On Monday, Taylor Swift kicked off BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge Month with a six-song set from the show’s New York City satellite lounge. In what can potentially (non-canonically) be considered the first of her old master rerecordings, Taylor Swift gave fans a gift with a slowed-down, piano-ballad version of her Red track “Holy Ground.†Bathed in Ultrafragola-worthy rose-gold light and playing in front of a panoramic backdrop of the Brooklyn Bridge, Swift recontextualized the track with a soulful, wise, post–post–“Welcome to New York†maturity. As Swift put it: “I wanted to kind of flip the coin of the song and show another side of it.â€
Also, in the crossover event of the century (or at least the crossover event of BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge Month), Swift opened the set with a performance of her Anglophilic Lover track “London Boy,†which is presumably about her boyfriend Joe Alwyn but really is improved when you just sort of imagine that she’s singing about Paddington. Swift bopping around, singing about Shoreditch and Brixton and saying things like “fancy†and “uni†in front of a majestically sun-kissed Brooklyn Bridge is definitely a whole entire confused mood and is worth a watch.
Swift also covered the Phil Collins hit “Can’t Stop Loving You,†which is actually a cover of a 1978 Leo Sayer song. It’s swoony and romantic and very Swiftian. Swift cited Collins as an influence on her album 1989 in 2014, which was also the last time she performed at the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge. You can watch the rest of her set here.