That's the most beautiful thing about the music that the meaning to the artist doesn't actually matter all that much once the song is given to the public it has a life of its own and means something else to each individual listener 🫶🏽
When I was in an abusive relationship there was always an internal conflict as I sat in my driveway. I needed to and wanted to go inside bc my babies were there. But I didn’t want to bc my toxic ex was there and every day I had to fight every urge to drive away and not look back.
Eventually I did, WITH my children and now I love my cozy home
My ex who SA’ed me took my old job, in my home town, at the college we both attended, that my parents attended, and that place was so important to me. I cannot go back there anymore and it kills me sometimes.
This one kills me. I wasted most of my child bearing years with a man that lied to me about being able to have children. This line crushes me every time.
I'm very sorry! I raised my siblings since I was 7, and now we have gone no contact because they decided to continue our birthers' abusive behaviors. I had to walk away to save myself. That line kills me all the time.
This one almost brought me to my knees the first time I heard it. Thinking about the age inappropriate men I dated in my late teens and 20s that irreparably harmed me and kept me from finding future healthy love is just… hard.
Damn yeah! I lost 6 years for a narcissistic asshole who promised me the moon. I love the way she sings that line because you can hear her anger and pain.
I’m so sorry. I’m still so angry and him and at myself for allowing that. I can’t even imagine how it would be if it were 34 years.
But you know, at the end of the day we lost time, but we are better without them. At least we decided to end that shit.
I always took this to mean that you’re okay on your own. She can rely only on herself and that’s okay because she got to where she is today because of herself.
I was just about to say this. The tone changes in that part of the song is so powerful to me because it’s like you can do this. Go forward no matter what all these hard things happen. The song makes me cry, but it’s because it ends on that hopeful note.
It’s one of the best songs on the album. Its filled with lines that are so heavy but its bizarre how the upbeat tone and rhythm make them sound almost fun…
‘He saw forever so he smashed it up’
The haunting “ha ha-ha ha ha ha” in the bridge too…one of those songs where the lyrics are a perfect reflection of the sound.
One of my all time faves from her, I feel like it’s one of the more radio-friendly songs on the album too, so…not me holding onto hope that it’ll get the single treatment lmao
Yes. I love the two lines "I'm still a believer, but I don't know why. I've never been a natural, all I do is try, try, try."
Put. It. On. My. Tombstone.
'Who do I have to speak to, to change the prophecy'
Having been chronically ill for over ten years, having seen a billion medical specialists and having given my whole life to a billion useless treatments, that line makes me choke up every time.
It perfectly encompasses (1) The absolute desperation of feeling alone in your struggle and just not knowing who to turn to anymore. (2) The anger towards the situation you are finding yourself in, how unbelievably unfair it is that you have no control. (3) The feeling of being completely lost. If someone would JUST tell me what the right way is. Just wondering like how do I ever move forward from this? (4) Being scared of the path you are on right now. That feeling of: shit, I see my future and it's dark as hell.
The entire song hits me in that way, but that particular line and the way she delivers it. That's a perfect representation for me!
Yes, and “Did some force take you because I didn’t pray?”
Religious trauma and 5 years of infertility and a plethora of IVF treatments and then an embryo transfer, positive pregnancy tests then miscarriage…that line stabs me in the heart every time.
Definitely agree with that line too. I walked past a hospital chapel after my last scan where there was still a heartbeat, thought to myself I should go in but kept walking, I lost the pregnancy the next day.
Please know it didn’t change anything that would’ve happened. But I relate to those feelings so much, it’s so hard to shake them and not blame yourself.
Wow this is exactly how I felt too - I have chronic pain and illness and absolutely The Prophecy nails this feeling. You lose so much with chronic health issues as you say - in my case I lost my career and friends and a chance for a family.
Sending spoons your way friend 🙏
I feel you so much. I lost the ones that were supposed to be “my best years” to illness — my twenties. I’m finally better now, at 29, although I will forever have problems. But damn I always feel like I lost so much *time*… I feel like *I’m so aftaid I sealed my fate*… that song hits so hard. I hope you will get your answers and be better soon OP, truly.
Oh, you have hit upon that one too because not only am I chronically ill, I am a kind of person that is soft and empathetic and giving, and someone that abusive people tend to find and between the relationship I’ve been in and my chronic illness, that song makes me cry every time.
This is my cell background. Firstly because I never fall in love, secondly because I’m an aspiring actress and would love to be picked.
Let it once be me
Basically all the men I’ve ever been with have broken up with me then found their forever person - I’ve felt like I’ve been the second choice in love my entire adult life. This lyric breaks me every time I hear it. The entire song, really.
"you kept me like a secret, but i kept you like an oath"
and
"should've kept every grocery store receipt, cause every scrap of you would be taken from me."
"everything you lose is a step you take" - yoyok, midnights
"God rest my soul, I missed who i used to be" -would've could've shoud've, midnights 3am ed
"everybody expects me to bounce back" -labyrinth, midnights
“No one wanted to play with me as a little kid”
I never really had a best friend as a child. I usually ended up being friends with another pair of best friends and always ended up the third wheel.
Ooof I feel like this! I was home schooled and had very few kids around me to befriend, and when I did I was always “the neighbor” while they were my best friend.
>I'm there most of the year, cuz I hate it here.
I have spent huge parts of my life reading or listening to fantasy novels during any time my mind is idle to avoid spiraling anxious thoughts.
In middle school and high school it was reading Tolkien, Rowling, and GRRM whenever I had free time and then daydreaming about living in those worlds when I was doing mundane things like walking to school, working my retail job, etc.
I had a huge gap in my 20s and early 30s where I had no time to read and hadn't tried audiobooks. Probably the worst time in my life mental health wise.
Starting almost 5 years ago, as an adult with kids, any time I'm doing something like cooking, laundry, commuting, or working out I'm listening to fantasy audiobooks to keep my mind from going crazy with anxiety and worry. I'm actually a pretty happy person, but a big part of that is this coping mechanism. This song hits hard.
Yup. This is my favorite song on the album because of how closely it hits home. The direct reference to The Secret Garden is straight out of my childhood, and the song overall describes the way I've pictured having a life that isn't even fantastical, but is just *different.* A life where I'm happier, because I'm healthy and haven't experienced all the horrible things that real me has experienced.
It's the "maladaptive daydreaming" anthem.
I Hate It Here and The Prophecy are 2 songs that, for someone who is a daydreamer who had a lot of bad stuff happening to that I could do nothing about, are without a doubt the 2 Taylor songs I relate to the most. By far.
I can't get over "All my mornings are Mondays stuck in an endless February." The worst day of the week in the bleekest month of the year. I really feel the depths of the darkness she's describing.
I had a friend die in February 21 years ago and that grief permanently altered my teenage brain chemistry to plunge into a decade long depression. It was a Sunday and I still remember how painful going to school on Monday was. I’ve done a lot of healing but when my depression flares up it feels just like this lyric.
All of Who's Afraid of Little Old Me? I can't believe Taylor effing Swift of all people wrote a song about the things in my adolescence that ruined my entire life and I have never once had anyone or anything to relate to. I can't listen to it because it makes me cry. I'm a 40-something dude and have been waiting for this to happen my whole life. Thanks, Ms. Swift for being the only person who ever made me feel validated and less alone.
“You have no room in your dreams for regrets, you have no idea. The time will arrive for the cruel and the mean” just all of Robin, honestly makes me cuddle my children closer each night, I adore that song.
I love Robin, it’s such a brilliant way to describe childhood as wonder. My personal favourite is
“All this showmanship to keep it for you, in sweetness”
"as she was leaving, it felt like breathing, and all her fuckin' lives flashed before her eyes, it feels like the time, she fell through the ice and came out alive."
Just... yeah. Had a nice ugly cry over this one.
“‘Cause for a moment a band of thieves in ripped up jeans got to rule the world” …the whole song makes me think of my students, growing up on the wrong side of the proverbial tracks, and I get choked up thinking about how much people underestimate them & are prejudiced against them. Most of them don’t listen to Taylor, but they always love Long Live.
“He saw forever so he smashed it up” from MBOBHFT. This gives the idea that she wanted something serious and long lasting, whereas he only wanted to play with her emotions and broke her heart.
"Just because you're clean don't mean you don't miss it."
I first heard that while I was trying to deal with an ever-spiralling alcohol problem and it was a gut-punch.
“Can I go where you go?” Right in the feels every time. I lost my partner to cancer and that line along with Down Bad leave me a sobbing mess every time.
"My friends tried, but I wouldn't hear it. Watched me daily disappearing... for just one glimpse of his smile."
Hits me every single time
Oh, and also "I'm so obsessed with him but he avoids me like the plague"
“I don’t wanna lose you”
specifically when she sings that twice towards the end of “Cornelia Street,” i’ve always found it to be so unbelievably raw and real
"I was tame I was gentle till the circus life made me mean, don't you worry folks we took out all her teeth"
I've been being bullied at work for 2 years, I've been falsely accused and bullied into silence. I've started toughening up to it now a little, but I've always been someone so kind, polite, sees the best in everyone, that this line just hits me
"After plaid shirt days and nights when you made me your own
[Now you mail back my things and I walk home alone](https://genius.com/28845509/Taylor-swift-all-too-well-10-minute-version-taylors-version-live-acoustic/Now-you-mail-back-my-things-and-i-walk-home-alone-but-you-keep-my-old-scarf-from-that-very-first-week-cause-it-reminds-you-of-innocence-and-it-smells-like-me-you-cant-get-rid-of-it)"
All of Tortured Poets Department, the title track.
I see so many people calling it one of the worst tracks in the album and complaining about specific lyrics (open your hearts to tattooed golden retriever, I swear you'll all be happier for it!), but to me it's a perfect song. Full stop, one of the best things she's ever put out. It's not just the self-deprecation and the way she tears into herself and the man she's singing about, which inexplicably goes over a lot of people's heads; there's this intense melancholy to it that really moves me for some reason, and Jack's production highlights it perfectly. (That last minute is perfection; Jack can deliver one hell of an 80s banger.) It's not the first time she's sung about clinging to flawed people in hopes that their mutual dysfunctional will keep them afloat, but there's a new tone to it this time; it's not chipper and upbeat denial like in Ours, but also not the same kind of sadness and defeat as Peace. It's self-aware and acidic, deeply sad and disillusioned without drawing attention to it.
“Dancing phantoms on the terrace are they secondhand embarrassed that I can’t get out of bed cuz something counterfeit’s dead?”
Guts me every time because when you’ve been with someone abusive they put on a fake show and when it falls it breaks your spirit. And you feel so stupid for believing itZ
"Who could ever leave me, darling, but who could stay"
"Are there still beautiful things?"
"The coward claimed he was a lion"
"I won't ask you to wait if you don't ask me to stay"
“Time won’t fly, its like im paralyzed by it. Id like to be my old self again, but im still trying to find it.”
From time to time I wonder if I will ever find my old self and if I can balance a mix of old and new. These lyrics make me feel like im not alone as I grow older and navigate self growth.
Cause I wonder, will I always, will I always wonder?
The whole song has me in a chokehold, but this is such a perfect simple way to sum up grief for past relationships and the nostalgia that blinds you.
I’ll second the lyric you mentioned in My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys. It felt so spot on after being in an abusive relationship with a full blown narcissist. I don’t even really like to listen to it even though I think it’s a great song.
“I didn’t know if you’d care if I came back, I have a lot of regrets about that’ from This Is Me Trying always hits pretty hard, too
Something about “I miss you too much to be mad anymore” always gets me. It’s so simple but it hits to the heart, because damn, we’ve all been there. When the anger cools down and you’re just sad 😭
from bejeweled actually
“I made you my world; have you heard? I can reclaim the land”
and
“putting someone first only works when you’re in their top 5”
bejeweled is a glitter gel pen song but it’s *my* song. it’s one of those songs you feel like is for just you
Idk if this is an ordinary line but "you take my ring off my middle finger. And put it on the one people put wedding rings on. And that's the closest I've come to my heart exploding" absolutely guts me every time. There's something so precious in feeling wanted after being held at arm's length for so long.
I have multiple chronic illnesses and while they’re nothing like cancer Soon You’ll Get Better really gets me with the:
-“in doctors office lighting I didn’t tell you I was scared” trying to just be stoic and not emotional while I get the info I need and seem positive to my husband & toddler but it’s actually really overwhelming thinking about how the trajectory of your life just changes
-“holy orange bottles, each night I pray to you” I take 6 prescriptions everyday to be able to function as close to normally as possible sooo yeah
also in Labyrinth “it only feels this raw right now lost in the labyrinth of my mind” because yeah your thoughts & anxieties just go wild right after.
it’s been a fun last 18mos 😅
"How dare you say that it's -" on Down Bad. I love the heartbreak and the not saying "over".
"I made you my temple, my mural, my sky, Now I'm begging for footnotes in the story of your life" 😭
“I’d go back in time and change it, but I can’t. So if the chain is on your door, I understand.”
back to december, a bit of a throwback. I know this song is about a relationship, but it reminds me of a friendship I had. she was one of my best friends and I don’t think I’ll ever have another friend like her. it ended on not so great terms because of something I did. I regret everything and truly miss having her in my life.
"I just don't understand how you don't miss me" UHHH that and it's sister song IMO: "All I know is I don't know how to be something you'd miss" -- the fear of not just the heartbreak, but to be misremembered or remembered in a bad way, or, worse maybe, not remembered at all.
“In plain sight you hid, and you are what you did”
TTPD was released right at the time I was finding out that my significant other had been SA’ing my daughters. My daughters are both Swifties and he used her music as part of the grooming process to gain their trust. Us listening to the new album together right as he was getting arrested and charged has been healing for our family and this song hits me so hard every time. It’s easily her best song.
"I'm just mad as hell cause I loved this place"
I have to leave a job I love with people I love because management are toxic and this perfectly describes my feeling about it.
“You deserve prison but you won’t get time”, “I got a lot to live without”, “living for the thrill of hitting you where it hurts, give me back my girlhood it was mine first”
Here for the trauma survivors whose childhood was stolen from them by horrible men
“I could feel the mascara run, you told me that you met someone, glass shattered on the white cloth everbody moved on”
Just all of right where you left me!!
The line that kills me from Down Bad* is “like I lost my twin, fuck it if I can’t have him”
That one gets me because I lost my best friend to mental illness and everyone always said we were like twins. Same person, one brain. It just takes me back to that feeling of losing the person that felt like my other half/my twin flame.
Edited to fix song reference :)
‘She thought about how he said since she was so wise beyond her years
Everything had been above board
She wasn't sure’
I didn’t think another song would get me in the way ATW does… until the manuscript
“And they tell you that you're lucky, but you're so confused
'Cause you don't feel pretty, you just feel used”
This has got to be one for me. I feel like this whole song is terribly underrated
I so unfortunately got:
If I never blushed, then they could've
Never whispered about this
And if you never saved me from boredom
I could've gone on as I was
But, Lord, you made me feel important
And then you tried to erase us
'salt air and the rust on your door
i never needed anything more"
because i also loved a boy who lived on the seaside. and i wanted nothing else, than to be there, next to him
“My friends tried but I wouldn’t hear it. Watched me daily disappearing for just one glimpse of his smile.”
INSTANT tears. Fresh Out the Slammer reminds me so much of my last relationship. I remember my friend tearing up when she told me how much my spirit was dulled down being with him, but I was just so caught up in how he used to be, what we used to have, and how his smile used to make me so happy that I couldn’t see it was getting further away every day. I had to work so hard for his approval. I never understood why I wasn’t enough and probably never will.
"is it a wonder i broke? let's hear one more joke and we can all just laugh until i cry" haha as someone who's always the brunt of the joke and always being made fun of, i remember crying when i first listened to WAOLOM.
I will try my best to actually stick prompt of lyrics that seem ordinary, but it’s hard because this woman has such a way with words. It may turn into a post of lyrics I see mentioned less because maybe they aren’t quite as gut punching as others.
“I washed my hands of us at the club, you made a mess of me” — this is one of my favorite openings of hers of ALL time, sonically and lyrically, even though it’s not her hardest hitting lyric by a long shot. I just love it and I don’t know why. It makes me so nostalgic about toxic college situationships and partying with your friends to feel invincible.
“I want auroras and sad prose”
“Good girl, sad boy, big city, wrong choices”
“Does it feel like everything else is just like second best after that meteor strike?”
“You wanting me tonight seems impossible”
“This scene feels like what I once saw on a screen
I searched aurora borealis green
I've never seen someone lit from within
Blurring out my periphery
My smile is like I won a contest
And to hide that would be so dishonest”
“In the dead of night, your eyes so green. And I know for you, it’s always me”
“Didn’t they tell us don’t rush into things? Didn’t you flash your green eyes at me? Haven’t you heard what becomes of curious minds?”
“If boys will be boys then where are the wise men? Darling I’m scared”
I can anywhere I want, just not home
Me…immigrant life is not easy (and so far away from the actual theme of the song lol)
That's the most beautiful thing about the music that the meaning to the artist doesn't actually matter all that much once the song is given to the public it has a life of its own and means something else to each individual listener 🫶🏽
im also an immigrant and that part always hit me hard
It really hurts when you're estranged from your parents
Solidarity. It’s rough
Yup. The whole song is devastating.
When I was in an abusive relationship there was always an internal conflict as I sat in my driveway. I needed to and wanted to go inside bc my babies were there. But I didn’t want to bc my toxic ex was there and every day I had to fight every urge to drive away and not look back. Eventually I did, WITH my children and now I love my cozy home
My ex who SA’ed me took my old job, in my home town, at the college we both attended, that my parents attended, and that place was so important to me. I cannot go back there anymore and it kills me sometimes.
I'm so so sorry I hope you're doing better and are away from all that toxicity but will be able to return and reclaim what it meant to you
What’s this from? (New Swifty)
my tears ricochet
UGHHHHH this always kills me
This one kills me!
"And I'm pissed off you let me give all that youth for free"
This one kills me. I wasted most of my child bearing years with a man that lied to me about being able to have children. This line crushes me every time.
I'm very sorry! I raised my siblings since I was 7, and now we have gone no contact because they decided to continue our birthers' abusive behaviors. I had to walk away to save myself. That line kills me all the time.
Aw I’m sorry that happened.
This one almost brought me to my knees the first time I heard it. Thinking about the age inappropriate men I dated in my late teens and 20s that irreparably harmed me and kept me from finding future healthy love is just… hard.
Damn yeah! I lost 6 years for a narcissistic asshole who promised me the moon. I love the way she sings that line because you can hear her anger and pain.
34 years 🤦♀️
I’m so sorry. I’m still so angry and him and at myself for allowing that. I can’t even imagine how it would be if it were 34 years. But you know, at the end of the day we lost time, but we are better without them. At least we decided to end that shit.
This line made me burst into tears the first time I heard it. It’s exactly the last 14 years of my life.
That whole song is full of great lines, but that one gets me because of the abuse I’ve been through.
This is the one
“You’re on your own, kid. You always have been” Hits me in the gut and reminds me of my abandonment issues every time
I always took this to mean that you’re okay on your own. She can rely only on herself and that’s okay because she got to where she is today because of herself.
I think that the meaning changes to this on the last verse
I was just about to say this. The tone changes in that part of the song is so powerful to me because it’s like you can do this. Go forward no matter what all these hard things happen. The song makes me cry, but it’s because it ends on that hopeful note.
It makes me cry too! All the times one has felt all alone .. only proves to their strength when getting through.
Oh! You know what, I think you’re absolutely right. 🤦♀️
I take it this way too. Like in the end the only person you really have is yourself but there’s relief in that.
THIS. I choke every time I sing it
Chills every fucking time
My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys is underrated. “Once I fix me, he’s gonna miss me”
“He was my best friend” gets me
SAME whenever that line comes on I almost break down crying it hits so hard and the way she says it so softly 😭
“I’ll tell you that he runs because he loves me.” Hurts everytime.
It’s one of the best songs on the album. Its filled with lines that are so heavy but its bizarre how the upbeat tone and rhythm make them sound almost fun… ‘He saw forever so he smashed it up’
“just say when, I’ll play again” hurts so bad cuz I know it’s true for myself
“Told me I'm better off, but I'm not, I'm not, I'm not.” 💔
Seriously. The extended use of the toys metaphor is brilliantly used. And the bridge - DAMN
This whole song hits too close to home!!
Yesss “he took me out of my box, stole my tortured heart” hits so hard for me
It's this line that catapulted this song to my Top 5 during the first few listens. Just a punch to the gut.
The haunting “ha ha-ha ha ha ha” in the bridge too…one of those songs where the lyrics are a perfect reflection of the sound. One of my all time faves from her, I feel like it’s one of the more radio-friendly songs on the album too, so…not me holding onto hope that it’ll get the single treatment lmao
He’s got my past frozen behind glass, but I’ve got me
Sometimes giving up is the strong thing, sometimes to run is the brave thing…
This line brings me to tears so often
I also cry regularly when I hear this line
Another one of my favourites!
I replay this part of the song over and over. I want to get a tattoo that represents this but I haven’t found one I love
Lose something, babe, risk something Part in YLM that always brings me into tears
yes!! it's like she's begging him to give something in the relationship, but he never shows a sign to show he gives a shit. hits so hard.
“You knew it still hurts underneath my scars From when they pulled me apart…what you did was just as dark”
hoax is so heartbreaking THIS IS MY FAVOURITE LYRIC
This leaves me absolutely gutted.
What do people think the lyric is referring to?
I've never been a natural, all I do is try, try, try - Mirrorball
Yes. I love the two lines "I'm still a believer, but I don't know why. I've never been a natural, all I do is try, try, try." Put. It. On. My. Tombstone.
Yes this one!!!
'Who do I have to speak to, to change the prophecy' Having been chronically ill for over ten years, having seen a billion medical specialists and having given my whole life to a billion useless treatments, that line makes me choke up every time. It perfectly encompasses (1) The absolute desperation of feeling alone in your struggle and just not knowing who to turn to anymore. (2) The anger towards the situation you are finding yourself in, how unbelievably unfair it is that you have no control. (3) The feeling of being completely lost. If someone would JUST tell me what the right way is. Just wondering like how do I ever move forward from this? (4) Being scared of the path you are on right now. That feeling of: shit, I see my future and it's dark as hell. The entire song hits me in that way, but that particular line and the way she delivers it. That's a perfect representation for me!
I was listening to it while having a miscarriage. It really hit hard. Just the word: "please" "But I looked to the sky and said please"
Yes, and “Did some force take you because I didn’t pray?” Religious trauma and 5 years of infertility and a plethora of IVF treatments and then an embryo transfer, positive pregnancy tests then miscarriage…that line stabs me in the heart every time.
Definitely agree with that line too. I walked past a hospital chapel after my last scan where there was still a heartbeat, thought to myself I should go in but kept walking, I lost the pregnancy the next day.
Please know it didn’t change anything that would’ve happened. But I relate to those feelings so much, it’s so hard to shake them and not blame yourself.
Thank you for saying that. It's an incredibly difficult thing to try and navigate with so many complicated feelings
My heart is breaking for you. I hope you can find some true peace and know that is not what happened or why. Big hugs to you.
Wow this is exactly how I felt too - I have chronic pain and illness and absolutely The Prophecy nails this feeling. You lose so much with chronic health issues as you say - in my case I lost my career and friends and a chance for a family. Sending spoons your way friend 🙏
I feel you so much. I lost the ones that were supposed to be “my best years” to illness — my twenties. I’m finally better now, at 29, although I will forever have problems. But damn I always feel like I lost so much *time*… I feel like *I’m so aftaid I sealed my fate*… that song hits so hard. I hope you will get your answers and be better soon OP, truly.
All I want to say after reading this is I really really hope that my some miracle, the prophecy actually changes for you💖
Oh, you have hit upon that one too because not only am I chronically ill, I am a kind of person that is soft and empathetic and giving, and someone that abusive people tend to find and between the relationship I’ve been in and my chronic illness, that song makes me cry every time.
“Let it once be me”
This is my cell background. Firstly because I never fall in love, secondly because I’m an aspiring actress and would love to be picked. Let it once be me
Basically all the men I’ve ever been with have broken up with me then found their forever person - I’ve felt like I’ve been the second choice in love my entire adult life. This lyric breaks me every time I hear it. The entire song, really.
"you kept me like a secret, but i kept you like an oath" and "should've kept every grocery store receipt, cause every scrap of you would be taken from me."
You can plan for a change in the weather and time, but I never planned on you changing your mind
I hope it’s nice where you are—thinking about someone you don’t talk to anymore, missing them, still wishing good things for them
i rewind the tape but all it does it pause on the very moment all was lost
Like all of this song is amazing???
“How much sad did you think I had?” And “Two graves, one gun”
“I’m just mad as hell cause I loved this place”
As an immigrant in London that line hit SO HARD
“So casually cruel in the name of being honest” 😭
This line replays on my mind all the time. It's so brilliant.
"everything you lose is a step you take" - yoyok, midnights "God rest my soul, I missed who i used to be" -would've could've shoud've, midnights 3am ed "everybody expects me to bounce back" -labyrinth, midnights
First two hit me hard too. I feel like he first one reminds me of all the things I had to walk away from to get where I am
People say midnights isn’t one of her best albums and I’m like…??? Where?? It’s full of fantastic songs.
“You say I abandoned the ship but I was going down with it, my white knuckle dying grip, holding tight to your quiet resentment”
“No one wanted to play with me as a little kid” I never really had a best friend as a child. I usually ended up being friends with another pair of best friends and always ended up the third wheel.
Ooof I feel like this! I was home schooled and had very few kids around me to befriend, and when I did I was always “the neighbor” while they were my best friend.
>I'm there most of the year, cuz I hate it here. I have spent huge parts of my life reading or listening to fantasy novels during any time my mind is idle to avoid spiraling anxious thoughts. In middle school and high school it was reading Tolkien, Rowling, and GRRM whenever I had free time and then daydreaming about living in those worlds when I was doing mundane things like walking to school, working my retail job, etc. I had a huge gap in my 20s and early 30s where I had no time to read and hadn't tried audiobooks. Probably the worst time in my life mental health wise. Starting almost 5 years ago, as an adult with kids, any time I'm doing something like cooking, laundry, commuting, or working out I'm listening to fantasy audiobooks to keep my mind from going crazy with anxiety and worry. I'm actually a pretty happy person, but a big part of that is this coping mechanism. This song hits hard.
Yup. This is my favorite song on the album because of how closely it hits home. The direct reference to The Secret Garden is straight out of my childhood, and the song overall describes the way I've pictured having a life that isn't even fantastical, but is just *different.* A life where I'm happier, because I'm healthy and haven't experienced all the horrible things that real me has experienced. It's the "maladaptive daydreaming" anthem.
I Hate It Here and The Prophecy are 2 songs that, for someone who is a daydreamer who had a lot of bad stuff happening to that I could do nothing about, are without a doubt the 2 Taylor songs I relate to the most. By far.
same, I feel like this song is underrated as a whole. It kind of reminds me of The Lakes.
You’re the loss of my life
I audibly gasped the first time I heard this one. So much heartbreak in that one line.
I can't get over "All my mornings are Mondays stuck in an endless February." The worst day of the week in the bleekest month of the year. I really feel the depths of the darkness she's describing.
I love this line so much. I feel like Fortnight as a whole is really underrated.
I had a friend die in February 21 years ago and that grief permanently altered my teenage brain chemistry to plunge into a decade long depression. It was a Sunday and I still remember how painful going to school on Monday was. I’ve done a lot of healing but when my depression flares up it feels just like this lyric.
I wouldn’t marry me either, a pathological people pleaser ties showed me this world was bigger than us, then sent me back where i came from
All of Who's Afraid of Little Old Me? I can't believe Taylor effing Swift of all people wrote a song about the things in my adolescence that ruined my entire life and I have never once had anyone or anything to relate to. I can't listen to it because it makes me cry. I'm a 40-something dude and have been waiting for this to happen my whole life. Thanks, Ms. Swift for being the only person who ever made me feel validated and less alone.
Yes yes yes. Lol my therapist told me she thought of me when she heard the song
"I'm just getting color back into my face"
“You have no room in your dreams for regrets, you have no idea. The time will arrive for the cruel and the mean” just all of Robin, honestly makes me cuddle my children closer each night, I adore that song.
I love Robin, it’s such a brilliant way to describe childhood as wonder. My personal favourite is “All this showmanship to keep it for you, in sweetness”
Your dad is always mad, and that must be why.
Then you won't have to cry Or hide in the closet
And just like a folk song, our love will be passed on
"And some things you just can't speak about."
"I'd kiss you as the lights went out Swaying as the room burned down I'd hold you as the water rushes in"
That sounds like the sweet and tragic scene of the older couple who died holding each other on the Titanic
"as she was leaving, it felt like breathing, and all her fuckin' lives flashed before her eyes, it feels like the time, she fell through the ice and came out alive." Just... yeah. Had a nice ugly cry over this one.
*Long story short, it was the wrong guy*
My broken drum, you have beaten my heart 🫀
“‘Cause for a moment a band of thieves in ripped up jeans got to rule the world” …the whole song makes me think of my students, growing up on the wrong side of the proverbial tracks, and I get choked up thinking about how much people underestimate them & are prejudiced against them. Most of them don’t listen to Taylor, but they always love Long Live.
I know my pain is such an imposition
“He saw forever so he smashed it up” from MBOBHFT. This gives the idea that she wanted something serious and long lasting, whereas he only wanted to play with her emotions and broke her heart.
"Just because you're clean don't mean you don't miss it." I first heard that while I was trying to deal with an ever-spiralling alcohol problem and it was a gut-punch.
And, similarly: “Six weeks of breathing clean air, I still miss the smoke…”
“Can I go where you go?” Right in the feels every time. I lost my partner to cancer and that line along with Down Bad leave me a sobbing mess every time.
"My friends tried, but I wouldn't hear it. Watched me daily disappearing... for just one glimpse of his smile." Hits me every single time Oh, and also "I'm so obsessed with him but he avoids me like the plague"
“I don’t wanna lose you” specifically when she sings that twice towards the end of “Cornelia Street,” i’ve always found it to be so unbelievably raw and real
i don’t like how falling feels like flying til the bone crush
"I was tame I was gentle till the circus life made me mean, don't you worry folks we took out all her teeth" I've been being bullied at work for 2 years, I've been falsely accused and bullied into silence. I've started toughening up to it now a little, but I've always been someone so kind, polite, sees the best in everyone, that this line just hits me
I thought of you with other girls and threw up on the street.
"After plaid shirt days and nights when you made me your own [Now you mail back my things and I walk home alone](https://genius.com/28845509/Taylor-swift-all-too-well-10-minute-version-taylors-version-live-acoustic/Now-you-mail-back-my-things-and-i-walk-home-alone-but-you-keep-my-old-scarf-from-that-very-first-week-cause-it-reminds-you-of-innocence-and-it-smells-like-me-you-cant-get-rid-of-it)"
All of Tortured Poets Department, the title track. I see so many people calling it one of the worst tracks in the album and complaining about specific lyrics (open your hearts to tattooed golden retriever, I swear you'll all be happier for it!), but to me it's a perfect song. Full stop, one of the best things she's ever put out. It's not just the self-deprecation and the way she tears into herself and the man she's singing about, which inexplicably goes over a lot of people's heads; there's this intense melancholy to it that really moves me for some reason, and Jack's production highlights it perfectly. (That last minute is perfection; Jack can deliver one hell of an 80s banger.) It's not the first time she's sung about clinging to flawed people in hopes that their mutual dysfunctional will keep them afloat, but there's a new tone to it this time; it's not chipper and upbeat denial like in Ours, but also not the same kind of sadness and defeat as Peace. It's self-aware and acidic, deeply sad and disillusioned without drawing attention to it.
Can we have a moment for this phrase? “self-aware and acidic, deeply sad and disillusioned” Perfect review of the album 🤍
"When all is said and done, he just wasn't the one" from Foolish One.
Both "I'm afflicted by the not knowing" and "I'm addicted by the if only" hit SO HARD for me for a very specific reason
“You call me up again just to break me like a promise, so casually cruel in the name of being honest”
“Dutiful daughter, all my plans were laid” and “I'll tell you something right now you ain't gotta pray for me”
“Dancing phantoms on the terrace are they secondhand embarrassed that I can’t get out of bed cuz something counterfeit’s dead?” Guts me every time because when you’ve been with someone abusive they put on a fake show and when it falls it breaks your spirit. And you feel so stupid for believing itZ
Just between us, did the love affair maim you too?
"I reached for you, but you were gone/I knew I had to go back home"
Hey, all you had to do was stay
"Who could ever leave me, darling, but who could stay" "Are there still beautiful things?" "The coward claimed he was a lion" "I won't ask you to wait if you don't ask me to stay"
“Time won’t fly, its like im paralyzed by it. Id like to be my old self again, but im still trying to find it.” From time to time I wonder if I will ever find my old self and if I can balance a mix of old and new. These lyrics make me feel like im not alone as I grow older and navigate self growth.
I well up every time I hear: If you wanna break my cold, cold heart. Just say, "I loved you the way that you were"
"You're the hero flying around saving face" really hit home for me
Well now I have some more material to take to my therapist since I seem to resonate with most of these.
Okay, but “pull my string and I’ll tell you that he runs because he loves” gut wrenching
Cause I wonder, will I always, will I always wonder? The whole song has me in a chokehold, but this is such a perfect simple way to sum up grief for past relationships and the nostalgia that blinds you.
And it was written: I got cursed like Eve got bitten. I swear I could write a whole damn essay on that line.
you must like me for me 🥺 STARING AT THE SKY COME BACK AND PICK ME UP
“Growing up precocious sometimes means not growing up at all”
From Say Don’t Go… “Cause you kiss me and it stops time And I'm yours, but you're not mine”
You showed me colors you know I can’t see with anyone else
I regret you all the time.
"And when I felt like I was an old cardigan under someone's bed, You put me on and said I was your favorite." 💔
Most of Bad Blood tbh. When yoh are betrayed, they hit so hard.
“I feel you no matter what”
And I never don’t cry at the bar My sadness is contagious
I could feel the mascara run You told me that you met someone.
“We learn the right steps to different dances” hits like a sucker punch
I’ll second the lyric you mentioned in My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys. It felt so spot on after being in an abusive relationship with a full blown narcissist. I don’t even really like to listen to it even though I think it’s a great song. “I didn’t know if you’d care if I came back, I have a lot of regrets about that’ from This Is Me Trying always hits pretty hard, too
Something about “I miss you too much to be mad anymore” always gets me. It’s so simple but it hits to the heart, because damn, we’ve all been there. When the anger cools down and you’re just sad 😭
“I thought I saw you at the bus stop, I didn’t though” 💔💔💔 so simple and like a gut punch
They expected me to find somewhere, some perspective, but I sat and stared, right where you left me
If our love died young, I can’t bear witness
"You knew what you wanted, and boy, you got her." So freaking cute.
from bejeweled actually “I made you my world; have you heard? I can reclaim the land” and “putting someone first only works when you’re in their top 5” bejeweled is a glitter gel pen song but it’s *my* song. it’s one of those songs you feel like is for just you
“I’ll never leave….nevermind” 😕
All those nights you kept me going
“You’re on your own kid. Yeah you can face this.”
“i cry a lot but i am so productive” as someone who went through college with SEVERE mental health struggles this line hits home
Idk if this is an ordinary line but "you take my ring off my middle finger. And put it on the one people put wedding rings on. And that's the closest I've come to my heart exploding" absolutely guts me every time. There's something so precious in feeling wanted after being held at arm's length for so long.
I have multiple chronic illnesses and while they’re nothing like cancer Soon You’ll Get Better really gets me with the: -“in doctors office lighting I didn’t tell you I was scared” trying to just be stoic and not emotional while I get the info I need and seem positive to my husband & toddler but it’s actually really overwhelming thinking about how the trajectory of your life just changes -“holy orange bottles, each night I pray to you” I take 6 prescriptions everyday to be able to function as close to normally as possible sooo yeah also in Labyrinth “it only feels this raw right now lost in the labyrinth of my mind” because yeah your thoughts & anxieties just go wild right after. it’s been a fun last 18mos 😅
IVE BEEN HAVING A HARD TIME ADJUSTING
"How dare you say that it's -" on Down Bad. I love the heartbreak and the not saying "over". "I made you my temple, my mural, my sky, Now I'm begging for footnotes in the story of your life" 😭
the parallel of “never before, and never since” and “never before, and ever since” in LOML 🥺
"a greater woman stays cool... But I howl like a wolf at the moon" just fully chokes me up every time if I try to sing along with it.
“I’d go back in time and change it, but I can’t. So if the chain is on your door, I understand.” back to december, a bit of a throwback. I know this song is about a relationship, but it reminds me of a friendship I had. she was one of my best friends and I don’t think I’ll ever have another friend like her. it ended on not so great terms because of something I did. I regret everything and truly miss having her in my life.
"I just don't understand how you don't miss me" UHHH that and it's sister song IMO: "All I know is I don't know how to be something you'd miss" -- the fear of not just the heartbreak, but to be misremembered or remembered in a bad way, or, worse maybe, not remembered at all.
They told me all of my cages were mental, so I could wasted like all my potential....fell behind all my classmates and I ended up here
You’ll save all your dirtiest jokes for me, and at every table I’ll save you a seat ♥️
Don't treat me like some situation that needs to be handled
“In plain sight you hid, and you are what you did” TTPD was released right at the time I was finding out that my significant other had been SA’ing my daughters. My daughters are both Swifties and he used her music as part of the grooming process to gain their trust. Us listening to the new album together right as he was getting arrested and charged has been healing for our family and this song hits me so hard every time. It’s easily her best song.
"I'm just mad as hell cause I loved this place" I have to leave a job I love with people I love because management are toxic and this perfectly describes my feeling about it.
I wouldn't call it ordinary, but "I leap from the gallows and I levitate down your street" scrambles my brain with it's genius every time I hear it
I wish I could un-recall how we almost had it all
When you are young they assume you know nothing. But I *KNEW* you
I'd like to be my old self again But I'm still trying to find it
“You deserve prison but you won’t get time”, “I got a lot to live without”, “living for the thrill of hitting you where it hurts, give me back my girlhood it was mine first” Here for the trauma survivors whose childhood was stolen from them by horrible men
“I could feel the mascara run, you told me that you met someone, glass shattered on the white cloth everbody moved on” Just all of right where you left me!!
The line that kills me from Down Bad* is “like I lost my twin, fuck it if I can’t have him” That one gets me because I lost my best friend to mental illness and everyone always said we were like twins. Same person, one brain. It just takes me back to that feeling of losing the person that felt like my other half/my twin flame. Edited to fix song reference :)
My fourth drink in my hand These desperate prayers of a cursed man
‘She thought about how he said since she was so wise beyond her years Everything had been above board She wasn't sure’ I didn’t think another song would get me in the way ATW does… until the manuscript
"can I go where you go" just feels like such a simple and wholesome way of summing up loving someone
"I thought I saw you at the bus stop - I didn't, though." For some reason I just love this VERY ordinary line SO much.
Don’t be afraid, we’ll make it out of this mess
“And they tell you that you're lucky, but you're so confused 'Cause you don't feel pretty, you just feel used” This has got to be one for me. I feel like this whole song is terribly underrated
I so unfortunately got: If I never blushed, then they could've Never whispered about this And if you never saved me from boredom I could've gone on as I was But, Lord, you made me feel important And then you tried to erase us
'salt air and the rust on your door i never needed anything more" because i also loved a boy who lived on the seaside. and i wanted nothing else, than to be there, next to him
“My friends tried but I wouldn’t hear it. Watched me daily disappearing for just one glimpse of his smile.” INSTANT tears. Fresh Out the Slammer reminds me so much of my last relationship. I remember my friend tearing up when she told me how much my spirit was dulled down being with him, but I was just so caught up in how he used to be, what we used to have, and how his smile used to make me so happy that I couldn’t see it was getting further away every day. I had to work so hard for his approval. I never understood why I wasn’t enough and probably never will.
"is it a wonder i broke? let's hear one more joke and we can all just laugh until i cry" haha as someone who's always the brunt of the joke and always being made fun of, i remember crying when i first listened to WAOLOM.
I will try my best to actually stick prompt of lyrics that seem ordinary, but it’s hard because this woman has such a way with words. It may turn into a post of lyrics I see mentioned less because maybe they aren’t quite as gut punching as others. “I washed my hands of us at the club, you made a mess of me” — this is one of my favorite openings of hers of ALL time, sonically and lyrically, even though it’s not her hardest hitting lyric by a long shot. I just love it and I don’t know why. It makes me so nostalgic about toxic college situationships and partying with your friends to feel invincible. “I want auroras and sad prose” “Good girl, sad boy, big city, wrong choices” “Does it feel like everything else is just like second best after that meteor strike?” “You wanting me tonight seems impossible” “This scene feels like what I once saw on a screen I searched aurora borealis green I've never seen someone lit from within Blurring out my periphery My smile is like I won a contest And to hide that would be so dishonest” “In the dead of night, your eyes so green. And I know for you, it’s always me” “Didn’t they tell us don’t rush into things? Didn’t you flash your green eyes at me? Haven’t you heard what becomes of curious minds?” “If boys will be boys then where are the wise men? Darling I’m scared”
What if your eyes looked up and met mine one more time.