Let the video games start! Rapidly after Taylor Swift dropped her The Tortured Poets Division album, Swifties had been sifting by means of the lyrics to play their favourite parlor recreation: who is that this lyric about?
And whereas longtime followers had been certain the singer’s eleventh studio album — which, in a shock, is a 31-track, double-disc, two-hour behemoth — would plumb into the top of her affair with former longtime boyfriend actor Joe Alwyn, or maybe gush over new beau NFL participant Travis Kelce — the lyrics many keyed in on weren’t about both man.
The truth is, quite a few Swifties speculated that on the title observe she references a fellow musician who Taylor allegedly dated for a quick interval in early 2023, The 1975’s shambolic singer Matty Healy. The traces in query seek advice from an ex as a “tattooed golden retriever,” which many Swifties thought appeared to poetically sum up the hedonistic, cigarette-puffing, inked-up rock rabble rouser who seamlessly swings from eager-to-please to gratingly off-putting.
“You smoked then ate seven bars of chocolate/ We declared Charlie Puth ought to be a much bigger artist/ I scratch your head, you go to sleep/ Like a tattooed golden retriever,” she sings on the gathering’s gauzy second music. Healy typically puffs cigs on stage throughout his band’s reveals and his band launched a music referred to as “Chocolate” in 2013.
Different clues? A seeming reference to Healy’s one-time good friend Lucy Dacus, by which Swift sings, “Typically I ponder when you’re gonna screw this up with me/ However you advised Lucy you’d kill your self if I ever go away/ And I had mentioned that to Jack about you so I felt seen/ Everybody we all know understands why it’s meant to be/ As a result of we’re loopy,” which additionally name-checks longtime good friend and the music’s producer, Jack Antonoff. Whereas Swift, and her crew, by no means confirmed that the 2 had been romantically linked, Swifties, as standard, dug deep for receipts.
“TTPD – Thanks Taylor for my new favourite description of Matty Healy, ‘Tattooed golden retriever.’ The Lucy & Jack identify drop & marriage ceremony ring factor right here triggered some form of sleeper agent in me. Kinda want this was the lead single however it feels too private to be. 8/10 #TTPD,” wrote one, with one other quipping, “the matty healy factor may have been a weird wrinkle in taylor swift lore and now it’s the spine of a significant turning level in her profession lmao.”
Oner music detective launched a deep-dive X thread with seemingly linked all of the dots, together with, “‘you left your typewriter at my residence’ matty talked about his love for typewriters a number of instances, he spoke about it on this interview for instance and a typewriter can be at all times part of the stage of the 1975,” in addition to “additionally when a number of magazines reported in might 2023 that matty is writing songs with taylor, they talked about that he already left stuff like his guitar impact pedals, audio interfaces, synths and his macbook at her nyc residence the place he received papped a number of instances the day earlier than.”
At press time it didn’t seem that Healy had commented on the music.
Try the followers feedback and hypothesis beneath.
