Summary
Swift is no stranger to writing about personal subject matters. She's also by no means the first musician to sing about heartbreak, pain and sorrow. So Long, London is the real sucker punch. "I'm pissed off you let me give you all that youth for free," she laments. Rebecca Reid says Taylor Swift has taken her through "good times and bad times" She says Swift's songs are about the idea that you can't get your youth back. Reid: "There's so much on there about the Idea that you gave somebody your youth" Saira Thwaites is a fan of Taylor Swift's music. She says she can relate to some of the lyrics in her songs. Thwaite: "Her stories are so specific and sum up the numbness and emptiness of a breakup" She says Swift's lyrics are about healing and healing yourself. Many are reading her latest album as a dig in particular at Joe Alwyn and Matty Healy. Swift also touches on her current sweetheart, NFL star Travis Kelce. "A whole generation of women have found Swift's songs to be the soundtrack to their lives" Swift and Alwyn, an actor, split up in April 2023. When she later announced the arrival of a new album, fans began to speculate it would deal with the fall-out. Her choice of album title echoed a WhatsApp group chat that Alwyn and Normal People star Paul Mescal had, called The Tortured Man Club. Nona Uppal tells the BBC that while a lot of The Tortured Poets Department is about despair and heartbreak, it also nods to the happiness Swift feels in a new relationship. She says that while Swift may take swipes at her exes, she always holds herself to account. "I just love the level of vulnerability that captures, because I think that's something I relate to pretty heavily," she says. "And that to her is what love is all about," she adds. "I just just love that level ofulnerability that captures," she continues.