"Paper Rings" | |
---|---|
Song by Taylor Swift | |
from the album Lover | |
Released | August 23, 2019 |
Studio |
|
Genre | |
Length | 3:42 |
Label | Republic |
Songwriter(s) |
|
Producer(s) |
|
Audio | |
"Paper Rings" on YouTube |
"Paper Rings" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from her seventh studio album, Lover (2019). Written and produced by Swift and Jack Antonoff, it is a rock-influenced song combining retro musical styles of pop and rock such as pop-punk, bubblegum, new wave, and rockabilly. Its production incorporates tambourine jingles, electric guitars, and girl-group-inspired vocals. The lyrics address a romantic confession that disregards materialistic concerns; Swift's character tells her love that she would marry him with paper rings despite her love for "shiny things".
Music critics generally praised the catchy and lively composition and lighthearted theme, but a few found the track underwhelming. "Paper Rings" charted in Australia, Canada, Scotland, Singapore, and the United States, and it received certifications in Australia and the United Kingdom. Swift performed "Paper Rings" as a "surprise song" outside the regular setlist at the Eras Tour concert in Minneapolis on June 23, 2023.
Taylor Swift conceived her seventh studio album, Lover , as a "love letter to love" itself that explores the many feelings evoked by love. The album was influenced by the connections she felt with her fans on her Reputation Stadium Tour (2018), which helped her recalibrate her personal life and artistic direction after the media controversies surrounding her celebrity at the time. [1] [2] Republic Records released Lover on August 23, 2019. It was Swift's first album under Republic after she ended her previous contract with Big Machine Records. [3] Lover consists of 18 tracks, and "Paper Rings" is track number eight. [4]
The song peaked at number 45 on the US Billboard Hot 100, [5] number 40 on the Canadian Hot 100, [6] and number 96 on the Scottish Singles Chart. [7] The track peaked at number 29 on Australia's ARIA Singles Chart [8] and was certified double platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association. [9] In the United Kingdom, "Paper Rings" reached number 53 on the Official Audio Streaming Chart [10] and was certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry. [11] On June 23, 2023, at a Minneapolis show of her Eras Tour, Swift sang a guitar solo version of "Paper Rings" as a "surprise song". [12]
"Paper Rings" is 3 minutes and 42 seconds long. Swift wrote and produced the track with Jack Antonoff, and both of them played percussions. Antonoff provided background vocals and programmed and played the keyboard, guitars (acoustic, bass, electric), drums, and piano. He and Laura Sisk, assisted by Nick Mills and Jon Sher, recorded the song at Electric Lady Studios in New York City and Metropolis Studios in London. John Hanes engineered the track for mixing, which was done by Serban Ghenea at MixStar Studios, Virginia Beach, Virginia. Randy Merrill mastered the track at Sterling Sound in New York City. [4]
Swift wrote "Paper Rings" imagining herself "at a wedding band at a reception, playing the love songs that the bride and groom wanted to hear in, like, 1978 or something". [13] "Paper Rings" is a rock-influenced tune [14] combining various retro musical styles with a modern touch, [15] [16] such as pop-punk, [17] [18] [19] [20] bubblegum, [21] [22] [23] new wave, [24] [25] rockabilly, [26] [27] surf pop, [15] and power pop. [28] The production consists of tambourine jingles [29] and electric guitars. [21] The track incorporates a brief guitar solo [30] and old-school shouting background vocals, [29] inspired by the way punk girl groups would sing in their records. [13] The Independent 's Roisin O'Connor described Swift's vocals as "muffled and tinny", which lent the track an "old-school" feel. [31] Towards the end, at the bridge, the composition includes a key change. [17] [32] Time 's Dana Schwartz thought the song had a "jangly" sound that recalled country music, [33] while Glenn Rowley of Consequence wrote that the production evoked ska. [20] Some critics compared "Paper Rings" to the music by the Go-Go's [32] [34] [35] and Avril Lavigne. [30] [36] [37]
In the lyrics, Swift sings about wanting to commit to a long-term lover. [38] [39] Swift explained on the theme as "just basically reminiscing on fun memories". She elaborated on the chorus ("I like shiny things but I'd marry you with paper rings"): [40] "it talks about how [...] your whole life you talk with your friends about how, [...] 'Oh my God. Do you wanna get married? What do you want your ring to look like? What kind of ring do you want?' I don't know, I just feel like if you really love someone, love someone, you'd be like, 'I don't care.'" [13] The romance in the song started in the winter [32] and the narrator obsesses over her lover, stalking him on social media and detailing the books that he likes. [41] The two engage in a "cat-and-mouse" phase before Swift's character declares her commitment, telling her lover that she wants his "dreary Mondays" and "complications". [42] Emily Yahr of The Washington Post and Raisa Bruner of Time thought that these details are reminiscent of Swift's song "New Year's Day" (2017), in which Swift sings, "I want your midnights." [14] [42] Before the refrain, Antonoff counts, "1, 2, 3, 4." [20] [43] Swift finishes her lines with "uh-huh"s and "that's right"s and insists, "Darling, you're the one I want." [29]
Some critics praised "Paper Rings" for its upbeat and lively production. Uproxx 's Caitlin White hailed "Paper Rings" as a "near-perfect pop song", [44] and Schwartz described the track as a "bright, jangly standout". [33] Jon Caramanica of The New York Times wrote that "[Lover's] power is encapsulated on 'Paper Rings' and 'Cornelia Street '"; he said that the former track is "[bubbly] and wise" and "[vibrates] with almost a nervous energy". [19] Lindsay Zoladz of The Ringer deemed "Paper Rings" one of the album's defining songs because it "allows [Swift] to sound giddily, unfashionably ecstatic". [26] In Spin, Jordan Sargent picked the track as an example of Swift and Antonoff's production chemistry, praising its power-pop arrangement for "giving Swift's sneer the stomping support it deserves". [28] Variety's Chris Willman deemed it one of Lover's two most lighthearted and "irresistible bangers", alongside "I Think He Knows". [27] Ben Rayner of the Toronto Star said "Paper Rings" had an "instant infectiousness" and described the track as a "deftly executed little love song". [45] Jason Lipshutz from Billboard wrote that its "happy-go-lucky bubblegum vibe" and "showy hook" would make it "an absolute blast" if Swift performed it on a tour. [21]
Other critics also complimented the lyrics. Ludovic Hunter-Tilney from the Financial Times thought that "Paper Rings" both "[verges] on kitsch" and displays Swift's "sense of playfulness" and attention to lyrical details. [46] In The Music, Keira Leonard said that the lyric, "I like shiny things but I'd marry you with paper rings", encapsulated Swift's honest and authentic songwriting about "that feeling perfectly of forgetting everything you ever thought you wanted in a person/relationship when you meet that special someone". [36] Leonard and Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone picked the lyric, "I hate accidents except when we went from friends to this", as their favorite off the track. [36] [47] Esquire's Dave Holmes hailed "Paper Rings" as one of Swift's "strongest, simplest songs in ages" and its "purely joyful" sentiment. [48] Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times ranked "Paper Rings" the fifth best song out of Lover's 18 tracks; he said that it was "[as] peppy as 'Me! '" but "incalculably smarter", with a happy-ending theme reminiscent of Swift's early songs like "Love Story" (2008). [16]
In less enthusiastic views, Anna Gaca of Pitchfork described the track as "cute, and then exhausting", [17] and Sam Brooks of The Spinoff complained that the guitar solo was "neither long enough to justify its place, or short enough to justify even being called a solo proper". [30] Alexis Petridis of The Guardian called "Paper Rings" a "new wave-y misfire" for its "lightweight" production. [49] The Atlantic 's Spencer Kornharber picked the song one of the album's weakest tracks and dismissed it as a "corny sock hop". [50] Kitty Empire in The Observer said that the track "[flirts] hard, but perhaps not quite as hard as 1989's magisterial 'Blank Space' did". [51]
Credits adapted from the liner notes of Lover [4]
Chart (2019) | Peak position |
---|---|
Australia (ARIA) [8] | 29 |
Canada (Canadian Hot 100) [6] | 40 |
New Zealand Hot Singles (RMNZ) [52] | 4 |
Scotland (OCC) [7] | 96 |
Singapore (RIAS) [53] | 24 |
UK Audio Streaming (OCC) [10] | 53 |
US Billboard Hot 100 [54] | 45 |
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Australia (ARIA) [9] | 2× Platinum | 140,000‡ |
Brazil (Pro-Música Brasil) [55] | 2× Platinum | 80,000‡ |
New Zealand (RMNZ) [56] | Platinum | 30,000‡ |
United Kingdom (BPI) [11] | Gold | 400,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. |
Jack Michael Antonoff is an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is the lead vocalist of the rock band Bleachers, and previously the guitarist and drummer for the pop band Fun and the lead vocalist of the indie rock band Steel Train. Antonoff has produced and co-written songs with other music acts such as Taylor Swift, Lorde, Lana Del Rey, St. Vincent, Kendrick Lamar and Sabrina Carpenter.
"Out of the Woods" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from her fifth studio album, 1989 (2014). Swift wrote and produced the song with Jack Antonoff. With lyrics inspired by a failed relationship and the ensuing anxieties that Swift experienced, "Out of the Woods" is a synth-pop song with elements of Eurodance and indietronica and features heavy synthesizers, looping drums, and layered background vocals.
Reputation is the sixth studio album by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. It was released on November 10, 2017, as her last album with Big Machine Records. She conceived Reputation as a response to the media scrutiny on her private life and public image after her previous album, 1989 (2014), propelled her toward global stardom.
"Getaway Car" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from her sixth studio album, Reputation (2017). It served as a single in Australia and New Zealand on September 7, 2018, to support the Australian shows of Swift's Reputation Stadium Tour (2018). Written and produced by Swift and Jack Antonoff, it is a synth-pop song with pulsing synthesizers, programmed drums, and distorted vocals. Lyrically, the song describes Swift's efforts to exit a relationship using romance with someone else, knowing the new relationship will also end briefly because its purpose was only to "get away" from the first one.
"New Year's Day" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from her sixth studio album, Reputation (2017). Swift wrote and produced the song with Jack Antonoff. "New Year's Day" is an acoustic ballad with a sparse arrangement incorporating recurring piano riffs and subdued guitar and synth notes. In the lyrics, the narrator spends the morning after a New Year's Eve party with a lover, and they together clean up their shared house and care for each other. Swift performed "New Year's Day" live on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on November 13, 2017, and Big Machine Records released the song to US country radio as a single on November 27, 2017.
Lover is the seventh studio album by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, released on August 23, 2019, by Republic Records. It is her first album after her departure from Big Machine Records, which caused a public dispute over the ownership of Swift's past albums.
"The Archer" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from her seventh studio album, Lover (2019). She wrote and produced the track with Jack Antonoff, and Republic Records released it as a promotional single on July 23, 2019. The song has a 1980s-influenced minimalist, midtempo production and is a synth-pop ballad incorporating dense, echoing synthesizers and insistent kick drums. Music critics also identified elements of synthwave and dream pop. The lyrics are about Swift's acknowledgement of her past mistakes and contemplation of her identity.
"Lover" is a song written and recorded by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift and the title track of her seventh studio album (2019). Swift conceived it as a timeless love song that could be played at a wedding reception; the lyrics are about an intimate and committed relationship, and the bridge draws on the bridal rhyme "Something old". Produced by Swift and Jack Antonoff, "Lover" combines country and indie folk over a waltz tempo. It has an acoustic-guitar-driven balladic production consisting of snare drums, piano, pizzicato strings, and dense reverb. Republic Records released "Lover" for download and streaming on August 16, 2019, and to US radio the next month.
"Soon You'll Get Better" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift featuring the American country band the Dixie Chicks. Swift and Jack Antonoff wrote and produced the song for the former's seventh studio album, Lover (2019). "Soon You'll Get Better" is a country ballad featuring slide guitar, banjo, and fiddle alongside vocal harmonies. The lyrics were inspired by Swift's parents' cancer diagnoses.
"Cruel Summer" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from her seventh studio album, Lover (2019). Swift and Jack Antonoff produced the song, and they wrote it with St. Vincent. "Cruel Summer" is a synth-pop, industrial pop, and electropop song composed of synths, wobbling beats, and vocoder-manipulated vocals. The lyrics are about an intense romance during a painful summer.
"Cornelia Street" is a song written and recorded by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift for her seventh studio album, Lover (2019). She produced it with Jack Antonoff. The title of the song refers to a street in the New York neighborhood Greenwich Village, where Swift had rented a townhouse. One of the most personal tracks on Lover, "Cornelia Street" sees Swift pleading to never let her lover go, after having shared the ups and downs during the course of their relationship. The song is instrumented by a keyboard line, a delicate piano, and fluttering synthesizers.
"London Boy" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from her seventh studio album, Lover (2019). Swift, Jack Antonoff, and Sounwave wrote the song; the first two are credited as producers while Sounwave is credited as co-producer. A reggae-influenced bubblegum pop song, "London Boy" includes a spoken-word intro by the English actor Idris Elba and contains an interpolation of the song "Cold War" by the American singer Cautious Clay, who was given a co-writing credit on the track. Inspired by Swift's experiences in London, the lyrics mention various London locations and express a Tennessean woman's infatuation with a male love interest from the city.
"False God" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from her seventh studio album, Lover (2019). Written and produced by Swift and Jack Antonoff, it has an atmospheric, slow-building production combining neo soul, R&B, smooth jazz, and sophisti-pop. The jazz-influenced composition consists of a saxophone riff, trap beats, and hiccuping vocal samples. The lyrics use religious imagery to depict hardships and intimacy in a long-distance romantic relationship, mentioning New York City and its neighborhood West Village.
"August" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from her eighth studio album, Folklore (2020). Swift and Jack Antonoff wrote the song, and the two produced it with Joe Alwyn.
"Mr. Perfectly Fine" is a song written and recorded by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from her first re-recorded album, Fearless (2021). It is one of the album's "From the Vault" tracks that was intended for but excluded from her second studio album, Fearless (2008). The song was released for limited-time download via Swift's website on April 7, 2021. She wrote "Mr. Perfectly Fine" in 2008, a track that incorporates wordplay and sees the narrator's heartbreak and fallout with a lover she presumed was the ideal figure for her.
Fearless (Taylor's Version) is the first re-recorded album by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. A re-recording of Swift’s second studio album, Fearless (2008), it was released on April 9, 2021, by Republic Records. It is part of Swift's re-recording project following the 2019 dispute over the master recordings of her back catalog.
"Question...?" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from her tenth studio album, Midnights (2022). Written and produced by Swift and Jack Antonoff, it is a minimalist electropop and synth-pop track that incorporates synth tones and sharp drum machine beats. The song contains a vocal sample of Swift's 2014 track "Out of the Woods". In the lyrics, Swift's narrator confronts an ex-lover with questions regarding their past behaviors and what could have happened differently.
"Maroon" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from her tenth original studio album, Midnights (2022). Swift wrote and produced the song with Jack Antonoff. The lyrics use different shades of red such as maroon, burgundy, and scarlet to describe the haunting memories of a long-gone romance in New York. Musically, "Maroon" is a ballad combining dream pop, synth-pop, electropop, and trip hop. It has an ambient production consisting of reverbed layered vocals, trap beats, and an oscillating electric guitar that creates a sustained note throughout the track.
"Lavender Haze" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from her tenth studio album, Midnights (2022). Swift wrote and produced the song with Jack Antonoff, Jahaan Sweet, and Sounwave. Zoë Kravitz and Sam Dew co-wrote the song, and Braxton Cook was an additional producer. The title was inspired by a phrase used in the series Mad Men that refers to the state of being in love. Republic Records released "Lavender Haze" to US radio on November 29, 2022, as the album's second single.
"You Are in Love" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from the deluxe edition of her fifth studio album, 1989 (2014). Big Machine Records released the track as an iTunes Store-exclusive download on February 24, 2015. Swift wrote and produced the song with Jack Antonoff, whose relationship with the writer-actress Lena Dunham influenced its lyrical content. Some critics applauded the song's portrayal of love with simple lyrics and production, although a few others deemed the track insubstantial.
{{cite AV media notes}}
: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)