Taylor Swift's sixth studio album, Reputation was released on November 10, 2017, by Big Machine Records; "Dancing with Our Hands Tied" is the eleventh track on the album. [2] It was twelfth in the setlist for Swift's fifth concert tour, the Reputation Stadium Tour (2018), [3] [4] during which she performed the song on the guitar. [5] [6] [a] The Early Registration's Dan Garcia noted that the acoustic performance's altered pace compared to the studio version of the track was a "standout moment". [8]
Swift performed "Dancing with Our Hands Tied" during the "surprise song" act of her next concert tour, the Eras Tour (2023―2024) on two occasions: on guitar at the second Rio de Janeiro concert on November 19, 2023; on guitar in a mashup with "The Albatross" (2024) at the second Dublin concert on June 29, 2024. [9] [10] [11]
Music and lyrics
At 3 minutes and 31 seconds, [2] [12] "Dancing with Our Hands Tied" was written by Swift, Max Martin, Shellback, and Oscar Holter, and produced by the latter three. The song was recorded at MXM Studios, Los Angeles, California; by Sam Holland, with assistance from Michael Ilbert at MXM Studios, Stockholm; and Cory Byrd and Jeremy Lertola at Conway Recording Studios, Los Angeles. The track was mixed by Serban Ghenea at MixStar Studios, Virginia Beach, Virginia; engineered by John Hanes; and mastered by Tom Coyne at Sterling Sound, New York. Instrumentation includes keyboards played by Martin, Shellback, and Holter; with programming provided by them. [2]
Instrumented with propelling beats [13] and a "ravey" EDM refrain, [14] "Dancing with Our Hands Tied" is an EDM-infused synth-pop and electronica song, [15] composed in the key of C minor. [16] Rolling Stone 's Rob Sheffield noted the track's implementation of 1980's-style beats were similar to "Take On Me" (1984). [17]
In "Dancing with Our Hands Tied", Swift's narrator reflects on a past relationship when she was 25 years old and how the lover turns her bed "into a sacred oasis". [18] [19] "Dancing with Our Hands Tied" explores themes of tension and uncertainty in a strained romantic relationship; [15] it dissects a relationship that is under threat from Swift's narrator's status as a public figure ("People started talking, putting us through our paces / I knew there was no one in the world who could take it / I had a bad feeling.") The narrator doesn't think anyone could handle such scrutiny. [20] Refinery29's Elena Nicolaou noted that the song lyrically resembles "Slow Dancing in a Burning Room" (2006) by John Mayer; she noted that both of the song's choruses are about "people intimately dancing through a doomed situation" and that the lyric, "Swaying as the room burned down," creates a lyrical parallel to Mayer's song. [15]
This page is based on this
Wikipedia article Text is available under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
