Behind the Meaning of “You Are In Love” by Taylor Swift

You can hear it in the silence…You can feel it on the way home…You can see it with the lights out. These are all tell-tale signs of falling in love according to Taylor Swift.

“You Are In Love” features on Swift’s 1989. The blockbuster album is rife with odes to love via the lens of rose-colored, retro romanticism. This track is one of her most blushing and swoon-worthy. Check out the meaning behind the song, below.

Behind the Meaning

One look, dark room
Meant just for you
Time moved too fast
You play it back

Swift wrote this song for her long-time friend and collaborator Jack Antonoff. At the time, the producer was dating actress Lena Dunham–another friend of Swift’s. After receiving an instrumental track off of the Bleachers frontman, Swift immediately got to work fleshing out the pair’s love story.

“Immediately I knew the song it needed to be,” Swift once explained. “I wrote it as a kind of commentary on what their relationship has been like. So it’s actually me looking and going and ‘this happened and that happened then that happened’ and that’s how you knew, ‘You are in love.’”

No proof, not much, but you saw enough
Small talk, he drives, coffee at midnight
The light reflects the chain on your neck
He says, “Look up” and your shoulders brush
No proof, one touch, but you felt enough

In the opening verse, Swift crafts little vignettes of Antonoff and Dunham’s relationship–small talk, drives, midnight coffees, and more. Even without knowing the ins-and-outs of that connection, the lyrics bring out a sense of heart-racing nervousness in the listener. The familiar clues of love are relatable to anyone who has ever felt that emotion.

You can hear it in the silence (Silence), silence (Silence), you
You can feel it on the way home (Way home), way home (Way home), you
You can see it with the lights out (Lights out), lights out (Lights out)
You are in love, true love
You are in love

Just in case there was ever any doubt about whether or not Antonoff was in love, Swift clears it up in the chorus. She lets him know that love is indeed in the air, swirling around them in the silence and the dark.

Swift has many songs about love, but few are written from an outside perspective like this one. Revisit this Swift staple, below.

(Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images for NARAS)