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High Infidelity

Bonus Track | Midnights (3am Edition) [2022]

“High Infidelity” is the seventeenth track on Taylor’s tenth studio album, Midnights (2022). It is also the fourth bonus track on the 3am Edition of the album. Written and produced by Taylor and Aaron Dessner, the song was written about admitting infidelity in a relationship.

Background and Release

On August 28, 2022, Taylor announced her tenth studio album, Midnights, set for release on October 21, 2022. On October 16, she posted a short video on her social media that presented a schedule of the days leading up to the album release, entitled “Midnight Manifest”. On it, Taylor also teased a “Special very chaotic surprise” happening three hours after the albums release. This materialized into a digital and streaming only version of the album, titled Midnights (3am Edition), containing an additional seven songs that according to Taylor were written but removed to keep the album at 13 songs. One of those songs is “High Infidelity.” Taylor said:

«I think of Midnights as a complete concept album, with those 13 songs forming a full picture of the intensities of that mystifying, mad hour. However! There were other songs we wrote on our journey to find that magic 13. I’m calling them 3am tracks. Lately I’ve been loving the feeling of sharing more of our creative process with you, like we do with 'From The Vault' tracks. So it’s 3am and I’m giving them to you now.»

Taylor Swift

Lyrical Theme

According to co-writer and co-producer Aaron Dessner, “High Infidelity” was written in March 2021, when he was staying at Taylor’s home in Los Angeles ahead of the Grammy Awards (where they would win the “Album of the Year” award for folklore). He told the podcast Broken Record in April 2023:

«We wrote that song together, and recorded it, while we were together in LA for the folklore Grammys. So it goes back that far. [...] We actually recorded it in her house then. And eventually she obviously made most of Midnights with Jack and it became something different, but we made 'Would've, Could've, Should've, 'High Infidelity', 'The Great War' and 'Hits Different' together. And it was great to be a part of that record in that way. It was really special.»

Aaron Dessner

The song continues a pattern of Taylor exploring the nuances of cheating and infidelity, which started on folklore and includes songs such as “illicit affairs”, “august”, “betty”, “no body, no crime“, and “ivy”. In “High Infidelity”, Taylor delves in-depth into the games played within an unstable relationship and the intense pain of infidelity, caused both to the cheating partner and the partner being cheated on.

In 2024, she included “High Infidelity” as the first track in her Apple Music playlist named “You Don’t Get To Tell Me About Sad”, which she introduced by saying:

«Over the years, I've learned that anger can manifest itself in a lot of different ways. But the healthiest way that it manifests itself in my life is when I can write a song about it. And then, oftentimes, that helps me get past it.»

Taylor Swift

Live Performances

Taylor first performed “High Infidelity” during her sixth headlining concert tour, “The Eras Tour” (2023). It was the first surprise song during her show on – fittingly – April 29, 2023, in Atlanta. She cheekily introduced the song by asking:

«Do you really wanna know where I was April 29th? I was in Atlanta, Georgia.»

Taylor Swift

During her show on May 24, 2024, in Lisbon, Taylor played the song as a mashup on piano with “Fresh Out the Slammer” (2024).

Commercial Performance

In the United States, songs from Midnights occupied the entire Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100; a historic feat. “High Infidelity” debuted at No. 33 on the chart. Taylor became the first artist to simultaneously occupy the Top 10 spots of the Hot 100; the female artist with the most Top 10 songs (40); and the first act to occupy the entire Top 10 of the Hot 100, Streaming Songs, and Digital Songs charts simultaneously. Midnights also became the first album in history to contain ten Top 10 songs.

Lyrics

[Verse 1]
Lock broken
Slur spoken
Wound open
Game token
I didn’t know you were keeping count
Rain soaking
Blind hoping
You said I was freeloading
I didn’t know you were keeping count

[Chorus]
High infidelity
Put on your records and regret me
I bent the truth too far tonight
I was dancing around, dancing around it
High infidelity
Put on your headphones and burn my city
Your picket fence is sharp as knives
I was dancing around, dancing around it

[Refrain 1]
Do you really want to know where I was April 29th?
Do I really have to chart the constellations in his eyes?

[Verse 2]
Storm coming
Good husband
Bad omen
Dragged my feet right down the aisle
At the house lonely
Good money
I’d pay, if you’d just know me
Seemed like the right thing at the time

[Refrain 2]
You know there’s many different ways that you can kill the one you love
The slowest way is never loving them enough
Do you really want to know where I was April 29th?
Do I really have to tell you how he brought me back to life?

[Refrain 3]
Do you really want to know where I was April 29th?
Do I really have to chart the constellations in his eyes?
You know there’s many different ways that you can kill the one you love
The slowest way is never loving them enough

[Chorus]
High infidelity
Put on your records and regret meeting me
I bent the truth too far tonight
I was dancing around, dancing around it
High infidelity
Put on your headphones and burn my city
Your picket fence is sharp as knives
I was dancing around, dancing around it

[Post-Chorus]
Oh, there’s many different ways that you can kill the one you love
And it’s never enough, it’s never enough

[Outro]
Lock broken
Slur spoken
Wound open
Game token
I didn’t know you were keeping count
Rain soaking
Blind hoping
You said I was freeloading
I didn’t know you were keeping count
But, oh, you were keeping count