Taylor Swift may have thrown shade at Cats on new album Evermore

A curious reference to ‘motion capture’ has stoked theories

Taylor Swift may have thrown shade at her role in Cats on her new album Evermore.

Yesterday (10 December), Swift announced a new album just hours before its release, and for the second time in 2020 following the surprise drop of Folklore in July.

A lyric that has already drawn attention occurs in the opening seconds of track “Evermore”, a duet with Bon Iver that arrives towards the end of the record.

“Motion capture/ Put me in a bad light,” Swift sings, while appearing to reference moments in which she has stumbled.

“I replay my footsteps on each stepping stone,” she continues. “Trying to find the one where I went wrong.”

While Swift has discussed creating non-autobiographical narratives in both Folklore and Evermore, and writing about fictional characters and stories in her latest material, the lyric may be a subtle reference to Cats.

The maligned Andrew Lloyd Webber adaptation was a colossal critical and commercial flop upon release last December.

Swift played Bombalurina, a henchwoman cat working with the film’s villain Macavity (Idris Elba). All of the film’s cast wore motion capture suits during production, turning them into cat/human hybrids in the finished movie that were described by some viewers as “nightmarish”.

Who’s laughing meow: Swift appears to make a jab at the 2019 musical film in “Evermore” (Universal)

The film, which reportedly lost Universal Pictures $113m (£85m), received risible reviews, with one critic comparing it to “a furry orgy in a dumpster”.

Swift has described Evermore as a “sister record” to Folklore, adding in an Instagram caption: “I loved the escapism I found in these imaginary/not imaginary tales. I loved the ways you welcomed the dreamscapes and tragedies and epic tales of love lost and found into your lives. So I just kept writing them.”

Evermore is out now.