Taylor Swift Fans Are in Shambles Over ‘You’re Losing Me’
Taylor Swift‘s “You’re Losing Me” has fans in tears.
Swift’s new song is a vault track from Midnights that’s included on Midnights (The Late Night Edition), a special edition of the album first released exclusively to fans at her MetLife Stadium concert in New Jersey on Friday, May 26. Later Friday night, her official webstore dropped a digital download of The Late Night Edition priced at $5.99, but stated it’d be up for purchase for only 24 hours.
It’s a lot to keep track of, but “You’re Losing Me” can only be found on this Late Night Edition of Midnights; Swift also released brand-new takes of “Snow on the Beach” feat. More Lana Del Rey and “Karma” feat. Ice Spice as extra tracks on both The Late Night Edition and the Til Dawn Edition of the album this week.
Back to “You’re Losing Me”: The emotionally-charged ballad set to a beating heart illustrates the painful, slow ending of a longterm relationship. Swift’s split with boyfriend Joe Alwyn after six years together made headlines in early April.
“You say, ‘I don’t understand’ and I say, ‘I know you don’t’/ We thought a cure would come through in time, now, I fear it won’t/ Remember lookin’ at this room, we loved it ’cause of the light/ Now, I just sit in the dark and wonder if it’s time,” she sings in the first verse of “You’re Losing Me.”
The second verse goes on to describe a couple who were not on the same page: “Every mornin’, I glared at you with storms in my eyes/ How can you say that you love someone you can’t tell is dyin’?/ I sent you signals and bit my nails down to the quick/ My face was gray, but you wouldn’t admit that we were sick.”
But it’s the bridge of the song that really broke fans’ hearts: “And I wouldn’t marry me either,” Swift sings, “A pathological people pleaser/ Who only wanted you to see her/ And I’m fading, thinkin’/ Do something, babe, say something/ Lose something, babe, risk something/ Choose something, babe, I got nothing/ To believe, unless you’re choosing me.”
Many fans pointed out the song’s parallels to Lover‘s foreboding “Cornelia Street,” where Swift had worried, “I hope I never lose you/ I hope it never ends,” and the themes seen in many other songs in the musical mastermind’s discography over recent years — including “Champagne Problems,” “Exile,” “Tolerate It” and “The Great War.” Alwyn actually co-wrote some of those sad songs (“Champagne Problems, ” “Exile”) with Swift under the pen name William Bowery.
Swift’s Midnights (The Late Night Edition) album is available to purchase via physical CD at MetLife Stadium this weekend, and it’s also available as a digital download here on Swift’s webstore — but be quick, at it’s currently only up for a very limited time (until 7:59 p.m. ET tonight, Saturday, May 27).
See some of the reactions fans had to “You’re Losing Me” below.
Ashley Iasimone
Billboard