Day 72: Aye Aye Know Places

Taylor Swift's 2014 album 1989 shines for many reasons, but perhaps it's best quality is it's variety. The songs all sound extremely distinct from each other, more than any other album. This makes it the easiest album to listen to in completion in my opinion, since it really never gets boring even after many listens. One track in particular, I Know Places, shines in my eyes due to the variety within the song.

But before I dive in I want to give a huge shoutout to Google for it's lyric feature. It really makes sure to include the important stuff.

Yes, they include every single time that Taylor says "I" in the background, which according to Google is well over 100 instances. I didn't bother checking that because my time is very valuable, I'll just take their word on this one. However, I am personally very disappointed that nobody has even considered that she's actually trying to say "aye". I believe that Taylor's true intention with this song was to write the sickest pirate jam of all time.

"Lights flash and we'll run for the fences
Let them say what they want, we won't hear it
Loose lips sink ships all the damn time
Not this time"

Sinking ships? Holy cow, my pirate theory might actually be correct! Okay, that's enough pirate talk for now you scallywags, let's actually start talking about this song.

So this song is about Taylor and her lover "coming out" to the public and how difficult it is to maintain a healthy relationship while in the public eye. Taylor's solution is just to stay out of that eye altogether! 

"Cause they got the cages, they got the boxes
And guns
They are the hunters, we arrr are the foxes
And we run"

Oh so you're foxes now too? What, are you furries and pirates?

Oh dear.

Um, anyways I actually think this line isn't half bad, although I could do without it being repeated later in the song. One detail I love is how Taylor emphasizes "and guns". I'm not sure if it was intentional but it reminds you that celebrities have to worry about being literally shot with actual guns on a daily basis. It adds a little weight to the music while being sneaky enough not to distract from the song or slow it down.

"Something happens when everybody finds out
See the parrots vultures circling dark clouds
Love's a fragile little flame, it could burn out
It could burn out"

This song does something you don't see often in a pop song; it builds tension. This song sets Taylor's relationship on a precipice where you feel as if it could collapse at any moment. From a narrative perspective this is song has a lot of strengths. It sets up a conflict, proposes a solution, and the rest of the song is the Taylor Swift song equivalent of an action sequence. 

"They take their shots, but we're cannonproof bulletproof
I know places
And you know for me, it's always you
I know places
In the dead of night, your eyes so green
I know places
And I know for you, it's always me
I know places"

I've wanted to look at this section in particular for a while now because it does something very interesting. Like I said earlier, this song is full of variety and really delivers in this section. First I want to say it's undoubtedly a very "1989" song, but the lyrics are reminiscent of Taylor's earlier works and remind me a lot of both Red and Speak Now in that they are pretty sappy (in a good way). The darker themes and background music, meanwhile, remind me a lot of Reputation. This one tiny section, only 25 seconds long, takes the strongest elements from 8 years of music, some of which hasn't even been written yet. That's right, Taylor Swift is so good at songwriting that she breaks the rules of time itself. Nice. But yeah on paper I would expect that to end up being a mess but the elements taken are mixed together well and form a very cohesive piece of music that I enjoy a lot, even if it is about pirates.

See you tomorrow,

-C