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| studio =
| studio =
| genre = * [[Chamber pop]]
| genre = * [[Chamber pop]]
* [[synth-pop]]
* [[synth-pop]] * [[soft rock]]
| length = {{Duration|m=4|s=22}}
| length = {{Duration|m=4|s=22}}
| label = [[Republic Records|Republic]]
| label = [[Republic Records|Republic]]

Revision as of 16:44, 19 April 2024

"So Long, London"
Song by Taylor Swift
from the album The Tortured Poets Department
ReleasedApril 19, 2024 (2024-04-19)
Genre
Length4:22
LabelRepublic
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)
  • Taylor Swift
  • Aaron Dessner
Audio
"So Long, London" on YouTube

"So Long, London" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from her eleventh studio album, The Tortured Poets Department (2024). She wrote and produced the track with Aaron Dessner. A chamber pop and synth-pop tune, "So Long, London" is set over to 4/4 house beats and has a piano and synthesizer instrumentation. Its lyrics are about a failed romance and explores a narrator processing the fallout and its aftermath.

Background and release

Taylor Swift started working on The Tortured Poets Department immediately after she submitted her tenth studio album, Midnights, to Republic Records for release in 2022. She continued working on it in secrecy throughout the US leg of the Eras Tour in 2023.[1] The album's conception took place around the time the media reported that Swift's six-year relationship with the English actor Joe Alwyn had ended.[2] She described it as her "lifeline" album which she "really needed" to make.[3] Republic Records released The Tortured Poets Department on April 19, 2024.[4] Track five on the album, "So Long, London", received particular fan interest prior to the album's release, because Swift had said that each of her albums' track five was its most vulnerable and emotionally intense.[2][5][6]

Music and lyrics

"So Long, London" is a chamber pop[7] and synth-pop song[8] that is set to 4/4 house beats.[9] The track opens with Swift's multitracked vocals singing the title that, according to the Financial Times' Ludovic Hunter-Tilney, evoke "the ringing bells of London".[10] The song is then instrumented by trembling synths and soft piano[11] against a muted electronic soundscape.[10] Jason Lipshutz of Billboard wrote that the "elastic synths sound like a shaking tightrope", while there are occasional "understated" piano and "ghostly" harmonies.[12] Alexis Petridis of The Guardian wrote that the production builds up to a "climax that never actually comes".[9]

In the lyrics, the narrator details a love gone wrong. The ex-partner is portrayed as cold and disinterested,[13] and the narrator laments, "You left me at the house by the Heath" / "You sacrificed us to the gods of your bluest days."[14] They portray Swift's character carrying "the weight of the rift", her "white-knuckle dying grip holding to your quiet resentment",[11] and her resentment ("I'm pissed off you let me give you all that youth for free").[15] After processing the aftermath of a breakup, she bids goodbye to a partner and a community she once considered home.[16] The narrator eventually abandons the relationship with the lyric, "I stopped CPR, after all it’s no use / The spirit was gone, we would never come to."[17] Similarly, Cosmopolitan's Mehera Bonner highlighted the strikingly comparable lyrics from the 2022 track.[18]

Alyssa Bailey of Elle described the song as "heartbreaking". She interpreted the lyrics as Swift describing why she ended her romance with Alwyn.[17] Today's Elena Nicolaou said the lyrics documented the final moments of a relationship where one individual drifts apart while the other struggles to maintain their bond.[19] Bailey said the line may be a reference to Swift's track "You're Losing Me" from Midnights (2022).[17]

Reception

Hunter-Tilney considered "So Long, London" a career highlight for Swift, praising how she recounts a doomed love affair "with sorrow and coiled anger" and the "beautifully chilly electronic landscape".[10] The song ranked fourth among the eighteen tracks, including the bonus songs from the album by Billboars's Jason Lipshutz. He said the lyrics were "raw honesty".[12] USA Today's Bryant West called the song a "heartbreak letter" to London, which Swift once resided in.[16] Will Hodgkinson of The Times gave the song a five-star rating and wrote: "Heartfelt, tender and poetic, this is a real tearjerker."[14] Writing for Vogue Australia, Nina Miyashita called it "emotionally devastating."[20] Neil McCormick from The Daily Telegraph described the track as a "sumptuously sad and gorgeous, lyrically forensic dissection of a fading romance".[21]

Writing for The Irish Times, Finn McRedmond praised Swift's vocal register, saying it had "an irresistible buttery quality."[22] Pitchfork's Shaad D’Souza described it as the ultimate conclusion to the "Anglophile portion of Swift’s career,"[8] Mesfin Fekadu from The Hollywood Reporter called it one of the best songs from the album.[23] In a less enthusiastic review, The Scotsman's Fiona Shepherd thought that despite the "tasteful beats" of "So Long, London", it was one of the album's tracks that "succumbed to same old tame old business as usual".[24]

Personnel

Credits are adapted from Tidal.[25]

  • Taylor Swift – vocals, songwriter, producer
  • Aaron Dessner – producer, songwriter, recording engineer, drum programming, electric guitar, piano, synth
  • Serban Ghenea – mixing
  • Bryce Bordone – mix engineer
  • Jonathan Low – recording engineer
  • Bella Blasko – recording engineer
  • Benjamin Lanz – synth, synth recording
  • Randy Merrill – mastering

References

  1. ^ Blistein, Jon (February 7, 2024). "Taylor Swift Reveals Tortured Poets Department Back Up Plan In Case She Didn't Win a Grammy". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on February 7, 2024. Retrieved April 19, 2024.
  2. ^ a b Sisario, Ben (April 19, 2024). "Taylor Swift's Tortured Poets Arrives With a Promotional Blitz". The New York Times. Retrieved April 19, 2024.
  3. ^ Bonner, Mehera (February 16, 2024). "Taylor Swift Reveals Bonus Track Title and New Album Cover for The Tortured Poets Department". Cosmopolitan. Archived from the original on February 16, 2024. Retrieved April 19, 2024.
  4. ^ "As The Tortured Poets Department drops, here's all Taylor Swift's albums ranked by sales". Music Week. April 19, 2024. Retrieved April 19, 2024.
  5. ^ Bonner, Mehera; Shah, Furvah (February 6, 2024). "Is Taylor Swift's 'So Long, London' about Joe Alwyn?". Cosmopolitan. Retrieved April 18, 2024.
  6. ^ Schultz, Kyley (April 18, 2024). "Taylor Swift fans know which new song holds extra meaning: Track 5". The Washington Post. Retrieved April 18, 2024.
  7. ^ Power, Ed (April 19, 2024). "If you expected a Taylor Swift revenge album, you were wrong". i. Retrieved April 19, 2024.
  8. ^ a b D'Souza, Shaad (April 19, 2024). "8 Takeaways From Taylor Swift's New Album The Tortured Poets Department". Pitchfork. Retrieved April 19, 2024.
  9. ^ a b Petridis, Alexis (April 19, 2024). "Taylor Swift: The Tortured Poets Department Review – Fame, Fans and Former Flames in the Line of Fire". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on April 19, 2024. Retrieved April 19, 2024.
  10. ^ a b c Hunter-Tilney, Ludovic (April 19, 2024). "Taylor Swift: The Tortured Poets Department review—heartbreak inspires anguish, anger and a career highlight". Financial Times. Retrieved April 19, 2024.
  11. ^ a b Snapes, Laura (April 19, 2024). "Breakups, fantasies and her most cutting lyrics: inside Taylor Swift's The Tortured Poets Department". The Guardian. Retrieved April 19, 2024.
  12. ^ a b Lipshutz, Jason (April 19, 2024). "Taylor Swift's The Tortured Poets Department: All 18 Tracks Ranked". Billboard. Retrieved April 19, 2024.
  13. ^ Wood, Mikael (April 19, 2024). "Taylor Swift turns heel, owning her chaos and messiness on The Tortured Poets Department". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 19, 2024.
  14. ^ a b Hodgkinson, Will (April 19, 2024). "Love, Men and the Story Behind Each Song on Taylor Swift's New Album". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Archived from the original on April 19, 2024. Retrieved April 19, 2024.
  15. ^ Ruggieri, Melissa (April 19, 2024). "Taylor Swift's Tortured Poets is hauntingly brilliant, even the 15 surprise songs". USA Today. Retrieved April 19, 2024.
  16. ^ a b West, Bryan (April 19, 2024). "Taylor Swift breaks our hearts again with Track 5 'So Long, London'". USA Today. Retrieved April 19, 2024.
  17. ^ a b c Bailey, Alyssa (April 19, 2024). "Taylor Swift's 'So Long, London' Lyrics Are Her Heartbreaking Goodbye to Joe Alwyn". Elle. Retrieved April 19, 2024.
  18. ^ Bonner, Mehera (April 19, 2024). "Taylor Sings About Wasting Her Youth in "So Long London," the One 'TTPD' Song Fans Think Is About Joe Alwyn". Cosmopolitan. Retrieved April 19, 2024.
  19. ^ Nicolaou, Elena (April 19, 2024). "'So Long, London' lyrics meaning: Taylor Swift's song, decoded". Today. Retrieved April 19, 2024.
  20. ^ Miyashita, Nina; Waterhouse, Jonah (April 19, 2024). "All the hidden meanings in Taylor Swift's "The Tortured Poets Department" album". Vogue Australia. Retrieved April 19, 2024.
  21. ^ McCormick, Neil (April 19, 2024). "Taylor Swift, The Tortured Poets Department: A Sharp, Savage Attack on Her British Exes". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved April 19, 2024.
  22. ^ McRedmond, Finn (April 19, 2024). "Taylor Swift: The Tortured Poets Department track by track – a manifesto for all the believers who will try at love one more time". The Irish Times. Retrieved April 19, 2024.
  23. ^ Fekadu, Mesfin (April 19, 2024). "Review: On 'Tortured Poets,' Taylor Swift Continues to Spill Her Own Tea (and the Flavor Is Mostly English Breakfast)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved April 19, 2024.
  24. ^ Shepherd, Fiona (April 19, 2024). "Taylor Swift: The Tortured Poets Department review". The Scotsman. Retrieved April 19, 2024.
  25. ^ "The Tortured Poets Department / Taylor Swift". Tidal. Retrieved April 19, 2024.
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