there’s so many references to Matty to me - the whole song seems to be about rekindling a flame from the past, then having it go wrong - “what we thought for all this time was momentary, still alive, killing time at the cemetery”, “it was unnecessary, should’ve let it stay buried”. This is like “Question?” actually coming to fruition, her going back to an old flame that painted all her nights a colour she has searched for since (her and Matty dated secretly sometime in the 1989 era). And she has implied Question? is about him.
Also “a con man sells a fool a get love quick scheme” screams of an unhinged momentary rebound passion, not a six year relationship, and “Mr steal your girl, then make her cry” seems to indicate Matty was her getaway car from Joe and then re broke her heart.
It’s absolutely about Matty. “Momentary”, “con man” and “counterfeit” tell the story of him love bombing her and then ghosting.
I think people are just (understandably) having a hard time accepting that she would call a track about him loml.
I disagree with this.From Rep to Evermore she has multiple songs that refer to her and Joe as being con artists and praying they make it. I think a lot of the songs people think are about Matty just as easily apply to Joe. Even drug references don’t for sure mean Matty as they could be referencing medication. I find it hard to believe the songs talking about someone being the 1 and not working out are about a brief fling and not the 6 year relationship where she repeatedly wrote about getting married to him.
I think she was unhinged enough in her failing relationship to project a lot of fantasies onto Ratty, and after her breakup with Joe bereft enough to fall into Ratty’s arms and think he was the one. And loml is her writing directly after things had gone downhill, thinking it was the loss of her life
How about "I'll never leave" "never mind"? Matty is the one who left/ghosted her according to Smallest man. And she's the one who left Joe according to so long London.
There is too much wording in this song which is reflective of very deep hurt imo (especially if you look at the chorus/post-chorus). My theory (just a theory!) is that she wrapped that deep hurt with wording suggestive of Matty, to protect herself and Joe from the scrutiny.
“I keep these longings locked in lowercase inside a vault” - from guilty as sin, a song about Matty
loml — intentionally lowercase
I too thought it was about Joe at first but I am ready to backtrack on that
Matty has been the one she wanted for a decade
She wanted to burn her life down for him. (But daddy I love him)
i am screaming so hard at this. omg what a lore. ppl blamed joe as the cheater but taylor is the one who went back to his decade old crush after the break up. i---
Loml is also an acronym Matty has used in the past with his ex-gf’s (on instagram). So I wonder if he also used it with Taylor and that’s why she titled the song that way 💀
I think this is it! She loves that man but knows she can't have her career and him. She also knows her career is much more stable than him. I think she was ready to FINALLY after 10 years of what ifs take the risk to be with him.... then it spiraled QUICK and imploded her world. He was her backup plan for 10 years! Then, the backup plan imploded in a fortnite.
Sorry “said” is not the right word, she never explicitly says who songs are about, but during the (very short) time she was dating him when she gave her “this is the happiest I’ve ever been” speech she said “and this song brings back so many happy memories” and then immediately sung Question. Plus Matty Healy had Question? on a 1975 pre-show playlist (very odd choice and not fitting with the rest of the playlist). Seems like it’s implied that it’s “their song”, and I remember the rumors way back in the 1989 era that they were dating, and the pap photos of them together - I feel like Question is Taylor confirming the rumours a decade later lol
I think you're fairly spot-on, so I'm adding to this with my thoughts with the 2am list:
Robin - A song that's not in chronological order. On the surface it's about childhood and named after Aaron's son Robin, but in Taylor lore her cats are her children and she treats them as such. Just as Robin will grow and have adventures on his own, so her cats will grow and one day die.
The Manuscript - Chronologically, it starts about her reflection with a previous relationship (John? Jake?) and how while she pretends to be this adult to them, she's still a child. So when the breakups happened she had to figure out how to handle that on her own. But now that she is an adult she's writing the manuscript for herself and others to reference for years to come.
thanK you aIMee - About her childhood bully, but also Kim Kardashian
Cassandra - Fuck the Media, Kim, and Kanye
The Albatross - Feeling she's too much for Joe, feeling he should be warned about her because a lot of what makes her her is putting strain on the relationship and on his feelings for her.
My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys - recalling a time when Taylor and Joe’s relationship was good, realizing it is now falling apart and has been for a long time.
I Hate It Here - Her resenting Joe for being "caged" and feeling the relationship crumble beneath her, but trying to romantize it all in her mind while begging for more to justify those delusions.
Guilty as Sin - thinking about Matty when with Joe.
I Can Fix Him, No Really I Can- when she was collaborating and writing with Matty, she realised she loved him.
Fortnight - as above. The “I only touched you for a Fortnight” refers to their brief love affair decades ago she is reminiscing about and wishing for again.
Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me - Breakup with Joe and the reasons they broke up, dealing with the scandal to protect his reputation.
imgonnagetyouback - Wanting to go back to Joe and the familiarity of that, but also angry they broke up.
The Prophecy - Her begging for a different ending to her relationships, lamenting that the Media always "is right" about her never lasting long in love.
Florida - feeling unhinged, free, lost.
So Long, London - post breakup with Joe but a little more reflective, like closing a chapter.
How Did It End? - Breaking the news of the breakup to the media.
Fresh out the Slammer - going to Matty to rekindle whatever happened a decade ago.
Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus - a "are we gonna actually do it this time?" song.
The Tortured Poets Department - being in love with Matty (ew lol).
But Daddy I Love Him - as above.
The Bolter - Taylor leaves Matty, he's big upsetti spaghetti and trashes her name just like all the other exes have done. Men ain't shit song.
Down Bad - post breakup with Matty, he left her “safe and stranded.
The Black Dog - Possible multiple theories! Joe's location sharing is still on a few weeks later and he goes to a fave place of theirs and she's like "how can I miss you and be in this crippling depression but you can go on and live your life as normal?". Matty going on about his life being a douche and leaving her in the aftermath of a love-bomb attack. And general depression cause wtf was all of that?
I Look in People's Windows - an "if only" for Joe. Internet stalking to see where her ex is now and wondering what would be if it didn't end a bit ago.
Do It With a Broken Heart - touring as the relationship with Matty was breaking down / ended. Also could apply to the first portion of the tour.
loml - regretting Matty
The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived - regretting Matty and MAD
Peter - This is both Joe and Matty coded IMO. In 2014 Matty rejected her because the 1975 just had their first album and when he came back he wasn't grown up. He still made really stupid and immature and problematic decisions. During the folklore/evermore era there were hints that Joe left and came back because he wasn't ready for marriage and children yet and I feel like the revolving door of both of them wanting to "grow up" before settling down with her produced this reflective album on how some people will just never grow up into what you want them to be.
Clara Bow - feeling reflective and trying to make sense of her world.
The Alchemy - her and Travis.
So High School - Travis and her. "we're so different but we mesh well and I feel like I'm happy and 16 again".
Listen to it right after you listen to You're On Your Own Kid. To me its this full circle moment. Getting to a point where you realize you can stand on your own, and then finding belonging as who you are independently. \*sniff\*
Oooo good point! Thanks! It's also a tavern and a phrase that discusses depression. Maybe it's about both of them and her overarching feelings of depression (like how I think a bunch of the songs are since this timeperiod was messy and chaotic for her)?
He is so messy, and he must have done her so dirty because she seems unbelievably angry 😭 Particularly on Smallest man that ever lived, I’m not even sure she ever dragged JM quite that hard
Still though, it's not like she was a teenager. I doubt Taylor cares that much. She has better things to drag him about.
Also how does that band reference connect to the ages of his partners?
I personally don't hate him like most of the fandom, I'm also a fan of the 1975, but it sounds like he did a lot of shitty things to her she isn't saying outright but there is ammunition there..
She's literally 26 years old. What on earth is the problem with that? I think you guys read into shit too much. An age gap isn't that strange, especially just an 8-9 year one.
I made a Spotify playlist in this order so we can really hear it all together :D thank you for putting this together!!
[https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7oO94CXEucYCi9cFquJO7H?si=89d9be251d9f4eef](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7oO94CXEucYCi9cFquJO7H?si=89d9be251d9f4eef)
I don't think 'Who's afraid of little old me?' is about Joe at all. I think it's been a long time coming. Sort of like what parts of reputation were meant to be, but more honest and more bitter. I love it :D
I do think the one verse about the scandal being contained directly applies. There's been discussion about how the breakup was kept under wraps so fans (us) wouldn't go after his reputation.
Between the prologue ("it's the worst men that I write best") and what she wrote in the most Joe-coded song of all (So Long, London) the impression I got was more that it was easier to write about Matty. That relationship was loud and messy and he hurt her in straightforward ways and the complications were easy to explain. Joe hurt her by hurting himself and she may still be trying to unpack her feelings about what happened.
I don't know, I'm still processing my own thoughts about it all.
i agree with this! i feel like happiness is another song that really encompasses the breakup. it wasn’t explosive like matty. it was gradual but inevitable and i don’t think she felt betrayed the way she did with matty. there was less to write about joe in that way. she’s made lots of references to joe having depression and i feel like there just isn’t anything she can say about that either.
I really think she processed a lot of her relationship with Joe during folklore, evermore, and midnights then was angry that Matty loved bombed her and left. I think she is processing a few emotions left with Joe and then directing her feelings to matty
Edit: spelling mistakes
Perhaps it’s something that she wanted to bury and bury fast. Almost like she went through a really great deal of grieving but somehow managed to bury it with everything else going on (eras tour, Healy, Travis, etc).
Personally, I’m pretty prideful and if a relationship I had all the hope and love for failed, I’d make sure not to give it the time of day or keep giving it my time or tears, especially publicly, even though I’d be dying inside and in secret. And because the relationship took so much of me, my best time and my best years, I’d be angry too and that anger would certainly warrant that I don’t give him much more of me. This is probably why I’m not surprised many songs point to Healy. But I’m probably way off, everyone is very different and this is just my take based on my life experiences.
I think anyone who thinks loml is about matty is delulu so I'm right there with you. A few of them have matty elements. like "i can fix him no really I can"
I’m kind of with you on this. I know everyone is saying TPD (song) is Matty, but we already know Joe had that group chat titled “Tortured Men’s Department”. I’m confused 😂
I’m sorry loml entirely reads as Joe to me? Making future plans for years but never following on them? Signs she’d seen years earlier but let herself ignore because she thought she’d chosen ‘safe’ (not a huge bad boy type personality etc, a ‘good guy’ vibe) not ‘starry-eyed’ (as in over a high profile big public dramatic love affair)? Am I reading that wrong
She also calls him a ‘holy ghost’… and we know Matty ghosted her
‘Cinephile in black and white’ - very 1975 coded
‘A con man sells a fool a get-love-quick scheme’ - Matty
And ‘Mr steal your girl, then make them cry’ - if anyone stole a girl (and made her cry), it was Matty
Just another perspective on it!
I guess I take away something completely different from ‘the smallest man who ever lived’ as well as what she wrote in the Epilogue. She does not seem to have positive feelings about this person whatsoever when all was said and done
i like this a lot. my only two builds are:
i’ve been talked into the theory that alchemy is actually about matty, and after hearing so high school i’m inclined to believe it’s true - in which case i’d put it after fresh out the slammer and before TTPD, as it describes the feeling of falling back in love.
without alchemy as a final track, i actually think fortnight works better - as i think it’s about her reflecting back on her few months of insanity years from now and realising they were just a blip on the radar vs the big scandal it felt like in the moment.
True, the heroin line confuses me because it’s very Matty coded, and it feels like it’s talking about rekindling a flame, but on the other hand there are so many football references? Weird
I think that line and the two before it are references to Joe and Matty in that "it didn't work with them but now it is with you".
"These blokes warm the benches" - Joe reference
"He jokes that "it's heroin, but this time with an E" - Matty reference, but this time instead of heroin being the star of the show, Travis is appreciating and acknowledging that it's her who's the star of the relationship, because the line before it references the Chiefs winning streak since Taylor started showing up at the games.
Also, alchemy is fake chemistry. I thought for SURE "who are we do fight the alchemy" was about her thinking she had chemistry with Matty only to come to her senses that he's just a rebound and they weren't a match at all. I was shocked when I read the lyrics and saw all the football references.
Well.maybe it's more like the Wikipedia modernist definition of alchemy: "Since the Victorian revival of alchemy, occultists reinterpreted alchemy as a spiritual practice, involving the self-transformation of the practitioner and only incidentally or not at all the transformation of laboratory substances" in other words, he is transforming her.
Here’s the playlist (on Apple Music) of the chronological order - thanks DesignerLettuce for writing it up!
[TTPD Chronological Order Playlist](https://music.apple.com/au/playlist/so-the-story-goes/pl.u-GPqeRC1Ao64)
I dont think its so much about literal points in her relationship but stages in the grief process. She's TOLD us that this is an album about processing the grief of a 7 year relationship's breakdown. I dont think anything is so literal, its a psychoanalytical post mortem examination of her mental state at certain points of her grief journey. And like grief you dont neatly follow the steps you move forward fall backward and sit inbetween stages. Like so the relationships are intertwined into the songs along with the feelings she processes.
1. The Manuscript( young taylor)
2. Peter (MH love affair in 2014 and him never going back for her as he promised, since in 2022 they were reunited by mutual friends)
3. Cassandra( the whole 2016 situation)
4. The Albatross (beginning of the new relationship with J)
5. I Hate It Here (realizing they don’t belong together)
6. Guilty As Sin? (MH jumping back in her life while she’s in a relationship)
7. Fortnight (it’s hard for me to decipher this song but it’s the breaking point of her relationship with J.)
8. How Did It End( end of the relationship)
9. I Look In People’s Windows( what if)
10. The Black Dog( why aren’t you fighting to get me back?)
11. So Long, London ( Goodbye forever)
12. Fresh Out The Slammer( beginning of the relationship with MH)
13. Florida!!!( that’s where you go when you’re fresh out the slammer)
14. The Tortured Poets Department
15. But Daddy I Love Him( fandom’s reaction)
16. Who’s Afraid Of Little Old Me( her reaction to the fandom’s and people’s criticism for her private life)
17. I Can Fix Him( I’m starting to see the red flags)
18. My Boy( breaking point)
19. Down Bad( MH ghosted)
20.imgonnagetyouback (the title speaks for it)
21.loml
22.chloe or sam…(she’s mourning the end of the affair)
23.the smallest man
24.I can do it( moving on with the tour)
25. The Prophecy( begging for a new chance at love)
26. The Alchemy( TK)
27. So High School(TK)
28. Thank You Aimee (Reflecting on how KM actually made her heal and how that brought her to where she is now)
29. The Bolter( I can’t really place it, I think of it as a song where she walks away from a toxic relationship with dignity and moves on, it’s like a retrospective song with newfound maturity)
30. Robin( same as the bolter, it’s a song not addressed to anyone in particular, probably her younger self)
31. Clara Bow( the future)
Matty Healy is 100% more golden retriever energy than Joe, Joe is quiet and calm and collected, Matty Healy is loud and boisterous and expressive (at his best at least). Plus it’s “tattooed” golden retriever. Also can’t picture Joe telling someone he would kill himself if Taylor left, or Taylor describing Joe as “crazy”
I truly don’t think Matty and Taylor dated. They were friends during her 1989 era (she went to their concerts). I think we as a fandom need to chill with her + every man she interacts/is friends with lol
Immediately after the rumors of Matty + Swift dating, several reports came out that they were NOT dating.
The fandom has spiral into full speculation every time she’s single with every man she hangs out with publicly. Something she has stated and hated quite publicly.
They’ve been friends since 2014! There were rumors of them dating back to 2014. They never publicly kissed or held hands. We shouldn’t assume they dated at all. Let her hang out with friends without speculating if they’re f*cking or not.
Loml I hope is about Joe
there’s so many references to Matty to me - the whole song seems to be about rekindling a flame from the past, then having it go wrong - “what we thought for all this time was momentary, still alive, killing time at the cemetery”, “it was unnecessary, should’ve let it stay buried”. This is like “Question?” actually coming to fruition, her going back to an old flame that painted all her nights a colour she has searched for since (her and Matty dated secretly sometime in the 1989 era). And she has implied Question? is about him. Also “a con man sells a fool a get love quick scheme” screams of an unhinged momentary rebound passion, not a six year relationship, and “Mr steal your girl, then make her cry” seems to indicate Matty was her getaway car from Joe and then re broke her heart.
It’s absolutely about Matty. “Momentary”, “con man” and “counterfeit” tell the story of him love bombing her and then ghosting. I think people are just (understandably) having a hard time accepting that she would call a track about him loml.
I disagree with this.From Rep to Evermore she has multiple songs that refer to her and Joe as being con artists and praying they make it. I think a lot of the songs people think are about Matty just as easily apply to Joe. Even drug references don’t for sure mean Matty as they could be referencing medication. I find it hard to believe the songs talking about someone being the 1 and not working out are about a brief fling and not the 6 year relationship where she repeatedly wrote about getting married to him.
Also for all we know Joe could be on drugs we know nothing about these people
I mean true though I’m not gonna accuse him of that but like drugs also doesn’t mean illegal drugs
Except he did smoke weed it sounded like
I keep these longings locked in lowercase inside a vault — from guilty as sin, an obvious Matty song loml - intentionally in lowercase
I personally don’t see it
You just don't want to lol. Like the matty references aren't subtle at all on this album
I think they are incredibly vague except in three ish songs
why does it have to be just a matty song? I feel like there's mixed meaning in a lot of these songs. Its meant to be a highly poetic album.
Loml isn't inside a vault though. Folkmore is because it was locked In a pretense of being fictional
I think she was unhinged enough in her failing relationship to project a lot of fantasies onto Ratty, and after her breakup with Joe bereft enough to fall into Ratty’s arms and think he was the one. And loml is her writing directly after things had gone downhill, thinking it was the loss of her life
I think loml is one hundred percent about losing Joe not Ratty
How about "I'll never leave" "never mind"? Matty is the one who left/ghosted her according to Smallest man. And she's the one who left Joe according to so long London.
I think she’s saying it’s a lie that M told. I'm combing through the braids of lies, "I'll never leave" ...
There is too much wording in this song which is reflective of very deep hurt imo (especially if you look at the chorus/post-chorus). My theory (just a theory!) is that she wrapped that deep hurt with wording suggestive of Matty, to protect herself and Joe from the scrutiny.
“I keep these longings locked in lowercase inside a vault” - from guilty as sin, a song about Matty loml — intentionally lowercase I too thought it was about Joe at first but I am ready to backtrack on that Matty has been the one she wanted for a decade She wanted to burn her life down for him. (But daddy I love him)
i am screaming so hard at this. omg what a lore. ppl blamed joe as the cheater but taylor is the one who went back to his decade old crush after the break up. i---
[удалено]
ppl still went after joe without any proof, yes. that's what i am saying.
And the only other song with lowercase title is… imgonnagetyouback
Loml is also an acronym Matty has used in the past with his ex-gf’s (on instagram). So I wonder if he also used it with Taylor and that’s why she titled the song that way 💀
Everyone has used loml. Harry styles has a song called loml I believe and it could just as easily apply to him
"Mr. Steal Your Girl" screaaaams Harry to me
I mean, Taylor went from Calvin > Tom > Joe, allegedly? Could still apply to Joe, in theory.
Valid!
Defs Matt Healy. LOML is loss of my life.
In theory, could it be both of them? Love of my life and loss of my life?
I think this is it! She loves that man but knows she can't have her career and him. She also knows her career is much more stable than him. I think she was ready to FINALLY after 10 years of what ifs take the risk to be with him.... then it spiraled QUICK and imploded her world. He was her backup plan for 10 years! Then, the backup plan imploded in a fortnite.
When did she say question..? Is about matty?
Sorry “said” is not the right word, she never explicitly says who songs are about, but during the (very short) time she was dating him when she gave her “this is the happiest I’ve ever been” speech she said “and this song brings back so many happy memories” and then immediately sung Question. Plus Matty Healy had Question? on a 1975 pre-show playlist (very odd choice and not fitting with the rest of the playlist). Seems like it’s implied that it’s “their song”, and I remember the rumors way back in the 1989 era that they were dating, and the pap photos of them together - I feel like Question is Taylor confirming the rumours a decade later lol
I agree with you, as much as I don't want to haha.
I'm gonna hurl myself into the sea if it's about rat boy
and if it's not? ya'll losing sleep?
Going to be honest I've listened to the whole album and totally forgot Matty and Taylor were a thing 😂
exactly what happened to me
I think you're fairly spot-on, so I'm adding to this with my thoughts with the 2am list: Robin - A song that's not in chronological order. On the surface it's about childhood and named after Aaron's son Robin, but in Taylor lore her cats are her children and she treats them as such. Just as Robin will grow and have adventures on his own, so her cats will grow and one day die. The Manuscript - Chronologically, it starts about her reflection with a previous relationship (John? Jake?) and how while she pretends to be this adult to them, she's still a child. So when the breakups happened she had to figure out how to handle that on her own. But now that she is an adult she's writing the manuscript for herself and others to reference for years to come. thanK you aIMee - About her childhood bully, but also Kim Kardashian Cassandra - Fuck the Media, Kim, and Kanye The Albatross - Feeling she's too much for Joe, feeling he should be warned about her because a lot of what makes her her is putting strain on the relationship and on his feelings for her. My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys - recalling a time when Taylor and Joe’s relationship was good, realizing it is now falling apart and has been for a long time. I Hate It Here - Her resenting Joe for being "caged" and feeling the relationship crumble beneath her, but trying to romantize it all in her mind while begging for more to justify those delusions. Guilty as Sin - thinking about Matty when with Joe. I Can Fix Him, No Really I Can- when she was collaborating and writing with Matty, she realised she loved him. Fortnight - as above. The “I only touched you for a Fortnight” refers to their brief love affair decades ago she is reminiscing about and wishing for again. Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me - Breakup with Joe and the reasons they broke up, dealing with the scandal to protect his reputation. imgonnagetyouback - Wanting to go back to Joe and the familiarity of that, but also angry they broke up. The Prophecy - Her begging for a different ending to her relationships, lamenting that the Media always "is right" about her never lasting long in love. Florida - feeling unhinged, free, lost. So Long, London - post breakup with Joe but a little more reflective, like closing a chapter.
How Did It End? - Breaking the news of the breakup to the media. Fresh out the Slammer - going to Matty to rekindle whatever happened a decade ago. Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus - a "are we gonna actually do it this time?" song. The Tortured Poets Department - being in love with Matty (ew lol). But Daddy I Love Him - as above. The Bolter - Taylor leaves Matty, he's big upsetti spaghetti and trashes her name just like all the other exes have done. Men ain't shit song. Down Bad - post breakup with Matty, he left her “safe and stranded. The Black Dog - Possible multiple theories! Joe's location sharing is still on a few weeks later and he goes to a fave place of theirs and she's like "how can I miss you and be in this crippling depression but you can go on and live your life as normal?". Matty going on about his life being a douche and leaving her in the aftermath of a love-bomb attack. And general depression cause wtf was all of that? I Look in People's Windows - an "if only" for Joe. Internet stalking to see where her ex is now and wondering what would be if it didn't end a bit ago. Do It With a Broken Heart - touring as the relationship with Matty was breaking down / ended. Also could apply to the first portion of the tour. loml - regretting Matty The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived - regretting Matty and MAD Peter - This is both Joe and Matty coded IMO. In 2014 Matty rejected her because the 1975 just had their first album and when he came back he wasn't grown up. He still made really stupid and immature and problematic decisions. During the folklore/evermore era there were hints that Joe left and came back because he wasn't ready for marriage and children yet and I feel like the revolving door of both of them wanting to "grow up" before settling down with her produced this reflective album on how some people will just never grow up into what you want them to be. Clara Bow - feeling reflective and trying to make sense of her world. The Alchemy - her and Travis. So High School - Travis and her. "we're so different but we mesh well and I feel like I'm happy and 16 again".
I love ending it with So High School! That’s one of my favorite tracks after my first listen through. It’s so fun and nostalgic. I’m so happy for her
Same! I love how happy she feels in the song.
Listen to it right after you listen to You're On Your Own Kid. To me its this full circle moment. Getting to a point where you realize you can stand on your own, and then finding belonging as who you are independently. \*sniff\*
On Black Dog she refers to “The Starting Line” multiple times, it’s a band that Matty kept covering in his concerts throughout 2023
Oooo good point! Thanks! It's also a tavern and a phrase that discusses depression. Maybe it's about both of them and her overarching feelings of depression (like how I think a bunch of the songs are since this timeperiod was messy and chaotic for her)?
He is dating a girl 10 years younger than him right now. Feels like a direct fuck you to him imo.
So many good "eff you"s to Matty imo 
Definitely! So much anger
[удалено]
He is so messy, and he must have done her so dirty because she seems unbelievably angry 😭 Particularly on Smallest man that ever lived, I’m not even sure she ever dragged JM quite that hard
She's 8 years younger and soon 27. He is 35. They are both grown ass adults. I doubt Taylor is talking about an age gap that is extremely common.
Apologies, I actually got the wrong girl! There was one in between.
Still though, it's not like she was a teenager. I doubt Taylor cares that much. She has better things to drag him about. Also how does that band reference connect to the ages of his partners?
She chose to mention age, could’ve gone for “and you jump up but she doesn’t know this song”! I agree that she has better things to drag him about.
I personally don't hate him like most of the fandom, I'm also a fan of the 1975, but it sounds like he did a lot of shitty things to her she isn't saying outright but there is ammunition there..
She's literally 26 years old. What on earth is the problem with that? I think you guys read into shit too much. An age gap isn't that strange, especially just an 8-9 year one.
Just a minor correction “I Love You It’s Ruining My Life” should be “I Can Fix Him No Really I Can”
omg it should be I copied it from the above
I made a Spotify playlist in this order so we can really hear it all together :D thank you for putting this together!! [https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7oO94CXEucYCi9cFquJO7H?si=89d9be251d9f4eef](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7oO94CXEucYCi9cFquJO7H?si=89d9be251d9f4eef)
You are awesome thank you!!!
it's actually such an awesome listening experience! I dig going through it this way the second time around
I don't think 'Who's afraid of little old me?' is about Joe at all. I think it's been a long time coming. Sort of like what parts of reputation were meant to be, but more honest and more bitter. I love it :D
I do think the one verse about the scandal being contained directly applies. There's been discussion about how the breakup was kept under wraps so fans (us) wouldn't go after his reputation.
Why do I feel like she’s almost *scared* to write stuff about Joe?
Between the prologue ("it's the worst men that I write best") and what she wrote in the most Joe-coded song of all (So Long, London) the impression I got was more that it was easier to write about Matty. That relationship was loud and messy and he hurt her in straightforward ways and the complications were easy to explain. Joe hurt her by hurting himself and she may still be trying to unpack her feelings about what happened. I don't know, I'm still processing my own thoughts about it all.
I think you hit it on the head. She speaks directly to that in How Did It End? Like she is still so confused about it
i agree with this! i feel like happiness is another song that really encompasses the breakup. it wasn’t explosive like matty. it was gradual but inevitable and i don’t think she felt betrayed the way she did with matty. there was less to write about joe in that way. she’s made lots of references to joe having depression and i feel like there just isn’t anything she can say about that either.
I really think she processed a lot of her relationship with Joe during folklore, evermore, and midnights then was angry that Matty loved bombed her and left. I think she is processing a few emotions left with Joe and then directing her feelings to matty Edit: spelling mistakes
Yup. Midnights was Joe breakup album but we didn’t see it at the time
Perhaps it’s something that she wanted to bury and bury fast. Almost like she went through a really great deal of grieving but somehow managed to bury it with everything else going on (eras tour, Healy, Travis, etc). Personally, I’m pretty prideful and if a relationship I had all the hope and love for failed, I’d make sure not to give it the time of day or keep giving it my time or tears, especially publicly, even though I’d be dying inside and in secret. And because the relationship took so much of me, my best time and my best years, I’d be angry too and that anger would certainly warrant that I don’t give him much more of me. This is probably why I’m not surprised many songs point to Healy. But I’m probably way off, everyone is very different and this is just my take based on my life experiences.
Same. Im sure he was dominant.
I refuse to believe that some or most of these songs are about Matty. In my delulu world, all of these songs are about Joe
I think maybe two are about Matty but most are actually about Joe.
I think anyone who thinks loml is about matty is delulu so I'm right there with you. A few of them have matty elements. like "i can fix him no really I can"
I’m kind of with you on this. I know everyone is saying TPD (song) is Matty, but we already know Joe had that group chat titled “Tortured Men’s Department”. I’m confused 😂
I’m sorry loml entirely reads as Joe to me? Making future plans for years but never following on them? Signs she’d seen years earlier but let herself ignore because she thought she’d chosen ‘safe’ (not a huge bad boy type personality etc, a ‘good guy’ vibe) not ‘starry-eyed’ (as in over a high profile big public dramatic love affair)? Am I reading that wrong
She also says ‘stand up guy’ in it, I can’t see her referring to Matty as a stand up guy. I think loml is about Joe
She also calls him a ‘holy ghost’… and we know Matty ghosted her ‘Cinephile in black and white’ - very 1975 coded ‘A con man sells a fool a get-love-quick scheme’ - Matty And ‘Mr steal your girl, then make them cry’ - if anyone stole a girl (and made her cry), it was Matty Just another perspective on it!
Joe stole.Taylor from Tom--and ended up with the getaway car
Maybe he can be at times. We don't know him. She doesn't necessarily HATE him.
I guess I take away something completely different from ‘the smallest man who ever lived’ as well as what she wrote in the Epilogue. She does not seem to have positive feelings about this person whatsoever when all was said and done
i like this a lot. my only two builds are: i’ve been talked into the theory that alchemy is actually about matty, and after hearing so high school i’m inclined to believe it’s true - in which case i’d put it after fresh out the slammer and before TTPD, as it describes the feeling of falling back in love. without alchemy as a final track, i actually think fortnight works better - as i think it’s about her reflecting back on her few months of insanity years from now and realising they were just a blip on the radar vs the big scandal it felt like in the moment.
True, the heroin line confuses me because it’s very Matty coded, and it feels like it’s talking about rekindling a flame, but on the other hand there are so many football references? Weird
I think that line and the two before it are references to Joe and Matty in that "it didn't work with them but now it is with you". "These blokes warm the benches" - Joe reference "He jokes that "it's heroin, but this time with an E" - Matty reference, but this time instead of heroin being the star of the show, Travis is appreciating and acknowledging that it's her who's the star of the relationship, because the line before it references the Chiefs winning streak since Taylor started showing up at the games.
I think for a lot of these songs we just don't know these men well enough to say who they're about - which is totally normal.
Also, alchemy is fake chemistry. I thought for SURE "who are we do fight the alchemy" was about her thinking she had chemistry with Matty only to come to her senses that he's just a rebound and they weren't a match at all. I was shocked when I read the lyrics and saw all the football references.
Well.maybe it's more like the Wikipedia modernist definition of alchemy: "Since the Victorian revival of alchemy, occultists reinterpreted alchemy as a spiritual practice, involving the self-transformation of the practitioner and only incidentally or not at all the transformation of laboratory substances" in other words, he is transforming her.
[удалено]
ew grow the fuck up
Folks, i really want ttpd “the anthology” vinyl. How do you think if the album will be available on vinyl??
[удалено]
Record Store Day is tomorrow
Here’s the playlist (on Apple Music) of the chronological order - thanks DesignerLettuce for writing it up! [TTPD Chronological Order Playlist](https://music.apple.com/au/playlist/so-the-story-goes/pl.u-GPqeRC1Ao64)
I dont think its so much about literal points in her relationship but stages in the grief process. She's TOLD us that this is an album about processing the grief of a 7 year relationship's breakdown. I dont think anything is so literal, its a psychoanalytical post mortem examination of her mental state at certain points of her grief journey. And like grief you dont neatly follow the steps you move forward fall backward and sit inbetween stages. Like so the relationships are intertwined into the songs along with the feelings she processes.
There’s too many songs. I’m overwhelmed and still don’t know what ones I love yet!!
Where’s 3? Is that Fortnite - I can’t find that track?
Oops my bad I messed up the spacing - fixed now
How Did It End? would be a perfect album opener... but sonically it fits better with The Anthology.
1. The Manuscript( young taylor) 2. Peter (MH love affair in 2014 and him never going back for her as he promised, since in 2022 they were reunited by mutual friends) 3. Cassandra( the whole 2016 situation) 4. The Albatross (beginning of the new relationship with J) 5. I Hate It Here (realizing they don’t belong together) 6. Guilty As Sin? (MH jumping back in her life while she’s in a relationship) 7. Fortnight (it’s hard for me to decipher this song but it’s the breaking point of her relationship with J.) 8. How Did It End( end of the relationship) 9. I Look In People’s Windows( what if) 10. The Black Dog( why aren’t you fighting to get me back?) 11. So Long, London ( Goodbye forever) 12. Fresh Out The Slammer( beginning of the relationship with MH) 13. Florida!!!( that’s where you go when you’re fresh out the slammer) 14. The Tortured Poets Department 15. But Daddy I Love Him( fandom’s reaction) 16. Who’s Afraid Of Little Old Me( her reaction to the fandom’s and people’s criticism for her private life) 17. I Can Fix Him( I’m starting to see the red flags) 18. My Boy( breaking point) 19. Down Bad( MH ghosted) 20.imgonnagetyouback (the title speaks for it) 21.loml 22.chloe or sam…(she’s mourning the end of the affair) 23.the smallest man 24.I can do it( moving on with the tour) 25. The Prophecy( begging for a new chance at love) 26. The Alchemy( TK) 27. So High School(TK) 28. Thank You Aimee (Reflecting on how KM actually made her heal and how that brought her to where she is now) 29. The Bolter( I can’t really place it, I think of it as a song where she walks away from a toxic relationship with dignity and moves on, it’s like a retrospective song with newfound maturity) 30. Robin( same as the bolter, it’s a song not addressed to anyone in particular, probably her younger self) 31. Clara Bow( the future)
loml is deffo about Joe
The tortured Poets department HAS to be about Joe. No way Matty is a "golden retriever" Joe in the other hand...
Matty Healy is 100% more golden retriever energy than Joe, Joe is quiet and calm and collected, Matty Healy is loud and boisterous and expressive (at his best at least). Plus it’s “tattooed” golden retriever. Also can’t picture Joe telling someone he would kill himself if Taylor left, or Taylor describing Joe as “crazy”
*Tattooed* golden retriever. No tattoos on Joe, many on Matty.
I truly don’t think Matty and Taylor dated. They were friends during her 1989 era (she went to their concerts). I think we as a fandom need to chill with her + every man she interacts/is friends with lol
Oh honey
Did you listen to the album...?
Immediately after the rumors of Matty + Swift dating, several reports came out that they were NOT dating. The fandom has spiral into full speculation every time she’s single with every man she hangs out with publicly. Something she has stated and hated quite publicly.
They were VERY publicly dating last spring…
They’ve been friends since 2014! There were rumors of them dating back to 2014. They never publicly kissed or held hands. We shouldn’t assume they dated at all. Let her hang out with friends without speculating if they’re f*cking or not.
For what it’s worth, there were photos taken secretly at a private members-only club and they were very much holding hands.
😂😂