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Taylor Swift Channels True-Crime Fandom In New Song, 'No Body, No Crime’
The song "No Body, No Crime" — which is a collaboration with Haim and appears on her latest surprise album, "Evermore" — tells story of a woman who disappears after confronting her husband about his suspected affair.
Taylor Swift dropped her second surprise album of 2020 Friday, and one song has true crime fans everywhere singing along.
“No Body, No Crime”—the sixth track off the album Evermore—pays homage to the singer’s own “obsession with true crime” in a country-inspired song depicting the murder of a woman who suspected her husband of having an affair.
“I think he did it, but I just can’t prove it,” Swift croons in the chorus of the catchy melody.
The song was a collaboration with Swift’s longtime friends and occasional touring buddies, Haim—made up of sisters Este, Danielle and Alana Haim.
“The Haim sisters have been my best friends for years and we’ve played together so many times but this is the first time we’ve done a song together,” Swift said in the YouTube live chat on the “Willow” video, according to Uproxx. “I wrote ‘No Body, No Crime’ by myself. It was inspired by my obsession with true crime podcasts/documentaries and I used one of my best friends’ names as the main character.”
The song’s main character, Este, suspects her husband is cheating before she ominously disappears as the adulterous husband moves on with seemingly no consequences to be paid, buying himself new tires for his truck and moving in with his mistress. But as the song concludes, it appears that Este may not be the only one to fall victim to foul play.
“Working with the Haim sisters on ‘No Body, No Crime’ was pretty hilarious because it came about after I wrote a pretty dark murder mystery song and had named the character Este, because she’s the friend I have who would be stoked to be in a song like that,” Swift told Entertainment Weekly of the track.
As she was finishing the song, Swift even reached out to Este Haim herself to incorporate a realistic detail—the singer’s preferred restaurant—into the lyrics.
“I had finished the song and was nailing down some lyric details and texted her, ‘You’re not going to understand this text for a few days but…which chain restaurant do you like the best?’ and I named a few,” Swift told the outlet of how Olive Garden came to be mentioned in the song.
Swift asked whether Haim would sing on the track a few days later and secured the group’s eager participation.
"We can’t figure out why we hadn’t collaborated sooner. We’ve toured together, played live together, choreographed dances like we’re at summer camp, but it took a song about avenging your friend’s murder to give us the idea to take this step," Swift said. "Long story short, I’m the 4th Haim sister now, confirmed."
The song has already drawn comparisons to another famous murder-themed country song, “Goodbye Earl” from The Chicks, formally known as the Dixie Chicks—and has even earned the stamp of approval from The Chicks themselves.
“Sisters before misters,” The Chicks wrote on Twitter Friday. “#goodbyeearl #nobodynocrime #evermorealbum.”
