At the “Lover” Secret Sessions in August 2019, diehard Swifties (Taylor Swift superfans) were able to listen to the album with Swift herself. Swift did a Secret Session with iHeartRadio as well and spoke about the meaning behind each song. For “Cruel Summer,” she said it’s a song, ” … about the feeling of a summer romance, and how oftentimes a summer romance can be layered with all these feelings of, like, pining away and sometimes even secrecy. It deals with the idea of being in a relationship where there’s some element of desperation and pain in it, where you’re yearning for something that you don’t quite have yet, it’s just right there, and you just, like, can’t reach it.”
That desperate feeling is reflected in the lyrics, where Swift seems to fall hard for her summer fling (presumably Joe Alwyn). She sings that yearning with, “What doesn’t kill me makes me want you more.” More yearning is shown in the chorus, when Swift says she’s “blue” and adds, “It’s cool, that’s what I tell ’em / no rules in breakable heaven.” She really likes being with Alwyn, and she’s telling him the same things she may have told her past lovers (that she’s “cool,” and there are “no rules” or expectations for a serious relationship), but that seems to be the opposite of what she wants.
Post source: The List
