Taylor Swift's Joe Alwyn Shade On The Tortured Poets Department Tracklist Is Hard To Miss
Taylor Swift's new album — set for release on April 19, 2024 — will definitely chronicle her relationship and breakup with actor Joe Alwyn. At least that's the vibe we're getting from Swift's album tracklist. One day after announcing her new album, "The Tortured Poets Department," at the 2024 Grammys, Swift followed up with the album's equally melancholy tracklist. Taking to Instagram, Swift posted the album's entire 17-track playlist, which includes some pretty obvious references (and shade) about Alwyn.
The most obvious example is a track called "So Long, London," which is where the British actor grew up and currently lives. Swift also spent a significant amount of time with Alwyn in London during their relationship, per E! News, so it would make sense for her to distance herself from both on the song. Other tracks — such as "But Daddy I Love Him," "I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)," and "My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys" — aren't nearly as on the nose and open to interpretation, but they're obviously about relationship woes. Given that Alwyn is Swift's most recent serious ex (of six years), it makes sense that any fresh breakup records would be aimed at him, right? Obviously, we'll have to wait to see how Swift frames these tracks, but things aren't looking all that great for Alwyn's "Reputation."
How Taylor Swift's fans are interpreting her tracks
Taylor Swift's fans usually take her lead, so her silence about Joe Alwyn has mostly helped the actor escape the scorn of her fans. However, the release of Swift's tracklist appears to be shifting the tides — and not in Alwyn's favor. One fan, for example, seems to think that Swift's song, "Fresh Out The Slammer," could be her way of expressing feeling trapped in her relationship with Alwyn. "Taylor saying 'he can be my jailer' in 2018, then saying 'me locking myself away in my house for years — I'll never get that time back' in the TIME issue a few months back after the breakup, and now releasing a song called 'fresh out the slammer'..... it's over it's so over," tweeted the Swiftie.
Another fan believes that Swift's track, "But Daddy I Love Him," is about more than just a woman looking for romantic approval from an overprotective father. Instead, they think that Swift took inspiration from "The Little Mermaid" to convey a very depressing message. "And the phrase 'But Daddy I Love Him' is from the Little Mermaid in which Ariel loses her voice," wrote one fan on Reddit. "I'm sensing that perhaps feeling silenced about her relationship with Joe due to his intense need for privacy was one of the ways she felt [tortured]." Then there's the unfortunate similarities between Swift and actor Clara Bow, whom she named one track after. As detailed in the thread, both starlets were forced to juggle love and fame amid personal struggles.
Wow, deep stuff!