My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys - Taylor Swift Lyrics
My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys
ANNOTATIONS:
With "Oh, here we go again," Swift presents the ups and downs in a love relationship caused by mental health issues. One finds anxiety about love in the lyrics much like her collaborations with Big Red Machine. In the songs "But Daddy I Love Him" and "peace," Swift says her wild time was taken by someone.
In her 2023 song "You're Losing Me," Swift describes herself as a warrior in an army; the state of mind, being sick, is a pivotal reference. The metaphor of Taylor and the man being toy dolls faking to be real. For instance, other songs from Swift's discography describe the most itchily unhealthy moments in relationships as wars.
In her 2020 song "Coney Island," Swift uses the mall as a metaphor for a relationship, naming it 'one place that's gonna be prior to the internet.' Thematic connections between these two songs were further emphasized during her Eras Tour show in London, England, on August 17, 2024. Both are about disappointment, disillusionment, and isolation in a romantic relationship—whose former is more direct, while latter on delusion as a coping mechanism.
The mall—which symbolizes the forgotten dreams and the dynamic that was doomed to fall apart from the very start, especially with the usage of the word "sickest" in the previous line. On the whole, Swift's songs do express disappointment, disillusionment, and loneliness—all characteristic features of romantic relationships.
In the song "I Can Do It With a Broken Heart," rivulets are used as metaphors for tears by Taylor Swift; thus, one feels that her relationship has taken its toll and she cannot feign inner misery with unreal, toy-like smiles. The theme of disguising heartache behind a mask of happiness also comes through in the later songs "I Can Do It With a Broken Heart" and "My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys."
The infantilization of her subject also links to the song "Peter," about Peter Pan, a boy who never grows up. The 1975 song "When We Are Together" by one of Swift's exes, Matty Healy, gives a few hints which many fans believe it is about Swift. One of the lines says Healy's first kiss with the partner he's singing about happened in the toy department at Walmart. This song may refer to how Taylor's and Matty's relationship became romantic in a toy store.
There were rumors that Taylor dated Matty Healy back in 2014, and she is of the opinion that her relationship with him could have lasted since "played for keeps" implies to retain something for good. She is repeating herself through an attempt many times to make the relationship work.
In the 2014 track "You Are In Love," Taylor sings of being best friends with your partner, but the motif of childhood play—plastic dolls, puzzles, talking dolls, sandcastles, sandlots, and Kens—frequently collates this "boy" with immaturity and childishness. It soon becomes apparent he cannot conduct a mature relationship as his conduct is reminiscent of a spoilt child who will throw a tantrum—destroying sandcastles & smashing up toys—and one who only "play[s] pretend."
The original draft memo version of the song had different words: but the original words went this way:
He was my best friend, and that was the worst part. I felt more then, in brief moments. Than with all the Kens." Kens is the male counterpart to the Barbie doll, playing off the toy theme of this song and how the individual identities of the men are irrelevant. Swift references how she thought it was real at the time; it really was just "playing pretend," much like kids take their dolls and play pretend.
Taylor has spoken about Ken dolls before, on her 2022 song "Hits Different." She's trapped in a box with a tortured heart because, since she's stayed in her relationship with ex-boyfriend Joe Alwyn too long—when she wasn't happy and he didn't want to go out in public with her. Healy took her out of that box and into the world again, like a kid takes the new doll out of the box. When a doll is taken out of the box, it is in a far more fragile state and easily breakable, especially in the hands of an infant. Swift might say here that he was childishly acting, then put her in such a state and broke her. During "Look What You Made Me Do" during The Eras Tour, Swift's dancers dress up as Swift in her different eras, dancing inside the glass boxes, as if all of her different eras are dolls. "Stole my tortured heart" is also a reference to how Healy, her fellow "tortured poet," stole her heart and inspired her to finally end the relationship with Alwyn.
LYRICS:
[Verse 1]
Oh, here we go again
The voices in his head
Called the rain to end our days of wild
The sickest army doll
Purchased at the mall
Rivulets descend my plastic smile
[Pre-Chorus]
But you should've seen him when he first got me
[Chorus]
My boy only breaks his favorite toys, toys, oh
I'm queen of sand castles he destroys, oh, oh
'Cause it fit too right, puzzle pieces in the dead of night
I should've known it was a matter of time, oh, oh
My boy only breaks his favorite toys, oh, oh
[Verse 2]
There was a litany of reasons why
We could've playеd for keeps this time
I know I'm just repeating mysеlf
Put me back on my shelf
But first, pull the string
And I'll tell you that he runs
Because he loves me (He loves me)
[Pre-Chorus]
'Cause you should've seen him when he first saw me
[Chorus]
My boy (My boy), only breaks his favorite toys, toys, oh
I'm queen (I'm queen), of sand castles he destroys, oh, oh
'Cause I knew too much, there was danger in the heat of my touch
He saw forever, so he smashed it up, oh, oh
My boy (My boy), only breaks his favorite toys, oh, oh
[Bridge]
(Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh) Once I fix me
(Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh) He's gonna miss me
(Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh) Once I fix me
(Oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh) He's gonna miss me
[Outro]
Just say when, I'd play again
He was my best friend down at the sandlot
I felt more when we played pretend
Than with all the Kens
'Cause he took me out of my box
Stole my tortured heart
Left all these broken parts
Told me I'm better off
But I'm not
I'm not, I'm not