From Cornelia Street to London: All the Shade and Easter Eggs on Taylor Swift’s ‘Lover’
The odes to Joe Alwyn are pretty apparent, but there’s enough fruit on the vine here for Kaylor shippers too
By Kate Halliwell
Aug 24, 2019
Taylor Swift’s much-anticipated album Lover dropped Friday, ushering in a new era full of the catchy bops and country ballads we all missed so much. But just because Taylor’s new vibe is all pastels and soft sunshine doesn’t mean she can’t still bring the shade—from calling out everyone she’s ever dated to more political and social commentary, there are plenty of deep cuts and Easter eggs to parse in the lengthy—18-song!— album.
First of all, I hope Joe Alwyn, Taylor’s boyfriend of three years, is just as committed to this relationship as his megastar girlfriend, because judging by the lyrics on the album, she is ready for wedding bells tomorrow. Several songs on the album include shout-outs to their forever love, including “Lover,” “Paper Rings,” “I Think He Knows,” and “London Boy.” Listen, I’m glad she’s happy! Joe Alwyn might be the most boring person in the world, but whatever floats your boat, girl.
Luckily, for those of us less enamored of Mr. Blue-Eyed Billy Lynn, Taylor shouts out plenty of past relationships on Lover, too. Apologies to “Thank U, Next,” but “I Forgot That You Existed” has taken the crown for Most Savage Break-up Song of 2019: “It isn’t love, it isn’t hate; it’s just indifference.” Whew! Jill Gutowitz theorized for Vulture that this deeply petty song is about Calvin Harris, and considering I also forgot he existed, that checks out. It could also be a dig at Taylor’s ongoing feud with Kanye and Kim Kardashian West, but it seems like there’s a new conflict between them every other day, so as hard as we try, it’s impossible to forget about all of that.
And please think of the Kaylor shippers in your life today—between “Cornelia Street,” “False God,” and “It’s Nice to Have a Friend,” the internet conspiracy theory that Taylor Swift and Karlie Kloss are star-crossed lovers has never been stronger. (Which is not to say that it’s particularly strong, still, but LET US HAVE THIS.) There’s an entire Carol reference in “It’s Nice To Have a Friend”—“Lost my gloves / You give me one / Wanna hang out? / Yes, sounds like fun.” No one has ever referenced a clandestine glove lunch in a totally straight way, I said what I said. Harold, they’re—probably not, but seriously, live a little—lesbians.
Even if she’s not secretly in love with Karlie, Taylor is an ally now. She’s political! OK, she may still have work to do, as evidenced by people lashing out at her overblown attempt at advocating for LGBTQ rights in her video for “You Need to Calm Down.” But progress is progess, and from lyrics supporting the gay community to teaching Fighting Sexism 101 in “The Man,” Taylor proves that she can mix Important Messages with delicious shade, like when she sings, “They would toast to me, oh, let the players play / I’d be just like Leo in Saint-Tropez.” I assume she’s referring to Leo’s dating history and not his beach volleyball skills, but who can say?
And finally, in “Daylight,” the lyrics “You ran with the wolves and refused to settle down,” could point to Harry Styles. One Direction released a song called “Wolves” in 2015, and various online sleuths have connected the song to Taylor’s “Out of the Woods” music video, which was supposedly also written about Harry. But hello, are we all forgetting that Taylor dated someone who actually ran with the wolves in the 2009 cinematic classic Twilight: New Moon? This song is obviously about Taylor Lautner, and you can take that to the bank.
Even if the album boils down to 70 percent Joe Alwyn, 20 percent Kaylor, and 10 percent everyone else, it doesn’t really matter who Taylor is pining for, or dragging in the dirt—pretty much every song on Lover is just as good as we hoped. Now excuse me, I’m off to watch Carol on repeat and scour the internet for every photo of Karlie and Taylor ever taken on Cornelia Street.
Fans got an inside look at some of Taylor Swift’s inner thoughts when they bought the deluxe version of her new album, Lover
Inside Taylor Swift's Personal Diary Entries: Read All of the Biggest Revelations
By Tomás Mier
August 24, 2019
Photo: DIA DIPASUPIL/GETTY
Lover of Diaries
Fans got an inside look at some of Taylor Swift’s most personal thoughts when they bought the deluxe version of her new album, Lover.
Along with some behind-the-scenes recordings, each album featured a 30-page booklet with excerpts from her personal diaries — some even from she was just 13!
“I’ve written about pretty much everything that’s happened to me. I’ve written my original lyrics in those diaries, just feelings,” she said on an Instagram Live announcing the booklets. “It’s everything from pictures drawn, photos of that time in my life, I used to like tape stuff in my diaries.”
Here are the top 10 takeaways from her personal diary entries.
Photo: CHRISTOPHER POLK/GETTY
Swift the Lyricist
If the diary entries are filled with anything, it’s a deep dive into her song lyrics.
“Red” was born on a long flight — and everyone she played it for loved it.
“Its [sic] so different than anything we’ve done,” she wrote in 2011. “I can’t even tell you how alive and worthwhile I feel when I’m writing a new song and I finish it and people like it. It’s the most fulfilling feeling, like getting an A+ on your report card.”
The diaries also share early versions of “All Too Well” and songs like “Long Live,” “White Horse,” “Holy Ground” and “This Love.”
In a 2014 entry, she writes about the creation of her ultra-hit “Shake It Off.”
“The best way I know how to describe it is that the chorus just fell out of the sky,” she wrote in 2014.
“We all went home and I wrote the first and second verses and brought them in the next day. We wrote this chanty cheer leader bridge that I absolutely LOVE,” she continued.
As for the album cover that would accompany “Shake It Off,” she wrote that she “saw it within 10 seconds.”
“The craziest moment came when something caught my eye. The cover photo is photo 13. I kid you not,” she wrote about the polaroid cover to 1989, which she accompanied with a sketch.
Photo: HENRY LAMB/BEI/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK
A Glamorous Gala
In a diary entry, Swift writes about being invited to “this event called ‘The Met Gala.’”
To an 18-year-old Swift, that day was “THE party of the year.”
“The paps started SCREAMING for me. It was crazy,” she wrote in May 2008. “We made our way up the red carpet, posing for everyone. All of the women looked so glamorous in their gowns.”
Along with meeting Anna Wintour, George Clooney, Julia Roberts and Giorgio Armani at the event, she wrote that “models stood as decorations, standing still and wearing gorgeous gowns.”
Once inside, she lists “every celebrity ever created” at the event, including Scarlett Johansson, Tom Brady, Beyoncé, Victoria Beckham, Tom Cruise and Jon Bon Jovi “who called me over to talk to him.”
Photo: LARRY BUSACCA/GETTY
Borchetta's Beginnings
Weeks before the release of Lover, a public feud involving Swift and her old label Big Machine made headlines when the label’s founder Scott Borchetta sold the label (and ownership of her masters) to Scooter Braun.
But years before, Swift had nothing but kind things to say about the label founder who signed her.
After meeting with Capitol Records and not being offered “the deal I would want,” she met with Borchetta — and left with feelings of excitement.
“I really loved all the stuff he said in the meeting, and he stayed for the whole Bluebird show,” she wrote in November 2014. “And he’s SO passionate about this project. I think that’s the way we’re gonna go, I want to surround myself with passionate people.”
A meeting with Borchetta also made “Sparks Fly” as she came up with the name of her second album.
“We were talking about the record and I had this epiphany,” she wrote in April 2010. “I didn’t talk in interviews about how I felt about much of what has happened in the last two years. I’ve been silent about so much that I’m saying on this album. It’s time to Speak Now.”
“Scott freaked out. He loved it,” she wrote in April 2010. “We have a title, ladies and gentlemen!”
Photo: SPLASH
"The Hunters Will Always Outnumber Me"
Swift also opens up about the lack of privacy that comes with being a celebrity — and how she’ll never get used to seeing “a group of people staring, amassed outside my house, pointing, camera phones up…”
“They could never imagine how much that feels like being hunted,” she wrote.
Swift compares her “mostly perfect life” to “being a tiger in a wildlife enclosure.”
“It’s pretty in there, but you can’t get out,” she described in the August 2013 note.
“No matter how big my house is or how many albums I sell, I’m still going to be the rabbit,” she added. “Because the hunters will always outnumber me. The spectators will stand by, shaking their heads, going ‘that poor girl.’ But the point is, they’re still watching. Everyone loves a good hunt.”
But her feelings about being “hunted” also translated into worrying about her generation’s obsession with taking photos “so that they can spend all day checking the comments underneath.”
“They will never truly experience a moment without attempting to capture it and own it,” she wrote, comparing pulling a flower from the ground to take photos. “Nevermind that picking a flower kills it, the same way taking a picture of a moment can ruin it altogether.”
Swift has notably kept comments off of her post to improve her mental health.
“I’m training my brain to not need the validation of someone telling me that I look 🔥🔥🔥,” she wrote in Elle. “I’m also blocking out anyone who might feel the need to tell me to ‘go die in a hole ho’ while I’m having my coffee at nine in the morning.”
Photo: AL MESSERSCHMIDT/GETTY
From Fearful to "Fearless"
Though Swift is now known for her jaw-dropping stage presence, as a young singer she wrote that she would “get stage fright every time I walk onto a stage.”
“I wish it wasn’t so, but I can’t blame my mind for freaking out about performances,” she wrote in 2010, days before releasing Speak Now. “Criticism of my performances has been the biggest source of pain in my life.”
“I sometimes feel like my college degree is in acting like I’m ok when I’m not,” wrote a 20-year-old Swift.
But even as a burgeoning singer at just 13, she would get hate while on stage. During one performance, her guitar pick broke in half and fell while she was playing.
“There was this huge silence! It was awful! I had to bend over and pick it up in front of everyone!” she wrote next to the broken pick. “And while I was singing, this guy was shouting stuff like, ‘Go on, b*#@! Sing that country bulls#*%! Go on motherf—!.’ It was awful.”
Photo: SCOTT GRIES/GETTY IMAGES
Done with Dieting
In her diaries, she also candidly writes about sticking to a diet as a teen.
Soon after Thanksgiving 2006, she returned to Nashville to her “own comfy bed” and planned to go out to eat with her best friend Abigail Anderson during a day off.
“Oh and I’m dieting again,” she wrote right after.
“Over the holidays I didn’t watch what I ate and man its [sic] so weird how fast I can gain or lose weight… It’s crazy,” she ended the note. “So I’m going to lose some now.”
Earlier this year, she wrote about finally being okay with gaining weight.
“I learned to stop hating every ounce of fat on my body,” she wrote in Elle. “I worked hard to retrain my brain that a little extra weight means curves, shinier hair, and more energy.”
The “Daylight” singer also said that she’s constantly working on her body image.
“I think a lot of us push the boundaries of dieting, but taking it too far can be really dangerous. There is no quick fix,” she said. “I work on accepting my body every day.”
Photo: CHRISTOPHER POLK/GETTY IMAGES
"I'ma Let You Finish, But..."
“Ahh… the things that can change in a week…” wrote Swift in a Sept. 18, 2009 journal entry.
Five days had passed since Kanye West crashed Swift’s Video of the Year acceptance speech at the MTV Video Music Awards, but the whole ordeal was all she — and everyone else — could think about.
“If you had told me that one of the biggest stars in music was going to jump up onstage and announce that he thought I shouldn’t have won on live television, I would’ve said ‘That stuff doesn’t really happen in real life,’” she wrote.
“Well… apparently…. It does,” she ended the note.
Little did 19-year-old Swift know that West would cause more tumult in her life seven years later. In an August 2016 note, she simply wrote, “This summer is the apocalypse.”
The “apocalyptic” summer came when West referred to the singer as “that bitch”in his track “Famous” and featured a nude version of the “Shake It Off” singer in its accompanying video.
Then, Swift said she never approved of the lyric after his wife Kim Kardashianleaked a phone call conversation between the two singers.
“Being falsely painted as a liar when I was never given the full story or played any part of the song is character assassination,” she wrote then. That “Cruel Summer” ordeal would go on to inspire her sixth album, reputation.
Photo: SPLASH NEWS
A Joe Alwyn “Love Story”
Like in Lover’s lyrics, Swift doesn’t hold back about her deep feelings for boyfriend Joe Alwyn in her personal diary.
Clearly writing about Alwyn, the singer confessed about wanting to keep their relationship under wraps as much as possible.
“I’m essentially based in London, hiding out trying to protect us from the nasty world that just wants to ruin things,” she wrote in a January 2017 note. “We have been together and no one has found out for 3 months now. I want it to stay that way because I don’t want anything about this to change or become too complicated or intruded upon.”
“But it’s senseless to worry about someday not being happy when I am happy now,” she concluded. “OK. Breathe.”
But Swift wasn’t always so sure about love being real — especially when it came to Valentine’s Day.
“I somehow feel like it’s my destiny to roll my eyes at happy couples and resent Valentine’s Day. I also feel like I’m the girl before ‘the one.’ I’m not ‘the one,’” she wrote at 19. “I’m the girl you think is the one for you, and when it doesn’t work out with me, you meet the next girl and realize she IS the one.”
And as a mere 13 year old, she imagined the first time she’d have her first kiss — and about being “such a romantic.”
“I just dream about looking into someone’s eyes and feeling something I’ve never felt before, you know?” she wrote. “I just never was able to put a face to my fantacy [sic]. But something tells me that my first kiss is really far away from happening!”
Photo: LARRY BUSACCA/WIREIMAGE
The Night Before...
Before the 2014 Grammy Awards, Swift was confident her album Red would take home the biggest award of the night.
“It’s the middle of the night and I was at the Clive Davis party tonight which means… the Grammys are tomorrow,” she wrote. “Never have I felt so good about our chances. Never have I wanted something so badly as I want to hear them say ‘Red’ is the Album of the Year.”
Though she was up for four awards that year, Swift would head home empty handed.
Though she had won that award two years prior with Fearless, it wouldn’t be until her 2014 album 1989 that she’d take home the coveted prize again. In her 13-year career, Swift has won 10 Grammys from 32 nominations.
Photo: MICHAEL LOCCISANO/FILMMAGIC
“This Might Be Worth Money Someday”
Though her diary entries are filled with some insight into the more complicated times in her life, the entries also feature some cute memories of her youth — including her middle school class schedule, some song lyrics and memories about listening to Sugarland for the first time.
Accompanied by drawings and the number 13, in her first journal entry, she signs her name and writes “(That could be worth money someday!! Just kidding hehe).”
Under “Journal #1,” a 13-year-old Swift writes a poem: “The world is as big as you make it / Never be shameful to fly / When a chance comes you should take it / May you never be scared of goodbye…”
After performing at a school talent show, Swift wrote: “I ❤ SCHOOL!”
Reminiscing on the grand day, Swift wrote, “I got a standing ovation and everything.”
Get out the tissues. Taylor Swift's seventh album, Lover, is out now and amid all the romantic songs and personal…
Everything to know about Taylor Swift's emotional collaboration with the Dixie Chicks
By Lauren Huff
August 23, 2019
Taylor Swift‘s seventh album, Lover, is out now and amid all the romantic songs and personal anecdotes one would expect from the singer, there’s one song in particular that could be her saddest yet: “Soon You’ll Get Better.”
The track, which features the Dixie Chicks, is a deeply emotional get-well-soon ode to Swift’s mother, Andrea, who is battling cancer. Despite her penchant for sharing details of her personal life in her music, “Soon You’ll Get Better” is the most the singer has ever said on the topic of her mom’s illness.
The song is so emotional for Swift, in fact, that according to the lucky fans who attended the album’s secret session listening parties held at the singer’s various homes in July, Swift had to leave the room when the song played. Several attendees reported that they cried during the track.
“The buttons of my coat were tangled in my hair. In doctor’s office lighting, I didn’t tell you I was scared,” she sings. “That was the first time we were there. Holy orange bottles, each night, I pray to you. Desperate people find faith, so now I pray to Jesus too.”
Later in the song, she asks, “And I hate to make this all about me, but who am I supposed to talk to? What am I supposed to do, if there’s no you?”
During a YouTube Originals livestream on Thursday to celebrate the release of Lover, Swift revealed that the song was one of the most difficult for her to write. The singer said it was “a family decision” about whether to put it on the album. “We as a family decided to put this on the album, and it’s something that I am so proud of,” she said.
The pop sensation first revealed that her mom’s cancer had returned in a personal essay for Elle back in March. “I’ve had to learn how to handle serious illness in my family. Both of my parents have had cancer, and my mom is now fighting her battle with it again,” she wrote. “It’s taught me that there are real problems and then there’s everything else. My mom’s cancer is a real problem. I used to be so anxious about daily ups and downs. I give all of my worry, stress, and prayers to real problems now.”
And although the subject matter of the song was not known until recently, eagle-eyed Swifties first predicted a Dixie Chicks collaboration when Swift released her music video for her first single, “ME!,” and it showed a framed portrait of the country trio in the background of one of the beginning scenes. The band stoked the fire when they tweeted a cryptic message following the video’s release. And, in her Easter egg-filled cover shoot for EW in May, Swift wore a Dixie Chicks pin on her jacket.
Swift told EW earlier this year that the group served as an inspiration to her. “The Dixie Chicks were making such interesting music and doing it in such an unapologetically feminine, imaginative way. I was very inspired by the album Fly and the aesthetics, because it was very clear they had really put a lot into the artwork,” she said. “And so it got my brain thinking bigger in terms of, you know, you make an album, but then you can choose an entire look and color palette and aesthetic and symbolism and imagery and backstories — that you can really make an album even more of an experience if you so choose.”
This isn’t the first time Swift has released a song about her mother. On her second album, Fearless, the song “The Best Day” tells the story about how her mom has always been there for her. Like “Soon You’ll Get Better” on Lover, “The Best Day” is Fearless‘ 12th track.
