More about: Taylor Swift

For 'Come In With The Rain', Taylor Swift partners up with Liz Rose, who wrote on 'Fearless', 'White Horse', and others on Swift’s sophomore record. The fourth track from the platinum edition of Fearless, 'Come In With The Rain' breathes a new life into an old expression.

To “come in out of the rain” means to wake up from reality; to come back to earth when one’s head is stuck in the clouds, romanticizing or fantasizing about something or someone. In Swift’s track, it’s her asking her partner to wake up and come to their senses, as demonstrated in the lyrics “Talk to the wind, talk to the sky/Talk to the man with the reasons why/And let me know what you find.”

The secret message for this track — "Won't admit that I wish you'd come back" — shows that despite putting on a strong front and declaring she refuses to back down and beg for someone who won’t give her attention, Swift still longs for the person she penned the song about. The country-pop power ballad serves as a double-edged sword for Swift; although she gets to stand her ground and be firm, she has to let go of the person who just can’t seem to be brought down to reality.

In a record that was propped up by imagery of knights and white horses and themes of everlasting, fairy-tale-esque love stories, 'Come In With The Rain' is Swift putting her metaphorical foot down and pulling away from those fantasies. Swift is, to put it lightly, exhausted — she’s tired of putting herself out there, of asking for someone to meet her where she is, of declaring her love and it not being reciprocated while the person in question is busy with their head in the sky. She mentions this exhaustion throughout the track — “I could stand up and sing you a song/But I don't want to have to go that far” / “I'll leave my window open/Cause I'm too tired tonight/to call your name.”  

Although “Come In with the Rain” is definitely one of the lesser-known (and underrated) tracks in Swift’s discography, when writing this column I realized the growth she experienced just between the release of the original “Fearless” and its platinum counterpart. Even if the song was written around the same time as those on Fearless, 'Come In With The Rain' represents a shift in maturity for Taylor, both in regards to her mindset at 17/18, but also in her songwriting. 

Fearless (Taylor's Version) is out now.

More about: Taylor Swift