The Jessie toy and her owner are reunited, in the apparent scenario laid out in Taylor Swift‘s new “Toy Story 5” song, “I Knew It, I Knew You,” which debuted on digital services Thursday night.
Also reunited, and it feels so good: Taylor Swift and country music — as promised by Disney when they first helped Swift announce the new tune Monday.
The song is sprightly and upbeat, and might even count as joyous. It seems likely to serve a similar function in “Toy Story 5” as another tune, “When She Loved Me,” served all the way back in “Toy Story 2,” as far as an anthem destined to play over a montage involving Jessie. But whereas that was a mournful song of separation between human and cowgirl toy, “I Knew It, I Knew You” has the opposite tone, finding ecstasy in a rematch that was made to be.
And yes, it has one of Swift’s patented bridges, in case anyone was worried she would go the way of TikTok economy and leave that out.
The track is co-produced and co-written by Swift and Jack Antonoff, who is making his return to that chair for the first time since “The Tortured Poets Department.” Although Antonoff didn’t start working with her until she had largely set her original genre aside, they did work together on the country-leaning song “Betty” from her 2020 “Folklore” album (also co-produced by Aaron Dessner), so this is not entirely unfamiliar territory for them as collaborators.
The lyrics have a much more certain outcome for the reappearance of a loved one on a porch than the tentative ones of “Betty” did:
I knew you
Through the daze of the blades of the grass in summer
Parachutes for the free fall of being younger
I memorized the sound of your bare footsteps
Running wild, it’s been a long time
Life has ways of leaving those days behind
But seeing you tonight
I remembered I loved you
Came back when it mattered
I saw you, standing there in the light of the window
Wearing that same smile
Man, it’s been a while
But I knew it, I knеw you
I knew it, I knew you
I knew you, all your bluеs like a mood ring changing colors
You did too, there were times we could fight like brothers (Oh)
I watched you drive around the bend
For what I thought would be the last time I saw my friend
But love has ways of bringing things back to life
All you said was, “Hi”
And I remembered I loved you
Came back when it mattered
I saw you, standing there in the light of the window
Wearing that same smile
Man, it’s been a while
But I knew it, I knew you (I knew, I knew)
I knew it, I knew you (I knew, I knew)
I knew it, I knew you (I knew, I knew)
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