Delicate

Album

Test Patterns

Label

Big Machine Records

Genre

Electropop

Composer(s)

Karl Johan Schuster;Martin Max Sandberg;Taylor Alison Swift

Entered Chart

Mar 24, 2018

Peak Date

Jul 28, 2018

Released

March 12, 2018

Recorded

Studio MXM (Los Angeles, California and Stockholm, Sweden)

Catalog #

Big Machine Digital

Directed by Joseph Kahn, the music video was shot over two nights in Los Angeles; landmarks featured include the Millennium Biltmore Hotel, the 7th Street/Metro Center station, the Los Angeles Theater, and the Golden Gopher bar.[38][39] The video opens with Swift on the red carpet, seeming disconnected from the crowd gazing off in the distance. She snaps back to reality as a reporter points a microphone at her face for an interview.[40] Amid camera lights, a mysterious figure slips a sparkling paper note into her hand.[41] After the red-carpet interviews, Swift walks into a hotel lobby surrounded by four bodyguards as the guests turn around and look at her. Swift is bothered by the attention toward her, and when she gets some privacy in a dressing room, she turns the note over in her hand and makes silly faces in the mirror before being interrupted by a group of women.[40] When she turns back to the mirror, the note sparkles and she realizes she has become invisible as her reflection in the mirror disappears.[40][41] Thrilled by her newfound freedom from fame, Swift starts dancing barefoot through the hotel.[40] Though she seems elated by her invisibility, there are poignant moments—at one scene in an elevator with another woman, Swift thinks that woman is smiling at her, but she is in fact looking at her own reflection in the mirror.[42] Swift continues dancing through a subway platform, and dances in a pouring rain before arriving at a dive bar. As she holds the note, everyone in the bar turns and looks at her, and she is visible again, smiling

"Delicate" finds Taylor Swift taking a hesitant approach to a budding romance during a rocky time in her life. She worries the intense media scrutiny will scare off her potential new beau, but this is not the case and he seems to be falling for her in return. This ain't for the best My reputation's never been worse, so You must like me for me Some fans and reviewers have concluded that the subject of the song is Tom Hiddleston, with whom Taylor first hooked up with before breaking up with Calvin Harris. Others have speculated that the Pop Princess is talking about the start of her relationship with British actor Joe Alwyn, at a time when her public image had taken a battering over her feud against Kanye West and Kim Kardashian over the rapper's "Famous" lyrics and a beef with Calvin Harris following their split. It is likely that Taylor is singing about the same lover as on "Gorgeous". Both tunes reference her beau's blue eyes and significantly Joe's eyes are a bright shade of blue. Speaking at the iHeartRadio reputation release party, Taylor had this to say about the track: "This is a song where the idea of reputation is definitely something that I play on for the entire album but when the album started off it's much more bombastic. 'I don't care what you say about me! I don't care say about my reputation. Blah.' But, like, then it hits this point on Track 5 where it's like what happens when you meet someone who you really want in your life and then you start worrying about what they've heard before they met you? You start to wonder like, 'Could something fake, like your reputation, affect something real like someone getting to know you?' You start to wonder how it all matters. This is the first point of vulnerability in the record where you're like, 'Oh, maybe this does actually matter a little bit,' and questioning the reality and the perception of a reputation and how much weight it actually has. So this is called 'Delicate.'" Max Martin and Shellback's production utilizes melancholic voice harmonies backed by a simple instrumental. Taylor said: "There is an effect that you may hear on the vocals throughout the rest of the album that is recurring and it's a vocoder. It's a vocal effect where you sing and the vocoder splits your voice into chords and you can play your voice on a keyboard in chords. So if you're singing the notes of a piano you can play your own voice. That's what you'll hear in the beginning of this song and then you'll hear it several times – we tried it in the studio and I thought it sounded really emotional and really vulnerable and really sad but beautiful." Taylor Swift's eighth music video with longtime collaborator Joseph Kahn finds her stifled as she interacts with crazed fans and the press. Suddenly, the songstress discovers that she is invisible and she proceeds to dance barefoot through the city knowing no one is watching her goofy moves. The clip is a satire and symbolic of Taylor feeling she has to behave in a certain way because of her reputation and fame. Once she is free from the public gaze the star can be herself. Fans have pointed out on social media similarities between Swift's video and a Spike Jonze-directed ad for the Kenzo World fragrance, which first aired in 2016. Twitter users pointed out that the setting, dance moves, and facial expressions are extremely similar. Incidentally, the Kenzo ad itself may well have inspired by Spike Jones' 2001 video for Fatboy Slim's "Weapon Of Choice." The "Lipstick Lady" who stands inside an elevator with Swift and applies lipstick is Junko Cheng. It was the 57-year-old mother's first acting role. "I'm only 5-foot-3 and Taylor is way taller [5-foot-10], so they had to put me on a metal box to make us the same height even though I was in heels and Taylor was barefoot," Cheng recalled to Billboard. "By the time I got done with the scene, I had about 10 layers of lipstick."

This ain't for the best
My reputation's never been worse, so
You must like me for me

Dive bar on the East Side, where you at?
Phone lights up my nightstand in the black
Come here, you can meet me in the back

Dark jeans and your Nikes, look at you
Oh damn, never seen that color blue
Just think of the fun things we could do
'Cause I like you

This ain't for the best
My reputation's never been worse, so
You must like me for me

Yeah, I want you
We can't make
Any promises now, can we, babe?
But you can make me a drink

Is it cool that I said all that?
Is it chill that you're in my head?
'Cause I know that it's delicate ('cause I know that it's delicate)

Is it cool that I said all that
Is it too soon to do this yet?
'Cause I know that it's delicate
Isn't it? Isn't it?
Isn't it?
Isn't it? Isn't it?
Isn't it?
Isn't it?
Isn't it?
Isn't it? Isn't it?
Isn't it?
Delicate

Third floor on the West Side, me and you
Handsome, your mansion with a view
Do the girls back home touch you like I do?
Long night, with your hands up in my hair
Echoes of your footsteps on the stairs
Stay here, honey, I don't wanna share

Yeah, I want you
We can't make
Any promises now, can we, babe?
But you can make me a drink

Is it cool that I said all that?
Is it chill that you're in my head?
'Cause I know that it's delicate ('cause I know that it's delicate)

Is it cool that I said all that
Is it too soon to do this yet?
'Cause I know that it's delicate
Isn't it? Isn't it?
Isn't it?
Isn't it? Isn't it?
Isn't it?
Delicate
Isn't it?
Isn't it?
Isn't it? Isn't it?
Isn't it?
Delicate

Is it cool that I said all that
Is it too soon to do this yet?
'Cause I know that it's delicate
Delicate
Isn't it? Isn't it?
Isn't it?
Isn't it? Isn't it?
Isn't it?
Delicate
Yeah I want you
Isn't it?
Isn't it? Isn't it?
Isn't it?
Delicate