Finally, Taylor Swift’s new album, The Tortured Poets Department, is out, which she announced just after winning the Artist of the Year award at the Grammys. And despite many believing the album would be entirely inspired by her ex, Joe Alwyn, with whom she had a 6-year relationship, the singer surprised all her fans when they realized that many of the lyrics made references not only to Joe but also to the brief romance she had with The 1975 member, Matty Healy.
Taylor told her fans, “It was really a lifeline for me — just the things that I was going through, the things that I was writing about … it kind of reminded me why songwriting actually gets me through my life,” “I’ve never had an album that I needed songwriting more than I needed it on Tortured Poets,” she added.
The album not only talks about Taylor’s past relationships as many thought, but also about the public scrutiny of her love life.
References to Matty Healy in “The Tortured Poets Department”
In the album’s opening song, ‘Fortnight,’ TS expresses how two lovers become strangers, something many of us can relate to, and speaks of the fleeting nature of relationships.
“And no one here’s to blame/ But what about your quiet treason?/ I took the miracle move-on-drug/ The effects were temporary/ And I love you, it’s ruining my life.”
More specific references to Matty, “Sometimes I wonder if you’re gonna screw this up with me/ But you told Lucy you’d kill yourself if I ever leave,” she sings, seemingly referring to boygenius’ Lucy Dacus, who is friends with Healy. “And I had said that to Jack about you so I felt seen/ Everyone we know understands why it’s meant to be,” Swift continues, likely referring to longtime friend Jack Antonoff, who also produced the song.
Taylor Swift also references Matty Healy in other songs like ‘My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys,’ where many fans interpreted that she was referring to Matty since the musician was receiving a lot of hate for fleeing the relationship, and the pressure of being with a globally recognized star like Tay.
“Put me back on my shelf/ But first, pull the string and I’ll tell you that he runs because he loves me,”
“I felt more when we played pretend than with all the Kens/ ‘Cause he took me out of my box/ Stole my tortured heart/ Left all these broken parts/ Told me I’m better off/ But I’m not,”
In the song ‘Down Bad,’ Tay talks about how she felt, and that she was alone crying in the gym, referring to the moment when she was preparing for her tour. Throughout the album, we can notice that Swift tries to open her heart completely, and in one of the songs where she portrays the most heartbreaking feelings is ‘So Long, London,’ many fans initially believed it was a reference to Harry Styles, but it speaks of how she tried to save a failed relationship and the loneliness she had to face.
“I stopped trying to make him laugh/ Stopped trying to drill the safe,”
Another possible reference to Healy is ‘The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived,’ where she sings “And I don’t even want you back/ I just want to know/ If rusting my sparkling summer was the goal.”
TS and Healy’s relationship ended and the drama became public just a few weeks after they were first seen together, all happening at the beginning of May, just when she was on tour.
Taylor Swift and Matty Healy’s Relationship
It seems Taylor Swift likes Brits, she’s shown it more than once, and she demonstrated it with her relationship with Matty Healy, who is part of the band The 1975. The romance between these two was very fleeting, and many fans were very confused by this relationship because the guitarist has a reputation for being a jerk. Some videos are circulating on the internet where Healy demonstrates being misogynistic and racist. After they broke up, all of Taylor’s fans seemed relieved, and now that we hear the great songs that came out after that romance, we’re not so regretful that Tay chose a fool to date.
