As the title suggests, the “The Tortured Poets Department” is a breakup album, which does not disappoint in deconstructing her failed relationships Taylor Swift. However, we’ve all been there and – maybe – that’s why Swift’s success and great appeal is due.

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One of her songs is titled “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” (The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived) and portrays a drug-taking partner who: “In public, she showed me off and then sank into masturbated oblivion,” she tried to “buy some pills from a friend of friends”…

In the midst of dealing with these “useless” men, we learn of a Swift – who, contrary to her glamorous and strong public image – is ‘depressed’, ‘cries at the gym’, ‘eats baby cereal’ and has a… ‘broken heart’.

Of course, not all of her songs are confessional – she also adopts different personas (for example in “But Daddy I Love Him” which shares its basic story “Papa Don’t Preach” by Madonna), but in each piece, we consistently return to Swift and the parallels of her much-publicly dissected private life.

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With a history of writing about her exes (previous examples are Joe Jonas, Harry Styles, Jake Gyllenhaal and John Mayer), the artist continued it with them Joe Alwyn and Matty Healyas there were also hints about her current lover, Travis Kelce.

“So Long, London” – which sits at number five on the tracklist, a position Swift reserves for her most important songs – is a choral ballad and appears to be about the end of her six-year relationship with its leading man “The Favourite”, Alwyn.

Her verse – “I left everything I knew, you left me at home by the heath” – refers to Hampstead Heath in north London, where she lived with the star in the early 2020s. In this song we also have one of many references to marriage, a topic that may be at the forefront of Taylor Swift’s mind .

Wedding bells and babies

His emotional verse “So Long, London” –“You swore you loved me but where was the evidence, I died at the altar waiting for the proof”– sounds loud and clear.

The song that gave the record its title –“The Tortured Poets Department”- describes a moment that paints a vivid picture: “At dinner you take my ring off my middle finger and put it on what people put wedding rings on, and that’s the closest I’ve ever come to having my heart explode.”

On “loml” (acronym for Love Of My Life) he sings: “You and I go from a kiss to marriage… you told me I’m the love of your life.” In the “But Daddy I Love Him” -a country-tinged ballad- he sings: “No, you can’t come to the wedding.”

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He loves the old and the new

Vocalist Matty Healywho Swift was rumored to be briefly dating after her split from Alwyn, appears to be referring to “Fortnite”. It is a song featuring Post Malone that will be the first single from the album. “I only touched you for a fortnight… I love you, it’s ruining my life.”

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In “Guilty As Sin”a slow track, Swift describes “fated fantasies,” “recalling things we never did” and reminiscing about a past relationship – “how I miss our dates… How can I be guilty as sin?”

Swift told her fans on social media that the album is a reflection of “facts, opinions and feelings from a fleeting and fateful moment in time”, calling them “shocking and sad in equal measure”.

And for Swift, the album itself seems to be a form of fulfillment and redemption, in her words: “This period of the writer’s life is now over, the chapter is closed. There is nothing to avenge, no scores to settle, since the wounds have been healed.” About her wounds from the love… battle she told her fans: “A large number of them turned out to be self-harm…”

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