The first single in a new album is a vital one in dictating the direction of the rest of album. Mine was a good choice to represent the record as it lies in the perfect balance between a pop melody and country production, marking her gradual shift from Nashville to more mainstream appeal.
The verse starts off recounting the moment the protagonist met the subject of the song and shows off Taylor’s ability to fit a lot of story in few words. It then goes on to describe the protagonists’ troubled relationship with love and commitment, giving us insight in the types of broken relationships that informed her understanding of love growing up. It builds a picture of a protagonist cautious of trusting a happy ending.
You realise the verse was a memory of a previous moment in the pre-chorus which takes place in the here and now. The simplicity of reminiscing the past lying on the couch reflect a change in the protagonists’ relationship with love where she now feels at ease. However, Taylor Swift’s songwriting strength lies in her attention to details, and the line ‘can you believe it?’ betrays a hint of her anxiety with the ability of love to withstand the test of time.
The first half of the chorus provides the missing piece between the verse and pre-chorus of bridging the point at which they first met and the current moment of lying on the couch. It speaks to the moment of excitement and butterflies that come at the beginning of a relationship. The second half -you made a rebel of a careless man’s careful daughter- showcases one of the best rhyming couplets she has ever written, whittling down a whole storyline of the character of their relationship.
The verse now moves the story a few months (or possibly years?) forward, where the couple are excited and young, navigating life and love together, still in early stages of hopefulness and unburdened by time, working out how to avoid pitfalls they witnessed growing up. Hasn't everybody thought ‘When I grow up ill never do that’ in defiance of what they see as parental mistakes?
This hopefulness and naivety is however put to a test in the second pre-chorus, when real life, such as bills and anxiety about the future threatens to turn them into what they feared- making their parents mistakes.
Overdramatic bridges with tension have always been Taylor’s forte and this one proves no exception. This checklists all the usual Taylor-isms, from a fight at 2.a.m to crying on the street. This point leads us to the expected ending of the song-one in which the protagonist will be proven right that love doesn't last, thus reinforcing her mistrust in it. However, this is a red herring and he responds different to what she expected!
In the final chorus Taylor employs a technique of reversing roles whereby the male is now the central point of view, allowing us to step in the protagonist’s shoes and experience it as if we were her, building intimacy which makes Taylor’s music so loved.
Rating 9/10
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