This Love (Taylor Swift song)

Swift performing on the 1989 World Tour in 2015

Taylor Swift, an American singer-songwriter, had been known as a country artist prior to the release of her fourth studio album, Red (2012).[1][2] Many of the album's tracks incorporate predominantly pop or rock musical styles, a result of Swift's desire to experiment with the genres.[3][4] This prompted a media debate over the validity of her status as a country artist.[5] For her next album, 1989, Swift decided to create a "blatant pop" record and move away from the signature country styles of her previous releases.[6][7] She began writing songs for the album while headlining a world tour in support of Red.[8]

"This Love" was the first song that Swift wrote for 1989,[9] and the only one that she wrote on her own.[10] According to 1989's liner notes, she did so on October 17, 2012, when she was in Los Angeles.[11] Swift initially envisioned "This Love" as a "fun, little short poem" for her personal journal; when she came up with a melody in her head, she opted to turn the poem into a song.[12] To this end, she enlisted the help of her long-time collaborator Nathan Chapman, who worked with Swift on all her previous albums, to produce the track with her.[13][11] "This Love" was the only song from 1989 produced by Chapman.[14] The track was recorded at his Pain in the Art Studio in Nashville, Tennessee, and mixed by Serban Ghenea at MixStar Studios in Virginia Beach, Virginia.[11]

1989 was released on October 27, 2014, by Big Machine Records;[15] "This Love" places at number 11 on the album's track list.[16] After 1989's release, Swift included the song on the regular set list for the album's associated world tour, which began on May 5, 2015.[17] The track appeared as background music for a Victoria's Secret holiday advertisement that premiered in December 2015.[18] Swift performed a stripped-down, acoustic version of "This Love" as a "surprise song" on the first Atlanta show of her Reputation Stadium Tour, in 2018.[19] She sang a piano rendition of the song at the second concert in Philadelphia, as part of the Eras Tour, in 2023.[20]

"This Love" is a midtempo atmospheric ballad.[21] It has a duration of around four minutes and is one of the slowest tracks in the album.[22][23] The song is a primarily synth-pop[24] and soft rock song.[25][26] Time's Sam Lansky described it as an "electro-ballad".[27] "This Love" consists of both acoustic and electronic instruments with a slow-burning and melodramatic production.[28][29] It uses double tracking on Swift's vocals.[30] Rob Sheffield, a critic for Rolling Stone, compared the track's sound to that of 1980s power ballads, specifically citing Bon Jovi's "I'll Be There for You" (1989).[22]

The lyrics are about feelings of heartbreak: "Lantern, burning, flickered in my mind for only you / But you were still gone, gone, gone."[31] Swift uses the ocean as a metaphor for a love that disappears and then comes back like the tides.[23] Critics considered it one of 1989's saddest songs.[23][32] Time magazine's Sam Lansky argued that the chorus's catchiness made it more hopeful than anguished.[27] Swift remarked that she frequently listened to "This Love", citing it as one of her favorites on the album.[9]

Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone selected "This Love" as one of the three best tracks on 1989, the other two being "How You Get the Girl" and "Clean".[22] In an album review for musicOMH, critic Shane Kimberline lauded it as 1989's best song, emphasizing the chorus and "classic Swiftian" lyrics.[33] Jon Caramanica of The New York Times thought that Swift's songwriting in "This Love" was less detail-oriented compared to her past work;[31] Mikael Wood from the Los Angeles Times took issue with the generic lyrics.[34] Marah Eakin from The A.V. Club considered "This Love" as one of 1989's weaker songs because of its midtempo balladry compared to the album's upbeat production,[21] and Corey Beasley from PopMatters found the atmospheric balladry out of place for the album's overall sound.[35]

"This Love" peaked at number 84 on the Canadian Hot 100 chart dated November 15, 2014.[36] In the United States, it peaked at number 19 on the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 chart.[37] The track was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), which denotes one million units consisting of sales and on-demand streaming.[38]

Credits are adapted from 1989 album liner notes.[11]

• Taylor Swift – vocals, background vocals, producer, acoustic guitar
• Nathan Chapman – producer, recording engineer, bass, drums, electric guitar, keyboard
• Jason Campbell – miscellaneous support
• John Hanes – engineer
• Serban Ghenea – mixing

"This Love (Taylor's Version)"
Promotional single by Taylor Swift
from the album 1989 (Taylor's Version)
B-side	"Wildest Dreams (Taylor's Version)"
Released	May 6, 2022 (2022-05-06)
Length	4:10
Label	Republic
Songwriter(s)	Taylor Swift
Producer(s)	Taylor Swift Christopher Rowe
Lyric video
"This Love (Taylor's Version)" on YouTube

A re-recorded version of "This Love", titled "This Love (Taylor's Version)", was released by Swift on May 6, 2022, via Republic Records. The song is part of Swift's re-recording plan following the dispute over the ownership to her older discography's masters.