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Taylor Swift's latest studio album tortured poet section It dropped today, leaving fans both elated and confused.
Many fans expected the album to be heavily influenced by her six-year relationship with British actor Joe Alwyn. But to everyone's surprise, it was revealed that Swift's song was actually about her brief affair with 1975 frontman Matti Healy.
News of Swift and Alwyn's breakup was first reported in April 2023. After first reporting that they were dating in 2014, the first rumors about Swift and Healy's relationship surfaced a month later.
However, the relationship reportedly ended after just a few weeks. She is currently dating Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
Swift's relationship with Healy has come as a surprise to Swifties, who have opposed Healy's long series of controversies, including a podcast in which he made numerous derogatory remarks about the rapper Ice Spice, women and the Japanese. caused it.
Healy apologized to Ice Spice in April 2023, saying, “I didn't want you to think I was mean.” Shortly after this, Swift announced a collaboration with Ice Spice on a remix of her song “Karma,” which some critics and fans claimed was “damage control” over Healy's comments.
Fans are now scrambling to dissect the song's meaning. tortured poet section, In addition to the title track, songs such as “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived,” “But Daddy I Love Him,” “Fresh Out the Slammer,” and “My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys” are all interpreted as being about Healy. has been done. She also mentions him on the extended version of her album, “The Black Dog.''
In a message to fans on social media, Swift wrote: There is nothing to take revenge on, no scores to settle once the wounds have healed. When I thought about it further, I realized that a significant number of them were self-inflicted. This writer firmly believes that our tears become sacred in the form of ink on a page. Once we tell our saddest stories, we are freed from them. ”
Here's the latest clue that Swift's song is about Healy
On “Guilty as a Sin?” Swift sings about a “fatal fantasy” about someone from her past who sent her the 1989 song “The Downtown Lights” by Scottish band The Blue Nile. There is.
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Healy has previously said that The Blue Nile are his “favorite band of all time” and that The 1975's song “Love It If We Made It” is from “The Downtown Lights”. He said it was an inspiration.
Fans also penned an open letter in April, urging Swift to “reflect on the impact of her actions and those of her peers.”
Swift appears to address this criticism of her romance with Healy in “But Daddy I Love Him.”
She sings: “I'd rather burn my life to the ground than listen to one more bit of this whining and moaning/I'd say something about my good name/It's mine with all its shame/I am.” Don't pander to vipers in empath clothing. ”
Swift sings in a similar vein on “I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)”: When I tell them he's my man/But your good Lord doesn't have to lift a finger, I can fix him, no, not really. ”
She appears to accuse Healy of ghosting her on “The Littlest Man Ever”, singing: ?/ You tried to buy drugs/ From a friend of a friend of mine/ They ghosted you/ Now you know what it feels like. ”
She later sings: “And I don't even want you back, I just want to know/If the goal was to make my shining summer rust/And I don't even miss what we had, but , someone please give me/A message to the smallest man who ever lived.”
Healy wore a black suit, black tie, and white shirt while touring with The 1975.
On “The Black Dog,” she gives a shout-out to another of Healy's favorite bands, the pop-punk group The Starting Line. The 1975 covered their 2002 song “The Best of Me” during a tour last year, just days before Swift and Healy were first seen holding hands.
She sings: “I can't understand how you don't miss me/When someone plays the starting line, at The Black Dog/And you jump, but she's too young/To know this song / It's the fabric of our dreams intertwined in magic.”
Early reactions from both critics and fans seemed positive. However, some have noted that Swift is unhappy with the apparent focus on Healy as opposed to Swift's relationship with Alwyn.
A line about a “tattooed golden retriever” in the title song “The Tortured Poets Division” also garnered some attention, as it appeared to be a reference to Healy's apparent ink.
“This is all for an album about Matty Healy,” one fan wrote on his Instagram.
Looking for a Joe Alwyn reference, Swift sings, “I died on the altar waiting for proof/You sacrificed us to the god of the bluest of days,” in “So Long.” You'll be relieved to hear “London.”
tortured poet section The song has been highly anticipated ever since Swift first announced it at the 2024 Grammy Awards, where it won top awards including 2022 Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album. midnight.
independent person's Helen Brown gave the new album five stars, praising the power of Swift's storytelling. “In keeping with the literary (if not grammatical) album title, Swift is at her sharpest polysyllabic form here,” she wrote.
The album features a collaboration between rapper Post Malone and Florence Welch of the British band Florence and the Machine. Physical copies of the album also include an original verse by Fleetwood Mac's Stevie Nicks.
