Followers are noticing a sample in one in all Taylor Swift’s new playlists — and so they’re questioning if there’s a connection to her break up from Joe Alwyn.
In anticipation of her upcoming album, The Tortured Poets Division, Swift, 34, launched 5 separate playlists on Friday, April 5, representing the assorted levels of grief: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Despair and Acceptance. Every assortment options current songs from her discography.
The fourth playlist, titled “Outdated Habits Die Screaming” — the title of a observe off TTPD — focuses on the idea of despair.
“[This playlist] the sentiments of despair that usually lace their manner via my songs,” Swift says in a voice message. “In occasions like these, I’ll write a track as a result of I really feel lonely or hopeless. And writing a track looks like the one method to course of that depth of an emotion. And whereas these items are actually, actually arduous to undergo, I usually really feel like once I’m both listening to songs or writing songs that take care of this depth of loss and hopelessness, normally that’s within the section the place I’m near getting previous that feeling.”
Upon listening, eagle-eyed followers rapidly realized that most of the playlist’s songs characteristic references to an elusive hallway. In “Coney Island,” off Swift’s 2020 album Evermore, she sings, “Had been you standing within the hallway with a giant cake? / Glad birthday / Did I paint your bluest skies the darkest gray? / A universe away.”
An incident within the hallway can be talked about in Midnights’ “Maroon,” one other observe purported to be about Swift’s ex. “You had been standing hollow-eyed within the hallway / Carnations you had thought had been roses, that’s us,” she sings within the second verse. (Persevering with with the motif in “Coney Island,” carnations are usually given to have a good time an individual’s birthday.)
Lastly, lyrics for “You’re Dropping Me,” essentially the most gut-wrenching observe off Midnights, reads: “Now you’re operating down the hallway / And I suppose that’s what all of them say / That you just don’t know what you’ve bought till it’s gone.”
“Coney Island,” “Maroon” and “You’re Dropping Me” are all breakup-inspired songs, however ones that happen in a time proper earlier than an precise heartbreak happens. All three songs ponder whether or not to remain or depart a relationship that was as soon as stuffed with love and deep affection. Different songs on the “Outdated Habits Die Screaming” playlist embrace “My Tears Ricochet” from Folklore, “Champagne Issues” from Evermore and “Expensive Reader” from the three a.m. version of Midnights.
“I don’t know what’s with that hallway however they’re all in the identical playlist,” one Swift wrote by way of X on Friday, whereas one other mentioned, “The hallway is an attention-grabbing visible as a result of it’s a purgatory of kinds. The area between staying and leaving.”
A 3rd fan identified the similarities between Swift’s writing fashion and that of the basic poets. “A number of poets (ie TS Eliot) use hallways as a liminal area, a spot the place you develop into untethered and remoted between outlined areas in life that present decision and readability,” they defined. “I feel she makes use of hallways as a metaphor for describing the turmoil and instability within the relationship.”
However why do followers assume all of the hallways could possibly be about Alwyn? A shade simply may maintain the reply. The Grammy winner has famously referenced numerous shades of blue whereas singing about Alwyn, 32, and “Coney Island” is a type of songs. The observe additionally mentions grey, a shade referenced in “You’re Dropping Me.”
Though Swift and Alwyn known as it quits for good final spring, rumors swirled that the pair had a bumpy relationship for years. In November 2023, producer Jack Antonoff revealed that “You’re Dropping Me” was written again in 2021, a couple of yr earlier than Swift and Alwyn’s official breakup.
Swifties have a lot to consider between now and April 19. Taylor Swift introduced her forthcoming eleventh studio album, The Tortured Poets Division, whereas accepting the award for Greatest Pop Vocal Album on the 2024 Grammys on February 4. “That is my thirteenth Grammy, which is my fortunate quantity. I don’t know if I’ve ever […]
On the time, a supply exclusivity instructed Us Weekly that Swift’s fame factored into the break up. “Joe may be very shy and by no means appreciated all the eye that got here with relationship probably the most widespread singers on this planet,” the insider defined, including that Alwyn didn’t “blame” Swift for her A-list standing however “didn’t like having to be on on a regular basis.”
Swift has since moved on with Kansas Metropolis Chiefs tight finish Travis Kelce. The pair went public with their relationship when Swift made an look at his NFL sport in September 2023. They’ve each since confirmed as much as assist one another at public occasions. Though Kelce, 34, was unable to look at Swift win Album of the Yr on the 2024 Grammys for Midnights, he gushed over the upcoming Tortured Poets Division days later.
“I’ve heard a few of it, sure, and it’s unbelievable,” he shared throughout a February press convention. “I can’t await her to shake up the world when it lastly drops.”
The Tortured Poets Division hits cabinets on Friday, April 19
