Death Cab for Cutie – The New Year (2003)
Whether Travis Kelce is the hangover-soothing kind is TBC. Written with collaborator Jack Antonoff, the pair said its sound and emotional vulnerability were inspired by Joni Mitchell. “Who’s willing to give you Advil and clean up the house? I think that states more of a permanence”, Swift said about the lyrics. “There’s glitter on the floor after the party / Girls carrying their shoes down in the lobby”, she sings, before employing a party-themed analogy for sticking with the object of one’s affections through good times and bad, explaining she’s happy to help “clean up bottles with you on New Year’s Day”. Probably the greatest millennial chronicler of parties and drunkenness (“How’d we end up on the floor anyway? / You say ‘your roommate’s cheap-ass screw-top rosé’”), Taylor Swift’s contribution to the New Year canon is this beautifully observed piano ballad – from the otherwise electronic- and synth-heavy Reputation – about the aftermath of the night before.
