Taylor Swift has discovered her lyrical muse in Travis Kelce, and The Tortured Poets Division proves that.
Whereas followers rapidly deduced that Swift’s songs “The Alchemy” and “So Excessive College” had been penned about Kelce, 34, others realized that “The Albatross” has refined references to the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs tight finish, too.
“Cautions issued, he stood / Capturing the messengers / They tried to warn him about her, “ Swift, 34, sings on “The Albatross,” which dropped on Friday, April 19. “Cross your inconsiderate coronary heart / Solely liquor anoints you / She’s the albatross / She is right here to destroy you.”
She continues, “Devils that you understand / Increase worse hell than a stranger / She’s the loss of life you selected / You’re in horrible hazard.”
Eagle-eyed Swifties have theorized that the lyrical warning was referring to NFL fan criticism Kelce, 34, obtained when he began courting the pop star in 2023.
“All people was telling Travis, ‘Watch out, don’t get along with her. She’ll wreck your profession,’” one social media consumer stated through TikTok. “‘Are you listening to soccer? Is she weighing you down? Is he now not good as a result of he’s courting Taylor Swift?’ That was your complete center a part of their relationship when all people was so pissed they noticed her on the display.”
Swift and Kelce began courting in summer time 2023 after a missed connection at her Eras Tour that July. They took their romance to the following stage when she went to her first Chiefs recreation in September 2023. Regardless of Swift eagerly embracing soccer for the primary time, die-hard sports activities fanatics lamented that she was proven on broadcasts greater than the sport itself and thought Kelce’s stats can be negatively affected. (The beliefs had been finally confirmed to be false as Kelce broke many receiving information and helped the Chiefs clinch a second consecutive Tremendous Bowl trophy.)
“I don’t know the way they know what suite I’m in. There’s a digital camera, like, a half-mile away, and also you don’t know the place it’s, and you don’t have any concept when the digital camera is placing you within the broadcast, so I don’t know if I’m being proven 17 instances or as soon as,” Swift instructed TIME in her 2023 Particular person of the 12 months profile. “I’m simply there to assist Travis. I’ve no consciousness of if I’m being proven an excessive amount of and pissing off just a few dads, Brads and Chads.”
Since listening to “The Albatross,” different Swifties have seen that the monitor seemingly highlights the surprising conditions and “baggage” that comes with being in a relationship with Swift.
“The primary verse talks about somebody warning a suitor about courting her. Love is fragile, don’t let the winds that include her fame snuff it out,” an X consumer theorized. “You shouldn’t date her, it is going to blow up the tabloids.”
They added, “The second verse is about how she is shut away for the nice of her potential companions. She’s the dangerous seed and the temptress, so shutting her away reduces the hazard (much less dagger to sharpen). However she escapes confinement anyway to go to her associate (who dgaf in regards to the hazard).”
Kelce, for his half, has made it clear that he understands the “good purpose” why folks “care” about Swift a lot and asserted that he’s having fun with their private and non-private life collectively.
One other social media fan identified that “The Albatross” is about “males [being] terrified of falling” for Swift since she’s a so-called “man-eater and serial dater,” however they date her regardless. A separate social media consumer posited that the NFL critics — not Kelce — made Swift really feel like an albatross.
“Given everybody warned Trav he was distracted all due to her, the soccer dudes made her really feel she was the albatross round his neck,” the X consumer wrote. “He by no means made her really feel that approach and forged off all of the doomsayers. In reality, he performed higher when she was there.”
The time period “albatross” has a number of meanings, referring to both an oceanic fowl, a supply of frustration and guilt, or a “double eagle” transfer in golf. If an individual is known as an albatross, it usually means stated particular person is a psychological burden. The albatross can be one among Swift’s many literary references because the fowl seems in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem “The Rime of the Historical Mariner,” which is interpreted as a narrative of salvation.
Whereas Swift has not defined her lyrical inspiration for “The Albatross,” she did drop a refined clue that “So Excessive College” is about Kelce. Within the official lyric music video, she highlights their respective initials (TK and TS) in pale pink because the phrases to the monitor flash on display.
The Tortured Poets Division is out now.