Mr. Perfectly Fine

Album: Fearless (Taylor's Version) (2021)
Charted: 30 30
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Songfacts®:

  • Taylor Swift originally recorded this dreamy country-tinged track for her 2008 Fearless album, but it didn't make the tracklisting. In 2019 the songstress announced she was remaking her first six albums after her former record label boss sold the rights to the records to music mogul Scooter Braun without her permission. Swift re-recorded all 19 tracks from the platinum edition of Fearless along with "Mr. Perfectly Fine" and five other songs that didn't make the original record.
  • Here, Taylor Swift sings about a former flame who had promised her they would be together for the rest of their lives. However, once he got bored with the relationship, he cold-heartedly dumped her.

    Hello Mr. "Casually cruel"
    Mr. "Everything revolves around you"
    I've been Miss "Misery" since your goodbye
    And you're Mr. "Perfectly fine"


    The self-absorbed ex did not care about the emotional impact his behavior would have on Swift.
  • You looked me in the eyes and told me you loved me
    Were you just kidding?
    ‘Cause I was there when you said forever and always


    The song has a similar lyrical theme to another Fearless track, "Forever & Always," which Swift penned about her breakup with Joe Jonas. According to Swift, the DNCE and Jonas Brothers singer ended their relationship in a 25-second phone call, so could this kiss-off number about a "casually cruel" ex be about him as well?
  • While some Swifties believe "Mr. Perfectly Fine" is Joe Jonas, others wonder if she is addressing John Mayer, whom the singer reportedly dated during the 2009 - 2010 winter. The "Mr. Everything revolves around you" lyric is a potential clue: Swift's Speak Now track "Dear John," which is believed to about Mayer, begins with the line, "Long were the nights when my days once revolved around you." It should be noted that Swift recorded Fearless in 2007 and 2008 - long before her relationship with Mayer.
  • If the song is about Joe Jonas, that hasn't stopped his Game of Thrones actress wife Sophie Turner from enjoying it. She posted an image of the track to her Instagram story shortly after it dropped with the caption "It's not NOT a bop." Swift replied in kind, sharing Turner's story on Instagram and writing regarding the actress' Game of Thrones role: "Forever bending the knee for the [queen] of the north."
  • Swift wrote the song solo. She co-produced the re-recorded version with her regular collaborator, Jack Antonoff, who also supplies some of the instrumentation and backing vocals.
  • Sharing the track on Twitter, Swift said it shows just how much her music has changed over the years.

    "Me in 2020: life is chill, writing songs based in fiction to avoid drama, feeling pretty grown up," she wrote. "My 2008 music from the vault, in a goblin voice: 'REELEEEEEEASE MR PERFECTLY FIIIIIIINE.'"
  • Speaking with Audacity, Swift discussed how the song pointed to her pop future. "'Mr. Perfectly Fine' is a song that I wrote alone," she said. "It was definitely an early indicator of me creeping toward a pop sensibility. I've always listened to every type of music, and even though Fearless is a country album, there were always these pop melodies creeping in."

    Swift added that lyrically, "Mr. Perfectly Fine" displays her teenage sensibilities. "I think the lyrics are just wonderfully scathing and full of the teen angst that you would hope to hear on an album that I wrote when I was 17 or 18 or on that cusp," she said.

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