The most Taylor Swift song ever: 'I Can Do it With a Broken Heart' (track 13 on 'TTPD')

2024-12-25 12:12:53 source:Markets category:Markets

Taylor Swift, the new poet laureate of pop, released her 11th album and with it a song that is so quintessentially Taylor.  

Swift is an expert at Trojan horse songs: Lyrics that cut hidden beneath an innocuous, upbeat melody.

Enter “I Can Do it With a Broken Heart,” the 13th track of “The Tortured Poets Department.”

With fluttering synths and an electro-pop beat, it’s structured as one of Swift’s trademark glistening pop gems. But in the lyrics, Swift travels through the most potent psychological exploration of “the show must go on” since Smokey Robinson and The Miracles described “The Tears of a Clown” in 1967.

Swift unfurls the anguish she hid while remaining very visible the past year during her historic, world-spanning Eras Tour: “I’m a real tough kid,” Swift sings, defiant as ever. “They said baby, gotta fake it til you make it … and I did.”

But the song achieves liftoff with the dichotomy of Swift’s honeyed voice and her chant-singing, “I’m so depressed, I act like it’s my birthday every day.”

It’s a clever entry into the complexity of mental health, and Swift, she of limitless ambition, flips her sorrow into something constructive, a Superwoman unbowed by pesky things like misery.

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“I cry a lot but I am so productive,” she chirps, tongue firmly in cheek. “It’s an art … you know you’re good when you can do it with a broken heart.”

Read on for the full lyrics in what’s sure to be Swift's next signature song.

'I Can Do it With a Broken Heart' lyrics

I can read your mind

She’s having the time of her life

There in her glittering prime

The lights refract sequin stars

Off her silhouette every night

I can show you lies

'Cause I’m a real tough kid

I can handle my shit

They said, “Babe you gotta fake it til you make it”

And I did

Lights, camera, bitch smile

Even when you want to die

He said he’d love me all his life

But that life was too short

Breaking down I hit the floor

All the pieces of me shattered

As the crowd was chanting, “MORE!”

I was grinning like I’m winning

I was hitting my marks

‘Cause I can do it with a broken heart

I’m so depressed I act like it’s my birthday

Every day

I’m so obsessed with him but he avoids me

Like the plague

I cry a lot but I am so productive

It’s an art

You know you’re good when you even can do it

With a broken heart

I can hold my breath

I’ve been doing it since he left

I keep finding his things in drawers

Crucial evidence I didn’t imagine the whole thing

I’m sure I can pass this test

Cause I’m a real tough kid

I can handle my shit

They said, “babe you gotta fake it til you make it”

And I did

Lights, camera, bitch smile

In stilettos for miles

He said he’d love me for all time

But that time was quite short

Breaking down I hit the floor

All the pieces of me shattered

As the crowd was chanting, “MORE!”

I was grinning like I’m winning

I was hitting my marks

‘cause I can do it with a broken heart

I’m so depressed I act like it’s my birthday

Every day

I’m so obsessed with him but he avoids me

Like the plague

I cry a lot but I am so productive

It’s an art

You know you’re good when you can even do it

With a broken heart

You know you’re good when you can even do it

With a broken heart

You know you’re good

And I’m good

‘Cause I’m miserable

And nobody even knows

Try and come for my job

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