After news emerged that Taylor Swift was to release a song that might or might not be about Harry Styles, we had a little joke at what the lyrics might be. But after a look at the real words to Out Of The Woods, we totally get that it is definitely about the One Direction heart-throb, who was most recently spotted chucking a load of puke out next to a highway the morning after the night before.
In the 80s-style power-pop-ballad, which wouldn’t be entirely out of place on an Ellie Goulding, Lorde or Florence and the Machine album, as it's basically a popped up Kate Bush/Simple Minds throwbacks, thumpy synths and clappy drums has some telling lyrics.
She recently revealed the song's nod to an ex who crashed a snowmobile, telling Rolling Stone that she decided not to tell anyone about it at the time: ‘You know what I’ve found works even better than a non-disclosure agreement?
‘Looking someone in the eye and saying: “Please don’t tell anyone about this.”’
READ MORE: Are These The Lyrics For Out Of The Woods, Taylor Swift's Harry Styles-Inspired Song?
However, she has told us all about it, by mentioning it in the lyrics to the second release from upcoming album 1989: ‘Remember when you hit the brakes too soon/ Twenty stitches in a hospital room/ When you started crying/ Baby, I did too/ But when the sun came up/ I was looking at you’
Our eagle-eyed detective work (read: some Googling) finds that Harry Styles must be the ex in question because not only did he and Taylor Swift have a skiing holiday in December 2012, but he had a big bandage on his chin following said holiday. He tried to hide it under a scarf when he returned to London, but it was later spotted on a friend’s Instagram photo of him at a house party.
READ MORE: Taylor Swift. Hugely Successful Pop Star, Still Feels Left Out By The Cool Kids
Now that we know the lyrics are about Harry, it’s interesting what else she says, like how it was all sort of doomed: ‘Looking at it now/ Last December, we were built to fall apart/ Then fall back together/ Your necklace hanging from my neck’
And how they did some cute things to pretend it was working between them: ‘The night we couldn’t quite forget/ When we decided/ To move the furniture so we could dance/ Baby, like we stood a chance’
And how they went old-school and took Polaroids: ‘Looking at it now/ It all seems so simple/ We were lying on your couch/ I remember/ You took a Polaroid of us/ Then discovered/ The rest of the world was black and white/ But we were in screaming color’
READ MORE: Taylor Swift Will Wear A Pair Of Shoes Twice. Get Over It.
The haters (who she’s got lots to say about, remember Shake It Off?) might wonder why she’s still singing about Harry Styles, or a skiing holiday they went on way back in December 2012. Well, because we’re all still talking about it, and if he was the douche to her that he may very well have been, it’s worth her making a little money out of all that shaming, right? Besides, apart from telling everyone he cried after a skiing accident, she’s not even being that mean to him. As far as songs about lost loves goes, this is pretty tame – and tuneful! Listen to it here.
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** Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson**
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.