09/07/2026: "Bejeweled"
I need to make this quick cause it's late and I have dishes to do
My history with this song:
nothing specific
Thoughts:
"Bejeweled" is a crisp, sparkly ode to self-confidence, specifically the kind of confidence that tends to appear when someone else is trying to put you down. Dappled with bright synths, it's the Midnights track whose production most perfectly captures its imagery, in my opinion (along with "Midnight Rain" and perhaps "Mastermind").
Like "Midnight Rain", "Bejeweled" presents Taylor's career as opposed to the pursuit of love: "And when I meet the band / They ask 'Do you have a man?' / I can still say 'I don't remember.'" But in this song, Taylor feels driven to this reprioritization due to the neglect by her partner instead of her innate ambition. That being said, "Bejeweled" is also about putting yourself out there and gaining much needed romantic/sexual attention – a type of moving on: "Sapphire tears on my face, sadness / Became my whole sky / But some guy said my aura's moonstone / Just 'cause he was high."
The focus on weaponized aesthetics is an interesting motif the track shares with the previous one ("Vigilante Shit"), though the focus and vibe is completely different.
"Putting someone first only works when you're in their top five" is quite directly a philosophy of love and a continuation of Taylor's recurring habit of framing love in quasi moral terms.
Favourite lyric: "I polish up real nice" just a neat image-matching phrase
Favourite melodic line: I looooove the rhythm of this bit of the chorus: "Familiarity breeds contempt / Don't put-me-in-the-basement / When-I-want-the pent! house! of your! heart!" also how the next bit is off-beat. Taylor's rhythmic flow is highly underrated.
Favourite production element: the higher backing vocals in the last chorus
