\*\*\*\* Today’s DS is a guest post by u/Expensive-Fennel-163. Thank you! \*\*\*\*

Taylor (somewhat infamously now) wrote the 1989 track “You are in Love” based on ways Lena Dunham had described her relationship with Jack Antonoff to her. Taylor has said that the line “you’re my best friend,” was something she had never written before.

The song describes the little ways a partner will show someone that they love them and prioritize a relationship, even if they haven’t actually said, “I love you” yet. The whole of the song is sung seemingly from Taylor’s observations, but not her experience (all “you” and “he” pronouns), then during the last line of the bridge, she brings it to first person, saying it’s “why I’ve spent my whole life trying to put it into words.” Which really could be a thesis statement of her career (putting human emotions into words we can all resonate with).

This song is interesting; there’s several lyrical repeating references in You Are in Love that show up multiple other times in her discography.

“One look, dark room / meant just for you” is explored many other times in her discography (A few “looks with loaded meanings”: So High School, Elizabeth Taylor, Dress, happiness, it’s time to go, Daylight, Call it What You Want, Out of the Woods, All Too Well, Mine, Speak Now, Forever and Always, Mary’s Song, and many others);

Your lover being your best friend: TTPD (song - indirectly here), My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys, Wi$h Li$t - and an inverse, in Dress again, actually, saying “I don’t want you like a best friend”;

Then “hear it in the silence” has an indirect call back to this feeling in Sweet Nothing, peace, and Call it What you Want, but then is also indirectly inverted with negative silence from a partner in multiple songs: Say, Don’t Go, The Story of Us, Foolish One, You’re Losing Me, Renegade, How did it End?, and Maroon. 

She has since lyrically brought back this feeling of quiet assurance of her relationship and his love in Showgirl, ironically in Wood, which has gotten lots of attention for a few of its lines. With the chorus especially “I ain’t got to knock on wood / it’s you and me forever dancing in the dark / all over me, it’s understood / I ain’t got to knock on wood” feels really similar to me in several parts of You are in Love: the first lines (“one look, dark room / meant just for you”), the second verse (“for once you let go / of your fears and your ghosts : one step, not much : but it said enough”), and the bridge, “And so it goes, you two are dancing in a snow globe round and round.” 

Both songs are telling a story about security and love shown through actions, not necessarily words in a relationship. Opalite on Showgirl gets into this concept too, actually, with “I used to live with ghosts and all the perfect couples, said “when you know you know,” and “when you don’t you don’t”.

I’ll wrap this up since I did not realize I had THIS much to say about You are in Love; but it is one of my favorite love songs from her, and one of my favorites off 1989. 

Rating: 8.5/10 

Favorite lyric: “one night he wakes / strange look on his face / pauses, then says / you’re my best friend” 

And since this song isn’t perfect, my least favorite part is the middle of the bridge, where she gets pretty cheesy, even for Taylor, with “why they lost their minds and fought the wars;” this part always makes me laugh, because why is she bringing in talk of epic battles and insanity in this sweet song about little moments?

Daily Song #73: You Are In Love