The Culture

Swift's Revenge: Love Lost and Celebrity Clapbacks Fill 'The Tortured Poets Department'

By H. Alan Scott

If you thought Taylor Swift was over her heartbreak songs because she's madly in love with football star Travis Kelce, well, you'd be wrong. Because her new album—or should I say albums— The Tortured Poets Department (TTPD) is jampacked with love lost, all the moods, and a not so small (or subtle) list of famous people Swift alludes to on several tracks. (We're talking Kim Kardashian, Matty Healy, Joe Alwyn and yes, her current squeeze Kelce.) Let's get into it.

First off, Swift originally dropped a totally normal 16-track album. As millions of people were listening to that, she quietly dropped a double album called the Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology with 15 extra songs. That's 31 songs for this very tired writer to go through late into the night. In total, the album is very emotional, obviously inspired by a broken heart, but also her mental health and how she powered through her depression. (I hope she has a good therapist, as she went there on several tracks.)

Many believe "So Long, London" is in reference to her six-year relationship with British actor Joe Alwyn. There's a line on that track that just hit me: "I'm pissed off you let me give you all that youth for free." I mean, that's intense. There are also several tracks being interpreted to be about the frontman of the band 1975, Matty Healy. (I mean, does anyone want a song titled "My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys" to be about them? I don't think I would.)

But there's one song from the double album that many are assuming is about Swift's feud with Kim Kardashian. (To catch you up, Kardashian posted a video of a call between Swift and Kardashian's ex, Kanye West. Swift spoke with TIME magazine about the distress that video had on her mental health. "You have a fully manufactured frame job, in an illegally recorded phone call, which Kim Kardashian edited and then put out to say to everyone that I was a liar. That took me down psychologically to a place I've never been before.") Well, Swift is apparently getting her revenge on the track "thanK you aIMee." (Please note the capitalized letters spell "Kim.") The song features lines like, "When I picture my hometown / There's a bronze spray-tanned statue of you," and "It wasn't a fair fight, or a clean kill." Insert any sort of awkward emoji here.

But after listening to the album, I'm left with one looming thought: Is it going to be a Grammys showdown between Swift and Beyoncé's Cowboy Carter? Swift is the reigning Album of the Year queen and Beyoncé has never, I repeat never, won the top honor. Obviously, there's no competition between the two artists—it's alleged they even coordinated the release of Cowboy Carter and The Tortured Poets Department to not overlap their releases—but I need to say here and now that it's Beyoncé's turn to win Album of the Year. (Swifties, please don't come for me.) Also, can someone just make sure Adele doesn't secretly drop an album, because I don't think I could take that trifecta of stress at the Grammys this year.

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