My history with this song:

Obviously, it charted decently, but methinks this one is actually rather underrated by fans. It's a slowburn I've come to genuinely adore.

Also, the live performance was a goddamn work of art (the TTPD tour segment of the Eras Tour is probably the finest spectacle Taylor ever put together in general).

ALSO, I fucking love the music video, AMAZING imagery *points at blog header*.

Thoughts:

"Fortnight" is a hazy, dreary song, strangely midtempo for a Taylor album opener and strangely monotonous for a Taylor song point-blank – yet that is its hidden genius. The track is primarily about the aftermath of a shortlived passionate relationship, emphasizing the mundanity of everyday life in comparison to a whirlwind romance: "And for a fortnight, there we were, forever / Run into you sometimes, ask about the weather." The you still being in Taylor's life becomes extra torture as she is forced to put on a neutral face and pretend she isn't suffering while interacting with someone she still feels deeply about.

The song also contrasts the you with Taylor's cheating husband, immediately introducing a crucial motif of The Tortured Poets Department: the absentee romantic partner as well as his narrative foil, the unstable, passionate lover (though the album also enjoys conflating the two).

I adore the motif of suburbia embodying boring normality ("Your wife waters flowers") as well as the lost potential of the short-term relationship ("Move to Florida / Buy the car you want / But it won't start up / 'Til it touch, touch, touch you.") It also contrasts with the old-timeyness of an American using the frame "fortnight".

It's also so interesting how the opening line "I was supposed to be sent away but they forgot to come and get me" seems to be picking up from the ending of "Hits Different", directly and explicitly tying Taylor's previous discography into the story of this album, which in so many ways feels like a culmination of all ten records that preceded it.

"Fortnight" seems to both argue for and against the value of passion – on the one hand, Taylor idealizes the beautiful fortnight she spent with her lover; on the other, she is now "stuck in an endless February" after having had a taste of true passion: "I love you / It's ruining my life." – She sings it almost matter-of-factly, so repressed that she cannot even externalize the agony. It's always struck me that this was a teased lyric before the album came out and I at the time assumed it would be a loud, dramatic declaration.

Memory is, of course, the driver behind the "miracle move-on drug" not working as well as it should have: "And for a fortnight, there we were," Taylor recalls almost lovingly. Yet, despite the pain this memory puts her through, she still insists on affirming the reality of the finite, bygone time she spent with the you: "I touched you for only a fortnight / But I touched you."

Favourite lyric: "I took the miracle move-on drug / The effects were temporary" – TTPD thesis statement perhaps, on top of being an S tier line. And of course "I love you / It's ruining my life."

Favourite melodic line: "I love you / It's ruining my life." <3

Slone and Jones paper “animation” (my first time doing this)

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