I love Taylor Swift’s music. Especially her most recent albums: Folklore, Evermore and Midnights. My favorite thing about her music is the lyrics. She’s wicked sharp with words. I mean.

“Oh, goddamn
My pain fits in the palm of your freezing hand”

So, in most of her songs there’s a phrase or a turn of phrase that just catches me deep, in places I don’t like to go.

I present these lines (and a few I just think are clever) from Midnights.

Lavender Haze

“I’m damned if I do give a damn what people say”

This fun twister takes a common phrase, “Damned if I do, damned if I don’t” and pulls it into a commentary on people-pleasing. Which is where it gets me, of course.

Every people pleaser has come to a point in their lives where they realize, with horror, that no matter what they do in the matter at hand, someone will think they’re doing the wrong thing for reasons that actually make very good sense, but they don’t have any good, safe, perfect options and so they have to decide something and stomp all over everyone’s expectations, crushing their self-image in the process – or maybe that’s just me. So I’m damned because I do give a damn what people say.

Where can I get some of this lavender haze?

Maroon

“Sobbin’ with your head in your hands
Ain’t that the way shit always ends?”

This word picture is just so vivid, apt for a song that vies for the deepest shade of red. I love all of the visual imagery in this song, from the rust that grew between telephones to carnations you had thought were roses.

This song is probably one of my three least favorite on the album, which is to say it doesn’t grab at anything deep inside of me. It’s set in a world I only dream of, with dancing and love affairs and stolen kisses on rooftops. But it’s pretty.

Anti-Hero

“I’ll stare directly at the sun but never in the mirror”

Ouch. How many times do I pick up my phone and start doom scrolling or watch violent tv shows or read trashy romance novels or… just to avoid my own thoughts?

It’s me. Hi.

Snow on the Beach

“I’ve never seen someone lit from within
Blurring out my periphery”

If you know you know.

Isn’t that so beautiful, though? Someone lit from within, so bright they blur the edges of your awareness. It’s happened to me. And yes, it’s weird but fucking beautiful.

You’re on Your Own, Kid

“I wait patiently, he’s gonna notice me
It’s okay, we’re the best of friends
Anyway”

I do so wish someone would have slapped this idea right out of 19-year-old me. It’s cringey to think of how much time I’ve spent on the sidelines of my own life, waiting patiently to become visible.

I hate this song, because the whole thing is just a series of repeated slaps to my past selves.

Midnight Rain

“He stayed the same
All of me changed
Like midnight”

This song, on the other hand, I love. It captures the pain of mismatched love, of incompatible attraction.

I guess sometimes we all get just what we wanted, and we are still haunted by the lives we gave away.

Question…?

“It was one drink after another
Fuckin’ politics and gender roles
And you’re not sure and I don’t know
Got swept away in the gray”

Question…? is another song about a life I’ve never lived. But I love the way it captures the whirlwind feeling of socializing. Conversations, explanations, questions, kisses and lots of gray.

This is why I stay home.

Vigilante Shit

“he was doing lines
And crossing all of mine
Someone told his white collar crimes to the FBI”

Hard to pick just one line from this clever song. I like the turn of phrase in this bit, with the double meaning of lines. Also, a tiny part of me gets happy when a white collar criminal gets their comeuppance.

But “She looks so pretty driving in your Benz” is just chef’s kiss, yes?

Bejeweled

“Putting someone first only works when you’re in their top five”

Again, I need someone to tell my younger self this.

“I think I’ve been too good of a girl
Did all the extra credit, then got graded on a curve”

She’s been spying on me, it’s the only explanation. Oof.

Labyrinth

“It only hurts this much right now
Was what I was thinking the whole time”

I think anyone who’s been to therapy has experienced something like this – the mantra that doesn’t seem to have any effect whatsoever on the suffering. I also love that this whole song feels like a series of deep breaths that dump you into the excitement of love whether you like it or not.

Once again, this song talks about something that is outside of my experience. I’ve only been in love twice, and it doesn’t happen suddenly for me. But the way she breathes through the emotional pain is relatable and the chorus is catchy.

Karma

“karma is the thunder
Rattling your ground
Karma’s on your scent like a bounty hunter
Karma’s gonna track you down
Step by step from town to town”

This whole song is so much fun. Full of images, nimble tongue work and a rhythm that keeps you on your toes.

Also it’s fun to realize that you and Karma do vibe like that.

Sweet Nothing

“Industry disrupters and soul deconstructors
And smooth-talking hucksters
Out glad-handing each other
And the voices that implore
“You should be doing more”
To you I can admit
That I’m just too soft for all of it”

It’s important to have someone we can admit our softness to. I can so relate to being overwhelmed by all the movers and shakers of the world. Sometimes I just want hot chocolate and Narnia.

I don’t actually like this song very much, but I still smile when it comes on. That’s how you know its a good album, when you even like the songs you don’t like.

Mastermind

“Once upon a time, the planets and the fates
And all the stars aligned”

That line makes me feel things. Like my consciousness is expanding through time and space and then, snap! one precise point, perfection.

The song is poignant and raw. And also funny, as she realizes that her target knew all along and didn’t care.

The Great War

“It turned into something bigger
Somewhere in the haze, got a sense I’d been betrayed
Your finger on my hair pin triggers
Soldier down on that icy ground
Looked up at me with honor and truth
Broken and blue, so I called off the troops”

This song makes me so incredibly sad, because my great war had a different ending. I might not have had the patience of this soldier. I stopped reaching for the hand and walked away.

Ah, the might-have-beens. Taylor captures them like no other.

Bigger Than the Whole Sky

“Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye
You were bigger than the whole sky
You were more than just a short time”

This is known in my house as “the sad song” and as soon as it comes on my tears start flowing. It captures the experience of grief so, so well. How does she put words to something wordless? It’s magic.

Paris

“I’m so in love that I might stop breathing
Drew a map on your bedroom ceiling
No, I didn’t see the news
‘Cause we were somewhere else”

I actually don’t like this song much at all. But it does capture those early days of love when the rest of the world disappears. We can’t stay there, but what if we could?

High Infidelity

“High infidelity
Put on your records
And regret me
I bent the truth too far tonight
I was dancing around
Dancing around it”

The lyrics in this song are almost too clever. A play on high fidelity music, a jab at the particular kind of person who listens to records surrounded by a picket fence and probably with a million dollar couch and organic shoes (just saying!) and the visuals of dancing around the bent truth…

Plus, do you really want to know? It’s a worthwhile question.

Glitch

“I thought we had no chance
And that’s romance, let’s dance

Glitch”

Taylor plays a lot with the idea of romance, and this album is no exception. We learn that “romance isn’t dead, if you keep it just yours” from Paris, and of course we all remember that “boys only want love if it’s torture.” Here romance is found in the hopelessly impossible.

Also I can relate to the thought that “I’m happy, something must be wrong.”

Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve

“If I was some paint, did it splatter
On a promising grown man?
And if I was a child, did it matter
If you got to wash your hands?”

This song, with its religious imagery, is very relatable coming from my background. But this line just hits hard at a major problem in society, highlighted recently by the Me Too movement. A promising grown man versus a child? Too often we all wash our hands.

“And I damn sure never would’ve danced with the devil”

Taylor’s country roots come out strong here. This line is so much fun to sing along to!

Dear Reader

“Dear reader
If it feels like a trap
You’re already in one
Dear reader
Get out your map
Pick somewhere and just run
Dear reader
Burn all the files, desert all your past lives
And if you don’t recognize yourself
That means you did it right”

I have some past lives where I don’t recognize myself. Still not sure this is great advice; as the song suggests, you should find another guiding light.

This is my favorite song of the whole album. I just picture this washed-up advice columnist, wandering around with a wine glass in one hand.

---

What are your favorite lines?