Released: 2024
Features: Post Malone
“Fortnight” by Taylor Swift, featuring Post Malone, is a haunting tale of lost love, longing, and the common, often toxic, coping mechanisms we rely on. It’s a lyrical exploration of Tay Tay’s struggle with unrequited love, anxiety, and potential self-destruction with an undercurrent of suburban ennui.
The song begins Taylor recounting their unceremonious abandonment: “I was supposed to be sent away/But they forgot to come and get me”. The implication here being a feeling of being unwanted, or even forgotten. This quickly spirals into a confessional of functioning alcoholism, even going as far to proclaim the new-found alcoholism as their “new aesthetic”. Taylor then reveals the deeper emotional turmoil plaguing her: her lingering feelings for the person who caused her pain.
The motif of a “Fortnight” emerges as it seems to be a reference to a brief period of happiness, or a semblance of it, that Taylor experienced with her former lover. The ordinary, mundane interactions with the ex-lover are interspersed with thoughts of extreme violence, illustrating the simmering resentment and frustration bubbling just beneath the surface.
The lines “All my mornings are Mondays / Stuck in an endless February” reveal the bleak tone of her outlook — a state of perpetual, mundane suffering. And while she took the “miracle move-on-drug,” its effects were only temporary, bringing her back to the vicious cycle of love, longing, and the pain manifesting from it all.
What’s noticeable is the repition of the phrase “I love you/It’s ruining my life” — a stark admission of the destructive power this unrequited love is having on her life, both emotionally and possibly even physically.
As we navigate further into the lyrics, it seems that both Taylor and Malone share verses, each recounting a narrative of betrayal, longing and failed coping mechanisms, all set against the mundanity of suburban life. The refrain “Thought of calling ya/But you won’t pick up” gives us an insight into the idea that their longing is a one-sided affair, driving them to further depths of despair.
The conclusion of the song doesn’t offer any respite from the melancholic undertone. As the title of the song suggests, this “Fortnight” of joy has turned into a lifetime of yearning, regret, and a seemingly futile search for closure.
