When Taylor Swift announced her new album called The Tortured Poets Department at the 2024 Grammys—just after she won the award for Best Pop Vocal Album for Midnights—the world was quick to begin speculating. In the midst of the worldwide Eras Tour, questions around what the new album would be about, and what its tracks would mean, swirled fast.
Many of her fans naturally assumed it would be a breakup album, replete with referential tracks and metaphoric mentions to her ex-partner of six years, British actor Joe Alwyn. Alwyn once stated in an interview that he had a texting group chat with fellow actors Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott called the “Tortured Man Club”, which many fans instantly drew parallels to with Swift’s album name. Many also assumed there would be a couple love songs thrown in about her current boyfriend, Travis Kelce. But it turns out there’s a lot more than that packed into the newly released album.
One such other topic being her short-lived but intense relationship with The 1975 lead man, Matty Healy. With an array of songs that seem to distinctly point to her time spent with the fellow singer, it’s safe to say that the relationship was a singularly wealthy source of inspiration for the new album. After all, “all’s fair in love and poetry.”
Of course there were plenty of tracks that do indeed allude to her time with Alwyn, and a couple of sweet, melodic love songs clearly signalling Kelce. But other prominent songs spoke of mental health struggles and the harsh spotlight that comes with fame; iconic famed actresses from the past, and odes to cities, Greek Myths and old foes; and the general chaos of the relationship you have not just with others, but yourself. A testament that for Swift, creativity comes from so many different sources.
Two hours after the release, Swift surprised fans—as she so often loves to do—by releasing a second instalment of the album, The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology, which contains 15 extra tracks. “I’d written so much tortured poetry in the past 2 years and wanted to share it all with you,” Swift wrote on Instagram announcing the double album. “And now the story isn’t mine anymore… it’s all yours.”
Ahead, all the hidden meanings you might’ve missed from the tracks of “The Tortured Poets Department”.
1 / 9
'Fortnight (feat. Post Malone)'
The opening track of The Tortured Poets Department not only features lyrical assistance from rapper and singer Post Malone, it’s the first song off the album to receive the music video treatment. A fitting first song, “Fortnight” is abstract, creative and hauntingly beautiful in a “pop meets alt-indie” way, an indicative precursor for the rest of the album. As for its hidden meaning, there’s plenty to unpack.
While fans have speculated that the song references Alwyn and Healy in different ways, the lyrics are largely fictional, referring to two married neighbours who have an affair over the course of a fortnight. Yet, the themes certainly set the tone for the real life experiences Swift recalls in the rest of the album. Her reference to the man fleeing to Florida also sets up the same-named track later in the album.
“I love you, it’s ruining my life” is the recurrent line—the title of the Apple Music playlist about the first stage of grief, denial, that the singer created in the lead up to the album—telling a poignant story of how much damage a whirlwind, two-week affair can do to your head, and your heart.
2 / 9
'The Tortured Poets Department'
The titular track, “The Tortured Poets Department” seems to most heavily reference her relationship with Healy, tracing its lifespan and the emotions it invited. From references to Healy’s love of typewriters, tattoos and “Lucy”, speculated to be Healy’s old friend Lucy Dacus from Boygenuis, fans feel its all very Healy-coded.
“You’re not Dylan Thomas, I’m not Patti Smith / This ain’t the Chelsea Hotel, we’re modern idiots,” also seems to be comparing the creative icons—Dylan Thomas was a Welsh poet, Patti Smith is an American singer—to the pair. The song in general speaks to being in a doomed yet deep relationship filled with emotional turbulence and heartbreak. And who would understand that better than two “tortured”, poetic artists?
3 / 9
'So Long, London'
When the album’s track list was first released, it didn’t take fans long to take to social media, concluding that the song “So Long, London” would be a direct response to her song “London Boy” from her Lover album, which spoke of her falling in love with the British city and her then-boyfriend, Joe Alwyn.
There’s long been a lore, confirmed by Swift herself, that the fifth track on her albums are emotionally vulnerable pieces. This heart-wrenching track five says a sorrowful goodbye to her relationship with Alwyn and to London, detailing how hard she tried to make it work and the sacrifices that were made in doing so. (“You swore that you loved, me but where were the clues? / I died on the altar waiting for the proof.”) All seemingly tying in with her Midnights vault track “You’re Losing Me”. “So long, London / Had a good run / A moment of warm sun / But I’m not the one…You’ll find someone.” Emotionally devastating indeed.
4 / 9
'But Daddy I Love Him'
Swift has grown up in the public eye since releasing her first album in 2006. While the title of track number six, “But Daddy I Love Him”, seems to allude to a relationship (not to mention, referencing The Little Mermaid, which was also released in 1989, her birth year), there are also statements about those who’ve torn her down when she expresses herself, and based on who she chooses to date. “I just learned these people try and save you, ’cause they hate you,” she says in one lyric, while in another, she jokes about the possibility of a pregnancy; “No, I’m not, but you should see your faces.”
“But Daddy I Love Him” contains some lyrical parallels to “Nothing New”, a song originally recorded for Swift’s 2012 album Red. In it, she touches on the ownership certain people feel over celebrities, especially as they mature from adolescence to adulthood. 12 years on, Swift’s musings on the song, and The Tortured Poets Department at large, reflect emancipation and living on her own terms, no matter what the public thinks.
5 / 9
'Fresh Out The Slammer'
If any Swiftie fans were still puzzled over Swift’s relationship with Healy after her breakup with Alwyn, the track “Fresh Out The Slammer” appears to solve the mystery. Healy and Swift first dated briefly back in 2015, with many fans believing their relationship to be on-and-off over the past decade, and it being this long history that led to their most recent rekindling. “Now pretty baby, I’m running back home to you / Fresh out the slammer I know who my first call will be to,” seems to not only refer to how Swift felt emotionally towards the end of her previous relationship, but that she was wanting to move on with this old lover—to the point were, according to the song, rings were even imagined.
Alluding to both what drew her to her former flame, and the emotions that come after a breakup in general, the track references a partner who never really understood her compared to someone who felt like a kindred spirit. Of course, as her other tracks detail, it was not quite the new happy ending that Swift might have first thought it to be.
6 / 9
'Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?'
With fans as eager for the release of Reputation: Taylor’s Version as they were for this new album, this track ties into that era nicely. “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” is a meditation on her reputation, her critics, and becoming hardened in the public eye. Lyrics like, “If you wanted me dead, you should’ve just said / Nothing makes me feel more alive,” and “So I leap from the gallows and I levitate down your street / Crash the party like a record scratch as I scream / ‘Who’s afraid of little old me?’ / You should be,” certainly hit all the revengeful era markers.
Fans were also quick to notice that the track’s title has a striking similarity to the screenplay, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, which follows the emotional warfare between a couple whose marriage is crumbling…need we say more? The 1966 film version also stars Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, the famous couple Swift references in her Reputation song “…Ready for It?”. In Swift’s world, there are no coincidences.
7 / 9
'I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)'
It’s a relationship fantasy that many a person has had. Dating the “bad boy” and clutching onto the naive belief that you can “fix them” of their bad boy ways—including, apparently, Swift. In this plea-filled song, Swift attempts to convince people—family, fans, maybe even herself?—to accept a relationship that they disapprove of, based on the fact she believes she can make her partner better. “They shake their heads sayin’, “God, help her” / When I tell ’em he’s my man”.
Swifties are making links to her time with Healy yet again in this track. Many fans expressed concerns when Swift began dating Healy, given his track record of making problematic comments on topics such as race, queerness and women, including some about Swift’s now friend and collaborator, Ice Spice.
By the end of the song, Swift appears to have learnt the hard way that you can’t always change people, and her admiration for her troubled man is ultimately eclipsed. After a number of iterations of, “I can fix him, no, really, I can”, the song ends with the bitter realisation, “Woah, maybe I can’t”.
8 / 9
'I Can Do It With A Broken Heart'
In between the lines of this fun, bright pop track reads a much sadder meaning, à la “Karma” style. “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” overtly alludes to Swift having to perform during the Eras Tour while struggling with her mental health and recent heartbreak. Along with audio samples of the metronome and countdown directions the singer receives in her in-ear piece while performing, there’s tell-all lyrics like, “I’m so depressed, I act like it’s my birthday every day,” and “I cry a lot but I am so productive, it’s an art.” Swift seems to be commenting on her ability to turn the cruel test of heartbreak into inspiration, and finding the strength to push through and succeed. As Swift sings, “You know you’re good when you can do it even with a broken heart.”
9 / 9
'The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived'
Swift certainly didn’t hold back from her scathing review of an ex in “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived”, and fans are casting their bets on who. Hints to it being about The 1975 singer range from Swift referring to her ex as a performer, to the line “Gazing at me, starry-eyed / In your Jehovah’s Witness suit”—Healy’s go-to onstage outfit has long been a close-cut suit and tie, and mentions of a sparkling summer, which was when the fling took place. Overall, the song is a no-holding back criticism of her ex’s petulance and how she ultimately felt taken advantage of. Whoever it’s about, they’re sure to be losing some sleep tonight.
This story originally appeared on Vogue Australia.
