“it’s time to go” is the seventeenth and final track on Taylor Swift’s second 2020 album ‘evermore,’ and is also the second bonus track on the deluxe edition of the album. In the song, Taylor Swift talks about the very publicized feud with her former record label Big Machine Records.
Taylor Swift announced her 9th studio album ‘evermore‘ in quick succession to her previous studio album ‘folklore‘ which was released in July 2020. Both albums follow a similar theme and Taylor called them ‘sister-records.’ “To try and put it more poetically, it feels like we were standing on the edge of the folklorian woods and had a choice: to turn and go back or to travel further into the forest of this music. We chose to wander deeper in,” said Taylor Swift announcing the album. The ‘evermore’ album releases on December 11, 2020.
Through “it’s time to go,” Taylor Swift intertwines themes of a relationship gone south and her feud with Big Machine Record. In a sense, both relationships have similar traits. And both fallouts broke a little part of her soul.
Listen to “it’s time to go” by Taylor Swift
Buy ‘evermore’ Album on Apple Music and Amazon
“it’s time to go” Lyrics Meaning and Song Review
Verse 1
In the first verse, Taylor Swift ties in the theme of a romantic relationship gone south. The crook who was caught maybe Taylor Swift in the eyes of her haters. Taylor Swift has been accused of being a liar and a snake before! Even during the feud between Taylor and Big Machine Records label, the record label owner Scooter Braun claims that he offered Taylor to buy her catalog of music before she left and she refused–a claim that is directly contrasting what Taylor claims to have happened.
Chorus
Taylor Swift is no stranger to sour relationships. She has lived through her fair share of romantic relationships that did not pan out, and the same thing could be said to her business relationships. Most notably the ongoing feud between Taylor Swift and Scooter Braun and Scott Borchetta, the owner of Big Machine Records, the label under which Taylor was signed for fourteen years and released six studio albums. Taylor Swift could not buy the rights to her own music catalog when she left Big Machine Records and joined Republic Records in 2018. Later, Scott Borchetta sold Big Machine Records company to Scooter Braun, without Taylor’s consent. And now, Scooter Braun is refusing to sell the catalog to Taylor. This has made Taylor vow to re-record all these albums again.
So, we can understand when Taylor sings that these fallouts have the same breaks in her soul.
Verse 2
The second verse of the song may be about Taylor’s parents Scott and Andrea Swift. They are reported to be divorced but are staying together for the sake of Taylor Swift, who needs every support she can get to run her multi-million dollar empire. Taylor knows that this decision is against the best conduct for them–but she needs it. The last thing she needs is lesser people in her camp.
Post-chorus
The lyrics in this section are not what you would often hear in a song. Taylor Swift says that sometimes giving up is the stronger option, running away is the bravest thing, and walking out is the only option. Whilst it might not look so on the surface of it, you are better off living to fight another day than perishing trying to be a hero for a day!
Verse 3
In the third verse of “it’s time to go,” Taylor Swift addresses her struggle with Big Machine Record label owners. Taylor Swift was signed to Big Machine Records in 2004 and was there until their fallout in 2018. For fourteen years, she earned them big money and still does so not being able to own right to her first six albums. It is also not wrong to say that Taylor did give the best days of her career to them–her first six albums are all multi-platinum verified in sales.
Taylor Swift says that she begged to have her music catalog back but Scott Borchetta or Scooter Braun had no sympathy towards her–both of them were infected with greed. However, Taylor’s career is only on the rise, and with her re-recording her first six albums, she will own rights to the new versions, and the old versions owned by Scooter Braun will reduce in value and demand drastically. In the end, Taylor wins again!
The final message of the song is that when it’s time to go, you just have to go, walk away from everything. Because losing your sanity being in the wrong relationships is not worth anything in the world.
Let us hear what you think about this song in the comments below. Check out the complete lyrics and further meaning breakdown on Genius.