Last week, rumours began circulating about Taylor Swift having written songs for Kings of Leon, after both artists began showing one another a weird and sudden amount of public mutual admiration.
Taylor Swift attended a private KOL show with friends in New York last month, before Instagramming her love of the band’s new album WALLS, screenshotting the track “Over” playing on her iTunes.
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Then, when asked about whether they had a working relationship, Caleb Followill said “I’ve been a friend of Taylor Swift since she was young. I wouldn’t be surprised if we hadn’t already written together.” Which is an extremely confusing sentence. What he’s trying to say, we imagine, is that they have in fact written together.
And while it’s extremely fun to speculate that the turning point in Kings of Leon’s whole vibe—AKA from their album Come Around Sundown onwards—and by extension, the downfall of alternative indie rock itself, is down to the interference of Swift, it’s unfortunately more likely that this is an extremely recent thing.
Finally, Taylor Swift has only posted about three pieces of music via Instagram this year: “This is What You Came For,” the song she ghostwrote under a pseudonym for Calvin Harris; “Better Man,” the song she wrote for band Little Big Town, and “Over” from WALLS.
While the lyrics to “Over” are very Taylor Swift, the song we suspect to have been written by Swift is the title and closing track on the album—a wistful, five-minute-long acoustic ballad, which carries all the hallmarks of a classic T-Swizz record. Listen to the song below.
For now, all songs are still credited to the Followills.