Taylor Swift's Red, Daylight, & invisible string : a Perfect Love Journey

 

RED, Lover, folklore album photoshoots

More than a decade, Taylor Swift has become the music industry icon. Who doesn't know her? Literally one of the most productive talented performer, gifted songwriter, and amazing female figure this generation (and perhaps next..?) ever known. Not just one or two album, but almost every album and singles she delivered, received good or even booming responses from the world. Personally for me, I've been listening to her songs since junior school, yeah we practically grew up with her music! And how vary and relatable her songs are, kind of make them widely enjoyed by many people.

Not a stranger to the love story theme (no puns intended for Love Story!😉), I find her song lyrics are always genuine (coming from the heart) and also detailed but still somehow beautifully written like a poetry. Yes it might be because some of them were experienced by herself. But I always admire on how open she expressed them and shared into poetic stories. And if you listen to her latest albums (say folklore and evermore), I bet you will find new words to learn and add into your vocabs! 😆 

Since Taylor wrote her own songs, we can always find similar feelings or words that might seem related one another, in the same album or even crossed ones. And honestly? I feel that it isn't just me who grew up with her songs, but also Taylor herself becoming wiser thus we can see that she's feeling more content lately, which is nice obviously!

Talking about her related songs, it's just snapped to me that these 3 love songs (in each different album) are exactly how it meant to be as a love journey most people have. Brace yourself, you sing you lose ..

RED  - the Young, Dumb, Naive, Miserable era

Here it is, that intense feeling everyone has when falling in love, especially in young age. In this song, Taylor mentioned that falling for someone deeply, wildly, passionately, is just like a burning fire within, red as its signature color. On how you can love someone just as fast as driving new Maserati only to find a dead end. Sounds naive? Maybe. But that's just how young love burning us. Us be damned if we ever give a second thought for these youth sparks.

And, (not so) spoiler alert, what happened when that burning love end? Yeah, we became miserable and suddenly every color or our surrounding either agree to our sadness, or mocking our misery.

"Losing him was blue like I'd never known

Missing him was dark gray, all alone

Forgetting him was like tryin' know somebody you never met"

And.. don't start with the 'I see you everywhere I go' things, because guess what? It sucks to move on, right?

"Remembering him comes in flashbacks and echoes

Tell myself, "It's time now, gotta let go"

But moving on from him is impossible

When I still see it all in my head 

In burning red"

Nice Tay. I wish I actually learnt from Red before allowing myself a heartbreak😬 Aside from Red, actually this whole album smells like a grown woman fresh from heartbreaks and at the edge of starting over again. Honorable mentions: All Too Well, I Knew You Were Trouble, We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together, The Last Time, and Begin Again.

DAYLIGHT - the Open Up 'This is Me' era

I will not go further details on how we might face and fight several heartbreaks because to be honest, you have tons of recommended songs in Taylor's (whichever) albums for this condition. But once you've learned your lessons on falling for people you can't have someone unfit to you, you'll be more selective and especially happier when the actual right person finally coming into your life. We all know that this Lover album was a celebration of love and might be dedicated for Joe Alwyn, but I can not agree more on how sweet and colorful feelings Lover hold.

One song in particular was a late bloom for me: Daylight. As the final song, Daylight tells a story of a person struggling from the failed previous romances, only to find the 'daylight' when she/he finally meet the right one.

"My love was as cruel as the cities I lived in

Everyone looked worse in the light

There are so many lines that I've crossed unforgiven

I'll tell you the truth, but never goodbye"

It's certainly not the time to you only live once vibes do the same mistakes. In order to find the 'right person', you can't just shy away or close it, but instead open up and be brave. Lay bare of the past, trying to see if the new lover does not run away from us. Hence the 'telling the truth but never goodbye'. Because yes, I am not all rainbows and sunshine, I might did unspeakable things in the past, broke myself again and again, but now I learn, now I offer myself, we can start again but only if you'll have me, and we can learn to grow together. Then eventually you will find true love even in the darkest times of your life.

"I don't wanna look at anything else now that I saw you

I don't wanna think of anything else now that I thought of you

I've been sleeping so long in a 20-year dark night

And now I see daylight, I only see daylight"

Because just like a morning glow, the realization of finally meet 'the one' feels like a fresh day. Suddenly all of the things you felt for someone different in the past, doesn't matter anymore. They were the past. And now my future is here. It's calling and I will answer.

"I once believed love would be (Burning red)

But it's golden

Like daylight, like daylight"

It's clear as a day, that this song is an answer to the iconic Red which Taylor performed nearly 7 years prior.

Honorable mentions, songs with the same ambience from the album: Lover and Cornelia Street.

invisible string - the Wiser 'Fate Brought Us Here' era

At last, the loveliest track in the surprising album, folklore (and yes folklore was a joyful and excellent surprise in the middle of early pandemic?? helloo😻), has arrived. Despite the dark, honest theme of folklore, invisible string is a crisp air that just sounds magical and taste like a bubble gum. Just like Red and Daylight, invisible string bring signature colors in its lyric.

The 4-minutes song tells a story of how everything everyone laced together in some unique way that actually make sense for us today.

"Time, curious time

Gave me no compasses, gave me no signs

Were there clues I didn't see?

Time, mystical time

Cutting me open, then healing me fine"

This is the story of how a person, now sitting peacefully, reminiscing all passed events in her/his life, all the sweet bitter days, were indeed should be experienced in order to make her/him who she/he is today.

"A string that pulled me

Out of all the wrong arms, right into that dive bar

Something wrapped all of my past mistakes in barbed wire

Chains around my demons

Wool to brave the seasons

One single thread of gold

Tied me to you"

This is how you finally let things go. And could forgive others even yourself. This is how you finally can see it. All those splintered roads and beaten hearts, lead you home. Make us, us. You'll become wiser and more likely understand how the things the way they were.

"Hell was the journey but it brought me heaven

Time, wondrous time

Gave me the blues and then purple-pink skies

...

And isn't it just so pretty to think

All along there was some

Invisible string

Tying you to me?"

And at the end of the day, you just chuckled to yourself, damn did I really endure everything just like that? Surviving the heartbreaks, fighting of rejects, healing from any wound anyone gave. And yet you finally, finally, can be at peace with those memories, with your old self.

And you laid your eyes on that right person. It was totally worth it.

Honorable mentions for other folklore tracks in same tone: the 1 and cardigan.

Over all, this journey is how I always picture of the perfect story about love. It might not always work for every person. Sometimes we are blessed to get only the 'Daylight' without feeling 'Red'. Sometimes  it seems that we stuck on 'Red' over and over, imagining 'invisible string' feels like a million times away. Nevertheless, whatever stage we are on now, hang in there. Remember, this pain wouldn't be for evermore..