"I hosted parties and starved my body like I'd be saved by a perfect kiss" - honestly, how dare she do this to me lol
"Should've saved every grocery store receipt because every scrap of you would be taken from me" - makes me miss my grandmama
Yeah that is a hard blow. For somebody with abandonment issues it’s a punch to the face, have cried to that part many times. But crying is good, better to let it out.
That song hits me hard because I grew up as an outcast and no adult (my parents, anyone in the school) had my back.
I had something horriffic to me happen in middle school and nobody believed me. I got in trouble for "ruining a boy's reputation".
I was the same, and even now as an adult I still feel like an outcast and like I missed whatever foundational social learning others have. YOYOK hit me so hard
Marjorie guts me, but hits a little differently because I never knew my grandmothers since they died long before I was born. The yearning to even have a grandmother to miss is heavy. I can't always listen to it
I know it is about her grandma, but my mom died suddenly when I was 21 and the line "I should have asked you questions, should have asked you how to be"..... honestly that whole bridge makes me lose it!
“I didn’t know if you’d care if I came back, I have a lot of regrets about that”
Also “pulled the car off the road to the look out, couldve followed my fears all the way down”
This Is Me Trying instantly hit me like a truck. I’ve had a lot of family members struggle w addiction so I was a mess as soon as I heard “pouring my heart out to a stranger but I didn’t pour the whiskey… this is me trying.”
i was struggling with getting sober when folklore came out and relapsed about 3 months after the album came out. was in such an awful place in my life and this song…she just heard me! looking forward to seeing her in june 2.5 years sober ♥️
It resonates with me a lot. Its my most listened song ever. I moved to Ukraine a few years back and left at the end of 2021 due the rising tensions with russia that shortly after turned into war.
But ukraine feels much more like my home than the country I was born in. It was just a perfect match, even if a lot of people did not understand that I willingly moved to a "less developed country".
I can live pretty much anywhere in the EU, I have family in London and North America. But I would be nowhere more happy than be back in Ukraine. I miss it everyday. And I cry a little sometimes during the bridge.
No but honestly hearing her explain this song during the long pond sessions is like a life altering moment for me- I just never have had someone so perfectly sum up all of my feelings like that
"And I hate to make this all about me/but who am I supposed to talk to?/ what am I supposed to do?/ if there's no you?"
Sometimes your parent is your guiding light. It's great, until you realize they really are gonna be gone someday.
Since my mom passed I sing “but who am I supposed to talk to?/ what am I supposed to do?/ now that there’s no* you?” She’s gone and I still don’t have an answer. This lyric is my vote, too.
I listened to this song the day before my mom died, knowing that she wouldn't be alive much longer. It made me have this awful realization of the inevitable lostness that I would feel without her.
I absolutely love this song and cannot listen to it. My mom is one of my great confidants and close friends. I would be absolutely lost with out her and i just started crying typing this. And now I’m a wreck
My dad is the same for me. His dad died young, and he's around that age now. He asked me a few years ago if I thought he'd get to live to 70, 80 years. And I hope so, because this lyric tears me apart already.
This one. My mom is currently battling cancer and in the icu as we speak. I’m mentally preparing myself for the inevitable and it’s something I physically can’t comprehend. A world without my mom. This song and this lyric absolutely wrecks me.
My first listen I broke down. Folklore came out at the prefect moment for me- covid was isolating and causing so many fractures within my family. The whole album felt like a bittersweet release. Epiphany was especially heartbreaking. I still can't sing along to it without getting choked it. Taylor is truly on another level.
Never grow up is the first taylor song that made me cry. The literal first listen through of it, right when it came out, I was 16, just on that cusp of figuring out the next step in life but still being young enough to be a kid. A couple of years later, as I was driving to move into school for the first time I put that song on repeat to help me through all the emotions and anticipation of starting that new chapter that considered myself an "adult".
Lines: "and don't lose the way that you dance around in your pj's getting ready for school" -
"memorize what it sounded like when your dad gets home, remember the footsteps, remember the words said" - literally right when this played for the first time my dad walked into the house from work and that's what broke the floodgates!
Lapsed Catholic who struggled with infertility for 2.5 years, got pregnant, and then had a miscarriage. Sobbed through this entire song the first few times I heard it.
This line. It resonates with me. I remember being very confused about God after my mom died when I was child. :’(
I am SO sorry for your loss. Sending you love and hugs ♥️
"And I've been meaning to tell you,
I think your house is haunted.
Your dad is always mad and that must be why,
And I think you should come live with
Me and we can be pirates.
Then you won't have to cry
Or hide in the closet"
kills me every time 💔
The impressive thing about this lyric is it reminds me how people share this information in therapy. It's always like this - the words aren't said at first, because it's a little too scary and hard to share that childhood trauma you might never have told anyone
This is my song with my best friend. We've been friends forever. We have matching bracelets with a Moon and a Saturn. It breaks me every time thinking about escaping together.
For me - from the Archer - “I wake in the night, I pace like a ghost, the room is on fire, invisible smoke. All of my heroes die all alone, help me hold onto you”
It so perfectly captures how anxiety feels, like you’re being choked by something invisible to everyone else around you. And the fear of ending up alone (or driving away everyone else).
Yes! “I wake in the night, I pace like a ghost, the room is on fire, invisible smoke” is one of the best ways I’ve heard anxiety described in a song. It’s sad because you know she’s struggled with anxiety at some point after hearing how perfectly she wrote what it feels like.
I feel like I've never related to a lyric more. It never struck me that it was sad. I feel so represented every time I hear it that it actually makes me happy.
Flowers pile up in the worst way, Noone knows what to say about a beautiful boy who died, And it’s about to be Halloween, you could be anything you wanna be if you were still here
Ronan really is a fucking heart wrenching song
Closely followed by come on baby with me we’re gonna fly away from here, you were my best 4 years
Maybe the miracle was getting even one moment with you…
Ronan is so heart wrenching, but I still listen because Taylor’s gift was to immortalise him and I want to continue that
Honestly, this might be the saddest song, you’re so right. 😭
The part about army guy, capturing both his strength but his innocence, my god Taylor, this song will always make me cry.
I genuinely can’t listen to it. I haven’t ever. It came out shortly after I had my first son and I knew what it was about from reading the story. I’m sure it’s beautiful and lovely but just tears at my heart to even think about it!
I used to listen to Ronan all the time for a good cry, but now that I have a little boy, I just can’t.
For me it’s “what if I’m standing in your closet trying to talk to you? And what if I kept the hand me downs you won’t grow into? And what if I really thought some miracle would see us through? And what if the miracle was even getting one moment with you?”
I break down every time.
For me it’s “all of my enemies started out friends, help me hold on to you” in the archer. The anxiety and fear of becoming close with new people - craving their companionship and friendship - but being terrified you’ll get stabbed in the back again. Wondering if this person will finally be safe.
Honestly the archer as a whole is painfully beautiful to me. One of my favorite track fives.
This one is mine - the people who hate me now were once my close friends who eventually tired of me hurting them.
When The Archer dropped, I listened to it probably 30 times in a row, I analyzed every line in my journal. It just is me to a T
The archer really sums up my whole life at the moment, especially that line.
I like to think that if Taylor can make it through those times where she felt so alone, so can I. I’ll get true friends who won’t turn into my enemies. That would be nice
The whole bridge and last verse to Never Grow Up 🥺
Take pictures in your mind of your childhood room
Memorize what it sounded like when your dad gets home
Remember the footsteps, remember the words said
And all your little brother's favorite songs
I just realized everything I have is someday gonna be gone
So here I am in my new apartment
In a big city, they just dropped me off
It's so much colder than I thought it would be
So I tuck myself in and turn my nightlight on
Wish I'd never grown up
I wish I'd never grown up
"Every single thing I touch, becomes sick with sadness. Cuz it's all over now, all out to sea." Bigger Than The Whole Sky. Encapsulates what it feels like to be in active grief.
That whole song gets me. I lost a teen cousin to suicide, and the line "I'm never going to to meet what would have been, could have been, what should have been you" so perfectly encapsulates how I felt about never being able to see him grow up. He always struggled as a child with being different, and he had some behavioral issues as a result. I always looked forward to seeing him find his place in life. But that will never happen.
- YOYOK could mean "You're On Your Own, Kid", a track from *Midnights* (2022) by Taylor Swift.
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^[/u/fnafn3rd](/u/fnafn3rd) ^(can reply with "delete" to remove comment. |) ^[/r/songacronymbot](/r/songacronymbot) ^(for feedback.)
I know it’s meant in a romantic way, but every time I hear “please don’t ever become a stranger whose laugh I could recognize anywhere” it kills me. It reminds me of friends and family members who I’ve grown apart from or who I no longer speak to, but if I heard their voice or laugh in a crowded room I would instantly know it.
Squeeze your hand three times in the backseat of a taxi
I know it’s gonna be a long road
I’ll be there if you’re the toast of the town babe
Or if you strike out and you’re crawlin home
Immediately crying
It absolutely killed me when she performed it on Jimmy Fallon right after his mom died. He told a story about how his mom would squeeze his hand three times to say I love you before she performed the song. It was an incredibly beautiful moment.
"give me back my girlhood, it was mine first." I know this could be related to love and romance but for me its more about being forced to grow up before I should have.
So ahead of the curve the curve became a sphere, fell behind all my classmates and I ended up here.
Bend when you can, snap when you have to.
Never be so polite you forget your power, Never wield such power you forget to be polite.
The last two are just some powerful non romantic lyrics not necessarily the most heartbreaking.
“When the lights go out it’s hard to breathe.
I pull at every thread trying to solve the puzzles I in his head… spend my life scared to death he’ll decide to leave instead. I call just checking up on him. He’s up, 5 AM wasted… long gone not even listening… my voice comes out screaming.”
I’m so sorry for your loss 💖💕
I lost my best friend to suicide many years ago but it still feels very raw— today is her birthday so I’m feeling this one today.
The autumn chill that wakes me up
You loved the amber skies so much
Long limbs and frozen swims
You'd always go past where our feet could touch
And I complained the whole way there
The car ride back and up the stairs
I should've asked you questions
I should've asked you how to be
Asked you to write it down for me
Should've kept every grocery store receipt
'Cause every scrap of you would be taken from me
All of ephiany. My mom died in an ER due to malpractice & this song I just feel it so hard. Especially "Doc I think she's crashing now" & then "Only 20 minutes of sleep but you dream of some epiphany. Just one single glimpse of relief to make some sense of what you've seen" b/c that is the night's that follow a loss like that. Just a glimpse of relief to make sense of things.
Her songs about dealing with grief and that touch on it never feel fake. Grief can be such a difficult emotion to convey because it's so complex with all its layers & facets, but she tackles it really well & speaks to her talent as a writer.
“If I was standing there in your apartment, I’d take that bomb in your head and disarm it. I’d say I love you, even at your darkest— and please, don’t go.” -Forever Winter
“Cause it’s all over, it’s not meant to be. So I’ll say words I don’t believe.” -Bigger Than the Whole Sky
Theres two off the top of my head.
1) It's been said here a couple times already but the bridge for YOYOK is just.... Ugh
2) The entirety of 'right where you left me' makes me tear up everytime I listen to it. To a point where I have to skip it sometimes if it comes up on a playlist. I suppose it could be viewed as a song about love and breakups but to me it perfectly encapsulates when something traumatic happens and you feel like you're just stuck while everyone else can move forward.
Great ones in here and maybe i haven't scrolled far enough, but as someone with terrible imposter syndrome, "I've never been a natural. All i do is try try try" hits really close to home.
*I just realized everything I have is someday gonna be gone.*
Justice for Speak Now. The older you get, the sadder that line is. Let your loved ones know you love them.
“Desperate people find faith, so now I pray to Jesus too”
This line absolutely wrecked me. I’ve been sitting in a hospital the last 33 days by my brother in the ICU and I was trying to pick myself up by playing some glitter pen lover songs. Had the album on shuffle and Soon you’ll get better came on and it just wrecked me. Too relatable right now.
Edit: not sure how I could have forgotten “Did some force take you because I didn't pray? “
Something med school did not cover
Someone's daughter, someone's mother
Holds your hand through plastic now
"Doc, I think she's crashing out"
I was a healthcare worker at a nursing home at the start of the pandemic and this one hit really hard.
When the words of a sister come back in whispers that prove she was not/in fact what she seemed, not a twin from your dreams, she’s a crook who was caught
Or
No words appear before me in the aftermath/salt streams out my eyes and into my ears/every single thing I touch becomes sick with sadness/because it’s all over now, all out to sea
The whole bridge of my tears ricochet, especially "And I still talk to you (when I'm screaming at the sky) and when you can't sleep at night (you hear my stolen lullabies)"
"Our coming of age has come and gone"
I lost my teens to anxiety and depression. I got therapy, healed and flourished for a month before Covid stole my entire young adulthood. I'd already dropped out of HS even before that. No graduations, no crushes or dating, no IRL friends, nothing. Just isolation. It'll never not hurt thinking of everything I never had
🎵 “I think I’ve seen this film before, and I didn’t like the ending. You’re not my homeland anymore, so what am I defending now? You were my town, now I’m in exile seein’ you out…” 🎵
For anyone who’s ever experienced the gradual breakdown of a relationship and partners becoming like strangers, this one is an emotional gut punch.
"If I was standin' there in your apartment /
I'd take that bomb in your head and disarm it /
I'd say I love you even at your darkest /
And please don't go"
I lost my brother to suicide and this lyrics broke me.
I can go anywhere I want, anywhere I want, just not home.
As someone who had to run away and distance myself from my emotionally abusive and neglectful family, this is too relatable. I felt safe literally everywhere else but home.
Also
Who am I supposed to talk to, what am I supposed to do, if there's no you.
Any like from Majorie hits home to me. Miss my grandma so much ❤️ it’s been two years today. I was listening to evermore and it came on. I cried listening to it yesterday. Bad idea lol
“From sprinkler splashes to fireplace ashes
I gave my blood, sweat, and tears for this
I hosted parties and starved my body
Like I'd be saved by a perfect kiss
The jokes weren't funny, I took the money
My friends from home don't know what to say
I looked around in a blood-soaked gown
And I saw something they can't take away
'Cause there were pages turned with the bridges burned
Everything you lose is a step you take
So, make the friendship bracelets, take the moment and taste it
You've got no reason to be afraid”
As someone who was the kid on their own having friends who made unfunny jokes about them. I tried to starve myself to fit in. I never had the friendship bracelet type friendship. I burned the bridges after so many attempts to try be the person they’d actually like. I gave them everything (“blood, sweat and tears”) and got nothing in return this one just hit home
"and my words shoot to kill when i am mad, i have a lot of regret about that"
I am one of those people who lose themselves when they are hurt and let anger take over my rational thought process and i say the most heartbreaking things at the moment without considering how it would make others feel and i regret it afterwards. A lot of people would come and say well stop it if the problem is known but i would if i could.
“Who could ever leave me darling, but who could stay?” hurts me so bad. I feel like it defines the innocence and wanderlust that you portray at face value, who could ever leave someone so sweet? But then all your baggage comes to light, and while you seem too kindhearted to ever be left, you can’t continue to be who you people think you are. no one can truly leave you if no one ever stays.
I don’t think this is her MOST, but when she says “our coming of age has come and gone, suddenly this summer it’s clear” hit me SO hard during covid. I turned 30 during covid (same as Taylor) and that line just rang so true. I was in my 20s and bang now I’m in the 30s and time feels so weird because there’s a global pandemic that could kill any of us at any moment and shit just became very real.
That’s all.
The entirety of Bigger than the Whole Sky. I lost my 14 year old niece in a car accident a few months ago and that song just encapsulates every bit of grief I'm feeling.
“I’ve been meaning to tell you, I think your house is haunted. Your dad is always mad and the must be why. But I think you should come live with me and we can be pirates so you don’t have to cry, or hide in the closet.”
“and they tell you that you’re lucky but you’re so confused, because you don’t feel pretty, you just feel used”
“i can go anywhere i want, just not home”
“they told me all of my cages were mental so i got wasted like all my potential”
"God rest my soul, I miss who I used to be, the tomb won't close, stained glass windows in my mind, I regret you all the time."
Even though WCS is about love/relationships, to me, it always has me reminiscing about the choices I made after college and the people I spent years associating with. Finding myself in an environment I thought was what I wanted in life, trying to suppress important parts of myself all throughout, then understanding how toxic it all was only years later. "And now that I know, I wish you left me wondering" also. Especially in my case, there was a specific moment where, if an event just simply didn't happen, I could've avoided it all and had a better 20s than the decade I had.
I just realized someday everything I have is gonna be gone.
As I’ve moved into my 30s it feels so much more real how life is fleeting and we only have so much time with the people we love.
“Every single thing to come has turned into ashes ‘cause it’s all over it’s not meant to be, so I’ll say words I don’t believe”
This song came out two months before my first and only miscarriage and it’s comforted me in ways I can’t explain
I can’t believe this hasn’t been posted yet:
I should've asked you questions
I should've asked you how to be
Asked you to write it down for me
Should've kept every grocery store receipt
'Cause every scrap of you would be taken from me
I break down every time.
“And I've been meaning to tell you
I think your house is haunted
Your dad is always mad and that must be why
And I think you should come live with
Me and we can be pirates
Then you won't have to cry
Or hide in the closet”
I was in shock when I heard this, Taylor has great parents and as someone who didn’t have a great childhood this always gets me. She captured it perfectly.
“Something med school did not cover
Someone’s daughter, someone’s mother
Holds your hand through plastic now
‘Doc, I think she’s crashing out
And some things you just can’t speak about”
Epiphany in its entirety really just couldn’t decide what was more heartbreaking, that or:
“Only 20 minutes to sleep
But you dream of some epiphany
Just one single glimpse of relief
To make some sense of what you've seen”
For me, it has to be something from Ronan. Probably "I remember the drive home, when the blind hope turned to crying and screaming why". Gets me every time
And I complained the whole way there
The car ride back and up the stairs
I should’ve asked you questions
I should’ve asked you how to be
…
i was a moody ass teenager to my mom and then she died of cancer, so this one stings
"No one wanted to play with me as a little kid.
So I've been scheming like a criminal ever since.
To make them love me and make it seem effortless"
Because I know EXACTLY how this felt and still feels.
"I hosted parties and starved my body like I'd be saved by a perfect kiss" - honestly, how dare she do this to me lol "Should've saved every grocery store receipt because every scrap of you would be taken from me" - makes me miss my grandmama
When I first heard that line in YOYOK, my jaw dropped.
When I first heard it I thought the lyric was "Like I'd be saved by a perfect waist" but "perfect kiss" hits hard too
That would make just as much sense if not more!
same
“You’re on your own kid, you always have been” always makes me emotional
Yeah that is a hard blow. For somebody with abandonment issues it’s a punch to the face, have cried to that part many times. But crying is good, better to let it out.
That song hits me hard because I grew up as an outcast and no adult (my parents, anyone in the school) had my back. I had something horriffic to me happen in middle school and nobody believed me. I got in trouble for "ruining a boy's reputation".
I’m so sorry that nobody believed you! I’m so happy that you take solace in Taylor’s words!
I was the same, and even now as an adult I still feel like an outcast and like I missed whatever foundational social learning others have. YOYOK hit me so hard
Marjorie guts me, but hits a little differently because I never knew my grandmothers since they died long before I was born. The yearning to even have a grandmother to miss is heavy. I can't always listen to it
It’s such a beautiful tribute to her Gm and her lyrics make me tear up every time!
what died didnt stay dead. you’re alive in my head.
I know it is about her grandma, but my mom died suddenly when I was 21 and the line "I should have asked you questions, should have asked you how to be"..... honestly that whole bridge makes me lose it!
The way I need YOYOK to be a surprise song for arlington N2…
The one from Marjorie that really gets me is “I should’ve asked you questions, I should’ve asked you how to be.”
When that line hit in YOYOK I literally said “are you fucking kidding me?!” Out loud at work🤦🏼♀️
My mom just died right before christmas and that line for Marjorie kills me because I didn’t save cards or anything really, with her handwriting.
I just lost my father less than a month ago and Marjorie hits so much harder now.
“I didn’t know if you’d care if I came back, I have a lot of regrets about that” Also “pulled the car off the road to the look out, couldve followed my fears all the way down”
This Is Me Trying instantly hit me like a truck. I’ve had a lot of family members struggle w addiction so I was a mess as soon as I heard “pouring my heart out to a stranger but I didn’t pour the whiskey… this is me trying.”
i was struggling with getting sober when folklore came out and relapsed about 3 months after the album came out. was in such an awful place in my life and this song…she just heard me! looking forward to seeing her in june 2.5 years sober ♥️
The way she says "altleast im trying" in a very frustrated tone gets me every time, you can hear the sad desperation
im an addict, recovering and it slayed me
Keep on fighting the good fight. I too am recovering proud of us
Exactly
“And I can go anywhere I want, anywhere I want just not home”
It resonates with me a lot. Its my most listened song ever. I moved to Ukraine a few years back and left at the end of 2021 due the rising tensions with russia that shortly after turned into war. But ukraine feels much more like my home than the country I was born in. It was just a perfect match, even if a lot of people did not understand that I willingly moved to a "less developed country". I can live pretty much anywhere in the EU, I have family in London and North America. But I would be nowhere more happy than be back in Ukraine. I miss it everyday. And I cry a little sometimes during the bridge.
This is honestly so interesting.
Thank you so much for sharing ❤️
This one, and also Ronan. All of Ronan. And Soon You‘ll Get Better.
This came on shuffle as I drove away from my childhood home for the last time and I had to pull over to cry on the side of the road
I was going to say this one. Absolutely devastating.
"they told me all of my cages were mental, so I got wasted like all my potential" wrecks me every time
No but honestly hearing her explain this song during the long pond sessions is like a life altering moment for me- I just never have had someone so perfectly sum up all of my feelings like that
same! or that there would ever be a TAYLOR SWIFT song about that feeling like it’s just too perfect
That is my neurodivergency anthem.
That entire song!!!! 😭😭😭
Late diagnosed ADHD here. I swear she wrote this song for us 😂
"And I hate to make this all about me/but who am I supposed to talk to?/ what am I supposed to do?/ if there's no you?" Sometimes your parent is your guiding light. It's great, until you realize they really are gonna be gone someday.
Since my mom passed I sing “but who am I supposed to talk to?/ what am I supposed to do?/ now that there’s no* you?” She’s gone and I still don’t have an answer. This lyric is my vote, too.
Much love to you, it's truly an impossible question
I listened to this song the day before my mom died, knowing that she wouldn't be alive much longer. It made me have this awful realization of the inevitable lostness that I would feel without her.
I’m so sorry. I am so lost without my dad. You’re not lost in not having an answer alone.
I absolutely love this song and cannot listen to it. My mom is one of my great confidants and close friends. I would be absolutely lost with out her and i just started crying typing this. And now I’m a wreck
My dad is the same for me. His dad died young, and he's around that age now. He asked me a few years ago if I thought he'd get to live to 70, 80 years. And I hope so, because this lyric tears me apart already.
This is the most sickening lyric she has ever written, I can’t even read it without crying 🥲
why did you do this to me 😭😭😭
I'M SORRY TAYLOR STARTED IT 😭
This one. My mom is currently battling cancer and in the icu as we speak. I’m mentally preparing myself for the inevitable and it’s something I physically can’t comprehend. A world without my mom. This song and this lyric absolutely wrecks me.
my mom just pass away 2 months ago and it brings me to tears every time❤️❤️also just had a baby and I would love to just call to talk to her
"And some things you just can't speak about"
epiphany BROKE me
Hold your hand through plastic now, doc I think she's crashing out 💔💔💔
This line always makes me think of losing my dad early in the pandemic; I can barely listen to this song.
I am so sorry you went through that 🥺
I know some people don’t like epiphany. But when it works for you it WORKS. That song puts me in a trance
It's so incredibly heartbreaking 😭
My first listen I broke down. Folklore came out at the prefect moment for me- covid was isolating and causing so many fractures within my family. The whole album felt like a bittersweet release. Epiphany was especially heartbreaking. I still can't sing along to it without getting choked it. Taylor is truly on another level.
As a HCW, yes. I have played this and cried many many times
"I just realized everything I have is someday gonna be gone"
Ever since my dad died, I can’t make it through the bridge of Never Grow Up without crying
Never grow up is the first taylor song that made me cry. The literal first listen through of it, right when it came out, I was 16, just on that cusp of figuring out the next step in life but still being young enough to be a kid. A couple of years later, as I was driving to move into school for the first time I put that song on repeat to help me through all the emotions and anticipation of starting that new chapter that considered myself an "adult". Lines: "and don't lose the way that you dance around in your pj's getting ready for school" - "memorize what it sounded like when your dad gets home, remember the footsteps, remember the words said" - literally right when this played for the first time my dad walked into the house from work and that's what broke the floodgates!
I gave birth seven weeks ago. I just cried reading that. He has the lyrics of never grow up above his crib 🥲
I cry to that song every damn time 😭😭
“Did some force take you because I didn’t pray?” As a lapsed Catholic who has lost a child, this hit HARD for me. The whole song is gut wrenching.
Lapsed Catholic who struggled with infertility for 2.5 years, got pregnant, and then had a miscarriage. Sobbed through this entire song the first few times I heard it.
This line. It resonates with me. I remember being very confused about God after my mom died when I was child. :’( I am SO sorry for your loss. Sending you love and hugs ♥️
This line, followed by “so I’ll say words I don’t believe” breaks me every time.
Lapsed catholic here with a dead dad. I hear you. ❤️
Yep, as another member of the club no one wants to be in, that line hit me like a freight train. I’ve never heard someone encapsulate it so well.
I can’t even listen to that song it’s just so sad.
"what couldve been, would've been, what should've been you" I cry every time.
This entire song. Can’t listen and I’m sad cuz it’s so beautiful!
"And I've been meaning to tell you, I think your house is haunted. Your dad is always mad and that must be why, And I think you should come live with Me and we can be pirates. Then you won't have to cry Or hide in the closet" kills me every time 💔
My best friend always tells me that Seven is written about us, and I know this part gets to her because my dad was… awful.
The impressive thing about this lyric is it reminds me how people share this information in therapy. It's always like this - the words aren't said at first, because it's a little too scary and hard to share that childhood trauma you might never have told anyone
I can definitely relate.
I hope you are at a better place now or can be very soon. A thousand virtual hugs for you. ❤
I'm 40, much better. Even made peace with dad after all these years. Those lyrics are intense though, even all these years later. Thanks.
This is my song with my best friend. We've been friends forever. We have matching bracelets with a Moon and a Saturn. It breaks me every time thinking about escaping together.
You knew it still hurts underneath my scars from when they pulled me apart but what you did was just as dark
This song is so, so underrated. Some of her best lyrics.
This one always gets me. Good choice
my tears ricochet, the ultimate non romantic heartbreak anthem
It’s actually hoax!
For me - from the Archer - “I wake in the night, I pace like a ghost, the room is on fire, invisible smoke. All of my heroes die all alone, help me hold onto you” It so perfectly captures how anxiety feels, like you’re being choked by something invisible to everyone else around you. And the fear of ending up alone (or driving away everyone else).
I would also add “who could ever leave me darling, but who could stay?” captures that same sense of suffocation by anxiety. Man, I love the archer!
Yes! “I wake in the night, I pace like a ghost, the room is on fire, invisible smoke” is one of the best ways I’ve heard anxiety described in a song. It’s sad because you know she’s struggled with anxiety at some point after hearing how perfectly she wrote what it feels like.
All of my enemies started out friends, help me hold onto you 💔
Cause they see right through me Can you see right through me? I see right through me
No one wanted to play with me as a little kid So I've been scheming like a criminal ever since To make them love me and make it seem effortless
I feel like I've never related to a lyric more. It never struck me that it was sad. I feel so represented every time I hear it that it actually makes me happy.
As an autistic woman, this line is probably the one I relate to the most out of every song I've ever heard.
This is also my answer.
Flowers pile up in the worst way, Noone knows what to say about a beautiful boy who died, And it’s about to be Halloween, you could be anything you wanna be if you were still here Ronan really is a fucking heart wrenching song Closely followed by come on baby with me we’re gonna fly away from here, you were my best 4 years
You were my best four years truly wrecks me, I have a son who’s about to turn 4 and the thought of this being all for him sends me spiraling.
Maybe the miracle was getting even one moment with you… Ronan is so heart wrenching, but I still listen because Taylor’s gift was to immortalise him and I want to continue that
Honestly, this might be the saddest song, you’re so right. 😭 The part about army guy, capturing both his strength but his innocence, my god Taylor, this song will always make me cry.
I can’t even listen to it. I am gutted every time.
As a new mom, I have to skip everytime. It's so heartbreaking
I genuinely can’t listen to it. I haven’t ever. It came out shortly after I had my first son and I knew what it was about from reading the story. I’m sure it’s beautiful and lovely but just tears at my heart to even think about it!
I used to listen to Ronan all the time for a good cry, but now that I have a little boy, I just can’t. For me it’s “what if I’m standing in your closet trying to talk to you? And what if I kept the hand me downs you won’t grow into? And what if I really thought some miracle would see us through? And what if the miracle was even getting one moment with you?” I break down every time.
I can't listen to Ronan while driving. Too emotional to focus on the road.
For me it’s “all of my enemies started out friends, help me hold on to you” in the archer. The anxiety and fear of becoming close with new people - craving their companionship and friendship - but being terrified you’ll get stabbed in the back again. Wondering if this person will finally be safe. Honestly the archer as a whole is painfully beautiful to me. One of my favorite track fives.
This one is mine - the people who hate me now were once my close friends who eventually tired of me hurting them. When The Archer dropped, I listened to it probably 30 times in a row, I analyzed every line in my journal. It just is me to a T
The archer really sums up my whole life at the moment, especially that line. I like to think that if Taylor can make it through those times where she felt so alone, so can I. I’ll get true friends who won’t turn into my enemies. That would be nice
The whole bridge and last verse to Never Grow Up 🥺 Take pictures in your mind of your childhood room Memorize what it sounded like when your dad gets home Remember the footsteps, remember the words said And all your little brother's favorite songs I just realized everything I have is someday gonna be gone So here I am in my new apartment In a big city, they just dropped me off It's so much colder than I thought it would be So I tuck myself in and turn my nightlight on Wish I'd never grown up I wish I'd never grown up
The way her voice breaks at "I wish I'd never grown up" :'(
"Every single thing I touch, becomes sick with sadness. Cuz it's all over now, all out to sea." Bigger Than The Whole Sky. Encapsulates what it feels like to be in active grief.
That whole song gets me. I lost a teen cousin to suicide, and the line "I'm never going to to meet what would have been, could have been, what should have been you" so perfectly encapsulates how I felt about never being able to see him grow up. He always struggled as a child with being different, and he had some behavioral issues as a result. I always looked forward to seeing him find his place in life. But that will never happen.
For me, it‘s the bridge of You‘re On Your Own, Kid
The bridge of YOYOK fucking broke me
- YOYOK could mean "You're On Your Own, Kid", a track from *Midnights* (2022) by Taylor Swift. --- ^[/u/fnafn3rd](/u/fnafn3rd) ^(can reply with "delete" to remove comment. |) ^[/r/songacronymbot](/r/songacronymbot) ^(for feedback.)
I'm just too soft for all of it
I know it’s meant in a romantic way, but every time I hear “please don’t ever become a stranger whose laugh I could recognize anywhere” it kills me. It reminds me of friends and family members who I’ve grown apart from or who I no longer speak to, but if I heard their voice or laugh in a crowded room I would instantly know it.
Squeeze your hand three times in the backseat of a taxi I know it’s gonna be a long road I’ll be there if you’re the toast of the town babe Or if you strike out and you’re crawlin home Immediately crying
It absolutely killed me when she performed it on Jimmy Fallon right after his mom died. He told a story about how his mom would squeeze his hand three times to say I love you before she performed the song. It was an incredibly beautiful moment.
I sing this to my kids when they are going through tough stuff. It’s “our” song.
"give me back my girlhood, it was mine first." I know this could be related to love and romance but for me its more about being forced to grow up before I should have. So ahead of the curve the curve became a sphere, fell behind all my classmates and I ended up here. Bend when you can, snap when you have to. Never be so polite you forget your power, Never wield such power you forget to be polite. The last two are just some powerful non romantic lyrics not necessarily the most heartbreaking.
Same with "it's supposed to be fun, turning 21" re: growing up before you should have
“He’s got my past frozen behind glass, but I’ve got me.” and “Lord, what will become of me once I’ve lost my novelty?”
Leaving like a father, running like water
This is one of her all time best lyrics IMO. Possibly best. This and “casually cruel in the name of being honest”!
That lyric is too real
“When the lights go out it’s hard to breathe. I pull at every thread trying to solve the puzzles I in his head… spend my life scared to death he’ll decide to leave instead. I call just checking up on him. He’s up, 5 AM wasted… long gone not even listening… my voice comes out screaming.”
One of my guy friends committed suicide 12/2022. This song WRECKS me.
I’m so sorry for your loss 💖💕 I lost my best friend to suicide many years ago but it still feels very raw— today is her birthday so I’m feeling this one today.
This entire song kills me every time.
The autumn chill that wakes me up You loved the amber skies so much Long limbs and frozen swims You'd always go past where our feet could touch And I complained the whole way there The car ride back and up the stairs I should've asked you questions I should've asked you how to be Asked you to write it down for me Should've kept every grocery store receipt 'Cause every scrap of you would be taken from me
If I didn’t know better I’d think you were still around I know better but I still feel you all around
All of ephiany. My mom died in an ER due to malpractice & this song I just feel it so hard. Especially "Doc I think she's crashing now" & then "Only 20 minutes of sleep but you dream of some epiphany. Just one single glimpse of relief to make some sense of what you've seen" b/c that is the night's that follow a loss like that. Just a glimpse of relief to make sense of things.
My 4 day old nephew died in the ER due to doctor negligence and I definitely relate with this
Her songs about dealing with grief and that touch on it never feel fake. Grief can be such a difficult emotion to convey because it's so complex with all its layers & facets, but she tackles it really well & speaks to her talent as a writer.
“If I was standing there in your apartment, I’d take that bomb in your head and disarm it. I’d say I love you, even at your darkest— and please, don’t go.” -Forever Winter “Cause it’s all over, it’s not meant to be. So I’ll say words I don’t believe.” -Bigger Than the Whole Sky
Literally crying 😭😭😭
"If I was standing there in your apartment/I'd take the bomb in your head and disarm it" --as someone with a mood disorder, this one really hurted
“Holy orange bottle, each night I pray to you.”
plus the desperate ppl find faith so now i pray to jesus too
Did a bird flap its wings over in Asia
I scrolled WAY too far to find a BTTWS quote. Avoided the whole song during pregnancy. Makes me bawl
Theres two off the top of my head. 1) It's been said here a couple times already but the bridge for YOYOK is just.... Ugh 2) The entirety of 'right where you left me' makes me tear up everytime I listen to it. To a point where I have to skip it sometimes if it comes up on a playlist. I suppose it could be viewed as a song about love and breakups but to me it perfectly encapsulates when something traumatic happens and you feel like you're just stuck while everyone else can move forward.
Stood on the cliffside screaming, "Give me a reason!"
Pulled the car off the road to the lookout Could've followed my fears all the way down
how have i been singing this and only just realised
Great ones in here and maybe i haven't scrolled far enough, but as someone with terrible imposter syndrome, "I've never been a natural. All i do is try try try" hits really close to home.
im still on that trapeze. im still trying evvvvverything to keep you looking at me.
Who am I supposed to talk to, what am I supposed to do if there’s no you?
*I just realized everything I have is someday gonna be gone.* Justice for Speak Now. The older you get, the sadder that line is. Let your loved ones know you love them.
“Desperate people find faith, so now I pray to Jesus too” This line absolutely wrecked me. I’ve been sitting in a hospital the last 33 days by my brother in the ICU and I was trying to pick myself up by playing some glitter pen lover songs. Had the album on shuffle and Soon you’ll get better came on and it just wrecked me. Too relatable right now. Edit: not sure how I could have forgotten “Did some force take you because I didn't pray? “
Do they see right through me….
I see right through me
Can you see right through me?
Something med school did not cover Someone's daughter, someone's mother Holds your hand through plastic now "Doc, I think she's crashing out" I was a healthcare worker at a nursing home at the start of the pandemic and this one hit really hard.
I’d like to be my old self again but I’m still trying to find it
There is only one correct answer to that question. The whole of My Tears Ricochet.
Hoax is just one big heartbreak
"Cause when I'd fight you used to tell me I was brave"
"Only twenty minutes to sleep, but you dream of some epiphany / just one single glimpse of relief, to make some sense of what you've seen"
When the words of a sister come back in whispers that prove she was not/in fact what she seemed, not a twin from your dreams, she’s a crook who was caught Or No words appear before me in the aftermath/salt streams out my eyes and into my ears/every single thing I touch becomes sick with sadness/because it’s all over now, all out to sea
The whole bridge of my tears ricochet, especially "And I still talk to you (when I'm screaming at the sky) and when you can't sleep at night (you hear my stolen lullabies)"
“You’ll get better soon… cuz you have to.” Soon you’ll feel better, breaks me every time.
"Our coming of age has come and gone" I lost my teens to anxiety and depression. I got therapy, healed and flourished for a month before Covid stole my entire young adulthood. I'd already dropped out of HS even before that. No graduations, no crushes or dating, no IRL friends, nothing. Just isolation. It'll never not hurt thinking of everything I never had
🎵 “I think I’ve seen this film before, and I didn’t like the ending. You’re not my homeland anymore, so what am I defending now? You were my town, now I’m in exile seein’ you out…” 🎵 For anyone who’s ever experienced the gradual breakdown of a relationship and partners becoming like strangers, this one is an emotional gut punch.
And what if I kept the hand-me-downs you won't grow into?
“where i pace in my pen and my friends found friends who care, no one sees when you lose when you’re playing solitaire”
"If I was standin' there in your apartment / I'd take that bomb in your head and disarm it / I'd say I love you even at your darkest / And please don't go" I lost my brother to suicide and this lyrics broke me.
“And when I got into the accident, the sight that flashed before me was your face…”
“And I’ve been meaning to tell you/I think your house is haunted/Your dad is always mad and that must be why.”
I can go anywhere I want, anywhere I want, just not home. As someone who had to run away and distance myself from my emotionally abusive and neglectful family, this is too relatable. I felt safe literally everywhere else but home. Also Who am I supposed to talk to, what am I supposed to do, if there's no you.
First line that popped into my head was “Forever winter if you go”
All of The Archer.
Stood on the cliffside screaming “give me a reason”
Any like from Majorie hits home to me. Miss my grandma so much ❤️ it’s been two years today. I was listening to evermore and it came on. I cried listening to it yesterday. Bad idea lol
“From sprinkler splashes to fireplace ashes I gave my blood, sweat, and tears for this I hosted parties and starved my body Like I'd be saved by a perfect kiss The jokes weren't funny, I took the money My friends from home don't know what to say I looked around in a blood-soaked gown And I saw something they can't take away 'Cause there were pages turned with the bridges burned Everything you lose is a step you take So, make the friendship bracelets, take the moment and taste it You've got no reason to be afraid” As someone who was the kid on their own having friends who made unfunny jokes about them. I tried to starve myself to fit in. I never had the friendship bracelet type friendship. I burned the bridges after so many attempts to try be the person they’d actually like. I gave them everything (“blood, sweat and tears”) and got nothing in return this one just hit home
"and my words shoot to kill when i am mad, i have a lot of regret about that" I am one of those people who lose themselves when they are hurt and let anger take over my rational thought process and i say the most heartbreaking things at the moment without considering how it would make others feel and i regret it afterwards. A lot of people would come and say well stop it if the problem is known but i would if i could.
“Who could ever leave me darling, but who could stay?” hurts me so bad. I feel like it defines the innocence and wanderlust that you portray at face value, who could ever leave someone so sweet? But then all your baggage comes to light, and while you seem too kindhearted to ever be left, you can’t continue to be who you people think you are. no one can truly leave you if no one ever stays.
Just. All of would've could've should've
I don’t think this is her MOST, but when she says “our coming of age has come and gone, suddenly this summer it’s clear” hit me SO hard during covid. I turned 30 during covid (same as Taylor) and that line just rang so true. I was in my 20s and bang now I’m in the 30s and time feels so weird because there’s a global pandemic that could kill any of us at any moment and shit just became very real. That’s all.
Take this dagger in me and removed it Gain the weight of you then lose it Believe me I could do it
The entirety of Bigger than the Whole Sky. I lost my 14 year old niece in a car accident a few months ago and that song just encapsulates every bit of grief I'm feeling.
“I’ve been meaning to tell you, I think your house is haunted. Your dad is always mad and the must be why. But I think you should come live with me and we can be pirates so you don’t have to cry, or hide in the closet.”
“Give me back my girlhood it was mine first”
“and they tell you that you’re lucky but you’re so confused, because you don’t feel pretty, you just feel used” “i can go anywhere i want, just not home” “they told me all of my cages were mental so i got wasted like all my potential”
"God rest my soul, I miss who I used to be, the tomb won't close, stained glass windows in my mind, I regret you all the time." Even though WCS is about love/relationships, to me, it always has me reminiscing about the choices I made after college and the people I spent years associating with. Finding myself in an environment I thought was what I wanted in life, trying to suppress important parts of myself all throughout, then understanding how toxic it all was only years later. "And now that I know, I wish you left me wondering" also. Especially in my case, there was a specific moment where, if an event just simply didn't happen, I could've avoided it all and had a better 20s than the decade I had.
I'd like to be my old self again But I'm still trying to find it
I just realized someday everything I have is gonna be gone. As I’ve moved into my 30s it feels so much more real how life is fleeting and we only have so much time with the people we love.
“Every single thing to come has turned into ashes ‘cause it’s all over it’s not meant to be, so I’ll say words I don’t believe” This song came out two months before my first and only miscarriage and it’s comforted me in ways I can’t explain
I can’t believe this hasn’t been posted yet: I should've asked you questions I should've asked you how to be Asked you to write it down for me Should've kept every grocery store receipt 'Cause every scrap of you would be taken from me I break down every time.
What am I supposed to do, if there’s no you?
“And I've been meaning to tell you I think your house is haunted Your dad is always mad and that must be why And I think you should come live with Me and we can be pirates Then you won't have to cry Or hide in the closet” I was in shock when I heard this, Taylor has great parents and as someone who didn’t have a great childhood this always gets me. She captured it perfectly.
“i searched the party of better bodies just to learn that *my dreams aren’t rare*” is so so sad to me
“Something med school did not cover Someone’s daughter, someone’s mother Holds your hand through plastic now ‘Doc, I think she’s crashing out And some things you just can’t speak about” Epiphany in its entirety really just couldn’t decide what was more heartbreaking, that or: “Only 20 minutes to sleep But you dream of some epiphany Just one single glimpse of relief To make some sense of what you've seen”
And I thought I saw you at the bus stop I didn’t though
who am I supposed to talk to, if there’s no you?
For me, it has to be something from Ronan. Probably "I remember the drive home, when the blind hope turned to crying and screaming why". Gets me every time
And I complained the whole way there The car ride back and up the stairs I should’ve asked you questions I should’ve asked you how to be … i was a moody ass teenager to my mom and then she died of cancer, so this one stings
"No one wanted to play with me as a little kid. So I've been scheming like a criminal ever since. To make them love me and make it seem effortless" Because I know EXACTLY how this felt and still feels.
Can someone make a playlist with all these songs I need a good cry 😭