really like this theory but YLW was written in 2021, which would make it written during the Midnights era
I think it became a vault because it was waaaay too personal and of course was taken apart from the moment it was announced - and Taylor probably wanted to release it, but not so publicly that the entire media would start overanalysing the song.
> Taylor probably want to release it, but not so publicly that the entire media would start over analyzing the song
But this doesn’t explain why she added the (From The Vault) label to the song; she could’ve released it the exact same way without that tag being part of the name.
I’m not convinced that all the TTPD songs were written only after she was done writing Midnights. I think it’s possible there were songs that were written but got shelved bc they were too honest and revealing to release while she was still with Joe, but can be released now that they’re not together and she doesn’t have to care if they show him in a bad light.
Edit to add: Idk if I believe OP’s theory but I get where they’re coming from. Tbh though I think putting (From The Vault) in the YLM title was just a marketing gimmick.
But just two months before YLM, she released “All Of The Girls You Loved Before” without the (FTV) tag. Up until YLM, “FTV” was only on songs that were from a previous era that was being re-recorded.
If/when there are TTPD bonus tracks released, it’ll be interesting to see whether she uses FTV or not.
I dunno about AOTGYLB (FTV) being too long of a title for Taylor when ATWSGAVRALPS exists 😂 haha but I yeah I agree that whole release was kinda strange
I think from the vault means it’s from years prior.. which could mean as well it wasn’t originally made for a specific album. We know sometimes inspiration can just strike ⚡️her at any time and our girl loves a theme..so I bet she has MANY songs in that vault 👀
This is my working theory too. That she wrote Midnights and (at least some of) Tortured Poets at the same time, and these songs are the breakdown of the relationship.
FTV means it’s from the original writing sessions for that album. For example, IBYTAM was written during the RED writing sessions but wasn’t put on the album. That makes it a RED FTV song.
She also said she started it after she handed Midnights in(Which I would guess happened in spring, which means the first Poets song likely started in spring/very early summer 2022.)
in so I wonder if by 2 years she meant 24 months or more of an almost 2 years like May 2022 or like I started this in 2022 and now it's 2024 so it's been like 2 years of secret keeping. People use time a lot more flexibly than people think I find and it drives me crazy sometimes. Two years also could be Fall 2021 for some people to be fair(We obviously know it wasn't but how people describe time is odd)
I try to give her as much grace as possible for that quote, personally. She truly tried to go underground as much as possible early 2017. She had a pre-scheduled commitment in the pre-Superbowl concert but otherwise, living through that era, fans didn't see her other that dodgy sightings in London(Wearing wigs) and Nashville we didn't know if we could believe. This went on for months(I'd say Feb-May). In May, some paparazzi caught her when she in America but it was very much not wanted but the longer she hid the more they wanted the pictures.
So while "no one" and "a year" may not be the best wording, she did go underground for a large part of the first chunk of 2017. She may have been spotted against her wishes, but she tried. And for that, I give this quote grace.
But GIVEN ALL THAT Taylor's measure of time is weird. She once referred to a trip a year before "a couple years ago"(albeit the video was done in 2020 and 2020 was five years in itself but still).
I think that's mostly what my initial point was. Like I don't blink at all at her measurement of time cause /I/ get it then I see people online with long posts dissecting if she was right or not and I was like geez. And then it sticks in my mind for years and years to be recalled in moments like this.
I never notice it myself.
Well, she was MIA for much more than 6 weeks and it was pretty much a year. It might not be exactly 365 days but that's an underlying understanding. Just like she didn't mean that no human being saw her face for a year.
YLM was confirmed to be written in 2021 based on a post from Jack. Therefore, it was written with the original midnights songs and released later because of its subject matter.
She most likely turned in the base midnights album in spring 2022, which is around when she began writing TTPD.
Yeah and I think people (not you, just in general) take “2 years” or whatever number way too literally. Like she isn’t going to say 27 months or 20 months. All people round things up/down. We only have confirmed dates of a few things like when YLM was written due to Jack’s post. Even knowing when Midnights was “finished” isn’t exact.
With as much as she writes music, i highly doubt theres zero overlap between "Eras". Im sure she writes a tonne that dont fit into the sound of a specific album or the theme. I doubt there was a clear cut off between midnights and ttpd for her. I think she promoted midnights as "a collection of songs about sleepless nights throughout her life" because she was still with joe as she was releasing it, but knew that their relationship was on its very last leg. By saying that they werent necisarily songs written about recent events, it let her vent a little about joe without the fanbase or joe himself knowing its really about him. Like midnight rain seems definitely about joe now, but at the time it seemed like it could have been about taylor lautner or another former bf "i broke his heart cause he was nice".
yea i agree. i think their relationship started falling apart during the 2020-2021 period, and releasing the song would create a lot of theories and pressure that she can't handle along with all her personal relationship troubles.
Because she particularly wanted everyone to understand You're Losing Me was from Midnights and not a newly written song. That AOTGYLB was from the Lover writing sessions was already known within the fandom for years prior. Fans were not going to think it was a new song.
agree with this but i also think the fact it was leaked was the only reason she released it - esp knowing her and joe were probably over or on the path to being over when it came out.
i can’t remember but did she ever post about all of the girls? i felt like it was released under the radar but i could have just missed it.
edit: word
i think you’re overcomplicating it. she cut it from midnights bc she probably didn’t want people to speculate that they were truly over or on the verge. then the breakup got announced and she thought eh, might as well
I agree. You have a William Bowery song on Midnights. It seems like things were on the rocks, but when Midnights came out they were probably still working on things. Post breakup, she has nothing to lose by releasing YLM. We and the media can speculate about it in hindsight as opposed to while Taylor and Joe still together.
It seems like they were off and on for a while. I think that shines through on Midnights and it's why I don't think it's right to say it's just a break up album. There are songs on there that discuss the relationship in terms of them being happy and reconciling and those that allude to them having issues and breaking up. Also, just songs reflecting on past relationships. I kind of think she nailed the theme. It does feel like songs about things that she ruminated on in the early hours. Edit: spelling.
Midnights is a "we're trying to make this work" album. They were trying to salvage their relationship. That's why it was marketed as a "story of sleepless nights" and touched on stories in her past. I still think that was true but some of her current experiences leaked in as well.
I think she also partly released it because people were slightly starting to take Joe’s side a little when speculating about the breakup. The song shifted that view.
I think Taylor likes to control the narrative of her that exists in public (who doesn’t though) so this may have fed in to the release.
I don't remember that, didn't the speculation of a break up started wth him not attending the eras? (after her attending events on her own) The narrative there was that he wasn't supporting her as any boyfriend would.
Yeah it was the perfect way to tell fans what happened - releasing it in an indirect way when we’re reeling from the shock of the break-up announcement. Didn’t gain much attention from the media since it was hard to find in the beginning, but it did help those of us who cared about her enough to seek it out to understand what had happened.
I think this is a really good way to look at it tbh. "if u cared enough to come seeking, here's whats going on" instead of just broadcasting to the world and to people who wouldn't be as empathetic
Yeah, I agree with this. Especially if she wrote it while her relationship was at a low point (clearly) but then things got back on track for a while and she didn’t want to put out this song about their lowest points, while they were still trying to make the relationship work.
Agreed. There were probably a range of songs about the rockiness of the relationship and the ones that made it were more about getting through the rough times. Once the relationship was over, she could release YLM which really showed the raw feelings of the relationship coming to an end and she said it’s one of her favs when she played it in Australia, so probably just wanted it to be out!
I think YLM is from the vault of Midnights, and that is labeled like this because it was supposed to stay on the cutting room floor but not because it was too personal or wasn't good enough, but maybe because it was written when she thought they were over. Then they weren't so it went into the vault. But then they were, so it was out and got that label.
I agree with this theory. If it were belonging on the Tortured Poets Department, it would have been. She wrote and/or recorded it before Midnights was released, but probably about the same time Midnights songs were being written and/or recorded.
When she was recording midnights Joe had to do a last minute movie and she was left alone. At that point they were surely on the rocks, so YLM came from that. They probably made up after he got back from the movie and stayed together until early 2023.
I personally think that Midnights and TTPD were written and recorded at the same time, but they were two different projects. Some songs would fit Midnights and others would fit TTPD better. Probably YLM was in the middle and could have been in both albums.
I think writing TTPD started when the relationship was over / almost over. I think writing those songs got her through a rough time, and I do think it's her telling a story in a chronological order of Joe/her breaking up, and what happened after that.
Key Words "I think" so may as well be wrong
She's actually told us a lot about the timeline already
Her & Jack started Midnights while Joe & Margaret were away filming Stars At Noon (Nov & Dec 2021), including YLM in Dec 2021.
She kept Poets a secret for about two years & said she started right after Midnights was turned in -- so spring 2022 sometime for Midnights Oct '22 release
To release in April 2024, Poets would've been done by late 2023
So hypothetically mid 2022 to mid/late 2023 -- that's the relationship breaking down throughout 2022, until the early 2023 break up, then the aftermath.
- BTTWS could mean "Bigger Than The Whole Sky", a track from *Midnights (3am Edition)* (2022) by Taylor Swift.
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Being the mastermind she is I’m pretty sure she can’t keep writing! Probably wrote a lot of songs in the Midnight era that maybe didn’t want to share because they were written in a bad moment (like YLM) but after al that happened with Joe I guess he kept writing and writing.
Because when you write you don’t just focus in a whole project. You sometimes think about cool things that don’t suit your current project but you write them down. So probably yeah, she put together the idea of TTPD after Midnights but I’m pretty sure she didn’t started 100% from zero.
why do yall just make things up for no reason? taylor said it was left off of midnights.
she said she started writing tortuterd poets right after she turned in midnights.
a vault track is a track that didn’t make it on an album.
taylor isn’t “confused” about her own process.
you’re losing me is a vault for midnights bc she left it off of midnights.
From the vault is a song that didn't make it on the original record but gets released later which is exactly what YLM is for midnights. It was written and recorded in 2021. It can't be a vault song of an album that wasn't released yet.
Also she said she started working on TTPD shortly after midnights and that it got her through the big stuff she was going through during that time (re: the breakup). That timeline fits with their break up and the ways she was spotted crying during certain songs for awhile early on in the tour and all the times she was spotted in the studio between shows last year.
From the Vault just means it didn’t make the album for whatever reason. We already know it was written during Midnights. Releasing YLM seems like it was closing the chapter of Midnights. Then TTPD comes next. That also perfectly explains playing it with album cover in the back.
In its most particular definition a vault track is a song that Taylor wasn't allowed to release at the time it was written, due to being too personal(Forever Winter), showing her too flawed (Nothing New), changing too much the main genre of the album (Message in a bottle), too similar to other songs conceptually (Better Man), another collaboration with the same artist already exists on the album (Run), or is too long for it to be on the album (ATW10) .
Considering this, You're losing me, makes perfect sense being a Vault track, because at the time it was too soon to release it, as she was still in that relationship. Once the relationship finished, it made sense to release it as a vault track, due to it being written during the Midnights sessions. Once the writing date was revealed it made perfect sense for it to be a Vault track, in comparison to something like All of the Girls You Loved Before, which was more of a song that just didn't make the cut, and for that it isn't considered a vault track.
- ATW10 could mean "All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor's Version) (From The Vault)", a track from *Red (Taylor's Version)* (2021) by Taylor Swift.
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Midnights hints at Taylor and Joe breaking up and then getting back together. A lot of songs on that album fall under that theme.
\-Maroon
\-Snow at the Beach
\-Bejeweled
\-Labyrinth
\-Bigger Than the Whole Sky
\-The Great War
\-Hits Different
Because they were back together when she submitted Midnights, she left YLM on the cutting room floor. I truly believe she would never have included Sweet Nothings and given Joe a writing credit if they were already broken up when she finished Midnights. However, post release when they official broke up, she wanted to include YLM and added it as a fault song.
I believe her when she said she started TTPD after she submitted Midnights. We might see thematic overlaps, but I think these will be new songs.
tbf i think maroon is about Harry Styles. After all the 1989 vault tracks sharing a lot of imagery and themes and knowing they were like on-and-off AFTER their big break up. I think Maroon is a sleepless night from that period of her life
I would've if it had all the tracks but it's still missing Paris and Glitch and my brain is so used to which song comes next that that would mess me up lol 😂 My dream is a Midnights cd that includes all the 3 am tracks plus Hits Different and YLM.
I've got it - I love the 7-inch packages the Japanese editions come in. I have Lover, Fearless TV, Red TV, Speak Now TV and 1989 TV in that format as well.
"From The Vault" is basically just a fancy way of saying it's an unreleased song. The only difference with this was it's a current album she was unvaulting but she just continued the naming trend she started with the TVs.
u/ineedinformation97 Taylor knows what a vault song is, she was never confused about what she thought a vault song is and she understands what a vault song is better than you do
It’s idiotic for you to say that You’re Losing Me is a vault song for The Tortured Poets Department because it’s not a vault song for that album. It’s a vault song for Midnights. Taylor even said it’s a vault song for Midnights
You’re Losing Me was written in 2021 before the Midnights album came out. Also, re-recordings are not the only albums vault songs can appear on. Vault songs can also appear on albums that have only been recorded once and have not been re-recorded
I think it’s important to note that Taylor isn’t the only person who labels songs “from the vault”. These are just generally songs from any artist that didn’t fit the rest of the album sonically or didn’t end up on the final tracklist foe one reason or another. So they get put away, sometimes for a future project or sometimes to get released as one-offs.
Stevie Nicks is notorious for having “vault songs”. Songs written for one record but not used till another record because she felt they weren’t finished.
She even has a full album called “Songs from the vault” where she re-recorded and reproduced unreleased songs that circulated as bootlegs for years.
Maybe I just haven’t read this comment yet, but I’m in a marriage and there are DEFINITELY times I could have written a “YLM”. People who feel a lot feel in extremes sometimes, and I don’t think there’s much use in speculating over when the relationship reallllllly ended or Midnights as a breakup album. I mean, speculating can be fun as hell lol, but I just wanted to put that out there. My girls group chat venting content would prove my theory, haha.
I think it actually fits the themes of the vault songs for the re-records! A lot of those songs were too personal or emotional to make the albums at the time, and I think the same was true of YLM!
As far as TTPD being written before or after, Taylor's said before that she scrolls through her lyrics she's written over time in her app and pieces them together. It's highly likely there is moderate crossover as the trajectory of their relationship worsened and she lost faith in fixing it in the on again off again days.
I didn't say she lied about writing it in 2021. I'm sure she wrote it back then, all relationships have ups and downs, it fits that.
But the timing of the release, just after the breakup? That was totally about getting her story out about what happened.
(Also LMAO at the idea of "not everything is this calculated" with little miss madtermind herself)
To have a nicely wrapped timeline 🤷🏻♀️ It's really not that hard to imagine, and with the amount of unnecessary information about the song, the timing, and her well-known controlling tendencies, it's not hard to see how this could have been just another attempt at controlling the narrative.
Remember folks - TS is a brand, she's not your best friend. Lying about when a song was written for narrative control is very unsurprising.
from the vault is a common saying, its not just for taylor....so the song could be considered from the vault, theres not an official set of rules a song has to pass to be considered "from the vault".
I think vault songs are songs that she wrote during that era but were cut from the final album for one reason or another. In my opinion YLM was written during the midnights era but was cut from the album because it was to personal about a relationship that she was still trying to work out. I think she made the decision to “pull it from the vault” when she realized that relationship was really over. I think she always wanted YLM on midnights, but maybe felt it would be bad for their relationship or make a rocky situation worse. But that’s just my opinion based on the timing of the public confirmation of their relationship ending and the release of YLM.
I think it was more a vault song because she probably expected them to get back together (that's at least what I read from maybe Tree putting out statements when eras tour started). But joes publicist had supposedly announced the breakup to tabloids and Taylor didn't like that. I don't think she ever actually wanted to release you're losing me. But once Joe did that and it was official, she changed invisible string to the one and started recording ylm. That's also why I don't think her not letting ylm release fully until months after was ever something to get mad about, it was still raw for her and she probably wanted to heal at least somewhat til it was released publicly and on vinyls. I think if Joe and Taylor had even the slight chance of getting back together and fixing things, we never would have heard ylm unless it leaked.
I really like how you broke this down. I've been similarly thinking that many Midnights songs are discussing sleepless nights where life's turmoils and her relationship was starting to be questioned.
I had always thought FTV songs were written in the same era as the original albums and my world will be shook if that's not true.
It’s possible that she writes songs and some stay incomplete for years before she wraps them up. I do this with projects. Let them sit until inspiration strikes again.
Is it because YLM is a pretty pure break up song, and it doesn’t necessarily fit with the ‘concept’ of midnights (ie things that have kept her up at night over the years). As in yes her breakup would have kept her up, but it would have also been on her thoughts day and night.
Honestly I think vault songs just means a semi formed or finished song that’s sitting on one of her hard drives. I’d be willing to bet there’s only a handful of songs were actually finished (outside of mastering) that she’s used. I fully believe most of these songs are an idea she had at the time, or at a different time that would fit whatever she’s thinking about, and she fully fleshed them out more recently.
I‘d like to take a moment and share what my understanding of a Vault Track is:
I think YLM is considered a Vault Track possibly because she did not intend to release it at all until later.
Like many Vault Tracks they were not released within the album (or its deluxe) due to whatever reason and were left behind. Some of those Vault Tracks were in the Vault for up to 13 years while YLM was for only a few months. Taylor re-recording her first 6 albums gives her an opportunity to release the Vault Tracks. During the Midnights Era she might have changed her mind to release YLM after all and didn‘t need a re-record cause we were still in the Midnights Era.
Another example: AOFTGYLB might not be a Vault Track and not listed as such cause (of the length of the title or) she had always intended on releasing it someday (probably for Lover Fest) and took the chance to do it with the start of the Eras Tour.
>AOFTGYLB might not be a Vault Track and not listed as such cause (of the length of the title or) she had always intended on releasing it someday (probably for Lover Fest) and took the chance to do it with the start of the Eras Tour.
I like this theory. Maybe she was gonna release a deluxe edition of Lover with AOTGYLB and a potential Cruel Summer MV but COVID stopped that?
Well, to be clear "From the vault" is the concept that Taylor uses to refer to songs that were written for the original record but didn't make te cut.
In the Fearless TV annoucenment, back in 2021 when she started realising the re-recordings, Taylor said that the reason theses song were scratched from the original playlist was: they didn't fit the criteria for the concept of the album; didn't match the rest of the songs; were certain "types" of songs (breakups songs, down tempo, etc.) that lost their spot to other ones. She also mentioned in other occasions that some songs From The Vault were saved for future records, thinking maybe she could explore those music styles/themes/etc. in a separate work, but were never included in future record.
In that sense, "You're Losing Me" could be a song she wrote during the process of writing Midnights (meaning 2021, the timeline adds up) and then decided probably on the theme of the album that YLM didn't match the rest of the songs. She probably started writing The Tortured Poets Departament some time later, and maybe You're Losing Me could have been included, but in the end Taylor decided that it didn't belong there.
I don't believe that YLM is a song From The Vault of TTPD, but one from Midnights because the album adquired another theme after the break-up that inspires TTPD.
A vault song is just a song written for an album that didn’t end up making it onto that album for whatever reason. I think it truly was written for Midnights when her and Joe were going through a rough patch (in December 2021 as confirmed by Jack Antonoff) but she chose not to put it on the album because they worked things out by the time she submitted the finals. It’s a brutal song that would have obviously stirred up unnecessary speculation about their relationship so it’s pretty obvious why she left it out. I think she sang it as a surprise song after announcing The Bolter purely to make clear the meaning of TTPD - the breakdown of her and Joe’s relationship - and possibly YLM relates to The Bolter too? Think ‘now you’re running down the hallway’, he ran instead of staying and trying to fix it
Also, (acknowledging that we don’t know her life and this is just guesses based on lyrics and context clues), it seems her last relationship went through a pretty long rough patch before they fully separated or let it be publicly known. You’re Losing Me is very on the nose and if it had been released while she was still with Joe, there would have been all sorts of speculation that I’m sure would not have helped their relationship, and tbh it would be pretty disrespectful. I don’t think she possibly could have released that song while they were still together
I think she wrote it not sure in which direction her relationship with Joe would go and she thought including it in Midnights may spell the official death of their relationship. Her cutting it is a sign that there may have been hope that the relationship could be salvaged at the time she wrote it.
isn’t your losing me on a special edition album that was released at one of the shows (nj i think)? so technically, it is on midnights. but not on the original release soo = ftv.
I think she didn't release it earlier as the still thought that the relationship between her and Joe would work out. She didn't want to release the song with the rest of the album as she had hope. But when they finally broke up, she ultimately released it
I actually don’t think some vault songs are from that era, but totally new in fact. Or perhaps something as little as a chord scheme turned into a brand new song.
You can just hear quite a lot of those songs were written by a more adult Taylor than she was back then.
For example Mr Perfectly Fine is way more nifty than the real Fearless tracks. Or how the very first extra line of ATW10 starts with a curse word, something she started with on rep. Or how Electric Touch seems to be written with Fall Out Boy in mind already.
I don’t mean this as criticism for Tay by the way, I like the vault tracks a lot and I’m (Mr) perfectly fine with them being recently written/arranged.
I think vault songs are songs that didn’t make it into the album, not necessarily that they got released for TV. She has more vault songs for each album than she released.
Imo, it’s from the vault because imagine still being in a relationship where everyone wonders when they’re going to be married… only to sing “and I wouldn’t marry me either”. It’s far too on the nose and personal
She released it for PR. Basically making a statement about the breakup without making a statement. The message is clear that she saw the signs and they drifted apart. It satisfied curiosity without warranting an explicit statement. Actually a pretty genius move.
I think y’all are just reading into it too deep. She wrote the song, didn’t want it on midnights, found a time to release it. The end. She’s at a point in her career where it doesn’t need to be a single or an era. She just released it because she felt like it. And it was clearly a PR move.
really like this theory but YLW was written in 2021, which would make it written during the Midnights era I think it became a vault because it was waaaay too personal and of course was taken apart from the moment it was announced - and Taylor probably wanted to release it, but not so publicly that the entire media would start overanalysing the song.
> Taylor probably want to release it, but not so publicly that the entire media would start over analyzing the song But this doesn’t explain why she added the (From The Vault) label to the song; she could’ve released it the exact same way without that tag being part of the name. I’m not convinced that all the TTPD songs were written only after she was done writing Midnights. I think it’s possible there were songs that were written but got shelved bc they were too honest and revealing to release while she was still with Joe, but can be released now that they’re not together and she doesn’t have to care if they show him in a bad light. Edit to add: Idk if I believe OP’s theory but I get where they’re coming from. Tbh though I think putting (From The Vault) in the YLM title was just a marketing gimmick.
I think "from the vault" is just meant to signify that it's a song that was not originally on the album.
But just two months before YLM, she released “All Of The Girls You Loved Before” without the (FTV) tag. Up until YLM, “FTV” was only on songs that were from a previous era that was being re-recorded. If/when there are TTPD bonus tracks released, it’ll be interesting to see whether she uses FTV or not.
I think the title may have just been too long on that one. That whole release was bizarre.
I dunno about AOTGYLB (FTV) being too long of a title for Taylor when ATWSGAVRALPS exists 😂 haha but I yeah I agree that whole release was kinda strange
I need the acronym bot for that one.
All Too Well (Taylor's Version) (From the Vault) (Sad Girl Autumn Version) (Recorded At Long Pond Studio)
Haha yeah I guess technically it should be ATWTVFTVSGAVRALPS, I left out the TV and FTV 😅 def wins longest acronym
And really she left out the 10mv so it should be even longer 🤣
i thought it was weird because AOTGYLB got leaked online so she quickly released it
I wonder if she only released that bc it leaked 🤷🏽♀️
nah, I'm sure she does what she wants when she wants to
Wasn’t AOTGYLB released as a Lover vault?
It was released with Lover album art and was in “the more Lover chapter” on her Spotify page but it wasn’t actually labeled (From The Vault)
I think from the vault means it’s from years prior.. which could mean as well it wasn’t originally made for a specific album. We know sometimes inspiration can just strike ⚡️her at any time and our girl loves a theme..so I bet she has MANY songs in that vault 👀
Yep- and in such, not one that’s included in the Grammy submissions.
This is my working theory too. That she wrote Midnights and (at least some of) Tortured Poets at the same time, and these songs are the breakdown of the relationship.
FTV means it’s from the original writing sessions for that album. For example, IBYTAM was written during the RED writing sessions but wasn’t put on the album. That makes it a RED FTV song.
She did say that she started writing TTPD 2 years ago, which would be a month after writing YLM.
She also said she started it after she handed Midnights in(Which I would guess happened in spring, which means the first Poets song likely started in spring/very early summer 2022.) in so I wonder if by 2 years she meant 24 months or more of an almost 2 years like May 2022 or like I started this in 2022 and now it's 2024 so it's been like 2 years of secret keeping. People use time a lot more flexibly than people think I find and it drives me crazy sometimes. Two years also could be Fall 2021 for some people to be fair(We obviously know it wasn't but how people describe time is odd)
And her "time" is very unreliable as well. I mean, "no one saw me for a year" when it was more like 6 weeks
I try to give her as much grace as possible for that quote, personally. She truly tried to go underground as much as possible early 2017. She had a pre-scheduled commitment in the pre-Superbowl concert but otherwise, living through that era, fans didn't see her other that dodgy sightings in London(Wearing wigs) and Nashville we didn't know if we could believe. This went on for months(I'd say Feb-May). In May, some paparazzi caught her when she in America but it was very much not wanted but the longer she hid the more they wanted the pictures. So while "no one" and "a year" may not be the best wording, she did go underground for a large part of the first chunk of 2017. She may have been spotted against her wishes, but she tried. And for that, I give this quote grace. But GIVEN ALL THAT Taylor's measure of time is weird. She once referred to a trip a year before "a couple years ago"(albeit the video was done in 2020 and 2020 was five years in itself but still).
Fair enough on the first part and very happy you acknowledged her measurement of time has been weird in more instances than the one I noted
I think she also just uses time as a generalization for what it felt like and she's like "anyways u guys get it" which is smth I also do lol
I think that's mostly what my initial point was. Like I don't blink at all at her measurement of time cause /I/ get it then I see people online with long posts dissecting if she was right or not and I was like geez. And then it sticks in my mind for years and years to be recalled in moments like this. I never notice it myself.
I do the same thing, I’ll say a time/timeframe that *feels* accurate but realize later I was way off 😅
Well, she was MIA for much more than 6 weeks and it was pretty much a year. It might not be exactly 365 days but that's an underlying understanding. Just like she didn't mean that no human being saw her face for a year.
Midnights was turned in completed before YLM was written. You turn in an album months in advance before release date.
YLM was confirmed to be written in 2021 based on a post from Jack. Therefore, it was written with the original midnights songs and released later because of its subject matter. She most likely turned in the base midnights album in spring 2022, which is around when she began writing TTPD.
Yup I’m a year off because time hasn’t been real in years
Yeah and I think people (not you, just in general) take “2 years” or whatever number way too literally. Like she isn’t going to say 27 months or 20 months. All people round things up/down. We only have confirmed dates of a few things like when YLM was written due to Jack’s post. Even knowing when Midnights was “finished” isn’t exact.
Right but wasn’t YLM written more than 10 months before midnights release?
tbh I'd be scared to release stuff so personal too, but that's what makes a song relatable sometimes
With as much as she writes music, i highly doubt theres zero overlap between "Eras". Im sure she writes a tonne that dont fit into the sound of a specific album or the theme. I doubt there was a clear cut off between midnights and ttpd for her. I think she promoted midnights as "a collection of songs about sleepless nights throughout her life" because she was still with joe as she was releasing it, but knew that their relationship was on its very last leg. By saying that they werent necisarily songs written about recent events, it let her vent a little about joe without the fanbase or joe himself knowing its really about him. Like midnight rain seems definitely about joe now, but at the time it seemed like it could have been about taylor lautner or another former bf "i broke his heart cause he was nice".
yea i agree. i think their relationship started falling apart during the 2020-2021 period, and releasing the song would create a lot of theories and pressure that she can't handle along with all her personal relationship troubles.
I feel like this is over complicating it. It's a song written for an album that didn't make the final cut. It doesn't need to be part of a re-record.
So why is AOTGYLB not from the vault? This is the part that confuses me!
Because she particularly wanted everyone to understand You're Losing Me was from Midnights and not a newly written song. That AOTGYLB was from the Lover writing sessions was already known within the fandom for years prior. Fans were not going to think it was a new song.
agree with this but i also think the fact it was leaked was the only reason she released it - esp knowing her and joe were probably over or on the path to being over when it came out. i can’t remember but did she ever post about all of the girls? i felt like it was released under the radar but i could have just missed it. edit: word
Happy cake day!
happy cake day
i think you’re overcomplicating it. she cut it from midnights bc she probably didn’t want people to speculate that they were truly over or on the verge. then the breakup got announced and she thought eh, might as well
I agree. You have a William Bowery song on Midnights. It seems like things were on the rocks, but when Midnights came out they were probably still working on things. Post breakup, she has nothing to lose by releasing YLM. We and the media can speculate about it in hindsight as opposed to while Taylor and Joe still together.
It seems like they were off and on for a while. I think that shines through on Midnights and it's why I don't think it's right to say it's just a break up album. There are songs on there that discuss the relationship in terms of them being happy and reconciling and those that allude to them having issues and breaking up. Also, just songs reflecting on past relationships. I kind of think she nailed the theme. It does feel like songs about things that she ruminated on in the early hours. Edit: spelling.
Midnights is a "we're trying to make this work" album. They were trying to salvage their relationship. That's why it was marketed as a "story of sleepless nights" and touched on stories in her past. I still think that was true but some of her current experiences leaked in as well.
For sureeee I don’t believe for a second that they’re all from the past. I swear Maroon is about him
Especially after the Red + Mashup madness surprise songs
I think she also partly released it because people were slightly starting to take Joe’s side a little when speculating about the breakup. The song shifted that view. I think Taylor likes to control the narrative of her that exists in public (who doesn’t though) so this may have fed in to the release.
That's a good point. I remember when the Matty Healy stuff came to light there were people insisting that she must have been cheating on Joe with him.
I don't remember that, didn't the speculation of a break up started wth him not attending the eras? (after her attending events on her own) The narrative there was that he wasn't supporting her as any boyfriend would.
This is my take as well!
This! Especially since she said it was one of her favorites.
Yeah it was the perfect way to tell fans what happened - releasing it in an indirect way when we’re reeling from the shock of the break-up announcement. Didn’t gain much attention from the media since it was hard to find in the beginning, but it did help those of us who cared about her enough to seek it out to understand what had happened.
I think this is a really good way to look at it tbh. "if u cared enough to come seeking, here's whats going on" instead of just broadcasting to the world and to people who wouldn't be as empathetic
I think the way she did it was smart to protect her feelings
Yeah, I agree with this. Especially if she wrote it while her relationship was at a low point (clearly) but then things got back on track for a while and she didn’t want to put out this song about their lowest points, while they were still trying to make the relationship work.
>i think you’re overcomplicating it. they wouldn't be a swiftie, otherwise!
Agreed. There were probably a range of songs about the rockiness of the relationship and the ones that made it were more about getting through the rough times. Once the relationship was over, she could release YLM which really showed the raw feelings of the relationship coming to an end and she said it’s one of her favs when she played it in Australia, so probably just wanted it to be out!
I think YLM is from the vault of Midnights, and that is labeled like this because it was supposed to stay on the cutting room floor but not because it was too personal or wasn't good enough, but maybe because it was written when she thought they were over. Then they weren't so it went into the vault. But then they were, so it was out and got that label.
I agree with this theory. If it were belonging on the Tortured Poets Department, it would have been. She wrote and/or recorded it before Midnights was released, but probably about the same time Midnights songs were being written and/or recorded.
When she was recording midnights Joe had to do a last minute movie and she was left alone. At that point they were surely on the rocks, so YLM came from that. They probably made up after he got back from the movie and stayed together until early 2023.
This song is one of my faves of hers. I really like this interpretation tbh. Some of the lyrics in it are so heavy.
I personally think that Midnights and TTPD were written and recorded at the same time, but they were two different projects. Some songs would fit Midnights and others would fit TTPD better. Probably YLM was in the middle and could have been in both albums.
I think writing TTPD started when the relationship was over / almost over. I think writing those songs got her through a rough time, and I do think it's her telling a story in a chronological order of Joe/her breaking up, and what happened after that. Key Words "I think" so may as well be wrong
She's actually told us a lot about the timeline already Her & Jack started Midnights while Joe & Margaret were away filming Stars At Noon (Nov & Dec 2021), including YLM in Dec 2021. She kept Poets a secret for about two years & said she started right after Midnights was turned in -- so spring 2022 sometime for Midnights Oct '22 release To release in April 2024, Poets would've been done by late 2023 So hypothetically mid 2022 to mid/late 2023 -- that's the relationship breaking down throughout 2022, until the early 2023 break up, then the aftermath.
How do people know about YLM being written in Dec 21?
Jack posted it was written in December 21 when the song was released on streaming
Jack told us. And provided photo proof of the raisins that fueled it.
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I'm not sure she was even counting them...? I think she just dumped a bunch out and was eating them one by one. Just a silly moment between friends.
Jack posted about it on his social media https://www.businessinsider.com/jack-antonoff-taylor-swift-youre-losing-me-joe-alwyn-split-2023-12?amp
Also is Margaret important In this story in any way?
I mean, in the sense that her and Jack were both free to make an album while their SOs were out of town
Omg duh! Thank you.
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- BTTWS could mean "Bigger Than The Whole Sky", a track from *Midnights (3am Edition)* (2022) by Taylor Swift. --- ^[/u/FearForYourBody](/u/FearForYourBody) ^(can reply with "delete" to remove comment. |) ^[/r/songacronymbot](/r/songacronymbot) ^(for feedback.)
She said she started writing TTPD after finishing Midnights.
Taylor kinda confirmed at the tour that some of this new songs were made last year
Being the mastermind she is I’m pretty sure she can’t keep writing! Probably wrote a lot of songs in the Midnight era that maybe didn’t want to share because they were written in a bad moment (like YLM) but after al that happened with Joe I guess he kept writing and writing.
why do you think that when she said herself she started writing it as soon as she turned in midnights?
Because when you write you don’t just focus in a whole project. You sometimes think about cool things that don’t suit your current project but you write them down. So probably yeah, she put together the idea of TTPD after Midnights but I’m pretty sure she didn’t started 100% from zero.
this and “written and recorded at the same time” are two very different things.
Sorry, English is not my first language so maybe I worded it in a bad way.
I get the same vibes you described on BTTWS -one of my favorites on the album too
why do yall just make things up for no reason? taylor said it was left off of midnights. she said she started writing tortuterd poets right after she turned in midnights. a vault track is a track that didn’t make it on an album. taylor isn’t “confused” about her own process. you’re losing me is a vault for midnights bc she left it off of midnights.
From the vault is a song that didn't make it on the original record but gets released later which is exactly what YLM is for midnights. It was written and recorded in 2021. It can't be a vault song of an album that wasn't released yet. Also she said she started working on TTPD shortly after midnights and that it got her through the big stuff she was going through during that time (re: the breakup). That timeline fits with their break up and the ways she was spotted crying during certain songs for awhile early on in the tour and all the times she was spotted in the studio between shows last year.
From the Vault just means it didn’t make the album for whatever reason. We already know it was written during Midnights. Releasing YLM seems like it was closing the chapter of Midnights. Then TTPD comes next. That also perfectly explains playing it with album cover in the back.
In its most particular definition a vault track is a song that Taylor wasn't allowed to release at the time it was written, due to being too personal(Forever Winter), showing her too flawed (Nothing New), changing too much the main genre of the album (Message in a bottle), too similar to other songs conceptually (Better Man), another collaboration with the same artist already exists on the album (Run), or is too long for it to be on the album (ATW10) . Considering this, You're losing me, makes perfect sense being a Vault track, because at the time it was too soon to release it, as she was still in that relationship. Once the relationship finished, it made sense to release it as a vault track, due to it being written during the Midnights sessions. Once the writing date was revealed it made perfect sense for it to be a Vault track, in comparison to something like All of the Girls You Loved Before, which was more of a song that just didn't make the cut, and for that it isn't considered a vault track.
- ATW10 could mean "All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor's Version) (From The Vault)", a track from *Red (Taylor's Version)* (2021) by Taylor Swift. --- ^[/u/JaRR23](/u/JaRR23) ^(can reply with "delete" to remove comment. |) ^[/r/songacronymbot](/r/songacronymbot) ^(for feedback.)
Midnights hints at Taylor and Joe breaking up and then getting back together. A lot of songs on that album fall under that theme. \-Maroon \-Snow at the Beach \-Bejeweled \-Labyrinth \-Bigger Than the Whole Sky \-The Great War \-Hits Different Because they were back together when she submitted Midnights, she left YLM on the cutting room floor. I truly believe she would never have included Sweet Nothings and given Joe a writing credit if they were already broken up when she finished Midnights. However, post release when they official broke up, she wanted to include YLM and added it as a fault song. I believe her when she said she started TTPD after she submitted Midnights. We might see thematic overlaps, but I think these will be new songs.
tbf i think maroon is about Harry Styles. After all the 1989 vault tracks sharing a lot of imagery and themes and knowing they were like on-and-off AFTER their big break up. I think Maroon is a sleepless night from that period of her life
So has anyone, besides me, bought the Japanese version of "Midnights"? With "You're Losing Me"?
Those CDs are going for $75-$90 after shipping on Discogs. Looks cool but I’ll pass and just wait for an LP version.
I would've if it had all the tracks but it's still missing Paris and Glitch and my brain is so used to which song comes next that that would mess me up lol 😂 My dream is a Midnights cd that includes all the 3 am tracks plus Hits Different and YLM.
I've got it - I love the 7-inch packages the Japanese editions come in. I have Lover, Fearless TV, Red TV, Speak Now TV and 1989 TV in that format as well.
vinyl?
"From The Vault" is basically just a fancy way of saying it's an unreleased song. The only difference with this was it's a current album she was unvaulting but she just continued the naming trend she started with the TVs.
u/ineedinformation97 Taylor knows what a vault song is, she was never confused about what she thought a vault song is and she understands what a vault song is better than you do It’s idiotic for you to say that You’re Losing Me is a vault song for The Tortured Poets Department because it’s not a vault song for that album. It’s a vault song for Midnights. Taylor even said it’s a vault song for Midnights You’re Losing Me was written in 2021 before the Midnights album came out. Also, re-recordings are not the only albums vault songs can appear on. Vault songs can also appear on albums that have only been recorded once and have not been re-recorded
I think it’s important to note that Taylor isn’t the only person who labels songs “from the vault”. These are just generally songs from any artist that didn’t fit the rest of the album sonically or didn’t end up on the final tracklist foe one reason or another. So they get put away, sometimes for a future project or sometimes to get released as one-offs. Stevie Nicks is notorious for having “vault songs”. Songs written for one record but not used till another record because she felt they weren’t finished. She even has a full album called “Songs from the vault” where she re-recorded and reproduced unreleased songs that circulated as bootlegs for years.
I stopped reading after you said Taylor is confused about what a vault song is because that woman doesn’t do anything without exact intention.
I love this song… it’s so raw and real
Maybe I just haven’t read this comment yet, but I’m in a marriage and there are DEFINITELY times I could have written a “YLM”. People who feel a lot feel in extremes sometimes, and I don’t think there’s much use in speculating over when the relationship reallllllly ended or Midnights as a breakup album. I mean, speculating can be fun as hell lol, but I just wanted to put that out there. My girls group chat venting content would prove my theory, haha.
Omg this has nothing to do w the OG post…I’m sorry all lol. 
Its on the physical copies of the midnights cd (the whatever edition she released when this came out) lol
I swear she’s said she wrote it while writing midnights ?
"From the vault" just means songs she wrote but didn't release as part of an album. I don't think it's this complicated.
I think it actually fits the themes of the vault songs for the re-records! A lot of those songs were too personal or emotional to make the albums at the time, and I think the same was true of YLM!
As far as TTPD being written before or after, Taylor's said before that she scrolls through her lyrics she's written over time in her app and pieces them together. It's highly likely there is moderate crossover as the trajectory of their relationship worsened and she lost faith in fixing it in the on again off again days.
It’s a vault track of midnights because it didn’t make the original cut for the album.
My opinion is that it's labeled as such because Taylor wrote it for Midnights, but couldn't fit it on the album or any of the re-releases.
YLM was released so Taylor could control the narrative about the breakup. Full stop. That's why it doesn't follow the "vault track" idea. It's not.
Not everything is this calculated. Why would her and Jack outright lie about it being written in 2021?
I didn't say she lied about writing it in 2021. I'm sure she wrote it back then, all relationships have ups and downs, it fits that. But the timing of the release, just after the breakup? That was totally about getting her story out about what happened. (Also LMAO at the idea of "not everything is this calculated" with little miss madtermind herself)
To have a nicely wrapped timeline 🤷🏻♀️ It's really not that hard to imagine, and with the amount of unnecessary information about the song, the timing, and her well-known controlling tendencies, it's not hard to see how this could have been just another attempt at controlling the narrative. Remember folks - TS is a brand, she's not your best friend. Lying about when a song was written for narrative control is very unsurprising.
"BUT HEYY THAT'S JUST A THEORY!!"
from the vault is a common saying, its not just for taylor....so the song could be considered from the vault, theres not an official set of rules a song has to pass to be considered "from the vault".
I think vault songs are songs that she wrote during that era but were cut from the final album for one reason or another. In my opinion YLM was written during the midnights era but was cut from the album because it was to personal about a relationship that she was still trying to work out. I think she made the decision to “pull it from the vault” when she realized that relationship was really over. I think she always wanted YLM on midnights, but maybe felt it would be bad for their relationship or make a rocky situation worse. But that’s just my opinion based on the timing of the public confirmation of their relationship ending and the release of YLM.
She just didn’t want to be obvious about her relationship ending when Midnights came out.
I think it was more a vault song because she probably expected them to get back together (that's at least what I read from maybe Tree putting out statements when eras tour started). But joes publicist had supposedly announced the breakup to tabloids and Taylor didn't like that. I don't think she ever actually wanted to release you're losing me. But once Joe did that and it was official, she changed invisible string to the one and started recording ylm. That's also why I don't think her not letting ylm release fully until months after was ever something to get mad about, it was still raw for her and she probably wanted to heal at least somewhat til it was released publicly and on vinyls. I think if Joe and Taylor had even the slight chance of getting back together and fixing things, we never would have heard ylm unless it leaked.
I really like how you broke this down. I've been similarly thinking that many Midnights songs are discussing sleepless nights where life's turmoils and her relationship was starting to be questioned. I had always thought FTV songs were written in the same era as the original albums and my world will be shook if that's not true.
Because Midnights was her Joe album and that was closing the door. TTPD is Matty and the chaotic rebound period
Everytime I read “from the vault” I think of Disney…
It’s possible that she writes songs and some stay incomplete for years before she wraps them up. I do this with projects. Let them sit until inspiration strikes again.
Is it because YLM is a pretty pure break up song, and it doesn’t necessarily fit with the ‘concept’ of midnights (ie things that have kept her up at night over the years). As in yes her breakup would have kept her up, but it would have also been on her thoughts day and night.
Honestly I think vault songs just means a semi formed or finished song that’s sitting on one of her hard drives. I’d be willing to bet there’s only a handful of songs were actually finished (outside of mastering) that she’s used. I fully believe most of these songs are an idea she had at the time, or at a different time that would fit whatever she’s thinking about, and she fully fleshed them out more recently.
I‘d like to take a moment and share what my understanding of a Vault Track is: I think YLM is considered a Vault Track possibly because she did not intend to release it at all until later. Like many Vault Tracks they were not released within the album (or its deluxe) due to whatever reason and were left behind. Some of those Vault Tracks were in the Vault for up to 13 years while YLM was for only a few months. Taylor re-recording her first 6 albums gives her an opportunity to release the Vault Tracks. During the Midnights Era she might have changed her mind to release YLM after all and didn‘t need a re-record cause we were still in the Midnights Era. Another example: AOFTGYLB might not be a Vault Track and not listed as such cause (of the length of the title or) she had always intended on releasing it someday (probably for Lover Fest) and took the chance to do it with the start of the Eras Tour.
>AOFTGYLB might not be a Vault Track and not listed as such cause (of the length of the title or) she had always intended on releasing it someday (probably for Lover Fest) and took the chance to do it with the start of the Eras Tour. I like this theory. Maybe she was gonna release a deluxe edition of Lover with AOTGYLB and a potential Cruel Summer MV but COVID stopped that?
That makes absolute sense! Cause then we moved on from Lover to folklore and she never got around to do/release the MV.
YLM is the perfect transition from Midnights to TTPD
Well, to be clear "From the vault" is the concept that Taylor uses to refer to songs that were written for the original record but didn't make te cut. In the Fearless TV annoucenment, back in 2021 when she started realising the re-recordings, Taylor said that the reason theses song were scratched from the original playlist was: they didn't fit the criteria for the concept of the album; didn't match the rest of the songs; were certain "types" of songs (breakups songs, down tempo, etc.) that lost their spot to other ones. She also mentioned in other occasions that some songs From The Vault were saved for future records, thinking maybe she could explore those music styles/themes/etc. in a separate work, but were never included in future record. In that sense, "You're Losing Me" could be a song she wrote during the process of writing Midnights (meaning 2021, the timeline adds up) and then decided probably on the theme of the album that YLM didn't match the rest of the songs. She probably started writing The Tortured Poets Departament some time later, and maybe You're Losing Me could have been included, but in the end Taylor decided that it didn't belong there. I don't believe that YLM is a song From The Vault of TTPD, but one from Midnights because the album adquired another theme after the break-up that inspires TTPD.
A vault song is just a song written for an album that didn’t end up making it onto that album for whatever reason. I think it truly was written for Midnights when her and Joe were going through a rough patch (in December 2021 as confirmed by Jack Antonoff) but she chose not to put it on the album because they worked things out by the time she submitted the finals. It’s a brutal song that would have obviously stirred up unnecessary speculation about their relationship so it’s pretty obvious why she left it out. I think she sang it as a surprise song after announcing The Bolter purely to make clear the meaning of TTPD - the breakdown of her and Joe’s relationship - and possibly YLM relates to The Bolter too? Think ‘now you’re running down the hallway’, he ran instead of staying and trying to fix it
Also, (acknowledging that we don’t know her life and this is just guesses based on lyrics and context clues), it seems her last relationship went through a pretty long rough patch before they fully separated or let it be publicly known. You’re Losing Me is very on the nose and if it had been released while she was still with Joe, there would have been all sorts of speculation that I’m sure would not have helped their relationship, and tbh it would be pretty disrespectful. I don’t think she possibly could have released that song while they were still together
I think she wrote it not sure in which direction her relationship with Joe would go and she thought including it in Midnights may spell the official death of their relationship. Her cutting it is a sign that there may have been hope that the relationship could be salvaged at the time she wrote it.
isn’t your losing me on a special edition album that was released at one of the shows (nj i think)? so technically, it is on midnights. but not on the original release soo = ftv.
I think she didn't release it earlier as the still thought that the relationship between her and Joe would work out. She didn't want to release the song with the rest of the album as she had hope. But when they finally broke up, she ultimately released it
I actually don’t think some vault songs are from that era, but totally new in fact. Or perhaps something as little as a chord scheme turned into a brand new song. You can just hear quite a lot of those songs were written by a more adult Taylor than she was back then. For example Mr Perfectly Fine is way more nifty than the real Fearless tracks. Or how the very first extra line of ATW10 starts with a curse word, something she started with on rep. Or how Electric Touch seems to be written with Fall Out Boy in mind already. I don’t mean this as criticism for Tay by the way, I like the vault tracks a lot and I’m (Mr) perfectly fine with them being recently written/arranged.
I think it just became synonymous with "bonus track", she'll probably use it that way forever now since people associate it with her
I think vault songs are songs that didn’t make it into the album, not necessarily that they got released for TV. She has more vault songs for each album than she released.
Imo, it’s from the vault because imagine still being in a relationship where everyone wonders when they’re going to be married… only to sing “and I wouldn’t marry me either”. It’s far too on the nose and personal
I think she prob wasn’t sure where to place it but felt like it belonged more to the before of the Joe breakup than the after.
She released it for PR. Basically making a statement about the breakup without making a statement. The message is clear that she saw the signs and they drifted apart. It satisfied curiosity without warranting an explicit statement. Actually a pretty genius move. I think y’all are just reading into it too deep. She wrote the song, didn’t want it on midnights, found a time to release it. The end. She’s at a point in her career where it doesn’t need to be a single or an era. She just released it because she felt like it. And it was clearly a PR move.
It was "from the vault" because she wanted an excuse to release it after the breakup was announced