Taylor Swift released her 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, on Friday – which includes a whopping 31 new songs.
Since its release, fans have been carefully dissecting the lyrics of each song, as the album is said to be inspired by her split from Joe Alwyn, and her whirlwind romance with The 1975 frontman Matty Healy.
Taylor’s shock split from Joe was confirmed in early 2023 after six years together, and she subsequently had a brief romance with Matty.
While the album contains a plethora of breakup anthems, one in particular has got everyone talking.
In the song The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived, Taylor sings: “And you’ll confess why you did it… And I’ll say good riddance. Cos it wasn’t sexy once it wasn’t forbidden.
“You didn’t measure up in any measure of a man. I would have died for your sins but instead I just died inside.”
“You deserve prison, but you won’t get time. You will slide into inboxes and slip through the bars.”
She also belts out the words: “In plain sight you hid but you are what you did. And I’ll forget you, but I’ll never forgive the smallest man who ever lived.”
Fans have since taken to social media to question whether this particular song was written about Joe, Matty, or someone else.
THE smallest man WHO EVER LIVED pic.twitter.com/OyadztvA2L
— ecemsu˚｡˚ ttpd (@000ea00) April 19, 2024
THE SMALLEST MAN WHO EVER LIVED OMG IS THIS ABOUT JOE ABOUT MATTY
— katty (@percysgrayson) April 19, 2024
So is the smallest man who ever lived Joe or matty?
— Chelle ♡ #1 hoax stan (@timelessbarnes) April 19, 2024
The album contains a host of songs that are said to be about Joe, the most poignant one being So Long, London.
The song appears at number five on the tracklist, the slot Taylor reserves for the most meaningful song on each of her albums.
Its title is a clear reference to her previous song London Boy from her album Lover, which she penned about her early romance with Joe and meeting his friends in the UK.
Fans also believe the songs Down Bad, But Daddy I Love Him, I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can), and I Can Do It With A Broken Heart are inspired by Joe.
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It’s been widely speculated the album’s title is a reference to a WhatsApp group Joe shares with Irish actor Paul Mescal, who is the ex-boyfriend of Taylor’s friend Phoebe Bridgers.
In December 2022, the pals revealed they had a WhatsApp group with fellow actor Andrew Scott called The Tortured Man Club.
Paul and Joe have both appeared in TV adaptations of Sally Rooney’s novels Normal People and Conversations with Friends, respectively.
The album’s other song titles include Florida!!! (featuring Florence + The Machine), Fortnight (featuring Post Malone), Guilty As Sin?, The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived, Clara Bow, and The Manuscript.
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While fans expected the album to be inspired entirely by her split from Joe, a number of songs appear to reference her brief romance with The 1975 musician Matty Healy last year – including The Black Dog and Guilty As Sin.
Taylor dated the British singer early last year, before she struck up a romance with her now-boyfriend, NFL star Travis Kelce.
While Taylor’s new album reflects on her past relationships with Joe and Matty, the 34-year-old said that chapter of her life is now closed.
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In a post shared on Instagram, she wrote: “The Tortured Poets Department. 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.”
“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.
“This writer is of the firm belief that our tears become holy in the form of ink on a page. Once we have spoken our saddest story, we can be free of it. And then all that’s left behind is the tortured poetry.”
