This one lyric from 'Gorgeous' is proof that the old Taylor Swift is not dead

Nice try, Taylor.
 By 
Rachel Thompson
 on 

Hey everyone, remember when Taylor Swift said that the old Taylor is dead?

Well, she might have been telling us a little white lie. One lyric in Swift's just-dropped song "Gorgeous" is proof that the old Taylor is very much alive and kicking.

On the off-chance that you were underground or unconscious during the supposed reinvention of Taylor Swift, let's recap.

Swift fooled us all this summer in her attempts to convince the world she'd undergone a dramatic metamorphosis after being crossed by, well, just about everyone. Gone is the sweet, heartbroken Taylor. She's been replaced by an emo Death Eater. Or, so we believed.

"I'm sorry, the old Taylor can't come to the phone right now," she declared in "Look What You Made Me Do". "Why? Oh! 'Cause she's dead!" Fans are now doubting the alleged passing of the so-called former Taylor, however, and it's all because of one rather telling lyric.

Tay-Tay waxes lyrical about a mystery crush in a nightclub that she seemingly can't bring herself to talk to. She ushers in some of her newfound edge into the lyrics with references to her drinking whiskey (shocking!) and a gentleman touching her hand in a darkened room (woah now!).

But, just as she reiterates just how "mad" she is at the aforementioned "gorgeous" chap, she drops a bombshell on us. "Guess I'll just stumble on home to my cats," she says. Followed by a distinctly Old Taylor-esque "uhh."

This lyric did not go unnoticed by fans. Indeed, these subtle words were a dead giveaway that the Taylor we all knew and loved is still with us. She's just at home with her cats.

So, why is this lyric so reminiscent of Old Taylor? Some seem to be in agreement that this lyric sounds like a a line from her 1989 album.

"The old Taylor has reached the phone and started singing a 1989 reject that references her cats," opined one Reddit commenter. Damn!

One fan pointed out a pretty interesting parallel between the post-cats-line "uhh" in "Gorgeous" and the "ew" in Swifty's 2012 banger "22."

Nice try, Taylor. You didn't fool any of us.

Topics Music

Rachel Thompson, sits wearing a dress with yellow florals and black background.
Rachel Thompson
Features Editor

Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.

A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.

Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.

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