Taylor Swift is clueing fans in on the demise of her six-year relationship with Joe Alwyn as well as her short-lived fling with The 1975 rocker Matty Healy in songs on her new album The Tortured Poets Department.
Fans rushed to stream the 16-track album when it was released to platforms on Thursday night so they’d finally learn the details of Swift’s latest failed romances.
Many fans had predicted that The Tortured Poets Department album would be the ultimate Joe/Taylor ‘breakup album’ as it’s been speculated the name was a direct dig at the British actor, who she dated from 2016 to early 2023.
Swift found herself in a whirlwind romance with Healy — though neither ever directly confirmed — that started in April 2023 after they were seen kissing in NYC.
But the fling ended as fast as it began after Healy’s ‘bad boy’ image and ‘racist’ remarks caused squeaky clean Swift to face backlash.
Swift is now happily in love with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce — but it’s clear she still has a few bones to pick with the ‘worst men’ in her life.
Taylor Swift is clueing fans in on the end of her six-year relationship with Joe Alwyn as well as her short-lived fling with The 1975 rocker Matty Healy in songs on her new album The Tortured Poets Department; seen with Joe in 2019
Swift found herself in a whirlwind romance with Healy — though neither ever directly confirmed it — just two months later after they were seen kissing in NYC; seen in May 2023
Track 1 – ‘Fortnight’
SUBJECT: Matt Healy
‘Fortnight’ is the album’s lead single featuring rapper/singer Post Malone.
In it, Swift appears to to take aim at Healy — who she refers to as her ‘miracle move-on-drug’ — and how their toxic love was ‘ruining my life.’
She sings: ‘And no one here’s to blame/ But what about your quiet treason? /I took the miracle move-on-drug/ The effects were temporary/ And I love you, it’s ruining my life.’
The track’s title Fortnight, a British English word defined as ‘a period of two weeks,’ could be perceived as a direct nod to the British rocker as well as the brevity of their relationship.
Fans penned: ‘Am I the only one who thinks #Fortnight is about Matt Healy?… I have a theory, how long did the relationship with Matt lasted? What if it was… for a fortnight?’
‘Fortnight’ is the album’s lead single featuring rapper/singer Post Malone. In it, Swift appears to to take aim at Healy — who she refers to as her ‘miracle move-on-drug’ — and how their toxic love was ‘ruining my life’; seen in 2015 before their fling
Fans penned: ‘Am I the only one who thinks #Fortnight is about Matt Healy?… I have a theory, how long did the relationship with Matt lasted? What if it was… for a fortnight?’
Track 2 – ‘The Tortured Poets Department’
SUBJECT: Matt Healy
The name of the album has long been speculated to be a jab at Joe, who previously revealed that he is part of a WhatsApp group chat with close pals Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott called The Tortured Man Club.
But the titular track featured plenty of lyrics that allude to her time with Healy.
Swift implies that Healy would be devastated if she left him and even appears to reference his close friend Lucy Dacus of the band boygenius.
She sings: ‘Sometimes I wonder if you’re gonna screw this up with me/ But you told Lucy you’d kill yourself if I ever leave’
‘And I had said that to Jack about you so I felt seen/ Everyone we know understands why it’s meant to be’
The song also features the lyric: ‘Like, ‘Who uses typewriters anyway?’
Back in 2019, Healy was clowned online when he confessed to GQ that he ‘really likes’ using a typewriter.
A tickled Twitter fan wrote: ‘Remember when we thought The Tortured Poets Department was a Joe Alwyn breakup album and then Taylor Swift took out Matt Healy and Kim Kardashian too?’
Swift implies that Healy would be devastated if she left him and even appears to reference his close friend Lucy Dacus of the band boygenius (Matt pictured in May 2023)
A tickled Twitter fan wrote: ‘Remember when we thought The Tortured Poets Department was a Joe Alwyn breakup album and then Taylor Swift took out Matt Healy and Kim Kardashian too?’
Track 3 – ‘My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys’
SUBJECT: Joe Alwyn
The album’s third track includes a lyric that could be about Joe as fans have long accused him of shying away from Swift’s spotlight and forcing her to be ‘secretive.’
‘Put me back on my shelf/ But first, pull the string and I’ll tell you that he runs because he loves me,’ the Pennsylvania native sings.
Later in the song, she talks of ‘playing pretend’ with a past lover and being left as ‘broken parts.’
The lyrics go: ‘I felt more when we played pretend than with all the Kens/ ‘Cause he took me out of my box/ Stole my tortured heart/ Left all these broken parts/ Told me I’m better off/ But I’m not’.
A fan took to Twitter to write: ‘My boy only breaks his favorite toy – this confirms, their relationship was toxic af and Joe is clearly a narcissist’.
The album’s third track includes a lyric that could be about Joe as fans have long accused him of shying away from Swift’s spotlight and forcing her to be ‘secretive’; Joe seen in 2022
A fan took to Twitter to write: ‘My boy only breaks his favorite toy – this confirms, their relationship was toxic af and Joe is clearly a narcissist’
Track 4 – ‘Down Bad’
SUBJECT: Joe Alwyn
In the fourth track, Swift admits to breaking down ‘crying at the gym’ and how the end of hers and Joe’s six-year relationship left her feeling ‘hollow.’
She sings: ‘Did you take all my old clothes just to leave me here naked and alone/ In a field in my same old town that somehow seems so hollow now’
Swift later accuses the past lover of abandoning her. ‘How dare you think it’s romantic/ Leaving me safe and stranded.’
Furious fans noted: ‘Down Bad omgggg Joe count your LAST DAYS… down bad: this one’s kinda slow. I like Taylor cursing but nothing crazy..
‘I hate Joe Alwyn tho… NOW IM DOWN BAD AGAIN CRYING AT THE GYM AGAIN JOE ALWYN WHAT THE ACTUAL F**K DID YOU DO TO TAYLOR’.
Swift later accuses the past lover of abandoning her. ‘ How dare you think it’s romantic/ Leaving me safe and stranded’
Track 5 – ‘So Long, London’
SUBJECT: Joe Alwyn
This heartbreaking track details Swift’s raw heartache as she realizes that her long-term relationship with the British actor could not be saved.
‘I stopped trying to make him laugh/ Stopped trying to drill the safe,’ she sings.
She then talks of bidding farewell to ‘the house in the Heath.’
The couple famously hunkered down together in a rural location in the UK back in 2017 amid the fallout of her feud with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian.
Having spent six years together, Swift, now 34, talks about being ‘pissed off’ that her ex-boyfriend ‘let me give you all that youth for free.’
She also sings of feeling isolated in the relationship and that she felt as though she would ‘implode.’
‘Me locking myself away in my house for a lot of years — I’ll never get that time back’
The song is 9 minutes and 28 seconds in length and Joe and Taylor were first confirmed to be dating on September 28, 2016.
The song left fans enraged, with impassioned Twitter users writing: ‘yeah joe definitely cheated on taylor and nothing can change my mind. so long london said it all… Taylor didnt need a whole album to put Joe in prison…
‘So Long London is enough… don’t even care about the whole taylor joe situation but going from london boy to so long, london is devastating… So, it’s pretty clear who Taylor’s song ‘So Long, London’ is about. I still can’t get over Joe Alwyn.’
This heartbreaking track details Swift’s raw heartache as she realizes that her long-term relationship with the British actor could not be saved
The song left fans enraged, with impassioned Twitter users writing: ‘yeah joe definitely cheated on taylor and nothing can change my mind. so long london said it all… Taylor didnt need a whole album to put Joe in prison’
Track 7 – ‘Fresh Out the Slammer’
SUBJECT: Joe Alwyn
Swift elaborates on the isolation she felt while weathering hers and Joe’s crumbling romance.
She also communicates that her ex no longer understood her and that that only worsened the divide.
‘Another summer taking cover/ Rolling thunder, he don’t understand me/ Splintered back in winter/ Silent dinner, bitter he was with her in dreams’
She then shifts focus to Matty as she recalls ‘running’ to another lover after the split.
‘Now we’re at the starting line / I did my time’.
Fans wrote: ‘is fresh out the slammer literally about her escaping joe and running to matty… fresh out the slammer… oh joe if i catch you… Fresh out the slammer meaning she leaving her relationship with joe into the one with Travis’.
This heartbreaking track details Swift’s raw heartache as she realizes that her long-term relationship with the British actor could not be saved; seen in 2020
Fans wrote: ‘is fresh out the slammer literally about her escaping joe and running to matty… fresh out the slammer… oh joe if i catch you… Fresh out the slammer meaning she leaving her relationship with joe into the one with Travis’
Track 9 – ‘Guilty As Sin’
SUBJECT: Matt Healy
She continues to allude to Healy in the album’s ninth track.
She sings how a new lover swooped in and sent her ‘downtown lights’ as she was ‘drowning in the blue nile.’
Fans think that the ‘blue nile’ is a reference to Healy’s ‘favorite band’ The Blue Nile.
She continues to allude to Healy in the album’s ninth track (the couple pictured in May last year)
Track 11 – I Can Fix Him’ (No Really I Can)
SUBJECT: Matt Healy
She seems to give fans a taste of her and Healy’s whirlwind love as she recalls her fascination with thinking she can ‘fix’ him
She sings: ‘The smoke cloud billows out his mouth/Like a freight train through a small town/The jokes that he told across the bar were revolting/And far too loud/
‘They shake their heads saying ‘God help her’ when I tell ’em he’s my man/But your good Lord doesn’t need to/I can fix him/No, really I can’
She seems to give fans a taste of her and Healy’s whirlwind love as she recalls her fascination with thinking she can ‘fix’ him
The Bad Blood songstress, 34 – who recently teased a ‘timetable’ to her fans ahead of the LP’s release – initially announced the album while attending the 2024 Grammys earlier this year in February.
The title of her latest work had caused fans to speculate that the name was aimed at her ex, Joe Alwyn. And earlier this week, Swift appeared to reference the actor as she shared lyrics from the album on X.
The Tortured Poets Department has a total of four versions, as well as a 16 songs and a bonus track titled The Manuscript.
Hours before the album dropped, Swift revealed that the album’s lead single would be Fortnight featuring rapper/singer Post Malone.
Fans quickly pressed play on the 16-track album when it was released to streaming platforms at midnight Friday so they could find references to Alwyn and Healy — both the good and the brutal
Track 14 – The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived
SUBJECT: Joe Alwyn
Many believe that Taylor is claiming Joe cheated with her acerbic song The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived – with fans raging at the actor.
She belts out: ‘And you’ll confess why you did it . . . And I’ll say good riddance. ‘Cos it wasn’t 𝑠e𝑥y once it wasn’t forbidden.
‘You didn’t measure up in any measure of a man. I would have died for your sins but instead I just died inside. You deserve prison, but you won’t get time. You will slide into inboxes and slip through the bars.’
Enraged fans then queried the lyrics and added to the cheating speculation.
Twitter was flooded with responses, with users writing: ‘the smallest man who ever lived: so did he cheat on her? did he abuse her? both deserved…
‘who’s The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived for?! did joe cheat?!… I’ll never understand how the hell that pink faced victorian looking man dared to cheat on THE Taylor Swift. The smallest man who ever lived for real.’
She also released a moody teaser for the song’s music video, which will be released Friday at 8pm EST.
As the album hit streaming platforms Thursday night, Swift published a lengthy statement on Instagram where she described it as ‘an anthology of new works that reflect events, opinions and sentiments from a fleeting and fatalistic moment in time – one that was both sensational and sorrowful in equal measure.’
She continued: ‘This period of the author’s life is now over, the chapter closed and boarded up. There is nothing to avenge, no scores to settle once wounds have healed. And upon further reflection, a good number of them turned out to be self-inflicted.
‘This writer is of the firm belief that our tears become holy in the form of ink on a page. Once we have spoken our saddest story, we can be free of it.
The Bad Blood songstress, 34 – who recently teased a ‘timetable’ to her fans ahead of the LP’s release – initially announced the album while attending the 2024 Grammys earlier this year in February
The title of her latest work had caused fans to speculate that the name was aimed at her ex, Joe Alwyn. And earlier this week, Swift appeared to reference the actor as she shared lyrics from the album on X
Taylor wowed in the album artwork for the eagerly-anticipated record
She showed off her figure while reclining on a bed
Smouldering pouts and sizzling stares accompanied the moody album
She gave the black and white shots her all after releasing the album
Taylor was subject to stunning close-ups
‘And then all that’s left behind is the tortured poetry,’ concluded Swift, as she announced: ‘THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT is out now.’
Along with her thought provoking words, the lyricist shared a slideshow of gorgeous black-and-white portraits as part of the album’s artwork.
Taylor’s devout fanbase quickly flooded social media with their reactions – with many calling TTPD ‘the best album Taylor has made.’
Many admitted that they were ‘crying’ over the songs as they branded it a ‘masterpiece’ and praised her lyricism.
Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department: Full tracklist and meanings in her double album
Tracks on The Tortured Poets Department 1. Fortnight (feat. Post Malone)
Taylor appears to reference the end of her relationship with Joe Alwyn and her subsequent fling with Matty Healy in the first track on her album.
The first verse appears to hint at the end of her romance with Joe as she sings: I was supposed to be sent away but they forgot to come and get me.
Taylor then wishes an ex well who betrayed her: All of this to say, I hope you’re okay, but you’re the reason / No one here’s to blame but what about your quiet treason.
In the second verse, Taylor talks about a short-lived fling that helped her ‘move on’, potentially a reference to Matt.
She sings: ‘All my mornings are Mondays stuck in an endless February / I took the miracle move on drug and the effects were temporary / And I love you, it’s ruining my life / I touched you for only a fortnight.’
2. The Tortured Poets Department
The titular track is a shimmering melody which suggest that Taylor, modestly, doesn’t see herself at the top table of tortured poets: ‘You’re not Dylan Thomas, and I’m not Patti Smith.’
It also appears to heavily reference her fling with Matty as she sings: ‘You smokеd then ate seven bars of chocolate / We declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist.
‘I scratch your head, you fall asleep / Like a tattooed golden retriever / But you awaken with dread.’
She also makes a candid reference to her mental health, singing: ‘But you told Lucy you’d kill yourself if I ever leave /And I had said that to Jack about you so I felt seen’.
3. My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys
Written solely by Taylor, this song’s dense electronic hum adds forceful notes.
Fans have suggested the title is a reference to the ‘shiny toy she sang about in her hit Cruel Summer from the album Lover.
It’s not clear if she is referring to heartbreak after splitting from Joe or the abrupt end to her romance with Matty.
‘Once I fix me, he’s gonna miss me,’ she vows, adding: ‘I know I’m just repeating mysеlf Put me back on my shelf / But first, pull the string And I’ll tell you that he runs Because he loves me (He loves me).’
4. Down Bad
Taylor references mental health again as she details how ‘down’ she feels without an ex and the infatuation she felt with him.
‘Everything comes out teenage petulance,’ sings Taylor as she bitterly surveys the fallout from an old relationship.
She continues: ‘Everything comes out teenage petulance / F**k it if I can’t have him / I might just die, it would make no difference / Down bad, waking up in blood /Staring at the sky, come back and pick me up.
‘F**k it if I can’t have us / I might just not get up / I might stay down bad.’
5. So Long, London
The first track to be written with The National’s Aaron Dessner brings a change of pace, with a lovely, choral intro. ‘So long, London, you’ll find someone,’ sings Taylor.
The song appears to be a reference to British ex Joe and a follow up to her hit London Boy from Lover.
She references their different approaches to the end of their romance, singing in the first verse: ‘I kept calm and carried the weight of the rift / Pulled him in tighter each time he was drifting away / My spine split from carrying us up the hill.’
Verse three she muses: ‘And you say I abandoned the ship, but I was going down with it / My white knuckle dying grip holding tight to your quiet resentment.’
Taylor Swift officially dropped The Tortured Poets Department on Friday – her hotly-anticipated 11th studio album
6. But Daddy I Love Him
‘I know he’s crazy, but he’s the one I want,’ sings Taylor, showing wry humour as she admits to falling for the bad boys. Produced, with real brightness, by Dessner.
She goes on to revel in the fact she dismisses warning from critics, singing: ‘They slammed the door on my whole world / The one thing I wanted
‘Now I’m running with my dress unbuttoned, / Screaming, But daddy I love him / I’m having his baby / No I’m not, but you should see your faces.’
7. Fresh Out The Slammer
Finger-picked acoustic guitar adds folky notes reminiscent of lockdown albums Folklore and Evermore to Fresh Out The Slammer, which details rushing into a new relationship.
Seemingly a reference to her fling with Matty – who she previously dated in 2015 – she sings: ‘Now pretty baby, I’m running back home to you. / Fresh out the slammer I know who my first call will be to.’
On the decay of her past relationship, she sings: ‘Splintered back in winter, silent dinners, bitter he was with her in dreams / Gray and blue and fights and tunnels, handcuffed to the spell I was under.
‘For just one hour of sunshine / Years of labor, locks and ceilings / In the shade of how he was feeling.’
8. Florida!!! (feat. Florence + The Machine)
An album highlight, this theatrical duet with London singer Florence Welch is an uplifting song of escape – from small-town life and a bad romance.
Tellingly the first tour stop following her split from Joe was in Tampa, Florida and she begins her song by singing: ‘You can beat the heat if you beat the charges too.
‘They said I was a cheat, I guess it must be true / And my friends all smell like weed or little babies / And this city reeks of driving myself crazy.’
9. Guilty As Sin?
A tale of unrequited love, and a superb slice of 1980s-style soft rock. It even mentions The Downtown Lights, a 1989 single by Scottish band The Blue Nile.
She begins the track with her feelings on being ‘trapped’ in a relationship, singing: ‘My boredom’s bone-deep, this cage was once just fine / Am I allowed to cry?
‘I dream of cracking locks, throwing my life to the wolves or the ocean rocks.’
She hints at an emotional affair providing her release, singing: ‘These fatal fantasies giving way to labored breath taking all of me we’ve already done it in my head.
‘If it’s make-believe why does it feel like a vow we’ll both uphold somehow?”’
10. Who’s Afraid Of Little Old Me?
Big drums, a dramatic arrangement, and more dry humour in another song penned solely by Taylor. ‘You wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum where they raised me,’ she snarls.
It’s reminiscent of her hit single Look What You Made Me Do and the villain arc is prominent in her lyrics.
She sings: ‘I was tame, I was gentle till the circus life made me mean /Don’t you worry folks, we took out all her teeth
‘Who’s afraid of little old me? Well you should be.’
This is her first new album since the end of her six-year relationship with British actor Joe Alwyn and, while she doesn’t mention Alwyn by name, speculation will be rife that tracks such as So Long, London are about him. Pictured together in 2019
Taylor Swift and Matty Healy seen leaving The Electric Lady studio in Manhattan on May 16, 2023
11. I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)
A moody, stripped-down number worthy of Lana Del Rey, who has also worked extensively with the song’s producer, Jack Antonoff.
She appears to be referring to chain smoking, booze loving Matty, as she sings: ‘The smoke cloud billows out his mouth like a freight train through a small town / The jokes that he told across the bar were revolting and far too loud.’
Fans had expressed their concerns when Taylor started dating The 1975 bad boy rocker and it seems her friends had the same reservations.
Taylor sings: ‘They shake their heads, saying, “God help her” when I tell ‘em he’s my man / But your good Lord doesn’t need to lift a finger / I can fix him, no really I can / And only I can.’
12. loml
‘You said I’m the love of your life,’ sings Taylor on this warm, resonant piano ballad. In a smart twist, the ‘loml’ ultimately becomes ‘the loss of my life’.
She describes being love-bombed by an old flame, seemingly referring to Matty given their past experience.
Others have suggested the intensity of the lyrics suggest it relates to her longterm relationship with Joe.
She sings: ‘I felt a glow like this, never before and never since /If you know it in one glimpse it’s legendary.
‘You and I go from one kiss to getting married / Still alive, killing time at the cemetery / Never quite buried.’
13. I Can Do It With A Broken Heart
More 1980s influences on an electronic pop track that sees Taylor vowing to remain a trouper, despite any romantic strife.
She sings about putting on a brave face while her relationships publicly fall apart, noting: ‘They said, “Babe, you gotta fake it till you make it,” and I did.
‘Lights, camera, b***h, smile / Even when you wanna die / He said he’d love me all his life / But that life was too short / Breaking down, I hit the floor / All the pieces of me shattered as the crowd was chanting more.’
Taylor has previously admitted she struggled with her love live playing out so publicly and the narrative that she’d had more boyfriends than other women.
14. The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived
‘You didn’t measure up in any measure of a man,’ sings a disdainful Taylor on a melodramatic ballad.
The title is noteworthy, given that Matty’s stature is an object of some debate. The singer previously disclosed: ‘Everyone in [the 1975] is 6’4” and I’m 5’10”, so everyone thinks that I’m 5’5”.’
More recently, he addressed these short man allegations by telling a fan that he was ‘sick to f***ing death of this’, insisting that he is ‘a big boy.’
She sings: ‘And I don’t miss what we had / But could someone give a message / To the smallest man who ever lived?’
15. The Alchemy
Not all the songs are about heartbreak, as sporting metaphors aplenty suggest a track inspired by the singer’s current boyfriend, American football star Travis Kelce.
‘When I touch down, call the amateurs and cut them from the team,’ she sings.
Speaking about the upcoming release back in February, when he was building up to the Super Bowl in Las Vegas, Kelce said he had heard some of the songs on Taylor’s latest release.
‘I have heard some of it and yes, it’s unbelievable,’ he said to reporters. ‘I can’t wait for her to shake up the world when it finally drops.’
16. Clara Bow
It’s tempting to think Taylor sees something of herself in a closing track inspired by Clara an American actress of the 1920s who lived her life in the Hollywood goldfish bowl.
She goes on to reference Stevie Nicks as she details struggling with the trappings of fame.
Taylor sings: ‘I’m not trying to exaggеrate / But I think I might die if I made it, die if I made it / No one in my small town thought I’d meet these suits in LA / They all want to say.’
The Alchemy: Sporting metaphors aplenty suggest a track inspired by the singer’s current boyfriend, American football star Travis Kelce. Pictured at Coachella this week
Bonus tracks on The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology17. The Black Dog
The Black Dog is also a reference to depression and lack of energy based on a demonic hellhound acting as an omen of death in English folklore and literature.
As well as the eerie lyrical meaning to the title, The Black Dog is a bar in Vauxhall, London – her ex Matt’s city of birth and just a stone’s throw away from Joe’s hometown of Royal Tunbridge Wells in Kent.
In the song, she belts out: ‘I am someone who until recent events you shared your secrets with and your location / you forgot to turn it off / And so I watch as you walk into some bar called The Black Dog…
‘I just don’t understand how you don’t miss me in The Black Dog when someone plays The Starting Line and you jump up, but she’s too young to know this song that was intertwined in the magic fabric of our dreaming.’
18. Imgonnagetyouback
Taylor is torn between calling things off for good or rekindling with an ex in imgonnagetyouback.
Emotions are clearly running high as she sings: ‘Whether Im gonna be your wife / Or smash up your bike / I haven’t decided yet’.
She appears to reference her new romance with Travis as the song goes on, sharing: ‘I can feel it coming / In the way you move / Push the reset button /We’re becoming something new.
‘See you got somebody else / Say I got someone else too / Even if it’s him, I’m leaving here with you.’
19. The Albatross
It seems London watering holes are a theme of the album, with The Black Dog and The Bolter joining The Albatross as apparent references to venues.
The Albatross Club is a pub in Farringdon, London but also has particularly eerie significance in its meaning as a word alone.
Albatross is defined in the Britannica Dictionary as: ‘A continuing problem that makes it difficult or impossible to do or achieve something. Fame has become an albatross that prevents her from leading a normal and happy life.’
Additionally, an albatross is a large white ocean bird that has very long and often black wings – which many likened to her outfit from the Grammys.
Taylor is taking no prisoners in this track, referring to herself as one of the largest seabirds on Earth – famed for their giant wingspan and ability to glide seamlessly.
She sings about taking revenge with the lyrics: ‘She is here to destroy you/ Devils that you know / Raise worse hell than a stranger’.
20. Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus
Taylor tells the story of a rocky relationship in which their partner betrays them and focuses on drugs more than her.
She hints at infidelity on their part by singing: ‘Your hologram stumbled into my apartment / Hands in the hair of somebody in darkness.
‘Named Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus / And I just watched it happen / As the decade would play us for fools.’
Taylor goes on to reference, singing: ‘You said some things that I can’t unabsorb / You turned me into an idea of sorts / You needed me, but you needed drugs more / And I couldn’t watch it happen.’
Taylor reignited her explosive feud with Kim Kardashian by releasing a diss track aimed at the reality star (pictured with Kim in 2015)
Taylor also seems to reference Kim’s 10-year-old daughter North West dancing to Shake It Off on TikTok back in January, she writes:# your kid comes home singin’ a song that only us two is gonna know is about you’
21. How Did It End?
Taylor appears to reference the speculation over her relationship with Joe as she details in the chorus:
‘Come one come all It’s happ’nin’ again / The empathetic hunger descends We’ll tell no-one / ‘Cept all of our friends / We must know How did it end?’
Accusing people of conducting their own ‘post-mortem’s’ in the opening sentence, Taylor also accuses people of being smug: ‘Soon they’ll go home to their husbands / ’cause they know they can trust him / Then feverishly calling their cousins.’
She later admits that while everyone is questioning, ‘How did it end?’ she doesn’t know herself: ‘But I still don’t know, how did it end?’
22. So High School
While many tracks are bold aims at her exes Matt and Joe, happiness does reign in her track So High School where she discusses current boyfriend Travis.
She sings: ‘You know how to ball, I know Aristotle, brand new, full throttle // Touch me while your bros play Grand Theft Auto // It’s true, swear, scouts honor // You knew what you wanted, and, boy, you got her.’
Taylor the directly references a resurfaced video in which Travis was asked who marry, kiss or kill between Ariana Grande, Katy Perry and Taylor.
She sings: ‘Are you gonna marry, kiss or kill me? Kill me. It’s just a game, but really, really, I’m betting on all three for us two.
23. I Hate It Here
Taylor relies in escapism to distract herself from the issues plaguing her real life, describing herself as going to ‘secret gardens in my mind’.
She appears to be dealing with the fallout of being lied to, singing: Tell me something awful like you are a poet / Trapped inside the body of a finance guy
‘Tell me all your secrets / All you’ll ever be is / My eternal consolation prize.’
She appears to be between relationships, musing: ‘I’m lonely, but I’m good /I’m bitter, but I swear I’m fine.’
24. thanK you aIMee
Fans are convinced the 24th track – thanK you aIMee – is aimed at Kim Kardashian, as the letters K,I and M are capped up to spell out her name.
Taylor sings in one line: ‘There’s a bronze spray-tanned statue of you and a plaque underneath it/That threatens to push me down the stairs, at our school.’
‘All that time you were throwin’ punches, I was buildin’ somethin’ / And I can’t forgive the way you made me feel / Screamed ‘F**k you, Aimee’ to the night sky, as the blood was gushin’ / But I can’t forget the way you made me heal.’
She goes on to add: ‘And it wasn’t a fair fight, or a clean kill / Each time that Aimee stomped across my gravе / And then she wrote hеadlines/ In the local paper, laughing at each baby step I’d take.’
Taylor concludes by confirming she’s changed the name of the woman she’s singing about – further fuelling speculation the track is about Kim.
She also seems to reference Kim’s 10-year-old daughter North West dancing to her 2014 single Shake It Off on TikTok, finding it ironic as the ‘song is about you’.
She sings: ‘And so I changed your name, and any real defining clues/And one day, your kid comes home singin’ a song that only us two is gonna know is about you.’
25. I Look in People’s Windows
While she may have the ultimate girl squad around her, Taylor admits she can’t help but feel lonely when chasing a man.
She sings: ‘I look in people’s windows / Transfixed by rose golden glows / They have their friends over to drink nice wine.
‘I look in people’s windows / In case you’re at their table / What if your eyes looked up and met mine / One more time.’
26. The Prophecy
Taylor seems to be pained by the thought of trying to find an intimate love when her life is so public.
The singer – who found fame as a teenager – reveals that being in the spotlight and adored by millions of fans can’t measure up to being loved by a partner.
She shares: ‘Please / Change the prophecy / Let it once be me / Who do I have to speak to / About if they can redo the prophecy?’
Taylor has previously revealed how fame changed her life for the worst, explaining: ‘It’s a social situation every time I go out.
‘I just have to wake up in the morning and say, “How am I feeling today? If someone asks for a picture, am I gonna feel imposed upon today because I’m dealing with my own stuff? Am I gonna take my own stuff out on some innocent 14-year-old today and be in a bad mood?”
‘OK, maybe not … Maybe I won’t leave the house.’
27. Cassandra
thanK you aIMee might not be the only song issuing shots at Kim Kardashians, with Cassandra also seeming to be filled with veiled digs.
Greek god Cassandra, ‘entangled men’ and was punished with a curse where no one would believe what she had to say.
In her chorus, Taylor sings: ‘When the first stone’s thrown, they’re screaming /In the streets, there’s a raging riot / When it’s “Burn the b***h”, they’re shrieking / When the truth comes out, it’s quiet.’
This could be in reference to Kim sparking a social media firestorm when she shared a Snapchat video of then-husband Kanye West during a phone call with Taylor, where she seemingly gave the rapper to include lyrics about her in his new song.
While Taylor insisted that she hadn’t consented to Kanye labelled her a ‘b***h’ in his track, many accused her of being a snake.
Kardashian fans and Swifties went to war with one another by posting snake emojis.
Taylor references snakes in her song, sharing: ‘So, they killed Cassandra first ‘cause she feared the worst / And tried to tell the town / So, they filled my cell with snakes, I regret to say / Do you believe me now?’
28. Peter
Taylor reflects on her childhood and pleads for forgiveness as she reflects on losing a past love.
It could be in reference to Matty, who she was first linked to in 2014, and their subsequent breakup as she sings: ‘Said you were gonna grow up /Then you were gonna come find me.
‘Words from the mouths of babes / Promises oceans deep / But never to keep / Never to keep.’
It could also be a follow up to her song Cardigan, where she sang: ‘Tried to change the ending / Peter losing Wendy’.
Taylor reflects on her childhood and pleads for forgiveness as she reflects on losing a past love (pictured in 2008)
29. The Bolter
Fans have made many interpretations of The Bolter – with links to a London pub in the form of Mansion House’s bar of the same name while also alluding to a suitor running into the night – something fans insisted was about Joe.
Some Twitter users claimed the location is where the former couple enjoyed their first date – yet the claims were quickly disputed by devoted followers.
The initial claim came from a fan writing: ‘The Bolter is a bar in London where Taylor and Joe went on their first outing?!?!???? I’m done, BYE’.
Others followed up writing: ‘***Apparently that’s not the bar they were publicly first seen together!!!!*** But there is indeed this bar in London which is crazy anyway… guys it’s not real, it was different place’.
She sings: ‘Started with a kiss / “Oh, we must stop meeting like this” / But it always ends with a town car speeding / Out the drive one evenin’ / Ended with the slam of a door / But she’s got the best stories // You can be sure…
‘All her f**kin’ lives / Flashed before her eyes / And she realized / It feels like the time / She fell through the ice / Then came out alive’.
30. Robin
Her penultimate track is also reflective of her youth as she reflects on how innocence is ripped away with age.
She sings: ‘You get the dragonflies above your bed /You have a favorite spot on the swing set / You have no room in your dreams for regret
‘You have no idea / The time will arrive for the cruel and the mean / You’ll learn to bounce back just like your trampoline.’
Despite this there’s an element of hope involved as she sings: ‘But now we’ll curtail your curiosity / In sweetness / Way to go, tiger / Way to go, tiger /Higher and higher / Higher and higher / Wilder and lighter.’
31. The Manuscript
The only bonus track on the first physical versions of Taylor’s album seems to be a follow up to All Too Well – her song about Jake Gyllenhaal.
She reflects on a past romance as she sings: ‘Now and then she rereads the manuscript / Of the entire torrid affair /He said that if the 𝑠e𝑥 was half as good as the conversation was / Soon they’d be pushin’ strollers / But soon it was over.’
In a nod to All Too Well (10 Minute Version) and its music video directly, Taylor continues: ‘The Professor said to write what you know / Lookin’ backwards might be the only way to move forward / Then the actors / Were hitting their marks.’
The Bad Blood songstress, 34 – who recently teased a ‘timetable’ to her fans ahead of the LP’s release – initially announced the album while attending the 2024 Grammys in February