Breaking down Taylor Swift's 'The Tortured Poets Department' double album
Taylor Swift's 11th studio album, a double album titled "The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology" is here -- and, like any release from the singer, there's a lot to unpack.
The album takes Swift's devoted fans inside the depths of her mind as she navigates the ups and downs of past relationships, and perhaps hints at where she's at emotionally these days.
Follow along as we break down some of the biggest songs and trends from "The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology."
Swift marking the end of a chapter of her life
Swift navigates lost love and heartbreak through emotional tracks on "The Tortured Poets Department," detailing stages of grief through her vulnerable lyrics.
When Swift released the album at midnight, she shared a message with her fans in which she described the album 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."
"This period of the author's life is now over, the chapter closed and boarded up," her message continued. "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."
She added, "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. And then all that's left behind is the tortured poetry."
Songs that put grief and heartbreak at center stage
Many tracks on the album, including "Fortnight," "I Can Do It With A Broken Heart," "My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys" and "Down Bad," to name a few, allow fans to see inside Swift's heartbreak from recent relationships.
In "My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys," Swift sings, "My boy only breaks his favorite toys, toys, oh / I'm queen of sand castles he destroys, oh, oh / 'Cause it fit too right, puzzle pieces in the dead of night / I should've known it was a matter of time, oh, oh / My boy only breaks his favorite toys, oh, oh."
In "Fresh Out The Slammer," which is seemingly about feeling trapped in a relationship, Swift sings, "My friends tried, but I wouldn't hear it / Watch me daily disappearing / For just one glimpse of his smile."
In "imgonnagetyouback" Swift debates between going back to a former lover or getting revenge.
The lyrics to the track read, "Whether I'm gonna be your wife or / Gonna smash up your bike, I haven't decided yet / But I'm gonna get you back / Whether I'm gonna curse you out or / Take you back to my house, I haven't decidеd yet / But I'm gonna get you back."
In "loml," Swift plays with the meaning of the song in the lyrics. While at first she sings "You said I'm the love of your life" in the chorus, the song ends with the mic-drop line, "You're the loss of my life."
The lyrics in Swift's song with Florence Welch of Florence & the Machine, "Florida!!!," seem to hint that she is seeking refuge from the fallout of a relationship.
The duo sing, "I need to forget, so take me to Florida / I've got some regrets, I'll bury them in Florida."
Swift seemingly tackles her penchant for diving into past relationships in her music with the song "Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?"
"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," she sings in the lyrics.
In "How Did It End?," Swift reflects on how a relationship ended and the reaction to the news from others. The song includes the lyrics, "We were blind to unforeseen circumstances / We learn the right steps to different dances (Oh, oh-oh) / And fell victim to interloper's glances / Lost the game of chance, what are the chances? / Soon they'll go home to their husbands / Smug 'cause they know they can trust him / Then feverishly calling their cousins (Oh, oh)."
Swift seemingly continues to explore the reaction of others who may disapprove of a relationship in the song, "I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)." In the chorus, she sings, "They shake their heads, saying, 'God help her' when I tell 'em he's my man / But your good Lord doesn't need to lift a finger / I can fix him, no really I can."
At the end of the song, she has a change of heart, singing, "Maybe I can't."
In "The Prophecy," Swift sings about wanting to reverse the outcome of a failed relationship. In the chorus, she sings, "Please / I've been on my knees / Change the prophecy / Don't want money / Just someone who wants my company / Let it once be me / Who do I have to speak to / About if they can redo the prophecy?"
Who could some of the songs be about?
Fans are already busy dissecting the lyrics and spawning theories of who they believe songs are about -- something Swift famously never confirms.
Swift is known for going all-out with the fifth track on her albums -- and this time is no different. Many fans are speculating that "So Long, London" is a breakup song about her ex, British actor Joe Alwyn, whom she dated for six years.
"Thinkin', how much sad did you think I had / Did you think I had in me? / Oh, the tragedy / So long, London / You'll find someone," she sings in the track, later singing, "You swore that you loved me, but where were the clues? / I died on the altar waitin' for the proof."
Due to the length of their relationship, fans believe this line -- "And I'm pissed off you let me give you all that youth for free" -- in particular references the time she spent with Alwyn.
Fans are pointing to "The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived" as being about Swift's brief fling with The 1975's Matt Healy.
Swift sings of a short-lived romance, "And I don't even want you back, I just want to know / If rusting my sparkling summer was the goal / And I don't miss what we had, but could someone give / A message to the smallest man who ever lived?"
She ends the song with, "And I'll forget you, but I'll never forgive / The smallest man who ever lived."
In "imgonnagetyouback," Swift debates between going back to a former lover or getting revenge.
The lyrics to the track read, "Whether I'm gonna be your wife or / Gonna smash up your bike, I haven't decided yet / But I'm gonna get you back / Whether I'm gonna curse you out or / Take you back to my house, I haven't decidеd yet / But I'm gonna get you back."
Fans think these songs are about Travis Kelce
Swifties feel "The Alchemy" on "The Tortured Poets Department" is about her current boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
The track, produced by Swift and Jack Antonoff, is filled with football references.
"So when I touch down / Call the amateurs and cut 'em from the team / Ditch the clowns, get the crown / Baby, I'm the one to be / 'Cause the sign on your heart / Said it's still reserved for me / Honestly, who are we to fight thе alchemy?"
In the song "So High School," Swift sings, "I feel so high school every time I look at you / I wanna find you in a crowd just to hide from you," which fans believe point to Kelce as well.
Additional lyrics seem to indicate her being in a happy -- and steamy -- relationship.
"Are you gonna marry, kiss, or kill me (Kill me) / It's just a game, but really (Really) / I'm bettin' on all three for us two (All three) / Get my car door, isn't that sweet? (That sweet) / Then pull me to thе backseat (Backseat) / No one's еver had me (Had me), not like you."
These are some stars Swift name-drops on 'TTPD'
While Swift loves a subtle reference for her fans to dissect, there are a few big name-drops on "The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology," and the first few are on the title track.
A lyric on "The Tortured Poets Department" reads: "I laughed in your face and said, 'You're not Dylan Thomas, I'm not Patti Smith.'"
Dylan Thomas is a 20th century Welsh poet who is best known for the poem "Do not go gentle into that good night." Patti Smith is a singer best known for the song "Because the Night," which she co-wrote with Bruce Springsteen.
Charlie Puth, a singer-songwriter best known for the songs "Marvin Gaye" and "See You Again," also gets a shoutout on "The Tortured Poets Department" with the lyric: "We declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist."
Did Swift get "Barbie" fever, too? Ken is mentioned in the track "My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys" when she sings, " Just say when, I'd play again / He was my best friend down at the sandlot / I felt more when we played pretend / Than with all the Kens."
The Scottish band The Blue Nile gets mentioned on the song "Guilty as Sin?" when Swift sings, "Drowning in the Blue Nile / He sent me 'Downtown Lights' / I hadn't heard it in a while."
"The Downtown Lights" is one of The Blue Nile's biggest hits.
Swift's song "Clara Bow" has a couple name-drops, including the song's namesake, Stevie Nicks and Swift herself.
Bow, an actress who made the jump from silent films to "talkies" and became known as "The It Girl" thanks to her film "It", is mentioned in the intro: "You look like Clara Bow / In this light, remarkable / All your life, did you know / You'd be picked like a rose?"
Nicks, from the iconic band Fleetwood Mac, is mentioned in a verse which reads, "You look like Stevie Nicks in '75 / The hair and lips / The crowd goes wild at her fingertips / Half moonshinе, a full eclipse."
Finally, in the outro, Swift becomes self-referential, singing, "You look like Taylor Swift / In this light, we're loving it / You've got edge, she never did / The future's bright, dazzling."
