“You All Over Me” by Taylor Swift (ft. Maren Morris)
“You All Over Me” is one of the more-metaphorical of Taylor Swift’s songs, especially as far as the first verse is concerned. But the overall message being put forth is pretty simple.
The singer was once very much in love and involved with the addressee, who would be her ex-boyfriend. It was sort of a love-at-first-sight kind of scenario, with her being smitten from the jump.
And for a time yes, she was apparently living the dream. But somewhere along the line she “got burned”. That statement surely reads as if the relationship went sour. Furthermore, more specifically it would have been the fault of this same dude she was so in love with.
And even using the phrase ‘was in love’ to define this situation is a stretch. And why? Because the vocalist is still very much in her feelings. In other words, the titular allegory “you all over me” is a poetic way of saying that she is unable to get over her ex.
Like dude is “all over”, even at this very moment, despite the fact that in all other regards she has ‘freed’ herself from her relationship with him.
And what this means in more-practical terms is that again, the addressee was someone whom the singer completely fell for.
In Conclusion
So at the end of day, neither the passage of time nor her own efforts to get over him are going to definitively remove his presence from her life.
So all of that noted, this is in fact a heartbreak song. And that is because the vocalist has found herself in the unenviable position of still having feelings for someone whom she not only parted ways with on a sour note but also is not likely to ever have a relationship with him again.
On which album does “You All Over Me” appear?
This song is from a project entitled Fearless (Taylor’s Version). Fearless is an album which Tay Tay originally dropped back in 2008.
However, since then, the master recordings of her six first albums (of which Fearless is the second) was purchased/acquired by Scooter Braun.
Braun is someone who has become sort of a household name in music tabloids, known primarily for being the long-time manager of Justin Bieber. But more to the point at hand is that Taylor Swift was vehemently against the aforementioned deal between Braun and her former label, Big Machine Records.
Thus she vowed to re-record the six aforementioned albums, apparently beginning with Fearless, with Fearless (Taylor’s Version) slated to come out in April of 2021 under Republic Records. This is the label she signed with in 2019.
Meanwhile this particular track was released on 26 March 2021. It is the second single from said project.
However, it was not featured on the original release of Fearless. It was recorded to be included on that album but didn’t make the final cut.
Did Taylor Swift write “You All Over Me”?
Taylor served as both co-writer and co-producer of this song. The other co-writer is Scooter Carusoe and co-producer Aaron Dessner.
Dessner’s participation was more recent. He assisted Taylor with the song while concurrently working with on Folklore and Evermore. These projects are the two albums she respectively released in 2020.
Taylor and Maren Morris
This is the first on-track collaboration between Taylor Swift and Maren Morris, a singer from Arlington, Texas.
Morris wasn’t featured on the original recording of “You All Over Me”. Rather she is a friend of Taylor’s whom Swift gave an opportunity on the re-recording of the song.
And they have worked together before, with Swift bringing Morris on stage during the former’s Reputation Stadium Tour. The even in question was held in Arlington on 5 October 2018.
And whereas Maren, who provides background vocals to this song, may not be as popular as Taylor, she is a successful musician in her own right.
For instance, she earned a Grammy Award in 2017. She won in the category of Best Country Solo Performance for her song “My Church”.
Meanwhile Taylor Swift has been perennially amongst the most-successful female artists in the music industry. For instance, as noted earlier she released two albums during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, Folklore and Evermore.
And even at a time when the music industry was by all accounts reeling, she was able to top the Billboard 200 and UK Albums Chart on both occasions.
Original Version
The original version of this song, which again was never officially released, was at a time present on the internet, more specifically on Vimeo. But it has since been taken down, as recently as 24 March 2021. This is apparently in light of this official version being dropped.
In addition to “You All Over Me”, there are also six other previously-unreleased songs from the Fearless era that will be featured on Taylor’s Version of the album.
The lyrics of this track read like a love and heartbreak song at the same time. It is pretty obvious the singer has some type of serious beef with the addressee, who would be her ex-boyfriend. That notion comes across most pointedly when, in the chorus, she likens the experience of being with him to ‘getting burned’. But she also describes said relationship as one whereas she “lived and… learned”, with that first expression especially pointing to the idea that she enjoyed it to some considerable capacity.
But in terms of the present day yes, it can be said that perhaps she regrets hooking up with him in the first place. Or as the vocalist explicitly puts it, she held onto this partner even after she came to realize that she should instead let go. So it’s like she decided to entertain a toxic relationship. But the reason she did so is because she was actually in love. And the reason we know such is the case is because even in the here and now, she is stricken by the everything-reminds-me-of-you syndrome. And that is what the title, “you all over me”, actually means. Her ex has become so intertwined in her life that even after no longer being with him, which we can see is actually beneficial for her emotional wellbeing, he is still on her mind constantly. Or as Taylor poetically puts it in the bridge, “no amount of freedom gets you clean”. That’s a fancy way of saying that all because you may become free from a toxic partner, that doesn’t mean that you will stop caring for them if the love was true in the first.
So this is one of those types of posts whereas we conclude by saying that the vocalist is in an unenviable position. For the thesis sentiment of the song is in fact this idea of her proving unable to get over an ex. Meanwhile this isn’t one of those cases whereas she is desiring to get back with him, as he was apparently toxic. So what we’re dealing with here is basically a case of a narrator who has fallen in love with the wrong person.
Summary: Taylor Swift has found herself in the unenviable position of still being very much in love with a toxic former lover.