Current:Home > reviewsThe most Taylor Swift song ever: 'I Can Do it With a Broken Heart' (track 13 on 'TTPD') -AssetScope
The most Taylor Swift song ever: 'I Can Do it With a Broken Heart' (track 13 on 'TTPD')
Chainkeen View
Date:2025-04-08 03:58:45
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.
More:Taylor Swift name-drops Patti Smith and Dylan Thomas on new song. Here’s why
“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
veryGood! (181)
Related
- $73.5M beach replenishment project starts in January at Jersey Shore
- Once a five-star recruit, Xavier Thomas navigated depression to get back on NFL draft path
- Authorities say 4 people are dead after a train collided with a pickup in rural Idaho
- Tiger Woods sets all-time record for consecutive made cuts at The Masters in 2024
- Krispy Kreme offers a free dozen Grinch green doughnuts: When to get the deal
- Search continues in Maine as officer is charged with lying about taking missing person to hospital
- FDA chairman wants Congress to mandate testing for lead, other harmful chemicals in food
- 1 dead, 13 injured after man crashes truck into Texas Department of Public Safety building
- Trump wants to turn the clock on daylight saving time
- Isabella Strahan's Brain Cancer Journey, in Her Own Words
Ranking
- Travis Hunter, the 2
- Boston University's Macklin Celebrini wins Hobey Baker Award
- The cicadas are coming: Check out a 2024 map of where the two broods will emerge
- Faith Ringgold, pioneering Black quilt artist and author, dies at 93
- Sarah J. Maas books explained: How to read 'ACOTAR,' 'Throne of Glass' in order.
- In-N-Out makes price pledge with California minimum wage law, as others raise rates, slash staff
- Once a five-star recruit, Xavier Thomas navigated depression to get back on NFL draft path
- UFL schedule for Week 3 games: D.C. Defenders, Arlington Renegades open play April 13
Recommendation
A Mississippi company is sentenced for mislabeling cheap seafood as premium local fish
Jessica Alba says she's departing role as chief creative officer at Honest to pursue new endeavors
Judge declines to delay Trump’s NY hush money trial over complaints of pretrial publicity
55 US Coast Guard cadets disciplined after cheating scandal for copying homework answers
Highlights from Trump’s interview with Time magazine
Jury convicts former DEA agent of obstruction but fails to reach verdict on Buffalo bribery charges
In politically riven Pennsylvania, primary voters will pick candidates in presidential contest year
Alaska judge finds correspondence school reimbursements unconstitutional