Wood (song)

The American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift created her twelfth studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, to reflect on her triumphant state of mind amidst the success of the Eras Tour and her relationship with the football player Travis Kelce in 2024.^[1] She recorded the album with the producers Max Martin and Shellback in Sweden during May–August 2024, in between the European stops of the Eras Tour.^[2] Swift announced the album during the August 13, 2025, episode of Travis and Jason Kelce's podcast New Heights; "Wood" was revealed as the ninth track.^[1] The album was released on October 3, 2025, via Republic Records.^[3]

"Wood" incorporates disco,^[4][5][6] synth-pop,^[7] funk-pop, synth-funk,^[8] pop soul,^[9] and dance,^[10] with a rhythm and blues chorus.^[11] The arrangement includes flugelhorn, cor anglais, baritone saxophone, bass clarinet, cello, Clavinet, drums, electric guitar and flute.^[12] Some critics compared the song's guitar riff to that of "I Want You Back" by the Jackson 5.^[13][14]

The song centers around two main themes. The first references Western cultural associations of luck, including the practice of "knocking on wood", a tradition to avert misfortune, and the superstition that seeing a black cat is an omen of bad luck.^[15] By the chorus, Swift declares that she doesn't need to rely on superstitions to bring her love. The second uses metaphors to allude to a male lover's penis, which she compares to a Redwood tree, a magic wand and a hard rock.^[16] The line "new heights of manhood" references Kelce's podcast, New Heights.^[17] Appearing on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Swift stated that she had originally intended for the song to be a more "innocent", "throwback kind of timeless-sounding song" about superstitions, but acknowledged that the lyrics had become increasingly racier and more sexual during the songwriting process.^[18]

"Wood" was criticized for its lyrics. India Block of The Standard felt that it could be confused for a track from "a parody album hallucinated by some porn-addled AI".^[19] Alexis Petridis of The Guardian said the song's "laid-back take on disco recalls not the sweaty hedonism of the dancefloor but the late 70s moment where four-to-floor rhythms and chicken-scratch guitar temporarily invaded the oeuvres of west coast singer-songwriters".^[16] In Clash, Lauren Hague opined that, while the song fit "the Showgirl aesthetic" and Swift's vocal performance was "gutsy", the lyrics "border on the cringe".^[20] Mary Kate Carr of The A.V. Club said the song "feels like an attempt to imitate [Swift's] friend and collaborator Sabrina Carpenter", highlighting how it "borrows heavily from Carpenter's cheeky-sexy shtick, laden with puns and innuendo spun out of superstitions", but felt it was "far less charming and convincing than Carpenter's work".^[21] Pitchfork's Anna Gaca felt the song had the "spiritual energy of bachelorette-party penis décor".^[13] The Spectator's Graeme Thomson criticized the sexual innuendos, saying that they were not Swift's songwriting strengths.^[22] Paste listed it as one of the worst songs of 2025.^[23]

A more positive review came from Tom Breihan of Stereogum, who opined that the song exemplified Swift's ability to translate "unhinged" sentiments into pop.^[24]

Credits are adapted from the liner notes of The Life of a Showgirl.^[25]

Studios

• Produced at MXM Studios and Shellback Studios, Stockholm
• Recorded at Shellback Studios, Stockholm
• Violins recorded and engineered at IMRSV Studios, Stockholm
• Strings and horns recorded and edited at Studio 112, Jonstorp
• Mixed at MixStar Studios, Virginia Beach
• Mastered at Sterling Sound, Edgewater, New Jersey

Personnel