I kept hearing this was THE song to start with. So here I am.

I wasn’t all too keen on listening to the song originally, but it hooked me in the first few seconds.

Cause there we are again…

The second I heard her belt those lines, I was hooked. It made me remember why I used to love listening to Taylor: the raw emotion she could convey in her voice (I’m thinking Blank Space, Wildest Dreams).

Standout lyrics

“you kept me like a secret, but i kept you like an oath”

It’s a pretty crazy line, and to me, it made the imbalance in this relationship obvious. One guy has his foot in. Taylor, though, is all in.

By the way, I went to search it up. Apparently, the guy she’s referring to in this song is allegedly Jake Gyllenhaal.

My girlfriend told me that there are a lot of Spider-Man edits to this song. Here’s one she sent me: TikTok clip.

“so casually cruel in the name of being honest”

This is a line that stood out to my girlfriend. I think this line is interesting, because in the original version, you only got this line. But in the new version, it reveals what she actually said — he said she’s not funny. Oof.

Some backstory

So, after I listened to the song, I ended up talking to my gf about it. Apparently, she had originally recorded and released a 5 min version on an album called Red.

In an interview, she mentioned that the original was actually 10 min long and that she had to cut out a lot of it. Swifties wanted those extra 5 mins like lemonade on a hot summer day.

So, when she rerecorded it, she recorded all 10 minutes. And bam, here we are.

Ooh, one other thing. In the song, she mentions that she spent her 21st birthday crying waiting for the guy to appear.

If you notice, the next song on the album is “22”. You know, cos she had her real 21st blowout celebration when she was 22. I don’t know about you, but chills.

The boyfriend verdict

Okay, originally, I was gonna start with TTPD cos it’s my gf’s favourite album.

But I’m kind of glad I started with this, cos it was an easy entry into Taylor Swift. And I already feel like I’m swimming in tea.

The song was rich, and it was evocative AF. Her voice and the chorus hits hard. Definitely a song I’ll add to my road trip playlist.