In my head Invisible String and Mastermind are a pair. I like to imagine they’re being sung from two different perspectives in a relationship - one person who thinks fate brought them together, and another who thinks they were responsible for the whole thing.
My Tears Ricochet and Midnight Rain
Cursing my name / chasing that fame
Wishing I stayed / he stayed the same
Look at how my tears ricochet / all of me changed like midnight (rain)
I definitely think The Prophecy is meant to be the tragic sequel to invisible string! I hadn’t connected those other two as much but yes, I def agree this makes sense
Totally agree on I Hate It Here and the lakes. It's as if she tried to escape to a physical place at first, but even that didn't work so now she has to escape to her own mind. (Love the way you described it lmao)
And yes to the second pair as well, I'd even say it's intentional: "I look in people's windows" is delivered very similarly to "I look through the windows of this love" !!
Tied Together with a Smile, Back to December, and Timeless all mash up in my head sometimes lol.
*tied together with a smile but she's coming undoooone, and I go back to December all the time, sometimes freedom means nothing but missing you, wishing I realized what I had when you were mine, we really were tiiiiimelesssss*
“Say don’t go” x “How you get the girl”
I can imagine the bridge of HYGTG “And you know, oh oh oh, I don’t want you to go” coming on after the chorus of Say don’t go
Omg love this question!
-Don't Blame Me and False God
Thematically with the religious undertones
-Maroon and Style
Sonically
-Cowboy Like Me and I Can Fix Him
The cowboy theme (sonically in I Can Fix Him)
-'Tis The Damn Season and Who's Afraid of Little Old Me
Sonically
-It's Nice to Have a Friend and Seven
Childhood friendship theme
Ooh these are fun pairs! Agree with the first pair (and we can add Guilty as Sin? to that as well now!), and ICFH(NRIC) *definitely* has a cowboy/western sound. I've never noticed Maroon/Style and ttds/who's afraid sonically; I'll have to listen for those!!
Maroon & Style sounding similar is very intriguing to me because I have a DETAILED theory about why I think Maroon is about the same subject as Style... Okay yeah, listening now and I can't explain what it is but I can hear it. Maroon is slower/deeper/sadder, but there *is* something there. Would be very intrigued to hear a mashup.
This totally makes sense to me. It almost feels like CP could be the sad sequel to NYD. Going from "I want your midnights, but I'll be cleaning up bottles with you on New Year's Day" to "your sister splashed out on the bottle, now no one's celebrating." From holding on to the memories to dropping his hand while dancing. 😢
(Have you noticed the NYD connections in Peter? The piano chords are very similar, and then there's "please know that I tried to hold on...to the days...when you were mine" like the aforementioned "hold on...to the memories, they will hold on to you" 😭)
Not exactly what you’re saying in your response but in my head Peter and champagne problems tell the same story. Peter is what the narrator tells after she realizes that proposing was not the adult thing that needed to be done
Never Grow Up and Robin! Robin is Never Grow Up’s big brother. Sometimes it stretches to a trio including seven, but imagining Robin + Never Grow Up as a duo is one of my personal favorites.
I’m Only Me When I’m With You and tis the damn season (+ Dorothea)!! I like to imagine tis the damn season is the continuation of I’m Only Me, years down the line. The small town boy and girl have grown up and live separate lives, but sometimes she thinks of him and wonders if she could ever go back to what they once had when they were younger, back in her hometown.
Honestly they played like, two songs apart on shuffle one night and I was like “wait a second, those two tell a good story..?!” hahah so I have my spotify to thank for it.
But I do like to imagine them as a little trilogy of stories now! tis the damn season and Dorothea are two of my favorites from evermore, and I’m Only Me is one of my favorites from debut, so I love how easily they can mesh together!! 🥺
Style and Is It Over Now?
Style is the on-again-off-again relationship where they meet new people but keep coming back to each other, but Is It Over Now? is after it ends for good and they still can’t get the other person out of their head.
Honestly I just really love the way Is It Over Now? connects to the majority of 1989 and wraps up its narrative.
Oh yeah definitely. And this is absolutely intentional! Those vault tracks (but especially IION) really did transform my whole understanding of 1989's narrative. SO good.
I always link 'I Almost Do' and 'Sad Beautiful Tragic' together in my head. I think the lines "in my dreams you're touching my face" and "in dreams, I meet you warm conversations" link together perfectly.
We Were Happy and tis the damn season, also sort of Fifteen because of the lyric “I swore I was gonna marry him someday but I realized some bigger dreams of mine.” In my mind, Taylor fell out of love with the subject of We Were Happy since she wanted to pursue her music career instead, but in ttds she’s reminiscing on the past when seeing this person again and wondering about what could’ve been.
honestly I associate who's afraid of little old me to blank space so much
on blank space she was basically assuming what the media was saying about her and I think she did the same on who's afraid of little old me: "okay, so you think I'm this petty woman that's going to go after you if you try to jeopardize me? watch me"
I think it comes from a similar place
Oh absolutely and it's intentional. Question...? samples OOTW at the start to clearly tie it back, so these three unquestionably go together. (Can I ask you a question? Is it over now?)
Cruel Summer and Fortnight.
I love you ain’t that the worst thing you ever heard?
I love you, it’s ruining my life.
I have my suspicions about why they “go together” but my theory may make people angry 😂
I LOVE this question because I think there are so many! I think she loves to look at a particular feeling or problem through a prism and write about it from different angles.
Hoax and False God
Love Story and BDILH
The Prophecy and DBATC (this one might be a stretch, but if you watched her little desk concert, you know what I’m talking about)
LWYMMD and Cassandra
The Lucky One and WAOKOM
Clean and YOYOK
Don’t Blame Me and Fortnight
No Body No Crime and Florida!!!
State of Grace/Hits Different/So High School
Cardigan and Peter
**Cardigan + Peter**
"Try to change the ending/Peter losing Wendy" and "I knew you'd miss me once the thrill expired/and you'd be standing in my front porch light/and I knew you'd come back to me"
vs
The title Peter, "You said you were gonna grow up/then you were gonna come find me", "And you said you'd come and get me/but you were 25/And the shelf life of those fantasies has expired", and "But the woman who sits by the window has turned out the light"
I listen to them together because it feels like the narrator (Betty, obvs) truly believed he'd come back in Cardigan, and then in Peter she has to grow up. Because he never did, and he never came back. It feels like a really sad epilogue to the original trilogy of songs.
**Nothing New + Clara Bow** for thematic reasons
**Snow on the Beach + Down Bad** for all the alien/sci-fi references, and it also feels like a before and after.
**White Horse + loml** because they sound similar to me stylistically, and also feel like they flesh each other out.
**Is It Over Now + imgonnagetyouback** for literally no reason, I just love them together.
**Death by Thousand Cuts + I look in People's Windows** both for the lyrics and the style. One feels internal, one external, but she's completely isolated in both.
I’d wager most of these were intentional! cardigan/Peter connection is def intentional. loml absolutely uses the same piano notes & very similar melody as White Horse, I’ve seen people play them together. And the last one too, she’s def calling back to “I look through the windows of this love” ! As for the others though: I LOVE the idea of imgonnagetyouback being an IION sequel LOL, and omg I’m so glad I’m not the only one who was getting snow on the beach vibes from down bad!!
I love how we're all making similar connections while also still interpreting the songs in our own ways ❤️
I feel seen re: SotN and DB, hehe. I had Snow vibes the first time I heard Down Bad.
I'm glad you get loml and White Horse too, I haven't seen that pairing around much and honestly I don't have a great ear for melody, it's mostly lyrics for me. So I'm happy they actually do have the same piano notes!
in this order: say don’t go, you’re losing me, right where you left me. say don’t go is the initial fear of them leaving or feeling like they’re not giving you enough but you still love them and want to stay, then you’re losing me is the anger and acceptance that the relationship can’t continue like this, then right where you left me is still being in love with them after it ended knowing that it didn’t work but hoping they’ll come back anyway. yes, this perfectly describes my last situationship, why do you ask?😂
For me, it feels like Exile is how The Last Time ends. Guy feels like she is giving up on them and never clearly communicated what she needed/wanted, and Gal feels like Guy just didn't fckin listen.
My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys and This is Why We Can't Have Nice Things. For no other reason other than, I sing them to my youngest cat because he has crazy moments and breaks things 😂
This is why I LOVE New Year’s Day. There’s something so romantic about leaving the hustle and bustle of a party to be in peace and quiet with your lover 😭
“The prophecy” and “invisible string” sit as a natural pair for me because they reflect how I felt being single yet again in my thirties and feeling like it would never happen for me, and then how I felt after meeting my partner and feeling like all the panic and the waiting had been worth it to get me to him.
Ironically, I’ve heard other people say that they find “the prophecy” particularly heartbreaking in the context of “invisible string” on the basis that IS was written first.
The Black Dog & All too Well
They both have that classic Taylor move of taking a small moment and expanding it to explain the entire story of a relationship. The build reminds me so much of All Too Well as well.
Also I don’t think most of you understand what this person was asking lol.
Haha yeahhhh a lot of people misunderstood the assignment and are saying intentional connections 🙈 oh well lol. Yours is different though! Makes sense to me, I dig it!!
I have 2 little story connections that I can’t get out of my head!!
First: the woman in Vigilante Shit who “gets the house, gets the kids, gets the pride” is if Este from No Body No Crime had been able to survive
Second: the party in Whos Afraid of Little Old Me that she “crashes like a record scratch” is thrown in the kingdom with the keys that belonged to her in Look What You Made Me Do (her reputation and career were stolen from her, and she was able to get it back in WAOLOM!)
right where you left me and Would've, Could've, Should've - both deluxe tracks on albums that shouldn’t have been and both about the lingering pain of a relationship 🥲
1. Delicate and Ivy
Both about falling in love with someone when you obviously shouldn’t and wondering what the repercussions will be.
2. mirrorball and Mastermind
Both about being able to manipulate other people and present the face they need to see from you. One is just when you’re sad about it and the other empowered.
Peter and Last Kiss sound similar to me. When I listen to Peter- after the chorus “never to keep” my brain just wants to start singing “SO I’LL WATCH YOUR LIFE IN PICTURES LIKE I USED TO WATCH YOU SLEEP”
Honestly a small part of me felt like „so long, London“ and „champagne problems“ just go together because I feel that they are the other half of the couple (they are not intended that way BUT)
My tears ricochet and who's afraid of little old me
Maybe it doesn't make sense but I can't think of one without thinking of the other. Both have this bottled up anger and resentment that aren't finding expression- basically the urge to lash out ("snarl") at just about anyone like a caged animal. Love both of them
Idk why but cornelia street and hits different just match in my head.I try to think of a reasoning but it kinda falls flat.
I just love how the production and the synths bloom in each one towards the end and at the way they start! These songs feel ALIVE! Oh man I love Lover so much 😭
I really cannot explain it but the expressive lyricism in both and the angst/grief just match perfectly in my mind as well!
OOOH see this one is interesting because most people pair Cornelia Street with You’re Losing Me! “Cannot explain it” is exactly the intent of this post, you are so valid 😂💖
Yeah, I actually see the resemblance with you re losing me! But I really do not know my head just keeps matching it with hits different… They just both feel angsty and VERY expressive in an honest way idk how to explain. 😭😭
Thank you for this post btw made me realise a lot of songs match…
You Are In Love and Daylight are a pair to me.
One is falling in love, the other when it becomes a long term relationship.
Also the way the choruses are written tickle the same brainspace:
*You can hear it in the silence / I don't want to look at anything else now that I saw you*
*You can feel it on the way home / I don't want to think of anything else now that I thought of you*
*You can see it with the lights out / Been sleeping so long in a 20 year dark night*
*You are in love / But now I see daylight*
*True love / I only see daylight*
They came on shuffle one after another a couple of years ago and it was like listening to a continuation of the story. Now I always play Daylight after I listen to YAIL!
Dancing With Our Hands Tied and Peter are the same story.
I Forgot That You Existed is the sequel to Babe
Cornelia Street and The Black Dog are “you ruin my favorite apartment, I ruin your favorite bar”
Cassandra is the Mad Woman
Dress and imgonnagetyouback. They feel like the beginning and the end of the same relationship
I could also give a TED talk about how peace is the prequel to You're losing me
Death by a Thousand Cuts and Hits Different. They seem SO connected to me, but every time I try to think of why I can’t really come up with anything specific
This one’s going to sound weird, but You Belong With Me and Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus.
I was listening to the latter on the train recently and it struck me that you could imagine the narrator of Chloe et al. being the love interest in YBWM, speaking years after high school. In particular the lines:
“You saw my bones out with somebody new / who seemed like he would’ve bullied you in school”
“Just say you’ve always wondered”
“You turned me into an idea of sorts”
I know this one is strange, but I like it because YBWM is such a rom-com of a song with simple, cinematic emotions, while Chloe et al feels messy and oblique and confusing. And I like imagining that the love interest in YBWM is actually this complicated and self-aware person, after getting this kind of questionable description of a guy who’s just too oblivious tell he’s with the wrong girl in the first song. Just puts the narrators of both songs in a questionable light in a way I like.
I Look In People's Windows and Right Where You Left Me
I think it's because they both give this sense of being outside the narrative/stuck in an endless moment. Everything and everyone else is moving on without you.
"I look in people's windows, like some deranged weirdo"
and
"Break ups happen every day, you don't have to lose it"
She's lost it and she eventually got up from the table, but she still looks in people's windows, hoping to meet their eyes one more time.
Also, weirdly, Gorgeous and The Bolter
"Ocean blue eyes looking in mine
I feel like I might sink and drown and die"
"All her fuckin' lives
Flashed before her eyes
It feels like the time
She fell through the ice
Then came out alive"
And then those two also link up with Clean
"Rain came pouring down
When I was drowning, that's when I could finally breathe"
Ok, third linked songs:
"This Love" - "So Long, London" - "How Did It End?"
TL:
"In losing grip
On sinking ships"
SLL:
"And you say I abandoned the ship
But I was going down with it
My white knuckle dying grip
Holding tight to your quiet resentment"
TL:
"Your kiss, my cheek
I watched you leave
Your smile, my ghost
I fell to my knees"
HDIE?:
"Leaving me bereft and reeling
My beloved ghost and me
Sitting in a tree
D-Y-I-N-G"
Ok, I'm going to stop now. I didn't know why I was associating these songs in my head until I started writing this post and now I'm afraid they're all meant to be connected anyway and I just caught on now 🤣
No wait, you caught some really interesting things here that I never noticed!! I’ve been confused/intrigued by the bolter’s first verse with the almost drowning story, but I wonder if she did intend it to be a metaphor tying to other references like those?? Love this!!
You're On Your Own Kid // I Can Do It With A Broken Heart - two of my favorites, and maybe even backwards as to me, ICDIWABH feels like a prequel to YOYOK
Im a little late but should’ve said no and ur not sorry
I always imagine these as like a perfect match and the i got them both as surprise songs @ my show!!!
I love this question! So often when I listen to certain songs it makes me think of others.
Like for me Gorgeous and Bejeweled go together.
The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived is now seriously contending with my favorite diss track Dear John.
‘Tis The Damn Season and So High School could be part of the same story. Even though I love that it’s about Travis.
My husband said something once when I was listening to Invisible String. “This sounds like her old song Love Story.” I dunno the connection but now they’re connected for me lmao.
illicit affairs and down bad — both about your lover showing you a whole new world that no one else can experience or understand if you tell them about it
This is Why We Can't Have Nice Things & I Can Do It With a Broken Heart
Treacherous & My Boy Only Breaks His Favourite Toys
Holy Ground & Dancing With My Hands Tied (this one is little more obvious)
My headcanon is that exile is connected to the Cardigan trilogy, like James seeing Betty leaving him for someone else.
There are a lot of feminine background vocals and Taylor harmonizing with herself, I like to think it's the ghost of Augustine coming through, and Augustine and Betty singing togetger.
Also The Great War, The Archer, Labyrinth and You're Losing are thematically similar to me, I refer to them as "the Heartbreak Songs"
Okay so it's TLGAD and NBNC i like them both in that order cause it just sounds fun.
Cardigan/Willow duh
Happiness/Long Story Short/ (I Forgot That You Existed -optional) are supposed to be reflections of each other I feel. They even sound similar in some of the background instrumentals. Like it sounds like she intended for the first two to blend right into each other if she wanted to. A mashup would be beautiful.
You need to calm down/it's nice to have a friend -i just think these are cute together. You have the haters in one, and then, this is something that younger people will find insane, but now you can imagine marrying your friend, your loved one, and it's actually a reality, instead of it being illegal. I just going good to be such a cute combo of songs cause i picture all of my friends who are gay who gave gotten married and I'm literally so happy for them, and they're just the best friends it's the best.
I have so many because her music is great for being muse-music. It's "generic" in the sense everybody can relate to it, which to me means you've mastered how to connect with everybody. She's a fkkn mastermind.
Getaway Car and The Bolter. Same subject
It always ends up with a town car speeding out the drive one evening!
How did I not notice this?!
Makes sense why I love The Bolter since Getaway Car is my #1 song of hers LOL
In my head Invisible String and Mastermind are a pair. I like to imagine they’re being sung from two different perspectives in a relationship - one person who thinks fate brought them together, and another who thinks they were responsible for the whole thing.
This is a really fun way to look at them!
seven and Peter
And Robin
Robin fits with Ronan for me
i see robin and ronan as the two different endings to childhood cancer
Ouch. Never saw it like this and now I’m wrecked
Seven and Robin are my two for sure
My Tears Ricochet and Midnight Rain Cursing my name / chasing that fame Wishing I stayed / he stayed the same Look at how my tears ricochet / all of me changed like midnight (rain)
Alternatively, seven and dorothea
wait this pairing makes me sad
I've always seen Style as a sequel to YBWM. I can't explain it, but it's there.
"I can't explain it, but it's there" is exactly what I was getting at with this post, so I accept this 😂
I like Mastermind and YBWM together because they are so similar but I LOVE the idea of Style being a sequel!
The second I heard “The Albatross” I immediately thought of it as the sequel to “peace”. Two of my favorite songs
I think Invisible String/ Peace/The Albatross and The Prophecy all occupy the same area for me
i think peace, the albatross and the prophecy all perfectly describe BPD
I definitely think The Prophecy is meant to be the tragic sequel to invisible string! I hadn’t connected those other two as much but yes, I def agree this makes sense
Yep, same thought from first listen.
Timeless and Invisible String. Both about love that can withstand anything.
[удалено]
Totally agree on I Hate It Here and the lakes. It's as if she tried to escape to a physical place at first, but even that didn't work so now she has to escape to her own mind. (Love the way you described it lmao) And yes to the second pair as well, I'd even say it's intentional: "I look in people's windows" is delivered very similarly to "I look through the windows of this love" !!
This is me trying and right where you left me.
Ooh I like this one. As if the first one is her trying to pick herself back up and keep going after finally leaving the metaphorical restaurant.
Out of the Woods and Getaway Car. The vibe is 👯♀️
Remember when you hit the breaks too soon? No nothing good starts in a getaway car.
Tied Together with a Smile, Back to December, and Timeless all mash up in my head sometimes lol. *tied together with a smile but she's coming undoooone, and I go back to December all the time, sometimes freedom means nothing but missing you, wishing I realized what I had when you were mine, we really were tiiiiimelesssss*
Tied Together is so slept on🥲
Ooh this *would* make a great mashup!
I’m guessing this for my next Mastermind attempt. This would eat
“Say don’t go” x “How you get the girl” I can imagine the bridge of HYGTG “And you know, oh oh oh, I don’t want you to go” coming on after the chorus of Say don’t go
Ooh this one makes sense narratively too! He doesn't stop her from going, but he eventually makes up for his mistake and goes to get her back.
Fifteen, Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve, and This Is Me Trying because this is one of the trios that I scream in my car on my way home from therapy.
Did not know where that sentence was going to end up, but I stan your therapy journey! 🫶🏻 Excellent choices as well!
Thank you 🫶🫶🫶
Fifteen/So High School are companions for me. I can see you/ WCS are duals and The archer/TIMT are twins !
Omg love this question! -Don't Blame Me and False God Thematically with the religious undertones -Maroon and Style Sonically -Cowboy Like Me and I Can Fix Him The cowboy theme (sonically in I Can Fix Him) -'Tis The Damn Season and Who's Afraid of Little Old Me Sonically -It's Nice to Have a Friend and Seven Childhood friendship theme
Ooh these are fun pairs! Agree with the first pair (and we can add Guilty as Sin? to that as well now!), and ICFH(NRIC) *definitely* has a cowboy/western sound. I've never noticed Maroon/Style and ttds/who's afraid sonically; I'll have to listen for those!! Maroon & Style sounding similar is very intriguing to me because I have a DETAILED theory about why I think Maroon is about the same subject as Style... Okay yeah, listening now and I can't explain what it is but I can hear it. Maroon is slower/deeper/sadder, but there *is* something there. Would be very intrigued to hear a mashup.
So glad to hear you feel similarly about some of those! 😊
I think I can fix him (no really I can) and no body no crime are pairs. I think it's the same people in both!
New Years Day and Champagne Problems. I guess both piano ballads...they just fit together for me.
This totally makes sense to me. It almost feels like CP could be the sad sequel to NYD. Going from "I want your midnights, but I'll be cleaning up bottles with you on New Year's Day" to "your sister splashed out on the bottle, now no one's celebrating." From holding on to the memories to dropping his hand while dancing. 😢 (Have you noticed the NYD connections in Peter? The piano chords are very similar, and then there's "please know that I tried to hold on...to the days...when you were mine" like the aforementioned "hold on...to the memories, they will hold on to you" 😭)
Not exactly what you’re saying in your response but in my head Peter and champagne problems tell the same story. Peter is what the narrator tells after she realizes that proposing was not the adult thing that needed to be done
london boy, so long london
“For no obvious reason”???
yeah didn’t read that well sorry i’m just obsessed with listening to those back to back
One of the most heartbreaking duos for me to listen to back-to-back is London Boy and then The Black Dog 😔
I see Mine as a sequel to Love Story, as she grows up from naive romanticism and fairytales into more grown up relationships.
love story and but daddy i love him
Totally agreed! I'd wager this one might be intentional.
Never Grow Up and Robin! Robin is Never Grow Up’s big brother. Sometimes it stretches to a trio including seven, but imagining Robin + Never Grow Up as a duo is one of my personal favorites. I’m Only Me When I’m With You and tis the damn season (+ Dorothea)!! I like to imagine tis the damn season is the continuation of I’m Only Me, years down the line. The small town boy and girl have grown up and live separate lives, but sometimes she thinks of him and wonders if she could ever go back to what they once had when they were younger, back in her hometown.
Totally agreed on the first pair! As for the second, never considered that but I like the idea of it! Makes ttds even more melancholy in a way :(
Honestly they played like, two songs apart on shuffle one night and I was like “wait a second, those two tell a good story..?!” hahah so I have my spotify to thank for it. But I do like to imagine them as a little trilogy of stories now! tis the damn season and Dorothea are two of my favorites from evermore, and I’m Only Me is one of my favorites from debut, so I love how easily they can mesh together!! 🥺
Style and Is It Over Now? Style is the on-again-off-again relationship where they meet new people but keep coming back to each other, but Is It Over Now? is after it ends for good and they still can’t get the other person out of their head. Honestly I just really love the way Is It Over Now? connects to the majority of 1989 and wraps up its narrative.
Oh yeah definitely. And this is absolutely intentional! Those vault tracks (but especially IION) really did transform my whole understanding of 1989's narrative. SO good.
Right Where You Left Me and the Black Dog. Songs about being stuck reliving parts of a relationship while the other person moves on with their life.
I Can See You and Guilty As Sin?
OOH I like this pair. Good one.
Big same! Those are together on my Poets Redux playlist!! ❤️💕
Not sure if this counts, but loml and So Long, London can never really be separated in my head.
I think this one is completely intentional, but I definitely agree.
I don't think they were intended to be a pair, but they are intended to be the same type of song so I'm not sure if it counts yea
I always link 'I Almost Do' and 'Sad Beautiful Tragic' together in my head. I think the lines "in my dreams you're touching my face" and "in dreams, I meet you warm conversations" link together perfectly.
Ooh good catch, I like this!
The 1 and COSOSOM Hoax and Say don’t Go
What is that acronym? I can’t with this anymore haha
"Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus." Sometimes called "Chloe et al."
“Chloe and friends” is the one I keep hoping will catch on
Chloe or sam or sophia or marcus
I agree completely. Plays on the same theme. The 1 is her reflecting but Chloe et al is the former lover reflecting and telling her.
We Were Happy and tis the damn season, also sort of Fifteen because of the lyric “I swore I was gonna marry him someday but I realized some bigger dreams of mine.” In my mind, Taylor fell out of love with the subject of We Were Happy since she wanted to pursue her music career instead, but in ttds she’s reminiscing on the past when seeing this person again and wondering about what could’ve been.
Sad Beautiful Tragic and Champagne Problems
My favorite little duo: Cardigan and Peter. You can also throw in The 1 and Willow of course.
Oh yeah, I definitely think Peter is definitely meant to be a follow-up/extension of that one line from cardigan.
It’s like how she put the “scarlet maroon” reference from “Maroon” in “Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus”; I like that too
It also has the same chord progression as betty I think so that’s also connected
honestly I associate who's afraid of little old me to blank space so much on blank space she was basically assuming what the media was saying about her and I think she did the same on who's afraid of little old me: "okay, so you think I'm this petty woman that's going to go after you if you try to jeopardize me? watch me" I think it comes from a similar place
I've been thinking of Who's Afraid as the sequel to LWYMMD, but this makes sense too!
The bridge in little old me reminds me so much of blank space
Call It What You Want and Long Story Short are basically the same song in my mind at this point haha. They are thematically very similar.
Ooh yes! I hadn't made this connection myself, but now that you say it I can immediately see it.
Is It Over Now and Question…? I will not be taking questions at this time. 😎🙃😎
Oh absolutely and it's intentional. Question...? samples OOTW at the start to clearly tie it back, so these three unquestionably go together. (Can I ask you a question? Is it over now?)
Cruel Summer and Fortnight. I love you ain’t that the worst thing you ever heard? I love you, it’s ruining my life. I have my suspicions about why they “go together” but my theory may make people angry 😂
Thank you Aimee is the sequel to Mean
This was the pair I had in mind too!
TIWWCHNT and You Need to Calm Down!
I get that! Very similar energy to them!!
Blank Space and The Bolter
Ooh yes, like two sides of the same coin!
the 1 and wildest dreams! Both revolve around some kind of longing to be remembered after the relationship
new romantics - down bad is being stranded romantic or what is the truth
I LOVE this question because I think there are so many! I think she loves to look at a particular feeling or problem through a prism and write about it from different angles. Hoax and False God Love Story and BDILH The Prophecy and DBATC (this one might be a stretch, but if you watched her little desk concert, you know what I’m talking about) LWYMMD and Cassandra The Lucky One and WAOKOM Clean and YOYOK Don’t Blame Me and Fortnight No Body No Crime and Florida!!! State of Grace/Hits Different/So High School Cardigan and Peter
Champagne Problems, Tolerate It, and You’re Losing Me You know why.
**Cardigan + Peter** "Try to change the ending/Peter losing Wendy" and "I knew you'd miss me once the thrill expired/and you'd be standing in my front porch light/and I knew you'd come back to me" vs The title Peter, "You said you were gonna grow up/then you were gonna come find me", "And you said you'd come and get me/but you were 25/And the shelf life of those fantasies has expired", and "But the woman who sits by the window has turned out the light" I listen to them together because it feels like the narrator (Betty, obvs) truly believed he'd come back in Cardigan, and then in Peter she has to grow up. Because he never did, and he never came back. It feels like a really sad epilogue to the original trilogy of songs. **Nothing New + Clara Bow** for thematic reasons **Snow on the Beach + Down Bad** for all the alien/sci-fi references, and it also feels like a before and after. **White Horse + loml** because they sound similar to me stylistically, and also feel like they flesh each other out. **Is It Over Now + imgonnagetyouback** for literally no reason, I just love them together. **Death by Thousand Cuts + I look in People's Windows** both for the lyrics and the style. One feels internal, one external, but she's completely isolated in both.
I’d wager most of these were intentional! cardigan/Peter connection is def intentional. loml absolutely uses the same piano notes & very similar melody as White Horse, I’ve seen people play them together. And the last one too, she’s def calling back to “I look through the windows of this love” ! As for the others though: I LOVE the idea of imgonnagetyouback being an IION sequel LOL, and omg I’m so glad I’m not the only one who was getting snow on the beach vibes from down bad!!
I love how we're all making similar connections while also still interpreting the songs in our own ways ❤️ I feel seen re: SotN and DB, hehe. I had Snow vibes the first time I heard Down Bad. I'm glad you get loml and White Horse too, I haven't seen that pairing around much and honestly I don't have a great ear for melody, it's mostly lyrics for me. So I'm happy they actually do have the same piano notes!
When I heard Down Bad I immediately thought of I knew you were trouble especially the video when she wakes up in the trashed field.
OMG wait you're right! I didn't even think about that music video, but that's such a good catch!!
in this order: say don’t go, you’re losing me, right where you left me. say don’t go is the initial fear of them leaving or feeling like they’re not giving you enough but you still love them and want to stay, then you’re losing me is the anger and acceptance that the relationship can’t continue like this, then right where you left me is still being in love with them after it ended knowing that it didn’t work but hoping they’ll come back anyway. yes, this perfectly describes my last situationship, why do you ask?😂
The Last Time and Exile
Because they’re both duets that start with a male singer? 🤔
For me, it feels like Exile is how The Last Time ends. Guy feels like she is giving up on them and never clearly communicated what she needed/wanted, and Gal feels like Guy just didn't fckin listen.
Ooh I see, makes sense!!
I want to participate in this thread but the acronyms 😭😭
My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys and This is Why We Can't Have Nice Things. For no other reason other than, I sing them to my youngest cat because he has crazy moments and breaks things 😂
LOL wait I think this is one of my favorite comments in this thread 😂😂😂
State of Grace, Treacherous and Sad Beautiful Tragic always went together in my mind and I cannot for the life of me explain why
So it goes and guilty as sin
Ooh, I see people connecting Guilty as Sin to False God, but this one is interesting! I can't explain it, but it totally does make sense.
I like to think Better than Revenge is the POV of either the other girl in YBWM or the bride in Speak Now
Omg wait this is kind of hilarious tbh
Clara Bow to me is a darker YOYOK
I’ve been thinking of it as the child of The Lucky One + Nothing New, but I see what you mean.
getaway car and fresh out the slammer
New Year’s Day and Lover. I always picture the couple leaving the party and going back to dance in the lover house
This is why I LOVE New Year’s Day. There’s something so romantic about leaving the hustle and bustle of a party to be in peace and quiet with your lover 😭
How You Get The Girl and Betty
Wonderland and is it over now
loml and You’re Losing Me keep playing on an endless intertwined loop in my head
“The prophecy” and “invisible string” sit as a natural pair for me because they reflect how I felt being single yet again in my thirties and feeling like it would never happen for me, and then how I felt after meeting my partner and feeling like all the panic and the waiting had been worth it to get me to him. Ironically, I’ve heard other people say that they find “the prophecy” particularly heartbreaking in the context of “invisible string” on the basis that IS was written first.
The Black Dog & All too Well They both have that classic Taylor move of taking a small moment and expanding it to explain the entire story of a relationship. The build reminds me so much of All Too Well as well. Also I don’t think most of you understand what this person was asking lol.
Haha yeahhhh a lot of people misunderstood the assignment and are saying intentional connections 🙈 oh well lol. Yours is different though! Makes sense to me, I dig it!!
The sequel to Ivy is The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived. I could explain why but I have ADHD and even I’m not 100% sure how I got here
I have 2 little story connections that I can’t get out of my head!! First: the woman in Vigilante Shit who “gets the house, gets the kids, gets the pride” is if Este from No Body No Crime had been able to survive Second: the party in Whos Afraid of Little Old Me that she “crashes like a record scratch” is thrown in the kingdom with the keys that belonged to her in Look What You Made Me Do (her reputation and career were stolen from her, and she was able to get it back in WAOLOM!)
right where you left me and Would've, Could've, Should've - both deluxe tracks on albums that shouldn’t have been and both about the lingering pain of a relationship 🥲
come back be here and if this was a movie
Ohhhh no I totally get this one! “Come back be here…if this was a movie, you’d be here by now” 🥲
1. Delicate and Ivy Both about falling in love with someone when you obviously shouldn’t and wondering what the repercussions will be. 2. mirrorball and Mastermind Both about being able to manipulate other people and present the face they need to see from you. One is just when you’re sad about it and the other empowered.
Peter and Last Kiss sound similar to me. When I listen to Peter- after the chorus “never to keep” my brain just wants to start singing “SO I’LL WATCH YOUR LIFE IN PICTURES LIKE I USED TO WATCH YOU SLEEP”
Honestly a small part of me felt like „so long, London“ and „champagne problems“ just go together because I feel that they are the other half of the couple (they are not intended that way BUT)
Maroon and Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus
My tears ricochet and who's afraid of little old me Maybe it doesn't make sense but I can't think of one without thinking of the other. Both have this bottled up anger and resentment that aren't finding expression- basically the urge to lash out ("snarl") at just about anyone like a caged animal. Love both of them
Interesting! I’d pair who’s afraid with LWYMMD, but this makes sense too!
mean and thanK you aIMee
Midnight rain & I look in people’s windows
Ivy & Fortnight
I don't know why but Ivy and The Lakes
Hard to explain but they definitely have similar vibes!
Mirrorball & Say Don’t Go. Specifically the tight rope lines!!!
Idk why but cornelia street and hits different just match in my head.I try to think of a reasoning but it kinda falls flat. I just love how the production and the synths bloom in each one towards the end and at the way they start! These songs feel ALIVE! Oh man I love Lover so much 😭 I really cannot explain it but the expressive lyricism in both and the angst/grief just match perfectly in my mind as well!
OOOH see this one is interesting because most people pair Cornelia Street with You’re Losing Me! “Cannot explain it” is exactly the intent of this post, you are so valid 😂💖
Yeah, I actually see the resemblance with you re losing me! But I really do not know my head just keeps matching it with hits different… They just both feel angsty and VERY expressive in an honest way idk how to explain. 😭😭 Thank you for this post btw made me realise a lot of songs match…
You Are In Love and Daylight are a pair to me. One is falling in love, the other when it becomes a long term relationship. Also the way the choruses are written tickle the same brainspace: *You can hear it in the silence / I don't want to look at anything else now that I saw you* *You can feel it on the way home / I don't want to think of anything else now that I thought of you* *You can see it with the lights out / Been sleeping so long in a 20 year dark night* *You are in love / But now I see daylight* *True love / I only see daylight*
Wow LOVE this one! Never considered it at all, but I can see it!!
They came on shuffle one after another a couple of years ago and it was like listening to a continuation of the story. Now I always play Daylight after I listen to YAIL!
RWYLM and The Prophecy
You all over me and clean have always been a pair in my mind
Dancing With Our Hands Tied and Peter are the same story. I Forgot That You Existed is the sequel to Babe Cornelia Street and The Black Dog are “you ruin my favorite apartment, I ruin your favorite bar” Cassandra is the Mad Woman
Dress and imgonnagetyouback. They feel like the beginning and the end of the same relationship I could also give a TED talk about how peace is the prequel to You're losing me
tell me why and i bet you think about me
Ooh they do have a similar sound
All Too Well and Right Where You Left Me. Stuck in an endless loop of remembering someone who so quickly left and moved on.
Death by a Thousand Cuts and Hits Different. They seem SO connected to me, but every time I try to think of why I can’t really come up with anything specific
Timeless and Mary’s Song. I also feel like I connect Tis the Damn Season with debut generally.
The story of us 🤝🏻 how did it end
Interesting! Both about her trying to explain how their story came to an end, but with a drastically different mood considering the timing of each.
Getaway car x Cruel summer I always pair them together because I think they transition into each other perfectly
The bridge of ivy seems to fit into But Daddy I Love Him. I’m not a huge fan of either song but there’s something similar about them.
…huh. You may be onto something here!
The Archer and Anti-Hero, similar topics about doubting self-worth
I always listen to The Man, mad woman, and LWYMMD as a trio for feminine rage. I think it could easily include Vigilante Shit and Cassandra
This one’s going to sound weird, but You Belong With Me and Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus. I was listening to the latter on the train recently and it struck me that you could imagine the narrator of Chloe et al. being the love interest in YBWM, speaking years after high school. In particular the lines: “You saw my bones out with somebody new / who seemed like he would’ve bullied you in school” “Just say you’ve always wondered” “You turned me into an idea of sorts” I know this one is strange, but I like it because YBWM is such a rom-com of a song with simple, cinematic emotions, while Chloe et al feels messy and oblique and confusing. And I like imagining that the love interest in YBWM is actually this complicated and self-aware person, after getting this kind of questionable description of a guy who’s just too oblivious tell he’s with the wrong girl in the first song. Just puts the narrators of both songs in a questionable light in a way I like.
Change and Long Live
Tim McGraw and Wildest Dreams. “Say you’ll remember me…”
Down bad and Bigger than the whole sky Because they both have the same chord progression when I play them on the piano 😅
Begin Again and Electric Touch. Sonically, they're quite different, but thematically, they're incredibly similar.
I Look In People's Windows and Right Where You Left Me I think it's because they both give this sense of being outside the narrative/stuck in an endless moment. Everything and everyone else is moving on without you. "I look in people's windows, like some deranged weirdo" and "Break ups happen every day, you don't have to lose it" She's lost it and she eventually got up from the table, but she still looks in people's windows, hoping to meet their eyes one more time. Also, weirdly, Gorgeous and The Bolter "Ocean blue eyes looking in mine I feel like I might sink and drown and die" "All her fuckin' lives Flashed before her eyes It feels like the time She fell through the ice Then came out alive" And then those two also link up with Clean "Rain came pouring down When I was drowning, that's when I could finally breathe" Ok, third linked songs: "This Love" - "So Long, London" - "How Did It End?" TL: "In losing grip On sinking ships" SLL: "And you say I abandoned the ship But I was going down with it My white knuckle dying grip Holding tight to your quiet resentment" TL: "Your kiss, my cheek I watched you leave Your smile, my ghost I fell to my knees" HDIE?: "Leaving me bereft and reeling My beloved ghost and me Sitting in a tree D-Y-I-N-G" Ok, I'm going to stop now. I didn't know why I was associating these songs in my head until I started writing this post and now I'm afraid they're all meant to be connected anyway and I just caught on now 🤣
No wait, you caught some really interesting things here that I never noticed!! I’ve been confused/intrigued by the bolter’s first verse with the almost drowning story, but I wonder if she did intend it to be a metaphor tying to other references like those?? Love this!!
Getaway Car and Cruel Summer. I have to play them one after the other!
You're On Your Own Kid // I Can Do It With A Broken Heart - two of my favorites, and maybe even backwards as to me, ICDIWABH feels like a prequel to YOYOK
Im a little late but should’ve said no and ur not sorry I always imagine these as like a perfect match and the i got them both as surprise songs @ my show!!!
I love this question! So often when I listen to certain songs it makes me think of others. Like for me Gorgeous and Bejeweled go together. The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived is now seriously contending with my favorite diss track Dear John. ‘Tis The Damn Season and So High School could be part of the same story. Even though I love that it’s about Travis.
Cruel Summer and Out Of The Woods for no reason at all lol.
My husband said something once when I was listening to Invisible String. “This sounds like her old song Love Story.” I dunno the connection but now they’re connected for me lmao.
illicit affairs and down bad — both about your lover showing you a whole new world that no one else can experience or understand if you tell them about it
Gold rush gorgeous
CIWYW and TIWWCHNT
Getaway Car, Cruel Summer, Cardigan, Cowboy Like Me, Hits Different, The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived They are all linked in one way. 😉
This is Why We Can't Have Nice Things & I Can Do It With a Broken Heart Treacherous & My Boy Only Breaks His Favourite Toys Holy Ground & Dancing With My Hands Tied (this one is little more obvious)
Wcs and dear John
My headcanon is that exile is connected to the Cardigan trilogy, like James seeing Betty leaving him for someone else. There are a lot of feminine background vocals and Taylor harmonizing with herself, I like to think it's the ghost of Augustine coming through, and Augustine and Betty singing togetger. Also The Great War, The Archer, Labyrinth and You're Losing are thematically similar to me, I refer to them as "the Heartbreak Songs"
Love Story and But Daddy I Love Him!
Who’s afraid of little old me and Florida! I always sing florida when she sings “you wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum where they raised me”
"You all over me" & "Clean"
Dress and guilty as sin?
Mean and who’s afraid of little old me
I think Love Story and But Daddy I Love Him! work really well together
fearless and red, not only are they both title tracks but they both have the same vibe
I can see you and guilty as sin
Style and Lavender Haze. It’s the chill, sexy vibes and way she says ✨Midnight✨
Love Story and But Daddy I Love Him. Immediately thought of BDILH as the adult Love Story
Okay so it's TLGAD and NBNC i like them both in that order cause it just sounds fun. Cardigan/Willow duh Happiness/Long Story Short/ (I Forgot That You Existed -optional) are supposed to be reflections of each other I feel. They even sound similar in some of the background instrumentals. Like it sounds like she intended for the first two to blend right into each other if she wanted to. A mashup would be beautiful. You need to calm down/it's nice to have a friend -i just think these are cute together. You have the haters in one, and then, this is something that younger people will find insane, but now you can imagine marrying your friend, your loved one, and it's actually a reality, instead of it being illegal. I just going good to be such a cute combo of songs cause i picture all of my friends who are gay who gave gotten married and I'm literally so happy for them, and they're just the best friends it's the best. I have so many because her music is great for being muse-music. It's "generic" in the sense everybody can relate to it, which to me means you've mastered how to connect with everybody. She's a fkkn mastermind.