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You Are In Love

Promotional Single | Bonus Track | 1989 (2014) | 1989 (Taylor's Version) [2023]

“You Are In Love” is track fifteen on the deluxe edition of Taylor’s fifth studio album, 1989 (2014). Co-written by Taylor and Jack Antonoff, the song was written about finding your true love. The re-recording of the song, “You Are In Love (Taylor’s Version)”, was released on October 27, 2023.

Background

Inspired by 1980s synth-pop, Taylor decided to move away from the signature country styles of her previous releases and incorporate a straightforward pop production for 1989. The recording process began in mid-2013 concurrently with the start of Taylor’s headlining “The RED Tour” in support of her fourth studio album, RED (2012). To ensure a smooth transition to pop, she enlisted new collaborators including Jack Antonoff, who produced two songs for the album’s standard edition, and one bonus track for the deluxe edition (“You Are In Love“). Antonoff had previously worked with Taylor on the song “Sweeter Than Fiction“, a 1980s new wave-influenced song recorded by Taylor for the soundtrack of One Chance (2013).

Lyrical Theme

Taylor wrote this song with Jack Antonoff using his relationship with his girlfriend Lena Dunham as her inspiration. “You guys are like the benchmark of actual, real true love,” she commented to him during a MTV interview. The two have since broken up, but the song absolutely stands on its own. It tells a simple love story that starts as a friendship and grows organically. In the bridge it also puts Taylor’s career into words beautifully when she sings, “And you understand now why they lost their minds and fought the wars, and why I’ve spent my whole life try to put it into words.” Taylor told Jimmy Kimmel in 2014:

«I wrote it with my friend Jack Antonoff who’s dating my friend Lena. Jack sent me this song, it was just an instrumental track he was working on and immediately I knew the song it needed to be. And I wrote it as a kind of commentary on what their relationship has been like. So it’s actually me looking and going, ‘This happened and that happened, then that happened and that’s how you knew you are in love.»

Taylor Swift

Asked by Elle in 2015 about the song, Taylor replied: “I’ve never had that, so I wrote that song about things that Lena Dunham has told me about her and Jack Antonoff. That’s just basically stuff she’s told me. And I think that that kind of relationship — God, it sounds like it would just be so beautiful — would also be hard. It would also be mundane at times.”

Apparently, Lena didn’t know the song was about her until Taylor said so in interviews. Jack himself also only found out after the album’s release.

Live Performances

“You Are In Love” was part of Taylor’s setlist for “The 1989 World Tour” (2015). It is therefore featured in the concert movie The 1989 World Tour Live (2015). She performed “You Are In Love” for the first time since then as the second surprise song during her “The Eras Tour” (2023-2024) show in Los Angeles on August 4, 2023. She sang the song acoustically on piano. During her concert on July 5, 2024, in Amsterdam Taylor played the song together with “cowboy like me” (2020). On July 27, she paired the song together with “Fresh Out the Slammer” (2024) in Munich.

Connection to "Lover"

A few years after the release of “You Are In Love” Taylor wrote the song “Lover” (2019) about finding her own true love with her partner at the time, Joe Alwyn (they split in early 2023). The music video’s concept was inspired by the lyric, “You two are dancing in a snow globe round and round” from “You Are in Love“.

Taylor's Version

“You Are In Love (Taylor’s Version)” is included as the fifteenth track on Taylor’s fourth re-recorded album, 1989 (Taylor’s Version). It was released on October 27, 2023, exactly nine years after the original.

Lyrics

[Verse 1]
One look
Dark room
Meant just for you
Time moved too fast
You play it back
Buttons on a coat
Lighthearted joke
No proof, not much
But you saw enough

[Verse 2]
Small talk, he drives
Coffee at midnight
The light reflects
The chain on your neck
He says, “Look up”
And your shoulders brush
No proof, one touch
But you felt enough

[Chorus]
You can hear it in the silence (Silence), silence (Silence)
You can feel it on the way home (Way home), way home (Way home)
You could see it with the lights out (Lights out), lights out (Lights out)
You are in love
True love
You are in love

[Verse 3]
Morning, his place
Burnt toast, Sunday
You keep his shirt
He keeps his word
And for once you let go
Of your fears, your ghosts
One step, not much
But it said enough

[Verse 4]
You kiss on sidewalks
You fight then you talk
One night he wakes
Strange look on his face
Pauses, then says
“You’re my best friend”
You knew what it was
He is in love

[Bridge]
So it goes
You two are dancing in a snow globe ’round and ’round
He keeps a picture of you in his office downtown
And you understand now why they lost their minds and fought the wars
And why I spent my whole life trying to put it into words…

[Chorus Variation]
‘Cause you can hear it in the silence
You can feel it on the way home
You could see it with the lights out
You are in love
True love
You are in love

[Final Chorus]
You can hear it in the silence (Silence), silence (Silence)
You can feel it on the way home (Way home), way home (Way home)
You could see it with the lights out (Lights out), lights out (Lights out)
You are in love
True love
You are in love

Artist

Taylor Swift

Albums

1989
1989 (Taylor’s Version)

Released

October 27, 2014

Re-Released

October 27, 2023

Written

2013

Studios

Rough Customer (Brooklyn)
Electric Lady (New York)
Sharp Sonics (Los Angeles)
Conway (Los Angeles)
Audu Music Studio (Brooklyn)
Hutchinson Sound (Brooklyn)
Pleasure Hill Recording (Portland)
Big Mercy (Brooklyn)

Genre

Synth Pop

Length

4:27

Labels

Big Machine Records
Republic Records

Songwriters

Taylor Swift
Jack Antonoff

Producers

Jack Antonoff
Taylor Swift
Max Martin (original)