Came here to say this. And THAT is what should be the takeaway. Maybe if all people were called out for their damaging behavior it would lessen. Doubtful but one can hope.
LITERALLY THIS. Just ask Taylor Lautner.... *ahem* yeah just don't be a Bee-otch and you're good. The bar is sooooo low.. but men continue to berate the idea that she only writes songs about men saying horrible things.... maybe just DON'T BE HORRIBLE??? 🤯
It’s actually bigger than just romantic relationships. If people knew they would face public exposure when treating others badly it may stop even generational mental injury…
I also find two more meanings; slip through bars like going drinking like if he has a drinking problem, but also showing up in the song, 'bars' like lyrics.
Something that I realized about the loml -> I Can Do It With A Broken Heart -> The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived production run: loml is representing the end of the relationship, the production reflects the sadness over the loss. The relationship ended while she was on tour, so you immediately go from loml to ICDIWABH, a song about performing on stage while being broken inside, and it literally sounds like being on stage. The sound resembles Bejeweled from Midnights, and Midnights is the last set she performs on stage during Eras Tour. So then the switch to TSMWEL... is her leaving the show and going back to the hotel where she's alone with her thoughts and her anger is building as she's thinking about it. The production takes you on the emotional rollercoaster she was experiencing at the time.
That is exactly what I was thinking. Taylor writes her songs so that people can feel like they are reading her diary. This album was written during a turbulent time - a break-up followed by a rebounding relationship, followed by the start of a mega-tour, and then a new love interest. If the songs feel like they are kind of "all over the place," then that's how Taylor was feeling. I would imagine her feelings were yanking her around a lot. I like listening to the music and following that emotional journey.
Exactly, I can't even start to listen to a new Taylor Swift album on Shuffle until I've had a few weeks to absorb the flow of the album, because the order of the tracks often tells a story or adds to the overall story she's trying to tell.
Yes. I think the origin of the phrase is from horse racing. You have the winner, the runner-up and second runner-up and the rest of the field are the also-rans.
Love that you focus on the music and not the who/what/when. Her art is amazing and something to enjoy and feel and appreciate. We don't need to know or speculate, just be happy we get to have all this poetry and music and artistic expression in the aftermath.
Taylor’s X Tweet on 4/19 “The Tortured Poets Department. An anthology of new works that reflect events, opinions and sentiments from a fleeting and fatalistic moment in time - one that was both sensational and sorrowful in equal measure. This period of the author’s life is now over, the chapter closed and boarded up. There is nothing to avenge, no scores to settle once wounds have healed. And upon further reflection, a good number of them turned out to be self-inflicted. This writer is of the firm belief that our tears become holy in the form of ink on a page. Once we have spoken our saddest story, we can be free of it. And then all that’s left behind is the tortured poetry.”
I appreciate you discussing the technical musical components to the song. It’s cool to get to learn about that. And you said it well about the lyrics-they just keep coming at you and there’s no room to breathe. This is definitely a tough song to take.
I think that in between al the pain and hurt she had to fake beeing suuuper happy because she was on tour... and that is how she represented that in the album
LITERALLY THIS. Just ask Taylor Lautner.... ahem yeah just don't be a Bee-otch and you're good. The bar is sooooo low.. but men continue to berate the idea that she only writes songs about men saying horrible things.... maybe just DON'T BE HORRIBLE???
You need to do a follow-up on this, reacting to her performing the song live! So cool to get insight on the instruments and production aspects that I can’t even all notice, let alone put into words. Fascinating! I’d love to have a musician’s brain for a day to be able to fully appreciate all facets of a song.
The sequencing is intentional. LOML (breakup), I Can Do It With A Broken Heart (touring heartbroken), Smallest Man Who Ever Lived (rebound with MH), The Alchemy (new love)
Hearing your thoughts on the music helps me listen to the different instruments and tones and changes. I love Taylor's music for the message, emotion and art. She is amazing in the way she puts the music and lyrics together. Thank you for helping me hear the music and understand how it all comes together.
So this album is very contextual. I think the order is on purpose. At this time, Taylor was doing the Eras tour while going through a LTR breakup, then a love bomber who had her feeling and acting crazy (she said some things on stage like she has never been so happy and everything makes sense in her life when she was being love bombed) and then the guy ghosts her and she still goes on stage several times a week to perform all of her love and heartbreak songs. So she experienced the loss of her life, then there is the was tour song ICDIWABH, then the smallest man where she feels all the anger and depression afterwards.
It’s brutal. One of my favorite songs of hers of all time. I can’t wait for you to get to Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus and How Did It End. Haunting. And my favorite lyrics are in How Did it End.
The sigh..the pick up reminiscent of a heartbeat while going through anxiety/anger to sigh calmness then heartbeat picking up again into anthem/lash out anger..the music arrangement is as brilliant as her lyrics..flatlining at end symbolizing hes dead to her and shes moving on. Brilliant all around.
i loved your question about the structure of the album and the placement of those three specific songs. it can seem so chaotic at first glance, but as an artist, you're right that it must be very deliberate. my interpretation is that as her sound changes from the Midnight synth into the more emotional ballads, life interrupts, performances must go on. She has to show her brightest smile. Thus, I Can Do It With A Broken Heart. I feel that this entire album was her summary of grappling with depression along with a perhaps toxic relationship while needing to put on that mask at a moments notice.
Thanks for the great content. I'm new to the channel, but I'm enjoying the videos. To answer your question about the structure of the album, I think "loml" was a bsllard describing her biggest heartbreak the loss of her life and showed how heartbroken she was during the start of the eras tour. Which is the peek of her intire career. So the hyper pop-pyness of "I can do it woth a broken heart" is meant to be almost fake happy production to show what the pretend happy she forced on stage during the eras tour. To me this song is the moment she gies home into bed, when the chaos is over and she's quietly feeling heartbreak and betrayal again. Hope that makes sense. Thanks again. Keep up the great content.
@@JacobRestituto It might be wrong but I did like the theory. I enjoy how the production of each song and even the placement of the songs feeds into the narrative she's trying to tell... or I could just be wrong 😅
These songs are about two different men. One is Joe Alwyn (So Long London) the other guy is Matty Healy. Most of the songs including this one are about Matty from the band 1975. I won’t say anymore because you say you don’t care but when you know what’s been happening with her and why she wrote the songs they mean so much more and are more understood and impactful!
First video I’ve seen of your but your analysis of the music is great I don’t know anything about that sort of thing but after you talk about the things I pick up on them when I wouldn’t have realised
I love that how u focus and react on the music and piano being a musician, but how about u also react and give your opinion on something that Taylor is known for- THE LYRICS!!! Loved the reaction tho
Is interesting, you talking about the structure. I felt like it is messaging based, as opposed to sound. Like, with this song since the subject of her ex that had addiction, and for her he was everything a man should NOT be ….. then she follows it up with “the alchemy”, which is about Travis Kelce, and everything she believes a man SHOULD be. And then she also makes the line about heroin which plays off of the smallest man that ever lived, given that her ex his addiction was heroin. So these two songs fit perfectly together because it gave that stark contrast of this is where I was, but this is where I am now.
The smallest man who ever lived and loml aren't about the same person, that's why they are separated. Loml is about someone she still cares for and feels haunted by, the smallest man who ever lived is angry and much more brutal.
I agree @sadematsavirta - I don't understand people who think they're about the same person. It seems completely unrealistic and unlikely that she'd release a song like loml about someone who she also thinks is the smallest man who ever lived. And it's clear loml is about an actor, and she's mentioned before that they loved watching old movies together
I honestly also think Taylor might even feel a bit offended that people have the audacity to minimise a 6 year relationship like this. The breakdown of their relationship was coming for a very long time it seems, sometimes it takes a very long time to break up and it must have been a huge loss to go through.
@@Shady_Belle I actually think the whole point is that loml could be about either man. That's a big part of so much of the album: as Taylor said it was out of the oven and into the microwave. It was in too many ways the same relationship with many of the same issues and they both burned her but one burned her slowly over six years and one quickly over a few weeks. The key of course is that SHE never said the subject of loml is the love of HER life. She says she was told that SHE was the love of THEIR life. And she was TOLD by THEM that they thought they were the love of hers. But she never says they were the love of her life. She says they were the loss of her life. And in this instance they both were. Because it's not about the individual man that was the "loss" it's about the life and the story they BOTH sold her. They both said they were the love of her life and that she was the love of theirs and that they would marry her and have kids with her and neither followed through. The dangling of those promises and then yanking them away was the loss of her life.
She and Matty Healy go back to 2014. This song is about him and what he did to her. His drug use and his cruelty to her. The mean things he said about her publicly.
If you've been following the songs "lyrics" on this album in order, you know who the smallest man is. He was a coward who proclaimed his love then ran and ghosted her. But the final blow was his denial there even was love. Not to protect her, because he's a coward through and through. That had to be the final blow.... and led directly to this song. The melody went from lower with her sad lyrics, to higher and higher as her anger kicked in.
Regarding this song coming after LOML and then I can do it with a broken heart, I honestly think that LOML was in regards to her relationship with Joe Alwyn and so was I can do it with a broken heart, then this song is about Matty Healy, so I think she’s doing it more as like a timeline? That’s my theory.
The structure of the album is based on the stages of grief so it's not done like it would normally be on a traditionally album. If that makes sense Shock Denial Anger Bargaining Depression Testing Acceptance
It's funny you said 'run on sentence' and that there's no breath. There were two deliberate breaths, one as the song started and one before it picked up. She's a fucking genius!
I Can Do It With A Broken Heart happens to be track 13 I think, and that's her favorite number, so my guess is that she did that on purpose, so you're probably right about the placement of the songs making less sense without additional context! 'Also-ran' is like what happens when an article says 'Amal Clooney and her husband' haha. The man treated her like an accessory, not someone as important as they are.
23 yrs later after I gave birth to a stillborn baby girl , at 18, that the smallest man who ever lived wouldn’t even hold. He was abusive. Finally in therapy and haven’t talked to him for 22 yrs. I sent this song to him on Facebook then deleted all social media besides TH-cam. Petty but made me feel like I said what I never got to say. Sigh.
I think she did it in that order because I Can Do It with a Broken Heart is perfect for her lucky number 13 and she didn’t want to give Matty that honor 😂
…wait no That can’t be right either cause I could do it with a broken heart comes before this song, it’s be the other way around to be chronological. And ttpd is before so long London…. Def not chronological
I think the album is meant to be listened to in order to tell a story and reveal different parts of the emotional experience in a certain way. But she jumps back and forth between different points in time she wishes to share at a lot of points.
Hearing this a month out; did someone explain “also ran” to him”? It’s a horse racing reference: winner, place, show and also ran in other words, last place.
The second half of the song would sound so good live if it was more halftime drum/arena rock-ish production similar to the second half of "Happier than Ever" by Billie Eilish or even like Illicit Affairs in the Eras Tour
It might have been pills. But earlier in Fortnight she references taking the 'the miracle move on drug' ... another person. So here in The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived, him trying to buy pills from friends of friends could be him trying to cheat with someone and it got back to her through the gossip chain. She's not actually all that literal.
@@laramorrison5973 Could be. But again, she isn't always that literal and honestly rarely puts on blast *exactly* what happens in that sort of straightforward way. I think the idea of pills and MH is an easy line that checks out/sounds about right. But she usually doesn't just come right out with it. So many are skeptical. Plus not many people believe that would make TS dump someone. She doesn't seem to be into anything but weed, but she likes a good project of a man. It's her downfall.
Hi Jacob! If you wanna listen some new music/artist I recommend Azahriah to you! He’s a hungarian singer/producer and VERY talented, sing in hungarian and english as well. He is also very popular in Hungary (sold out stadium concert 3 nights) Pls react to four moods or cipoe! It’s a little bit different but you won’t regret it! 🤗
Thank you! Please just know my ex is to blame. Tony and I never actually separated and my ex did everything he could to destroy. Trust me I probably should have died multiple times like catwoman with 9 lives
also ran /has been. Its matty healy of the 1975 she knew him before, but after the end of her 6 year relationship she asked their mutual producer to reach out to him, they had a couple week rebound with a lot of protest from fans because of his problematic behavior he ghosted her and it really hurt her
Totally agree, yet the music is part of the song! The lyrics relate to the music and vice versa. And u can only rly appreciate the dialogue between the lyrics and music once youve listened a few times. She really is a genius!
This is exactly the reason I just don't even bother sharing songs I like with my boyfriend. He only cares about the music and the beat. And I am a lyric queen. Every lyric goes right over his head. And I'm just like, HOW ARE YOU MISSING ALL THIS PERECTION?? 😭
I don't think this song is about any guy she has dated. I think it about Scoot the guy from the big machine records. The bridge matches with him perfectly and everything else it is a metaphor.
This album is so bad. Taylor really needs to cut ties with Jack and actually maybe evolve as an artist. They must have hit a creative mental block or something because this stuff is so derivative and as a producer myself I can tell they are just running out of ideas. Its such a mess. This didn’t even have the same care that Midnights did and I didn’t even think that album was great. Constantly reusing pitch patterns, vocal effects, cadences, and song concepts, and somehow making it worse than her previous efforts. Its incredible how derivative this is. And wow these lyrics are shallow. Olivia has evolved more in 3 years than Taylor has in 15! I’m not a huge fan of pop in general, but man this album was especially bad. Somehow worse than most of her others. Does she have to evolve? No. She’ll get sales anyway and her fans will eat anything she throws at them.
And obviously if an artist doesn't "evolve" then anything that they put out after their first album which defined their sound is automatically invalid. Seems legit
Because he doesn't know anything about it and doesn't care. He's a musician and he's reacting and reviewing the songs from a musician perspective. That's it.
@@altsam9 that's why I'm watching. I can 🤡 with friends. These types of reactions always make me smile. Storytelling and the sonic feedback is refreshing.
Google is my friend at times in lyrics: also-ran /ˈɔːlsəʊran,ˈɒlsəʊran/ noun a loser in a race or other contest, especially by a large margin. "the line between champions and also-rans" INFORMAL an undistinguished or unsuccessful person or thing.
if you'd like to support my channel: www.patreon.com/JacobRestituto
What Taylor has done for girls and women is make it ok for us to say out loud “that hurt” without feeling ashamed.
Yes!
She maintains if you don’t want a song written about you don’t do bad things.
LOL
THAT IS SO TRUE 🤣🤷🏻♂️
Came here to say this. And THAT is what should be the takeaway. Maybe if all people were called out for their damaging behavior it would lessen. Doubtful but one can hope.
LITERALLY THIS. Just ask Taylor Lautner.... *ahem* yeah just don't be a Bee-otch and you're good.
The bar is sooooo low.. but men continue to berate the idea that she only writes songs about men saying horrible things.... maybe just DON'T BE HORRIBLE??? 🤯
It’s actually bigger than just romantic relationships. If people knew they would face public exposure when treating others badly it may stop even generational mental injury…
my new fave kind of reaction: men faces to the line “you don’t mesure up in any mesure of a man” 😂😂😂
Taylor said 🤏🏼🤏🏼🤏🏼
Yessss that is why I love watching these types of videos 😂😂 😂😂😂
SAME ! I watch all the videos of the reaction on this song just to see their reaction to this line
Imagine it’s about a jerk who hurt your daughter….. you’d luv the lyrics
Most underrated lyric on the whole album: *slip through the bars*
Rightttt... When it's preceeded by you deserve prison but you wont get time
Brilliant ❤
Damn ❤
I also find two more meanings; slip through bars like going drinking like if he has a drinking problem, but also showing up in the song, 'bars' like lyrics.
Another meaning of "slip through the bars" could be Xanax pills. Just a thought
To me the pacing of the album is reminiscent of the non-linear stages of healing- the highs and lows, the manic/depressive episodes
At least that's my very rough, untested theory lol 😆 I need to give it some more straight through listens
Spot on!
So true I never thought about it that way
I agree! That’s why I Can Do it With a Broken Heart is thrown in there between some of the saddest songs.
Ooh yes, I think you're right
She didn't even give us info we didn't already know about him, the only new info was her feelings and perspective
Something that I realized about the loml -> I Can Do It With A Broken Heart -> The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived production run: loml is representing the end of the relationship, the production reflects the sadness over the loss. The relationship ended while she was on tour, so you immediately go from loml to ICDIWABH, a song about performing on stage while being broken inside, and it literally sounds like being on stage. The sound resembles Bejeweled from Midnights, and Midnights is the last set she performs on stage during Eras Tour. So then the switch to TSMWEL... is her leaving the show and going back to the hotel where she's alone with her thoughts and her anger is building as she's thinking about it.
The production takes you on the emotional rollercoaster she was experiencing at the time.
That is exactly what I was thinking. Taylor writes her songs so that people can feel like they are reading her diary. This album was written during a turbulent time - a break-up followed by a rebounding relationship, followed by the start of a mega-tour, and then a new love interest. If the songs feel like they are kind of "all over the place," then that's how Taylor was feeling. I would imagine her feelings were yanking her around a lot. I like listening to the music and following that emotional journey.
Exactly, I can't even start to listen to a new Taylor Swift album on Shuffle until I've had a few weeks to absorb the flow of the album, because the order of the tracks often tells a story or adds to the overall story she's trying to tell.
I can picture her performing this whole album with a live orchestra. It’s such amazing art.
not you pretty much manifesting this 😭😭
My favorite Taylor album ❤
One THING ABOUT OUR QUEEN.
WHEN SHE BREATHS before the begining , We need to be mentally prepared😔. And guess what ??? I’m not😭 as always…
Realll
yes. well put. 😢
Also-ran refers to someone who didn’t place in a race. They “also-ran” but weren’t important in the context of who won the race.
Yes. I think the origin of the phrase is from horse racing. You have the winner, the runner-up and second runner-up and the rest of the field are the also-rans.
Love that you focus on the music and not the who/what/when. Her art is amazing and something to enjoy and feel and appreciate. We don't need to know or speculate, just be happy we get to have all this poetry and music and artistic expression in the aftermath.
Taylor’s X Tweet on 4/19 “The Tortured Poets Department. An anthology of new works that reflect events, opinions and sentiments from a fleeting and fatalistic moment in time - one that was both sensational and sorrowful in equal measure. This period of the author’s life is now over, the chapter closed and boarded up. There is nothing to avenge, no scores to settle once wounds have healed. And upon further reflection, a good number of them turned out to be self-inflicted. This writer is of the firm belief that our tears become holy in the form of ink on a page. Once we have spoken our saddest story, we can be free of it.
And then all that’s left behind is the tortured poetry.”
I appreciate you discussing the technical musical components to the song. It’s cool to get to learn about that. And you said it well about the lyrics-they just keep coming at you and there’s no room to breathe. This is definitely a tough song to take.
I think that in between al the pain and hurt she had to fake beeing suuuper happy because she was on tour... and that is how she represented that in the album
I believe the arrangement of songs is representative of the stages of grief.
wowwww... no but fr. If you analyze the stages of grief, they don't "make sense" to standard/typical every day thinking.. that's an incredible take
Yes this is what I was also going to say. Sadness, disbelief, despair, anger…
She doesn't put out half the things her exes do, I'm sure 😅 I don't understand how people even think that. She only gives us glimpses
LITERALLY THIS. Just ask Taylor Lautner.... ahem yeah just don't be a Bee-otch and you're good.
The bar is sooooo low.. but men continue to berate the idea that she only writes songs about men saying horrible things.... maybe just DON'T BE HORRIBLE???
Even matty himself said (in regards to the songs about him) he was "relieved" when the album came out because "it could have been worse"
You need to do a follow-up on this, reacting to her performing the song live!
So cool to get insight on the instruments and production aspects that I can’t even all notice, let alone put into words. Fascinating! I’d love to have a musician’s brain for a day to be able to fully appreciate all facets of a song.
The sequencing is intentional. LOML (breakup), I Can Do It With A Broken Heart (touring heartbroken), Smallest Man Who Ever Lived (rebound with MH), The Alchemy (new love)
Hearing your thoughts on the music helps me listen to the different instruments and tones and changes. I love Taylor's music for the message, emotion and art. She is amazing in the way she puts the music and lyrics together. Thank you for helping me hear the music and understand how it all comes together.
So this album is very contextual. I think the order is on purpose. At this time, Taylor was doing the Eras tour while going through a LTR breakup, then a love bomber who had her feeling and acting crazy (she said some things on stage like she has never been so happy and everything makes sense in her life when she was being love bombed) and then the guy ghosts her and she still goes on stage several times a week to perform all of her love and heartbreak songs. So she experienced the loss of her life, then there is the was tour song ICDIWABH, then the smallest man where she feels all the anger and depression afterwards.
It’s brutal. One of my favorite songs of hers of all time. I can’t wait for you to get to Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus and How Did It End. Haunting. And my favorite lyrics are in How Did it End.
The sigh..the pick up reminiscent of a heartbeat while going through anxiety/anger to sigh calmness then heartbeat picking up again into anthem/lash out anger..the music arrangement is as brilliant as her lyrics..flatlining at end symbolizing hes dead to her and shes moving on. Brilliant all around.
i loved your question about the structure of the album and the placement of those three specific songs. it can seem so chaotic at first glance, but as an artist, you're right that it must be very deliberate. my interpretation is that as her sound changes from the Midnight synth into the more emotional ballads, life interrupts, performances must go on. She has to show her brightest smile. Thus, I Can Do It With A Broken Heart.
I feel that this entire album was her summary of grappling with depression along with a perhaps toxic relationship while needing to put on that mask at a moments notice.
Thanks for the great content. I'm new to the channel, but I'm enjoying the videos.
To answer your question about the structure of the album, I think "loml" was a bsllard describing her biggest heartbreak the loss of her life and showed how heartbroken she was during the start of the eras tour. Which is the peek of her intire career. So the hyper pop-pyness of "I can do it woth a broken heart" is meant to be almost fake happy production to show what the pretend happy she forced on stage during the eras tour. To me this song is the moment she gies home into bed, when the chaos is over and she's quietly feeling heartbreak and betrayal again. Hope that makes sense.
Thanks again. Keep up the great content.
WOW. that's interesting insigh!
@@JacobRestituto It might be wrong but I did like the theory. I enjoy how the production of each song and even the placement of the songs feeds into the narrative she's trying to tell... or I could just be wrong 😅
This song is my first love from this album
You need to react to this song live!!!!
These songs are about two different men. One is Joe Alwyn (So Long London) the other guy is Matty Healy. Most of the songs including this one are about Matty from the band 1975. I won’t say anymore because you say you don’t care but when you know what’s been happening with her and why she wrote the songs they mean so much more and are more understood and impactful!
My favorite of the album
I like that you are a musician at heart and view Taylors music through your own special lens. Fun watch
First video I’ve seen of your but your analysis of the music is great I don’t know anything about that sort of thing but after you talk about the things I pick up on them when I wouldn’t have realised
I love that how u focus and react on the music and piano being a musician, but how about u also react and give your opinion on something that Taylor is known for- THE LYRICS!!! Loved the reaction tho
Is interesting, you talking about the structure. I felt like it is messaging based, as opposed to sound. Like, with this song since the subject of her ex that had addiction, and for her he was everything a man should NOT be ….. then she follows it up with “the alchemy”, which is about Travis Kelce, and everything she believes a man SHOULD be. And then she also makes the line about heroin which plays off of the smallest man that ever lived, given that her ex his addiction was heroin. So these two songs fit perfectly together because it gave that stark contrast of this is where I was, but this is where I am now.
The smallest man who ever lived and loml aren't about the same person, that's why they are separated. Loml is about someone she still cares for and feels haunted by, the smallest man who ever lived is angry and much more brutal.
They are absolutely about the same person.
I agree @sadematsavirta - I don't understand people who think they're about the same person. It seems completely unrealistic and unlikely that she'd release a song like loml about someone who she also thinks is the smallest man who ever lived. And it's clear loml is about an actor, and she's mentioned before that they loved watching old movies together
I honestly also think Taylor might even feel a bit offended that people have the audacity to minimise a 6 year relationship like this. The breakdown of their relationship was coming for a very long time it seems, sometimes it takes a very long time to break up and it must have been a huge loss to go through.
@@Shady_Belle I actually think the whole point is that loml could be about either man. That's a big part of so much of the album: as Taylor said it was out of the oven and into the microwave. It was in too many ways the same relationship with many of the same issues and they both burned her but one burned her slowly over six years and one quickly over a few weeks. The key of course is that SHE never said the subject of loml is the love of HER life. She says she was told that SHE was the love of THEIR life. And she was TOLD by THEM that they thought they were the love of hers. But she never says they were the love of her life. She says they were the loss of her life. And in this instance they both were. Because it's not about the individual man that was the "loss" it's about the life and the story they BOTH sold her. They both said they were the love of her life and that she was the love of theirs and that they would marry her and have kids with her and neither followed through. The dangling of those promises and then yanking them away was the loss of her life.
She and Matty Healy go back to 2014. This song is about him and what he did to her. His drug use and his cruelty to her. The mean things he said about her publicly.
If you've been following the songs "lyrics" on this album in order, you know who the smallest man is. He was a coward who proclaimed his love then ran and ghosted her. But the final blow was his denial there even was love. Not to protect her, because he's a coward through and through. That had to be the final blow.... and led directly to this song. The melody went from lower with her sad lyrics, to higher and higher as her anger kicked in.
It's one of favourite songs on TTPD!
I think the production helps us feel her anxiety.
Every song is my favorite depending on my mood lol. Great reaction!!!
An “also-ran is a horse (human) who ran the race with the other, but did not win.
Regarding this song coming after LOML and then I can do it with a broken heart, I honestly think that LOML was in regards to her relationship with Joe Alwyn and so was I can do it with a broken heart, then this song is about Matty Healy, so I think she’s doing it more as like a timeline? That’s my theory.
The structure of the album is based on the stages of grief so it's not done like it would normally be on a traditionally album. If that makes sense
Shock
Denial
Anger
Bargaining
Depression
Testing
Acceptance
Testing? I've only ever heard of 5 stages: denial (but I'd agree shock preceeds it), anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Testing seems weird, isn't that just bargaining?
Watch the live version and you’ll understand the drums near the end
.maybe it’s not about any specific person, but it’s universal. I can think of lots of people who are just like that. If the shoe fits, wear it.
To me - the structure is a flash pan relationship and breakup. It’s erratic, irrational, passionate.
It's funny you said 'run on sentence' and that there's no breath. There were two deliberate breaths, one as the song started and one before it picked up. She's a fucking genius!
I Can Do It With A Broken Heart happens to be track 13 I think, and that's her favorite number, so my guess is that she did that on purpose, so you're probably right about the placement of the songs making less sense without additional context! 'Also-ran' is like what happens when an article says 'Amal Clooney and her husband' haha. The man treated her like an accessory, not someone as important as they are.
23 yrs later after I gave birth to a stillborn baby girl , at 18, that the smallest man who ever lived wouldn’t even hold. He was abusive. Finally in therapy and haven’t talked to him for 22 yrs. I sent this song to him on Facebook then deleted all social media besides TH-cam. Petty but made me feel like I said what I never got to say. Sigh.
She needed to get through it with a broken heart to realize he was the smallest man that ever lived
Watch this song live!! I think it gives this song more clarification!!!
I think she put the songs somewhat in chronological order on the first album of the two
I think she did it in that order because I Can Do It with a Broken Heart is perfect for her lucky number 13 and she didn’t want to give Matty that honor 😂
Well. If you don't want people to know you treated a legendary storyteller like crap, DON'T TREAT HER LIKE CRAP. It's not rocket science.
There are two different guys she’s written about and these were written at different times.
I am not the best at all the lore, but I do know she’s very specific about where she places songs and why. May not make sense to us.
With I can do it with a broken heart, she was giving us a bit of a break between heartache🤣
This album is chronological.
No because their are Joe and Matty songs after the alchemy. Unless you mean each single album is chronological?
…wait no That can’t be right either cause I could do it with a broken heart comes before this song, it’s be the other way around to be chronological. And ttpd is before so long London…. Def not chronological
I think the album is meant to be listened to in order to tell a story and reveal different parts of the emotional experience in a certain way. But she jumps back and forth between different points in time she wishes to share at a lot of points.
Seriously “I don’t care about the drama.”
You are an artist. Artists channel their pain. She’s doing that. You should care.
Media Drama is very different than pain
Hearing this a month out; did someone explain “also ran” to him”? It’s a horse racing reference: winner, place, show and also ran in other words, last place.
🔥🔥🔥🔥
Assuming the reason this and LOML are not together on the album is they are about different men
It's the stages of grief
The second half of the song would sound so good live if it was more halftime drum/arena rock-ish production similar to the second half of "Happier than Ever" by Billie Eilish or even like Illicit Affairs in the Eras Tour
I think the reason loml and smallest man were not together is because they were about 2 different guys.
loml and tsmwel are about two different guys. the album tells a story
1 half was produced by Jack Antonoff and the other by Aaron Dressner. That is why the difference
I don’t think that she is talking about the same guy from LOML
Listen to the anthology from Manuscript backwards…
The reason might be 13 is her lucky number so she puts a song about herself at track 13. There might be other reasons too but this is my theory.
It might have been pills. But earlier in Fortnight she references taking the 'the miracle move on drug' ... another person. So here in The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived, him trying to buy pills from friends of friends could be him trying to cheat with someone and it got back to her through the gossip chain. She's not actually all that literal.
I think it is literal in the scenario, Matty Healy has been a recovering drug addict and relapsed etc for a long time.
@@laramorrison5973 Could be. But again, she isn't always that literal and honestly rarely puts on blast *exactly* what happens in that sort of straightforward way. I think the idea of pills and MH is an easy line that checks out/sounds about right. But she usually doesn't just come right out with it. So many are skeptical. Plus not many people believe that would make TS dump someone. She doesn't seem to be into anything but weed, but she likes a good project of a man. It's her downfall.
Not slow but reserved.
This song is hyperbole but its about betrayal ... Scott Birchetta
@carlapsalms2334 I read that as Scott Bitchetta and now I refuse to think it's any different 😂
This song makes nuggets out of my chicken heart
Hi Jacob! If you wanna listen some new music/artist I recommend Azahriah to you! He’s a hungarian singer/producer and VERY talented, sing in hungarian and english as well. He is also very popular in Hungary (sold out stadium concert 3 nights) Pls react to four moods or cipoe! It’s a little bit different but you won’t regret it! 🤗
Different producers
She never mentions names…..but they know who they are….
Thank you! Please just know my ex is to blame. Tony and I never actually separated and my ex did everything he could to destroy. Trust me I probably should have died multiple times like catwoman with 9 lives
Not me having Taylor on my wall, stabbed with pushpins.....
An "also-ran" means loser (they treated her like a loser).
Also-ran is another word for unsuccessful, someone who fails to win, a loser
Smash
@Blabbertok says the song is about her former manager who was involved in selling her songs to Scooter
also ran /has been. Its matty healy of the 1975 she knew him before, but after the end of her 6 year relationship she asked their mutual producer to reach out to him, they had a couple week rebound with a lot of protest from fans because of his problematic behavior he ghosted her and it really hurt her
Hmm lol where’d you get all that info from
You need to listen to the lyrics man! Your not listening to the song. Your listening to the music… your missing 70% of the song.
Totally agree, yet the music is part of the song! The lyrics relate to the music and vice versa. And u can only rly appreciate the dialogue between the lyrics and music once youve listened a few times. She really is a genius!
This is exactly the reason I just don't even bother sharing songs I like with my boyfriend. He only cares about the music and the beat. And I am a lyric queen. Every lyric goes right over his head. And I'm just like, HOW ARE YOU MISSING ALL THIS PERECTION?? 😭
I don't think this song is about any guy she has dated. I think it about Scoot the guy from the big machine records. The bridge matches with him perfectly and everything else it is a metaphor.
Oh my god this is a devastating approach. 😭😭😭😭
Actually, it sounds political to me.
This album is so bad. Taylor really needs to cut ties with Jack and actually maybe evolve as an artist. They must have hit a creative mental block or something because this stuff is so derivative and as a producer myself I can tell they are just running out of ideas. Its such a mess. This didn’t even have the same care that Midnights did and I didn’t even think that album was great. Constantly reusing pitch patterns, vocal effects, cadences, and song concepts, and somehow making it worse than her previous efforts. Its incredible how derivative this is. And wow these lyrics are shallow.
Olivia has evolved more in 3 years than Taylor has in 15! I’m not a huge fan of pop in general, but man this album was especially bad. Somehow worse than most of her others.
Does she have to evolve? No. She’ll get sales anyway and her fans will eat anything she throws at them.
So it sounds like you’re not a fan of her regardless..? Or you’re not a fan of Jack? Either way it’s whatever 🤷♀️
@@Bea56601 you liked your own comment lil bro
And obviously if an artist doesn't "evolve" then anything that they put out after their first album which defined their sound is automatically invalid. Seems legit
@@lovethatnyancat bro she has been doing the same 💩for 20 years now💀
A Taylor hater hating Taylor. Next….
I appreciate that you arent speculating on who these songs are about. 🤍🩶🖤
Because he doesn't know anything about it and doesn't care. He's a musician and he's reacting and reviewing the songs from a musician perspective. That's it.
@@altsam9 that's why I'm watching. I can 🤡 with friends. These types of reactions always make me smile. Storytelling and the sonic feedback is refreshing.
glad to hear you're enjoying it!
Google is my friend at times in lyrics:
also-ran
/ˈɔːlsəʊran,ˈɒlsəʊran/
noun
a loser in a race or other contest, especially by a large margin.
"the line between champions and also-rans"
INFORMAL
an undistinguished or unsuccessful person or thing.
oh wow othanks