Although my favorite Taylor Swift Albums change depending on my mood, evermore is always guaranteed to be in my top three album rankings at all times. Some of my favorite songs from the first half of the album are: champagne problems, gold rush, and tolerate it (which is actually based on Daphne du Maurier’s novel: Rebecca). Today I will be talking about champagne problems! (I highly recommend listening to the song while reading this: champagne problems)

Although this is one of the more sadder songs on the album, interestingly enough, it did not come from a place of heartbreak. In fact, the song was actually co-written and created by Taylor and her current boyfriend during quarantine. Similar to how betty and exile from folklore were created, Taylor heard Joe playing chord progressions on the piano that immediately set a scene up for a song in her mind and decided to run with the idea. champagne problems tells the story of a college couple who have two very different perspectives on where their relationship is going. It is written from the perspective of the apologetic girlfriend who broke the heart of her lover as they were proposing because of personal and mental struggles she was going through. What I love about champagne problems is how well Taylor is able to articulate the state of the relationship between the couple both before and after through the reflection of the relationship through the perspective of first the partner and then the girl.

In the first verse and pre-chorus Taylor clearly shows how heartbroken the lover is and how contrite the woman is for breaking things off with someone she very clearly loved. The song opens with the lines:

 You booked the night train for a reason

So you could sit there in this hurt

Bustling crowds or silent sleepers

You’re not sure which is worse

Because I dropped your hand while dancing

Left you out there standing

Crestfallen on the landing

Champagne problems

Your mom’s ring in your pocket

My picture in your wallet

Your heart was glass, I dropped it

Champagne problems

I think these lines accurately depict how someone would feel after a failed marriage proposal on both sides. I imagine someone sitting with their thoughts alone on a train reliving every moment in a relationship, torturing themselves by reflecting on every moment to try to figure out where it all went wrong. I think the first verse also perfectly shows the state of mind of someone who is heartbroken, because it shows how they are numb to their surroundings, not knowing whether they want to truly be alone with their thoughts or if they want to be surrounded by people.  One of my favorite lines from this song is where Taylor says “your heart was glass, I dropped it” because I think it is such a painfully beautiful way to say that you basically broke someone’s heart. Describing her partner’s heart to be made of glass also shows how much the girlfriend cares and feels remorse for breaking the other person’s heart because when you love someone, you care about their feelings and are careful about how you treat their feelings.

In the second verse Taylor says: 

You told your family for a reason

You couldn’t keep it in

Your sister splashed out on the bottle

Now no one’s celebrating

Dom Pérignon, you brought it

No crowd of friends applauded

Your hometown skeptics called it

Champagne problems

You had a speech, you’re speechless

Love slipped beyond your reaches

And I couldn’t give a reason

Champagne problems

Making the decision to propose to someone is not something most people take lightly. Although you can never be 100% sure how the person getting proposed to will respond (as evidenced by the song), you are usually sure the person you are proposing to is the person you want to spend the rest of your life with, and that the person probably reciprocates those feelings for you. Knowing this makes these lines even more heartbreaking because from the very first line of the verse you can see how excited the person was to propose. They told their family because they just “couldn’t keep it in.” Furthermore, not only did the person tell their family, but the family was also just as excited to welcome the girl into their family, evidenced by how “the sister splashed out on the bottle” and how the person was going to propose with their mother’s ring. The last lines clearly show how the person was left shocked and speechless when the girl said no to the proposal that they were sure would end happily ever after, without even being able to give a reason as to why she was saying no.

It wouldn’t be a Taylor Swift song without an even more gut wrenching bridge, and that is exactly what Taylor gives us. In the bridge Taylor says: 

Your Midas touch on the Chevy door

November flush and your flannel cure

“This dorm was once a madhouse”

I made a joke, “Well, it’s made for me”

How evergreen, our group of friends

Don’t think we’ll say that word again

And soon they’ll have the nerve to deck the halls

That we once walked through

One for the money, two for the show

I never was ready, so I watch you go

Sometimes you just don’t know the answer

‘Til someone’s on their knees and asks you

“She would’ve made such a lovely bride

What a shame she’s f****d in her head,” they said

But you’ll find the real thing instead

She’ll patch up your tapestry that I shred

And hold your hand while dancing

Never leave you standing

Crestfallen on the landing

With champagne problems

Your mom’s ring in your pocket

Her picture in your wallet

You won’t remember all my

Champagne problems

Taylor shares the girl’s perspective now as she reflects on the relationship sharing simple yet important details about their relationship. The midas touch is a direct reference to Joe, as Taylor has compared him to having the “golden touch” or just being “golden” in many of her previous songs. The line “November flush and your flannel cure” will always leave me speechless because I think it’s such a genius way of saying that the girl was cold and her partner gave her their flannel to keep her warm. This small detail could be reminiscent of many things relating to their relationship. It could be talking about how the partner always kept her safe and sound and how they knew her so well. The inclusion of the dialogue and the joke the girl made, and including how they shared a friend group shows how close and comfortable they were with each other. The first few times I heard the song, I thought that the word she was referring to when she said “Don’t think we’ll say that word again” was the word “friends” from the previous line “How evergreen, our group of friends” but after listening to it a few more times I realized Taylor actually meant the word “our,” which has a much sadder connotation because it reminds the girl that they once used to share many meaningful things, and now they simply do not. I think the inclusion of what may seem like such a small detail as not being able to refer to things they previously used to refer to as “ours” perfectly portrays heartbreak. 

If you thought Taylor could not break your heart any further, you were terribly mistaken, because in the next verse she says that “Sometimes you just don’t know the answer, ‘Til someone’s on their knees and asks you.” This line may seem harmless, until you realize that Taylor used the plural “knees” and not just the singular “knee” that one would get down on while proposing. The usage of the plural “knees” implies that the person was quite literally at the point of begging her to marry them. The next few lines show dialogue by the so-called “hometown skeptics” that Taylor references in a previous verse. The usage of the profanity suggests that they blame the girl for what they see as a sudden betrayal, when in reality, she just had personal problems of her own that kept her from giving herself completely to someone else. We see that the girl did truly love her partner, maybe even more than her partner loved her, because she did not want her personal problems to get in the way of their true happiness. We see this when she goes on to say that she still wants to see them happy even if it isn’t with her. She says that one day they will find someone that will “patch up the tapestry” that she shred.

The outro of the song mirrors the choruses with the only changed detail being that the “my and mine” are now changed to “she and her” referring to the “someone else” that she hopes her partner will find to make them happy in a way she never could. 

I sincerely apologize if reading this post made your Friday a little less happier. I suggest listening to Dorothea (from the same album). It’s a much more upbeat and playful song that is guaranteed to put you back into a happier mood!