A Deep Dive Into The LORE Of Taylor Swift's Tortured Poets Album & Matty Healy 

I love that yall are also longtime 1975 fans…I feel like it brings even more depth to the album and discussion. It’s been hard to find people who have literally been into both artists since they started and are into the lore…the reason May 2023 was so exhilarating and devastating in equal measure is bc I was so heavily invested in both of them and hoping they’d work!! Anyway let’s get into this 2 hour deep dive ayyyyy

as a non-swiftie who lives for chronically online drama i appreciate this one 🙏🏻🙏🏻

Glad to see fans of both analyze the songs. All these swifty experts with no 75 knowledge are so sure in their analysis but everything is going right over their heads! It's so frustrating!

Taylor also mentions The Starting Line in Fresh Out The Slammer.

Rusted summer -- Rusted phone lines in “Maroon”

Been looking for a perspective like this. I am glad I came across this video. Matty’s lyrics and Taylor’s have so many parallels. It was mad. Thanks for this! I love both of them. They’re different and they were so in love. Looking forward to the 1975’s next album and hoping he will definitely respond to TTPD.

Okay we need to talk about Harry in this early time frame too. We know she was off and on with him for at least 18 months. And in the song ‘is it over yet’- she clearly talks about having romantic dalliances with other guys while they were on and off and I think Matty could have been one of the guys she was maybe having heavy romantic flirtations and maybe more at that time. So Matty and Taylor could say they didn’t date each other - ‘that never happened’ because it was in both their interests to say that.

The lore is a layer, but the personal experience of heart ache is the core. 💔

It’s interesting to me that people are so surprised that the majority of this album is actually not about Joe like that makes perfect sense to me. Whatever actually happened between the two of them what we know for sure is he wanted to remain private throughout their relationship and I can’t see her MAJORLY exposing him after five to six years together unless he did something truly awful and unforgivable.

Seeing that clip of Matty going into his fort looks like the Willow video with the kids in the tent.

To me there's only one absolute all-timer on ttpd which cracks my top-13, and which is as poetic as ivy, way sadder than coney island (and very close to Last kiss), almost as quicksandy as right where you left me and as multy-layered, wise and revealing as Dear John... and this is... Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus.

As much as I love both Taylor and Matty, they could have never worked out. Matty has spoken at length about how much massive fame scares him. I think he's happy existing in the narrow space The 1975 occupies in culture - a lot of hardcore fans but not too mainstream. He can still walk around like a normal person. He can put his foot in his mouth once in a while and not be worried about the PR nightmare. Dating Taylor would have been the end of normal life for him. And I'm sure the online harassment and bullying from the swifties last May didn't help their relationship. Based on some throwaway comments he made at his shows, he knew what people were saying and it was getting to him. Taylor is still upset about Snakegate and TaylorSwiftIsOverParty 8 years later and the worst accusation against her was that she was a liar. Compare that to the absolute character assassination Matty went through. ... Either way, I think Matty and Taylor were probably more in love with the idea of each other than the real thing. They probably saw each other as their creative, intellectual equals (hence why Taylor calls him her twin). It's sad Taylor was hurt, but we don't know Matty's side yet. He looked really sad at his shows around the time the breakup was announced. If he broke it off to prioritize his mental health and protect his family after the vicious bullying he endured, I don't blame him. Maybe he should have known going in what he was getting into, but I think they're both hopeless romantics at heart and jumped in full speed. (Edit: I think people are taking the ghosting thing literally. Taylor is an unreliable narrator in that she gives different accounts of how it ended across different songs - "How dare you say it's-" , "Leaving me safe and stranded", "Left all these broken parts / Told me I'm better off", "What a bland goodbye", ", "I'll never leave" , "Never mind", "They just ghosted you/Now you know what it feels like". It mostly seems like she was blindsided when he broke it off rather abruptly after an intense period of closeness and she feels like she doesn't have closure)

He walked away because swifties sent death threats to Matty and his entire family. Everything awful said to Matty on twitter is disgusting behavior and speaknow letter is just beyond me. On top of that, he had his own world tour that just ended a month ago.

Oh my God I found my people you guys love all the same songs that I do. All your favorites are my favorites I haven't seen anybody say Peter. Peter makes me sob.

i’ve been tuned in to matty and taylor since i was 14. im almost 24 now and still obsessed with them 😭

A couple of other parallels I noticed... In that clip where he says he isn't going to kiss anyone in front of Taylor Swift, he says to show some respect, because he isn't going to kiss anyone else "In front of the queen" In TTPD, Taylor writes: "Cause once your queen had come, You treat her like an also-ran" In Falling For You, the lyrics say, "You said some day we might When I'm closer to your height, Till then we'll knock around and see If you're all I need" Which reminds me of TTPD: A message to the smallest man who ever lived And not a parallel, but as many times as Taylor referred to her love with Joe as "gold", I wonder if the "tattoed golden retriever" line was talking about Matty bringing back that sense of a love that was fated to be, retrieving the golden love she had lost.

Ohmygod, I absolutely looved this break down❤️🤭 So many info, so many emotions. Now that I watched your video, the album makes sense 200%!! Loved it! Thanks for your work💕💕

Also, the intro of imgonnagetyouback and the intro of Looking For Somebody (To Love) are VERY similar 👀 Aaand Matty has compared himself to Peter Pan multiple times → the song Peter talks about how she waited for him to grow up (mature) and that did not happen, so she's not waiting for him to grow up anymore

I’m just a year and a half younger than Taylor, was in my early 20s when I saw the pics of her on tumblr in that ICONIC plaid skater skirt and 1975 tee and those wayfarers 😎

He calls her queen!!!

thank you! it was very educational

I’m so happy that there is at least one other I Look in People’s Windows Stan! 😆

Did anyone think maybe the whole time they were together they were only together 14 days between his tour and hers.

I’m surprised y’all didn’t make the connection that Down Bad is about an alien abduction, he beamed her up, left her safe on earth but stranded without him, encounters closer and closer is a nod to the 70s alien film Close Encounters of the Third Kind, he left her naked in a field, everyone doubts the existence of him, now she’s waving to the ship (spaceship) 😮

6/7/23. Matty's SORRY set after breakup, he opens for the 1975 - plays all love songs including a cover by Colin Hay "I just dont think Ill ever get over you" (14:30), spray paints the word SORRY on white sheet. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-LU7Gq0codT4.htmlsi=QWy_amv774R5TtO

Watch the music Video for "Me & You Together Song"...am I only one who sees the similarities to the music video for "You belong with me" ??? Am I crazy lol.

Awww I see my girl Kacey back there ❤

1:10:48 that second part of FotS is about Matty. Camera flashes, welcome bashes?

girl, where's the power point link

At 1.06.40 - when you were saying “not us” - you missed the chance to sing “Not you guys. Not you guys I didn’t mean you guys” 😂

Have you guys yet fathomed all the reputation album references to Matty? And the fact that gold/golden is likely about HIM and not Joe? All those songs we couldn’t place that people thought were about Karli…. Like ‘Dress’ is SO Matty coded especially “you left your mark on me, a golden tattoo” and then in TTPD hes a “tattooed golden retriever”?!!! Also in Dancing with Our Hands Tied (OBVI about Matty and fame) “my love had been frozen deep blue but you painted me golden”. And in Don’t Blame Me all the references to drugs, falling from grace to be with him, doing bad things with me… as if that song could be about Joe? PLEASE. HELP. I am dying!!

EASTER EGG!!! June 5th 2023 IS the day Whistle-blower David Grusch came out officially stating the U.S. Govt HAS UAP retrieval craft and have been attempting back engineering PLUS admissions of having Non Human lifeforms as well. June 5th!! Hence 'DOWN BAD???????' MAKES SENSE TO ME!!!!!@

You both look like Taylor!

Get ya girl a better microphone! She's so quiet in comparison to the girl with glasses. Good content needs to be heard!

from everything i gathered from this album, she felt coaxed out of her dying relationship, with promises of forever, just for him to use her for selfish reasons. sex and exposure. when he caught heat, he left. despite her saying she was willing to endure the shitstorm from his actions. as a swiftie and a 1975 stan i cant condone his actions. im disappointed in him and how ppl have tried to twist his actions into some sort of sob story. I never cared about his "incidents" of dumbassery over the years... but how he handled her, the backlash, and the responsibility for everything.... when listening to these songs, i see a woman who is willing to take on the world 1vs8billion, and then i see a "man" who would rather take the easy route and join the 8billion than stand by her side. count me out of this ship. he cant handle a woman of her caliber.

Sorry but no. Minnesota is known for their lakes, not Michigan. MN has 10,000+ lakes. Minneapolis should have received The Lakes as a surprise song.

I get the idea that he just left because of the heat and that would make sense if all the songs were apologizing to him and feeling sad but The Smallest Man That Ever Lived is so much more about it being intentionally hurting her to see what would happen or with the plan to hurt her out of revenge even at the behest of someone else who hates her.

Army doll = The Great War is about Matty not Joe!

Matty is better off

I think u missed the interview where he said it would be emasculating to date Taylor swift

I know Taylor. I own several Midwest radio stations. I first met her at age 16 in Nashville before famous and no one knew who she was. Feb 2006. She had a thing for my good looking son. Love your analysis. I don't like her choice of 1st single Fortnight and to also kick off the album. On any other TS album it would be a mid track. Truth. But I love the whole 31 tracks here except for a couple I'll skip. Down Bad.. Florida.. Fresh Out.. Never liked Matty. I still think he's beneath her and kind of sketchy. Young female attracted to "bad boy"??? Fatal.