Not Suitable for Ex Boyfriends: The Afterglow
A Tswift inspired post, but not Tswift dominated.
It is almost exactly one week before Taylor Swift’s new album, “The Tortured Poets Department”, comes out. In typical Taylor fashion, she has used this album to draw her Swifties, old and new, back in with existing content to get us excited about the forthcoming album. She worked with Apple Music to create five playlists based on themes that also appear in the new album. Each playlist starts with a voice note from Taylor explaining how the various songs relate to each other.
As a woman with many feelings, and a once boy-crazy high schooler, Taylor really speaks to my soul. Can you guess which Michnoff girl this is speaking?!* There are so many songs she has written that remind me of moments in past relationships. Mean reminds me of the time my high school boyfriend laughed at the list of colleges I was apply to, implying I couldn’t get into any of them. Dear John reminds me of the first time my college boyfriend and I broke up because I felt so blind-sided. You’re Losing Me reminds me of how I felt at the very end of my most recent relationship, and I can’t tell you how many people sent me this song saying “this is for you”.
The “Am I Allowed to Cry” playlist is about bargaining. Taylor says there can be a stage in (the wrong) relationships where you make deals with yourself or someone you care about to try and make things better. You’re feeling so desperate to hold onto the relationship, but grappling with a gut intuition that things are not going to go the way you hope. A road trip to Philly and NJ this past weekend allowed me to listen to each playlist and really think about them.