11 Tiny Details In The Lyrics Of Taylor Swift's New Album That You Definitely MissedSkip To ContentHomepageSign InSearch BuzzFeedSearch BuzzFeedlol Badge Feedwin Badge Feedtrending Badge FeedCalifornia residents can opt out of "sales" of personal data.Do Not Sell My Personal Information 2022 BuzzFeed, Inc PressRSSPrivacyConsent PreferencesUser TermsAd ChoicesHelpContactSitemapPosted on 10 Dec 2017 11 Tiny Details In The Lyrics Of Taylor Swift s New Album That You Definitely Missed Wow, is there a lot to dissect here. by Ellie WoodwardBuzzFeed StaffFacebookPinterestTwitterMailLink In case you ve been living somewhere other than Planet Earth for the past three weeks you ll be aware that Taylor Swift has released her iconic sixth album Reputation Steve Jennings / WireImage Now that we ve all had a chance to listen to it a few thousand times it s come to my attention that while the songs are legit bangers there are some really clever lyrics on the album that might have just passed you by Here are the best Tap to play GIF Tap to play GIF giphy.com 1 On the surface the opening verse of I Did Something Bad seems quite simplistic especially because of the repeated use of one-syllable words rhyming with E But look a little deeper and it s actually pretty damn clever A Z Lyrics The song opens with a line about never trusting a narcissist A Z Lyrics The dictionary definition of this term, which originates from a tale in Greek mythology where Narcissus falls in love with his own reflection, is a person who has "excessive interest in or admiration of oneself and one's physical appearance." Or, in more simplistic terms, a person who is obsessed with themselves. The verse then goes on to detail all the ways in which Taylor likes to play these people before ending with the line Now all he thinks about is me A Z Lyrics In other words, Taylor's games are so effective that she can transform someone once obsessed with themselves into a person obsessed with her. 2 You might even say this ability resembles some form of ~witchcraft ~ which is interesting given that she builds a metaphor of herself being the victim of witch-hunting as the song goes on A Z Lyrics It begins with this line about feeling "flames" on her skin, which at a first glance could refer to ~passion~. However as the song progresses it s clear that she was pre-empting the flames that were to come with the burning of all the witches A Z Lyrics Witch-hunting was a phenomenon that occurred in the 17th century, when women were searched and accused of even the smallest of wrongdoings before being sentenced to death by burning. The use of this metaphor here is arguably a way of Taylor conveying that she feels "hunted" by the media and public who will persecute her no matter what she does. 3 There s this clever reference to magic in So It Goes A Z Lyrics Of course, the lines: "You make everyone disappear and / Cut me into pieces" allude to two of the most well-known magic tricks – the disappearing act and sawing a woman in half. But these lyrics have a dual meaning in a romantic context. Taken this way the lyrics show that Taylor considers the subject of the song so interesting so all-consuming that they render everyone else invisible to her And being cut into pieces emotionally could refer to vulnerability she feels around this person Tap to play GIF Tap to play GIF giphy.com 4 The Gatsby line from This Is Why We Can t Have Nice Things could actually be a lot deeper than we first thought genius.com So, you know the line about Taylor "feeling so Gatsby"? Obviously everyone took this as a surface-level reference to the novel The Great Gatsby, whose protagonist was known for throwing ostentatious parties. However at the end of the novel an innocent Gatsby is framed and murdered for something he didn t do You might even say that he sacrificed himself and his reputation for the people he loved only to end up with a bullet in his back regardless Tap to play GIF Tap to play GIF ABC And well doesn t this sound familiar in the context of Taylor Swift She maintains that in the situation with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West – which this song also seems to reference – she behaved appropriately only to be stabbed in the back and have her reputation destroyed anyway Tap to play GIF Tap to play GIF giphy.com 5 Oh and while we re on the subject of Gatsby there s a second reference in Don t Blame Me genius.com Again, another double meaning. Taylor describes her former self as "poison ivy" but now as her lover's "daisy" – which just so happens to be the name of the woman Jay Gatsby is desperately in love with. 6 There s a vivid – and genius – callback to Clean from 1989 in Call It What You Want Big Machine Records While many people have interpreted "Call It What You Want" as a song about Taylor disappearing from public view after her fallout with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, it actually has two very vivid callbacks to "Clean", the final track on 1989. Clean uses drought and water imagery to convey the end of a relationship with these two lines that refer to flowers dying and a storm beginning And then in Call It What You Want we have these lines that appear to pick up exactly where Clean left off So the "storm" referred to in this song might not actually be a reference to Kimye at all, but rather learning to fall in love again after the "storm" of a tumultuous relationship and breakup. 7 Oh and there s also this – arguably even more genius – callback to You Are In Love from 1989 in Dancing With Our Hands Tied Big Machine Records Remember the line about dancing in a snowglobe round and round from the 1989 bonus track You Are In Love genius.com Well in Dancing With Our Hands Tied there s this line in which Taylor asks the subject of the song So baby can we dance through an avalanche genius.com It goes without saying that snowglobes have whimsical and pretty connotations whereas avalanches are brutal and dangerous with the ability to cause extreme damage Tap to play GIF Tap to play GIF Big Machine Records It's arguable, then, that the lyrics shifting from dancing in a snowglobe to dancing through an avalanche could signify Taylor questioning whether the relationship will survive through the bad times as well as the good. 8 And this idea is also picked up in New Year s Day with this line genius.com In other words, she'll be there for her lover whether they're experiencing major successes or failures. 9 There are three – possibly four – clever references to marriage on the album genius.com The first comes in Ed Sheeran's verse on "End Game", with the lyric: "Four words on the tip of my tongue, I'll never say it." The logical explanation of the "four words", given the permanency of the rest of the song are: "Will you marry me?" The second comes on "King of My Heart", when Taylor asks: "Is this the end of all the endings?" – perhaps a reference to her wondering whether her current relationship is "it" for life, and therefore won't have a messy end. The third reference is in "New Year's Day", with the line "You and me forevermore", which is pretty self-explanatory. And, finally, some people have questioned whether the line "My name is whatever you decide" in "Don't Blame Me" is a reference to marriage, and the possibility of Taylor changing her name. 10 If you thought the opening line of Getaway Car sounded familiar you were right genius.com "It was the best of times / It was the worst of crimes" is a play on the opening line from Charles Dicken's A Tale of Two Cities: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." In this song, she substitutes "times" with "crimes", in keeping with the theme of criminality throughout the song. This track also has a callback to "Wonderland", the bonus track from 1989, which features the lyric: "Life was never worse but never better." 11 And finally that Burton to this Taylor line from Ready For It is loaded with meaning A Z Lyrics Of course it s a reference to the tumultuous relationship of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor However a second interpretation developed after a fan discovered the plot of Boom – a movie starring Taylor and Burton View this post on In the movie Elizabeth Taylor played an aging serial-dating millionaire while Richard Burton played a younger man who turns up on the island on which she has retired Universal Pictures And virtually all of these details are present in the lyrics of Ready for It A If the lyric was indeed based on the film, it certainly plays into the theory that the song was told from the perspective of a character – an extension of the serial-dating woman in "Blank Space", perhaps – rather than Taylor's true self. All of which proves that Taylor Swift is the queen of songwriting Tap to play GIF Tap to play GIF BBC Share This ArticleFacebook PinterestTwitterMailLink BuzzFeed DailyKeep up with the latest daily buzz with the BuzzFeed Daily newsletter!This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.