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.
