Irish Taylor Swift fan used Google doc to analyse every word in new album and was stunned by discovery
An Irish Taylor Swift superfan made a Google doc to analyse every single word of the new album – and says it gave her an exact relationship timeline for the singer.
Claire O’Malley, 29, has been a Swiftie since the age of 11, when Taylor released ‘Tim McGraw’ from her debut self-titled album. So when The Tortured Poets Department was released on 19 April she got up at 5am with her friend Ashley Washburn.
The two listened to every single song before deciding they wanted to analyse the lyrics in forensic detail. They said they did it to track the exact timeline of Taylor relationship with Matty Healy.
Claire, a programme officer, from Dublin, said: “I am fairly confident in the general relationship timeline between Taylor and Matty from my analysis. The breakup happened over the course of the Eras Tour so we used her ‘surprise’ songs, in conjunction with what Taylor’s team communicated to the public, to work out her and Matty’s exact relationship status.”
“We started to notice all these Easter eggs in the lyrics and so we went on an Easter Egg hunt within the words,” said Claire. Claire and Ashley spent four days analysing every lyric, mapping out a timeline of Taylor’s relationship with Matty and how it corresponded to the Eras tour, which happened at the time of the relationship.
By entering all 11,000+ words of the album line by line into a Google Doc before “electronically” analysing them, leaving comments in the margins, Claire and Ashley created a 78 page document.
Taylor Swift performing at Melbourne Cricket Ground in February
The document contains over 400 comments and a further 11,000+ words of analysis, including a detailed timeline of Taylor and Matty’s relationship. It revealed how the official announcement of their breakup directly related to the songs Taylor chose to sing in her surprise set songs in her Eras Tour.
“The surprise songs are Taylor’s way of choosing two different songs to the original set list”, added Claire. “It’s always something different that only that specific crowd gets to experience.”
Using the ‘surprise songs’ from each of Taylor’s performances in the Eras tour over the time she and Matty Healy were dating, the two were able to “decode” the break-up.
“On March 31st, there was the official ending of Joe and Taylor so they probably ended weeks prior, but the ‘surprise’ song that she chose reflects how she was feeling at that time.”
“On April 14th, she was in Tampa, Florida. Florida is mentioned twice in her new album, which could mean something.
“The surprise songs then were ‘Speak Now’, which ties to wedding imagery of speak now or forever hold your peace, and ‘Treacherous’, which is about falling in love and not being sure.
“Other April surprise songs to indicate she was on the rise with Matty would be “Today was a Fairytale”, “Wonderland” and “Begin Again””.
“These are more uplifting songs,” Claire explained. “‘Today’ was a Fairytale” is about spending the perfect day with the person you’re romantically interested in. ‘Wonderland’ is a play on Alice in Wonderland and falling into a fantastical world you find when you connect with another person.”
“”Begin Again” is about starting over again after a relationship has ended. May 8th is when ET reports they are officially together”, she explains. “In April Matty mouthed ‘this song is about you, you know who you are, I love you.'”Taylor in return, about 3 days later, while she’s on tour in Nashville, mouths to the camera, ‘This song is for you, you know who you are, I love you,” and Matty was in attendance.
“That was a way she used the set list to connect herself to Matty”. Claire and Ashley were also able to pinpoint the period of time that Matty and Taylor were going through a break up from the surprise songs.
“Towards the end of May, Taylor plays songs along the lines of ‘am I in the right place?’ or ‘Is this right relationship?”, explained Claire. “The song choices have a tension to them that are maybe saying this isn’t the best relationship that she could be in at the moment.”
“Ashley and I would both like to think that these surprise songs change their tune throughout the eras tour. When she is starting her relationship with Matty, the songs are optimistic whereas towards the end of the relationship the songs become filled with tension.
“With the choice of the songs “I wish you would”, “I don’t want to live forever” and “Hits different” which came in Chicago on June 2 – June 4, in hindsight it could indicate that things were happening in their relationship behind the scenes.
“The songs were devastating, they were emotional performances, in ‘I don’t want to live forever” she nearly cried on stage. We could see that Taylor is trying to hold on to this idea in her head of what the relationship should be,” explained Claire” By June 5th, a week later, they are over.”
“She sings the song “Question” which is about looking back on a past relationship and wondering if she and her romantic interest were on the same page. After they break up, there are emotional performances with “Haunted” and “I almost do”.”
“Those songs are filled with devastation and longing for something that could have been.
“Haunted is about not being able to escape the relationship you were just in and it feels like the relationship is haunting you.”
“I almost do is about wanting to reach out to an ex, but not wanting to break the no contact.”
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