With the release of Reputation, fans have begun eagerly piecing together clues. Photo / Supplied
With the release of Reputation, fans have begun eagerly piecing together clues. Photo / Supplied
The morning of a Taylor Swift album drop is typically accompanied by breathless speculation as to the identities of people she's singing about. And with the release of Reputation, fans have begun eagerly piecing together clues.
But with Swift unsurprisingly airing out her grievances with Kanye West through several tracks, the most interesting barrel of revelations occurs in the album's ninth track, Getaway Car, which seems highly likely to be about old flames Calvin Harris and Tom Hiddleston.
Getaway Car is about being eager to leave a relationship by embarking on a doomed fling, and then fleeing that one, reports Telegraph UK.
Swift also appears to reveal that she abruptly dumped Hiddleston when he was least expecting it.
Harris, who was in a relationship with Swift for most of 2015 and into 2016, is described as "the best of times, the worst of crimes," with Swift wishing to extract herself from him ("I wanted to leave him, I needed a reason").
The 2016 Met Gala, in which Swift first met and embarrassingly danced with Hiddleston while still publicly dating Harris, is then seemingly referenced ("The ties were black, the lies were white"), with the singer describing an encounter that resulted in Swift fleeing the party with him. But she then expresses that meeting Hiddleston at such a high-profile event, full of photographers, meant that their relationship never stood a chance.
Tom Hiddleston may have been dumped in a motel room by Swift. Photo / Getty Images
"You were driving the getaway car," Swift sings, "We were flying, but we'd never get far. Don't pretend it's such a mystery. Think about the place where you first met me."
In the summer of 2016, Swift and Hiddleston embarked on a strangely public tour of the world, being photographed on private beaches, during walks with Hiddleston's mother, and on a holiday to Rome.
"We were jet-set, Bonnie and Clyde," Swift continues. "Until I switch to the other side". She then implies that she dumped him without much warning: "I'm in a getaway car / I left you in a motel bar / Put the money in the bag and I stole the keys / That was the last time you ever saw me." Oh well.
Additional tracks on the album appear inspired by Swift's new boyfriend, the British actor Joe Alwyn. There's Gorgeous, released to mild derision in October, along with the airy Delicate, in which Swift sings about starting a new relationship on the heels of a PR crisis.
Joe Alwyn, Taylor Swift's new boyfriend, is referenced throughout the album. Photo / Getty Images
"This ain't for the best," she sings. "My reputation's never been worse, so you must like me for me..." She adds that the two of them ought to take it slow ("We can't make any promises now"), a likely reference to the fact that Swift and Alwyn's relationship has been largely under the radar.
There are also the requisite Kanye West-inspired tracks, with Swift continuing to yodel on about their spectacularly fussed-over feud. In the most overt track, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, Swift laments a so-called friend who got her "on the phone and mind-twist[ed]" her, referencing the pair's notorious leaked phone call in which Swift appeared to sign off on a song West had written about her.
She later references West's own recent feud with former mentor Jay-Z ("I'm not the only friend you've lost lately / If only you weren't so shady") and delivers a quite literal cackle as she sings "Forgiveness is a nice thing to do", before adding: "I can't even say it with a straight face".
