A brand new Taylor Swift album means one factor to the codebreakers referred to as Swifties: spending hours poring over each line, allusion, and reference, determining what all of it means within the scope of Swift’s life and lore. Now that The Tortured Poets Division, her eleventh studio album (not counting the re-records), has dropped, it is time as soon as once more to seize the magnifying glass and the encyclopedia to unravel her lyrics.
Characters of all types populate Swift’s work, ranging from her very first album; in “Teardrops on My Guitar” from Taylor Swift, she mentions the real-life Drew, a classmate she had a crush on, and even names a whole music after Tim McGraw. All through her discography, Swift has alluded to sure folks — IYKYK — but additionally talked about others by title, like her BFF Abigail in “Fifteen” and Rebekah Harkness, star of her folklore music “the final nice american dynasty.” Given the confessional, diaristic vibe of a lot of her work, this is smart; she’s writing about each her lived experiences and imagined ones, so literary references and nods to the folks in her life are certain to return up. It is a story as advised as time! The Tortured Poets Division has its fair proportion of title drops, with most of them occurring in two particular songs.
Beneath, be taught extra about every title examine on Taylor Swift’s new album, The Tortured Poets Division.
Charlie Puth
The primary viral lyric from TTPD concerned musician Charlie Puth; within the music of the identical title, Swift sings, “You smoked and ate seven bars of chocolate/We declared Charlie Puth ought to be an even bigger artist/I scratch your head, you go to sleep like a tattooed Golden Retriever.”
It is a seemingly random reference to the musician and his profession, although Puth has lined Swift songs previously, together with “Teardrops on my Guitar” off her first self-titled album.
Lucy
Swift references a “Lucy” on The Tortured Poets Division (the music), which may be a nod to Lucy Dacus, member of boygenius; Swift is associates with the group. “Generally I ponder if you happen to’re going to screw this up with me/However you inform Lucy you’d kill your self if I ever depart,” she sings, referencing the topic of the music.
If the music is certainly about Swift’s temporary, rumoured relationship with The 1975’s Matty Healy, as some have speculated, it is price noting that Healy and Dacus have historical past; along with her bandmate Phoebe Bridgers having a friendship with him, Healy additionally deactivated his Twitter/X account after an trade with Dacus. However once more, large grain of salt right here!
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Jack
This one is straightforward. The “Jack” Swift sings about within the titular music might be Jack Antonoff. Perhaps you have heard of him? He is been Swift’s go-to producer for years and the 2 are shut associates. Antonoff additionally works with Lana Del Rey, in addition to a bevy of different musicians. After referencing Lucy, Swift sings, “And I had stated that to Jack about you/So I felt seen/Everybody we all know understands why it’s meant to be/’Trigger we’re loopy.”
