"I've been thinking about addiction and I've been thinking about people who if they're either suffering through mental illness or they're suffering through addiction or they have an everyday struggle, no one pats them on the back every day, but every day they are actively fighting something. But there are so many days that nobody gives them credit for that, and so, how often must somebody who's in that sort of internal struggle must want to say to everyone in the room, 'You have no idea how close I am to going back to a dark place'."
November 25, 2020: Taylor chats with Jack Antonoff about the everyday struggle of things like addiction and mental illness. (source)
It actually makes so much sense that she would describe james' apology as 'really sincere' like, girl, the guy spends the entire song justifying himself, blaming it all on his age, putting the blame on the girls (the one he left behind and the one he cheated on!!) and insulting her friends. I get it now: this woman just doesn't know how to do apologies, that explains sm😂
Swift: Yeah, I definitely think about that as a goal. There's so much stress everywhere you turn that I kind of wanted to make an album that felt sort of like a hug, or like your favorite sweater that makes you feel like you want to put it on.
McCartney: What, a "cardigan"?
Swift: Like a good cardigan, a good, worn-in cardigan. Or something that makes you reminisce on your childhood. I think sadness can be cozy. It can obviously be traumatic and stressful, too, but I kind of was trying to lean into sadness that feels like somehow enveloping in not such a scary way — like nostalgia and whimsy incorporated into a feeling like you're not all right. Because I don't think anybody was really feeling like they were in their prime this year. Isolation can mean escaping into your imagination in a way that's kind of nice.
November 13, 2020: Taylor likens sadness and nostalgia to a worn-in cardigan. (source)