Taylor Swift I Knew It, I Knew You

In November of 1995, when Toy Story made its mark on the world, Taylor Swift a month shy of her sixth birthday. A formative moment in one’s personal history to see such a film. That is, if one can correctly assume that her parents took her to see it in the theater right when it came out. And, according to Swift, a dyed in the wool millennial, it really was formative and she really did see it when she was five (hence, the kind of “kismet” number connections that Swift gets hard for by being able to contribute to Toy Story 5 after being five when she saw the original and then releasing the single on June 5). Confirming as much with her statement, “I’ve always dreamed of getting to write for these characters who I’ve adored since I was a 5-year-old kid watching the first Toy Story movie.”

Of course, that kind of reinvented “it was meant to be” lore is on-brand for Swift, for it’s difficult to imagine a child looking up at Woody (Tom Hanks) and Buzz (Tim Allen) and saying, “Yeah, I want to write for these characters!” And, in the end, it’s not even Woody and Buzz she’s writing for, but rather, Jessie (Joan Cusack) a.k.a. Jessie the Cowgirl, who first gets introduced into the Toy Story universe in its 1999 sequel. As such, the single’s album artwork is a close-up of Jessie’s torso, which, upon first glance, might be mistaken for Woody’s—in large part thanks to the star-shaped sheriff’s badge—but the telltale red-haired braid at the side emphasizes that, no, this is very much Jessie’s song. As Toy Story 5 seems poised to be Jessie’s movie. If it weren’t, one doubts that Swift would devote almost a full three minutes to singing from her perspective (something that, granted, Billie Eilish sort of set the precedent for, film franchise character-wise when she wrote “What Was I Made For?” from the perspective of Barbie). And yes, it seems like a bit of a “skimp” that Swift technically made a TikTok-length song for this particular endeavor.

One that makes a big to-do about a return to her country roots. Even though the much better and more accessible “Carolina” from the Where the Crawdads Sing Soundtrack also does that in a slightly subtler way. But there’s no subtlety here, starting from the moment the harmonica notes begin to play in time with a noticeable Jack Antonoff-produced drumbeat. After all, just because Lena Dunham thinks she and Swift are “besties” (a dynamic that’s been plenty milked by the former while promoting Famesick), it doesn’t mean the latter would ever abandon the producer that’s helped her to come up with some of her biggest hits. Besides, she also needed to soothe Antonoff’s ego after working with Max Martin on The Life of a Showgirl instead of him. As for the songwriting, Swift’s interpretation of Jessie’s perspective on Emily (her original owner, and the one she gives plenty of backstory on in Toy Story 2, complete with Randy Newman’s crushing “When She Loved Me” [sung by none other than Sarah McLachlan] to go along with it) is the same as it is for most of her songs: that of a jilted lover looking back on the peak of the relationship. So it is that Swift sings lines like, “All you said was, ‘Hi’/And I remembered I loved you” and “I memorized the sound of your bare footsteps running wild/It’s been a long time.”

At another point, Swift phrases that a different way: “It’s been a while.” And no, it doesn’t have the sensual suggestiveness of Britney Spears saying the same at the beginning of “Break the Ice.” Instead, it feels more like a “delicate” nod to the fact that, for Swift, “it’s been a while” since she’s truly gotten back to her so-called country roots. Even if a sweep of her country music-era interviews only serves to prove that her “Southern accent” was nothing more than a put-on for the sake of being fully embraced by the country music industry. After all, people from Pennsylvania really don’t talk like that. Nonetheless, to prove her country-ness, Swift also posted a video of herself as 90s child dressed in the kind of cowboy regalia that Woody would wear to commemorate the release of the song. Which, more accurately, ought to be called “I Knew It, I Knew Ya,” since that’s how she pronounces it. Then again, it really shouldn’t be called any variation of this phrase considering that a so-called good friend of Swift’s, Gracie Abrams, already has a song called “I Knew It, I Know You” from her The Secret of Us album. And yes, in all honesty, that’s a better song. Also laden with finger-picking guitar riffs and the belting out of emotions. Ones that sound more earnest than Swift’s in “I Knew It, I Knew You.”

As for choosing to release a country song at this moment in time, it does little to negate the longstanding theories that Swift is, fundamentally, something of a “MAGA Barbie” (not to be confused with “Boring Barbie”). This perception only stoked by agreeing to marry a football hero. And, talking of Travis Kelce, it seems his relationship with his brother, Jason Kelce, could have served as Swift’s inspiration for the lyrics, “I knew you, all your blues like a mood ring changing colors/You did too, there were times we could fight like brothers.” Because why “brothers” if Swift wasn’t thinking of Travis and Jason? Otherwise, she surely would have used “sisters” instead. Not only because Jessie and Emily are women, but because, if Swift knew anything about the sister dynamic (which she doesn’t, what with having only one brother), she would realize that sisters are far more like “two cats in a sack” than brothers.

In any case, the fact that the use of “brothers” in lieu of “sisters” is arguably the most “thought-provoking” element of the single should give one a sense of just how much Swift is trying with this one (still, she just wanted you to know, this is her trying). But for those who enjoy a “shit-kickin’ good time” (which is clearly most of America at this point), “I Knew It, I Knew You” will inevitably mark another “win” for Swift. Though less so for the Toy Story universe.