Some critics praised the nostalgia-inducing production, but some others found the lyrical content lightweight. The song peaked at number 30 on the Billboard Global 200 and reached the national charts in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Portugal, and the United States. Swift included "So High School" in the revamped setlist for the Eras Tour, starting from May 2024.
Background and composition
Taylor Swift announced her eleventh original studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards on February 4, 2024.[1] She had worked on the album shortly after finishing her tenth album, Midnights (2022), and continued writing during the early run of the Eras Tour in 2023.[2] The standard album was released on April 19, 2024, and a double album edition subtitled The Anthology was surprise-released two hours later.[3] "So High School" is taken from The Anthology and is track number 22 from the album.[4] From May 2024, Swift revamped the set list of the Eras Tour to include tracks from The Tortured Poets Department, including "So High School".[5] The track is performed in a truncated version during the outro of the number "But Daddy I Love Him".[6][7] Swift performed the track as part of the surprise song set on July 6 in Amsterdam, in a mashup with "Mary's Song (Oh, My, My, My)" and "Everything Has Changed".[8]
The lyrics of "So High School" revolves around careless teenage romance reminiscent of high-school love.[19][20] The lover is portrayed as a football player, a lyrical motif that evokes Swift's Fearless songs like "You Belong with Me" or "Fifteen".[16] Swift sings about youth experiences in the lines: "I'm watching American Pie with you on a Saturday night", "Truth, dare, spin bottles", and "Touch me while your bros play Grand Theft Auto".[13][21] Swift also hints at showing up during her love interest's football games and practices in the lyrics.[19]
Critical reception
Positive reviews regarded "So High School" as a sonic standout on The Tortured Poets Department for its bright and nostalgia-inducing sound. In Billboard's ranking of all 31 tracks, "So High School" was placed seventh, with Jason Lipshutz writing: "obvious back-half highlight, simply by flexing a little muscle amidst the nostalgia trip."[12] Fish ranked it tenth out of the 31 tracks, regarding it as one of the album's "bright spots" and complimenting its "sweeping feeling" akin to 1980s and 1990s dream pop songs.[18] Richardson called it a highlight off of the album in his generally negative review, because "it serves as a temporary respite from the word-drunk confessionals that dominate the record".[14] Craig Jenkins in Vulture praised the combination of 1990s alternative rock with "the gorgeous reediness of a Sheryl Crow or Aimee Mann".[10]USA Today's Melissa Ruggieri also found similarities to Sheryl Crow and lauded the production as "bouncy" and "breezy glow".[15]Vogue Australia's Nina Miyashita and Jonah Waterhouse described it as an "all-American, feel-good love song" and compared it to Swift's "young and in love Fearless era".[19] Mary Kate Carr of The A.V. Club dubbed "So High School" a "fun, poppy number" that prevents the album from being monotonous,[22] and Jonathan Keefe of Slant Magazine thought that the track had potentials of becoming a radio hit.[23] Writing for the The Los Angeles Times, Kaitlyn Huamani complimented the sentimental production set despite the cliché lyrics.[24]
Reception of the lyrics was not as uniformly positive. Some publications praised the lyrics for giving listeners a chance to reminisce about their teenage years.[9][21]Slate's Carl Wilson wrote that the football imagery is "so weak and tossed-off as to be wholly extraneous".[25] Wohlmacher wrote that the lyrics' rhyming is "clumsy", but he contended that it was fully intentional so as to make the song "fun".[17]Exclaim!'s Alex Hudson lauded the sound as "vibrantly nostalgic" but said that some lyrics are "cringe-inducing", citing the lines that rhyme "Aristotle" with "Touch me while your bros play Grand Theft Auto". Hudson however added that its "awkward" sentiment also represents what teenage romance feels like.[26]
Commercial performance
When The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology was released, "So High School" debuted and peaked at number 24 on the US Billboard Hot 100.[27] In Australia, it reached number 26 on the ARIA Singles Chart and made her the artist with the most entries in a single week with 29.[28][29] Elsewhere, "So High School" opened at its peak of number 30 on the Billboard Global 200[30] and charted within the countries of Canada (28),[31] New Zealand (33),[32] and Portugal (82).[33] The song also reached the United Kingdom's streaming[34] and sales charts with respective peaks of number 35 and number 66,[35] Sweden's Heatseeker chart at number five,[36] and Greece's International Top 100 Digital Singles chart at number 53.[37]
