Celebrity
Its something she chooses purposefully, and we listen to that track especially closely, a longtime Swiftie tells Bustle.
Picking a Track 5 is sort of a pressurized decision, Swift once admitted in her2020 music documentaryfolklore: the long pond studio sessions, explaining the importance of my tears ricochet tofrequent collaborator Jack Antonoff, who told her this Track 5 is one of the best songs [Swift has] written.
Previously, she nodded to the lore of Track 5s in her 2018music video for Delicate,with eagle-eyed viewers noticing Track 5 and #5 Delicate graffitid on a subway column and steel gate behind Swift at two different moments in the video.
Longtime Swiftie Hannah C. (akalyrics analyzer @SippingAuguston Twitter) tells Bustle that these Track 5s each convey how Swift is truly feeling at a pivotal moment in her life.
I think Track 5s became a thing during theRedera when Taylor and fans started to notice that all her Track 5s were vulnerable songs and when we noticed, she noticed it, too, says Hannah C., a 35-year-old mother of two who attendedboth Arizona showson opening weekend.
Then it continued through the rest of her eras, and its something we looked forward to every album release.
And because both Taylor and Swifties know that Track 5 is a big deal, its something she chooses purposefully, and we listen to that track especially closely.
READ NEXT:Secret Songs Taylor Swift Performed On The Eras Tour
Though these songs are rarely the big singles from her 10 studio albums, Hannah C. notes that Track 5s help us to understand some of the major themes of each album.
For example, All Too Well, which is often consideredSwifts best song by criticsand fans alike, perfectly paints a picture of young heartbreak in 2012s breakup albumRed.And The Archer explores love in the context of fear and anxiety in 2019s love letter to love albumLover.
Here are the five Track 5s on Swifts Eras Tour setlist in the order in which she performs them:
The Archer fromLover
Position on the Eras Tour setlist:6th song
Standout lyric:Ive been the archer / Ive been the prey / Who could ever leave me, darling / But who could stay?
… / … You could stay
tolerate it fromevermore
Position on the Eras Tour setlist:14th song
Standout lyric:I made you my temple, my mural, my sky / Now Im begging for footnotes in the story of your life / Drawing hearts in the byline / Always taking up too much space or time
Delicate fromReputation
Position on the Eras Tour setlist:16th song
Standout lyric:Sometimes, I wonder, when you sleep / Are you ever dreaming of me?
/ Sometimes, when I look into your eyes / I pretend youre mine all the damn time
All Too Well fromRed (Taylors Version)
Position on the Eras Tour setlist:23rd song
Standout lyric:And I was thinking on the drive down, Any time now, hes gonna say its love / You never called it what it was / Till we were dead and gone and buried / Check the pulse and come back swearing its the same / After three months in the grave / And then you wondered where it went to as I reached for you / But all I felt was shame and you held my lifeless frame
my tears ricochet fromfolklore
Position on the Eras Tour setlist:29th song
Standout lyric:I didnt have it in myself to go with grace / So the battleships will sink beneath the waves / You had to kill me, but it killed you just the same / Cursing my name, wishing I stayed / You turned into your worst fears / Youre tossing out blame, drunk on this pain / Crossing out the good years / Youre cursing my name, wishing I stayed / Look at how my tears ricochet
Track 5s Not On The Eras Tour Setlist
Track 5s In Order Of Release
This article was originally published onMarch 28, 2023
