Just clocked that she says loss of my life because she thought ending things with Joe would kill her. People are hung up on the fact that she left Joe, so any song that implies she got left can't be about him. But she implies that she feels like he abandoned her in a way just not physically. He was a shell of a man in the end. Honestly, this is sort of like if folklore was written about their break up but the fictional character driving the story is a real person- Matty.
The whole album is about how she knew Joe would never physically leave and she was bored, stagnant and miserable in the end. She started to daydream and fantasize about this other person and convinced herself she needed to know "what if". The two stories start the same with a damsel in distress that the man thinks he's saving. The "what if" promised her all the same things and it's like dejavu. She went insane because surely this can't happen twice. The two stories are the same. She met a weak, sad, small, British man who could never give her anything.
Joe's only saving grace here is that he was the more boring of the two and he slowly hollowed out.
And that is the summary of TTPD! Thanks for coming!
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.
It’s a 2am surprise: The Tortured Poets Department is a secret DOUBLE album. ✌️ I’d written so much tortured poetry in the past 2 years and wanted to share it all with you, so here’s the second installment of TTPD: The Anthology. 15 extra songs. And now the story isn’t mine anymore… it’s all yours. 🤍
https://taylor.lnk.to/ttpd-theanthology
🌽Featuring Brennan Lee Mulligan as Game Master, Emily Axford as Fig Faeth, Ally Beardsley as Kristen Applebees, Brian Murphy as Riz Gukgak, Zac Oyama as Gorgug Thistlespring, Siobhan Thompson as Adaine Abernant, and Lou Wilson as Fabian Aramais Seacaster
A full FAQ can be found here