“Maroon” is the second track on Taylor Swift’s 2022 album ‘Midnights.’ Taylor Swift has often used different colors to express her emotions. The color ‘red’ has been a trademark of Taylor Swift from her red lips to the ‘Red’ album to her burning love life. ‘Maroon,’ albeit a shade of red, does not evoke as much emotion as red.
‘Midnights‘ is the tenth studio album by Taylor Swift following her ‘evermore‘ and ‘folklore‘ album releases in 2020. Announcing the album, Taylor Swift said “This is a collection of music written in the middle of the night, a journey through terrors and sweet dreams.” The album was released on October 21, 2022.
Throughout “Maroon,” Taylor Swift explores even further shades of red such as scarlet, burgundy, and mentions several objects that take different shades of red such as rust, wine, blood, roses, and rubies. Whilst the color ‘red’ signifies a passionate, burning, and a live relationship, maroon, the duller version of red, signifies a duller and a more grounded take on love and relationships.
Listen to “Maroon” by Taylor Swift
Listen to ‘Midnights’ Album on Apple Music & Amazon
Taylor Swift “Maroon” Lyrics Meaning and Song Review
With the ‘Midnights’ album Taylor Swift warned us that we are getting a deep dive into the thoughts that keep her awake in the middle of the night.
And there won’t be any burning passionate thoughts keeping you up in the middle of the night. It’s the opposite kind of thoughts that keep us awake.
Maroon is what burning red turns into when the flame dies down and gets trampled on by a couple of people. In this song, Taylor reminisces about a lover she had once. She recollects the first night they spent the night together burning the incense away. A cheap wine got them there, but they rode it off.
Taylor remembers the days and nights she spent with this lover–the one with whom she felt free to dance around New York City with no shoes on. She could really let herself free in front of them.
One little wine accident at the supper table turned Taylor’s t-shirt into a burgundy color. She blushes–her cheeks turn a rosy red. The sky was almost burgundy, too. So, it may have been dusk.
So scarlet, it was
The mark thеy saw on my collarbone
A passionate kiss on the collarbone leaves a mark in the color of scarlet known as a hickey. Scarlet is a bright red as opposed to maroon.
Rust is also reddish, which grew on her telephone lines with this lover. When rust begins, it grows, and fast.
And rust turns scarlet to maroon. Blood dried up closely resembles a maroon color. When the red-hot passion burns out, it turns into maroon.
So did this relationship.
When the ‘silence’ began to grow between them, they could not understand what was happening. They could not fix it. They could not keep the fire burning. The fire died down. Taylor Swift may have given up a lot for this relationship (she refers to them as rubies), but none of that matters now. They just watched while the fire trickled down to amber and then to ashes.
The only thing that’s left off of this relationship is the memories. Taylor Swift swears in the song in the wake of these thoughts at midnight. These memories may not hurt her as much as they used to. But much like wine stains, these memories are hard to get rid of.
Taylor’s signature red lips, the same ones she used to refer to them as ‘home,’ has now turned maroon–a faint memory of what was.
Let us hear what you think about this song in the comments below. Check out the complete lyrics on Genius.