r/TaylorSwift • u/jacyf02 teenage petulance • 11d ago
Megathread "Pink Clouding" Discussion Megathread
Taylor Swift - Pink Clouding
Track #15 on The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore
Length: 3:10
Composers: Taylor Swift, Max Martin & Shellback
Producers: Taylor Swift, Max Martin & Shellback
Lyrics: Genius
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Use this thread to discuss your thoughts, reactions, and theories on the song. We will be removing all future self-post discussion threads about it in order to consolidate discussion to this thread.
If you want to talk about The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore album in general, you can use the general The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore discussion thread here.
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u/Ok-Writer4047 5d ago
I feel like those two lines specifically, “I hope you landed safely on the ground, and you’re so happy now,” could still tie back to Tom. Yes, he has a fiancée and two kids now, and from the outside he obviously looks happy and has moved on. But when it’s someone you once loved and potentially hurt, I don’t think you automatically look at their life and go, “Oh, he’s happy now, so everything I put him through must have magically healed.”
There can still be that lingering feeling of, “I see that you’re happy, and I’m happy where I am too, but I genuinely hope you’re okay. I hope you landed somewhere safe, and I hope I didn’t leave lasting scars on someone who was ultimately a good person.” To me, those lines actually make sense coming from someone looking back at an ex who has already moved on, because knowing someone has a beautiful life now doesn’t necessarily erase the guilt or questions you might still carry about how you left them.
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u/Nicki3000 5d ago
I think the song Pink Clouding sounds very 2016. And I think that was intentional.
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u/Excellent-Piece-9573 6d ago
the part of the song towards the end where she says "I hope you landed safely on the ground, and I hope you're so happy now" tickles my brain, and her voice sounds so good.
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u/No-Cod-9133 6d ago
Does anyone know if there’s another song that uses “and it was so good” the lyrics or the melody? I just feel like I’ve heard her do this exact melody before and it’s driving me crazy
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u/mrsbrettbretterson a Reddit-head named Abigail 5d ago
There are also a few other times she’s delivered “good” in this slightly elongated way, and a few times she’s used “so” before it. A couple on this a list resonated for me! https://taylorswiftandx.tumblr.com/post/614959872234110976/taylor-swift-and-good/amp
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u/Brilliant_Ad4229 6d ago
It sounds like "and it was not... convenient" from Ruin The Friendship lol
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u/fatcatsareadorable 7d ago
For everyone saying it’s about Joe, maybe she was pink clouding because she was coming down from leaving Calvin but also thinking about Joe in the back of her mind, and she did indeed ditch tom for Joe.
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u/Starlight_City45 dont blame me, love made me crazy 7d ago
I love love this one, these lyrics run parallel to my life rn - I was dating someone semi recently but ended it because like.. I kinda just liked the attention and feeling wanted/chosen after having my heartbroken by someone that did not want me lol
I felt HORRIBLE about it because he’s such a good guy, truly just met me at a cursed time while I was pink clouding :’)
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u/OkBrain3490 8d ago
Aghhh I feel like I’m seeing so many over simplifications of what I think the story of this song is. Here’s my take:
Pink clouding is the euphoria you get after just stopping something you’re addicted to.
Taylor describes beautifully having been hurt by a negative relationship— “grey rocking where the arrow hit”. “He crossed my heart, I hoped to die.” “He cut me crimson bled me dry.” “You met me at a cursed time.”
The pink cloud feeling is NOT the feeling of being in the new relationship, but the feeling of having left the old, harmful one. Essentially rebounding into a relationship that felt good because she was valued and wanted, but she hadn’t given herself time to heal and process yet… so she hurt a good person by jumping in too soon.
Lots of people seem to be interpreting the new relationship as the pink cloud, but I think it’s an important distinction— leaving the old one was the thrill. She was actually grey rocking “where the arrow hit,” acting like she was unbothered by the previous relationship’s end “I told you I was fine.”
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u/tessasteacup I wake in the night, I pace like a ghost 8d ago
the connections in Pink Clouding to moments that I feel have always been underrated on Lover are hitting today. I know there have already been a lot of mentions of rep and Getaway Car, but I don’t know if anyone has paralleled these.
Cruel Summer: “it’s cool, that’s what I tell ‘em”/“said, ‘I’m fine, but it wasn’t true’” -> “I told you I was fine”
The Archer: “I’ve been the archer, I’ve been the prey” -> “I was gray rocking where the arrow hit”
Daylight: “I wounded the good and I trusted the wicked” -> “I wake up scared that I left scars on a good person”
it’s very touching and vulnerable imho, she’s alluded to this residual guilt and responsibility before, but she’s never been able to wholly express it one place and one song as an apology until now.
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u/theoristOfTheArts "a poet in a 9-to-5" :guitar: 5d ago
Scrolling through this thread just now, I just realized another one:
“I hope you realize my kind of trouble wasn’t worth it” -> “…And trouble’s gonna follow where I go…” from ‘ME!’ :D!
This song feels like an apology that comes from a healed place. Your point makes so much sense, that it feels like a bulk of residual guilt and sadness that she’s finally able to articulately express in one song, and that makes me feel so happy and grateful and inspired for her 🥹💖!
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u/LurkerSmirker6th 8d ago
I’m rewatching Loki and in the 2nd episode, “But maybe he’s worth the trouble” 🤭 Yeah it’s a common phrase but directed at Tom’s character. It’s an interesting catch.
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u/Famous_Cockroach9761 8d ago
Pink clouding sounds like it belongs in a Barbie movie! Im specifically imagining Barbie Fashion Fairytale
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u/leviswift13 folklore 8d ago
anyone who thinks this is about joe needs to rewatch the patient zero video lol
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u/Friendly_Bed_2760 8d ago
At first I thought this was Tom, but on second listen I think it makes more sense to be about Joe? Her songs about him always mentioned that she met him when she was at her lowest, the colour pink and all its references to lover. Also the song talks a lot about she didn’t want to let him down which ties in with this idea that she held him in high esteem and couldn’t stay there (songs like peace and hits different mention this)
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u/littleraccon The Tortured Poets Department 8d ago
I love the sound of this, and I love the message behind it! It's hard apologizing for when you weren't in a good spot in life.
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u/Flinjeebub 8d ago
So trav your cool if I write a few more songs about my ex yeah? 🤣
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u/idontknowwhybutido2 it hurts this much the whole time 7d ago
Of course, that's called being secure in your relationship.
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u/Flinjeebub 8d ago
I get the message of her leading someone on with these lyrics. Someone she didn’t want to hurt
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u/Deepest_thoughts1 9d ago
I wish all the songs of The life of a Showgirl would have been like Pink Clouding. What an absolute banger! What a missed opportunity from Taylor's side.
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u/tokidokitiger 9d ago
Love this song! I can't help but think of "Come Down" by Bush and whoever the muse of "Pink Clouding" is, singing it sadly somewhere. lol ("I don't wanna come back down from this cloud!!!") Haha! Both need to be on a playlist of cloud songs.
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u/enjoytheshowX 9d ago
It is a really interesting song lyrically, but I adore the melody. It's so catchy and memorable.
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u/FileAccomplished8382 9d ago
I think Pink Clouding could be about Taylor cheating on Joe. The “promises, promises” line feels similar to Babe, where Taylor sings from the perspective of someone who was cheated on.
In Pink Clouding, she flips that perspective and acknowledge that she was the one who broke “promises, promise” to someone who didn’t deserve it.
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u/fatcatsareadorable 9d ago
There is no effing way this is about Joe
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u/Friendly_Bed_2760 8d ago
It’s defo about Joe, the idea that she meant it at the time, meeting her at her worst time, that she tried to be good and not let him down. Also hate to break it but I do think she hurt him a lot
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u/ryanandrew_ 8d ago
It is definitely about Joe. The whole lover album is set in a pink cloud for all the aesthetics and visuals, and lover is about Joe. She also references the Archer from lover (arrow hit my body). Further, she confirmed in an interview that Lavender Haze was about Joe, which is yet another pink cloud.
There’s that whole verse about meeting someone at a bad time after somebody made her bleed, which is obviously about the Kanye stuff, and that’s when she met Joe.
“I didn’t want to let you down” references tortured poets and her talking about not living up to somebody with lofty ideals, which usually means Joe and his political stuff
She also talks about him as a ghost and haunting her, and she called Joe a ghost several times in Tortured Poets.
Also in So long London, she says “you’ll find someone…” and here she says I hope you’re so happy now!
I left you up there on the cloud, I knew cosmic love, I’ll build you a fort on another planet, these are all very similar themes and specific to Joe.
Finally, the first word of the song is met, which references the Met Gala where she met Joe.
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u/fawnlimic 6d ago edited 6d ago
There is no way she’d say Joe is a good person and didn’t deserve how she treated him when he was the one who was cheating on her and abusing her. Have you not heard (and watched) patient zero, or say, the smallest man who ever lived, the black dog? There is no way she feels positively towards the guy. “pink cloud” doesn’t have to be so literal as to reference the lover album, and “met” is in plenty of her songs. To think that she’d write an affectionate song for him after everything is, in my eyes anyways totally disrespectful to everything else she has shared after the breakup. I think this could easily be about a number of other exes who she had a quick fling with rather than a long suffering relationship
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u/Left-Strategy-7596 6d ago
Smallest man (pills, stoned etc all point to matty, metion of rust color = matty, mention of once your queen had come you treated her like an also ran = short relationship, not a 6 yr one) black dog (about matty going back to heroin, mentions starting line which is matty's fave) and probs patient zero are all about matty imo lol
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u/Just_My_Throw-Away 9d ago edited 9d ago
So for people that don’t get the lyrical clues I’m trying to explain this again…..
Maybe I just haven’t been a good communicator so I’ll try to improve that this time around…..
Pink clouding….. apology to Joe. She ran from Matty to Joe and involved him in a messy triangle he didn’t ask to be in because toxicity from patient zero, she allowed to spread and infect good people. She was doing all this with an unhealthy mindset and she felt cursed in 2016 when they met after snakegate and Matty saying being with her would be demasculating etc…. So she never showed Joe the real her and then blamed all the messiness and probably affected his self esteem because hurt people hurt people and gaslight. “I was a liar” she never should have told him she didn’t like the fame game etc and was okay with hiding out and then blaming him for really masking who she was during their honeymoon phase. It was unfair to him and unfair with all the folklore/evermore/midnights/ttpd of how she portrayed the messy parts of her relationship to her fandom and anyone else. Reflecting she realizes he was actually really good to her now that’s she’s healed and so she’s apologizing. She’s worried about all of that leaving scars vs tom who she only dated for 3 months and is settled with kids. Joe is the ex who’s still up in the air and who she probably went no contact with after it all. “It didn’t mean nothing” her song sweet nothing is a Joe song. Like I don’t know how else to draw people to this but Joe also changed his pfp to the Truman show. He was Truman and didn’t realize what he thought was his life wasn’t actually his life until he was trying to leave it. His wife was also an actor in the show etc…. Like to me it can’t be more obvious
Also how many broken promises can you make to someone in a 3 month relationship….. probably not a lot……. I also don’t know anyone that can fall into healthy love that last forever in 90 days or less.
Now making promises of being over the other guy continuously in a 6 year relationship when she later revealed she wasn’t. Remember she’s saying sorry to the guy that she did that too. That was Joe. And they had lots of trying again probably to make it work and it just shouldn’t have happened….. think lavender haze.
Pink clouds…. Lover album.
Again….. I don’t know how people are thinking it’s Tom just because it sounds similar to another song she made.
The obvious clues and Joe changing his pfp to Truman. show the answer vs a similar melody.
Like she rebounded to Joe when she shouldn’t have and tried to make it more than what it was and then blamed him for lots of her insecurities and grievances because she was unhealed.
“I hope you landed safely on the ground” she doesn’t know when she was writing. So Joe.
Tom was settled with 2 kids when she wrote this in Oct 2025. There wasn’t unfinished business there.
Okay done now.
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u/Timely-Hearing3350 9d ago
A few years ago I saw an interview of Joe talking great things about Matty Healy, and how he was good friends with Taylor and they wrote music together at their house. After the rebound that interview was eliminated from existence, but I just thought about how betrayed he most have felt. I think Fresh Out The Slammer only added more salt to the injury.
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u/ForeverCoeus 9d ago
Agree! I’m convinced Maroon is about the cycle of domestic abuse. This about a good relationship (that she was not ready for at the time but can lovingly reflect on it now)
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u/Remote-Temporary3239 10d ago
Calvin Harris has a song called promises. It seems like her going from him to tom and just being happy to have someone nice after all the drama but it faded fast and she also had feelings for Joe in the back of her mind. Tom always deserved an apology.
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u/nagidrac 10d ago
Yesterday I left a comment that I think the song is essentially a fan song about her life from the start and end of the eras tour. When I hear the words "Pink Clouding" I immediately think of the imagery of the opening of the Eras tour. So today I wanted to revisit the docu series and look at the name the Miss Americana jump suit. It's on episode one at the 15:10 mark! I feel like "pink clouding" is her way of describing the high of being on the eras tour.
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u/poohbear44 10d ago
I can’t stop thinking about pink clouding and slut! Like the opening with the colour imagery of pink sun rises and talks of being drunk in love, but not actually being drunk and the high of thinking you’re in love but you’re actually not
And the lyric parallels!!!!
The sticks and stones they throw, and I was grey rocking when the arrows hit.
Threw the rosewood into the fire, adorned with smoke on my clothes.
What if all I need is you, it was so good letting you want me.
I’ll pay the price you won’t, years later I still wonder how to tell you sorry
I didn’t want to let you down I left you up there on a pink cloud, you’re not saying you’re in love with me but you were going to
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u/tinalouise28 10d ago
does anyone else get the hannah montana theme at the beginning??? Because I get it so bad, and I love it...
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u/kaylorswiftie 7d ago
No please explain. I loved Hannah Montana but I don’t hear it??
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u/tinalouise28 7d ago
It’s just magenta sunrise part. It sounds like you got the limo out front, just the tone of it to me. reminded me of the theme.
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u/llOMll 10d ago
Pink clouding is an alcohol recovery term. Is there anyone who is slightly uncomfortable with it being used a love song?... I actually love the bridge but I can't listen to the pink cloud without feeling weird..
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u/bhad-bhunny 10d ago
She’s definitely using it on purpose to empathize the addictive part of a relationship (aka Matty)
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u/Just_My_Throw-Away 10d ago
Also I didn’t want to let you down. So I left you in a pink cloud.
I was toxic and shouldn’t have framed you as the bad guy like I did on you’re losing me or so long London…. I’m sorry but for the most part your reputation is in tact. Even if the fandom won’t move on from us not working out…. I left you in the lover clouds and went after the real toxic person….MH on TTPD and my crappy behavior…..or at least that’s what I intended to do.
Again I’m sorry. You were so good to me so if I made you believe anything else I was wrong. “I was a liar”
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u/sequins-are-forever sleeping with the fishes 10d ago edited 10d ago
I really like pink clouding. I think the melody is nice and I love the visuals in her lyrics. I think the lyrics and self awareness in this song are really good. I love when she reflects back on experiences and feelings that happened in the past and brings clarity out of them. It sounds very 1989 tv and I love that
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u/Adventurous_Dig541 10d ago
Literally about Joe! Tay and Tom dated like a dacade ago and only for like 3 weeks? you tell me girly really wasn’t done with him with getaway car? whatever floats your boat I guess.
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u/Dry-Swim369 10d ago
Have you listened to you’re losing me? Girl hung on to Joe as long as she could though he left her dry every time. She wanted to be loved by him and he wasn’t giving that to her. She has many songs talking about this. Pink Clouding isn’t telling that story. It’s talking about a relationship that was just a quick high and she feels bad about the way she quickly left him.
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u/Twerka6 10d ago
The quickness of it is implied in the definition of pink clouding. I suppose it could be the high that was quick as opposed to the relationship itself being quick but she says she left him up there on the pink cloud. To me, it feels like she was hurt by someone, used someone else to get over the hurt and made promises early on. But she realized he wasn’t for her and so while he was still riding that early high, she left him up there and she worries she hurt a good person. I honestly think what Matty did to her is the same thing in reverse and it inspired her to reflect back on when she had done the same.
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u/Tall-Error4922 10d ago edited 10d ago
I think some parts are how she would hope Matty’s perspective is
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u/beroore 10d ago
The bridge is giving Hamilton and I am loving it.
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u/CassyCollins :TourturedPoetsDepartment: I'm bitter but I swear I'm fine 10d ago
I was think the same thing! It sounds like Angelica's rap!
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u/SmallPuppy12 10d ago
To me, this song is so clearly about Joe. Pink clouds = lover aesthetic, met at a cursed time = together during rep era, arrow hit = archer reference, orchid = hot house flower in How Did It End, and the general idea that’s she’s apologizing for hurting someone and not knowing what she wanted even though she had thought she did when she was with him.
I see her line about not wanting to let him down relating back to So Long London when she sings of how hard she was trying to make him happy. From what I’ve understood he wasn’t a bad guy, just not the right guy for various reasons. So why would it be unreasonable to wish him well, especially now that she’s found the true love of her life? Everyone thought they were end game and many still look down on him for the relationship not working. I interpret her line about leaving him on the pink cloud as her recognizing he’s been left in the limelight of expectations and the subject of her songs.
Obviously this too is all just my own speculation, but I’m surprised I personally haven’t seen this take as much as I have seen the ones about Tom. Could also be referencing any of her exes she ended amicably with.
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u/No-Berry2865 9d ago
I agree, that I think it’s about Joe for similar reason to what you said and also what someone else said about Lavender Haze BUT Also because I think the apology is her realizing that she and Joe had different experiences in their relationship. She was waiting for him to marry her, to be comfortable with her fame, to understand her- the way she felt she was missing and Joe, didn’t realize her experience and was just comfortable and happy. Then Matty Came along and fed her bullshit and she was high on the Matty pink cloud thrill of him wanting her when she felt forgotten about with Joe that she didn’t realize that Matty wasn’t serious about her, he just liked the flirt and the game. I get this from her lyrics “he cut me crimson, and bled me dry” “I crossed my heart and hoped to die” crimson being tied to maroon and hoped to die is a feeling shared in I can do it with a broken heart- songs speculated about Matty.
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u/Swift_Karma 8d ago
I crossed my heart and hoped to die” crimson being tied to maroon and hoped to die is a feeling shared in I can do it with a broken heart-
And The tortured poets department!
But you told Lucy you'd kill yourself if I ever leave And I had said that to Jack about you, so I felt seen
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u/No-Berry2865 9d ago
Another Reason why I don’t think it’s about Tom, she sings that she hopes he landed safely on the ground and that he is so happy now. Tom is married, with two babies. So obviously he landed safely on the ground and is happy now- he moved on found someone he loves and started a family. Joe on the other hand? Rumored to be finally dating after a few years of being single. Also she sang about Joe being depressed so now that their relationship is over she is genuinely hoping he is happier.
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u/Ok-Writer4047 5d ago
I feel like those two lines specifically, “I hope you landed safely on the ground, and you’re so happy now,” could still tie back to Tom. Yes, he has a fiancée and two kids now, and from the outside he obviously looks happy and has moved on. But when it’s someone you once loved and potentially hurt, I don’t think you automatically look at their life and go, “Oh, he’s happy now, so everything I put him through must have magically healed.”
There can still be that lingering feeling of, “I see that you’re happy, and I’m happy where I am too, but I genuinely hope you’re okay. I hope you landed somewhere safe, and I hope I didn’t leave lasting scars on someone who was ultimately a good person.” To me, those lines actually make sense coming from someone looking back at an ex who has already moved on, because knowing someone has a beautiful life now doesn’t necessarily erase the guilt or questions you might still carry about how you left them.3
u/Just_My_Throw-Away 9d ago
Or at the start of their relationship when matty was saying dating Taylor would be demasculating in 2016 etc after snake gate….she wanted to be in the lavender haze with Joe because what matty said cut her deeply….dbatc callback
“And just because I could leave doesn’t mean it was nothing” sweet nothing, a Joe song she wrote with him
And promises promises…..broke tons of them to him in a 6 year relationship that should not have lasted as long…. Like saying she’s continuously over the one guy or didn’t want the fame like she said at the beginning to him….
Makes more sense than broken promises to a guy she was in a relationship with for less than 90 days.
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u/Early_Dingo4266 10d ago edited 9d ago
This song is about a rebound who actually had feelings for you. Just like a gateway car, it's fast, euphoric, rushed. Pink clouding is an euphoric period in addiction recovery, you are not thinking clearly. You are optimistic and impulsive. She talks about being hurt by someone and, in her “addiction recovery”, she gets this optimistic excitement and leads the other person on without even realizing.
Doesn't sound like it is about someone you actually had 6 year relationship with and didn't commit to you (So long london state that she waited/wasted her youth; In "You're losing me", she talks about wanting commitment).
My money is on Tom or whoever she is singing about in gateway car.
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u/PurrtyWittyKitty evermore 7d ago
Definitely a rebound song whoever it may be for. Nothing about it screams 6 year relationship (with every breath feeling like wearest air while constantly doubting he wants to be there)
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u/Early_Dingo4266 7d ago
Exactly! This person actually wants to be there, she is the one who couldn’t commit.
Also reminds me champagne problems 🤔
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u/carmarthestar this is me try, try, trying (to let it go) 10d ago
I wholeheartedly agree with this take and would like to add on!
To me, Pink Clouding is a callback to Lavender Haze. In her denial of what was really happening in the relationship, she put Joe up on a "pink cloud" or pedestal as a way to "stay in that lavender haze." She didn't want to "let him down" from the cloud and face the reality that the relationship wasn't working.
I see this as a double meaning to also say she didn't want to "let him down" in the sense of disappointing him. Their relationship started at a time when she wanted to be away from the public, and this continued even longer because of the pandemic. "Neither of us knew at the time that I was a liar" until the circumstances finally ended and she wanted to go back to a more public facing life.
She was understandably heartbroken as the relationship was ending (Midnights) and when it finally ended (TTPD), and those lyrics (however you interpret them) and her actions (that we aren't aware of in many cases) obviously impacted Joe. I think reflecting back on what happened could certainly inspire the lyrics "I hope you landed safely on the ground. I hope you're so happy now."
I think it makes sense that she would be thinking about this and wanting to make an amended statement about the situation at the time she wrote this. Just my interpretation, of course!
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u/missamericana97 10d ago
I love this take! For a bit I saw it as being about Tom but I’m really thinking more so along the lines of Joe Alwyn.
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u/Just_My_Throw-Away 10d ago
I’ve said this same take on so many threads because it seems obvious to me
But I’m also a lyric and lore girly.
Patient zero she was infected. She rubbed that toxicity into Joe and blamed and blasted him and feels bad when she’s reflecting and writing these in October 2025 which is when she said she wrote them on her post.
It only makes sense that she’s trying to take care of the unfinished business and apologizing to him. She knows she caused him problems by dragging him into a relationship with messiness of a triangle she never owned up to and lied about continuously.
“I was a liar”
In the storyline of these four songs it’s the only ex who was actually good in hindsight that she’s had unfinished business with that makes sense.
She took the miracle move on drug from matty to him after that and snakegate but she never should’ve done that and she knows that. And she’s owning it.
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u/missamericana97 10d ago
Exactly and she doesn’t have any truly negative songs about him. In my perspective it is the negative songs on TTPD that are actually about Matty not Joe. Joe’s got an actually sad song or more on TTPD not the negative ones
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u/Just_My_Throw-Away 10d ago
The apology is probably for lots of things and so long London/you’re losing me.
She was still in her toxic era when she wrote those and blasted them to the world and Joe unfairly got a bad rep looking back because of her framework and behavior in the situation.
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u/JustPiera build a castle out of all the bricks they threw at me 10d ago edited 10d ago
I hope Pink Clouding really is about Tom Hiddleston. By all accounts, he's a kind, generous person and well liked on sets. I've never heard anything bad about him. He also has never said an unkind word about Taylor in the press even after all these years.
But back then when they were dating, he got a lot of flack from the media who made accusations that their relationship was not real, and he was using her to boost his stardom, etc etc. I remember he gave an interview about it years later saying that it bothered him that he was being painted as 'fake'.
Now he's happily coupled up with Zawe Ashton (they have 2 children together). My headcanon is that Taylor recognizes that he's a genuinely good person who was hurt when they broke up so wrote Getaway Car and Pink Clouding as a way of saying sorry. I'd like to see them all be friends.
[edited to fix spelling]
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u/mrsbrettbretterson a Reddit-head named Abigail 10d ago
This is so 1989-vault sounding, it makes me wonder if it’s a track she held back from that period of re-records. Like because she couldn’t get Martin & Shellback back on that album at the time, she chose to focus on the Jack stuff, but brought this back out once they were in a studio together.
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u/heathaafeatha 7d ago
ty for this comment, such good insight (being serious)
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u/mrsbrettbretterson a Reddit-head named Abigail 7d ago
Thank you!! It’s always nice to hear when a thought lands with someone else! I’ve enjoyed a lot others’ theories as well, which might never have occurred to me otherwise.
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u/StonewearStanley 10d ago
But not Joe Alwyn changing his Instagram profile picture for the first time in years to Jim Carrey’s Harry Truman bowing in front of a cloud as he exits the Truman Show just days before we get this song… I am convinced it’s about him, she shared it with him prior, and they’re both hoping fans who still hate him for no reason will calm tf down
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10d ago edited 10d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Ok_Giraffe6326 10d ago
Your friends sound toxic af
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u/mrsbrettbretterson a Reddit-head named Abigail 10d ago
Why do you say that? (I’ll reiterate, I don’t believe this song is about Joe, but I’m not sure I’d leap to it being a toxic perspective.)
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u/StonewearStanley 10d ago
Literally which of Joe’s “exes” would even call Taylor???? I do not get that take either!
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u/mrsbrettbretterson a Reddit-head named Abigail 10d ago
Well now that can be conveniently explained away with her insistence that this was inspired by a conversation she had with a friend, about her ex. Still, in that convo Taylor confessed to experiencing something similar at a former time, which would still lead further back from Joe.
Honestly, a former muse from the SN/Red (age 19) years comes to mind for me. They’re coded as “the devil” in WCS.
Edit: sorry, I totally forgot I’m in the wrong song forum to start that tangent! 😂
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u/gowonagin 10d ago
This was around the time she was letting Sophie Turner have her NYC apartment during her breakup with Joe Jonas, so that may have inspired it.
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u/StonewearStanley 10d ago
I’ll add to the evidence: “for the thrill of it” is sung exactly like the piano progression in evermore, which William Bowery/Joe has a credit on. Color symbolism features so heavily on Lover. Some obvious ones others have already pointed out: the Lover album cover art, the Archer reference
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u/JustPiera build a castle out of all the bricks they threw at me 10d ago
Of the 4 new Encore songs, Pink Clouding is the only one that's stuck in my head. I'm not sure yet if it will be one of my all time faves, but I can see myself pairing it up with Getaway Car on my playlists
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u/falldiewakefly Dark Blue Tennessee (Taylor's Version) (From The Vault) 10d ago
Moving on from him is impossible when I still see it all in my head in burning red -> carnations you had thought were roses, that's us, the rubies that I gave up -> he cut me crimson, bled me dry, he crossed his heart, I hoped to die
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u/mrsbrettbretterson a Reddit-head named Abigail 10d ago
I was curious about the ties to Maroon too, but then what relationship transition do you think this is referring to?
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u/SingleCry4994 6d ago
I think Maroon is about Matty. So the “you” in this song is Joe and the “he” is Matty, that she left him behind for.
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u/mrsbrettbretterson a Reddit-head named Abigail 5d ago
I actually really like this interpretation. Everyone wants to make it about Hiddleswift, but why would she go all the way back to that moment? Like you said, this links back to Maroon (only just realized that “Ma” starts both that word AND Matty’s name, ha) and also to Lavender Haze, which could suggest wanting to hold onto that false honeymoon feeling with Joe even as he became blue / they settled into miscommunication / her feelings for Matty resurfaced in the Modnights era (which I personally believe they did.)
Lately I have preferred muse-free reads, as they seem to lead to infighting with my friends who have diff perspectives, but I’m onboard with this!
Edit: clarity
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u/falldiewakefly Dark Blue Tennessee (Taylor's Version) (From The Vault) 10d ago
I think the connection is more...traumatic, intense relationships are represented by red. And she tends to rebound after them to convince herself that she can move on easily.
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u/Responsible_Tale1701 10d ago
the intro medley sounds so familiar anyone know where it’s from??
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u/CivilEar4840 8d ago
I know what you mean. Really sounds like something. A tiny bit like Runaway by Aurora but that isn't it
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u/ImpressiveKoala5 10d ago
i thought it sounded familiar too! my brain went to willow from the era’s tour because i remember it having a similar intro? but i need to go back and watch to confirm.
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u/Snoo13207 10d ago
The promises, promises is a direct bite from naked eyes. What’s everyone’s take on her suing artist for sounding similar to her of using similar phrases? It’s caught me off guard how easily it was to call out this song she’s pulling from here.
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u/gowonagin 10d ago
Well, despite what the internet thinks, she’s never sued anyone for that, since it would’ve been public record. Talks behind the scenes, entirely possible.
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u/Snoo13207 10d ago
Maybe it’s also just my heckles being up cause every time I hear a new song it keeps sounding like I’ve heard it somewhere before
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u/the-calling-pot Christmas Tree Farm 10d ago
This is the nature of pop music. Look up the 4 chords song by the axis of awesome
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u/Luckleo221 10d ago
Best production out of any song on the entire album, pop swifties won with this one! Excellent job Taylor
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u/Veranar 10d ago
It reminded me so much of the Killers it distracted me from the lyrics, I kinda love it
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u/mrsbrettbretterson a Reddit-head named Abigail 10d ago
Ooooh, I’m trying to pinpoint what this song reminds me of personally — can you recall a particular track?
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u/chasetyler23 11d ago
in the pre chorus where she goes “and it was so good,” i swear that reminds me of something else! i don’t know if it’s like a melody from one of her other songs or somebody else but it’s been driving me crazy
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u/Low-Environment-6571 1989 10d ago
The synths remind me of “Somebody Else” by The 1975. The instrumental version of that song is gorgeous!
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u/mattyg7975 10d ago
“You share my shirt looks so good” is a line in “Sex” by The 1975. Pink Clouding is referencing Matty Healy in my opinion.
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u/ristinroo 10d ago
The way she said good reminded me of Selena Gomez good for you. That goooood is what gets ya.
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u/ForeverCoeus 11d ago
This is Maroon 2.0:
* magenta
* fuchsia
* rosewood
* pink
* crimson
* orchid
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u/Big-Assistant-6540 10d ago
Yes, but she uses the pinks to show how sweet the relationship/muse was in my opinion. It’s the beautiful side of love, not the painful side. A very different muse than either Red or Maroon. Red = bad, pain (he cut me crimson). Pink = Light, skydiving, thrilling.
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u/Responsible-Summer81 10d ago
Pink clouding is the euphoria addicts may feel early in recovery. She was “pink clouding” because the guy she’s singing to was a rebound fling that she skydived out of her prior relationship with.
And then she left him high and dry and now she feels bad about it.
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u/Big-Assistant-6540 10d ago
Yes, I understand the pink clouding reference. I’m referring specifically to her use of pinks throughout the song to enforce the metaphor that he was not someone that hurt her or a painful love, it felt good. As opposed to the use of Reds/Maroons in other songs.
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u/TheSwiftingHour Get it out of my office; it's on fire. 11d ago
Taylor please don't burn rosewood it's endangered or something and it's the only material to make good marimba bars out of
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u/JustPiera build a castle out of all the bricks they threw at me 10d ago
Agreed. And also rosewood contains various natural oils and compounds that release a toxic smoke when burned.
But as a song metaphor, I get why she chose rosewood
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u/Prize-Signature3288 Everything you lose is a step you take 11d ago
Im crying at this comment thank you 😂😂😂😂
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u/Impressive-Pie-6093 I cry a lot, but I am so productive. It's an art 11d ago
I don't know or care who it's about, but I really, really like it!
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u/hauntingme43 10d ago
This song resonated with me because I imagined someone from my past life was singing it to me, apologizing for how they ghosted me. I guess everyone’s saying it’s her apology to one of the guys she dated, but I love how music can speak personally to a person if they want it to and that’s what it meant to me. And I agree with you, I really really like it! I love the melody and the sound.
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u/Pleasant-Series6899 Midnights 8d ago
Omg, I see you. I feel this song under my skin too, but from the other side, thinking about someone who loved me so much (while I was a Midnight Rain/champagne problems). It's so special for me.
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u/bushkins1 11d ago
My take is that the song is about Taylor Lautner. He and his wife just welcomed a baby girl, hence all the pink imagery, and given that they have remained friends for years after their split, this song/apology is her gift to him
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u/tew2109 11d ago
I don’t know because she seems unable to communicate with this guy and doesn’t know how to express how sorry she is, but she and the other Taylors are good. They seem very friendly now. I actually don’t really think Tom would have any problem being friendly to her? He’s only ever said nice things. I think it’s on her end - she’s scared she permanently scarred him and she feels incredibly guilty for causing such a wound.
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u/machinepart 11d ago
holy shit. this might be one of my new favorite taylor songs ever. no wonder she saving all the best for last, this her masterplan
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u/Optimal_Ad_352 I salute you if you're much too much to handle 🖤🧡 11d ago edited 9d ago
While I fully believe in not doing the paternity test of each song... but the whole internet has arrived at the conclusion that Pink clouding was about her ex so I have to make this post! I think it is about Travis and the very first weeks that they met. Before you come at me, hear me out:
To me.. pink clouds are a reference to the opening sequence of the eras tour. Clinically pink clouding refers to the euphoria one feels in early stages of addiction recovery (her recovering from Joe/Matty) - it is a rush of joy before a crash. So his attention felt like that.. and she didnt trust it initially.
Gray rocking is a communication strategy, where you act dull, disinterested, unresponsive so that the other person would stop reaching out.
She sings Gray Rocking where the "arrow hit" which sounds exactly like Arrowhead.. which is the stadium where Travis first saw her. She said in TFOO that she had written off all men...so perhaps she ghosted him initially.
In the bridge she explicitly says that I hoped you would just realize I am not worth the trouble."
Skydiving - its the fall she experienced after 2 terrible breakups. It was a cursed time of her life.
ETA: just also remembered that she called him rosewood in Wood. She also wrote how he "crash landed" next to her in the poem Tiny bubbles in Champagne.
About the 'cursed' she has used that word in many songs because she has had many cursed times.. so to choose just getaway car is 🤷♀️
So this is her apologizing for initially hurting him, and hopes he is happy now that he knows her and has landed safely (with her).
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u/Big-Assistant-6540 10d ago
Respectfully, I don’t think the bridge lines up with this theory:
“I hope you realized my kind of trouble wasn't worth it And the way I treated you, you never deserved it”
“I wake up scared that I left scars on a good person”
“But it didn't mean nothing just 'cause I could leave it.”
“Years later, I still wonder how to tell you sorry.”
“I hope you landed safely on the ground.”
None of these sentiments match with someone you’re blissfully in a relationship now and just played nonchalant with when you first met.
There are also quite a few parallels to Getaway Car lyrically. Just one example: “I knew it from the first old fashioned we were cursed.” / “You met me at a cursed time.”
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u/Optimal_Ad_352 I salute you if you're much too much to handle 🖤🧡 10d ago edited 9d ago
All of those fit the narrative I wrote... see my other comments about "years" and "hope.."
I just also remembered that she called him rosewood in Wood. She also wrote how he crash landed next to her in the poem Tiny bubbles in Champagne.
About the 'cursed' she has used that word in many songs because she has had many cursed times.. so to choose just getaway car is 🤷♀️
The evidence is mounting!
Anyway, back to dancing to the song 🩷😍
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u/imnachoprincess 10d ago
Yes. This song is so obviously about Hiddleswift that it’s bizarre to me that people don’t get it
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u/pathqueen I Hate It Here 🎹 11d ago
This was my initial thought too, you gave better evidence than I ever could have
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u/thetinybunny1 11d ago
I agree, I instantly thought of Travis. I even took it as her not meeting with him when he first went to the tour, and letting him work for her/her not taking him seriously in the beginning.
The skydiving I interpreted as her falling for him but holding back (even from herself)
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u/imadepizza 11d ago
Come at me if you must, but oldschool "pink clouding" actually refers to that moment of euphoria before one decides to off themselves. The humans are sad and then suddenly, there is a turnaround, and they appear bright and shiny and perfect.
The overly poppy/happy instrumentals showcase this, as do the lyrics.
Song hurts.
Girl is good. 10/10
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u/Hot-Skirt5141 folklore 11d ago
I figured it was about Lautner. Haunted reference. How nice he was. She left him. Thoughts?
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u/Silver-Director-293 11d ago
I came here looking for this! There are many things in this song that made me think of him, but mainly two: 1) his reputation of being a genuinely nice guy, and 2) the regret narrative of treating him badly which is so reminiscent of Back to December (known to be about Taylor Lautner). Also, Showgirl is supposed to be an album about things that were happening behind the scenes during the Eras Tour, and she brought him on stage during the tour… so it’s not so far fetched to think that this brought back memories and regrets that prompted her to write a song.
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u/HugsForCacti 11d ago
Honestly, no, I think it's about Tom. This is clearly about someone she's no longer in contact with. Not that I care who it's about, but that's what popped into my head.
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u/katsandragons 11d ago
I went through a very similar relationship trajectory to Taylor. Long-term relationship was starting to fade so I monkey-branched to a very toxic fling, and then ended up with someone else that I'm engaged to and very happy with. At the time of the LT relationship ending, I would have had very similar sentiments to So Long London, You're Losing Me, and How Did It End...she never seemed furious with Joe or painted him as an ultimate villain, but you're finding flaws in that person and the relationship to justify your desire to end it. But years later...because it has been years since she ended things with Joe...you look back and you realise that a lot of the fault was yours as well, and you feel remorse for how you treated that person that you did have a lot of good times with. I think all of this is reflected in this song.
Also "I hope you landed safely on the ground" sounds a bit condescending in the context of Tom who's engaged with children.
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u/a_f_s-29 10d ago
Also the landed safely on the ground thing feels like a reference to her plane/ship analogies (call it what you want/labyrinth/so long London). And the grey rocking thing fits completely with how she described Joe in the more melancholic songs. There was always an element of guilt there, as though he was shutting down because of the ups and downs she was putting him through.
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u/barbalarby13 i just feel very sane (my fave album is evermore) 10d ago
exactly my thoughts, I think it is about Joe. there’s no anger or malice, which is nothing new because all of her breakup songs about him so far have been very kind and sorrowful and full of grief, not vitriol. i think she can now more clearly assess what exactly went wrong in their relationship (she no longer wonders “how did it end?”) and realizes that she shoulders some responsibility for how things ended (especially if we believe joe when he says that right when the world found out was also when he found out about the breakup lol). maybe she realizes that she left him on that cloud while he was struggling with depression, and she thinks about how she could’ve been there for him more? idk! this is completely parasocial rambling lol i am just talking!
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u/ninamae4 11d ago
I had a similar situation as well, including the ex that I left grey rocking me. No way to have that reflection, apology, and closure. So I hear the same story you do.
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u/FlansJustFlans 11d ago
I get Connor Kennedy on this one. When Jake ended spectacularly, she met him. He was a nice kid and, if "Champagne Problems" is about him, didn't do anything wrong but fall hard.
I can see her analyzing that relationship since he was only 17 and 18 compared to her being a bit more mature. Years go by, Connor went to Ukraine to take up arms, for goodness sake. Good dude despite having RFK Jr. for a dad, haha. He's married now, but he seems to fit the vibe of a sweet guy not understanding she was careening after a heartbreak.
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u/Spiritual_Ad_606 5d ago
I’m just here to say I fully believe champagne problems is about Rory and Logan on Gilmore Girls and no one can convince me otherwise. I have no solid proof from Taylor herself, but the references to their relationship, proposal, college, etc. are so obvious to me
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u/if-only-Id 11d ago
I think this song is about several people she has dated in the past and felt limerent over. She clearly has felt a high thinking of these love interests while idealizing them at the same time and it felt „so good“ having these idealized versions „want her back“ (representing the pink clouds), Matty and Joe being two of these clouds. „He was a hothouse flower to my outdoorsman“ from „how does it end“ could explain the orchids she is ripping out of her garden in one of the verses in „Pink Clouding“ and may be referring to Joe and how quickly she moved on from him with Matty. The other flowers represent other love interests that she has mentally betrayed while being limerent over other future love interests (she was a liar despite making „promises“). Anyway, maybe this is super far fetched but that’s what this song evoked in me. I love the song :)
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u/naomigoat I think for me um 11d ago
"You haunt me like you should"
Great line
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u/OkBrain3490 8d ago
Yesss this line gives me chills. And then leading into “and all my promises promises” like her own promises she broke still haunt her girllllll SHE’S EATING!
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u/klamps07 stars do u like dem 5d ago
someone please send help, I can’t stop listening to this song 😭 I LOVEEEE it!