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Taylor Swift: The Tortured Poets Department review – fame, fans and former flames in the line of fire

Subtly detailed album splits the difference between 1989’s glossy pop-rock and Midnights’ understatement – and lets her ex Matty Healy have it in no uncertain terms

While So Long, London appears to hymn the end of her six-year relationship to actor Joe Alwyn, the album primarily puts a shorter-lived ex in the firing line: tattooed unpopular with her fans, erratic, given to public statements cooler heads might think twice about, the figure animating many of these songs is evidently Matty Healy of the 1975, with whom Swift had a short-lived dalliance last year. But if we’ve been here before, it’s still hard not to be impressed by Swift’s efficiency and wit – “Oh, here we go again, the voices in his head,” opens My Boy Only Breaks His Favourite Toys, one of a number of lines that you imagine accompanied by a roll of the eyes – or her ability to turn a celebrity boyfriend into a relatable archetype: everyone knows, or has known, someone a bit like the poser depicted in the title track or The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived. I Can Do It With a Broken Heart reads like a gushing review of her record-breaking Eras tour – “There in her glittering prime/ the lights refract sequinned stars off her silhouette” – before she darkly adds “I can tell you lies”, and admits to being profoundly depressed on its initial run.

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