Cruel Summer (Taylor Swift song)

Annie Clark (known professionally as St. Vincent; pictured) co-wrote and provided guitar instrumentation on "Cruel Summer".

The song's title was an easter egg in the music video for "You Need to Calm Down", the second single from Taylor Swift's seventh studio album Lover (2019).[1] Termed by Swift as a song about a "summer romance", "Cruel Summer" sees Swift describing an uncertain romantic relationship, with elements of pain and desperation in it.[2] It portrays the challenges faced by pop stars in the public spotlight.[3] The vulnerability of the song's lyrics has drawn comparisons to "Delicate", the fifth track on Swift's 2017 album Reputation.[3]

In the audio recordings from Lover Secret Sessions, a series of album-listening parties hosted by Swift, she explained that:

This song is one that I wrote about the feeling of a summer romance, and how often times a summer romance can be layered with all these feelings of 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 can't reach it.

— Swift, "Taylor Swift Shares Intimate Details of Lover Songs During Secret Session", iHeartRadio[2]

Billboard's Heran Mamo opined that the song's lyrics see Swift "wrestling with strong feelings", where they paint "the picture of an emotional night out".[4] Justin Styles of The Ringer wrote that the song tells a "more humanizing version" of Swift's "ill-fated period three years ago", adding that Swift sings about "falling in love with current boyfriend Joe Alwyn while her public life was in shambles".[5] Anna Gaca, writing for Pitchfork, called the song a "drama-free delight" with "magnetic pink glow".[6] The Spinoff pointed out that Swift's vocals in "Cruel Summer" are "most notable for the modern country cadence".[7]

Singer-songwriter Olivia Rodrigo interpolated "Cruel Summer" in her 2021 single "Deja Vu". For this reason, Swift, Antonoff, and St. Vincent were credited as co-writers.[8]

"Cruel Summer" has been described as a dreamy, melancholy[9] synth-pop,[10][11] industrial pop[12] and electropop[13] song with a "ranting" bridge,[3] driven by a pulsating, throbbing "synth-swirl",[7][14] robotic voice effects,[15] distorted vocals[10] and a hook that consists of a long, high, fluctuating "ooooh".[16] The song has a fast tempo of 170 beats per minute with a time signature of ⁴
₄. It is played in the key of A major and follows a chord progression of A–C♯m–F♯m–D.[17][18] "Cruel Summer" was written by Swift, Jack Antonoff and St. Vincent,[19] with a "burbling" production from Swift and Antonoff;[5] St. Vincent also took part in the production of the song by playing the guitar.[20] Ravens & Chimes/Bleachers member, Michael Riddleberger, plays drums on the track.

Swift performing "Cruel Summer" during the Eras Tour in 2023

"Cruel Summer" is the second track on Lover, which was released on August 23, 2019, via Republic Records.[21] Upon the release of Lover, "Cruel Summer" peaked within the top 30 of Singapore (8),[22] Malaysia (13),[23] Ireland (20),[24] New Zealand (20),[25] Australia (23),[26] the United Kingdom (27),[27] and Canada (28).[28] In the United States, "Cruel Summer" debuted and peaked at number 29 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, dated September 7, 2019; it is one of the seven tracks from Lover to reach the top-40 of the Hot 100.[29] The song stayed on the Hot 100 for two weeks as an album track.[30]

After Swift embarked on the Eras Tour, which included "Cruel Summer" in the set list,[31] from March 2023, the track experienced a resurgence in streams.[32] On singles charts, the song re-entered in Canada[33] and debuted in the Philippines.[34] It was certified gold in the United Kingdom[35] and platinum in New Zealand.[36] The song reached number 55 on the Billboard Global 200.[37]

"Cruel Summer" was widely acclaimed by music critics, with particular praise towards its production and bridge. In his "critic's pick" review, Jon Caramanica of The New York Times commended the song for its "thick, ethereal" pop production and praised Swift's signature vocal motifs such as the "question-mark syllables" and the "hard-felt smears".[38] Mikael Wood of the Los Angeles Times proclaimed "Cruel Summer" to be the best song off of Lover, stating "Agony and ecstasy as only Swift at her best can render them: 'It's new, the shape of your body / It's blue, the feeling I've got,' she sings in a razor-sharp, industrial-pop banger about finding love in a hopeless place. The part of the bridge where Swift shrieks about the devil might be the punkest thing you'll hear all year".[39]

Alex Abad-Santos, writing for Vox, listed "Cruel Summer" as one of his top-three best Lover tracks, writing that the song is an "aquatic robot bop" featuring "wobbly" synths.[40] The Spinoff stated that Swift "absolutely pulls it off", comparing it to the Bananarama's 1984 hit of the same name.[7] Writing for The Ringer, Justin Sayles praised the song as a "better rebuke of her personal drama than anything on her last album", and added that Swift "shakes off the bad vibes" with "Cruel Summer"; Sayles named it Swift's "most infectious song since that run of singles from 1989", and opined that song "sets the tone" for the "warmer, more inviting vibes" of Lover.[5] Also calling it "infectious", Nick Levine of NME termed the track as a "brilliant pop song".[41] Natalia Barr, writing for Consequence of Sound, highlighted Swift's vocal delivery in the song's bridge ("He looks up, grinning like a devil"), calling it "simultaneously funny, agonizing, and thrilling, and needs to be created into a viral YouTube loop immediately". Barr further labeled "Cruel Summer" as one of the "most perfect" pop songs of 2019.[42]

"Cruel Summer" featured on year-end lists of the best songs of 2019 by Rolling Stone (4th)[43] and Billboard (10th).[44] In a list ranking the best bridges of the 21st-century, Billboard placed "Cruel Summer" at number 11.[45] The song has ranked highly on critics' rankings of Swift's songs in her discography, appearing on such lists by Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone (2021) at number 11 out of 229,[46] and Hannah Mylrea of NME (2020), number 6 out of 161.[47] In 2021, Clash critics picked the song as one of Swift's 15 best, citing its "highly addictive" song structure.[48] Exclaim!'s Alex Hudson and Megan LaPierre (2022) ranked it second on another list of the best 20 songs by Swift, praising St. Vincent's artistic input that complements Swift's.[49]

Various critics and fans have questioned Swift's decision, contemporaneously and retrospectively, over never releasing "Cruel Summer" as a single from Lover, regarding it a "perfect" single choice.[32]

Credits are adapted from Tidal.[50]

• Taylor Swift – vocals, songwriter, producer
• Jack Antonoff – producer, songwriter, programmer, recording engineer, drums, keyboards, vocoder
• St. Vincent – songwriter, guitar
• Michael Riddleberger – drums
• Serban Ghenea – mixer
• John Hanes – mix engineer
• John Rooney – assistant recording engineer
• Laura Sisk – recording engineer
• Jon Sher – assistant recording engineer