WHILE Taylor Swift is known for keeping tight-lipped about her relationships, her brand new album might give fans a glimpse into her tryst with Matty Healy.
Released just today, The Tortured Poets Department explores the thrilling start of a recent relationship to the end of one that seemed destined to last forever.
Although Taylor, 34, doesn’t directly mention The 1975 frontman, 35, almost a dozen tracks appear to make digs at him – including one where she complains about a recent lover’s “revolting” jokes.
The pair briefly dated in spring 2023 after first being linked nearly ten years earlier – so it hasn’t come as a surprise that he’s inspired her latest record.
1. Guilty as Sin?
In Guilty as Sin?, Taylor – who previously dated actor Joe Alwyn for six years until their split in April 2023 – sings about intense romantic feelings and “fatal fantasies” for someone from her past while still in another relationship.
All lyrics point to Matty, with Taylor even writing about receiving the 1989 synth-pop track, The Downtown Lights, by The Blue Nile from her love interest.
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Matty has made no secret of his love for The Blue Nile, previously telling how The Downtown Lights inspired The 1975’s track, Love It If We Made It.
He discussed this influence in a 2018 interview with Entertainment Weekly, emphasising his desire to make the connection clear to those familiar with the music.
Denise Welch’s son told the publication, “That’s another one where I wanted to reference that song; I didn’t want to hide away from referencing it, I wanted it to be f**king obvious to people that know.”
2. The Black Dog
Another song, The Black Dog, mentions The Starting Line, a pop-punk band Matty admires.
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This was noted when The 1975 covered their 2002 hit, The Best of Me, during concerts in early 2023 – days before Matty and Taylor were first pictured holding hands.
Taylor sings in this one, “I just don’t understand how you don’t miss me / In The Black Dog when someone plays The Starting Line / And you jump up, but she’s too young / To know this song / That was intertwined in the magic fabric of our dreaming.”
The lyrics talk about “runnin’ back home” to a lover and being “at the starting line” of something new.
She also also hints that her new love is not from the U.S., as she sings that she’s returning “to the one who says I’m the girl of his American dreams.”
Matty and her previous ex, Joe, are both British.
3. I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can) / 4. But Daddy I Love Him
Other songs such as I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can) and But Daddy I Love Him appear to address her desire to change the man she loves despite his public scrutiny and “revolting” jokes.
Matty came under fire last year when he made derogatory comments on a podcast about U.S. rapper Ice Spice, who is a friend and collaborator of Taylor’s.
Swifties soon urged her to dump Matty after the controversial interviews resurfaced – but it was later claimed that wasn’t the reason they split.
5. The Tortured Poets Department
In the album’s title track, The Tortured Poets Department, the Grammy winner jokes about Matty’s habit of bringing a typewriter to her apartment, likening him to poets like Dylan Thomas.
She sings, “You left your typewriter at my apartment / Straight from the Tortured Poets Department / I think some things I never say / Like, ‘Who uses typewriters anyway?’”
Matty told GQ in 2018 that he “really” likes working on typewriters and “putting pen to paper”.
6. loml
loml discusses rekindling a past relationship that falls apart just as quickly as it resumed, with Taylor telling the tale of how someone “waltzed back” into her life after they initially met as “kids,” assuring her that she “reformed” him and was the love of his life.
She refers to him as a “con man” who offered “a fool a get-love-quick scheme” with a “counterfeit” love, but the promises were hollow.
7. Down Bad / 8. I Can Do It with a Broken Heart
Other tracks like Down Bad and I Can Do It with a Broken Heart express the pain of maintaining a public facade of happiness each night of her Eras Tour amid heartbreak.
In the latter, she sings, “Cause I’m a real tough kid / I can handle my s**t / They said, “Babe, you gotta fake it till you make it” and I did / Lights, camera, b***h, smile / Even when you wanna die / He said he’d love me all his life / But that life was too short.”
9. The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived
The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived is particularly cutting, with Taylor lamenting over a fleeting summer love who led her on before leaving unexpectedly.
She sings, “It wasn’t sexy once it wasn’t forbidden / I would’ve died for your sins / Instead I just died inside,” she sings. “And you deserve prison but you won’t get time / You’ll slide into inboxes and slip through the bars / You crashed my party and your rental car / You said normal girls were ‘boring’ / But you were gone by the morning.”
The song alludes to a man who “tried to buy some pills from a friend of friends of mine” and describes him wearing a “Jehovah’s Witness suit”.
Matty has been transparent about his own battles with substance abuse and wears a suit on stage when touring with The 1975.
He previously told Billboard that he entered a treatment facility in 2017 to overcome his heroin addiction
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10. The Alchemy
Taylor, who is now dating NFL star Travis Kelce, seems to allude to these struggles in The Alchemy, with the line, “He jokes that it’s heroin / But this time with a ‘e’.”
The album is believed to have been named after a WhatsApp group Joe was in with fellow actors Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal.
How many boyfriends has Taylor Swift had?
WHILE it’s impossible to know exactly how many partners Taylor’s had, our list based on her reported high-profile flings and relationships puts the number at 12.
Here’s a recap of who they are:
- Joe Jonas (July 2008 – October 2008)
- Lucas Till (March 2009 – April 2009)
- Taylor Lautner (August 2009 – December 2009)
- John Mayer (December 2009 – February 2010)
- Jake Gyllenhaal (October 2010-January 2011)
- Conor Kennedy (July 2012 – October 2012)
- Harry Styles (October 2012 – January 2013)
- Calvin Harris (February 2015 – June 2016)
- Tom Hiddleston (June 2016 – September 2016)
- Joe Alwyn (May 2017 – April 2023)
- Matty Healy (May 2023-June 2023)
- Travis Kelce (September 2023-)
