From 'The 1' to 'Cornelia Street': Here are Taylor Swift breakup songs to help you grieve a failed relationship
Taylor Swift has a breakup song for just about every occasion—happy, sad, ambivalent, what have you.
With over 200 tracks to her name, the Grammy winner has naturally penned scores of tearjerking hits with various tones well suited to the nuances of each romantic separation.
She drew inspiration from her list of past relationships, including with Jake Gyllenhaal and Taylor Lautner.
On Sunday, April 9, multiple media outfits in the United States reported the split of Taylor and Joe Alwyn after dating for six years. According to an insider, it was "amicable," "not dramatic," and "had just run its course."
We're still here, hoping the rumors are not true. For now, here are seven breakup-themed standouts from Taylor's entire discography that both Swifties and casual fans can enjoy.
All Too Well (10-Minute Version) — Red (Taylor’s Version)
Originally released as part of Taylor's album Red in 2012, All Too Well's 10-minute rerecording a decade later was accompanied by a short film that won an MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year and a Grammy Award for Best Music Video. The song's persona recalls a toxic relationship where they ignored their significant other's red flags, tolerating their problematic (if not abusive) behavior for the sake of preserving their deteriorating connection.
Getaway Car — Reputation
Getaway Car is a metaphor that the song's narrator uses to describe a fleeting, short-lived relationship. They enter it only as an escape vehicle to leave another unwanted relationship, which they quickly realize as the current one fails.
Out Of The Woods — 1989
Although the song itself is clear with its lyrics about the anxiety that comes with a failed relationship, the official music video's outro makes its inspirational message clear: "She lost him but she found herself, and somehow that was everything."
Clean — 1989
Taylor wrote the last 1989 track upon realizing that she was finally over an ex-boyfriend whom she didn't realize was in the same city as her for a couple of weeks: "It’s this mental, physical, emotional ache and feeling so conflicted. Nothing distracts you from it. Then time passes, and the more you live your life and create new habits, you get used to not having a text message every morning saying, ‘Hello, beautiful. Good morning.’ You get used to not calling someone at night to tell them how your day was.”
Cornelia Street — Lover
Cornelia Street is the place we associate with breakups, some of which leave us so broken that we are unwilling to visit the same location ever again out of reviving unsolicited memories. "It’s about the things that took place and the memories that took place on that street…all the nostalgia... Sometimes we bond our memories to the places where they happen. I wrote it alone and it ended up being one of my favorite songs," Taylor explained.
The 1 — Folklore
The opening Folklore track has Taylor relating a toned-down reaction to losing The 1. Full of restraint, the song's persona shows at once regret and acceptance of what could have been.
Closure — Evermore
Taylor said in her Apple Music Awards 2020 interview that closure is one of the overarching themes in Evermore, which "deals a lot in endings of all sorts, shapes, and sizes, all the kinds of ways we can end a relationship, a friendship, something toxic, and the pain that goes along with that." In this case, Closure is the straightforward acceptance that not all our relationships are meant to have an amicable ending.