Taylor Swift’s “My Tears Ricochet” Lyrics Meaning

In Taylor Swift’s own words, her song “My Tears Ricochet” centers around a furious tormentor who attends the funeral ceremony of “his fallen object of affection”. The “embittered tormentor” Swift mentions is apparently referring to an ex-lover/friend/acquaintance of hers, who despite the demise of her union with him still tries to make life miserable for her.

He apparently once told her he no longer wanted to have anything to do with her as they parted ways. Simply put, he considered her dead to him. However, despite this, he apparently still keeps dragging her name through the mud. And n her eyes, she also considers herself metaphorically dead to him, which is why in the chorus, she asks him why he’s present at her funeral and still tormenting her.

Revenge

In the first verse, we learn that despite being a good partner to her former partner, he made it his objective to give her hell. He tormented her until she “died” through his hands. And now that she’s a “ghost” she’s forced to haunt him. According to her, she never wanted to haunt him despite all he did to her. However, he forced her to embark on the path of revenge the moment he “killed” and “buried” her.

Who is the subject of “My Tears Ricochet”?

Some have postulated that the tormentor Swift is addressing is actually her former record label and not an ex-lover. Everyone who has followed Taylor Swift’s career over the years knows of her bitter feud with her ex-label (Big Machine Records). The feud stemmed from the fact that the label purchased all the rights to the masters of six of Taylor’s studio albums. Essentially what this meant was that Taylor had lost the rights to all songs on the albums in question. The label could therefore monetize the songs on the albums in any manner they deem fit. FYI, American music executive Scooter Braun is believed to be the likely addressee. Scooter owns the majority stake in Big Machine Records and practically owns the rights to most of Swift’s biggest hits.

“You wear the same jewels that I gave you as you bury me”

This school of thought believes the above line from the song is proof enough that the addressee is definitely her former label. What the lyrics in question basically mean is that the addressee gained something valuable via Taylor. And despite that, they still wish her ill. This in a way can be loosely likened to the expression: “biting the hand that feeds you”.

Another prominent line from the song, which is believed to be about the label is the one below:

“Cursing my name, wishing I stayed”

In the above line, the analyzers believe the addressee (label) curses her name because she left them.

Album

“My Tears Ricochet” can be found on the 8th studio album of Swift’s musical career. Swift titled the album “Folklore”. And she released it along with this song through Republic Records in July 2020.

Writing Credits for “My Tears Ricochet”

“My Tears Ricochet” was exclusively written by Taylor Swift. And the production of the song was also handled by her. However, unlike the writing, she received assistance from Jack Antonoff in producing it.

This was the first track from the album that she wrote.

Antonoff worked together with Swift on many of the tracks from the aforementioned album. Some of them include:

•  “The 1“
• “Cardigan“
• “August“
• “Betty“