Take Me Out and Take Me Home
I was late to the Taylor Swift fan game. I remember knowing her and knowing of her music and enjoying a single or two in the Fearless and Speak Now era, but I definitely only joined the heightened fan experience with Red and I haven’t looked back since. This girl is many things to many people (polarising at best) but I enjoy the music because we all know I’m a high school kid at heart.
And so now that she’s back with a happy, lovely, old!Taylor album, you know I was on it like a moth to a flame. And so I will try to make sense of my love for this album by sharing a couple of my favourite tracks.
Cruel Summer
It’s hard to rank the songs on this album, but I would say that this one is my favorite. It’s a bop. The lyrics are fun and flirty. And you know I could run to it. In the same way Blank Space was my power song on Nike Run club, this song has also entered the power song level. It starts off slow ish but you know you get into a rhythm of it and you’re all good.
“I screamed for whatever it’s worth, I love you, ain’t that the worst thing you ever heard?”
It’s also clearly about a love/lust/fling gone wrong. I love how you tell yourself it’s all good without the rules and with this being different and it’s ok, but in the end, it’s literally just what it was, a cruel summer. Given the perpetual summer I live in, I feel like I too, have gone through some cruel ‘summers’ and though I wish I had this song to bop to after to tell myself, it’s ok, I hope I also don’t have to down the line.
Too many lines to love including “What doesn't kill me makes me want you more” — because we’ve all been hard headed before. “It's cool, That's what I tell 'em” — when it’s definitely NOT cool. “And if I bleed, You'll be the last to know” — because pride and self preservation is the name of the game.
Also, she wrote it with St. Vincent and I’ve been dying for new St. Vincent music so this feels very apt.
Paper Rings
“Went home and tried to stalk you on the internet; Now I’ve read all of the books beside your bed”
What I love about this album is how blatantly and openly in love she is. I know she writes her best songs with heartbreak but I am so rooting for her happy ending and if it’s Joe Alwyn, then so be it. But really, I love how this song escalates from I just met you and I’m stalking you on the internet, to marry-me. Because yes, that’s how it goes.
I’m sure Taylor has spoken about marriage before or at least being together forever (someone please dig up lyrics for me), but somehow it feels so much more real now. I don’t know if it’s because she’s in the ‘marrying age’ or a more realistic one but it’s also just a satisfying ‘happy ending’ of sorts after all this drama. I like this one too much.
London Boy
“Show me a gray sky, a rainy cab ride; Babe, don’t threaten me with a good time”
I don’t think I’ve actually gone out with a London Boy but we all know Taylor goes head first into relationships and I love the deepdive she goes into his hometown. I love this obsessive behavior because that kind of resonates with me in a way. I like learning about people’s routines and neighborhood haunts.
Sure, the mapping of the places in this song aren’t totally logical but it’s quite fun to hear about all these places — next time I’m in London, I’m sure there’ll be a fan tour of the spots. Essentially, I like hearing happy and in love Taylor and clearly, for the moment, she is in deep love so you know what? Let’s give her that.
The Man
“I’m so sick of running as fast as I can; Wondering if I’d get there quicker, If I was a man”
I would call myself a bad feminist but I do hope for some sort of equality and this song is not just a bop but oh so true. Also, it calls out Leo (in a not horrible way) and he is one of my first loves so why not, right?
I wouldn’t say I’m at a disadvantage or maybe I’m just used to the status quo but there are times when I wish things would be easier/different if I were a man and also, it’s a bop. Repeat 10x
Cornelia Street
“I get mystified by how this city screams your name; I’m so terrified of if you ever walk away, I’d never walk Cornelia Street again”
I relate to this song on so many levels. Singapore is a tiny ass island and I find myself somehow living in a neighborhood after getting over the person who happened to live in that neighborhood (or at least telling myself I’m over them). And yes, I’ve bumped into folks and yes, it was awkward so you can get over things but it’s just funny how streets and places hold so many memories.
Also the opening line of “We were in the backseat, drunk on something stronger than the drinks in the bar.” I swoon, honestly. Oh (not so) young (cause you should be legal to drink!) love!
But also, just knowing fans trekked to the Cornelia street apartment is why I love Taylor Swift songs. I’m not always looking into the easter eggs but you know someone else is! Yay internet!
I Forgot that You Existed
“I forgot that you existed
It isn’t love, it isn’t hate
It’s just indifference”
It’s baffling to me that this wasn’t her first single. It’s still baffling to me that she never makes her singles the ones that sound like the rest of her album. This song has enough talkability (Calvin? Kanye?) and the boppiness of it all is enough to make it stand out. I still wonder why she didn’t make it her single.
I, of course, have decided it’s about all the crazy boys in my life that I’ve gotten over somehow (or at least that I’m trying to get over). Got to manifest this shit right?
Which ones are your favorites? I’d love to know!
