Smoke
Smoke as a recurring image of obscurity, residue, and craving - something inhaled that both intoxicates and obscures, leaving traces that persist after the source is gone. In Taylor's writing smoke can operate simultaneously as the literal atmosphere of a place (a pub, a city), the obscuring quality of deception ('blowing smoke'), and the addictive substance the speaker craves after attempting recovery. There's a related use where smoke isn't the substance itself but a stand-in for someone who's gone: the way the smell of them might linger after they've left a room, as in cardigan's 'the smell of smoke would hang around this long.' That use belongs with the catalogue's ghost imagery, alongside mist and other lingering-trace images, which carry the same trace of a presence the speaker can no longer reach.
Smoke carries the doubled charge of pleasure and obscurity - what was enjoyed in the moment (the atmosphere, the city, the relationship) was also what prevented the speaker from seeing clearly. The recovery register ('breathing clean air' vs. 'miss the smoke') makes it a figure for the addictive quality of a destructive relationship.
Appears in 12 songs
“Breath of fresh air through smoke rings”
The smoke rings represent the artificiality and deception of the entertainment industry — you cannot breathe fresh air through smoke rings. The image holds the impossibility of authenticity within the fame machine.
“I still miss the smoke”
Smoke operates in multiple registers: the smoke of a pub, the smoke of London ('the big smoke'), the obscurity of the partner's lies ('he's literally blowing smoke'), and the residue of what the speaker is trying to recover from ('six weeks of breathing clean air / I still miss the smoke'). Uncle Jerry and Angela discuss all four readings without settling on one.
“The smoke cloud billows out his mouth like a freight train through a small town”
“Adorned with smoke on my clothes, lovelorn and nobody knows”
“The smell of smoke would hang around this long”
Smoke as the residue of the relationship, the lingering trace that persists long after the source is gone, connected to the ghost imagery as something insubstantial but impossible to dismiss.
“The room is on fire, invisible smoke”
“You smoked then at seven bars of chocolate”
“I'll drink what you think and I'm high from smoking your jokes all damn night”
“Smoke billows from my ships in the harbor”
“I hear it in your voice, you're smoking with your boys”
“My only one, my smoking gun”
“Clearing the air, I breathed in the smoke”