“Out Of The Woods” captures the anxiety and excitement of a past relationship that Taylor treasures the memories of. It was the second promo single released from 1989, and later became the sixth official single. It was co-written by Jack Antonoff of Fun. and Bleachers, who worked on many songs for the album, and later joined Taylor to create her 2017 album reputation. It is known that she was writing to track for this song, something she was not used to at the time.

A short preview of the song was shown on Good Morning America on October 13th, 2014, and the full version was released the next day. The song’s music video was premiered on December 31st, 2015, during ABC’s annual Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin' Eve broadcast.

The song’s hidden message is, “They loved each other recklessly.”

The blue dress that Taylor Swift wore in the music video made a return at the beginning of the 2017 “Look What You Made Me Do” music video: