Some of the world’s most famous songwriters have used their real-life love traumas as inspiration for their biggest hits – and Taylor Swift is proving she’s no exception with her 11th studio album, which dropped late Thursday.
The Tortured Poets Department, has made her recent romances with British men – including ‘London boy’ ex Joe Alywn and 1975 star Matty Healy – her latest muses, inspiring some of the new release’s more barbed lyrics.
Currently happily stepping out with Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce, it’s clear the 34-year-old singer had plenty to get off her chest, with tracks including ‘So long, London’ and ‘Fortnight’ apparently about painful memories of love lost.
Her penchant for dating Brits saw her briefly romance Harry Styles in 2012 and Tom Hiddleston in 2016, followed by a 15-month affair with Scot Calvin Harris, six years dating actor Joe Alywn – and a doomed dalliance with Matty Healy this time last year.
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 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 Bad Blood songstress, 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.
Fans rushed to stream the 16-track album when it was released to platforms on Thursday night, keen to find not-so-hidden details of Swift’s lost loves weaved amongst the lyrics.
And they didn’t have to listen for very long to find them. Here, FEMAIL looks at how British boys have served up some of the biggest heartbreaks for the global star…
JOE ALYWN: IS TTPD THEIR BREAK-UP ALBUM?
Many fans have predicted that The Tortured Poets Department album would be the ultimate Joe/Taylor ‘breakup album’, it’s long been speculated the name was a direct dig at the British actor, whom she dated from 2016 to early 2023.
And sure enough, there seems to be plenty of hints at their relationship on TTPD.
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.
Write about what you know, right? 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
The track So long, London features on Swift’s latest release and appears to document how her long-term relationship with the British actor could not be saved; the couple pictured in 2020
The album’s third track ‘My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys’ includes a lyric that could be about Joe, as Swifties have long accused him of shying away from the spotlight and forcing the star 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.
In the fourth track, ‘Down Bad’, 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’.
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
Perhaps the most transparent riposte to her time with Alywn comes via ‘So long, London’. The raw track details Swift’s heartache as she realises that her relationship with the British actor is over.
The song is 9 minutes and 28 seconds in length and Joe and Taylor were first confirmed to be dating on September 28, 2016.
Swift write: ‘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.
MATT HEALY: THE REBOUND ROMANCE TURNED BARBED MUSE
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
In May 2023, firmly on the rebound from Alywn, 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.
The first TTPD track, ‘Fortnight’, is the album’s lead single and features 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
‘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
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)
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.
And the track with the same name as the album, also seems to have a veiled attack at Healy’s love of old fashioned type writers. The song 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.
MORE BRITS WHO (TEMPORARILY) STOLE SWIFT’S HEART
CALVIN HARRIS: SCOTTISH DJ SNIPED OVER SONG CREDIT AFTER SPLIT
Calvin Harris dated Swift for 15 months but their love affair was tarnished by his public outburst on X about the star after their split
They dated for 16 months but Taylor Swift is unlikely to remember their love affair fondly, after less-than-friendly exchanges following their split.
When the couple parted in June 2016, Harris caused a stir after ranting about his ex-love on X.
Calvin had launched into a tirade about his ex-girlfriend, after she confirmed she wrote his hit track This Is What You Came For, which saw him collaborate with Rihanna.
The Scottish DJ admitted he had ‘snapped’ at Taylor because he felt she had been ‘belittling’ his talent and claimed he had been ‘protecting’ himself.
He told GQ in 2017: ‘I was protecting what I see as my one talent in the world being belittled. It felt like things were piling on top of me and that was when I snapped.’
TOM HIDDLESTON: ‘TAYLOR IS AN AMAZING WOMAN’
Former flame: Taylor and Tom had dated for three months from June to September 2016, as they are pictured in Suffolk back in June
Dashing Tom Hiddleston dated Taylor for three months in 2016, when the British actor was at the height of his fame thanks to hit show The Night Manager.
And it seemed this was one relationship that didn’t cause too much heartbreak when they parted ways.
‘Taylor is an amazing woman,’ Tom said afterwards. ‘She’s generous and kind and lovely, and we had the best time.’
He also nixed speculation the relationship was a stunt purely designed for publicity, insisting: ‘Of course it was real.’
He claims they were both seeking a normal relationship, adding: ‘So we decided to go out for dinner, we decided to travel… She’s incredible. [But] a relationship in the limelight… A relationship always takes work. And it’s not just the limelight. It’s everything else.’
HARRY STYLES: DID BRITISH IDOL INSPIRE A QUARTET OF SONGS?
Styles was spotted out and about with singer Taylor Swift in late 2012 and early 2013 before the pair called time on their romance just days after ringing in the new year (pictured December 2022 in New York). It’s thought their time together inspired four Taylor Swift tracks
Between 2012 and 2013, Styles and singer Taylor Swift had a three-month fling before the pair were reported to have split shortly after the new year following an ‘almighty row’.
Little more than a week after a very public display of affection on New Year’s Eve as the clock struck midnight to kick off 2013, a source confirmed to MailOnline that Styles and Swift had parted ways.
The source said: ‘Yes, I can confirm they have split up. They were on holiday and had an almighty row. They are two young stars at the top of their game, so who knows what will happen in the future.’
Swift, who is known to write songs about past relationships, is thought to have penned at least three songs about Styles – I Knew You Were Trouble, Style and Out Of The Woods.
In 2015, the singer revealed her whirlwind romance with Styles had been an experience filled with anxiety.
During a performance at the Grammy Museum, she introduced Out Of The Woods by telling the audience about an anxiety-inducing relationship – although she didn’t mention Styles by name.
‘I’m going to play you a song that I wrote about a relationship that I was in that the number one feeling I felt in the whole relationship was anxiety,’ she explained as she sat at her piano.
‘Because it felt very fragile, it felt very tentative. And it always felt like, “Okay, what’s the next road block? What’s the next thing that’s gonna deter this? How long do we have before this turns into just an awful mess and we break up? Is it a month? Is it three days?”‘
Last year, Swift got fans talking again about her romance with Harry after she branded an unnamed ex-boyfriend a ‘lying traitor’ in a new song.
On the new version of her fifth album 1989, which took her career to new heights when it came out in 2014, a track called Is It Over Now, sees the star hit out at a former partner for being a ‘lying traitor’ and sleeping with a series of models after they broke up.
THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT: TRACK-BY-TRACK
Fortnight
A tuneful duet with Post Malone and a song seemingly about a two-week fling. The slow, electronic rhythms set the early tone.
The Tortured Poets Department
Another shimmering melody, and lyrics 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.’
My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys
Written solely by Swift, this song’s dense electronic hum adds forceful notes. ‘Once I fix me, he’s gonna miss me,’ she vows.
Down Bad
‘Everything comes out teenage petulance,’ sings Taylor as she bitterly surveys the fallout from an old relationship.
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.
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
But Daddy I Love Him
‘I know he’s crazy, but he’s the one I want,’ sings Swift, showing wry humour as she admits to falling for the bad boys. Produced, with real brightness, by Dessner.
Fresh Out The Slammer
Finger-picked acoustic guitar adds folky notes reminiscent of lockdown albums Folklore and Evermore.
Florida!!!
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.
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.
Who’s Afraid Of Little Old Me?
Big drums, a dramatic arrangement, and more dry humour in another song penned solely by Swift. ‘You wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum where they raised me,’ she snarls.
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.
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
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’.
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.
The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived
‘You didn’t measure up in any measure of a man,’ sings a disdainful Swift on a melodramatic ballad.
The Alchemy
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.
Clara Bow
It’s tempting to think Taylor sees something of herself in a closing track inspired by an American actress of the 1920s who lived her life in the Hollywood goldfish bowl.
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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.
