Die For You In Secret

Taylor Swift “Peace” (Pond Lake Studio Version)

On one hand I really appreciate Taylor Swift shifting gears and exploring character-based songwriting, but on the other my two favorite songs on Folklore, the two that are the most resonant for me by far, are “Invisible String” and “Peace,” which are both autobiographical. I love that they both engage with mundane realities of the sort of the sort of heightened romance she wrote about for so long, and in those details you see a deeper love than those older songs ever imagined.

“Peace” is slow and gentle but not quite serene. Aaron Dessner’s arrangement is pared down to just a pensive guitar part and a looped keyboard note that’s both uneasy and lulling, like an error alert receding into background noise. The ample negative space gives Swift room to sing some of the loveliest melodies she’s ever written. (It does not surprise me at all that this is one that Paul McCartney singled out as a favorite.) Even if you knew nothing about her, it’d be easy to intuit that this was a particularly personal song – there’s a nuanced vulnerability in her vocal that feels lived-in and relaxed, and not necessarily performative.

The specifics of “Peace” are not very relatable – she’s basically singing to her partner about the guilt she carries in forcing him to live with the unintended consequences of her immense celebrity. She worries that she’s getting a better deal in the relationship than he is, she’s afraid that the deep connection they have may be spoiled for him having to deal with the burden of dealing with things like paparazzi and tabloids. They can experience intimacy, but total privacy is off the table.

And while most of us will not ever have to contend with these concerns, Swift’s combination of insecurity and genuine appreciation of what she has with her partner is something almost anyone can see themselves in. It’s very easy to sub out the celebrity thing for dealing with mental illness, or any other lingering trouble in one’s life. When it comes down to it, this isn’t really a song about being a celebrity so much as just acknowledging that when people get into relationships they’re signing up to deal with the other person’s mess, and sometime’s someone has more of a mess on their hands than the other. But the point of a good relationship is getting through it together.

Buy it from Amazon.