Taylor Swift has “nothing to avenge” with “The Tortured Poets Department” — despite its scathing songs about exes Joe Alwyn and Matty Healy.
The Grammy winner told fans upon the release of her blistering breakup album that it documents her “saddest story,” which she is now “free of.”
The pop star, 34, explained via Instagram, “[This is] an anthology of new works that reflect events, opinions and sentiments from a fleeting and fatalistic moment in time — one that was both sensational and sorrowful in equal measure.”
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She continued, “This period of the author’s life is now over, the chapter closed and boarded up. There is nothing to avenge, no scores to settle once wounds have healed.
“And upon further reflection, a good number of them turned out to be self-inflicted,” Swift confessed.
“This writer is of the firm belief that our tears become holy in the form of ink on a page,” she concluded. “once we have spoken our saddest story, we can be free of it. And then all that’s left behind is the tortured poetry.”
The singer’s 11th album — and the “extra 15 songs” she released as part of “The Anthology” early Friday morning — deliver a vulnerable look at her recent romances.
Not only does Swift reference her short-lived fling with The 1975’s Matty Healy in “But Daddy I Love Him” and her current relationship with Travis Kelce in “The Alchemy,” but she primarily documents her and Joe Alwyn’s breakup.
The former couple began dating in 2016 and kept their love out of the public eye before news broke of their split in April 2023.
Fans were convinced ahead of the album’s release that it would center around Alwyn, 33, when she released the track list in February.
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The list featured titles like “So Long, London,” which is where she lived with the actor for six years.
Sure enough, Swift roasted the actor in “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived,” “My Boy only Breaks His Favorite Toys” and more scathing songs.
However, she also highlighted nostalgic moments from their time together as well, crooning, “You should’ve seen him when he first saw me.”
Swift’s songs appeared to target Healy as well, from “I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)” to “Down Bad.”
The music video for the album’s first single, “Fortnight,” features Post Malone and drops Friday at 8 p.m. ET.
