Start the games! After Taylor Swift released The Tortured Poets Department, Swifties played their favorite parlor game: who is this lyric about?
Longtime fans expected the singer's 11th studio album, a 31-track, double-disc, two-hour behemoth, to explore her breakup with actor Joe Alwyn or her new relationship with NFL player Travis Kelce, but the lyrics were not about either man.
Taylor purportedly dated The 1975's shambolic vocalist Matty Healy in early 2023, and many Swifties believed she referenced him on the title tune.
The verses refer to an ex as a “tattooed golden retriever,” which many Swifties thought beautifully summed up the hedonistic, cigarette-puffing, inked-up rock rabble rouser who can range from eager-to-please to gratingly off-putting.
“You smoked then ate seven bars of chocolate/ We declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist/ I scratch your head, you fall asleep/ Like a tattooed golden retriever....
....she sings on the album's gauzy second tune In 2013, his band released “Chocolate” and Healy often smokes cigarettes onstage.
Other hints? Swift sings, “Sometimes I wonder if you're gonna screw this up with me/ But you told Lucy you'd kill yourself if I ever leave/ And I had said that to Jack....
....about you so I felt seen/ Everyone we know understands why it's meant to be/ Because we're crazy,” referencing Healy's former friend Lucy Dacus. The song's producer, Jack Antonoff, is also mentioned.