All Too Well - song review

On the occasion of World Music Day on 21st June, I decided to write about one my favourite lyrical pieces of all time - All Too Well by Taylor Swift, from the album RED released in October,2012.

We all have, at least once, been a prey of unrequited love, a feeling of outpouring emotions and helplessness, as I describe it; the memories that refuse to fade away and the heartbreak that never heals completely...
When I came across this song for the first time, I almost instantly fell in love with it - how brutally yet honestly it brought out each and every sorrow of a broken heart in love in form of song verses, how the music was so intense yet monotonous, just like how passionate yet cruel such a love is.
This song is about a seemingly 'perfect' love, where you dance around the kitchen in the refrigerator light, a 'masterpiece' where you taught each other your pasts, thinking you had a future together. Even in all coldness and adversaries, holding their hand, walking down the road with them, being with them felt like 'home', somehow.

And then something happened, something you wish never had. Your masterpiece is torn away, along with your heart.

 "Maybe we got lost in translation 
Maybe I asked for too much
But maybe this thing was a masterpiece
'til you tore it all up"

It captures the grief of such a loss so well, because you knew it once was good. You wish there was something you could do to stop it. And you can't help but feel their absence while doing the minutest things in your life - walking home alone and still thinking about a certain scarf of yours that they never returned, holding on to what's gone and not being able to face that it's no more because you remember it all too well. 
"Time won't fly, it's like I'm paralyzed by it
I'd like to be my old self again
But I'm still trying to find it"
This song is about a kind of hurt that is far beyond dysfunctional, it's heart-wrenching to recall it but
you can't stop because it has left a permanent mark on you.
Because it made you wish you had never found out that love could be that strong
"I know it's long gone and 
There was nothing else I could do 
And I forget about you long enough
To forget why I needed to..."
This song represents a struggle between the heart and the mind, you know it is gone but you can't process it as to why it ever happened. So many unanswered questions, the heartache of when they call you up again just to break you like a promise, so casually cruel in the name of being honest.
For me, this song has always been one of those songs which I can't stop feeling to because it has penned down so beautifully as a story, complete with the music, which portrays how wonderful the described relationship once was and what a bitter end it met. It made me experience a heartbreak even before I knew what love was.
Taylor Swift along with co-writer Liz Rose, penned down this masterpiece about one of her previous relationships. I personally admire Taylor Swift as a song writer and almost all her fans would agree that this is, undoubtedly her most well written, detailed and vulnerable song. As a cherry on the top, her live performances of this song only bring out more of it's beauty and passion.

Years down the line through such a painful time, you might feel you're out of it, and this is where the beauty of the song stands out, it has the power to bring all those happy-sad memories back into your head, in burning red.
"Cause there we are again when I loved you so 
Back before you lost the one real thing you've ever known
It was rare, I was there
I remember it...All Too Well.

If possible, please do listen to this underrated masterpiece. Thank you for reading.

All Too Well on Spotify

Here's the Grammy 2013 Live Performance of the song :) Grammy Live Performance