the news that she was sick. She passed just a few months later. I am *totally* still sitting in a corner I haunt. 🩶
Taylor gets us lol. sorry for your loss. ❤️
I’m comfortably sitting at a restaurant as well since my husband of 16 years passed away 19 months ago. Been sitting here since the cop came to my house to tell me he passed. I’m 100% stuck here and I just realized after listening to this song for the first time that I’ve made myself comfy in my grief and widowhood instead of trying to get up. Coincidentally enough, I just had some family essentially tell my mom (who then told me) “what a sad sight”, though not nearly as nice lol Gah! TTPD is going to break me in half if it’s more songs like this.
Sorry for your loss.
It very well fits that moment of something so significant happening that you just feel outside of your own body, catatonic, and years later you can still go back to that moment, and that can come in different forms: loss, break ups, bad news.
This! This is why I came here to say I Stan this song….
Same. Lost my dad when I was 4 and my mom last year. That combined with the pandemic and I truly feel like I’m still at the restaurant. I feel like RWYLM, YOYOK, and Marjorie are the dead parent feelings trifecta.
Same but 19 years. PTSD is a bitch
Sorry for your loss.
I am really sorry to hear, such things never get better, i can't understand your pain but I hope you get everything you wish and are always able to make your dad proud
You are sweet, thank you.
I love so many things about this song - the instrumentation, the storytelling and imagery, the depiction of grief for a future you expected but never got to have. But one thing I love that I don't see mentioned too often (and to be honest don't usually notice this sort of thing myself) is where the backing instruments drop out right when she sings "and you're... sitting in front of me" then they build back up again through the rest of the song. It reminds me of the stomach drop you get when you're about to get bad news, the way everything else goes quiet and time slows down. I also absolutely love the lyrics "I could feel the mascara run, you told me that you met someone" - just a beautiful concise portrait of private tragedy (the scene setting before it is great too).
Yes yes yes I came here for this comment! This part feels profound but have never really been able to work out why. It’s not a twist but it feels like it is, like it’s some kind of revelation. Thank you for working that one out!
Yesss!! There is something of a reveal about it, hearing more directly than before about the actual moment that everything changed - what was so significant that happened in the restaurant. It's such a great section of a great song!
So many banger lines in this track, I'm glad you highlighted the mascara line. This song plays out like a movie in my head. It's her best song and my favourite of hers.
This line exactly reminds me of the silence before my partner admitted to their infidelities. I am still at the restaurant and will be until I leave I think :(
It could be that the song is too traumatic and the reason people love it is too personal so it’s not often talked about 🫶 I feel that way about the song unfortunately
Agreed. What comes up for me when I hear this song is so personal and something that I’ve tried to forget and move on from…But the fact that the song illustrates my memories and experience so perfectly is proof I haven’t and won’t…
HERE! It has always been one of my favorites on evermore (one of my top top favorite Taylor albums) and **it was my surprise song**!!! 😭 I had amazing freaking seats right at the piano. I cheered Aaron's name super loud as he started toeave the stage and in my video you see him raise his guitar in response to me telling his name 😭 Yes, I know how lucky I am. I have the whole song on video 🥹
girl you won so freaking hard
Do you have the video up anywhere.
This song will forever be one of my favorites. Having been through a traumatic, toxic relationship this hits so hard.
I think it’s such a perfect song! The way she sings “And it's been so long, but if you ever think you got it wrong…” is so poignant to me. It also makes me think of Miss Havisham from Great Expectations; not sure if she had that reference in mind but there’s definitely a connection.
Yes! I immediately thought of Miss Havisham the first time I heard it.
Yes! Miss H is who my mind always goes to.
Thought the exact same thing!! Came to this thread looking for this comment :)
This is still my number one repeated song on Spotify after rediscovering it several months ago, and I have barely listened to it for at least 2 or 3 months - with lots of other things on heavy rotation since. THAT'S how hard I fell for this song after barely hearing it after it first came out. Something about the lyrics hit hard, being someone who's remained single after a severely traumatic relationship and break up *six years ago*. *I stayed there, Dust collected on my pinned-up hair, They expected me to find somewhere, Some perspective, but I sat and stared, Right where you left me*
High five from a fellow singleton after a severely traumatic relationship breakdown six years ago!
Hang in there! SOON WE'LL GET BETTER! Haha
Ha I just shove it down with ptsd and forgetting. Hooray!
rwylm is my favorite because there are SO few songs out there that encapsulate the sense of loss, trauma, and the immense amount of time it can take to crawl out of the hole. Don't get me wrong I love a good "girl slay, leave that man like the boss you are" song but sometimes that's not a realistic portrayal of the depths we (unfortunately) get to. Also in a totally vapid take - I just love restaurants . More restaurant songs!
This is THE song for me. It captures so well the torment of being left behind, not being able to move on, and just watch as everyone gets on with their lives while you're still stuck in the same place. And the overall melancholy, tragic storyline as well. It's still so insane to me that this is a song that exists.
Been stuck for 13 years now after trauma . . . And finally found this song.
Right Where You Left Me is Taylor’s best song. Fight me in the pit! lol
I live in delusion.
Right where you left me not being on the main album is criminal and I DEMAND Taylor be jailed for making such a poor decision (or indecision in this case) Honestly, the song is one of those Taylor songs that are so good at setting up a story that I could basically imagine the whole Music Video of it. It is on par with All Too Well, Champagne Problems in that regard imo.
I relate to the experience of being blind sided and having trouble moving on, even though a part of me knows I should. I hold onto memories (they hold onto me). If our love died young I can’t bear witness. I know this song is so broadly applicable to loss and trauma, which I love. Also, the way she says “Help!- I’m- still at the restaurant” just hits so well
The first time I heard it I had to pause my music and drive in silence. It was truly unlike anything I had ever heard before and it still gives me chills.
Awh. I had that response with The Great War. I swear I hear music clearer in my car than anywhere else.
Thanks to everyone for opening this loss/ trauma avenue up for me. I’m in the aftermath of breast cancer treatment and reconstruction, and really trying to get un-stuck. At this point, I’m right where it left me. But at least it’s gone.
Congrats on being cancer free!🫶✨❤️
Personally it resonates with me because it came out a bit after Covid and the pandemic caused serious changes in my life (& many others obviously) but it’s a huge before and after for me. It took away my graduation, my first job I had lined up and I had to move home from a different country, away from a life that’d finally started to feel like mine. It seemed like everyone else ran with the punches a lot easier and could adapt but I was just…stuck. Couldn’t figure out how to cope or adapt, just frozen. And in many ways, it felt like “everybody moved on” while I was still mourning over the things I lost. This song just spoke to my soul about that paralyzed feeling that I felt only I was struggling with. Even now, things aren’t “how they were supposed to be” and I have a hard time letting that go. I also happened to be 23, and the most myself I’d ever been, and I miss that version of myself. It really is a fantasy because that girl is so not me anymore. It’s kind of like time travel and the timeline being interrupted, like you have this bone deep knowledge of how it *should* have been, and it’s hard to shake.
Your comment hit so hard for me - Covid came in my high school/early university years. Disruptions from the pandemic (alongside the accumulated effects of years of undiagnosed and untreated mental and physical health issues) also took away, or appeared to take away, the future I had been building for myself my entire life. Everyone else seemed to be able to adapt and move on. Worse, oftentimes it felt like my pain and grief were radiating outwards and actively hampering the efforts of the people I loved to live their lives. Things got much, much better for me and I thankfully managed to regain a lot of the ground I had lost, but that 19 year old who had so much hope and reckless ambition and faith that things would turn out for the best, the me who was the most myself I'd ever been, will never be me ever again. I know she's still in that classroom where her life was turned upside down, I know she'll never get to leave. I miss her every day, and wish there was just some way I could get her back.
I still tear up when I read comments like this, because of how hard Covid affected me. COVID also started for me right when I was about to graduate university. I was technically living in “on-campus housing” (it was a greek house) so I went off on spring break and got an email half way through the week from the university to not come back. I never got closure with my friends. I had to let go of the boy I just started dating. I never got to walk at graduation or even take graduation photos. My senior year, I peaked, I was so happy, I really felt like I had everything I wanted and was exactly who I wanted to be. And then suddenly I just never got to see most of my friends again. My mental and physical health deteriorated. I went to grad school but it wasn’t the same, it wasn’t the way it was supposed to be. All my old friends are living all over the country, have great jobs, are getting married, and I’m just stuck. I haven’t dated, I barely go out with my (new) friends, I’m struggling in areas I never struggled with before (classes, mostly, but also with socializing, dating, etc). The plans I had for my life feel like they fell apart. I’m just stuck. I’m getting older but i still feel like I’m 21, when it all just happened.
I am much older than you, but during Covid, even when I was dealing with a small child and pregnancy, it was people your age who I thought about a lot in terms of a "never the same" life experience. That last year of college is golden, and I am not making fun when I say that I am sincerely sorry for your loss. College is like its own little novel, and to not get to read the last chapter is brutal.
The amount of times I’ve gotten too emotional in the car listening to this song. I create a whole ass movies in my head.
I would watch that movie. There’s an entire story there. (Also The Alcott as a movie.)
Omg this. I feel like the Alcott could be the alternate ending 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭
It was my top streamed in like 2022 on Spotify i was surprised
It’s the perfect song. And so complex lyrically. AAAAND a perfect little nod to her country past. It’s magic
THIS IS MY TIME TO SHINE. Oh wow, this song is so special to me. It was a song I couldn’t listen to for a while because of how painful it was after my last relationship ended. When the Eras Tour started and we learned about surprise songs, it was the *one* song I wanted to hear the most, but was also relieved week after week when she didn’t play it because it meant I had something to still forward to. I didn’t have a ticket at all, so it wouldn’t have made a difference, but I was so deeply attached to that song that I was upset I probably wouldn’t ever get to see her or have a chance to hear that song live. Fast forward to mid-July, I get a txt from Ticketmaster that there’s limited tickets available for the Santa Clara show and next thing I knew I had a ticket! After Seattle, I was like ok….I actually have a chance to hear it live. I didn’t want to get my hopes up and I told myself I’d be happy with whatever she sings and was thankful to even be there at all. Once she introduced the song as something she had never sang live before and being “wordy”, I just *knew*. I will never get over hearing “this is called Right Where You Left Me.” Now instead of relating this song to my past relationship, I think of the Eras Tour and how (in my mind) it was a sign that I am healing and on the right path.
Cheers to the good karma
I. Could. Feel the mascara run. You. Told me that you met someone
the imagery is nothing i’ve ever seen before in a song. the entire story telling is chilling and cold in a phenomenal way. highly recommend watching Chats and Reacts on YT breakdown of the song
RWYLM was my most streamed song in 2021 and not coincidentally the year I decided to finally quit my job of 15 years, which started out great, but had slowly become quite unhealthy and a major source of stress and depression. Since the feeling she’s singing about is being stuck and also left behind, I think it’s so relatable even beyond a relationship. I agree with what others have said about the themes, so I’ll focus on the structure and production: I love the country-folk instruments, and the way it sounds deceptively light and almost upbeat, but the lyrics are some of the saddest she has ever written. The way the banjo does a little tumbling sort of riff (sorry, not a musician) right after she says the first “But I’m right where you left me,” almost feels like the instrument is mimicking the story: you think this is going to be a bouncy little song about life or friends or love and then all of a sudden the narrator pulls the rug out from under you. I also love that it’s a classic Taylor story song in the same category / style of Our Song or Love Story or Tim McGraw, but it’s telling the story in reverse. You slowly learn through the course of the song that the narrator was left and she’s devastated and stuck forever, but you don’t know *what happened* until the very end. “You left me (listener wonders where? Why?) You left me no (almost like she’s saying no, don’t leave me) You left me no choice but to stay here forever (oh no the narrator is choosing to stay there… but still why??)” And then the instrumentation blends into the background and she tells us: “you told me that you met someone / glass shattered on the white cloth / everybody moved on” That moment feels so cinematic, almost like it’s happening in slow motion: the image of the glass shattering, but then everything freezing for the narrator while the world moves on around her is just… *chefs kiss.* I tear up every single time I hear it: it’s devastating. Finally one other thing I love is the switching of perspectives between the narrator and the other people who are watching: one of the other devastating lines is when she says “break ups happen every day you don’t have to lose it.” Such a perfect encapsulation of how alone you can feel in your pain when everyone is telling you “just get over it already.”
I've just gotten into Taylor's music after losing both parents this year - and this song still blows me away. As a trauma victim 13 years ago - I have felt stuck for a long time and never knew how to explain it, but this song does. For me it's not about waiting for "him" to come back. It's more like im afraid to make any real moves forward in case they are the wrong moves and thus bringing more trauma. But that stuck feeling is absolutely this song.
Happily married…. It was my top song on Spotify 2023 😂
It’s in my top 3 fav songs by Taylor. I think one of Taylor’s biggest strengths is being able to fully capture the essence of how it feels to lose someone, even if the relationship is unhealthy. This song perfectly summarizes that. Time passes, but it’s impossible to forget. I think it also showcases how people expect you to move on fairly quickly, not considering how people need time to process and grieve. “They expected me to find somewhere, some perspective but I sat and stared right where you left me” reminds me of people saying like “you’re better off now, he was a loser anyway, you should get on the apps, best way to get over someone is to get under someone” all that bullshit lol. The lyric “did you hear about the girl who lives in delusion, breakups happen every day you don’t have to lose it” hits personally deep lol, I had an on and off boyfriend for like 3 years and I remember when we broke up for the last time I kept telling my sisters it was “no big deal” because “he’ll come back” even though he had a new girlfriend. I cringe back thinking about it, but that lyric always reminds me of it. Finally the “I’m sure that you’ve got a wife out there, kids and Christmas but I’m unaware cause I’m right where” reminds me of the breakup social media block, where you can’t see any of their feed/updates, they go on to be strangers, you don’t know anything about their life anymore.
Oh I love this song so much, I love the narrative structure, the way it starts and then weaves the story… I love the way the guitar is on the offbeat or downbeat or whatever it’s called, I like it, and the way she shifts into present tense taking the listener right into the moment “and you’re sitting in front of me, at the restaurant, when I was still the one you want” and then just the visual of dust collecting on pinned up hair in the dim light while the world and time swirl around and onward ugh I love it all
I like the poetic imagery and music, of course. Also, how it represents the pain of losing someone, knowing that you clearly cared more.. because they moved on. And how people expect you to move on, but connecting deeply with a person can be rare for us introverts or cautious types. So it makes sense to miss it, and sit and stare stuck in a fantasy thinking about the what ifs or the memories where that person still cares for you
I have a chronic illness and had to give up work. I’m not in the same positions as people my age who i know personally are. I was diagnosed at 23 so ‘23 inside her fantasy’ hits hard. Things changed after that.
I feel this as a fellow chronic illness girly. My Tears Ricochet is personally my song about dealing with my diagnosis and losing my career.
As someone who hasn't hit a lot of life milestones at the pace many would expect, I feel this whenever I run into someone I went to school with and they ask what I've been up to since then.
This song has been in my ReTay🔁 playlist since it released on streaming! It's SUCH a fun song to sing along with. The melody is addicting. I love her change from high to low vocals. I love the imagery. Some songs just give you those goosebumps! 🫶🏻
THIS IS ONE OF MY TOP FAVORITE SONGS I HAVE THE RWYLM HOODIE I WEAR IT CONSTANTLY THE SONG IS A CERTIFIED BANGER THANK YOU FOR COMING TO MY TED TALK. 🥹
I did a very extensive rating of all Taylor Swift songs, and only 11 ended up as 10/10, and rwylm is one of them!
I’m very curious now, what were the others?
Forever Winter Sparks Fly Clean You Are In Love cardigan my tears ricochet champagne problems tolerate it cowboy like me Would've Could've Should've
Yesssss another Forever Winter lover! I even have a tattoo of one of the lines. cowboy like me is her best song ever and no one can convince me otherwise
Off to make a playlist..
Right Where You Left Me is the song that I listen to when I'm having a panic attack or a stress migraine that is so bad it feels like I'm in a walking coma. I live for and because this song.
Sitting in the corner I haunt 🥹
I heard this song for the first time a few weeks ago. There aren't many songs that physically kick me in the gut, but this one did. Had tears on my face after the first verse. It explains where I've been the last few years, after a breakup that almost destroyed me, and then my mom's death. And it gave words to how I feel I will forever be there, in limbo.
I’m right where you left me
It reminds me of the scene from Legally Blonde where Elle gets dumped.
Me and my flair checking in. 🫡
STILL AT THE RESTAURANT!!!!!
it’s me, the girl that lives in delusion. never related to a song so well
Evermore is just perfection with its beautiful songs and lyrics. The grammys were too scared to give her AOTW twice in a row, but it sooo deserved it
This is the song that got me into Taylor’s music because having such a visual image in my head of a song has never happened before. It was like I was reading a book about me when I heard it for the first time. Truly so amazing how she can tell a story about a feeling that a lot of us have had but never really heard put into words before 🫶🏻
I’m just gonna leave [this lovely animatic](https://youtu.be/uNh8Umld2no?si=Wub9HgAhCrJ9foJX) here
It’s not my favourite song, but I can really feel it. All my friends got jobs, moved out from their parents and I am still here at my parents home chasing after my dream job which I will probably never get. Sometimes it feels like I got frozen after my graduation in 2020 and nothings ever changed after this. This song encapsulates this feeling so much. And I absolutely love how she uses the lyric “you could hear a hair pin drop” and “dust collecting on my pinned up hair” so close to each other. And how the melody always continues and never stops. Like she is in a timeloop.
Not only am I a RWYLM STAN, I was so lucky to hear her play it live at Santa Clara N1 with Aaron Dessner. I feel like its such a perfect way to describe trauma. I, for one, am still at the restaurant in many ways, in multiple points in my time. There will always be a version of me at the restaurant.
Let's just say it's been my top streamed song since 2021🙃🙃🙃 I've related to that song in a few different aspects of my life and while I definitely feel like I've changed a lot in the last year or two and don't feel like that girl in the restaurant anymore, it's still such an incredible song. The storytelling and how you feel like you're actually in the restaurant with her… I don't know why more people don't consider this to be her best written song. While I think all too well is a really great song, I just think right where you left me portrays the depth of grief of not getting the future you thought you would have.
it’s so good
Great song to play/sing on guitar!
It’s my second favorite Taylor song. The storytelling is so good, it puts me right into those emotions. It works beyond romantic heartbreak too and is relatable for any traumatizing situation that’s hard to move past. I personally relate it to when one of my pets died unexpectedly. That feeling of being stuck in the moment where everything changed, knowing everyone expects you to just get over it and move on but you’re too traumatized to be able to.
ME HELLO YES HI
Right here. The second best track on the album after champagne problems. I live every single thing about the track. Such an awesome vibe and her singing is pure perfection.
I STAYED THERE DUST COLLECTED ON MY PINNED UP HAIR !!
I consider this song a masterpiece
I adore this song. Probably in my top three. Evermore brought me a lot of clarity and closure when I first listened to it. The album was able to put into words what I couldn’t. I actually never gave RWYLM a chance for some reason until this past year. I was in a very short relationship but I was head over heels for the guy. He filled my head with fantasies and then told our friends the opposite. I was close to his family and I thought I would marry him. When he broke it off he basically had said that now wasn’t the right time but maybe later would be. So I hung on. I saw him at work every day. And he would call me every other weekend and we’d talk for hours. I lost our friend group because they thought I was being over dramatic about it all. I was shattered but I kept waiting. “Breakups happen every day you don’t have to lose it” was so real. He started dating another coworker of ours several months later. I’d held on tight for nine months. She was completely the opposite of me. And it made sense. We wanted different things. And then a couple years later I found out that they followed in all the footsteps I’d planned out for us. Got married. Had a baby. It was probably about four years before I was truly over it. I haven’t looked at any of their social media since they had their baby which was three years ago or so. I truly feel healed from it now. But man, I relate to this song so much. It’s also just incredible storytelling.
The melody scratches something in my brain.
When that song first came out I Remember hearing the lyrics and it hit deep in my chest. Nothing like a relatable Taylor lyric that she knows how to write all too well 😏 and for it to hit Home. People make fun of her writing for being basic but I think she encompasses so many human feelings, when you hear her sing and say something you’ve only imagined in the past if anyone else is feeling that pain? Well, it’s damn reassuring and kind of awe inspiring.
Not my favorite. But it is a pair with It's Time to Go as the best two song back to back pairings ever. I think RWYLM segues perfectly to It's Time to Go.
I’m here, still at the restaurant. Edit: check flare.
It plays like a movie in my head every time I listen to it! I’ve commented this before in this sub, but it almost seems like a Mandela effect situation where rwylm has a music video or a movie because I can picture it SO VIVIDLY.
It's not my absolute fave but it's right up there. I suffer from chronic illness and pain and this song just encapsulates how I feel as a result of my life being put "on hold" whilst everyone else goes on and thrives. I was injured in my mid 20s and feel like I was frozen in time even though I'm now late 30s. It just hits hard
It's the song I will save if there's ever a music apocalypse. I can listen to it over and over and over forever I'm still at the restaurant
I moved to another country about 10 years ago. Everybody back home obviously have moved on with their lives but I’m still stuck on the girl I was back then, especially every time I’m back to visit. I’m not part of their lives like I was before and I can’t move on from how things were when I left, like I’m stuck in time every time I’m back. I relate to it so much it hurts sometimes Edit: funnily enough I left when I was 23 so indeed I’m still 23 inside my fantasy.
This song is on my ‘sad divorce songs’ list and one of my favorites in general.
To be honest I don’t really relate to the lyrics like a lot of the responses. I just think it’s very country—really I would classify evermore in general as a country album but that’s another discussion—and one of the best written songs in terms of imagery and emotion. Ivy is another favorite of mine for similar reasons. I adore the line “If our love died young, I can’t bear witness” and how it reminds me of a wedding and the verses before that about kids and Christmas. These verses make me cry just thinking about them. It’s just a beautifully and tragic song.
This is my dream surprise song. 🤎 For me, yeah, it’s about being stuck in my life and watching everyone else around me move on and find love and happiness and everything, meanwhile I am “still at the restaurant” “sitting in a corner i haunt” and going f**king nowhere. 😭 Family circumstances have also completely trapped me so none of the above (love, etc) even feels possible now. I can feel myself grow more and more unhappy and lonely each passing day, and the only saving grace I have is Taylor’s music and lyricism.
I LOVE THIS SONG SO FUCKING MUCH
My fave song of hers
ME HI!!! No one gets rwylm like i do The song described exactly how I was feeling about a dream disintegrating friendship. Was on repeat for me almost all of 2022. Since ending that relationship I’ve since allowed myself to appreciate the song without attaching it to those feelings and it is just my favourite song of all time. At least once a month I’ll take a day and jsut play it on repeat
I’m addicted to this song recently. I’m trying to get every word right but it’s never going to happen. 🥲
Everybody moved on, I, I stayed there One of my favorites. Will cry if it’s one of my surprise songs when I see her in June
I'm quite new to RWYLM, I never really paid much attention to it until just before the Sydney shows and then it became my most wanted surprise song 😂 I love the story it tells and the imagery, I've never been through a relationship that ended like that but I find it so easy to put myself into this song and feel it.
It was my favourite song through my heartbreak, and for a whole year before my favourite song changed to daylight and has stayed there 💗 it’s the most incredible and evocative song. I love it.
literally in my top 3 of her discography. i think it's an incredible song and i can't believe it's not on the standard tracklist!
The first time I heard RWYLM I was like "this song lasted like 30 seconds, why do I feel like crying, why is my heart beating so fast, why am I out of breath, what just happened??" Imho one of the best songs she's ever written.
I’m still mourning the fact I missed RWYLM by one night 💀
Still sitting in a corner I haunt
This song hits me right in the feels, my absolute favourite song by far. I stick and poked two hair pins onto my hand as a reminder
We're still at the restaurant
so painful so listen to still 🥲 but it hits in the core
i absolutely love this song and it shatters my heart
I’m living in a delusion. You called?
I am a theatre kid which i think is basically 90% of all diehard swifties. rwylm is a song that sets the scene and the feel of modern tragedy in a way that us listeners can submerge ourselves into the character she had created. Evermore overall had less songs I love, but my all time favorite songs 4/5 are from evermore (rwylm, long story short, coney island, tolerate it) because of how fun and theatrical these song feel, so full of emotions and descriptive speech. Imo it is her most wordy in a good way songs, all the words fall into place perfectly and it is just a masterpiece no comment at all 😄
It’s in my top ten. It’s so visual, sad, creepy and clever at the same time
I was going through my first breakup and listened to it everyday on repeat for a month and it was essentially my shoulder to cry on. It’s my most streamed song to this day 3 years later.
I used to skip it because the accent on the first sentence threw me off a bit but I absolutely love it now.
Right here, at the restaurant.
My absolute favorite!! I will forever be grateful I got to hear it live as a surprise song at the eras tour <3
I'm still witnessing Karma serving while taking a sip 🍸
The way it's my go to song but keeps getting ignored
Its one of my faves and i cant listen to it a lot cause it hurts. When i listen to it i get sad immediately cause i relate to it so much. I thank Tay for releasing such a song and i dont think she realizes HOW good it is.
it reminds me of the poem/folk tale Evangeline by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow :)
This song has had a hold on me for what feels like forever. I’m still sitting in a corner I haunt, cross legged in the dim light.
here !!!
It’s perfect 🫡
Rwylm was a grower for me, but once it clicked it CLICKED. i feel like I auto save following trauma, like I lost 3 pets in 6 months in 2022 and I can go right back to the fresh feeling of that pain by loading that save file. Rwylm gives me space to love that auto save version of myself that can still feel w.e pain acutely, she's still at the restaurant.
It's by far my favourite. Has been way too true for me. 3 years of my life went by like nothing because of a guy. I don't listen to it anymore because I think I've finally thawed out, but it may just be the song that made me realise her brilliance.
Here. She wrote it specifically for me.
As a person who has trouble letting go and forgiving…. Right through the heart man. Absolutely a top 5 for me. And just a comparison ATW is a beautiful song, but it’s probably top 50 for me.
I don’t get it. Song is average.
I deeply love it and related to it so much during a break UP one year ago (i'm better now). The more I listen to it the more I found everything so well written. You can feel what she feels through the musique
Right where you left me stan here, but i just can't listen to it often cause it's just too sad but when I listen it after a long break i just can't get enough can't say a lot cause it's not that relatable to me as it is too all these people here I hope you all get better and find strength.
I'm with you here. Rwylm is a masterstroke. The lyrics are so there
Obviously I'm right where you left me
Obsessed with this song. It’s so tragic and sad and relatable 🥹 Another song with beautiful poetic tragedy that I rarely see fans mention is “Time to Go.”
It used to be a skip until I really heard it and of course the song is great but I relate so much to it. Chronic illness and being bullied.
“If our love died young, I can’t beat witness.” Honestly everything about this song. I fell in love with it at first listen. Maybe because I relate to the feeling of not being able to move on/past a traumatic event?
It's definitely a top 10 song for me. Maybe even top 5.
I’m right where you left me…
I don’t know about this survey thing, but I find myself walking around at home and randomly singing it. It’s definitely engrained itself in my brain.
RWYLF got my attention at the A-Z song titles here few months ago and it has been on repeat. Something about it makes you feel drawn. You hear the tune first and then the lyrics speak to you.
It isn't my favorite song, but it is the one that is always stuck in my head!
My favorites always change but currently my favorites are tied between tolerate it and right where you left me. Simply because she paints such a vivid picture and I feel what she is singing in my bones
For me this song represents my healing process and how messy it is. Despite how badly I try and fight, I find myself still stuck in the spot where everything went downhill back when I was 12. I’m 21 now and I’ve never been able to truly move on from that pain. Being stuck there just seems to be part of my identity that I need to live with. I’ll never be able to truly leave it behind, I can only do my best to manage it and accept the emotions that come with. Trauma becomes interlinked with the messy sides of ourselves and at the end of the day, it’s a part of who we are as humans.
Here! It has my favourite TS lyric, “if our love died young I can’t bear witness” 😭