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Taylor Swift fans go into a frenzy over The Tortured Poets Department (Image: Taylor Swift)
Taylor Swift has been ripping into her ex-boyfriends in new album ‘The Tortured Poets Department’.
In her highly anticipated 11th studio album, which was released today, the 34-year-old calls out a heartbreaker who was romantically involved with her for only two weeks yet managed to turn her into a “functioning alcoholic” post their split.
Some lyrics directly target an individual donned in a “Jehovah’s Witness suit” and credited with ruining a “sparkling summer”.
Fans have quickly speculated that she could be referring to Matty Healy, the lead singer of ‘The 1975’ with whom she had a brief love affair.
The duo, who initially sparked dating rumors back in 2014, rekindled their relationship last year for less than a month before parting ways in early June.
In the track ‘Fortnight’, Swift sings: “I love you, it’s ruining my life / I touched you for only a fortnight.”
Matty, 35, could potentially become the subject of another song, ‘The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived’, where Taylor refers to her “starry-eyed” lover in a Jehovah’s Witness suit who “rusted a sparkling summer” by “ghosting” her after their fleeting romance: “You hung me on your wall, stabbed me with your push pins / In public showed me off, then sank in stoned oblivion.”
Read more: Taylor Swift finally announces first single from TTPD and a special guest star
Taylor Swift and Matty Healy seen leaving ‘The Electric Lady’ studio in Manhattan on May 16, 2023 in New York City (Image: GC Images)
“You told Lucy you’d kill yourself if I ever leave,” she croons in the titled track Tortured Poets Department. Hardcore fans of Taylor, famously known as Swifties, believe this line refers to her friend Lucy Dacus.
The romance was undoubtedly intense, characterized by lyrics such as those referring to Taylor and a boyfriend contemplating suicide upon their split, reports the Mirror.
Continuing the song, Taylor apparently alludes to her co-songwriter and good friend Jack Antonoff: “But I had said that to Jack about you, so I felt seen.”
As the music melodramatically swells during a heart-wrenching breakup in Down Bad, Taylor exclaims, albeit with profanities: “I might just die, it would make no difference.”
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In addition, she articulates the agony of maintaining a cheerful persona for her tour events in I Can Do It With A Broken Heart: “All the pieces of me shattered as the crowd was chanting more,” she belts over intentionally discordant, cheery 80s-style synthpop.
Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce at the Super Bowl (Image: Getty Images)
Surprisingly, some of her most ardent fans seem to bear the brunt of her fiercest lyrics, particularly when she criticizes “vipers dressed in empath’s clothing” in But Daddy I Love Him.
Taylor vents her frustration over the perceived concern for her well-being while dating a notorious “wild boy”a figure Swifties speculate references the online controversy surrounding her past relationship with Matty, though Taylor stops short of naming him in her lyrics.
“God save the most judgemental creeps who say they want what’s best for me,” she asserts with defiance. “Sanctimoniously performing soliloquies I’ll never see / Thinking it can change the beat of my heart when he touches me / And counteract the chemistry.”
In a twist of self-satire within the song I Can Fix Him (No, Really, I Can), she humorously acknowledges her choice to date a man known for his “revolting” humor, quipping: “Your good lord doesn’t need to lift a finger, I can fix him no really I can,” before conceding: “Oh, maybe I can’t.”
Taylor’s new album has launched (Image: Getty Images for TAS Rights Management)
Although Taylor Swift’s fans have sometimes misinterpreted her intentions, many believed that her latest album primarily targets actor Joe Alwyn, her ex-partner of six years.
With lines such as “I’m pissed off you let me give you all that youth for free” found in her song ‘So Long, London,’ the assumption is that it signifies a bitter ending to their relationship.
It seems she once envisioned marriage with him as portrayed by lyrics like “You swore that you loved me, but where were the clues? I died on the altar waiting for the proof.”
Alwyn, 33, previously collaborated on her ‘Midnights’ album, reportedly earning him £2million.
Despite this, Swift appears more distraught over leaving London, pointing fingers at his “bluest days” for the split and expressing resentment through lyrics: “I’m just mad as hell ’cause I loved this place.”
Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn arrive at Zuma on October 06, 2019 in New York (Image: GC Images)
However, not everyone shares the brunt of her lyrical fury: her current beau, Superbowl winner Travis Kelce, 34, seems to be let off the hook – even serenaded in ‘The Alchemy. ‘
The song seemingly makes insinuations about the American footballer’s “touchdowns”, after Swift gained media attention for simply cheering from the stands.
Swift’s lyrics often delve into the realm of fantasy, as seen in “Guilty As Sin” where she imagines a relationship that may not be real, and her claim of being raised in an asylum in “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?”
Despite these imaginative narratives, her work is meticulously analyzed by her vast fanbase. With 310 million albums sold worldwide, it’s safe to say she’s a seasoned professional who enjoys leaving cryptic hints for her fans.
Swift, known for her meticulous attention to detail, would have undoubtedly been disappointed when her album leaked online a day before its release, disrupting a carefully planned operation.