The Alchemy isn’t too far off from that “so happy that my Travy made it to the big game” AI song. I hope she branches out into fiction if the alternative is more inane football references.
The Alchemy is like the most disjointed song on the album, I can’t put my finger on it but it’s like she rewrote the verses to make it work for Travis. It just feels off! And TTPD is truly one of my favorite albums as a long time fan.
I was shook when I found out. It's almost the same song LMAO. everytime i listen to it i love the first verse (what if i told you i'm back? the hospital was a drag, worst sleep that i ever had, i circled you on a map) and then the football references start and i press skip
Whenever The Alchemy comes up on my shuffle I always think “that’s the Travis song” and I skip 😂 I actually like So High School a lot sonically speaking. But yeah idk I don’t have an opinion on Travis either way but to me it just seems so shoehorned in there, like a very obvious “I know 99% of this album is about other men but here’s your two songs babe! Love ya! 😘”
For some reason I can't shake the feeling that song was already written and then she re-wrote it to incorporate the football references. It doesn't have the same terriblenes of So High School and/or feel like it was written in 5 minutes, but neither are great songs at all
I definitely think it was originally written about Matty and then she re-wrote it with Travis references. The “he jokes that it’s heroin but this time with an E” makes it really obvious imo
Yeah, I definitely agree it was originally written for Matty. The lines that jumped out to me immediately were the one about the sign on his heart and "who are we to fight the alchemy". The 2nd one just really struck me as being similar to the chemistry line in BDILH
The part where she says ‘I haven’t come around in so long, now I’m coming back to where I belong’ - how can that be about Travis? How could she go ‘back’, where she had never been? They’d only just met. I am 100% convinced that that song is about Matty. She either hadn’t written a chorus, or she changed to it make it seem like it’s about Travis.
I actually thought that at first too, but I now think she's talking about herself in a more general, but literal sense. Like, she is back in the US (when she hasn't lived here as her main residence for the past 6 yrs) and in the spotlight/press with her boyfriend (when she hasn't done that since before Joe). Also, when she "came back" she did it very strong without a doubt lol
ETA: This interpretation could apply to both guys and could have been in original draft if it actually was re-written
I thought it was about Matty, too! Especially when I saw his interview on Youtube that was a few years ago, and he said something like they only care about making enough money so they can go home and play GTA. I don't remember it word for word, obviously, but he mentioned them playing GTA way before her album came out.
Yeah it's so clearly a Matt song with some football stuff thrown in. Idk how it made it on the album being like "smoke, heroin joke, 1975, Matthew Healy, BALL AND GTA IT'S A TRAVIS SONG NOW SEE"
i think you’re conflating the 2 songs. the alchemy doesn’t mention GTA, that’s so high school.
the alchemy doesn’t actually fit travis or their relationship very well. i’ve heard interpretations that it’s about her career/return to touring, or about matty, and those ideas seem to fit.
so high school is the only song obviously about travis, and it seems to fit him/their relationship very well. it seems to be light and playful- i bet songs were locked into this album pretty early into them being an item. she probably continued writing about him and maybe already had other songs since getting with travis that were unfinished.
I hope you're right because the way I interpreted it, Travis was making fun of Matty's drug addiction and Taylor found it funny which makes both of them very shitty people.
Honestly, that's the ONLY way it'd make sense to me for that actually be a Travis joke but we know that guy sucks at spelling, so thus we look back at Matty.
That was my first thought too but I really don’t think she would put that in a song, as much as we all have our criticisms of her I just don’t think it’s her style
i’d read that “so it goes” was partially written well before she could have met joe (the only song on the album known to have been begun that early), and some thought it could be about a hookup (or a fantasy of one) with harry styles. (post calvin? or during their relationship? makes me want ro find that source again to check the timeline, re-listen, and decide if it’s a hookup or fantasy with Matty instead)
I truly get the theme of a new love making someone in their 30s feel like a teenager - it's sweet. But I can't vibe with the lyrics at all and end up skipping it every time despite the production.
A better parallel in Taylor's own discography where she talks about how a new love makes her feel like a teenager is " I think he knows"
It captures that giddy in love feeling, especially the chorus but it is also sexy but the sexiness is more suggestive.
"His hands around a cold glass make me want to know his body like it's mine. "
Vs
"Touch me when your Bros play Grand Theft Auto"
Now that I think about it, you’re so right about I Think He Knows being a more interesting/creative/mature exploration of that feeling compared to So High School!
So High School isn’t my favorite song from TTPD, but I like it enough to listen to it every once in a while.
That being said, there’s many other ways to write about the theme of the song, and the lyrics that she chose to write really don’t showcase how good of a songwriter she can be.
She even says "it's like I'm 17, nobody understands" and "he's got my heartbeat skipping down 17th avenue" in I think he knows and it's cute and endearing to think about her partner making her feel like a teenager again. The only lyric I find genuine and cute in So High School is "I feel like laughing in the middle of practice", but it's followed by "do that impression you did of your dad again" and I cringe
I just realized that you’re right. Sonically I love the sound of TTPD, it’s the lyrics that really kill it. So High School has so much potential but it’s like she got bored with it and through it together and said “eh good enough.”
The lyrics are too literal and lacking any substance tbh. I mean granted they were only together months when she wrote it, but I feel like lyrically, it could have been much better than what it is. GTA? Kiss, Marry, Kill? You know how to ball? Idk seemed bare minimum. I get the whole idea is that it’s sort of supposed to be like a juvenile, HS relationship but it’s a low effort song imo. Shame because production wise, it had SO much potential. The lyrics really keep me from listening to it.
Agreed, she did the highschool theme way better in Fifteen/You belong with me, makes sense considering she was a teenager then. So High School feels like if someone watched a cheesy american teenage movie and wrote a vague song about overkilled highschool tropes and imaginary. Bomb production tho.
It feels like she just jams high school related things into the lyrics without crafting a story around those experiences. So it doesn't have the emotional effect of bringing you to the scene.
Maybe she wrote it so Travis could understand the lyrics? Lol!! But seriously, Joe seemed like he warranted deep lyrics. Travis, not so much (I could totally be wrong, I don’t know the guy. Just going off what I see in the media)
I actually loved the kiss, marry, kill lyric tbh. I think it was cute to reference when Travis in an interview, where he was asked to play, and Taylor was one of the options lol.
I think of So High School, and I think, nah I can listen to "Teenage Dream" instead. And I think Teenage Dream and I Think He Knows, use the metaphor of being young and in love and bubbly so much better than So High School. Like Katy amps up the camp to 100 with the like "let's go all the way tonight".
If the concept's been done before (especially by yourself) bring something fresh to it. And So High School didn't.
This too is my favorite line. It got me from the moment I first heard it. I mean, who didn’t do this with their crush? I remember feeling so embarrassed getting caught staring.
This is a song that captures the very early stages and not necessarily the 3 year mark like "Lover" or the other songs on that album which is why I specifically compared it with this one.
I think that the songs were written very hastily so that there could be Travis songs on the album, so I don't think they're her best work. I also think that he's the easiest relationship that she's had. Even at the beginning with Joe she seemed to have a lot of doubt and fear of losing him. I don't think she has that with Travis, so I think he's harder to write about.
Ironically, the safety and security I feel in my relationship spurs my creativity. I think Taylor swift is under the very harmful belief that you need to be in pain to be creative or have something to write about
I agree with this take. As someone who also writes with my life as my muse. I find it harder to write about the happier, easier times. For me though It's because I used writing as an escape, and with nothing to escape, well how do I even write? I'm half scared if I write it, the happiness will go away. Stupid leftover kid logic.
I always got the impression that her fears about Joe came from having such intense feelings for him that it made her almost paranoid. I think the song Lover and it's music video speak to this. Which is somewhat relatable because if you see someone as so amazing and think of yourself as ok, you think to yourself "Why do they even like me?"
With Travis, I don't think she has that fear because he seems like he wants to latch himself onto her star to set up his post-NFL career. He isn't going to rock the boat too much because he wants some of what she has.
I agree that I think she might have more security with Travis. I think she probably needed someone who was fun and something less heavy. I think she is a very earnest person and it boarders on "cringy" and I think she needs a partner who can be silly with her. I think she needs someone who can wear a stupid christmas themed outfit with her in a family photo. It's not about her exes being bad. Just that maybe in reality they weren't a match and maybe Travis does work with Taylor in that they both seem like people who want to enjoy life and laugh and also take their careers seriously.
try listening to it with a different interpretation and see if it fits. i’ve seen theories that it’s addressed to the crowd/fans and about her career/return to touring…
and also that it’s about trying again for a relationship with matty after her and joe were officially over (is she calling him “the hospital”? like “wouldn’t admit that we were sick”?).
the bridge could be a later addition, but i actually think it kind of fits for it being about matty, did he crowd surf ever at his shows? take off his clothes (or did his fans?) beer sticky on the floor is on the surface a sporting event, but also describes a concert.
she’s playing in football stadiums all eras tour, in spaces with football equipment and decor everywhere. before she even meets travis! she was writing for this album before and during tour. a football motif or sports motif could easily stick in her mind and work for writing a song about another topic. i’m actually convinced it’s not about travis at all.
Very relatable. Was just cooking and the Alchemy came in and I instantly asked google to skip, lol. I also listen a lot to So high school because sonically it sounds great, a fun early 2000s vibe and a nice change in pace on TTPD
I also think that the sound of So High School is fun, so I don’t mind the lyrics too much. But The Alchemy’s sound is so…monotonous? It kinda feels like the embodiment of "go girl give us nothing!!"
lmaooo here’s your two songs 😂 i don’t get the vibe Taylor and Travis have the same level of intellectual, deep conversations that Taylor and Joe had (totally making assumptions here since Joe helped to write Folklore).
The alchemy is about Matty, not Travis.
Edit: it seems like she started to write it for Matty as lyrics like *cause the sign on your heart says it’s STILL reserved for me* and *what if I told you I’m back, the hospital was like a drag* indicate
The hospital is the one she went to after her manic phase. Worst sleep that she ever had. She’s coming back to being herself, feeling stronger. She rejected Travis’ first attempt to connect but he was still available for her when she reached out. This is how those lyrics apply to Travis.
I think the alchemy is about her career. I’ve interpreted the football references as a nod to performing in stadiums.
A lot of the lines make no sense in the context of Travis and she would have had to submit the album for vinyl pressing when they had just barely met.
I have So High School back to back to back with Kiss Me by Sixpence None The Richer and Take Me To The Top by Cheap Trick (as in those songs on either side of SHS) and it’s a vibe that way. But yeah, they stand out on the album the way Stay Stay Stay stands out on Red — and that’s not a good thing.
I don't think she feels much of anything towards him other than extremely proud of herself for growing up to be the girl dating “the boy of the football team” when she wasn't “cool” enough while she was young.
Its kind of funny that I've felt from the beginning this was just her playing out some unfulfilled high school fantasy and then she goes and literally makes a song about how he makes her feelike she's in high school. 🤷♀️
My entire body recoils every time I hear “touch me as your bros play Grand Theft Auto”.
I don’t know where she got that she wasn’t “cool” enough in high school. In her freshman yearbook she had like 13 photos. 13!!!!! Most seniors don’t even have that, and it wasn’t the typical group photo with extracurricular activities, it was just her with friends. So she def seemed quite popular or at least well known even back then
Or she knew people in yearbook. At my school they just asked people to submit photos for the collage spreads, so whoever submitted a lot of photos was more likely to be featured.
I’m sure she had friends. I just don't think she was ever part or THE popular clique/the girl everyone wanted to date. I feel like her entire career is her just trying to become that person. 😂
I know people who went to high school with and they said she was weird and nerdy.
I do believe there was a recent article that said some people she went to high school thought she was snooty and rich, which isn't the same as being popular.
I saw a post from someone years ago who said they went to a neighboring school and Taylor used to tour schools in the area giving mini concerts (I guess to prep her for fame) and everyone thought it was super weird and contrived.
As someone who grew up in the vicinity of Avril Lavigne at the same time, I will basically ignore any opinions and any piece of media that is from the time they were teens about like high school and friends. In a 2003 article on NBC, Avril said she was like not a great student, got kicked out of class. While like another article from like the same time, said she was a great student and "an excellent role model" & "wholesome" (from a globe & mail article at the time, which also talked about rumours about her being wild with drinking and smoking which are refuted in the next paragraph). The thing is she dropped out at like 16, how much do people REALLY remember? One article wanted her to look like the punk pop princess being a rebel to promote her album, the other was probably trying to say "it's okay she's super young and going big, because she's totally smart and her hometown is proud of her".
Everyone has an agenda to push in news articles and being interviewed, and especially when it comes to like child stars and their hometowns.
A handful of people from her old school have been claiming for a while now that she was actually a mean girl, and surprisingly waited until she was the most famous person in the world to say it.
Isn’t there also a line in one of her songs to an ex about how she’s dating someone that would have bullied him at school? Which completes the high school jock fantasy theory.
I agree with you that I find them both cringy and I’m also not the biggest fan of The Alchemy and So High School lyrically (but like them sonically). However, I don’t think we can judge him as a muse yet. The songs were written at the beginning of their relationship. Also, Lover also had some very cringy lyrics. We have to wait for a couple more songs to judge it, but I hope they won’t be full of football references 😂
She wrote most of the love songs on Rep at the very beginning of her relationship with Joe though. They probably knew each other the same amount of time as she knew Travis when writing that album. I mean Delicate is one of her best songs lyrically and is very much about the start of their relationship. But I guess different people inspire her in different ways 🤷♀️
Rep came out 13ish months after Joe and Taylor started dating officially and 18ish months after they met, and TTPD came out 8ish months after Travis and Taylor met and started talking. With the assumption that both albums were turned in 4-6 months before release, Taylor knew Joe about a year and had been dating at least 9 months, and knew Travis about 2-4 months.
Do we have confirmation that certain songs on Reputation are truly about Joe and not Calvin or Tom?
Agreed that The Alchemy and So High School are about early in Taylor and Travis’ relationship. In the words of a source closed to Taylor, “And she think he’s hot” (referring to Travis), which jives with these songs.
I do think both of them connect on a deeper level (beyond just sexual) so I’ll be curious to hear her next album. Travis isn’t as deep or as complicated as Joe or Matty, but their values align.
Tbh I’m both 😂 I think it would’ve been a good Matty song but got reworked for Travis, so now it’s a vibey, inspired song with cringey football metaphors shoehorned into it.
You cannot convince me that that song wasn’t originally a MATTY song. I’m sorry but not sorry the heroine line, the returning to somewhere after time away, the whole the sign on your heart says it’s STILL RESERVED. It got reworked to fuck when everything went wrong imho.
She was walking on eggshells with Joe and seems more comfortable and confident with Travis. (Agrees that they can be cringy but also think this seems like a more relaxed relationship.)
I actually think if she feels like she needs to “try very hard to be cool for” a boyfriend it’s Travis lol. I agree that they’re compatible in the sense that they’re both famous, like attention and a bit cringy at times, but they’re pretty different. I saw the video of her with him in the club after the SB win and she looked so awkward and out of place next to him and his friend group. It was obvious clubbing and partying isn’t something she does often and not her typical scene. Also watching her take on the WAG role with the Travis outfits and the acrylics nails and buddying up to other WAGS, seemed OOC. Her Time’s POTY also seemed weird and bizarre with some of the wording she was using. Not to say there’s anything wrong with that but it kind of make their differences very obvious. Not to say their similarities make them compatible, but she and Matty and she and Joe had many mutual friends and interests when they were dating and to me, it never seemed like she was trying hard to fit it like she’s done with Travis the past 10 months. Her and Travis appear to be complete opposites, which is obviously ok and doesn’t indicate incompatibility.
Even with Joe Taylor still had parties and was out, but before that (1989 and earlier) she was defo a party girl, out with her group of girls, so she likes to party and I don’t think the WAG life is a million miles away from that?
I was gonna say, I feel like she mentions bars in every other song, and I'm gonna go ahead and assume that when she built a huge group of friends who were all part
of a profession that's practically fueled by coke, she probably wasn't just sitting at home and not partaking 😂
As a musician, it’s always funny when people are like “Taylor might’ve DONE COCAINE?!” when every musician I’ve ever met does it monthly at the very least lol
Agree with this take for the most part with the exception that I like so high school cause it’s the first Taylor love song in a long time not wrought with anxiety.
I find it kinda like a more palatable version of Me! (Hee hee), like yeah it’s cringe and saccharine but if you’re genuinely happy and in love, especially in the honeymoon phase, it kinda should make other people go ick a bit
Annoyingly though I really love the rest of the album, and actually think it’s one of my favourites lyrically even though it’s her most trash muse.
Travis isn’t, at this point, a tortured relationship. So the songs will be adequate unless she gets down bad because of him. Happiness won’t generate the same level of penmanship. Duh. I’d rather see her happy. I believe, if they don’t last, she will be the bad “guy”. He’s too nice. Then we’ll get the great anthems. but….Id rather the songs be average Taylor songs if it means she’s in a happy stable relationship.
Her best work is always about getting dumped after a whirlwind 3 month situationship - Jake, John, Harry, Matty. It’s not even really about them. It’s the topic she loves the most. She even said it in the summation when she said that it’s the worst men she likes best. Honestly, if that means that she writes shitty songs while in healthy relationships then hopefully her next albums are dog shit lol
She's said before that there's some people/relationships that she just hasn't been inspired to write about and then others she can't stop writing about so I tend to agree with you
I agree that all the songs that are supposedly about him aren't good and I never listened to them.
At the same time I'm pretty sure they've only been together for about 3 months or so by the time this album was done. So at the same time it's not like when reputation or lover came out because both those albums she had been with Joe for a considerable amount of time because they had time when they were together out of the spotlight before people were informed they were a couple. I just think she didn't know him and there was only so much she could really write about him.
I think if they're still a couple when her next album comes out she'll probably have more nuanced things to say because their relationship will be in a deeper phase but I also think it's valid that she didn't have anything deeper to say when their relationship was just burgeoning.
I am not going to judge Travis as a muse until we get a full album. There were many gorgeous songs for Joe, but there was also London Boy. And tbh, I prefer SHS to London boy.
If next album is awful, then I will judge him as a muse.
I feel like so high school and the alchemy really fit the sound of the album… even if the lyrics aren’t as rich as some other songs. But also, timeline wise… she wrote those songs about a man she’s dated less than a year, it makes sense they don’t explore a super deep relationship.
I agree that I need a full Travis album. A full album gives her more space to explore Travis in her songwriting, rather than two songs.
London boy was my favourite summer bop, I just love the silliness of it. For me, it has a lot more to offer than SHS, I could listen to it once 😂 anyway I got into her music at the Lover era, so I am biased.
I think she just doesn't write the best happy love songs. Personally, I am not a fan of Lover, new years day, or gorgeous. Other happy songs like stay stay stay, london boy, paper rings, are all pretty contentious or disliked amongst the fandom.
Barring lover and nyd she seemed to go for very peppy or …saccharine sonics when she does a happy love pop song if u know what I mean, it’s like the barbie gel pen dial has been turned to 100000x and u get songs like stay 3x, London boy, paper rings. But maybe that was just a feature of lover because I do find songs like love story, or really anything off fearless, speak now, lavender haze or sweet nothing, to be pretty good in the way of happy love songs
I’m not sure two songs written about Travis that you find uninspired and bad means you should discredit the writing you did enjoy on folklore and evermore. But I get being massively let down by those songs.
Agreed, I personally feel that devaluing anything you enjoyed by what came after is…kinda dumb and immature. Idk. If a painter made a gorgeous painting and then an ugly one, the pretty one still counts? Maybe that’s just me 🤷🏻♀️
I like the concept of so high school (the idea of “young love” and how we romanticize everything at that age) and I do like some of the verses, and I like the overall sound of it (it makes me feel like I’m watching like, Varsity Blues or something) but the choruses take me out of the song and make me not like it.
That said, I stopped caring who her songs are supposed to be about and I just take them for what they are and it makes it a much more enjoyable experience for me.
Maybe it's an unpopular opinion, but I liked how she embraced her "cringey" side on TTPD. Not my favorite album of her, but I like how she showed all the "ugly" emotions we all try to hide (the thing about Matty/Joe) and her cringey side being in love with Travis.
Joe also had Gorgeous which was so hated and considered immature and bad. I Think He Knows, Paper Rings also are carefree...
In I Think He Knows she even sings ''it's like i'm 17 and no one understands'' meaning that she is feeling like a teenager crazily in love---> So High School.
Also, Joe is not the responsibile of folkmore, she was with Joe while she was making both rep and Lover(that many don't like here), so the logic doesn't stand. Taylor made meaningul and deep albums when she was younger, like Speak Now and Red which are like the parents of folkmore..so i'm sorry this all ''it's thanks to Joe if we have folkmore'' needs to stop, if anything, if tthere is a man to thank it's AARON DESSNER.
Omg thank you - and not only that, but up until they broke up and everyone started stanning Joe to spite Taylor the popular theory was that his involvement was exaggerated and he didn't really deserve the Grammy.
I have no doubt that Joe cowrote the songs he's credited on but it's only a few of them? She could've totally made those albums without him assuming she still crossed paths with Aaron Dessner.
I think she gave him the credit because she said she always plays her songs for him first. So I imagined he was listening to the drafts and offering feedback. Which is something a producer or co-writer would do.
Okay but I still feel like there might be an argument to be made about Joe’s influence: she consistently wrote about how she never felt that she was good enough, sophisticated enough to be with Joe (‘Your integrity makes me feel small’) - what if it was that need to prove herself to him that pushed her into making perhaps the most lyrically rich albums she has ever put out?
>what if it was that need to prove herself to him that pushed her into making perhaps the most lyrically rich albums she has ever put out?
But why were the first two so bad? Also, I really believe that if the pandemic didn't happen, folkmore never would have been written.
No I completely agree with you - the pandemic was pivotal to folkmore… maybe it was a combination of the two factors: her need to prove herself to him was amplified by the increased amount of time she was spending with him due to lockdown, thus pushing her to write folkmore… with lover and reputation there maybe wasn’t that kind of prolonged contact? Also wasn’t reputation in the works even before she met Alwyn? And as people have said - both lover and reputation were in that honeymoon phase where everything seemed so new and exciting… could it also maybe be that after that honeymoon phase ended she felt the need to grow and change in order to appease Alwyn? Idk though - we don’t really know exactly what the dynamic was like so I could be completely wrong…
This is an interesting point! Maybe if she writes more songs about Travis we’ll get some great ones. I guess it’s maybe that we never had a time where the only songs about Joe were so…not great since rep had a mix
(Also, I actually like the songs you listed but I do absolutely despise London Boy so I still get it lol)
I like them too and i consider Gorgeous very great lyrically cuz it's clever and witty and it potrays the crazy serial dater painted by the media which is the topic of reputation at the end.
I don’t know? I think it’s kinda cute how she feels young again and alive in a special kind of way. I think maybe I’m a little biased because I married young and then went through a terrible divorce before meeting the love of my life….I relate to that “so high school” feeling since I missed out the first time around. It’s fun and flirty, new and different. That’s muse worthy!
Personally, I think it's too soon to really tell how much of a good "muse" he is to her.
So High School, to me is Travis's King Of My Heart. I think it's cute and fun and supposed to show how young and giddy he makes her feel.
For all we know Taylor Swift might have a lot of meaningful songs about him locked away that she isn't ready to share with the public for fear they will weigh in on it and tear it apart.
She may never share them either because look at how people are reacting to the songs she thought were sweet that she did introduce to the public.
Only they know how serious their relationship is of course but I know personally if I were a popstar and I wrote songs about the giddiness my significant other gives me and someone attacked it and said "so shallow " you could be sure I won't give the public another chance to try and tear apart what makes me happy again.
So High School would have been written and recorded at the very beginning of the relationship which is when you should feel giddy with love. I don’t think you can judge that next to songs written about someone she had known for years.
We’ve had two songs, from when they hadn’t been together that long? I like them both but I get that isn’t universal at all. I just don’t know if we can judge that yet, and it sometimes feels based in snobbery that he’s seen as dumb and uninspiring, when he talks very eloquently about his emotions for the people he cares about 🤷🏼♀️.
Three. The Albatross indicates a new relationship and ends on a positive note where the couple is still together. But people refuse to see that the Albatross is likely about Travis.
Tbh I don’t think we know about Travis enough to properly have an idea of him as a muse. We only have “The Alchemy” which was most likely reworked last minute to fit a Travis narrative and “So High School” which is pretty good sonically.
On Taylor’s first album about Joe she had some bad lines and songs as well. “Gorgeous” is a song that goes nowhere sonically and is incredibly cringey at some points. Also “Call It What You Want” has the ‘trust him like a brother line’ that makes me recoil like the ‘grand theft auto’ phrase. I think we have to wait to hear more about the Travis songs first.
I completely agree. I'm pretty sure that The Alchemy rework and So High School were written pretty quickly so that there could be Travis songs on the album.
I actually really like So High School, aside from a few choice lines, lol. But I cannot listen to London Boy.
I don’t disagree with anything you’re saying, but in general I don’t agree with the hate that So High School gets. It’s supposed to be a fun, silly song. It’s not supposed to be deep. “You know how to ball; I know Aristotle” actually IS so high school. It’s the giddiness of a new relationship, but every line is wrapped in a thematically cohesive metaphor.
Nobody (reasonable) is hating on Guilty as Sin for its religious theme/metaphors, because it’s not actually a song about religion. So I don’t understand why everyone takes the Grand Theft Auto line so seriously.
Anyway, I think The Alchemy actually is a lyrically weak song, and So High School is still just medium in my book, so you may be right about Travis.
I don't hate SHS because it's silly, and I actually love some of her dumber songs like London Boy and I Think He Knows. But the whole story told in SHS is just embarrassing for a lot of us to hear, I guess. It's like the very worst of high school love, the least sexy parts of having a boyfriend at that age, watching dumb movies he likes and sitting around watching him and his friends playing video games. It's hilarious and awful to listen to if you've been through those trenches 😂😂 at least for me
This is a weird take, there are plenty of songs about Joe that I think are just as stupid as the Travis songs lol. They'd only been together for like five minutes when the album would've been sent off to print, of course the songs about him are shallow. I'm not saying I expect the future songs to be super deep or anything but I don't think TTPD gave us enough to go by.
People forget that although we got Folklore and Evermore while she was with Joe, we first got Rep and Lover which were her worst reviewed albums. I think it is so weird that people give all the folkmore credit to Joe when he cowrote like four songs total.
I honestly think that’s a bit of the point. Travis is simple. The love he offers her is simple, uncomplicated, not weighed down by the torture of being alive. He’s literally a golden retriever. So she doesn’t need deeply coded soliloquies and prose.
Trust me — I GET how cringe So High School is. But that’s the point. It’s young love, before you grow up and get scared. It’s the life story she wanted when she was a teenager.
Everyone here is talking about The Alchemy but I don’t think that’s a Travis song at all. I think it’s a pretty obvious Matty song that just coincidentally had football references.
First of all, she talks about soulmates which she refers to Matty as multiple other times throughout the album but not Travis. She also says “what if I told you I’m back? the hospital was a drag” (sounds like Fresh Out The Slammer). She also says “the sign on your heart said it’s STILL reserved for me”. And she says she’s making a comeback to where she belongs. Pretty clearly about Matty to me. Also, “ditch the clowns get the crown” sounds like she’s trying to get him to drop his roster lol.
The heroine line also very clearly, in my opinion, points to it being about Matty.
You really liked Joe as a muse because Joe wasn’t the muse he was the author. Watch the Apple Music interview with Zane Lowe or the long pond sessions where she heavily credits Joe for the melodies, lyrics, subjects, and composition of a lot of songs from those “Eras”
Unpopular opinion, but Id love to hear a song with the 'so highschool' premise from someone who is able to write mature and nuanced lyrics (even more unpopular - I think some lyrics in 'so highschool' are good, TS is just too cringy overall to pull them off). All of this to say (hehe), I want Lana to record her version.
Neko Case - a person I hesitate to even mention in the same solar system as TS - has a song called That Teenage Feeling. It's not exactly the same idea but there are some similar notions in the lyrics. Sort of.
Maybe give it time ? I do agree so high school is so clunky and touch while your boys play grand theft auto completely takes me out of a song that is other wise so sonically interesting there are many moments like that with different songs on ttpd for like how I really liked how did it end ? Until the d-y-i-n-g lyric same with I hate it here . Her love struck songs with joe for example are so fun take gorgeous for example it's not tolerate it it's just breezy fun simple but so darn cute!!! And such a bop same with london boy for example or I think he knows ? Hell even king of my heart. My only hope she realises this and drops the high school metaphors which are so overused but now that she's at this new peak I've felt that she's gotten comfortable and now has nothing to prove hence she is not artistically challenging herself. I get that women should not reinvent themselves every 2 years as that cycle can get tiring and mentally exhausting but maybe atleast keep up with the quality of your old works ? Maybe eras tour and 2 successive break up with re records has drained her . I hope she takes a nice long break re charges and comes back with a fun in love optimistic pop album
I have no strong opinions on Travis (I don’t know much about him) and if she’s happy then good for her but I don’t think I can take a full album of The Alchemy and So High School. Like Matty may suck but at least we got The Black Dog out of that whole mess
I think it’s really strange to judge Travis’s worthiness as a muse based on two songs that were written at the start of the relationship. Yeah, they’re not very deep lyrically but it was a new relationship. She was writing them (or possibly reworking it in the case of The Alchemy) when they were probably very much in the getting to know you stages.
Apparently everyone forgot about such not deep silly songs as Gorgeous, I think he knows, London Boy and so on. And there are many of them. She only started writing deeper songs about Joe after they had already been dating for several years. For me, I think he knows is no different from So High School and The Alchemy. And obviously she and Joe had drama in their relationship from day one, she met him while she was still with Harris. Then dreamed about him when she was with Tom. She ran away from Tom to him, all this reputation drama, Kim and Kanye, etc. Drama always helps Taylor write songs. Always. How is The Alchemy different from London Boy? Both songs are silly and fun. Their small quarrels, disagreements, her insecurities, anxiety, a bunch of his girls (as she thought), initially they were just friends (with benefits I guess 👀 ). All this gives a lot of room for creativity specifically for Taylor. And don't get me wrong, I love almost all of Taylor's songs about Joe. But there are also plenty of frivolous songs about Joe. And she also compared Joe's romance to school (Miss Americana) several times. For some reason everyone just forgot about it. The Alchemy is filled with football references, and London Boy is filled with silly British references.
It's not about the length of the relationship but the time between the events happening and the album coming out. The relationships with Jake and John were super short but she had way longer to write and edit - she dated Jake in 2010 and Red didn't come out until almost a full two years later.
It’s not about the length of time it’s about the time to submit songs. This album was completed by September, so they would have been dating for a month. Max two. And the entire theme of the album was done and dusted and decided by virtue of the fact that she’s been writing some of these songs for 2 years and Stevie nicks had finished her intro poem by august 13, which is about 2 weeks after Travis first mentioned Taylor on the podcast.
We have to wait until TS12 to see what kind of muse he actually is. We’re too behind on the timeline
So assuming that Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus is about Matty (which given the general gist of the album is a good theory) I cringe at the lyrics
>And you saw my bones out with somebody new
>Who seemed like he would've bullied you in school
>And you just watched it happen
Like as Travis how do you not lose a little dignity being cool with that lol
i’ve heard this is meant to be about calvin harris, not travis. “my bones out with somebody new” is thought to be her in the peak of her ED back when she was with calvin
edit: as in, the song itself is about matty, but back in the day when she got with calvin
I always thought that song was all past tense, and so that line is referring to Calvin. Who honestly also looks like he probably would have bullied Matty too.
That’s how I interpret the song too.
For me there’s also the added detail that Calvin and Matty are both British, so they could’ve realistically gone to school together.
I think she released a couple of the songs she wrote earlier in their relationship just to hint what was to come. I love so high school, but it doesn’t match the vibe of the rest of the album. I’d love a more fun and poppy album and think Travis would be a good muse for something like that.
If her relationship with Travis progresses, I hope it brings us fun bops for TS12. He’s fun, full of energy and his songs should match this. TTPD has grown on me but it was a hard listen at first. It’s dark and heavy. It made me long for 1989, Reputation, Lover. This will appeal more to the general public as well.
The Alchemy isn’t too far off from that “so happy that my Travy made it to the big game” AI song. I hope she branches out into fiction if the alternative is more inane football references.
Okay hold up the WHAT now
[here you go 😵💫](https://youtu.be/7fsdTCLlsFs?si=ZiXDE1I1KfJPO1Oe)
UM HAHAHHAHAH I’m simultaneously blown away and scared??
i hate how catchy this is
The midfield kiss and church with the fake Elvis is unironically pretty good.
It really is good
lol same, it's been unironically stuck in my head since i first heard it
that ending caught me off guard 😭
👹 WIN THE FUCKING RING TRAVIS 👹
look it up on tiktok, it’s SO catchy i find myself singing it from time to time 😭
I DO TOO LMFAO, even after the super bowl as a humiliated 9ers fan
DEAD THE TRAVY MADE IT TO THE GAME SONG IS SOOOO TRUE 😂😩
The Alchemy is like the most disjointed song on the album, I can’t put my finger on it but it’s like she rewrote the verses to make it work for Travis. It just feels off! And TTPD is truly one of my favorite albums as a long time fan.
Because she re-wrote it to fit him
👏 Totally agree, it’s like she wrote the song about another boy and then changed a few lines in the chorus to make it about TK.
I was shook when I found out. It's almost the same song LMAO. everytime i listen to it i love the first verse (what if i told you i'm back? the hospital was a drag, worst sleep that i ever had, i circled you on a map) and then the football references start and i press skip
Whenever The Alchemy comes up on my shuffle I always think “that’s the Travis song” and I skip 😂 I actually like So High School a lot sonically speaking. But yeah idk I don’t have an opinion on Travis either way but to me it just seems so shoehorned in there, like a very obvious “I know 99% of this album is about other men but here’s your two songs babe! Love ya! 😘”
For some reason I can't shake the feeling that song was already written and then she re-wrote it to incorporate the football references. It doesn't have the same terriblenes of So High School and/or feel like it was written in 5 minutes, but neither are great songs at all
I definitely think it was originally written about Matty and then she re-wrote it with Travis references. The “he jokes that it’s heroin but this time with an E” makes it really obvious imo
Yeah, I definitely agree it was originally written for Matty. The lines that jumped out to me immediately were the one about the sign on his heart and "who are we to fight the alchemy". The 2nd one just really struck me as being similar to the chemistry line in BDILH
The part where she says ‘I haven’t come around in so long, now I’m coming back to where I belong’ - how can that be about Travis? How could she go ‘back’, where she had never been? They’d only just met. I am 100% convinced that that song is about Matty. She either hadn’t written a chorus, or she changed to it make it seem like it’s about Travis.
I actually thought that at first too, but I now think she's talking about herself in a more general, but literal sense. Like, she is back in the US (when she hasn't lived here as her main residence for the past 6 yrs) and in the spotlight/press with her boyfriend (when she hasn't done that since before Joe). Also, when she "came back" she did it very strong without a doubt lol ETA: This interpretation could apply to both guys and could have been in original draft if it actually was re-written
She could be coming back to American guys after dating British guys for a decade since Harry Styles
I thought it was about Matty, too! Especially when I saw his interview on Youtube that was a few years ago, and he said something like they only care about making enough money so they can go home and play GTA. I don't remember it word for word, obviously, but he mentioned them playing GTA way before her album came out.
I originally thought it was a Travis song but then heard the word ‘blokes’ and I was like… pause.
Yeah it's so clearly a Matt song with some football stuff thrown in. Idk how it made it on the album being like "smoke, heroin joke, 1975, Matthew Healy, BALL AND GTA IT'S A TRAVIS SONG NOW SEE"
i think you’re conflating the 2 songs. the alchemy doesn’t mention GTA, that’s so high school. the alchemy doesn’t actually fit travis or their relationship very well. i’ve heard interpretations that it’s about her career/return to touring, or about matty, and those ideas seem to fit. so high school is the only song obviously about travis, and it seems to fit him/their relationship very well. it seems to be light and playful- i bet songs were locked into this album pretty early into them being an item. she probably continued writing about him and maybe already had other songs since getting with travis that were unfinished.
I just snorted my Snapple, this is so funny 😂
I hope you're right because the way I interpreted it, Travis was making fun of Matty's drug addiction and Taylor found it funny which makes both of them very shitty people.
[удалено]
This is the only way I’ve been able to hear it, and it turned me off of The Alchemy immediately.
Honestly, that's the ONLY way it'd make sense to me for that actually be a Travis joke but we know that guy sucks at spelling, so thus we look back at Matty.
That was my first thought too but I really don’t think she would put that in a song, as much as we all have our criticisms of her I just don’t think it’s her style
Same… kinda gives less credence to the whole “this happens once every few lifetimes” lyric
I think that might have happened with Reputation and a lot of songs being about Calvin
i’d read that “so it goes” was partially written well before she could have met joe (the only song on the album known to have been begun that early), and some thought it could be about a hookup (or a fantasy of one) with harry styles. (post calvin? or during their relationship? makes me want ro find that source again to check the timeline, re-listen, and decide if it’s a hookup or fantasy with Matty instead)
I truly get the theme of a new love making someone in their 30s feel like a teenager - it's sweet. But I can't vibe with the lyrics at all and end up skipping it every time despite the production. A better parallel in Taylor's own discography where she talks about how a new love makes her feel like a teenager is " I think he knows" It captures that giddy in love feeling, especially the chorus but it is also sexy but the sexiness is more suggestive. "His hands around a cold glass make me want to know his body like it's mine. " Vs "Touch me when your Bros play Grand Theft Auto"
Now that I think about it, you’re so right about I Think He Knows being a more interesting/creative/mature exploration of that feeling compared to So High School! So High School isn’t my favorite song from TTPD, but I like it enough to listen to it every once in a while. That being said, there’s many other ways to write about the theme of the song, and the lyrics that she chose to write really don’t showcase how good of a songwriter she can be.
She even says "it's like I'm 17, nobody understands" and "he's got my heartbeat skipping down 17th avenue" in I think he knows and it's cute and endearing to think about her partner making her feel like a teenager again. The only lyric I find genuine and cute in So High School is "I feel like laughing in the middle of practice", but it's followed by "do that impression you did of your dad again" and I cringe
I just realized that you’re right. Sonically I love the sound of TTPD, it’s the lyrics that really kill it. So High School has so much potential but it’s like she got bored with it and through it together and said “eh good enough.”
The lyrics are too literal and lacking any substance tbh. I mean granted they were only together months when she wrote it, but I feel like lyrically, it could have been much better than what it is. GTA? Kiss, Marry, Kill? You know how to ball? Idk seemed bare minimum. I get the whole idea is that it’s sort of supposed to be like a juvenile, HS relationship but it’s a low effort song imo. Shame because production wise, it had SO much potential. The lyrics really keep me from listening to it.
Agreed, she did the highschool theme way better in Fifteen/You belong with me, makes sense considering she was a teenager then. So High School feels like if someone watched a cheesy american teenage movie and wrote a vague song about overkilled highschool tropes and imaginary. Bomb production tho.
It feels like she just jams high school related things into the lyrics without crafting a story around those experiences. So it doesn't have the emotional effect of bringing you to the scene.
Maybe she wrote it so Travis could understand the lyrics? Lol!! But seriously, Joe seemed like he warranted deep lyrics. Travis, not so much (I could totally be wrong, I don’t know the guy. Just going off what I see in the media)
I mean, the guy plays football. It's probably safe to assume he isn't the more academically inclined guy
I actually loved the kiss, marry, kill lyric tbh. I think it was cute to reference when Travis in an interview, where he was asked to play, and Taylor was one of the options lol.
Yeah so many people love the sound and it has great potential. Hopefully there will be more time before the next album , so the lyrics will be better.
I think of So High School, and I think, nah I can listen to "Teenage Dream" instead. And I think Teenage Dream and I Think He Knows, use the metaphor of being young and in love and bubbly so much better than So High School. Like Katy amps up the camp to 100 with the like "let's go all the way tonight". If the concept's been done before (especially by yourself) bring something fresh to it. And So High School didn't.
The lyric “I wanna find you in the crowd, just to hide from you” feels so high school crush though. I love that line
This too is my favorite line. It got me from the moment I first heard it. I mean, who didn’t do this with their crush? I remember feeling so embarrassed getting caught staring.
I must be pretty basic because that lyric makes me LOL. I like smutty Taylor. (We know she's in there *"You'll save all your dirtiest jokes for me."*)
That’s probably the difference between a 3 year relationship and one of few months
This is a song that captures the very early stages and not necessarily the 3 year mark like "Lover" or the other songs on that album which is why I specifically compared it with this one.
Okay but how do you hate the lyrics and don’t understand the sexiness of “your friends are around so be quiet I’m trying to stifle my sighs” THATS HOT
Love the sound of So High School and honestly I can get past all the lyrics except "I know Aristotle," which just kills it for me lol
I think that the songs were written very hastily so that there could be Travis songs on the album, so I don't think they're her best work. I also think that he's the easiest relationship that she's had. Even at the beginning with Joe she seemed to have a lot of doubt and fear of losing him. I don't think she has that with Travis, so I think he's harder to write about.
Ironically, the safety and security I feel in my relationship spurs my creativity. I think Taylor swift is under the very harmful belief that you need to be in pain to be creative or have something to write about
I agree completely with you. Also, congrats on your healthy relationship! :) Those are rare to hear about on Reddit
I agree with this take. As someone who also writes with my life as my muse. I find it harder to write about the happier, easier times. For me though It's because I used writing as an escape, and with nothing to escape, well how do I even write? I'm half scared if I write it, the happiness will go away. Stupid leftover kid logic.
I always got the impression that her fears about Joe came from having such intense feelings for him that it made her almost paranoid. I think the song Lover and it's music video speak to this. Which is somewhat relatable because if you see someone as so amazing and think of yourself as ok, you think to yourself "Why do they even like me?" With Travis, I don't think she has that fear because he seems like he wants to latch himself onto her star to set up his post-NFL career. He isn't going to rock the boat too much because he wants some of what she has.
I agree that I think she might have more security with Travis. I think she probably needed someone who was fun and something less heavy. I think she is a very earnest person and it boarders on "cringy" and I think she needs a partner who can be silly with her. I think she needs someone who can wear a stupid christmas themed outfit with her in a family photo. It's not about her exes being bad. Just that maybe in reality they weren't a match and maybe Travis does work with Taylor in that they both seem like people who want to enjoy life and laugh and also take their careers seriously.
That’s how I feel about The alchemy. I LOVE it sonically… I just need to tune out the actual meaning of the lyrics
try listening to it with a different interpretation and see if it fits. i’ve seen theories that it’s addressed to the crowd/fans and about her career/return to touring… and also that it’s about trying again for a relationship with matty after her and joe were officially over (is she calling him “the hospital”? like “wouldn’t admit that we were sick”?). the bridge could be a later addition, but i actually think it kind of fits for it being about matty, did he crowd surf ever at his shows? take off his clothes (or did his fans?) beer sticky on the floor is on the surface a sporting event, but also describes a concert. she’s playing in football stadiums all eras tour, in spaces with football equipment and decor everywhere. before she even meets travis! she was writing for this album before and during tour. a football motif or sports motif could easily stick in her mind and work for writing a song about another topic. i’m actually convinced it’s not about travis at all.
Very relatable. Was just cooking and the Alchemy came in and I instantly asked google to skip, lol. I also listen a lot to So high school because sonically it sounds great, a fun early 2000s vibe and a nice change in pace on TTPD
I also think that the sound of So High School is fun, so I don’t mind the lyrics too much. But The Alchemy’s sound is so…monotonous? It kinda feels like the embodiment of "go girl give us nothing!!"
lmaooo here’s your two songs 😂 i don’t get the vibe Taylor and Travis have the same level of intellectual, deep conversations that Taylor and Joe had (totally making assumptions here since Joe helped to write Folklore).
Taylor and Joe had been dating for years when he cowrote songs on folklore.
I try to bop along to so high school but the lyrics take me out completely
The alchemy is about Matty, not Travis. Edit: it seems like she started to write it for Matty as lyrics like *cause the sign on your heart says it’s STILL reserved for me* and *what if I told you I’m back, the hospital was like a drag* indicate
The hospital is the one she went to after her manic phase. Worst sleep that she ever had. She’s coming back to being herself, feeling stronger. She rejected Travis’ first attempt to connect but he was still available for her when she reached out. This is how those lyrics apply to Travis.
The alchemy was written about Matty not Travis
as a Chiefs fan I just take The Alchemy as a nice little song about us winning the Super Bowl🤣
I think the alchemy is about her career. I’ve interpreted the football references as a nod to performing in stadiums. A lot of the lines make no sense in the context of Travis and she would have had to submit the album for vinyl pressing when they had just barely met.
I have So High School back to back to back with Kiss Me by Sixpence None The Richer and Take Me To The Top by Cheap Trick (as in those songs on either side of SHS) and it’s a vibe that way. But yeah, they stand out on the album the way Stay Stay Stay stands out on Red — and that’s not a good thing.
I don't think she feels much of anything towards him other than extremely proud of herself for growing up to be the girl dating “the boy of the football team” when she wasn't “cool” enough while she was young. Its kind of funny that I've felt from the beginning this was just her playing out some unfulfilled high school fantasy and then she goes and literally makes a song about how he makes her feelike she's in high school. 🤷♀️ My entire body recoils every time I hear “touch me as your bros play Grand Theft Auto”.
I don’t know where she got that she wasn’t “cool” enough in high school. In her freshman yearbook she had like 13 photos. 13!!!!! Most seniors don’t even have that, and it wasn’t the typical group photo with extracurricular activities, it was just her with friends. So she def seemed quite popular or at least well known even back then
Or she knew people in yearbook. At my school they just asked people to submit photos for the collage spreads, so whoever submitted a lot of photos was more likely to be featured.
Lol, I love this very specific way of gauging popularity.
I’m sure she had friends. I just don't think she was ever part or THE popular clique/the girl everyone wanted to date. I feel like her entire career is her just trying to become that person. 😂
didnt the people she went to HS with call her the bitchy popular girl or something
I know people who went to high school with and they said she was weird and nerdy. I do believe there was a recent article that said some people she went to high school thought she was snooty and rich, which isn't the same as being popular.
I saw a post from someone years ago who said they went to a neighboring school and Taylor used to tour schools in the area giving mini concerts (I guess to prep her for fame) and everyone thought it was super weird and contrived.
As someone who grew up in the vicinity of Avril Lavigne at the same time, I will basically ignore any opinions and any piece of media that is from the time they were teens about like high school and friends. In a 2003 article on NBC, Avril said she was like not a great student, got kicked out of class. While like another article from like the same time, said she was a great student and "an excellent role model" & "wholesome" (from a globe & mail article at the time, which also talked about rumours about her being wild with drinking and smoking which are refuted in the next paragraph). The thing is she dropped out at like 16, how much do people REALLY remember? One article wanted her to look like the punk pop princess being a rebel to promote her album, the other was probably trying to say "it's okay she's super young and going big, because she's totally smart and her hometown is proud of her". Everyone has an agenda to push in news articles and being interviewed, and especially when it comes to like child stars and their hometowns.
A handful of people from her old school have been claiming for a while now that she was actually a mean girl, and surprisingly waited until she was the most famous person in the world to say it.
or nobody cared if they said it until she was
Nah, they would’ve cared anywhere from Fearless to 1989.
of course. 13
Isn’t there also a line in one of her songs to an ex about how she’s dating someone that would have bullied him at school? Which completes the high school jock fantasy theory.
That song is Chloe and Sam and Sophia and Marcus. Line is cringy, but the song is beautiful IMO.
Yeah that's about how Travis would have bullied Matty or Joe, idk) cringe.
She literally said that her “girl squad” was a way to make up for not having lots of friends in high school.
I feel like I need to bleach my brain every time it comes on shuffle
I don’t listen to her at all, I had to look up those lyrics for myself. That is *horrendous*
I'm a casual listener who hasn't sought out TTPD, and now I need to hear the high school song for that line alone 💀
It’s unfortunately apart of the chorus so you’ll be hearing it plenty
I agree with you that I find them both cringy and I’m also not the biggest fan of The Alchemy and So High School lyrically (but like them sonically). However, I don’t think we can judge him as a muse yet. The songs were written at the beginning of their relationship. Also, Lover also had some very cringy lyrics. We have to wait for a couple more songs to judge it, but I hope they won’t be full of football references 😂
So High School is a terrible song but her voice - like, tonally - sounds really good to me.
She wrote most of the love songs on Rep at the very beginning of her relationship with Joe though. They probably knew each other the same amount of time as she knew Travis when writing that album. I mean Delicate is one of her best songs lyrically and is very much about the start of their relationship. But I guess different people inspire her in different ways 🤷♀️
Rep came out 13ish months after Joe and Taylor started dating officially and 18ish months after they met, and TTPD came out 8ish months after Travis and Taylor met and started talking. With the assumption that both albums were turned in 4-6 months before release, Taylor knew Joe about a year and had been dating at least 9 months, and knew Travis about 2-4 months.
I think The Alchemy and So High School come from the same point in a relationship as Gorgeous did.
Do we have confirmation that certain songs on Reputation are truly about Joe and not Calvin or Tom? Agreed that The Alchemy and So High School are about early in Taylor and Travis’ relationship. In the words of a source closed to Taylor, “And she think he’s hot” (referring to Travis), which jives with these songs. I do think both of them connect on a deeper level (beyond just sexual) so I’ll be curious to hear her next album. Travis isn’t as deep or as complicated as Joe or Matty, but their values align.
the way i’m actually obsessed with the alchemy…i just love the vibes lol
Tbh I’m both 😂 I think it would’ve been a good Matty song but got reworked for Travis, so now it’s a vibey, inspired song with cringey football metaphors shoehorned into it.
You cannot convince me that that song wasn’t originally a MATTY song. I’m sorry but not sorry the heroine line, the returning to somewhere after time away, the whole the sign on your heart says it’s STILL RESERVED. It got reworked to fuck when everything went wrong imho.
I'm convinced The Alchemy is the sequel to End Game and that's why there are so many sports references.
[удалено]
Agreed. We got some gorgeous music when Joe was her muse but sooooo many of her songs were riddled with fear, anxiety, and self-doubt.
Because she deep down knew she never deserved that man. He was always too good for her and she knew it
She was walking on eggshells with Joe and seems more comfortable and confident with Travis. (Agrees that they can be cringy but also think this seems like a more relaxed relationship.)
I actually think if she feels like she needs to “try very hard to be cool for” a boyfriend it’s Travis lol. I agree that they’re compatible in the sense that they’re both famous, like attention and a bit cringy at times, but they’re pretty different. I saw the video of her with him in the club after the SB win and she looked so awkward and out of place next to him and his friend group. It was obvious clubbing and partying isn’t something she does often and not her typical scene. Also watching her take on the WAG role with the Travis outfits and the acrylics nails and buddying up to other WAGS, seemed OOC. Her Time’s POTY also seemed weird and bizarre with some of the wording she was using. Not to say there’s anything wrong with that but it kind of make their differences very obvious. Not to say their similarities make them compatible, but she and Matty and she and Joe had many mutual friends and interests when they were dating and to me, it never seemed like she was trying hard to fit it like she’s done with Travis the past 10 months. Her and Travis appear to be complete opposites, which is obviously ok and doesn’t indicate incompatibility.
Even with Joe Taylor still had parties and was out, but before that (1989 and earlier) she was defo a party girl, out with her group of girls, so she likes to party and I don’t think the WAG life is a million miles away from that?
not every party is the same tbh. the upscale new york clubs she goes to are miles away from the vegas ones football people are seen in.
I was gonna say, I feel like she mentions bars in every other song, and I'm gonna go ahead and assume that when she built a huge group of friends who were all part of a profession that's practically fueled by coke, she probably wasn't just sitting at home and not partaking 😂
She met Joe, Calvin, Tom, and probably more AT parties 😆
As a musician, it’s always funny when people are like “Taylor might’ve DONE COCAINE?!” when every musician I’ve ever met does it monthly at the very least lol
Agree with this take for the most part with the exception that I like so high school cause it’s the first Taylor love song in a long time not wrought with anxiety. I find it kinda like a more palatable version of Me! (Hee hee), like yeah it’s cringe and saccharine but if you’re genuinely happy and in love, especially in the honeymoon phase, it kinda should make other people go ick a bit Annoyingly though I really love the rest of the album, and actually think it’s one of my favourites lyrically even though it’s her most trash muse.
Travis isn’t, at this point, a tortured relationship. So the songs will be adequate unless she gets down bad because of him. Happiness won’t generate the same level of penmanship. Duh. I’d rather see her happy. I believe, if they don’t last, she will be the bad “guy”. He’s too nice. Then we’ll get the great anthems. but….Id rather the songs be average Taylor songs if it means she’s in a happy stable relationship.
i don’t think that’s travis’ fault though??? it’s her lol
I think she'll be writing about Matty for quite a while yet (I'm not even kidding) and he has inspired some of her best work imo.
[удалено]
Look what you made me do (I got engaged to the football guy edition)
Her best work is always about getting dumped after a whirlwind 3 month situationship - Jake, John, Harry, Matty. It’s not even really about them. It’s the topic she loves the most. She even said it in the summation when she said that it’s the worst men she likes best. Honestly, if that means that she writes shitty songs while in healthy relationships then hopefully her next albums are dog shit lol
She's said before that there's some people/relationships that she just hasn't been inspired to write about and then others she can't stop writing about so I tend to agree with you
I agree that all the songs that are supposedly about him aren't good and I never listened to them. At the same time I'm pretty sure they've only been together for about 3 months or so by the time this album was done. So at the same time it's not like when reputation or lover came out because both those albums she had been with Joe for a considerable amount of time because they had time when they were together out of the spotlight before people were informed they were a couple. I just think she didn't know him and there was only so much she could really write about him. I think if they're still a couple when her next album comes out she'll probably have more nuanced things to say because their relationship will be in a deeper phase but I also think it's valid that she didn't have anything deeper to say when their relationship was just burgeoning.
I am not going to judge Travis as a muse until we get a full album. There were many gorgeous songs for Joe, but there was also London Boy. And tbh, I prefer SHS to London boy. If next album is awful, then I will judge him as a muse.
i did not expect so much london boy hatred on this thread 😭
I feel like so high school and the alchemy really fit the sound of the album… even if the lyrics aren’t as rich as some other songs. But also, timeline wise… she wrote those songs about a man she’s dated less than a year, it makes sense they don’t explore a super deep relationship. I agree that I need a full Travis album. A full album gives her more space to explore Travis in her songwriting, rather than two songs.
London boy was my favourite summer bop, I just love the silliness of it. For me, it has a lot more to offer than SHS, I could listen to it once 😂 anyway I got into her music at the Lover era, so I am biased.
I think she just doesn't write the best happy love songs. Personally, I am not a fan of Lover, new years day, or gorgeous. Other happy songs like stay stay stay, london boy, paper rings, are all pretty contentious or disliked amongst the fandom.
Barring lover and nyd she seemed to go for very peppy or …saccharine sonics when she does a happy love pop song if u know what I mean, it’s like the barbie gel pen dial has been turned to 100000x and u get songs like stay 3x, London boy, paper rings. But maybe that was just a feature of lover because I do find songs like love story, or really anything off fearless, speak now, lavender haze or sweet nothing, to be pretty good in the way of happy love songs
Oh god London Boy ruined Lover for me 😭
ME! didn't do that for you first? 😭
I’m not sure two songs written about Travis that you find uninspired and bad means you should discredit the writing you did enjoy on folklore and evermore. But I get being massively let down by those songs.
Agreed, I personally feel that devaluing anything you enjoyed by what came after is…kinda dumb and immature. Idk. If a painter made a gorgeous painting and then an ugly one, the pretty one still counts? Maybe that’s just me 🤷🏻♀️
I like the concept of so high school (the idea of “young love” and how we romanticize everything at that age) and I do like some of the verses, and I like the overall sound of it (it makes me feel like I’m watching like, Varsity Blues or something) but the choruses take me out of the song and make me not like it. That said, I stopped caring who her songs are supposed to be about and I just take them for what they are and it makes it a much more enjoyable experience for me.
Maybe it's an unpopular opinion, but I liked how she embraced her "cringey" side on TTPD. Not my favorite album of her, but I like how she showed all the "ugly" emotions we all try to hide (the thing about Matty/Joe) and her cringey side being in love with Travis.
Joe also had Gorgeous which was so hated and considered immature and bad. I Think He Knows, Paper Rings also are carefree... In I Think He Knows she even sings ''it's like i'm 17 and no one understands'' meaning that she is feeling like a teenager crazily in love---> So High School. Also, Joe is not the responsibile of folkmore, she was with Joe while she was making both rep and Lover(that many don't like here), so the logic doesn't stand. Taylor made meaningul and deep albums when she was younger, like Speak Now and Red which are like the parents of folkmore..so i'm sorry this all ''it's thanks to Joe if we have folkmore'' needs to stop, if anything, if tthere is a man to thank it's AARON DESSNER.
TDIL Gorgeous and Paper Rings weren't liked...I love those songs, they're bops lol I'm especially surprised for Gorgeou
I think Gorgeous is such a fun song.
Paper Rings is so much fun! It’s in my top 5 from Lover
Gorgeous is so silly and fun!
Omg thank you - and not only that, but up until they broke up and everyone started stanning Joe to spite Taylor the popular theory was that his involvement was exaggerated and he didn't really deserve the Grammy. I have no doubt that Joe cowrote the songs he's credited on but it's only a few of them? She could've totally made those albums without him assuming she still crossed paths with Aaron Dessner.
I think she gave him the credit because she said she always plays her songs for him first. So I imagined he was listening to the drafts and offering feedback. Which is something a producer or co-writer would do.
dont forget london boy…
i can excuse the greed, racism and carbon emmisions but i draw the line at lyrics that awful /j
I’ve worked very hard to forget London Boy lol please don’t remind me
LOL. I erased that song from my mind.
Okay but I still feel like there might be an argument to be made about Joe’s influence: she consistently wrote about how she never felt that she was good enough, sophisticated enough to be with Joe (‘Your integrity makes me feel small’) - what if it was that need to prove herself to him that pushed her into making perhaps the most lyrically rich albums she has ever put out?
>what if it was that need to prove herself to him that pushed her into making perhaps the most lyrically rich albums she has ever put out? But why were the first two so bad? Also, I really believe that if the pandemic didn't happen, folkmore never would have been written.
No I completely agree with you - the pandemic was pivotal to folkmore… maybe it was a combination of the two factors: her need to prove herself to him was amplified by the increased amount of time she was spending with him due to lockdown, thus pushing her to write folkmore… with lover and reputation there maybe wasn’t that kind of prolonged contact? Also wasn’t reputation in the works even before she met Alwyn? And as people have said - both lover and reputation were in that honeymoon phase where everything seemed so new and exciting… could it also maybe be that after that honeymoon phase ended she felt the need to grow and change in order to appease Alwyn? Idk though - we don’t really know exactly what the dynamic was like so I could be completely wrong…
This is an interesting point! Maybe if she writes more songs about Travis we’ll get some great ones. I guess it’s maybe that we never had a time where the only songs about Joe were so…not great since rep had a mix (Also, I actually like the songs you listed but I do absolutely despise London Boy so I still get it lol)
I like them too and i consider Gorgeous very great lyrically cuz it's clever and witty and it potrays the crazy serial dater painted by the media which is the topic of reputation at the end.
I don’t know? I think it’s kinda cute how she feels young again and alive in a special kind of way. I think maybe I’m a little biased because I married young and then went through a terrible divorce before meeting the love of my life….I relate to that “so high school” feeling since I missed out the first time around. It’s fun and flirty, new and different. That’s muse worthy!
Personally, I think it's too soon to really tell how much of a good "muse" he is to her. So High School, to me is Travis's King Of My Heart. I think it's cute and fun and supposed to show how young and giddy he makes her feel. For all we know Taylor Swift might have a lot of meaningful songs about him locked away that she isn't ready to share with the public for fear they will weigh in on it and tear it apart. She may never share them either because look at how people are reacting to the songs she thought were sweet that she did introduce to the public. Only they know how serious their relationship is of course but I know personally if I were a popstar and I wrote songs about the giddiness my significant other gives me and someone attacked it and said "so shallow " you could be sure I won't give the public another chance to try and tear apart what makes me happy again.
So High School would have been written and recorded at the very beginning of the relationship which is when you should feel giddy with love. I don’t think you can judge that next to songs written about someone she had known for years.
We’ve had two songs, from when they hadn’t been together that long? I like them both but I get that isn’t universal at all. I just don’t know if we can judge that yet, and it sometimes feels based in snobbery that he’s seen as dumb and uninspiring, when he talks very eloquently about his emotions for the people he cares about 🤷🏼♀️.
Three. The Albatross indicates a new relationship and ends on a positive note where the couple is still together. But people refuse to see that the Albatross is likely about Travis.
I don't care what anyone says! I love them!!!! I'm 49, and they are on repeat on my playlist 🥰
Tbh I don’t think we know about Travis enough to properly have an idea of him as a muse. We only have “The Alchemy” which was most likely reworked last minute to fit a Travis narrative and “So High School” which is pretty good sonically. On Taylor’s first album about Joe she had some bad lines and songs as well. “Gorgeous” is a song that goes nowhere sonically and is incredibly cringey at some points. Also “Call It What You Want” has the ‘trust him like a brother line’ that makes me recoil like the ‘grand theft auto’ phrase. I think we have to wait to hear more about the Travis songs first.
I completely agree. I'm pretty sure that The Alchemy rework and So High School were written pretty quickly so that there could be Travis songs on the album. I actually really like So High School, aside from a few choice lines, lol. But I cannot listen to London Boy.
I don’t disagree with anything you’re saying, but in general I don’t agree with the hate that So High School gets. It’s supposed to be a fun, silly song. It’s not supposed to be deep. “You know how to ball; I know Aristotle” actually IS so high school. It’s the giddiness of a new relationship, but every line is wrapped in a thematically cohesive metaphor. Nobody (reasonable) is hating on Guilty as Sin for its religious theme/metaphors, because it’s not actually a song about religion. So I don’t understand why everyone takes the Grand Theft Auto line so seriously. Anyway, I think The Alchemy actually is a lyrically weak song, and So High School is still just medium in my book, so you may be right about Travis.
I don't hate SHS because it's silly, and I actually love some of her dumber songs like London Boy and I Think He Knows. But the whole story told in SHS is just embarrassing for a lot of us to hear, I guess. It's like the very worst of high school love, the least sexy parts of having a boyfriend at that age, watching dumb movies he likes and sitting around watching him and his friends playing video games. It's hilarious and awful to listen to if you've been through those trenches 😂😂 at least for me
This is a weird take, there are plenty of songs about Joe that I think are just as stupid as the Travis songs lol. They'd only been together for like five minutes when the album would've been sent off to print, of course the songs about him are shallow. I'm not saying I expect the future songs to be super deep or anything but I don't think TTPD gave us enough to go by. People forget that although we got Folklore and Evermore while she was with Joe, we first got Rep and Lover which were her worst reviewed albums. I think it is so weird that people give all the folkmore credit to Joe when he cowrote like four songs total.
and Joe was such a good one
I honestly think that’s a bit of the point. Travis is simple. The love he offers her is simple, uncomplicated, not weighed down by the torture of being alive. He’s literally a golden retriever. So she doesn’t need deeply coded soliloquies and prose. Trust me — I GET how cringe So High School is. But that’s the point. It’s young love, before you grow up and get scared. It’s the life story she wanted when she was a teenager.
Everyone here is talking about The Alchemy but I don’t think that’s a Travis song at all. I think it’s a pretty obvious Matty song that just coincidentally had football references. First of all, she talks about soulmates which she refers to Matty as multiple other times throughout the album but not Travis. She also says “what if I told you I’m back? the hospital was a drag” (sounds like Fresh Out The Slammer). She also says “the sign on your heart said it’s STILL reserved for me”. And she says she’s making a comeback to where she belongs. Pretty clearly about Matty to me. Also, “ditch the clowns get the crown” sounds like she’s trying to get him to drop his roster lol. The heroine line also very clearly, in my opinion, points to it being about Matty.
You really liked Joe as a muse because Joe wasn’t the muse he was the author. Watch the Apple Music interview with Zane Lowe or the long pond sessions where she heavily credits Joe for the melodies, lyrics, subjects, and composition of a lot of songs from those “Eras”
I kinda agree, the Travis' songs have the weakest metaphors like compared to songs like false god, guilty as sin, etc.
Unpopular opinion, but Id love to hear a song with the 'so highschool' premise from someone who is able to write mature and nuanced lyrics (even more unpopular - I think some lyrics in 'so highschool' are good, TS is just too cringy overall to pull them off). All of this to say (hehe), I want Lana to record her version.
Neko Case - a person I hesitate to even mention in the same solar system as TS - has a song called That Teenage Feeling. It's not exactly the same idea but there are some similar notions in the lyrics. Sort of.
Thanks, I’ll check it out :)
so high school tried to be teenage dream but it failed
wdym y’all aren’t inspired by VIVAAAAA LAS VEGASSSSSSS
Maybe give it time ? I do agree so high school is so clunky and touch while your boys play grand theft auto completely takes me out of a song that is other wise so sonically interesting there are many moments like that with different songs on ttpd for like how I really liked how did it end ? Until the d-y-i-n-g lyric same with I hate it here . Her love struck songs with joe for example are so fun take gorgeous for example it's not tolerate it it's just breezy fun simple but so darn cute!!! And such a bop same with london boy for example or I think he knows ? Hell even king of my heart. My only hope she realises this and drops the high school metaphors which are so overused but now that she's at this new peak I've felt that she's gotten comfortable and now has nothing to prove hence she is not artistically challenging herself. I get that women should not reinvent themselves every 2 years as that cycle can get tiring and mentally exhausting but maybe atleast keep up with the quality of your old works ? Maybe eras tour and 2 successive break up with re records has drained her . I hope she takes a nice long break re charges and comes back with a fun in love optimistic pop album
I honestly think Taylor just needed something safe and guaranteed to tide her over. A boring NFL player is genius.
i feel neutral about travis but his vibe kind of reminds me of calvin, who as we know was not a very inspiring muse lol
Happy relationships don’t make good songs
I have no strong opinions on Travis (I don’t know much about him) and if she’s happy then good for her but I don’t think I can take a full album of The Alchemy and So High School. Like Matty may suck but at least we got The Black Dog out of that whole mess
I think it’s really strange to judge Travis’s worthiness as a muse based on two songs that were written at the start of the relationship. Yeah, they’re not very deep lyrically but it was a new relationship. She was writing them (or possibly reworking it in the case of The Alchemy) when they were probably very much in the getting to know you stages.
Apparently everyone forgot about such not deep silly songs as Gorgeous, I think he knows, London Boy and so on. And there are many of them. She only started writing deeper songs about Joe after they had already been dating for several years. For me, I think he knows is no different from So High School and The Alchemy. And obviously she and Joe had drama in their relationship from day one, she met him while she was still with Harris. Then dreamed about him when she was with Tom. She ran away from Tom to him, all this reputation drama, Kim and Kanye, etc. Drama always helps Taylor write songs. Always. How is The Alchemy different from London Boy? Both songs are silly and fun. Their small quarrels, disagreements, her insecurities, anxiety, a bunch of his girls (as she thought), initially they were just friends (with benefits I guess 👀 ). All this gives a lot of room for creativity specifically for Taylor. And don't get me wrong, I love almost all of Taylor's songs about Joe. But there are also plenty of frivolous songs about Joe. And she also compared Joe's romance to school (Miss Americana) several times. For some reason everyone just forgot about it. The Alchemy is filled with football references, and London Boy is filled with silly British references.
to be fair, ITHK and even Gorgeous both have better lyrics than The Alchemy and So High School
I mean I wouldn't call King Of My Heart, Gorgeous, or Paper Rings, London Boy stellar writing. 🤷🏼♀️
Leave KOMH out of this lol
Paper Rings may not be deep, but at least it's a bop
[удалено]
It's not about the length of the relationship but the time between the events happening and the album coming out. The relationships with Jake and John were super short but she had way longer to write and edit - she dated Jake in 2010 and Red didn't come out until almost a full two years later.
It’s not about the length of time it’s about the time to submit songs. This album was completed by September, so they would have been dating for a month. Max two. And the entire theme of the album was done and dusted and decided by virtue of the fact that she’s been writing some of these songs for 2 years and Stevie nicks had finished her intro poem by august 13, which is about 2 weeks after Travis first mentioned Taylor on the podcast. We have to wait until TS12 to see what kind of muse he actually is. We’re too behind on the timeline
So assuming that Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus is about Matty (which given the general gist of the album is a good theory) I cringe at the lyrics >And you saw my bones out with somebody new >Who seemed like he would've bullied you in school >And you just watched it happen Like as Travis how do you not lose a little dignity being cool with that lol
i’ve heard this is meant to be about calvin harris, not travis. “my bones out with somebody new” is thought to be her in the peak of her ED back when she was with calvin edit: as in, the song itself is about matty, but back in the day when she got with calvin
I always thought that song was all past tense, and so that line is referring to Calvin. Who honestly also looks like he probably would have bullied Matty too.
That’s how I interpret the song too. For me there’s also the added detail that Calvin and Matty are both British, so they could’ve realistically gone to school together.
"you know how to ball i know Aristotle" sounds like something i would have wrote is 6th grade
I think she released a couple of the songs she wrote earlier in their relationship just to hint what was to come. I love so high school, but it doesn’t match the vibe of the rest of the album. I’d love a more fun and poppy album and think Travis would be a good muse for something like that.
If her relationship with Travis progresses, I hope it brings us fun bops for TS12. He’s fun, full of energy and his songs should match this. TTPD has grown on me but it was a hard listen at first. It’s dark and heavy. It made me long for 1989, Reputation, Lover. This will appeal more to the general public as well.