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Taylor Swift has a long history of writing about her exes on her albums — or so we think — from John Mayer and Jake Gyllenhaal to Joe Jonas and Harry Styles.But it’s Joe Alwyn, the British actor who the singer dated from 2016 to 2023, who is the object of the 34-year-old pop superstar’s wicked wordplay for a good — or for him, not so good — part of “The Tortured Poets Department,” which dropped on Friday.There’s even one song called “So Long, London” — a goodbye to the city where they once lived together. And just to show you how deep those Swift Easter eggs can be hidden, that track is 9 minutes and 28 seconds — which happens to line up with when the exes are rumored to have started dating on Sept.

Taylor Swift is embodying first the Everygirl, then the Everywoman — the Miss Americana in them all, from era to era.Beyoncé is a goddess, Taylor is a real life human — just like us.But there’s a moment on “The Tortured Poets Department” — the insanely anticipated 11th studio album by the Queen of the Swifties — when she embraces her power as the most famous, the most influential woman in America, if not on the planet.It occurs on “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” — one of two tunes that Swift wrote by herself with that wicked pen of hers.“I was tame, I was gentle/’Til the circus life made me mean/Don’t you worry folks, we took out all her teeth/Who’s afraid of little old me?/Well you should be,” she sings in the rumbling revenge song that brings some menace to the melody.And you can bet that Swift’s most recent exes — the 1975 frontman Matty Healy and, especially, British actor Joe Alwyn — have been quaking in their boots ever since the pop superstar announced “The Tortured Poets Department” after winning Best Pop Vocal Album for 2022’s “Midnights” at the Grammys in February.Sure enough — there is plenty of “Bad Blood” spilled on Swift’s latest.

By Swifties, are you guys okay?At midnight (naturally), dropped her eleventh studio album, , a rage and sorrow-filled missive detailing about not one but two of her recent breakups. In the songs, Swift aims her deadliest weapons (allegedly) at who she infamously dated for a few last year.

Taylor Swift album.And, of course, that’s Travis Kelce — the Super Bowl champ sweetheart of the pop superstar.In fact, getting love from the 34-year-old singer on her highly anticipated 11th studio LP — “The Tortured Poets Department,” which dropped on Friday — might be an even bigger win than getting that Super Bowl ring.“The Alchemy” is a sexy slow dance that is unabashedly about Kelce, with Swift staking claim to her stud.“So when I touch down all that matters/Call the amateurs and cut ’em from the team/Ditch the clowns, get the crown/Baby I’m the one to beat/’Cause the sign on your heart said it’s still reserved for me.”All right now, Miss Tay.As if there was doubt about just who she was putting on lock, the Swift — who famously dashed into her boo’s arms for an iconic smooch when his Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl against the San Francisco 49ers in February — later adds, “Where’s the trophy? He just comes running over to me.”The couple began dating last summer and went public with their relationship in September 2023.Swift has not been shy about her romance with Kelce, ratcheting up the TV ratings for the NFL when she cheered on her boyfriend from the stands at multiple games.“When you say a relationship is public, that means I’m going to see him do what he loves, we’re showing up for each other, other people are there and we don’t care,” Swift told Time in December, when she was named the magazine’s 2023 Person of the Year.“The opposite of that is you have to go to an extreme amount of effort to make sure no one knows that you’re seeing someone,” she added.

new Taylor Swift album, “The Tortured Poets Department.”There are the exes: British actor Joe Alwyn, with whom the singer was in a six-year relationship until 2023, as well as the 1975 frontman Matty Healy, who Swift briefly dated last year.And the 34-year-old superstar used her powerhouse pen to mark her territory on her gridiron guy, Travis Kelce.But in addition to her current beau, there is another man who gets big love from Swift on “TTPD,” which dropped on Friday.That would be singer-songwriter Charlie Puth, who gets the ultimate co-sign from Swift on the title track.“You smoked and 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.The quote seemingly references her and Healy bonding over their mutual appreciation for the “See You Again” singer during their romance.Puth, for his part, appears to be a major Swiftie. In 2022, a video of him playing her breakthrough hit “Teardrops on My Guitar” for a New York City crowd circulated on TikTok.Healy, however, seems to be the target of more pen venom elsewhere on “The Tortured Poets Department.”Healy — who, before their summer split, was a rebound romance for the pop superstar following her breakup with Alwyn — appears to be the subject of the vicious takedown “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived.”“And I don’t even want oil back/If just want to know/If rusting my sparkling summer was the goal,” sings Swift, who caught some flak after Healy made some controversial comments — including racist remarks about the singer’s now BFF Ice Spice.“And I don’t miss what we had,” she continues.

Taylor Swift from seemingly unleashing a wrath of words against 1975 frontman Matty Healy on her highly anticipated 11th studio album “The Tortured Poets Department,” which arrived on Friday.In fact, Healy — who, before their summer split, was a rebound romance for the pop superstar following her breakup with British actor Joe Alwyn after six years — appears to be the subject of the vicious takedown “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived.”“And I don’t even want oil back/If just want to know/If rusting my sparkling summer was the goal,” sings Swift, who caught flak after Healy made some controversial comments — including racist remarks about the singer’s now BFF Ice Spice.“And I don’t miss what we had,” she continues. “But could someone give a message/To the smallest man who ever lived.”Ouch.Other fans, however, may speculate the “sparkling summer” line is about Alwyn, as the pair split right before her Eras Tour and “Bejeweled” on her “Midnights” album is seemingly about the actor.There are also hints that “I Can Fix Him” (No Really I Can)” — gotta love that title — might be about 35-year-old Healy.“The smoke cloud billows out his mouth/Like a freight train through a small town/The jokes that he told across the bar were revolting/And far too loud/They shake their heads saying ‘God help her’ when I tell ‘em he’s my man/But your good Lord doesn’t need to/I can fix him/No, really I can,” she sings.Even more, Swifties could assume “Fortnight” might be about Healy as the title is a British English term defined as “a period of two weeks,” which could refer to their short-lived romance.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Taylor Swift usually writes either an essay or poem to be included in her album packaging, but for “The Tortured Poets Department,” she used the buddy system. Stevie Nicks contributed a handwritten poem she wrote for Swift, which is the first thing fans will see when they open the LP gatefolds or CD booklets Friday morning. That doesn’t mean Swift skipped out on her usual duties, as the album packaging also includes a long handwritten poem she penned herself, placed after the lyrics in the booklets as a sort of epilogue.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Would you be surprised to know (or be reminded) that Taylor Swift hasn’t really released a breakup album in a decade? For a gal who’s never really shorn that as her songwriting reputation, it’s funny to think that she’s spent the better part of the last 10 years being off-brand, in a manner of thinking, with most of her new material. Granted, it became hard to think of her as anything but the queen of bust-ups when “All Too Well” got transformed from a 2012 also-ran album track into the Song of the 2020s.

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