Between tours, performances with her partner Travis Kelce and more and more records, Taylor Swift released a new double album today. Fans are sure: It’s about several ex-partners.
Heartbreak is the big theme of Taylor Swift’s new album, which the superstar released on Friday. At the height of her success, the 34-year-old created perhaps her most personal album. The music – partly calm, keyboard-heavy retro pop, partly more in the direction of indie folk – only seems like an accompaniment to the stories. These are the focus of “The Tortured Poets Department” – a concept album that is dedicated to different phases of a breakup and is full of allusions.
Fans are sure that the singer’s eleventh studio album contains numerous references to Swift’s life and her ex-partners, the actor Joe Alwyn and presumably also the musician Matty Healy.
A double album about heartbreak
Two hours after Swift released the first version of the new album with 16 songs that night, there was a surprise: the musician released another version with the addition of “The Anthology” and additional tracks, 31 in total. Swift wrote that “The Tortured Poets Department” was a double album.
Speaking about the work’s themes, Swift wrote on Instagram on Friday: “This author firmly believes that our tears become sacred in the form of ink on a page. When we have spoken our saddest story, we can free ourselves from it. And
References to alleged ex-partner Matty Healy
Even before publication, fans had suspected that Swift could be referring to her ex-partner Joe Alwyn in the lyrics, with whom she was together for a few years until 2023. On Friday, some also brought up British musician Matty Healy, who Swift was rumored to have briefly dated in 2023.
In the title track “The Tortured Poets Department” the narrator sings about an ex-lover with whom she went through a short, intense phase. She describes him as a “tattooed golden retriever” who smokes – fans recognized this as Healy, the singer of the band The 1975.
According to rumors last year, Swift faced criticism for the alleged short relationship. Healy’s often provocative public appearance damaged her reputation, it was said. In the song “But Daddy I Love Him,” which is about a relationship with a “wild boy,” she seems to be referring to this: “I’d rather burn my whole life down than listen to this bitching and whining for another second/ I’ll tell you something about my good name / I alone can defile it.”
Healy has spoken publicly about his drug addiction and heroin use. In “The Alchemy,” Swift sings about a new, strong infatuation with a pun that turns “heroine” into “heroin” with just one more letter in English: “He jokes that “It’s heroin, but this time with an E.” “
At the same time, Swift uses images from sports in the song that are reminiscent of her current partner, American football player Travis Kelce. Overall, “The Tortured Poets Department” is peppered with interesting, metaphor-rich puns.
“So Long, London” – Farewell to Joe Alwyn?
The song “So Long, London” is probably a reference to the Brit Alwyn. In 2019, Swift released the song “London Boy,” in which Swift sang about love for a Brit. At that time she was still in a relationship with the actor.
The old song was about love euphoria – now about separation. “And you say I left the ship, but I went down with it,” the narrator sings, and: “You swore you loved me, but where was the evidence?”
Swift has been on the most successful tour in music history for over a year. The separation from Alwyn is believed to have occurred in the early days of her mammoth concert series. In the song “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” – the only up-tempo number with a driving beat – Swift probably refers to this.
The I sings about being in the spotlight every night, even when it feels miserable. “Every part of me shattered as the crowd screamed ‘More’. I grinned like a winner. I achieved my goal because I can do it with a broken heart.”
Comment on her gigantic fame
In the past year and a half, Swift has gone from superstar to the biggest pop star in the world. The 34-year-old has now reached such a level of fame that every step she takes publicly is big news. She refers to this in her new album.
For example, when she sings in “Clara Bow”: “Beauty is a beast that roars down on all fours demanding more / Only when your girlish glow flickers just like that / Do they let you know / It’s hell on earth to be heavenly”. (In German, for example: “Beauty is a beast that roars on all fours and demands more / When your girlish glow is particularly flickering / Let them know / It’s hell on earth to be heavenly.”)
Travis Kelce, Kanye West: Old and new acquaintances
While the first part of the album is characterized by keyboard-heavy retro soft pop and the collaboration with pop musician Jack Antonoff, the second part has stronger folk leanings, as in the pandemic albums “Evermore” or “Folklore”. For this, Swift worked again with Aaron Dessner from the indie band The National.
The tone becomes more optimistic at times; the narrator has found a new love. Allusions like “You know how to ball, I know Aristotle” make Kelce come to mind again.
The story of the two began, at least publicly, in the summer of 2023 when Kelce attended a concert by the musician at his team’s home stadium in Kansas and spoke about his admiration for Swift in his podcast.
Towards the end of the album, Swift alludes to other encounters from her past. It’s about a mysterious “Aimee” who used to bully the narrator. And then the listeners suddenly meet an old acquaintance. In “Cassandra,” Swift appears to address an old feud with Kanye West from 2016 (without naming names). In short, it was about offensive, false claims made by West and his then-partner Kim Kardashian about the musician.
The final song, “The Manuscript,” reads like a draft of an autobiography of Swift’s life. And that’s how “The Tortured Poets Department” can be understood in the end: less as a musical achievement, but as the foundation stone for the career of a great storyteller.