Taylor Swift fans link lyrics on new album to exes Matty Healy and Joe Alwyn

Taylor Swift has brought the pop world to a virtual standstill by dropping her new, surprise double, album The Tortured Poets Department.

The Better Than Revenge singer has said she "needed" to write the new album, because writing about "the things I was going through" was a "lifeline" for her. She said: "It kind of reminded me of why songwriting is something that like actually gets me through my life."

Swift, 34, is no stranger to sharing her heartbreak with the world through song, with her 1989 album containing multiple references believed to be about her brief love affair with Harry Styles. And this new album is packed with lyrics that fans are convinced are about her British exes - The 1975 frontman Matt Healy, with whom she had a brief, unconfirmed fling in 2023, and actor Joe Alwyn, who she secretly dated for six years.

Here are all the song lyrics Swift sings in The Tortured Poets Department which are believed to be directed at Healy and Alwyn.

The Tortured Poets Department

The title track of the album appears on the surface to be about British actor Alwyn, 33, who Swift dated for six years. He is credited as a co-writer on her 2020 albums Folklore and Evermore. The Conversations With Friends star revealed in an interview with Variety that he is part of a WhatsApp group chat with actor friends Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott called The Tortured Man Club.

But the song has many lyrics which appear to be about her relationship with Healy. She sings: "Sometimes I wonder if you're gonna screw this up with me/ But you told Lucy you'd kill yourself if I ever leave." This could be a reference to his close friend Lucy Dacus, singer with indie group Boygenius.

TTPD also contains the lyric "Like, 'Who uses typewriters anyway?" Healy told GQ magazine in 2018 that he "really likes typewriters". And the line "tattooed golden retriever" is also supposed to be a hint towards Healy.

I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)

The title of this song is all about dating a bad boy. English rock singer Healy, 35, who is a recovering heroin addict who has spoken openly about his issues with drug addiction.

Swift sings: "The smoke cloud billows out his mouth like a freight train through a small town/The jokes that he told across the bar were revolting and far too loud."

And she adds: "Thеy 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 / And only I can."

But Daddy I Love Him

Seemingly about a small-town girl dating a bad boy her parents don't approve, this song is thought to be a dig at the fans who disapproved of their pop princess matching with bad boy Healy.

Swift sings the lines: “I'd rather burn my whole life down/ Than listen to one more second of all this b***hin' and moanin'/ I'll tell you something 'bout my good name/ It's mine along with all the disgrace." And in the chorus "No I'm not coming to my senses/I know it's crazy/but he's the one I want."

But another theory is that the title of this song, which is a line from Disney's The Little Mermaid, is about another player Swift dated - Harry Styles. The Watermelon Sugar star was once pictured wearing a T-shirt with this line written on it.

Guilty As Sin

This song about physical lust and passion starts with the line "Drowning in the Blue Nile/He sent me Downtown Lights/I hadn't heard it in a while." Healy's favourite band is known to be The Blue Nile.

Fortnight

Swift and Healy were first linked in 2013. and Then had a brief romance ten years later in May 2023 when they were pictured together several times. The opening track on the album is thought to be about this short, passionate fling.

The song goes: "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.I touched you, for only a fortnight."

LOML

The title of this track is believed to stand for Love Of My Life. IN the lyrics Swift hints at Healy ghosting her after their brief romance in May 2023. She sings: "Was any of it true?/ Gazing at me starry-eyed/ In your Jehovah’s Witness suit/ Who the f*** was that guy?/ You tried to buy some pills/ From a friend of friends of mine/ They just ghosted you/ Now you know what it feels like."

The Black Dog

Fans believe this is another heartbreak track about Healy.

Swift includes the lines: "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 1975 covered The Starting Line's 2002 track The Best of Me while on tour in 2023, just days before Swift and Healy were first spotted holding hands.

Fresh Out The Slammer

This song is thought to be the bridge between Swift ending her six-year relationship with Alwyn and jumping into a fling with Healy. The lyrics about Alwyn are thought to be: "Another summer taking cover/ Rolling thunder, he don't understand me/ Splintered back in winter/ Silent dinner, bitter he was with her in dreams". And then jumps to Healy hits: "Now we're at the starting line / I did my time."

So Long, London

There are clear links to Swift's break-up with Alwyn in this song. The pair lived together in London, spending parts of the COVID pandemic lockdown with one another. Swift sings about leaving her home behind for someone: "I left all I knew, you left me at the house by the Heath" - a reference to London's Hampstead Heath. And she also hints at trying to save a dying relationship and a romance fizzling out in lines such as: "I stopped CPR, after all it's no use/the spirit was gone."

My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys

Swift sings about a toxic relationship that left her broken after the other person ended it with her. Fans are linking this track to Alwyn. The lyrics include: "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."

The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived

This savage break-up song contains an allusion to being sexually unsatisfied. Swift sings: "Once your queen had come / You treat her like an also-ran / You didn’t measure up / In any measure of a man."

I Can Do It With a Broken Heart

This upbeat track is actually filled with sadness, as Swift spent the last year performing her Eras tour, following her break-ups from Alwyn and Healy. She writes: "I'm so obsessed with him, but he avoids me like the plague / I cry a lot, but I am so productive, it's an art. You know you're good when you can even do it with a broken heart."

The Tortured Poets Department by Taylor Swift is out on Friday, 19 April

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