@majob.1509

You know when you are listening to a song and something just clicks? That is what I Know Places did for me. Here’s the thing, I was just eight years old and living in Venezuela when 1989 came out. Although it was a widely popular album, it never really reached my circle since most of the music I heard was what my parents liked, mostly reggaeton and vallenato. Flash forward six years later, when I was trying to figure out myself, that the song just fell into place. The thing I love the most about music is that you don’t necessarily have to live the situation depicted in the song to love or even reason with it. I know little to nothing about music production or songwriting, so I won’t talk about how the song is perfect because of the way Taylor created it. However, the song perfectly describes feelings I have struggled to articulate for ages. For me, since the very moment that the song begins and you can hear a camera click, it is like it drives me to a different dimension, one where my anxious feelings are understood and put into words. Even though Taylor has a lot of songs where she references feelings of anxiety -including 1989, after all, Out Of The Woods is also part of my 1989 holy trinity- I Know Places is the one that speaks the most to me. I Know Places -at least for me- perfectly depicts the growing anxiety of always being observed to the point that once you fail, everyone would know, and inherently, they will love you less because of it; therefore, no kind of love is truly unconditional. Yet, it transmits an eerie feeling of hope. Hence, I can’t help but also see the song as a personal prediction of what the future holds. I was raised in a family where things have to be a certain way, and if you don’t fit the mold, you are pointed at and ridiculized. I very much do not suit the mold, not in a way that will be long-lasting anyway. There is only so much time my grades will reflect my worth to them. Eventually, it will stop, more likely because I stop studying rather than me failing. I cannot afford to fail. It is the only thing giving me a free pass. I think the reason I Know Places hits so close is that it feels a lot like forbidden love from the perspective of a person that has rather a lot of experience hiding; still, even with this experience, it doesn’t make the person less anxious. Nevertheless, the song ends in a more promising light, but it is almost sung differently, as if not happening yet, and instead, it just is a slight delusion. And honestly, even with the absence of a lover, that’s what my life feels like most of the time. I’m definitely projecting, but isn’t that what music is all about? Taking something that does not directly relate to you and associating it with a glimpse of your reality? Also, Taylor Swift’s vocals in the song are just flawless, and I genuinely cannot wait more eagerly for 1989 (Taylor’s Version).