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"Wood"
Song by Taylor Swift
from the album The Life of a Showgirl
ReleasedOctober 3, 2025
Studio
  • MXM
  • Shelback (Stockholm)
Genre
Length2:30
LabelRepublic
Songwriters
Producers
  • Taylor Swift
  • Max Martin
  • Shellback
Lyric video
"Wood" on YouTube

"Wood" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from her twelfth studio album, The Life of a Showgirl (2025). She wrote and produced it with Max Martin and Shellback. A 1960s Motown-inspired song, "Wood" incorporates disco, funk, pop soul, dance, and synth-pop. Its instrumentation features a guitar riff and a prominent horn arrangement. The lyrics contain sexual innuendos to describe a male lover's genitals, as well as references to superstition. Critics generally criticized the song for its lyrics.

On August 13, 2025, Taylor Swift announced The Life of a Showgirl as her twelfth studio album during an episode of the podcast New Heights, hosted by NFL player and Swift's now-fiancé Travis Kelce and his brother Jason.[1] "Wood" was revealed on the same day as the album's ninth track.[2]

"Wood" incorporates disco,[3][4][5] synth-pop,[6] pop-funk,[7] 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][16] 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.[17][15] The line "new heights of manhood" references Kelce's podcast, New Heights.[18] 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.[19]

Critics generally criticized "Wood" for its lyrics. India Block of The London Standard felt that it could be confused for a track from "a parody album hallucinated by some porn-addled AI".[20] 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".[17] 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".[21] 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".[22] 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.[23] Paste listed it as one of the worst songs of 2025.[24]

A more positive review was from Tom Breihan of Stereogum, who opined that the song exemplified Swift's ability of translating "unhinged" sentiments into pop songs.[25]

Credits are adapted from the liner notes of The Life of a Showgirl.[26]

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

  • Taylor Swift – lead vocals, songwriting, production
  • Max Martin – production, songwriting, piano, keyboards, recording
  • Shellback – production, songwriting, bass, drums, guitar, percussion, recording
  • Stefan Petersson – bass
  • Erik Arvinder – violin, recording, engineering
  • Conny Lindgren – violin
  • Daniella Bonfiglioli – violin
  • Fredrik Syberg – violin
  • Lola Torrente – violin
  • Matthias Johansson – violin
  • David Bukovinsky – cello
  • Tomas Jonsson – flute, baritone saxophone
  • Wojtek Goral – flute, baritone saxophone
  • Janne Bjerger – flugelhorn
  • Magnus Johansson – flugelhorn
  • Peter Noos Johansson – trombone
  • Andreas Andersson – bass clarinet, alto flute, horn arrangements
  • Helena Stjernstrom – English horn
  • Magnus Sjölander – percussion
  • Miko Rezler – percussion
  • Stefan Wingefors – clarinet
  • Thomas Helten – clarinet
  • Mattias Bylund – Rhodes piano, vibraphone, string and horn arrangements, engineering, digital editing
  • Johan Randén – electric guitar
  • Henrik Langemyr – strings copyist
  • Lasse Mårtén – recording, engineering
  • Willem Bleeker – recording, engineering
  • Serban Ghenea – mixing
  • Bryce Bordone – assistant mixing
  • Randy Merrill – mastering
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