Well if there’s one person (OK, two people) we wouldn’t like to be today, it’s Joe Alwyn and Matty Healy. Last night, Taylor Swift dropped her 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, which was a surprise double album featuring an iconic 31 songs for us to deeply analyse the meaning of every single lyric. We’re Swifties, it’s what we do!
Since the announcement of the album in February this year, fans have been doing a lot of theorising as to which songs on the albums would be about Joe Alwyn. Taylor dated the British actor for six years, and so it was only expected by fans that her new music would touch on the end of their relationship.
However, it seems that much of the album is in fact rumoured to be about The 1975 frontman, Matty Healy, who Taylor dated for a few months following her breakup from Alwyn last year.
But, this is not to say Swifties haven’t found a number of references alluding to Taylor’s breakup with Joe. So, these are the alleged songs and references Taylor Swift makes to Joe Alywn in The Tortured Poets Department.
Which songs on The Tortured Poets Department are rumoured to be about Joe Alwyn?
So Long, London
As all Swifties will know, Taylor Swift released Lover in 2019, which included the song ‘London Boy’ and has generally been accepted by fans to be about Joe Alwyn, given that he’s from London and Taylor spent a lot of time with him there.
So, following their breakup, it would make sense she said goodbye to London and Joe. Many fans have theorised her new song on The Tortured Poets Department, ‘So Long, London’, is about Joe, given the London connection.
Taylor also references a house by the Heath in the song, which many fans have interpreted as the house the couple lived in near Hampstead Heath in West London.
loml
Next, ‘loml’ is also theorised by fans to be about Joe. While the acronym usually stands for ‘love of my life’, in Taylor’s version, it stands for ‘loss of my life’.
Fans believe this song could be about Joe as in previous songs Taylor has suggested Joe is the ‘one’ and ‘loml’ definitely sounds like it could be about someone losing the ‘one’.
The Tortured Poets Department
The album name and track number two, ‘The Tortured Poets Department,’ has been heavily rumoured by fans to be a reference to Alwyn.
While previously speaking to GQ, Alwyn revealed he was in a group chat with fellow actors Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott. Then Scott and Mescal were asked about the group chat name in a recent interview with Variety, where they revealed it was called the ‘The Tortured Man Club’.
And you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to see the connection between ‘The Tortured Man Club’ and The Tortured Poets Department 👀.
The Tortured Poets Department is out now.
Sophie Anderson, a UK-based writer, is your guide to the latest trends, viral sensations, and internet phenomena. With a finger on the pulse of digital culture, she explores what’s trending across social media and pop culture, keeping readers in the know about the latest online sensations.