She’s been teasing us for weeks with cryptic colourful Instagram posts and a mysterious (well, pretty obvious actually, but nonetheless exciting) countdown to an unnamed project, but Taylor Swift has finally unveiled the first single from her upcoming seventh album.
Titled ME!, Taylor’s new track came out at midnight on Thursday night, and features guest vocals from Panic! At The Disco frontman Brendon Urie.
After the dark and moody vibes of Reputation cuts like Look What You Made Me Do and Ready For It?, ME! takes a completely different approach, and musically shows off Taylor’s sunnier and more optimistic side, even if the lyrics do detail a slightly tumultuous relationship.
This happy message is translated into the song’s music video, also released at midnight on Thursday, which sees the two singers performing in a hyper-colourful world, complete with surreal effects, legions of dancers in pastel suits and rainbows everywhere.
We’ve had the video on spin ever since it came out, and we’ve spotted a few things that might have passed even the most dedicated of Swifties by...
1. Right off the bat, we learn ME! was co-directed by Dave Meyers and Taylor Swift
While all of the videos from her last album were directed by her long-time collaborator Joseph Kahn, it looks like Taylor is branching out for her new era.
Dave Meyers truly is the director du jour, working with huge artists like Kendrick Lamar (HUMBLE., All The Stars), Ariana Grande (No Tears Left To Cry, God Is A Woman) and Billie Eilish (Bad Guy) in the last year alone. However, he’s also a bit of a controversial one, as many of his recent efforts have seen him accused of plagiarism.
Excitingly, ME! marks Taylor’s directorial debut, and we’re intrigued to see if the candy-coloured world in the video is really what’s going on in her head...
2. That snake transforming into butterflies might not be subtle, but it gets the message across
Snakes were a big part of Taylor Swift’s last album campaign, an insult she reclaimed after famously being branded one amid her huge feud with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian West.
After featuring them heavily in her music videos and the staging for her most recent stadium tour, the opening shot of ME! features a snake slithering along a rainbow-coloured pavement, only to suddenly burst into a swarm of butterflies, showing Taylor is ready to put the drama of the last couple of years behind her.
You might even say this is her way of suggesting she’s changed since the much-publicised feud, butterflies being a common symbol for transformation and all.
3. “Et devant nos filles, en plus!”
After Taylor tells Brendon off for calling her a drama queen “in front of their young daughters”, the camera then cuts to the singer’s real-life “daughters”, Olivia and Meredith.
What, you didn’t think she was going to show off her fun side without shoe-horning those gals in, did you?
4. But there are actually a few more cats if you keep your eyes peeled
When Brendon gazes out of the window at Taylor and her dancers, there’s a cat statue behind him. Later, he gives her a kitten to try and win her over, after she’s nonplussed by the suggestion of an engagement ring (prompting fans to suggest there might be a new cat in Taylor’s life).
We couldn’t help noticing there was something a little feline-looking about one of those clouds when she sings that “trouble’s gonna follow where I go”, too.
5. Those “cool chicks” will definitely look familiar to fans of country music
Yes, that wall of baby chicks in sunglasses is adorable, but we were even more impressed with Taylor’s shout-out to the “cool chicks” from the country world that came before her, the Dixie Chicks, who are depicted front and centre when she sings that line.
Some fans have taken this as a sign there may be a collaboration with them coming up on the new release, but we’ll have to wait and see whether their inclusion was a hint of things to come, or Taylor’s way of referencing her country past.
Either way, it’s interesting Taylor would reference the famously outspoken Dixie Chicks, as she’s actually become more vocal about political issues herself in the last year or so.
6. And some of those “lame guys” are actually ringing a bell for us too
During Brendon’s verse about how many “lame guys” there are out there, we get close-ups of some… unusual gentlemen.
The first of these “lame guys” has led many fans to speculate that it’s actually Taylor in prosthetics making a cameo as herself...
Meanwhile, fans have worked out that another of the “lame guys” is her former backing dancer Giuseppe Giofrè in prosthetics...
…but the jury is very much still out on the identity of the other two. We’re sure all will be revealed in due course, though.
7. Her recent posts on Instagram suddenly make a lot of sense
While it might look to some that Taylor has just been posting any old thing on Instagram lately, so long as it’s pretty and brightly coloured, her online behaviour suddenly makes a lot more sense having watched the ME! video.
Among her posts were this colourful pavement…
...close-ups of the “cool chicks” portraits…
...some ruffled fabric, which we now know to be one of the many “great gowns, beautiful gowns” in the video…
...and the colourful bags, showcased during the video’s first dance sequence…
ME! is available to download and stream now. Watch the music video in full below: