These are the very best lyrics from Taylor Swift’s Folklore which just sum up uni life

“So I got wasted, like all my potential” is painfully true


Just when we thought 2020 was all doom and gloom, Taylor Swift went and released a 16-song album with less than 24 hours’ notice. And it’s amazing.

Folklore is Taylor Swift’s eighth studio album and comes less than a year after her hugely successful album Lover. Announcing the album on her Instagram on Thursday, she said “Most of the things I had planned this summer didn’t end up happening, but there is something I hadn’t planned on that DID happen. And that thing is my 8th studio album, folklore”.

So to summarise; whilst we’ve spent the past few months binge-watching Netflix shows, making TikToks and occasionally baking the odd banana bread if we can be bothered, Taylor Swift wrote, recorded and produced a whole album whilst in isolation. Now that’s productivity at its finest.

We all know Taylor Swift as an amazing songwriter and lyrical genius, so it’s no surprise that Folklore once again provides us with some banging lines to cry, laugh and hate our exes to. There are even some that the average student will find all too relatable.

Here’s a list of the very best and most relatable lines from each song, because let’s face it, Taylor Swift pretty much just saved 2020.

the 1

“I have this dream you’re doing cool shit, having adventures on your own, you meet some woman on the internet and take her home”

Most of us have probably had nightmares about their exes back on Tinder and moving on, and it’s not fun.

cardigan

“You drew stars around my scars but now I’m bleeding”

What beautiful imagery. English Lit students take note, you’ll want this for your next midterm.

the last great american dynasty

“And in a feud with her neighbour, she stole his dog and dyed it key lime green”

This is based on a true story, but maybe don’t try this one at home. Even if you do have really annoying neighbours. Your landlord definitely won’t be pleased.

exile

“You were my town, now I’m in exile, seein’ you out”

A throwback to March when Peter Mathieson told us to get out. Literal chills. We miss you Edi!

my tears ricochet

“I didn’t have it in myself to go with grace, and you’re the hero flying around, saving face”

When you get smashed at pres and don’t get into the club, but your so called “friends” pretend they don’t know you and walk right in. I can forgive but I won’t forget.

mirrorball

“I’ve never been a natural, all I do is try”

Same Taylor! Imagine actually owning a pair of flares and Chillys water bottle before coming to uni. The kind of natural progression to Edi I could only aspire to.

 seven

“Please picture me in the trees, before I hit my peak at seven”

Yep, wouldn’t we all go back to being a cute seven-year old with no real worries if we could? Cheers midterms, sons crying x

august

“Cancelled plans just in case you’d call and say, “meet me behind the mall””

Flashback to Freshers’ Week when you hoped the girls you met in the common room would ask you to hang out sometime. Ah the serenity.

this is me trying

“So I got wasted, like all my potential”

Doesn’t this basically summarise life as a university student?

illicit affairs

“Make sure nobody sees you leave, hood over your head, keep your eyes down”

This is what you tell the not-so-great-now-that-I’m-sober guy you hooked up with from Hive the next morning. How embarrassing.

invisible string

“Time, mystical time, cutting me open, then healing me fine”

Paying nine grand to go to your Physics lectures? Don’t bother Taylor has it covered.

mad woman

“Now I breathe flames each time I talk, my cannons all firin’ at your yacht”

The perfect revenge on that boarding school alum who broke your heart. Or you could just go and egg his house in New Town.

epiphany

“Something med school did not cover, someone’s daughter, someone’s mother”

One for all the History students out there, this song tells the story of Taylor’s grandfather’s experience in the Guadalcanal campaign during the Second World War, and it’s heart-breaking.

betty

“Would you tell me to go f*** myself or lead me to the garden?”

If the person asking is a Pollock boy, probably the first one.

peace

“Our coming-of-age has come and gone”

It sucks to be an adult doesn’t it.

hoax

“Your faithless love is the only hoax I believe in, don’t want no other shade of blue but you, no other sadness in the world would do”

Now that just one hurts. But because it’s T-Swift, I’m not even mad about it.

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