Lying in Taylor Swift’s “Tim McGraw”, “Picture To Burn”, and “Teardrops On My Guitar” (from her 2006 debut album)

The teenage girl in Taylor Swift's "Tim McGraw" responds to a boy's flattery by calling it "a lie". While this speaker recalls that relationship fondly when it's over, the speaker of the next song on Swift's eponymous 2006 debut album, "Picture To Burn", is out for revenge and says her ex is "really bad at lying". With lying established as a theme in relationships, the third song, "Teardrops On My Guitar, begins with a third kind after the flattery in "Tim McGraw" and the "bad lying" in "Picture To Burn" – lying for self-protection and the concealment of desire: "Drew looks at me / I fake a smile so he won't see." (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 8 February 2024)