Being a Taylor Swift fan means you lean into speculation and theories no matter how out there they are. So, if all you can think about right now (other than Midnights Mayhem) is Karma — the rumored lost Swift album that was supposedly going to follow 1989 — you’re not alone.
If you haven’t heard of Karma, congrats! You probably get a full night’s rest, eat all your vegetables, and have a stable work-life balance. For those who live rent-free down the Swiftok rabbit hole, the theory goes something like this: Up until 2016, Swift had, like clockwork, released a new record every two years, with each era featuring a fresh sound and look. Though some things stayed consistent — including her signature red lipstick and winged eyeliner, along with a penchant for hiding musical easter eggs everywhere, including her clothing — others saw more drastic changes. The original Red era had Swift rocking bangs while blending country with pop music and EDM tendencies, where 1989 saw her going the full pop route while cutting her hair into a short bob. Then, when we got to 2016, we arrived in what’s famously referred to as Swift’s “Bleachella†era — since she debuted bleached hair at … Coachella — before formalizing the look on the May 2016 cover of Vogue. Meanwhile, a rock version of “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together†made its way into the end of the 1989 tour alongside a Mick Jagger “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction†cameo. It felt like an appetizer to the new Swift sound — and, possibly, a new record. She had already introduced her fans to her pop approach, what if she was preparing us for a full emo/rock project? Well, we never found out, as the new look and potential new era came to a halt when Kim Kardashian released an edited phone call between Kanye West and Swift, leading Taylor to disappear from the public eye for the rest of the year (and in theory, scrap this now-lost record).
Swifties have been searching for hints for the vanished album ever since — and Taylor has, perhaps, seemed all too happy to indulge them. The “Karma’s real†comment in her 73 Questions with Vogue video in 2016, the “MISSING: IF FOUND RETURN TO TAYLOR SWIFT†poster next to KARMA graffiti in “The Man†music video (with KARMA written twice), the aforementioned rock version of “Together,†the eight back-up dancers to represent what should have been eight albums (she only had seven then) in her 2019 American Music Awards performance.
With the theories resurfacing again — mostly due to Swift’s unveiling that one of the new songs on Midnights is actually named “Karma†— it has us wondering: What post-1989 songs were actually meant for this lost record? So we made a playlist of already-released Taylor tracks for it. But first, some Karma rules for we made the selections: The song had to be out during or after 2016, and it must have been produced/co-written by people she’d met before that (since Karma was allegedly written between 2015-2016). It can include songs she fully developed post-2016, but she must have explicitly stated that she included lyrics that she’s been holding onto from the past. There are also unlikely to be songs about Kanye West, as their feud climaxed in July 2016, when she would’ve been preparing for the album’s promotional cycle, when they were still (briefly) friends. And while Swift doesn’t have any explicit rock tracks, the ten songs below have the ability to at least transform into a heavy-rock version to fit that supposed Karmic vibe.
1. “I Don’t Wanna Live Foreverâ€
There’s no formal confirmation on what this song is about, or when it was written, besides the fact that it’s in the Fifty Shades Darker movie. While the lines she sings don’t refer to karma per se, they certainly feel like a prelude to it (i.e., “Wondering if I dodged a bullet or just lost the love of my life†and “I gave you something, but you gave me nothing, What is happening to me?â€). Also, maybe another sign that it was meant for a lost album: When she played it live for the first time, at Super Saturday Night in 2017, instead of giving a note-worthy monologue of the origin of the song as she does for most of her tracks during their inaugural performances, all Swift had to say was that she sang it with her friend Zayn. Maybe she wanted to hide that Karma backstory?
2. “no body, no crime†feat. HAIM
A murder ballad that channels Swift’s command of fictional storytelling with inspiration from “old-school rock & roll†and, apparently, the Grateful Dead, “no body, no crime†is a murderous track that would definitely fit well on an album named Karma. Originally written using a rubber-bridge guitar, it tells the story of a narrator avenging the death of her friend, Este, after she was murdered by her husband when she found out about his infidelity. HAIM also opened for Swift during select dates of The 1989 World Tour so they would have had plenty of chances to collaborate on a scrapped project back then.
3. “The Manâ€
This music video is filled with hints on the possibly missing Karma. Swift, as “Tyler Swift,†is seen peeing on a wall with all of her albums written in graffiti, with karma scrawled twice: one next to a poster that says, “MISSING: IF FOUND RETURN TO TAYLOR SWIFT.†Swift legally could not have re-recorded her music until November 2020, meaning Karma would still have been a lost album if Swift was working on it while at Big Machine Records. Lover, the only album she owned at the time, was not included in the graffiti wall, emphasizing that Karma was lost with her other siblings. Swift also makes references in the track to plenty of pre-2016 cultural references: Leonardo DiCaprio and his model girlfriends, The Wolf of Wall Street, manspreading (the term gained popularity in 2014).
4. “This Is What You Came For,†Calvin Harris and Rihanna
Swift wrote this song by herself and gave it to her 2015/early 2016 beau Calvin Harris under the pseudonym Nils Sjöberg. (Harris then showed Rihanna the song during Coachella 2016, a.k.a. the same Bleachella weekend when Swift went to the festival to support Harris.) Nils’ name later appeared in the “Look What You Made Me Do†music video, printed on one of the tombstones for one of Swift’s dead personas. However, at the end of the clip, Nils isn’t accounted for when the Swifts from past eras start bickering with one another. Is it possible the persona was left on the plane that’s labeled TS6? Swift reportedly still has the publishing rights to the song, too, so if she ever does decide to release Karma as an album, “This Is What You Came For†will be available to her to sing.
5. “New Year’s Dayâ€
As with all Taylor track fives, it needs to be an “All Too Well,†“White Horse,†“tolerate it†punch to the gut — a song where you find a new lyric that’ll make you sob. (My personal favorite on this one: “Please don’t ever become a stranger, whose laugh I could recognize anywhere.â€) With “New Year’s Day,†Swift’s muse comes in and out of her grasp. As she sings “I want your midnights†she includes “but†before the next line, hinting that she might not have her muse’s evenings anymore “but I’ll be cleaning up bottles with you on New Year’s Day.†During the Reputation secret session, Swift shared that there are a few lines in the song that she had been saving “for a really long time, for the right moment†and decided to use them for this track. Could those lines have been written for a Karma cut instead?
6. “End Game†feat. Ed Sheeran and Future
Swift wasn’t the only person waiting to release past lyrics in a future single. Ed Sheeran was inspired to write his part of the song in 2015 when he reconnected with his childhood crush, Cherry Seaborn, at Swift’s Rhode Island mansion for one of her famous Fourth of July parties, around the same time Swift would’ve been developing Karma. “So the story was, I was at Taylor’s party, and then a girl I went to school with who’s pretty cool ended up being in Rhode Island … I was like, ‘Taylor, can she turn up?’ And here we are,†Sheeran shared in a video interview with Swift. The two already collaborated with “Everything Has Changed†for the Red era, leaving room for another reunion to sing about their separate muses. Swift has also been a fan of Future since at least 2015 when she sang his and Drake’s “Jumpman†in an Apple commercial, so the Karma timeline checks out.
7. “The Last Great American Dynastyâ€
Inspired by the life of Rhode Island heiress Rebekah Harkness (and partially Swift’s own life), Swift blurs the line between fact and fiction, similar to how fans view the Karma theory as a mix of what Swift has given us and our own interpretation. “She stole his dog and dyed it key-lime green,†refers to a rumor that Harkness dyed her neighbor’s cat green over a supposed feud (potential karma!). Additionally, Tik Toker @TheThriftieSwiftie noticed that in the Harkness biography Blue Blood, one of Harkness’s husbands Ben Kean was nicknamed “Karma.†Swift read books about Harkness so surely she must’ve seen the ex-husband’s familiar nickname.
8. “Renegade†(feat. Taylor Swift) by Big Red Machineâ€
Despite all the irrefutable facts — this song was written and recorded during the evermore era — I’m going to cheat and include this song because it fits the karma theme and because Swift, Dessner, and Vernon should’ve collaborated way sooner. “Renegade†sees karma through a new perspective: the idea that if you put all your love and vulnerability into someone, they should return it back to you because that’s what you’re giving out into the universe. Unfortunately, Taylor is on the receiving end of her muse’s “damage†in this one, acknowledging her insensitivity to their situation and possibly showing that her intentions weren’t as pure as she imagined it (aka getting her karma in return).
9. “Dorotheaâ€
Similar to “Renegade,†Swift had plans for “Dorothea†to be released as a Big Red Machine song but then changed her mind for it to be an Evermore track. It’s a fictional story about a narrator singing about a lost love who became a Hollywood starlet. Leaving your hometown? Very rock star/rock album. Still thinking about your hometown after you left? Also, very rock star/rock album. There are also some theories that this song is about Swift’s best friend, Selena Gomez, who she’s known for ages. Swift definitely could’ve written a song about Gomez pre-2016, especially from the perspective of her relationship with Justin Bieber. (We already know how Swift felt about him then.)
10. “my tears ricochetâ€
In the Disney+ special, folklore: the long pond studio sessions, Jack Antonoff and Swift explain that “my tears ricochet†was chronologically the “first thing†for folklore — however, she doesn’t specify if it’s the first song written for the album or the oldest song she had written in the album. She does clarify that she wrote the song alone and said, “It’s kind of a song about karma.†She said the magic word!