seven

The song is reminiscent of  “It’s Nice To Have A Friend”, from Taylor’s August 2019 album “Lover“, which tells the story of childhood friends that grew up together and eventually married. This time around, Taylor thought about what we lose when we grow up:

“With ‘seven’ I was looking back. When I see a kid throwing a massive tantrum in a grocery store, part of me is like, ‘Man, I feel you. When did I stop doing that when I was upset? When did I stop being so outraged that I would throw myself on the floor and throw the cereal at my mom?’ So the idea is, ‘Please, picture me in the trees because I learned civility. I used to scream anytime I wanted.’ Obviously, we can’t be throwing tantrums all the time and we learn that that’s not the right thing to do. But there’s something lost there, too.” — Taylor Swift

Producer Aaron Dessner told Vulture:

“This is the second song we wrote. It’s kind of looking back at childhood and those childhood feelings, recounting memories and memorializing them. It’s this beautiful folk song. It has one of the most important lines on the record: ‘And just like a folk song, our love will be passed on.’ That’s what this album is doing. It’s passing down. It’s memorializing love, childhood, and memories. It’s a folkloric way of processing.” — Aaron Dessner

The lines “Please picture me in the trees” and “Please picture me in the weeds” were used to name two versions of the collector’s edition of the “folklore” album: the “in the trees” and “in the weeds” editions with the cover arts depicting Taylor in a forest and on a field respectively.

“seven” debuted at No. 35 on the Billboard Hot 100 during the chart week of August 8, 2020.