Repeated streams of The Tortured Poets Department are still leaving Us with one burning question: Which of Taylor Swift‘s exes went to The Black Dog?
Following the release of Swift’s 11th record on Friday, April 19, the London bar’s social media presence exploded. “POV Your cozy little pub gets name-dropped in the new Taylor Swift album ??!” read one video shared via TikTok on Friday, asking playfully in the caption, “How do we cope? Swifties please advise on next steps 
.”
“The Black Dog” (also the name of a vinyl variant) is one of five new tracks Swift, 34, wrote solo and opens with her discovering an ex’s location is still shared after their breakup.
“I just don’t understand … How you don’t miss me in The Black Dog / When someone plays The Starting Line / And you jump up, but she’s too young to know this song / That was intertwined in the magic fabric of our dreaming / Old habits die screaming,” she sings.
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While some fans believe the lyrics were inspired by Matty Healy, a fan of the band The Starting Line, others think Joe Alwyn is the subject due to his British roots. (Healy, 35, also hails from the U.K.)
The Black Dog is leaning into all the speculation on social media, updating its bios online to include, “
Home to tortured poets @Taylor Swift.” Those of Us looking for answers about which famous ex could be walking into the pub, however, might still come up short.
“POV You work at The Black Dog (yes the actual pub Taylor name-dropped) and are trying desperately to figure out if it was Matty or Joe,” read another TikTok video, which showed an employee frantically searching for evidence.
The caption teased, “GOING THROUGH FOOTAGE LIKEEEEE who forgot to turn their location off bestie?? @Taylor Swift.”
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Some fans have theorized that the song could actually be about both Alwyn, 33, and Healy given the timing of each relationship. Us confirmed in April 2023 that Swift and Alwyn split after six years of dating. One month later, she was linked to Healy, but the pair called off their whirlwind romance in June 2023.
Swift includes aspects of each breakup throughout TTPD, but the album largely centers her history with Healy. The twosome were rumored to be dating back in 2014 before reconnecting last year.
Regardless of who served as her muse — Swift’s current boyfriend, Travis Kelce, even had a few songs written in his honor — the Grammy winner made it clear that she’s moved on while celebrating the album’s release.
“This period of the author’s life is now over, the chapter closed and boarded up,” she wrote on Friday. “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.”
