Swifties can finally rejoice because Taylor Swift is back in a big way. Her latest single, released on Friday, is called “Carolina” and is from the upcoming film Where the Crawdads Sing.
Swift wrote the song herself and it was produced by Aaron Dessner. It’s about sneaking around various places and staying hidden, a theme that ties into the movie’s plot.
“Into the mist, into the clouds. No, you didn’t see me here,” she sings on the track. “They’ll make a fest, I’ll make it count. Carolina knows.”
The singer posted about the song’s release on her Instagram page, along with a message about it.
“About a year and half ago I wrote a song about an incredible story, the story of a girl who always lived on the outside, looking in. Figuratively and literally. The juxtaposition of her loneliness and independence. Her longing and her stillness. Her curiosity and fear, all tangled up. Her persisting gentleness… and the world’s betrayal of it. I wrote this one alone in the middle of the night and then @aarondessner and I meticulously worked on a sound that we felt would be authentic to the moment in time when this story takes place. I made a wish that one day you would hear it. ‘Carolina’ is out now 🥺”
The song is mournful and sounds like a funeral march. It’s fairly haunting and not as poppy as some of the singer’s hits. The tonal change makes sense, as the movie is based on a bestselling novel of the same name by Delia Owens. It tells the story of a young girl who was abandoned by her family in the North Carolina marshes and was forced to learn to take care of herself. The story then takes a dark turn involving murder following a romance.
Where the Crawdads Sing stars Daisy Edgar-Jones and Taylor John Smith. It releases on July 15 in theaters everywhere.