This Love (Taylor Swift song)
"This Love" is a song written and recorded by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift for her fifth studio album, 1989 (2014). Swift produced the song with Nathan Chapman. An atmospheric ballad, "This Love" combines soft rock and synth-pop. Its lyrics use oceanic imagery to describe the revival of a faded romance.
"This Love"
October 17, 2012
October 27, 2014
Pain in the Art (Nashville)
4:10
Taylor Swift
- Taylor Swift
- Nathan Chapman
After 1989 was released, the track charted on the Canadian Hot 100 at number 84 and the US Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles at number 19. It was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for one million track-equivalent units. In reviews of 1989, some music critics labeled the song as a highlight of 1989, but others deemed its balladic production out of place for the album's upbeat sound.
The re-recording of the song, titled "This Love (Taylor's Version)", was released on May 6, 2022, via Republic Records. It featured on the trailers for the Amazon Prime Video television series The Summer I Turned Pretty. "This Love (Taylor's Version)" features an enhanced production quality, exuding indie rock tendencies. The song is included as part of 1989 (Taylor's Version), which was released on October 27, 2023, and is part of Swift's plan to re-record her back catalog, following the dispute over the ownership of the masters of her first six albums.
Background and writing[edit]
Taylor Swift, an American singer-songwriter, had been known as a country artist prior to the release of her fourth studio album, Red (2012).[1][2] Many of the album's tracks incorporate predominantly pop or rock musical styles, a result of Swift's desire to experiment with the genres.[3][4] This prompted a media debate over the validity of her status as a country artist.[5] For her next album, 1989, Swift decided to create a "blatant pop" record and move away from the signature country styles of her previous releases.[6][7] She began writing songs for the album in mid-2013.[8]
"This Love" was the first song that Swift wrote for 1989,[9] and the only one that she wrote on her own.[10] According to 1989's liner notes, she did so on October 17, 2012, when she was in Los Angeles.[11] Swift initially envisioned "This Love" as a "fun, little short poem" for her personal journal; when she came up with a melody in her head, she opted to turn the poem into a song.[12] To this end, she enlisted the help of her long-time collaborator Nathan Chapman, who worked with Swift on all her previous albums, to produce the track with her.[13][11] "This Love" was the only song from 1989 produced by Chapman.[14] The track was recorded at his Pain in the Art Studio in Nashville, Tennessee, and mixed by Serban Ghenea at MixStar Studios in Virginia Beach, Virginia.[11]
Music and lyrics[edit]
"This Love" is a midtempo atmospheric ballad.[24] It has a duration of around four minutes and is one of the slowest tracks in the album.[25][26] The song is a primarily synth-pop[27] and soft rock song.[28][29] Time's Sam Lansky described it as an "electro-ballad".[30] "This Love" consists of both acoustic and electronic instruments with a slow-burning and melodramatic production.[31][32] It uses double tracking on Swift's vocals.[33] Rob Sheffield, a critic for Rolling Stone, compared the track's sound to that of 1980s power ballads, specifically citing Bon Jovi's "I'll Be There for You" (1989).[25]
The lyrics are about feelings of heartbreak: "Lantern, burning, flickered in my mind for only you / But you were still gone, gone, gone."[34] Swift uses the ocean as a metaphor for a love that disappears and then comes back like the tides.[26] Critics considered it one of 1989's saddest songs.[26][35] Time magazine's Sam Lansky argued that the chorus's catchiness made it more hopeful than anguished.[30] Swift remarked that she frequently listened to "This Love", citing it as one of her favorites on the album.[9]
Critical reception[edit]
Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone selected "This Love" as one of the three best tracks on 1989, the other two being "How You Get the Girl" and "Clean".[25] In an album review for musicOMH, critic Shane Kimberline lauded it as 1989's best song, emphasizing the chorus and "classic Swiftian" lyrics.[36] Jon Caramanica of The New York Times thought that Swift's songwriting in "This Love" was less detail-oriented compared to her past work;[34] Mikael Wood from the Los Angeles Times took issue with the generic lyrics.[37] Marah Eakin from The A.V. Club considered "This Love" as one of 1989's weaker songs because of its midtempo balladry compared to the album's upbeat production,[24] and Corey Beasley from PopMatters found the atmospheric balladry out of place for the album's overall sound.[38]
Credits are adapted from 1989 album liner notes.[11]