invisible string

The song includes several nods to Taylor’s past work, including 2014’s “Bad Blood” and 2017’s “Delicate.” And like on “Red”, “Dancing With Our Hands Tied” and “Daylight,” she uses the connotations of different colors to convey the intensity of her love for a partner. She expresses gratitude for past romantic failures since they paved the way for her relationship with Joe Alwyn. In the album’s prologue, Taylor explains the song’s imagery: “A single thread that, for better or for worse, ties you to your fate.”

CONNECTIONS TO TAYLOR’S PERSONAL LIFE
“You were sixteen at the yogurt shop” is a reference to Joe Alwyn, Taylor’s boyfriend, who worked at Snogs’ Frozen Yogurt in London when he was younger. The dive bar also mentioned in these lyrics is the bar on the East Side where they met. “Now I send their babies presents” is, apparently, a nod to Taylor’s former boyfriend Joe Jonas and his wife Sophie Turner which had their first baby in summer 2020. In the documentary/concert film “folklore: the long pond studio sessions“, Taylor said what inspired her to write the song:

“When I first heard the track that [Aaron] sent me I thought, ‘I have to write something that matches it’. And pretty quickly I came upon the idea of fate. ‘Cause sometimes I just go into a rabbit hole of thinking about how things happen and I love the romantic idea that every step you’re taking, you’re taking one step closer to what you’re supposed to be, guided by this little invisible string. I wrote it right after I sent an ex a baby gift and I just remember thinking, ‘This is a full signifier that life is great!'” — Taylor Swift

Regarding the song’s production, producer Aaron Dessner told Vulture:

“That was another one where it was music that I’d been playing for a couple of months and sort of humming along to her. It felt like one of the songs that pulls you along. Just playing it on one guitar, it has this emotional locomotion in it, a meditative finger-picking pattern that I really gravitate to. It’s played on this rubber bridge that my friend put on [the guitar] and it deadens the strings so that it sounds old. The core of it sounds like a folk song. It’s also kind of a sneaky pop song, because of the beat that comes in. She knew that there was something coming because she said, ‘You know, I love this and I’m hearing something already.’ And then she said, ‘This will change the story,’ this beautiful and direct kind of recounting of a relationship in its origin.” — Aaron Dessner

“invisible string” debuted at No. 37 on the Billboard Hot 100 during the chart week of August 8, 2020.