2024: The Year of Goodbyes (It’s quite fitting that all the numbers are divisible by two, unlike the odd first digits of wedding monetary gifts). If March had us crying rivers over Ariana Grande’s “eternal sunshine”, then late April—the season of Taurus—promises a new wave of tears under the rain with Taylor Swift’s latest poetic anthology: The Tortured Poets Department (TTPD).
Through The Tortured Poets Department, Taylor Swift reminisces about her past lovers: honoring the “White Moonlight” Joe Alwyn, bidding farewell to the once-loved Matty Healy, and expressing gratitude to her current partner, Travis Kelce.
The Tortured Poets Department Album Cover – Anthology Edition
“You’re Losing Me” serves as the “bridge” connecting Taylor Swift’s two latest eras: the Midnights era, which earned her the prestigious Album of the Year award, and the “The Tortured Poets Department” era, delivering 31 tracks to entertain her fans. Coincidentally (or perhaps orchestrated by the mastermind herself), its release aligns perfectly with Mercury retrograde, inviting her 57.6 million YouTube followers to listen and reflect on their own ex-lovers.
Accidentally, as I pieced together this image, the color grading told its own story: darker on Joe, dimmer on Matty, and radiant on Travis—reflecting the state of each relationship.
However, listeners might be disappointed if they expect masterpieces like You’re Losing Me or All Too Well. The sound of TTPD leans heavily toward lyrics rather than melody, making it a niche listen. In many ways, it feels like the third sibling to the Folklore-Evermore duo, captivating from the very first track: Fortnight (featuring Post Malone).
If Gen Z keeps diaries on Threads, Taylor pens hers in music. It’s her way of self-healing, shaping her emotions, thoughts, and feelings into tangible art. Take So Long, London, where she scolds Joe Alwyn for wasting her youth and making hollow promises of love while she waited endlessly at the altar. Or The Manuscript, where she dreams of pushing a baby stroller alone. Her music transforms personal wounds into something universal, drawing listeners into her world.
The end of Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn’s “too private” love story. Their breakup left Swift heartbroken and her audience stunned.
People often whisper about the 7-year itch, the phenomenon where one partner feels the urge to leave a relationship after seven years. But Taylor and Joe didn’t even make it that far, parting ways in their sixth year, as fans were still humming the lyrics of Lavender Haze: “The only kind of girl they see (only kind of girl they see). Is a one-night or a wife.” Thus, Midnights became a breakup album, while TTPD turned into a reflective piece on the three most recent men in her life.
Because Taylor, like many of us, exists in the gray area between those two extremes—a woman who is neither just a one-night stand nor solely defined by being a wife.
Though a billionaire, Swift is not immune to longing, even praying to some higher power to overturn the so-called prophecy that billionaires are destined for loveless marriages. Rich people need love too, yet countless millionaires and billionaires find themselves drying tears with money and hiring lawyers to mediate their heartbreaks.
For Joe, consoling Taylor during the Kim-Kanye drama wasn’t enough. Being there for her in tough times is necessary but not sufficient for a lifelong partnership—especially when Joe, consumed by his shaky acting career, failed to put a ring on her finger after all these years.
Psychologist Dr. Patrick Wanis insightfully wrote about the toll fame takes on relationships:
“Fame negatively impacts family and relationships… If both partners are famous, it introduces even more challenges and obstacles:
– Paparazzi and media create heightened expectations, portraying you as either madly in love or on the verge of a breakup.
– You may end up competing with each other.
– Temptations surround you both, leading to suspicion.
– Both of you could fall into substance abuse and fail to support one another.
– Busy schedules and commitments physically and geographically separate you.
– You cannot give each other the real time, energy, and emotions necessary for a meaningful and fulfilling relationship.
– Narcissism and entitlement can quickly erode and destroy your love for each other.”
This was the reality for Joe Alwyn, the man Swift once honored with albums like Reputation, Lover, Folklore, Evermore, Midnights, and now TTPD, featuring the heartbreak anthem So Long, London. If Ariana Grande’s Thank U, Next lets listeners swap in the names of their exes during the chorus, Taylor’s So Long, London allows fans to replace “London” with the city tied to their own failed love stories. When I saw Fort Worth, Texas, pop up on my blog’s reader list, my heart skipped a beat—just like Taylor’s promise to avoid Cornelia Street if her love ever ended.
And when the relationship ended (whether before or after is unclear), she sold the apartment on Cornelia Street. Source: @tswfticonic
However, the title track and the overall tone of this new album were inspired by Matty Healy and his band, The 1975. During The Eras Tour, Taylor became a global cultural, economic, and political phenomenon. Culturally, there’s no need for debate. Economically, wherever she sets foot, GDP rises. Politically, even Joe Biden—the most powerful man on Earth—has sought her influence.
With such greatness, it’s no surprise that after she broke up with Joe Alwyn, whose net worth is less than 1/25th of her cat Olivia Benson’s, and briefly dated the notoriously controversial Matty Healy, the singer’s character was immediately put under scrutiny. Could someone who’s made racist and sexist remarks be worthy of being the partner (not even a guaranteed spouse) of a woman who, a few months later, would become the first billionaire entirely through music?
Thus, their two-week romance ended, but it gave Taylor the inspiration to write one of the best lines on the album: “I love you, it’s ruining my life.”
Source: Elle
Taylor dated Matty in anguish, as the public’s criticism of him began to tarnish her reputation. Source: ROBERT KAMAU
Taylor made a mistake we thought she would be too wise to repeat—a mistake perfectly encapsulated in the title: I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can).
We shake our heads when our best friend tries to change an irredeemable bad boy, only to realize our idol is doing the exact same thing.
She is wiser than most, but she’s still a woman like anyone else—still yearning for someone to love her, still scheming to convince a man who doesn’t want to marry her to propose. Yet, despite his mediocre acting, even Joe Alwyn recognized Taylor’s efforts and knew enough not to marry her.
And so Taylor rebounded with an Aries (possibly a member of Alcoholics Anonymous), a man who always had alcohol onstage, could blow smoke rings, and was known for controversial remarks and behavior. And she STILL believed she could change him.
Source: Marcelo Hernandez / Getty Images
As fans, all we could do was sigh (and perhaps celebrate) upon hearing the news of their breakup shortly after. Now we know that those 14 days of romance were more intense than we had imagined.
If Joe was honored with Sweet Nothing in Midnights, then Travis Kelce takes the spotlight in TTPD with So High School. Kelce is one of the rare individuals who made Taylor feel small, even though she had once been teased by friends as a “giraffe” and cropped out of photos for her 5’11” height.
And to be fair, they really do resemble a high school couple. Never before have we seen Taylor so publicly and genuinely happy.
Source: Elle
And that’s the happiest song on the album—hardly surprising, given that the title already captures the struggles of those in The Tortured Poets Department.
This leads to an important question:
Are artists intentionally “addicted” to pain as a source of creative inspiration?
The Relationship Between Music and an Artist’s Sorrow
Recently, Hurrykng made an insightful comment about sadness and art:
Translation: “Art comes from suffering; if I’m too fulfilled, the music I write feels soulless.” Credit on picture.
It’s natural for a moment of sadness in life to inspire us to create music. However, the author of this piece poses a hypothesis: Do artists “intentionally” dwell in their pain or actively seek it out to elevate their art?
Without love and heartbreak, Adele wouldn’t have given us albums like 19, 21, 25, and 30. As writer Meredith B. Kile noted on Entertainment:
“For Adele, music and love are always one.”
A writer for Rolling Stone even remarked that with TTPD, Taylor Swift is like a better version of Adele.
It seems this article has been deleted, possibly due to the reason of starting penned war.
I’ve pondered this question for a long time because, although I’m not in the art industry, I write, and I feel that everything truly memorable in the artistic world stems from profound pain. Joy seems like a luxury here.
Is there a way to create art while being happy and full of love for life?
At first glance, Taylor’s Lover and the fictional trio of James, Betty, and Augustine in Folklore appeared to be the answer. However, Swift has left us with a significant question mark when it comes to her taste in partners.
On one hand, she chose to stay in a relationship that showed no signs of ending in marriage long ago. Yet, she persisted, stubbornly trying to change Joe Alwyn, convincing him that she was worth marrying.
And after Joe Alwyn, she “healed” herself with a dose FORGET-HIM medicine of Matty Healy, even though he was a walking red flag. She then found herself reminiscing about Matty through The 1975’s black, white, and gray aesthetic and the countless typewriters she implied were “obsolete” in the title track of her album.
The magic pill for “getting over a breakup” in the Fortnight MV.
It wasn’t until her latest boyfriend Travis Kelce that we saw her make a more sensible and mature choice. The closest thing to a rational decision she had made before was breaking up with Tom Hiddleston—because, as Midnight Rain puts it, he wanted a bride, while she wanted to make a name for herself.
One of the best songs on the Midnights album. Source: @tayIorzone on Twitter
That said, credit where it’s due—not everyone gets dragged through an online mob armed with a thousand snake emojis, only to meet their muse for future albums at 27 instead of meeting Death. Not everyone experiences a love that carries them through COVID, shares a third Album of the Year Grammy for an album written with their partner, and then wins a fourth for an album about heartbreak and loss from the time spent with that person.
Not everyone has a relationship like that, and when trying to rebound, stumbles upon an artistic soul like Matty Healy.
However, as someone once said: “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” Taylor Swift’s problem is that she’s too good. She’s too understanding, too patient, too invested in her relationships—so much so that she forgets:
Translation: The well-behaved child often goes without candy. Source: Gia Sư Tất Đạt.
Good people, even with Machiavellian tendencies, will still be taken advantage of.
Most people would end a relationship once they realize their partner has no intention of marrying them. But Taylor? She stubbornly stayed, trying to convince him for a few more years. She knew Matty was a walking red flag, yet she still chose to love him. She lived too emotionally in her relationships, forgetting that her status now is nothing short of that of a queen—her partners should undergo background checks, as rigorous as those for the “Oppenheimer of the music industry.”
Everyone—whether man, woman, or non-binary—will likely meet two people they want to marry in their lifetime. The first is the White Moonlight, the one they want to marry but can’t. The second is the Cinnabar Mole, the one they do marry but often fail to cherish.
If you’re lucky, like the heroine in Past Lives, you’ll meet your Cinnabar Mole right after parting with your White Moonlight. But for Taylor—and for many of us—that’s not the case. Instead, we may have to go through a few situationships, one-night stands, or friends-with-benefits relationships before finding our Cinnabar Mole.
We often dream of a happily-ever-after, only to find that reality has other plans.
I look at the best match out of 650 Tinder profiles, the one who makes me feel like a high school prom queen—just as Kelce makes Taylor feel—and wonder: is this my Cinnabar Mole, or just another soon-to-be-ex?
However, perhaps Taylor has learned her lesson and now understands her limits, ending things with a bittersweet realization:
“Woah, maybe I really can’t change him.”
Credit to the effort of screenshotting: me! =))
And if we cannot change someone, then:
Should we be grateful to the person who brought us pain, for teaching us a valuable lesson?
This idea is reflected in Swift’s song thank you aimee. “Aimee” in French means “beloved,” but in the song’s title, the capitalized letters spell the name of Taylor Swift’s former fan club leader. This person, after dragging Taylor’s reputation to rock bottom, was later seen dancing to Shake It Off with their child.
At the end of the song, Taylor writes:
“But when I count the scars, there’s a moment of truth. That there wouldn’t be this if there hadn’t been you.”
“This” in this context could mean the scars, but it could also refer to the achievements of the “queen of snakes.”
So, should we thank the people who brought us pain, for helping us learn a valuable lesson?
I once asked my partner this question. The golden retriever-like, tattoo-free sweetheart replied:
“Like when someone slaps you, should you thank them for showing you how painful it is? No. You should thank yourself for being resilient enough to endure that pain and rise above it.”
I think the repeated phrase “thank you aimee” in the song is merely sarcastic. Taylor had no intention of genuinely thanking Kim. As she once said in an interview during the Lover era: “I don’t forgive, I don’t forget. I just move on.”
Living for Oneself or for Others?
Taylor has always given her all for others, in both love and her career—for both her lovers and her fans. The latter is evident in one of her most-viewed songs (currently third on the list), which also happens to be a fan favorite: “I can do it with a broken heart.”
No one questioned her relationship with Joe as she began her tour, because her smile was so radiant. No one breaking up from a six-year relationship could smile like that on stage.
Turns out, she could.
Listening to the song, fans bitterly realized just how strong Taylor truly is. Even as her heart screams in agony, she can beam as if nothing happened under the spotlight. Only the burning Lover house in flames betrayed the turmoil of her heart.
Source: Ms_Double_Entendre
Conclusion
Some argue that this album is too difficult to digest. However, if Ariana Grande has delivered a breakup album that’s easily accessible to the general public, then the depth, complexity, exclusivity, poeticism, and abundance of metaphors in TTPD may be necessary for Taylor to avoid repeating herself after Midnights—the pinnacle of her career, praised for its concise, straightforward tracks.
That said, Jack Antonoff’s production sound needs a refresh. The official version of TTPD feels rather monotonous, demanding a “lyrical reading” experience. In contrast, producer Aaron Dessner brings a richer musical palette to Taylor’s work, which explains why the Anthology version has managed to retain listeners who prefer to “listen with their ears.”
Unlike Billie Eilish’s criticism about multiple album versions harming the environment, Taylor consistently surprises her fans with thoughtfulness, even when releasing numerous vinyl editions. If her albums are leaked, she counters by releasing fifteen extra tracks—ensuring fans always get more value than what they pay for.
Still, a castle can be awfully cold when you’re alone, right, Queen?
Let’s hope that, unlike Amber Heard vs. Johnny Depp or Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, the pairing of Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift ends on a happy note. Someone as extraordinary as her deserves to have her soul warmed after spending so much time living for others, and so little for herself.
Source: Oindrila Banerjee
Some of the author’s favorite tracks from the TTPD album:
- Fortnight (Kudos to Taylor’s team for gradually improving their single choices over the years)
- The Black Dog (But bonus tracks and from the vault songs, like You’re Losing Me, always remain the standout pieces)
- loml
- So Long, London
- The Prophecy
- But Daddy I Love Him
- I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)
- I Can Do It With A Broken Heart
You’re invited to continue reading the comparison of two iconic tracks: You’re Losing Me and All Too Well.
Be Real in a Fake World,
Narcy Nguyễn.
