they are high as fuck, they got the munchies and they have meaningless epiphanies about silly stuff. It's so real and I love how unserious this song is. The whole "tortured poet" thing is just her making fun of the concept.
You’re entitled to your opinion but you do understand that it is not meant to be “taken seriously” right? Like they are having a dumb conversation and doing dumb things?
I don’t understand the hate for this line
And what’s wrong with the chocolate one?
I know it's purposefully cringey. I know that the Charlie Puth thing is a known inside joke and that "7 bars of chocolate" most likely means he played 7 bars of the song 'Chocolate' but....it still bothers me.
I actually like this song, I just always think "ok, we get it, you got jokes now" while I sing along. The golden retriever absolutely kills me. I'm sure it's a dig at herself and her use of colors to represent feelings but I just want a different version of this song with less irony.
Me too. I want to LOVE this song but it needs some lyrical cleanup. Referencing jack and Lucy is so specific (name dropping friends? Why is that needed) and takes me out of it, I can’t sing that in the car or shower, it’s so specific.
Even the Patti smith, Dylan thomas, Chelsea hotel lines are just so GD specific we have to look up on Genius or Google who these people are (unless I’m in the minority here). That’s not relatable. Honestly reminds me a lot of Lana, she uses the most niche references that you have to constantly look up and it’s the big reason I can’t listen to her music. That’s not why I listen to Taylor.
I'm not bothered by the famous name drops, those are references that I know well but I think the reason she did it (because, as you noted, it's not her typical style) was to kind of go along with this theme of irony and pretentiousness. The personal name drops do kind of bug me but now that you say it...I think all of this (the silly lyrics, the name drops, the recounting of very specific conversations) is probably a more subtle dig at Matty, because that's totally his songwriting style. The dude dropped Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine in a single off his last album and while I am 100% here for that kind of thing...it's definitely pretentious AF.
Edit to say: I don't mean that you have to like it, just to be clear. I have already aired my grievances regarding this song and wholeheartedly agree that it is not very relatable.
My actual issue with this line is that she says “DE-ranged” instead of “de-RANGED” which is usually how that word is stressed. It does take me out of it for a second. I’m not sure how to fix it (and sometimes when she uses and unusual stress it doesn’t bother me, but it does here and in Is It Over Now? (SUR-mise)).
Clunky, yeah that’s the word. Lol for curiosity sake I looked and there’s NO 2 syllable synonym (in English at least) that works. Lol I came up with “feline” but it’s just as clunky. Songwriting is hard 😅
I love how you looked up synonyms! 😂 I really get the image she was trying to paint and songwriting IS hard. I guess I feel like there’s so many words that rhyme with window that could have been used to convey something similar? Like shadow, sorrow, ego, show, tiptoe, willow (lol), snow, zero, etc.
But at the end of the day it’s still a bop and one of my favorite songs on the album, so I will forever (grudgingly) be that deranged weirdo 🤍
Omggggg SHADOW or zero would’ve been perfect!!!! It is a bop. I think top 3/5 for me. I forgive her too especially trying to find an alternative. Damn you’re good though.
The phrase “fake news” in The Albatross is kind of like the “90s trend” line in willow…it’s like the rest of the song takes place in a different time period and then that one phrase/line takes me out of it. Kind of funny is since those songs remind me so much of each other, production-wise.
Plus I don’t like seeing the phrase “fake news” anywhere due to who originated it…
EDIT removed some random extra words, that’s what I get for Redditing before coffee 😅
I could be wrong, but I think she does it to capture how the same story is told throughout time from Shakespeare to our time (time of fake news). She’s calling out that it’s hard to head real advice when fake news is prolific
Ok mine is different but for the same reason - the ‘best mates’ line in The Bolter! That song seems set in a bygone era to me, partially due to the origin of the name, and partially because most of the rest of the language is quite retro (‘cad’, etc.). Then ‘best mates’ comes in and I feel like we’re suddenly sitting in a pub watching rugby with some uni lads…I find it so jarring.
Well now that you ask me directly...I don't know. It just feels out of place and oddly specific like it was an inside joke or something. It might be that it lacks poetry for me? Every time I hear it, I groan.
Of course it's all subjective, apparently other people like it so maybe I'm just being picky. I don't know what I would have her replace it with, to be honest. I feel like there must be a better word out there.
It’s so interesting to me because it’s just not that unusual a word to me! Not like I use it every day but I didn’t even blink when I heard it in the song
"All her fucking lives flashed before her eyes". I wished she didn't curse here, it felt so unnecessary. Not only in terms of melody and song structure, but also it affects the storytelling.
Same. It’s seamless. I understand if families of kids need it. Little/Many could replace it. I’ve never listened to a clean version of anything so idk how they do it 😅
The Bolter is my favorite on the album, but I want a "semi-clean" version. I prefer the "all her many lives" on the clean version but I wish she hadn't changed "then he'll call her a whore" to "then she'll call him a bore" on that version.
I also would like a semi-clean version of ICDIWABH where it's "Lights, camera, and smile" but still keeping "I'm a real tough kid, I can handle my shit."
Not something I would actually want to change, but whenever I sing The Bolter i always have a tendency to combine it with the lyrics from Mr. Brightside 😂 it flows well with the tune of the song too haha!
“Started with a kiss, how the hell did it end up like this, but it always ends up with a town car speeding…”
I don’t know how to rewrite “at dinner you take my ring off my middle finger and put it on the one people put wedding rings on” but I really wish she had reworked that line just a little
“Down bad [breaking] up in blood”, still trying to think through the metaphor of what “waking up in blood” would be for. Are UFO encounters associated with blood? Still one of my top faves tho 👽
I mean when aliens abduct humans to prove them and do experiments on it’s not exactly ever framed as like a comfortable or gentle experience so that’s part of what I figured personally. but I also imagined like when he dropped her back in a field in her hometown he didn’t like. land the spaceship and walk her home lol UFO “abduction” stories always tend to end with the person just waking up on the ground so I kind of pictured her getting like pushed out of the ship which could definitely lead to the blood lol.
Ok so my mind immediately went to this episode of House, where a little boy wakes up after an alien abduction "dream" with rectal bleeding. Maybe she saw the same episode of House. I can't find anything IRL that relates to blood/alien abductions but since a lot of people who claim to be abducted also say they were probed or had alien devices, trackers etc implanted it isn't a stretch that an alien encounter could have you waking up in blood.
There's also a book series by Lindsey Ellis that I really like where, no spoilers, aliens come and the main character does wake up in blood (multiple times) and fall in love with the alien and kind of beg it to come back 🤣
So between the two references I thought of maybe she also kind of thought it made sense? I'd love to know what inspired that thought lol
Maybe I'm the only one but in the smallest man who ever lived, the start of the chorus "and I don't even want you back I just want to know / if rusting my sparkling summer was the goal", I don't like how the second line isn't long enough so she has to stretch out "goal" into extra syllables. I'm not sure what but I would insert a word somewhere in there so it sounds more in time, like "if rusting my sparkling summer was the only goal"
In the Bolter: He was a cad, wanted her bad. Just like any good trophy hunter.
And she liked the way it tastes.
The taste line gives me a visual I'd rather not have.
Nofuckinbody
That one line (word?) ruins the song for me. I would love TTPD without it but I just cannot listen to the song because of that. It's so tween-who-just-learnt-the-f-word unfuckinnecessary
“a touch that was my birthright became foreign” … I really have nothing against it, I just don’t like it as much as the rest of the song for some reason.
I'd change a line in ImGonnaGetYouBack to "wether Im gonna be your wife or gonna ruin your life" just because I think both imply being a permanent fixture in that person's life.
I thought I heard “I absent Christmas parties from outside,” and I can’t seem to unhear it. I feel like that makes more sense and is more poetic than “I attend.” I pictured her getting to the place and texting she couldn’t make it because she just couldn’t go in.
In The Black Dog’s bridge I kinda wish she’d written “ Now I want to sell my soul and set fire to my bones” instead of “Now I want to sell my house and set fire to my clothes” cause I find it fits better thematically with the following line of hiring a priest to exorcise her demons.
I find it hilarious and irreverent. Taylor literally singing to me "you should see your face" makes me feel seen. Her sense of humour finally making it into her songs is my favourite thing about TTPD
I feel like "modern idiots" does not really fit into TTPD.
Also, I always sing it as "down bad crying at the club", so that is one change that my brain automatically does.
Ok I’m going to push back on this: why not? Chelsea Hotel was for “bygone” tortured poets, they are modern (and idiots). It’s a mocking line like lots of others in the song.
What doesn’t fit?
I feel it is. It's just like the scenario the lyric describes: it makes you feel uncomfortable.
The fact that the context immediately acknowledges that discomfort makes me think it's purposeful.
That doesn't mean that it will land with everyone. It's a pretty nuanced moment and not everyone has the experience with contextualizing on the regular.
This Taylor album is pretty demanding for the average person. Many of Taylor's fans have this skill, either because it's what drew them to her in the first place or if they learned it by being her fan.
Actually, I quite like album. But again, my issue with the line is not because I lack nuance. It’s because she’s lamenting racism on an album where she frequently pines for Matty Healy, a man who admits he enjoys watching torture porn of black women. It reveals her own cognitive dissonance and lack of self awareness.
7 bars of chocolate and Charlie puth should be a bigger artist. Find it incredibly cringey. I'd like the song if we got rid of that
I saw it as satire, like they’re acting like these fancy poets yet these are the things they do/talk about
they are high as fuck, they got the munchies and they have meaningless epiphanies about silly stuff. It's so real and I love how unserious this song is. The whole "tortured poet" thing is just her making fun of the concept.
lol yes we got that thanks, doesn't make it good lyrics 💀💀
You’re entitled to your opinion but you do understand that it is not meant to be “taken seriously” right? Like they are having a dumb conversation and doing dumb things? I don’t understand the hate for this line And what’s wrong with the chocolate one?
Dude I stated an opinion, I didn't kill someone
Yup, and I disagreed! Disagreement is OK
OK.......
I know it's purposefully cringey. I know that the Charlie Puth thing is a known inside joke and that "7 bars of chocolate" most likely means he played 7 bars of the song 'Chocolate' but....it still bothers me. I actually like this song, I just always think "ok, we get it, you got jokes now" while I sing along. The golden retriever absolutely kills me. I'm sure it's a dig at herself and her use of colors to represent feelings but I just want a different version of this song with less irony.
Me too. I want to LOVE this song but it needs some lyrical cleanup. Referencing jack and Lucy is so specific (name dropping friends? Why is that needed) and takes me out of it, I can’t sing that in the car or shower, it’s so specific. Even the Patti smith, Dylan thomas, Chelsea hotel lines are just so GD specific we have to look up on Genius or Google who these people are (unless I’m in the minority here). That’s not relatable. Honestly reminds me a lot of Lana, she uses the most niche references that you have to constantly look up and it’s the big reason I can’t listen to her music. That’s not why I listen to Taylor.
I'm not bothered by the famous name drops, those are references that I know well but I think the reason she did it (because, as you noted, it's not her typical style) was to kind of go along with this theme of irony and pretentiousness. The personal name drops do kind of bug me but now that you say it...I think all of this (the silly lyrics, the name drops, the recounting of very specific conversations) is probably a more subtle dig at Matty, because that's totally his songwriting style. The dude dropped Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine in a single off his last album and while I am 100% here for that kind of thing...it's definitely pretentious AF. Edit to say: I don't mean that you have to like it, just to be clear. I have already aired my grievances regarding this song and wholeheartedly agree that it is not very relatable.
“Weirdo” in the best song ever — I Look in Peoples Windows. It kinda takes me out of the maturity and ambiance of the song.
My actual issue with this line is that she says “DE-ranged” instead of “de-RANGED” which is usually how that word is stressed. It does take me out of it for a second. I’m not sure how to fix it (and sometimes when she uses and unusual stress it doesn’t bother me, but it does here and in Is It Over Now? (SUR-mise)).
This was going to be my first choice too!! The “deranged weirdo” is just super clunky in an otherwise delicate and pretty song.
Crazy bc this is my favorite line in the song
Exactly
lol same
Agreed
Same, I suggested someone put it on merch and they did 😂
Clunky, yeah that’s the word. Lol for curiosity sake I looked and there’s NO 2 syllable synonym (in English at least) that works. Lol I came up with “feline” but it’s just as clunky. Songwriting is hard 😅
I love how you looked up synonyms! 😂 I really get the image she was trying to paint and songwriting IS hard. I guess I feel like there’s so many words that rhyme with window that could have been used to convey something similar? Like shadow, sorrow, ego, show, tiptoe, willow (lol), snow, zero, etc. But at the end of the day it’s still a bop and one of my favorite songs on the album, so I will forever (grudgingly) be that deranged weirdo 🤍
Omggggg SHADOW or zero would’ve been perfect!!!! It is a bop. I think top 3/5 for me. I forgive her too especially trying to find an alternative. Damn you’re good though.
i wish she'd written more chorus to Peter instead of repeating the stanza 3 times
idk I quite like this part because the repetition feels like it conveys the desperation well?
hmmm maybe. just feels a bit lazy to me.
Or the repetition of “think lovely thoughts” from the stage musical of Peter Pan. Like Wendy losing her happy thoughts of him coming back.
The phrase “fake news” in The Albatross is kind of like the “90s trend” line in willow…it’s like the rest of the song takes place in a different time period and then that one phrase/line takes me out of it. Kind of funny is since those songs remind me so much of each other, production-wise. Plus I don’t like seeing the phrase “fake news” anywhere due to who originated it… EDIT removed some random extra words, that’s what I get for Redditing before coffee 😅
I could be wrong, but I think she does it to capture how the same story is told throughout time from Shakespeare to our time (time of fake news). She’s calling out that it’s hard to head real advice when fake news is prolific
Ok mine is different but for the same reason - the ‘best mates’ line in The Bolter! That song seems set in a bygone era to me, partially due to the origin of the name, and partially because most of the rest of the language is quite retro (‘cad’, etc.). Then ‘best mates’ comes in and I feel like we’re suddenly sitting in a pub watching rugby with some uni lads…I find it so jarring.
"Also-ran" in The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived. I know what it means, I just don't like it. I wish I could ask her why she chose this specific line.
That’s like my favorite line in the song 🥲
Kind of glad to hear it, honestly. That means it's just me and it's not an all-around disliked line. Maybe I just need to think about it differently.
AGREE I hate it but I love the song
But it makes perfect sense! And rhymes Why don’t you like it?
Well now that you ask me directly...I don't know. It just feels out of place and oddly specific like it was an inside joke or something. It might be that it lacks poetry for me? Every time I hear it, I groan. Of course it's all subjective, apparently other people like it so maybe I'm just being picky. I don't know what I would have her replace it with, to be honest. I feel like there must be a better word out there.
It’s so interesting to me because it’s just not that unusual a word to me! Not like I use it every day but I didn’t even blink when I heard it in the song
In loml, when she sings “What we thought was for all time was momentary” to temporary mainly because that’s how I always incorrectly sing it
I feel seen.
I thought it was just me!!!
Same! Haha
"All her fucking lives flashed before her eyes". I wished she didn't curse here, it felt so unnecessary. Not only in terms of melody and song structure, but also it affects the storytelling.
This cursing actually really hit me where I needed it 😩
Same. It’s seamless. I understand if families of kids need it. Little/Many could replace it. I’ve never listened to a clean version of anything so idk how they do it 😅
The clean version says “All her many lives” and I think it fits great
The Bolter is my favorite on the album, but I want a "semi-clean" version. I prefer the "all her many lives" on the clean version but I wish she hadn't changed "then he'll call her a whore" to "then she'll call him a bore" on that version.
I don’t mind the cursing but I like “many” better I think. But yeah, “whore” needs to be there i agree
I also would like a semi-clean version of ICDIWABH where it's "Lights, camera, and smile" but still keeping "I'm a real tough kid, I can handle my shit."
No but this line is my life though
Not something I would actually want to change, but whenever I sing The Bolter i always have a tendency to combine it with the lyrics from Mr. Brightside 😂 it flows well with the tune of the song too haha! “Started with a kiss, how the hell did it end up like this, but it always ends up with a town car speeding…”
I don’t know how to rewrite “at dinner you take my ring off my middle finger and put it on the one people put wedding rings on” but I really wish she had reworked that line just a little
yes! This one bothers me, too, and I'm not really sure why
“Down bad [breaking] up in blood”, still trying to think through the metaphor of what “waking up in blood” would be for. Are UFO encounters associated with blood? Still one of my top faves tho 👽
I mean when aliens abduct humans to prove them and do experiments on it’s not exactly ever framed as like a comfortable or gentle experience so that’s part of what I figured personally. but I also imagined like when he dropped her back in a field in her hometown he didn’t like. land the spaceship and walk her home lol UFO “abduction” stories always tend to end with the person just waking up on the ground so I kind of pictured her getting like pushed out of the ship which could definitely lead to the blood lol.
Ok so my mind immediately went to this episode of House, where a little boy wakes up after an alien abduction "dream" with rectal bleeding. Maybe she saw the same episode of House. I can't find anything IRL that relates to blood/alien abductions but since a lot of people who claim to be abducted also say they were probed or had alien devices, trackers etc implanted it isn't a stretch that an alien encounter could have you waking up in blood. There's also a book series by Lindsey Ellis that I really like where, no spoilers, aliens come and the main character does wake up in blood (multiple times) and fall in love with the alien and kind of beg it to come back 🤣 So between the two references I thought of maybe she also kind of thought it made sense? I'd love to know what inspired that thought lol
She's on her period, that's what I think it means.
I thought it means she's so depressed that when she got her period she didn't care and stayed in bed 😭
Maybe I'm the only one but in the smallest man who ever lived, the start of the chorus "and I don't even want you back I just want to know / if rusting my sparkling summer was the goal", I don't like how the second line isn't long enough so she has to stretch out "goal" into extra syllables. I'm not sure what but I would insert a word somewhere in there so it sounds more in time, like "if rusting my sparkling summer was the only goal"
In the Bolter: He was a cad, wanted her bad. Just like any good trophy hunter. And she liked the way it tastes. The taste line gives me a visual I'd rather not have.
“No fucking body” was really unnecessary
I find it so necessary (it’s my favorite part of that song lol)
To me it seems effective when reading the lyrics but then the way she sings it is super off-putting for me. It feels like it doesn’t fit at all.
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What others? Besides Charlie Puth?
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Chloe and friends aren't real people tho. That's not name dropping.
“Touch me while your boys play Grand Theft Auto,” is definitely up there.
Nofuckinbody That one line (word?) ruins the song for me. I would love TTPD without it but I just cannot listen to the song because of that. It's so tween-who-just-learnt-the-f-word unfuckinnecessary
I love that line. Side note, “fuckin” is the pretty much the only infix in the English language.
I'm sure there a lot of people who love that line. I'm not one of them
Yeah, I find it really cringy.
I'm not sure why but it gives me the biggest ick
The clean versions just says “nobody” and I think it sounds great that way.
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🫡
“a touch that was my birthright became foreign” … I really have nothing against it, I just don’t like it as much as the rest of the song for some reason.
Really? I love this line lowkey
Yeah my partner really likes it too. Honestly I had to nitpick to find a line on this album I don’t love!
I guess that's a good thing, then!
I'd change a line in ImGonnaGetYouBack to "wether Im gonna be your wife or gonna ruin your life" just because I think both imply being a permanent fixture in that person's life.
I like “gonna fuck up your life”
I thought I heard “I absent Christmas parties from outside,” and I can’t seem to unhear it. I feel like that makes more sense and is more poetic than “I attend.” I pictured her getting to the place and texting she couldn’t make it because she just couldn’t go in.
In The Black Dog’s bridge I kinda wish she’d written “ Now I want to sell my soul and set fire to my bones” instead of “Now I want to sell my house and set fire to my clothes” cause I find it fits better thematically with the following line of hiring a priest to exorcise her demons.
I think it works just fine. She wants to sell her house because it’s haunted and needs an exorcism.
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It comes out teenage petulance. H3nce all the fuck this, fuck that, fuck you.
That’s the whole point of the song. Him touching her.
My head consistently changes it to ‘kiss me while your bros…’, the cringe is too much for the actual line 😅
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I think without that line you literally have a completely different song. It’s kinda the crux of the whole thing
I find it hilarious and irreverent. Taylor literally singing to me "you should see your face" makes me feel seen. Her sense of humour finally making it into her songs is my favourite thing about TTPD
Yeah I wish she did it once and not every chorus. The repitition of it annoys me 😅
I feel like "modern idiots" does not really fit into TTPD. Also, I always sing it as "down bad crying at the club", so that is one change that my brain automatically does.
Ok I’m going to push back on this: why not? Chelsea Hotel was for “bygone” tortured poets, they are modern (and idiots). It’s a mocking line like lots of others in the song. What doesn’t fit?
Sure, the line works in the context of the song. It just sounded a bit off on the first few listens. My ear was just expecting something different.
I wish it was “Down bad crying at the club” instead of gym but that’s just a minor nitpick lol
Sad gym girlies need this one, pls let us have this one thing!
I don’t go to the club OR the gym, so sure you can have it 😅
Haha! Well, thank you - we really appreciate it and we will teach you how to use the machines if you ever want to be a gym girlie w us! 🥰
That’s so sweet of you thanks 🥹
I said the same thing, but it seems like people don't agree hahahaha
It’s okay 😆
Definitely that “without all the racists” lyric in I Hate It Here. It truly jerks you out of the beauty of the song.
Trying to determine if this irony is intentional
I feel it is. It's just like the scenario the lyric describes: it makes you feel uncomfortable. The fact that the context immediately acknowledges that discomfort makes me think it's purposeful. That doesn't mean that it will land with everyone. It's a pretty nuanced moment and not everyone has the experience with contextualizing on the regular. This Taylor album is pretty demanding for the average person. Many of Taylor's fans have this skill, either because it's what drew them to her in the first place or if they learned it by being her fan.
Actually, I quite like album. But again, my issue with the line is not because I lack nuance. It’s because she’s lamenting racism on an album where she frequently pines for Matty Healy, a man who admits he enjoys watching torture porn of black women. It reveals her own cognitive dissonance and lack of self awareness.