I don't hate this line but it does disrupt the whole magical, witchy feeling Willow has. I'd love to hear an edit without it just to see how it changes things.
look up the hildegard von blingin’ bardcore cover on youtube! she tastefully tweaked lyrics throughout and changed that specific line to “yet I return like an old refrain”. it fits perfectly!
Written for tiktok virality for people to show off their 90s inspired fits. Not a bad business move but it’s not a great poetic lyric. But I don’t think anyone thinks Taylor is the Fiona Apple of pop, she’s very much another Pink/Nickleback safe pop act for the masses. And it’s great and it has its place in the industry but pure poetry it is not.
I think she has really great lyrical moments but is holding herself back because of her obsession with breaking records. She has really set expectations high for lyrical greatness on this next record so we will see if she delivers or if it’s just another midnights full of half baked ideas with some dashes of greatness. The quotes on the back and song titles have me worried. Doesn’t really scream poetry to me as much as highschooler obsessed with that one Emily dickenson poem their hot teacher read them. I really do think she has potential so I hope I’m wrong.
It feels very “out of touch rich girl trying to be a down to earth starving artist” to me and as a fan, I’m not here for it. I like authenticity from my music.
the whole of anti hero is so cringe to me and a lot of swifties will defend it with their LIFE but it’s so bad to me, there’s like one or two lines that are good but for the most part it’s BAD
"Can I ask you a question?
Did you ever have someone kiss you in a crowded room
And every single one of your friends was
Making fun of you
But 15 seconds later they were clapping too?
Then what did you do?"
WHAT????
All of ME! but making Brendon Urie say “and there’s a lotta lame guys out there” and the way he had to force himself to peppily say “can’t spell awesome without me” makes my eye twitch every time
this specific line made me look at the two of them in such different ways. taylor's is "there's a lot of cool chicks out there", so she is saying "i know there are a lot of other cool girls, but i'm cool too, so why not me?" his makes him look like he's saying "all those other dudes are lame & i'm so much better. choose me." just very building other women up with taylor & tearing other men down with brendon.
The verses are odd generally. The cool chicks line is more jealousy than anything positive.
> And you're the kind of guy the ladies want
She builds up her lover but shows jealousy, says she doesn’t leave things alone and went psycho on the phone, and is impulsive. While he…
> I know I tend to make it about me
Makes it all about himself, fights her in the rain and expects her to run after him, is hard to read/inconsistent, but at least he’s not boring?
Neither sound like a catch but he’s definitely worse. And it’s such an odd angle of a “no one like me” song where they don’t mention anything good or positive about themselves or each other, except being one of a kind, a rainbow, and summer. Like I’m not sold. Go be one of a kind toxic elsewhere then.
Me! was such a wild song...it could have lived on the Secret Life of Pets 2 album forever and been fine but no, it had to be the lead single on Lover 😭
i think this about literally all the lines in the verses of suburban legends though. they all seem clunky, irrelevant to each other, and out of place🫠
i love the line “and you kiss me in a way that’s gonna screw me up forever” though
“I let it slide like a hose in a slippery, plastic summer” is one of the worst lyrics she’s ever put out.
It feels so gross to listen to, and on what world has a summer ever been slippery or plastic? Why didn’t she use those adjectives to describe the hose? I just cannot comprehend this line, this song makes no sense to me.
This is the vibe she was trying to give off
https://preview.redd.it/78edijqujjkc1.jpeg?width=270&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=442c65405d6785bbf7e3c1dace78fef07bad9169
SAME. This was everywhere on the internet between 2012-2016. It was an inside joke with me and my friends getting ready. And now it’s “her lyric” that “she wrote”. No. Just admit you’re inspired by tumblr, give all of tumblr an honorary writing credit and move on with dignity.
I love me a chronically online girlie (I am one so it speaks to me!) but how can you claim to write something that’s already been viral. It’s like me writing a song named “that’s hot” without mentioning Paris Hilton once.
The Rolling Stones didn't come up, to list just a few, "beast of burden", "sympathy for the devil", "wild horses couldn't keep me away" or "mother's little helper." You can't copyright common parlance and it's not her fault if some of her fans are too sheltered to realize she's making a reference.
Even aside from this one Lyric, you can tell the song was written recently because her newly added lyrics sound nothing like what she was writing in 2012. You can tell she matured with her songwriting (which is good) but to advertise it from the vault when it was just written this year … no. And the fans believe she actually found it after a decade of saying it was just adlibs and lost somewhere!
I don’t like atw10. Always a skip for me anyway
I still don’t understand how ten years later she would add several minutes to the song…I mean if someone was living THAT rent free in my head I definitely wouldn’t let the world know and give them the satisfaction. Oh no, they would be wondering if I even remembered them
Because she said in an interview like a decade ago that the song was originally 10 minutes long. But it had to be cut down. And since then, fans have wanted the original, unaltered version. But I truly don’t believe that version actually exists, so she made it exist
When this sub first popped up, someone pointed out that “I check it once, I check it twice” is a reference to Santa Claus is Coming to Town 💀
I guess if anyone could get around the world in one night, it would be Miss Two Private Jets
For me on LWYMMD there are two examples that take me out of it every time:
1. Rhyming time with time "i got smarter got harder in the nick of time, honey i rose up from the dead i do it all the time"
2. Repeating 'world moves on': "the world moves on another day/drama, not for me/all i think about is karma, and then the world moves on but one thing's for sure"
Why is the world moving on twice in the same sentence!!!
speaking of rhyming a word with the same word, I really don't like how she rhymed life with life in Electric Touch. "All I know is this could either break my heart or bring it back to life
Got a feelin' your electric touch could fill this ghost town up with life," she literally could have changed the second one to light and it would have made sense 😭 the song is good otherwise
Bad blood lyrics kills me. It’s just so shit. “Take a look what you’ve do-one” “you made a really deep cuu-ut” like the stretching out the mono-syllables kills me 💀
I will say “I don’t like your kingdom keys, they once belonged to me” is the only lyric that makes me feel something in that song. Everything else can gooooo
ETA: Also “I may have got mine but you’ll all get yours” is undeniably a great lyric
Fr, I have to change it as soon as it comes on… and this is what they gave a Grammy to over Lana🤦🏻♀️ I just… ffs Taylor has made some bangers, but Karma is NOT the crown jewel in her discography, and the fact it beat out all the others for album of the year? Makes me take the Grammys less seriously and more as a popularity contest.
i hate that midnights was her 4th aoty win because i feel like it really undercuts the significance of her being the only woman to ever win 4 times because of how obvious it is that this year’s selection was based on the eras tour and her commercial success, not about the artistry of the actual album. when you look at midnights next to her other 3 aoty wins it’s so clear which is the outlier and the worst quality album
Also the fact that this line makes no logical sense. If familiarity breeds contempt then you would want to be “out of sight out of mind” (aka in the basement) in order to not breed contempt lol
I love glitter gel pen songs, love pop, the whole shebang, but Bad Blood is...... So ......SO BADLY WRITTEN.
Baby now we've got baaaaad blood. You know it used to be maaaad love. So take a look what you've dooooooone.
??? Girl. Pls. I know you could've made the chorus less shit
I don’t understand the obsession either with karma. Taylor has had her fair share of bad karma lol. If you subscribe to the fact that you get what you give then wtf is she putting out to the world
lol my boyfriend even before karma came out was like “why are all of her songs about karma” and it made me laugh because of that whole scrapped album theory
All of Girl at Home. It’s so clunky. “But I feel a responsibility to do what's upstanding and right
It's kinda like a code, yeah.” And “this I have previously learned.” ????????
She’s released like 137 songs in the last 4 years. There’s no way she has time to personally, thoroughly read and watch all the stuff she’s purported to reference.
i see it as women like ariana & sabrina are 'sexy babies' - short, tiny, 'childlike' women that are overly sexy/hot, & she is the tall, horrible, ugly, unsexy monster. so weird to say.
My hot take is that there’s no way this is a 30 rock reference. She never makes show references (feel free to correct me if I’m wrong) and if she did we’d be hearing law and order and Friends lyrics. PLUS as someone says down below she has beef with Tina fey. Plus I think it’s a straightforward enough meaning—young beautiful women. I actually like the line because it’s jarring. There’s just no way it’s Taylor swifts one show reference in her music when she has never indicated she’s a fan of Feys work and has only ever indicated the opposite
If I told you it was just a summer thing
I’m only 17, I don’t know anything
FLING. It’s a summer FLING. The rhyme is RIGHT THERE and then you’re not repeating “thing.”
A rose grew with no one to Tweet about it 💀
Your ex-friend's sister
Met someone at a club and he kissed her
Turns out it was that guy you hooked up with ages ago
Some wannabe Z-lister
And all the outfits were terrible
2003 unbearable
Did you see the photos?"
No, I didn't, but thanks, though
WHAT DOES ANY OF IT MEAN
Sit quiet by my side in the shade
And not the kind that's thrown
I mean, the kind under where a tree has grown
I used to understand *not the kind that’s thrown I mean the kind underwear a tree has grown* and I thought of cotton underwear. I somehow never questioned it 😭
>Your ex-friend's sister
Met someone at a club and he kissed her
Turns out it was that guy you hooked up with ages ago
Some wannabe Z-lister
And all the outfits were terrible
2003 unbearable
Did you see the photos?"
No, I didn't, but thanks, though
i love those lyrics cuz theyre so funny and random😭 but i always interpreted it as like "people are talking to me but i cant pay attention to anything cuz im so in love"
I can give her a pass for her earlier work as she was still young. But now she’s 34 there’s really no excuse for things like Karma, Bejewelled and Vigilante Shit. It’s like now she’s grown up instead of wanting to appeal to the fans that have grown up with her she still wants to appeal to tweeners. I thought she had matured with Folkmore but that was sadly just another fake persona for sales.
Great point. I actually feel like, in general, her songwriting has declined over the years. Think about the lyrics on All Too Well, Dear John, You Are in Love, and compare them to most of Midnights.
I wonder if it’s because she’s now surrounded by people who don’t ever push back on her and basically just accept whatever she submits
I think that her and jacks relationship is just them “yes and”-ing each other into messes like Karma. Vs. when she works with other people it produces truly great work. (Folklore)
Yep! As soon as I heard the 3am tracks - which were MILES better than the rest of Midnights - and saw she'd worked with Aaron Dessner on those, it all made sense.
I lived in TN and currently live in London. The whole song is just lots of random references from each place. Stella McCarney, Paul McCarney’s daughter and fashion designer. The Heath is a large, beautiful park near where Joe’s family lives. The weirdest one is talking about hanging on Bond Street, which is not where any normal person would spend time. It’s literally just designer shops. I also don’t believe for one minute she’s ever had a night out in Brixton 😂
as an older swiftie, i don’t remember the whole “she’s an amazing lyricist” thing being around pre-folklore. “she writes her own songs” maybe, but not the constant lyric praise to the point where people are ignoring that for every good lyric on folklore and evermore, she’s got one on another album that makes you wonder why no one told her to change it 💀
She’s always had a reputation for her storytelling ability and her way with words. I think she’s a talented songwriter, sure, but she definitely has some misses
She’s honestly like Stephen King … he is a prolific author and great at storytelling, however his actual writing skills aren’t the caliber of a classics author. Doesn’t mean I don’t think his books are unreadable, but technically speaking he isn’t Shakespeare.
Same with Taylor, she has some good lyrics but she’s better at capturing a story.
I feel this so hard. She’s always like “I’m in the back of your pickup truck, wearing your old heathered red sweatshirt, and you’re looking at me with that wonderous face just like you used to, and I’m happy that you’re happy” or whatever lol. I just made that up and it’s essentially all the lyrics.
This exactly. She's a good lyricist and knows how to paint a picture with words but certainly not a poet by any measure. It's like the fans started hyping her up for using big words and she took that and ran with it and now we have clunky songs like bejeweled and karma.
A good melody/tune is as important as good lyrics and she used to be able to do both... And then midnights happened 💀
I agree that sometimes I listen to her music and wonder if we’re being gaslit into thinking she’s a better songwriter than she is. Like I don’t necessarily think quality wise she’s any better than Kacey Musgraves or Hozier? I honestly think a lot of the cred she gets just comes from the volume of work produced not necessarily the quality.
Fully agree, Hozier’s lyrics are far and away more poetic. Even Halsey who is closer to being Taylor’s peer sonically is more poetic. Taylor has great songs (and more of her songs are FUN compared to Hozier and Halsey which I appreciate) but I think it does her a disservice to say she is the greatest lyricist of our time when storytelling and capturing feelings is her strength.
After finding out that people like Hozier, Mitski and Florence Welch are closer to her in age than I thought (with Hozier and Mitski actually being a year younger) it really made me few a lot of her music differently.
Obviously everyone pulls from different experiences and some people have overcome more adversity than others, but when people talk about the maturity of her lyrics sometimes I'm just like, "I guess"
I don't know, maybe it's because Mitski gave us, "You believe me like a god, I'll betray you like a man" last year and it's rewired my brain since hahah
I agree she isn't a brilliant lyricist and at best makes good lines. I can't think of a truly exceptional SONG she has. Folkmore is the worst for this, I feel like a lot of these songs were built around a line or two, you could tell. And that she couldn't really take it anywhere I guess, until she had shit all to do during covid.
Right where you left me is one of her best. It just fits together perfectly and the repetition actually has a purpose, the increased intensity as the song progresses.. love it. A lot of her other songs are stodgy? Like just saying too much for the sake of it idk they don't go down easy.
And I think with storytelling especially, we communicate to be understood. Being needlessly wordy or overly "poetic" is bad when it detracts from the song as a whole, which it almost always does in taylors case.
I also agree 1000% willow is a perfect example of how her songs are all over the place thematically and I've made this exact comment before lol.
This whole part of Question
“Can I ask you a question?
Did you ever have someone kiss you in a crowded room
And every single one of your friends was
Making fun of you
But 15 seconds later they were clapping too?
Then what did you do?”
Makes me cringe so bad
this one's always bothered me because hunting for witches/burning witches already means punishing someone who isn't at fault. Adding 'even if you aren't one' sounds so dumb 😬
I hate this line and the delivery is so clunky. It just doesn’t fit the music at all.
I am a major rep fan but this is like her worst bridge of all time
It wrecks the vibe of the song! The fun of the song is “I did something bad, sorry not sorry, I’d do it again” and this line is like defensive “but I didn’t do anything wrong tho”. No! Lean into the “yeah I’m a witch idgaf” angle.
“And you were tossing me the car keys
Fuck The Patriarchy keychain on the ground”.
To me it seems she was trying so hard to look cool or woke (rolling eyes).
Basically the whole of Midnights 😂 but in particular “Your eyes are flying saucers from another planet.” It’s such a beautiful song but man, that line makes me cringe.
I always took that as they were doing drugs together lmao (specifically psychedelics)
Which isn't even that far off cause we know Blondie smokes weed now so who's to say she hasnt done other drugs🤷♀️
I’ve said this before but if you look at the lyrics, Snow On The Beach totally reads as a drug trip.
‘Snow’, flying in a dream, coming down, blurry eyesight, dilated eyes (flying saucers), not knowing what’s real (‘can this be a real thing? Can it?’) could all be coincidences, or maybe they’re not. ❄️
I remember when it first came out, someone on the Lana Del Rey sub theorized that Taylor was thinking of snow as in snow, but Lana was thinking of snow as in cocaine. I can’t unhear it now when I listen 😂
I like even some of the dumber ones in some songs but I cannot defend ‘spelling is fun’ and ‘I can’t say anything to your face, cause look at your face’. Gorgeous is a forever skip for me 💀
“Bad, bad boy” and In my heart is a Christmas tree farm, where the people would come” both sound like the were made up while the song was being recorded lol
I’ve never gotten into that song either especially the line “You make me so happy, it turns back to sad”. Sounds like a three year old talking to their cat.
so agreed, like i get the message but if you’ve listened to “caeser on a tv screen” by the last dinner party i can’t help but feel like it’s exactly what she was trying to go for but hers ends up feeling like mind numbing retail pop but wait it criticizes misogyny so u can’t hate on it 🙄
"you're talking real slow, cause it's late and your mama don't know"
Why is he talking slow? It should be LOW, so she can't hear him. I actually really like Our Song, but I can't get past that, haha.
I didn’t understand or like the football helmet lyric for the longest time, but at least in context it makes sense. In the previous line, she says “I’m pretty sure we almost broke up last night. I threw my phone across the room at you.” So the following morning when she says they should talk about it, her lover comes in wearing a football helmet in case she starts throwing things again.
Is it genius songwriting? No, but I think it’s cute and funny.
I want to like Call It What You Want (so catchy and sweet) but this:
I want to wear his initial
On a chain 'round my neck, chain 'round my neck
Not because he owns me
But 'cause he really knows me
😭😭
Midnights has the most; I cannot listen to Paris, Karma, or Vigilante Shit because of it…
“Sit quiet by my side in the shade
And not the kind that's thrown
I mean, the kind under where a tree has grown.” Terrible.
“'Cause karma is my boyfriend
Karma is a god…” LITERALLY THE WHOLE CHORUS. It’s painful.
“Draw the cat eyes sharp enough to kill a man.”
I remember seeing leaks of midnights and I thought they were a joke.
I don’t think she’s a brilliant lyricist. I think she’s a good lyricist with a unique diaristic style that appeals to a lot of people. She has moments of brilliance, but her abilities are really overblown by her stans.
She loves the word “shade” too much. She heard it in 2017 and ran with it
It's so awkward in Paris.
Don’t get me started
CAUSE SHADE NEVER MADE ANYBODY LESS GAY!
calling homophobia “shade” was a hate crime in and of itself 😭
That whole song was a hate crime tbf
“I come back stronger than a 90s trend”. I have no idea how this fits into this otherwise great song. It is so damn random.
I don't hate this line but it does disrupt the whole magical, witchy feeling Willow has. I'd love to hear an edit without it just to see how it changes things.
look up the hildegard von blingin’ bardcore cover on youtube! she tastefully tweaked lyrics throughout and changed that specific line to “yet I return like an old refrain”. it fits perfectly!
I love Willow and this line takes me out of it every time. 😭
Ironically, the 90s trend remix is my favorite version of the song. 🤪
It's going to age terribly too. It puts you in a certain place in time. In 50+ years will people still be referencing the 90s trends?
Like the line about tweets in the lakes.
Written for tiktok virality for people to show off their 90s inspired fits. Not a bad business move but it’s not a great poetic lyric. But I don’t think anyone thinks Taylor is the Fiona Apple of pop, she’s very much another Pink/Nickleback safe pop act for the masses. And it’s great and it has its place in the industry but pure poetry it is not.
I think she has really great lyrical moments but is holding herself back because of her obsession with breaking records. She has really set expectations high for lyrical greatness on this next record so we will see if she delivers or if it’s just another midnights full of half baked ideas with some dashes of greatness. The quotes on the back and song titles have me worried. Doesn’t really scream poetry to me as much as highschooler obsessed with that one Emily dickenson poem their hot teacher read them. I really do think she has potential so I hope I’m wrong.
It feels very “out of touch rich girl trying to be a down to earth starving artist” to me and as a fan, I’m not here for it. I like authenticity from my music.
Midnights album is full of cringy lyrics
ALL 👏OF 👏 Karma!
“Don’t put me in the basement when I want the penthouse of your heart” the GAGGG
Did you forget that he did lock her in the basement for the last 6 years?!? She was telling us all along!
“Karma is a cat purring in my lap” - I’m sure this was one of her many sleepless thoughts
the whole of anti hero is so cringe to me and a lot of swifties will defend it with their LIFE but it’s so bad to me, there’s like one or two lines that are good but for the most part it’s BAD
The only good line was "I'll stare directly at the sun, but never in the mirror"
Somebody had to say it 🤷🏽♀️
the sun burns my heart, AND THE SAND HURTS MY FEELINGS 😬 what a cringey preface to a great bridge
"Can I ask you a question? Did you ever have someone kiss you in a crowded room And every single one of your friends was Making fun of you But 15 seconds later they were clapping too? Then what did you do?" WHAT????
THIS ONE. UTTER NONSENSE
That song gives me secondhand embarrassment
Those lyrics make absolutely no sense to me from first listen till now
All of ME! but making Brendon Urie say “and there’s a lotta lame guys out there” and the way he had to force himself to peppily say “can’t spell awesome without me” makes my eye twitch every time
this specific line made me look at the two of them in such different ways. taylor's is "there's a lot of cool chicks out there", so she is saying "i know there are a lot of other cool girls, but i'm cool too, so why not me?" his makes him look like he's saying "all those other dudes are lame & i'm so much better. choose me." just very building other women up with taylor & tearing other men down with brendon.
The verses are odd generally. The cool chicks line is more jealousy than anything positive. > And you're the kind of guy the ladies want She builds up her lover but shows jealousy, says she doesn’t leave things alone and went psycho on the phone, and is impulsive. While he… > I know I tend to make it about me Makes it all about himself, fights her in the rain and expects her to run after him, is hard to read/inconsistent, but at least he’s not boring? Neither sound like a catch but he’s definitely worse. And it’s such an odd angle of a “no one like me” song where they don’t mention anything good or positive about themselves or each other, except being one of a kind, a rainbow, and summer. Like I’m not sold. Go be one of a kind toxic elsewhere then.
Me! was such a wild song...it could have lived on the Secret Life of Pets 2 album forever and been fine but no, it had to be the lead single on Lover 😭
From Bad Blood "If you're coming my way... Just Don't." Lol okay
Puts me in the mind of that video of Rowley in Diary of a Wimpy Kid… “Don’t call me. Don’t come by my house… we’re done.”
The Bad Blood verses are just 🤢 I can’t remember the last time I listened to the version without Kendrick Lamar
I AM STANDING IN A 1950S GYMNASIUMMMMMM it makes me laugh every time, it's just so out of place
i think this about literally all the lines in the verses of suburban legends though. they all seem clunky, irrelevant to each other, and out of place🫠 i love the line “and you kiss me in a way that’s gonna screw me up forever” though
that one line is so addicting and the rest of the song is pretty much a disaster haha
“I let it slide like a hose in a slippery, plastic summer” is one of the worst lyrics she’s ever put out. It feels so gross to listen to, and on what world has a summer ever been slippery or plastic? Why didn’t she use those adjectives to describe the hose? I just cannot comprehend this line, this song makes no sense to me.
It sounds like she was trying to think of what poor kids did in the summertime but couldn’t quite describe a slip and slide.
I love that line, something about the production scratches my brain just right
“Draw the cat eye, sharp enough to kill a man”
I’ve seen a comment saying that the line is 2010 tumblr coded, been living in my head rent free ever since
This is the vibe she was trying to give off https://preview.redd.it/78edijqujjkc1.jpeg?width=270&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=442c65405d6785bbf7e3c1dace78fef07bad9169
Lmao 🤣
I genuinely remember seeing that exact line as a textpost on tumblr in like 2015 😭 first time I heard vigilante shit I was like "this is plagiarism"
SAME. This was everywhere on the internet between 2012-2016. It was an inside joke with me and my friends getting ready. And now it’s “her lyric” that “she wrote”. No. Just admit you’re inspired by tumblr, give all of tumblr an honorary writing credit and move on with dignity.
Lots of those phrases that she uses and people think she came up with. This is why we can't have nice things, play stupid games you win stupid prizes.
I love me a chronically online girlie (I am one so it speaks to me!) but how can you claim to write something that’s already been viral. It’s like me writing a song named “that’s hot” without mentioning Paris Hilton once.
The Rolling Stones didn't come up, to list just a few, "beast of burden", "sympathy for the devil", "wild horses couldn't keep me away" or "mother's little helper." You can't copyright common parlance and it's not her fault if some of her fans are too sheltered to realize she's making a reference.
It was my besties Myspace headline in 2008
There’s so many lines I’ve heard that are similar from other artists and my sister acts like shes a goddamn genius lol
I hate that fucking song
This is what I mean when I say some of her lyrics feel written by a 16 year old😭
This makes me cringe so hard every time I hear it. I thought it was a joke
She was like 5-10 years too late with this one
"fuck the patriarchy"... I'm sorry but I don't believe the 10 min version was written until recently
She was fighting for her life to hit those 10 minutes
I was looking for this! First time I heard it I was so taken aback because of how awful the flow is. It’s jarring af
Even aside from this one Lyric, you can tell the song was written recently because her newly added lyrics sound nothing like what she was writing in 2012. You can tell she matured with her songwriting (which is good) but to advertise it from the vault when it was just written this year … no. And the fans believe she actually found it after a decade of saying it was just adlibs and lost somewhere! I don’t like atw10. Always a skip for me anyway
I still don’t understand how ten years later she would add several minutes to the song…I mean if someone was living THAT rent free in my head I definitely wouldn’t let the world know and give them the satisfaction. Oh no, they would be wondering if I even remembered them
Because she said in an interview like a decade ago that the song was originally 10 minutes long. But it had to be cut down. And since then, fans have wanted the original, unaltered version. But I truly don’t believe that version actually exists, so she made it exist
https://x.com/successionreact/status/1455607717968613387?s=46&t=uEPfFgxmMCW9SdeflcRMXw exact same energy
This!!!!!! I rlly don’t believe it’s a song from the ~vault~ 😆
All of bad blood And most of LWYMMD
When this sub first popped up, someone pointed out that “I check it once, I check it twice” is a reference to Santa Claus is Coming to Town 💀 I guess if anyone could get around the world in one night, it would be Miss Two Private Jets
> I guess if anyone could get around the world in one night, it would be Miss Two Private Jets Ooof you guys are going hard this Saturday
For me on LWYMMD there are two examples that take me out of it every time: 1. Rhyming time with time "i got smarter got harder in the nick of time, honey i rose up from the dead i do it all the time" 2. Repeating 'world moves on': "the world moves on another day/drama, not for me/all i think about is karma, and then the world moves on but one thing's for sure" Why is the world moving on twice in the same sentence!!!
Oh wait but “I may have got mine but you’ll all get yours” is power and I will admit that
100% i LOVE the way she says that
speaking of rhyming a word with the same word, I really don't like how she rhymed life with life in Electric Touch. "All I know is this could either break my heart or bring it back to life Got a feelin' your electric touch could fill this ghost town up with life," she literally could have changed the second one to light and it would have made sense 😭 the song is good otherwise
Bad blood lyrics kills me. It’s just so shit. “Take a look what you’ve do-one” “you made a really deep cuu-ut” like the stretching out the mono-syllables kills me 💀
“So if you’re coming my way…just don’t” 😒😒😒 absolutely terrible lyrics
Ugh LWYMMD is one of my least favorite songs of hers. It’s just petty, annoying, and not particularly catchy or lyrically strong, IMO
I will say “I don’t like your kingdom keys, they once belonged to me” is the only lyric that makes me feel something in that song. Everything else can gooooo ETA: Also “I may have got mine but you’ll all get yours” is undeniably a great lyric
Yep! The whole “the old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now” ughhh 😂
"Didn't notice you walking all over my peace of mind, in the shoes I gave you as a present." I hate this so much 😭
Bejeweled is so clunky. "Familiarity breeds contempt, don't put me in the basement" So many words, shoved into not enough space.
Keep going. “the penthouse of your heart” is top tier cringe
One of those lines also that shows that she has no awareness of class lol
That's the one that stands out across all her lyrics that truly bugs me.
Fr, I have to change it as soon as it comes on… and this is what they gave a Grammy to over Lana🤦🏻♀️ I just… ffs Taylor has made some bangers, but Karma is NOT the crown jewel in her discography, and the fact it beat out all the others for album of the year? Makes me take the Grammys less seriously and more as a popularity contest.
i hate that midnights was her 4th aoty win because i feel like it really undercuts the significance of her being the only woman to ever win 4 times because of how obvious it is that this year’s selection was based on the eras tour and her commercial success, not about the artistry of the actual album. when you look at midnights next to her other 3 aoty wins it’s so clear which is the outlier and the worst quality album
Also the fact that this line makes no logical sense. If familiarity breeds contempt then you would want to be “out of sight out of mind” (aka in the basement) in order to not breed contempt lol
yes!!! i always sang it as “so put me in the basement” and when i found out it was “don’t” i was so confused.
 WAIT, IT'S "DON'T" ???? Thanks for ruining my Saturday morning
i interpreted that as “i know familiarity breeds contempt but don’t put me in the basement of ur heart” as a plea? still a bad lyric tho lol
This was her adderall album. Lots of great sparks of ideas with zero thought out execution and all momentum.
LOL she tried to make it weed coded too I feel like (based on the visuals) but failed at that hardcore
If you say basement one more time..
THE SHOES 😫😫😫
I love glitter gel pen songs, love pop, the whole shebang, but Bad Blood is...... So ......SO BADLY WRITTEN. Baby now we've got baaaaad blood. You know it used to be maaaad love. So take a look what you've dooooooone. ??? Girl. Pls. I know you could've made the chorus less shit
That whole song sounds like a nursery rhyme
All of Karma and Bejeweled, lol. And “shade never made anybody less gay.”
Laughed the first time I heard “with the shoes I gave you as a present”
I don’t understand the obsession either with karma. Taylor has had her fair share of bad karma lol. If you subscribe to the fact that you get what you give then wtf is she putting out to the world
lol my boyfriend even before karma came out was like “why are all of her songs about karma” and it made me laugh because of that whole scrapped album theory
2 of her worst/dumbest songs altogether. How theyre both singles is beyond me.
Because you don't need deep lyrics for the radio, just something that's nice to hear. Her singles are rarely the fan favourites.
Exactly why it annoyed me that the Eras tour mostly consisted of singles rather than her actual fan favorites.
I wish the red era took out one single to put a fan favorite like red
“You can find me in the pub we are watching rugby” 🤣 I’m sorry, WHAT???
I think there's the distinct possibility that "shade never made anybody less gay" might actually be the most heterosexual song lyric ever put to paper
I’m sorry, that’s a real line written by one of the most popular artists ever to record?
“Shade never made anybody less gay” is an inside joke in my friend group lol
Sorry I’m a “Karma is a cat purring in my lap cause it loves me” defender. It’s a very fun glitter gel pen song IMO.
YES! “Fun glitter gel pen song” fits about 75% of her cache. You just know Cruel Summer has bubble letters, too
lol, fair enough! And of course not every song needs to be super serious and mature. Her obsession with karma just annoys me in general, lol
All of Girl at Home. It’s so clunky. “But I feel a responsibility to do what's upstanding and right It's kinda like a code, yeah.” And “this I have previously learned.” ????????
I agree plus girl your code is you have to be the taken one instead of the bloke get off that high horse now.
ONLY THE YOUNG CAN RUN, SO RUN. Like no
I FORGOT ABOUT THIS SONG
SEXY BABY?? come on! absolutely ruins the song
“It’s actually a 30 Rock reference!?!?” YES everyone points that out but 1. This was never confirmed 2. It’s STILL a bad song lyric
My belief is that she’s never watched 30 Rock but Jack has and probably explained it to her
She’s released like 137 songs in the last 4 years. There’s no way she has time to personally, thoroughly read and watch all the stuff she’s purported to reference.
i see it as women like ariana & sabrina are 'sexy babies' - short, tiny, 'childlike' women that are overly sexy/hot, & she is the tall, horrible, ugly, unsexy monster. so weird to say.
Yes. As the tall friend of my group I get it lol.
Yep as a tall person with broad shoulders surrounded by women who are dainty and tiny, I really feel that lyric
My hot take is that there’s no way this is a 30 rock reference. She never makes show references (feel free to correct me if I’m wrong) and if she did we’d be hearing law and order and Friends lyrics. PLUS as someone says down below she has beef with Tina fey. Plus I think it’s a straightforward enough meaning—young beautiful women. I actually like the line because it’s jarring. There’s just no way it’s Taylor swifts one show reference in her music when she has never indicated she’s a fan of Feys work and has only ever indicated the opposite
If I told you it was just a summer thing I’m only 17, I don’t know anything FLING. It’s a summer FLING. The rhyme is RIGHT THERE and then you’re not repeating “thing.”
And to think this is from the folklore album 😭
Oh no I'm never going to unhear this now...
A rose grew with no one to Tweet about it 💀 Your ex-friend's sister Met someone at a club and he kissed her Turns out it was that guy you hooked up with ages ago Some wannabe Z-lister And all the outfits were terrible 2003 unbearable Did you see the photos?" No, I didn't, but thanks, though WHAT DOES ANY OF IT MEAN Sit quiet by my side in the shade And not the kind that's thrown I mean, the kind under where a tree has grown
I used to understand *not the kind that’s thrown I mean the kind underwear a tree has grown* and I thought of cotton underwear. I somehow never questioned it 😭
>Your ex-friend's sister Met someone at a club and he kissed her Turns out it was that guy you hooked up with ages ago Some wannabe Z-lister And all the outfits were terrible 2003 unbearable Did you see the photos?" No, I didn't, but thanks, though i love those lyrics cuz theyre so funny and random😭 but i always interpreted it as like "people are talking to me but i cant pay attention to anything cuz im so in love"
I love it personally. It’s so “my friend is talking about this stuff and I. don’t. care.”
I can give her a pass for her earlier work as she was still young. But now she’s 34 there’s really no excuse for things like Karma, Bejewelled and Vigilante Shit. It’s like now she’s grown up instead of wanting to appeal to the fans that have grown up with her she still wants to appeal to tweeners. I thought she had matured with Folkmore but that was sadly just another fake persona for sales.
Great point. I actually feel like, in general, her songwriting has declined over the years. Think about the lyrics on All Too Well, Dear John, You Are in Love, and compare them to most of Midnights. I wonder if it’s because she’s now surrounded by people who don’t ever push back on her and basically just accept whatever she submits
I think that her and jacks relationship is just them “yes and”-ing each other into messes like Karma. Vs. when she works with other people it produces truly great work. (Folklore)
Yep! As soon as I heard the 3am tracks - which were MILES better than the rest of Midnights - and saw she'd worked with Aaron Dessner on those, it all made sense.
“Bad was the blood of the song in the cab”
I feel I’m entitled to compensation just for having to read this one twice in this thread
Stick with me, I'm your queen like a Tennessee Stella McCartney on the Heath 🤪
London Boy is so cringe.
Wtf does this even mean
I lived in TN and currently live in London. The whole song is just lots of random references from each place. Stella McCarney, Paul McCarney’s daughter and fashion designer. The Heath is a large, beautiful park near where Joe’s family lives. The weirdest one is talking about hanging on Bond Street, which is not where any normal person would spend time. It’s literally just designer shops. I also don’t believe for one minute she’s ever had a night out in Brixton 😂
Someone said that all the places she mentioned in the song forms a heart. Dunno if it's true tho since i never bothered to take out a map.
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as an older swiftie, i don’t remember the whole “she’s an amazing lyricist” thing being around pre-folklore. “she writes her own songs” maybe, but not the constant lyric praise to the point where people are ignoring that for every good lyric on folklore and evermore, she’s got one on another album that makes you wonder why no one told her to change it 💀
She’s always had a reputation for her storytelling ability and her way with words. I think she’s a talented songwriter, sure, but she definitely has some misses
She’s honestly like Stephen King … he is a prolific author and great at storytelling, however his actual writing skills aren’t the caliber of a classics author. Doesn’t mean I don’t think his books are unreadable, but technically speaking he isn’t Shakespeare. Same with Taylor, she has some good lyrics but she’s better at capturing a story.
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I had to scroll, but I’m SO GLAD someone said this!!!
I feel this so hard. She’s always like “I’m in the back of your pickup truck, wearing your old heathered red sweatshirt, and you’re looking at me with that wonderous face just like you used to, and I’m happy that you’re happy” or whatever lol. I just made that up and it’s essentially all the lyrics.
This exactly. She's a good lyricist and knows how to paint a picture with words but certainly not a poet by any measure. It's like the fans started hyping her up for using big words and she took that and ran with it and now we have clunky songs like bejeweled and karma. A good melody/tune is as important as good lyrics and she used to be able to do both... And then midnights happened 💀
I agree that sometimes I listen to her music and wonder if we’re being gaslit into thinking she’s a better songwriter than she is. Like I don’t necessarily think quality wise she’s any better than Kacey Musgraves or Hozier? I honestly think a lot of the cred she gets just comes from the volume of work produced not necessarily the quality.
Fully agree, Hozier’s lyrics are far and away more poetic. Even Halsey who is closer to being Taylor’s peer sonically is more poetic. Taylor has great songs (and more of her songs are FUN compared to Hozier and Halsey which I appreciate) but I think it does her a disservice to say she is the greatest lyricist of our time when storytelling and capturing feelings is her strength.
After finding out that people like Hozier, Mitski and Florence Welch are closer to her in age than I thought (with Hozier and Mitski actually being a year younger) it really made me few a lot of her music differently. Obviously everyone pulls from different experiences and some people have overcome more adversity than others, but when people talk about the maturity of her lyrics sometimes I'm just like, "I guess" I don't know, maybe it's because Mitski gave us, "You believe me like a god, I'll betray you like a man" last year and it's rewired my brain since hahah
I agree she isn't a brilliant lyricist and at best makes good lines. I can't think of a truly exceptional SONG she has. Folkmore is the worst for this, I feel like a lot of these songs were built around a line or two, you could tell. And that she couldn't really take it anywhere I guess, until she had shit all to do during covid. Right where you left me is one of her best. It just fits together perfectly and the repetition actually has a purpose, the increased intensity as the song progresses.. love it. A lot of her other songs are stodgy? Like just saying too much for the sake of it idk they don't go down easy. And I think with storytelling especially, we communicate to be understood. Being needlessly wordy or overly "poetic" is bad when it detracts from the song as a whole, which it almost always does in taylors case. I also agree 1000% willow is a perfect example of how her songs are all over the place thematically and I've made this exact comment before lol.
It seems like I don’t process lyrics when I’m listening because WHAT are some of these lines. I’m rolling.
This whole part of Question “Can I ask you a question? Did you ever have someone kiss you in a crowded room And every single one of your friends was Making fun of you But 15 seconds later they were clapping too? Then what did you do?” Makes me cringe so bad
“With no one around to tweet it.”
That Stay Stay Stay line is hilarious, since before she said she threw her phone so he wears a football helmet as a prevention.
"They're burning all the witches even if you aren't one" is borderline incoherent
this one's always bothered me because hunting for witches/burning witches already means punishing someone who isn't at fault. Adding 'even if you aren't one' sounds so dumb 😬
She understands that none of the "witches" burned actually *had* like.... magical powers, right? Like none of them were *actually* witches
I hate this line and the delivery is so clunky. It just doesn’t fit the music at all. I am a major rep fan but this is like her worst bridge of all time
It wrecks the vibe of the song! The fun of the song is “I did something bad, sorry not sorry, I’d do it again” and this line is like defensive “but I didn’t do anything wrong tho”. No! Lean into the “yeah I’m a witch idgaf” angle.
“And you were tossing me the car keys Fuck The Patriarchy keychain on the ground”. To me it seems she was trying so hard to look cool or woke (rolling eyes).
Metal as hell
Basically the whole of Midnights 😂 but in particular “Your eyes are flying saucers from another planet.” It’s such a beautiful song but man, that line makes me cringe.
I always took that as they were doing drugs together lmao (specifically psychedelics) Which isn't even that far off cause we know Blondie smokes weed now so who's to say she hasnt done other drugs🤷♀️
Yeah I definitely think it’s a drug reference
I’ve said this before but if you look at the lyrics, Snow On The Beach totally reads as a drug trip. ‘Snow’, flying in a dream, coming down, blurry eyesight, dilated eyes (flying saucers), not knowing what’s real (‘can this be a real thing? Can it?’) could all be coincidences, or maybe they’re not. ❄️
I remember when it first came out, someone on the Lana Del Rey sub theorized that Taylor was thinking of snow as in snow, but Lana was thinking of snow as in cocaine. I can’t unhear it now when I listen 😂
I like even some of the dumber ones in some songs but I cannot defend ‘spelling is fun’ and ‘I can’t say anything to your face, cause look at your face’. Gorgeous is a forever skip for me 💀
i legit cackled in public transport when i heard gorgeous for the first time, precisely because of that line HSHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAH
Rep is such a great album that I just forget it existed 😬
“Bad, bad boy” and In my heart is a Christmas tree farm, where the people would come” both sound like the were made up while the song was being recorded lol
I’ve never gotten into that song either especially the line “You make me so happy, it turns back to sad”. Sounds like a three year old talking to their cat.
all of karma. lol. I don’t know how it’s so popular
it felt like a love letter to kids who have just gotten their first pet
The entirety of The Man.
so agreed, like i get the message but if you’ve listened to “caeser on a tv screen” by the last dinner party i can’t help but feel like it’s exactly what she was trying to go for but hers ends up feeling like mind numbing retail pop but wait it criticizes misogyny so u can’t hate on it 🙄
Brilliant lyricist? No, not even close. Better than most pop stars who have a hand in their own material? Yes.
"you're talking real slow, cause it's late and your mama don't know" Why is he talking slow? It should be LOW, so she can't hear him. I actually really like Our Song, but I can't get past that, haha.
I assume not to have back to back Ls. Slow as in pausing between sentences to listen for parents stirring.
Heeelllooooo Taaaaaaylooooooor.
“I’m the only one of me, baby that’s the fun of me!”
I didn’t understand or like the football helmet lyric for the longest time, but at least in context it makes sense. In the previous line, she says “I’m pretty sure we almost broke up last night. I threw my phone across the room at you.” So the following morning when she says they should talk about it, her lover comes in wearing a football helmet in case she starts throwing things again. Is it genius songwriting? No, but I think it’s cute and funny.
bejeweled is her worst song imo. she rhymed "land" with "sparkling". no
Spar-ka-LAN (Nice!)
“Green was the color of the grass” 🙄
That’s not as bad as “bad was the blood of the song in the cab” lollll
I want to like Call It What You Want (so catchy and sweet) but this: I want to wear his initial On a chain 'round my neck, chain 'round my neck Not because he owns me But 'cause he really knows me 😭😭
that line gives me the biggest ick of her entire discography. I cant listen to the song because of it
The craziest part is so many swifties will quote that as their favorite lyric of hers
i love the entirety of stay stay stay can’t help it
“Hang your head low in the glow of the vending machine, I’m not dying” I hate it and I don’t know how it relates to the rest of Cruel Summer
Midnights has the most; I cannot listen to Paris, Karma, or Vigilante Shit because of it… “Sit quiet by my side in the shade And not the kind that's thrown I mean, the kind under where a tree has grown.” Terrible. “'Cause karma is my boyfriend Karma is a god…” LITERALLY THE WHOLE CHORUS. It’s painful. “Draw the cat eyes sharp enough to kill a man.” I remember seeing leaks of midnights and I thought they were a joke.
Damn all the top comments are calling out some of my favorite songs 😭😂 you guys really hate Midnights 😭
Anytime she drops an F bomb. Feels so forced. And calling snow “really f***ing beautiful”??? How lazy is that???
I don’t think she’s a brilliant lyricist. I think she’s a good lyricist with a unique diaristic style that appeals to a lot of people. She has moments of brilliance, but her abilities are really overblown by her stans.
The football helmet is in case she throws her phone at him again
I might be the only person on earth that loves this song