More about: Taylor Swift

When I included 'State of Grace' on my list for 11 Underrated Taylor Swift Songs for Gigwise, I meant it when I said it is the best opening song she’s ever had. As an album opener for 2012's Red, 'State of Grace' does more than just set the tone for what’s to come—it embodies the entire ethos Taylor Swift would craft for the entirety of Red and the era that followed.

Where Speak Now dabbled in soft rock elements on songs like 'Better than Revenge' and 'Haunted', Red fully leans into the rock genre with country elements, and 'State of Grace' is the first taste of what to expect on the rest of the record. Described as an ‘anthem rock’ song inspired by the euphoric 1980s arena rock, 'State of Grace' is the definition of a call-to-arms; a summoning for all to hear as Swift warns about how love is fickle and getting entangled in a romantic relationship can sometimes be fraught with problems or risks.

With the first secret message of the album being “I LOVE YOU DOESN’T COUNT AFTER GOODBYE,” 'State of Grace' seemingly exists in two places: the past and the future. The song both feels like a warning to someone that needs to be wary of an all-encompassing love while also serving as a love letter to… well, love (“Love is a ruthless game/Unless you play it good and right”).

The first verse and the chorus lead to Swift’s mindset at that moment—slightly jaded at the idea of love due to people’s changing minds and their need to end relationships in a metaphorical bloodbath. On Red, Swift highlights the emotions that arise when you first fall in love with someone often—whether those feelings are good or bad—as noted in 'Come Back, Be Here' (“The delicate beginning rush/The feeling you can know so much/Without knowing anything at all”), 'Holy Ground' (“Back to a first-glance feeling on New York time/Back when you fit in my poems like a perfect rhyme”) and 'Treacherous' (“I can't decide if it's a choice/Getting swept away”).

On Good Morning America, Swift described the track as one that details “the possibilities, kind of thinking about the different ways that it could go,” and aimed to make the sound progression build and build as a way to mirror the feeling of falling in love. 

In regards to the lyrics, Swift uses religious and mythological symbolism and allusions (“up in your room and our slates are clean/Just twin fire signs, four blue eyes”) as a songwriting device to be ambiguous about the story she’s sharing. The definition of the phrase "state of grace" means to be completely free of sin: Taylor is describing the ways it feels like a new love absolves you of your past

With "I’ve loved in shades of wrong/we learn to live with the pain/mosaic broken hearts,” Swift is using mosaics as both a nod to the colourful windows seen in churches and as a way to let listeners know that her heart has been patched together again after being broken. Other aspects of mythological lore flicker throughout the track (“These are the hands of fate/You’re my Achilles heel/This is the golden age/Of something good and right and real”) with Swift alluding to how this love feels like a utopia, but the person is her biggest weakness despite her strength (“You come around and the armour falls”). On 'State of Grace', these allusions are leaning on the idea of salvation and that by falling in love, she is forever changed.

'State of Grace' serves as a testament to the extreme lengths Swift thinks about how two people act when they are in love, zeroing in on the minute intricacies of it and picking them apart to both understand their actions and to better understand her own. It’s a bold, sophisticated & all-encompassing poetic force of a song that paints the landscape for what is about to follow on the record as she navigates the intense and complex emotions listeners hear on Red.

Red (Taylor's Version) arrives 12 November.

More about: Taylor Swift