Music
Taylor Swift’s 13 Most Ruthless Lyrics
The songwriter has always had a knack for comebacks.
Before being a singer, director, or even devoted cat mother, Taylor Swift is a songwriter first and foremost. Her storytelling abilities, attention to detail, and vulnerability across 11 albums (plus four re-recordings thus far) have made her one of this generation’s most renowned writers. But what makes her repertoire compelling is how ruthless Swift can get at times.
Whether she’s writing poetry about devastating breakups, clandestine love affairs, LGBTQ+ rights, or just going out for the night, Swift always imbues her lyrics with brutal honesty, even when it’s wrapped up in metaphors or symbolism.
With her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, she arguably gets more ruthless than ever. The secret double album had a second part entitled The Anthology that contained even further ferocity toward people who have wronged her. One track alone has three lines that immediately rank among her most chilling lyrics.
In honor of Swift’s most confessional songwriting to date, revisit 13 of her most ruthless lines from across her vast catalog.
“You’re a redneck heartbreak who’s really bad at lyin’.”
Swift’s ruthlessness had to start somewhere, and “Picture to Burn” from her self-titled debut album cuts pretty deep. She calls her ex a redneck, a betrayer, and a bad liar all in one swoop, which is pretty damn good for a 16-year-old.
“I’d rather burn my whole life down than listen to one more second of all this bitchin’ and moanin’.”
In “But Daddy I Love Him,” Swift rails against the critics who bash the man that she loves, and makes it clear that she may disappear forever if it doesn’t stop.
“I’ll forget you, but I’ll never forgive the smallest man who ever lived.”
Simply the title of “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” is one of the most vicious things that Swift has put to paper. But adding the fact that she’ll forget him soon enough will be the thing that truly tortures him for life.
“You saw my bones out with somebody new who seemed like he would’ve bullied you in school.”
Pointing out that your new beau is someone who is strong and powerful enough to have bullied your ex in high school is the ultimate flex. So is naming the song “Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus” after the random flings that your ex has had since the breakup.
“I’ll get older, but your lovers stay my age.”
Swift’s lyrics in “All Too Well” cut deep, but her new lines in the 10-minute version are truly bone-chilling, culminating in this “punchline” about her former flame. Nothing sets a man back down to Earth faster than reminding him about his mid-life crisis.
“I’m shining like fireworks over your sad, empty town.”
“Dear John” is one of Swift’s most emotional tracks. But this lyric in the bridge’s climax sees the singer subtly reclaim her power and remind the man who wronged her who he truly is.
“You didn’t measure up in any measurе of a man.”
In “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived,” Swift seems to brutally calls her ex a failure in every respect of life, but especially in relationships.
“The coward claimed he was a lion.”
Everybody wishes they could be Simba from The Lion King, but most men just don’t have the guts, courage, or grace of the Pride Lands leader — as Swift alludes to in “loml.”
“Everyone knows that my mother is a saintly woman, but she used to say she wished that you were dead.”
Breaking from Swiftian tradition, she makes the subject of “thanK you, aIMee” pretty clear with just three capital letters, which only makes this line hit harder. If Andrea Swift, who spends time interacting with fans and rhinestoning her daughter’s guitar on tour, hates you this much, you really screwed up.
“Did I say something way too honest? Made you run and hide like a scared little boy.”
Swift warned us from the beginning about her brutal honesty with 2008’s “Forever & Always,” which is reportedly about her past relationship with Joe Jonas.
“I don’t have to be your shrink to know that you’ll never be happy.”
“I Bet You Think About Me” is full of clever lyrical barbs about Swift’s memory haunting her ex for eternity, but this line takes the cake when it comes to tearing him down and reminding him of what he missed out on.
“God save the most judgmental creeps who say they want what’s best for me.”
Swift usually indulges her ruthless tendencies through metaphors and actions, not name-calling, so hearing her outright call people “judgmental creeps” in “But Daddy I Love Him” is both shocking and liberating.
“In your Jehovah’s Witness suit, who the f*ck was that guy?”
This one line from “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” has so many layers. Swift may be mourning the man she thought her ex was, using the Jehovah’s Witness suit as a representation of her idea of him. Or calling his outfit a “Jehovah’s Witness suit” and asking what caused that decision could be the most fatal blow in a song full of ruthless comebacks.
