“Death By A Thousand Cuts” is the tenth track on the seventh studio album ‘Lover’ by Taylor Swift.
The much-anticipated 2019 album ‘Lover’ contains 18 tracks on the standard edition including three singles “ME!” featuring Brendon Urie, “You Need to Calm Down” and the title track “Lover.” The new album is in complete contrast to Taylor’s previous album ‘Reputation’ released in 2017, which focused on speaking out her mind against her haters. In this era, however, Taylor Swift is in love, and that reflects throughout the album.
“Death by a Thousand Cuts” narrates a scenario where her current relationship would fail and it would hurt her like her body being cut a thousand times over and over. Listen to the song below.
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The song starts off with the chorus which explains the premise for this song. She thinks to a time where her relationship would come to an end–possibly her current relationship with Joe Alwyn. This is Taylor’s longest relationship so far, having started in 2016. Hence, undoubtedly it would hurt like hell, should it come to an unfortunate end between the two. The chorus also gives a subtle nod to her 2017 track “Call It What You Want” when she speaks of windows of her love castle being boarded.
The first verse of “Death by a Thousand Cuts,” draws a vague reference to one of Taylor’s most iconic songs “All Too Well.” She talks about being at traffic lights in the present day and asking the question if she will be alright? In “All Too Well,” we are told of a love story where her lover sat in his car stopped at the red light and gazing at her beauty. She talks about the love they cherished, which he claimed to be one of the greatest. But she wonders why she is scribbling sad notes if it was the case.
In the second verse, Taylor Swift sings of all the reasons why this love will hurt so much if it should end. They have felt every inch of their bodies on each other. Their love had engulfed them both. He had earned her trust and she gave him everything. But for some reason, all of it was not enough to keep him. Taylor says the breakup was quite abrupt as well–having thrown out like bad drugs. This kind of breakups will hurt the most.
Let us hear what you think about this song and what it means to you in the comments below.
The complete album releases on August 23, 2019, through Republic Records.