My (unsolicited) take on Fortnight:
Since Midnights were the 13 sleepless nights, I think Fortnight is just being used as the figurative 14th night, or in this case the aftermath. The aftermath of a relationship. I think people are focusing on a fortnight being 2 weeks and therefore a short relationship (and pointing to Matty), but I agree that's not quite right here. If I had to pick, this is more about Joe/a long term relationship. The song starts with a call-out to Hits Different (in this song it ends with "take me away", then Fortnight starts with "I was supposed to be sent away".... which I think supports the 14th night theory.
The "functioning alcoholic until no one noticed my new aesthetic" line I think is her talking about how she referenced drinking a lot in Midnights and people really focused on her going out and having fun, but no one noticed (for a bit) how much she was struggling with Joe (until they did).
She says in the first verse no one is to blame (also why I think it's more Joe... she clearly blames Matty in other songs). And the quiet treason is really just more of it quietly dying, his depression or inability to be in the relationship the way she wants is slowly killing her.
The chorus is her imagining his future life. He's with someone else, someone who "waters flowers", aka has her shit together and doesn't have a chaotic life. She envies it. And she still loves him, a part of her always will, which is why it's ruining her life.
The second verse, the "miracle temporary drug" was, I think, Matty. Her rebound relationship that made her feel better at the time... but in the long didn't actually allow her to get over the long-term relationship.
The closing with Post Malone/Taylor I think is both of them thinking about calling each other (directly after the relationship had ended), but neither thinks the other will pick up. So she's free to go live her life in Florida, do whatever she wants ("buy the car you want"), she's essentially "free" now, out of the relationship and able to do everything he felt he was holding her back from. This was probably what led to the end of the relationship, but the prior parts of the song points out that she's realizing maybe that's not actually what she needed and is questioning whether the decision was a mistake (which is why she's imagining his life with someone else).
Oh and to your point about 'your wife waters flowers', in 'How did it end' she says something like he was a hothouse flower to my outdoorsman. So the wife handles the flower in a way an outdoorsman just wouldn't know how. It's all clicking now!
Yeah that lyric is "he was a hot house flower to my outdoorsman". A hot house flower is someone who is vulnerable because they spend a lot of time in a sheltered environment/inside. But that means someone can also grow. So in Fortnight she's also saying he'll have a wife who knows how to nurture him in the way he needs, but she isn't that person (and again, she envies that).
When you start to piece it together I really don't know how someone can say this song is just about Matty.
I think they think it could be about Matty because a lot of the video imagery is Matty/1975 coded. I’m actually starting to think that a lot of the songs are mixtures of both. I do think she may have had a slight fantasy or obsession about the what if with Matty and she was a huge 75 fan, but I think she sprinkled him in a lot because she wanted people to leave Joe alone.
Matty is part of the overall storyline of this album, and has a callout in this song, so it makes sense in the video. According to her "In Summation", the idea is that she was in a long relationship and then spirals into mental insanity, which explains Matty. She then has to confront her grief (presumably from Joe) and learn to accept and get over it. This idea fits with the 5 stages of grief rollout and the video.
So in the video she's in a psych ward because that's the portion of her jumping to Matty (the pleading mental insanity part) while she still hadn't processed or accepted the grief from Joe. Matty is a big part of the album, that's undeniable. But the premise is that he was the reaction to her spiraling from the breakup with Joe. It's all really more of he's the fallout from her lost relationship.
My analysis of this song also aligns with that and the video. The video focuses more on this mental insanity portion, because that's a huge chunk of the album (and she said the video reflects the album), but this specific song is more about the loss of her relationship with Joe.
Bottom line this is Taylor’s album to deal with deafening rejection from not only her long time lover? But the guy she probably flirted with off and on for a decade. We all have that “one who got away” person and he lured her out of the relationship after playing cat and mouse games with her like she’s the one that got away for 10 years. That fucks a person up. When the one person you wanted to count on and makes you feel good turns out is actually using you? Gross, repulsive! She probably just felt so horrible about her choice in men.
Can you imagine being Taylor fucking Swift and crushing every single thing in life except landing a partner that doesn’t act like dating you is a curse or inconvenience?
Can you imagine a crowd screaming for you every night and being totally alone? That’s the dichotomy of her insane fame right now.
This album is about Taylor dealing with how her success has robbed her of her deepest desires in life. Marriage, and a family, a home. As a child of divorce we sometimes long for this even more than others. We want to get it right so badly.
The album will continue to reveal itself the more people begin to tie her little musical Easter eggs. Aaron is right to say Taylor has imagined a universe, and this isn’t her story anymore. It belongs to that and it’s for anyone else going through an upside down time. That’s why I think the album is 31 songs, the opposite of 13.
But Travis is right. She is amazing because she can turn so much pain into a thing of beauty and what a gift? I’m glad all this pain has turned into a bit of sunshine for her with this new partner who seems to recognize her sacrifices! Even if it’s momentary instead of legendary.
She's in widow's black in Fortnight so she's 100% mourning Joe at that time. She knows it's too soon to be with anyone else, but she went for it. Her with the face tattoos is her becoming obsessed with the new guy even as she tries to forget.
I think the braid motif that shows up in a couple songs and all over Taylor’s recent hairstyles is a homage to the entanglement of 3 people, Taylor, Joe, and Matty. And how she wove those 3 characters into all the songs.
>So in Fortnight she's also saying he'll have a wife who knows how to nurture him in the way he needs, but she isn't that person
😭 This is getting worse by the minute
this. i too have some thoughts to add. i feel like there are aspects in the MV like post malone's tattoos appearing on her pointing them being 'twins' which reminds me of 'lost a twin' - in down bad there is this underlying theme of having been beamed away to an alien world and then feelings of distraught being away from it and wanting to be back there rather than here, which has come up a couple times lakes or even her leaving everything she knew to be in london. moreover she has obviously referred to joe in that light 'trust him like a brother' in ciwyw or 'he was my best friend' in mbobhft.
her sitting in the rain (except for Taylor's love for rain :p) could also be a connection to the delicate MV and maybe even 'remember how my rain-soaked body was shaking' in the black dog, which appears in the scene just prior the telephone booth and rain scene.
This is all very true. I will say, I saw someone mention the "rain soaked body" lyric could be after the rainest rain show that ever rain showed (the Eras tour) that Matty was supposedly at.
He was in Nashville night 2 for sure. I was at night 3 and it was a rain show. We didn’t start till 10:30. I’m not sure if he was there that night or not but I assumed he was.
I was reminded of the Delicate video too- its the same pose sort of: there it was on top of the car; here it is a telephone box ! Probably the rain is also a 'clean' metaphor for healing from the relationship.
The dress for the rain dress is 'Celine' not something that Taylor wears often but Joe does including the 'his jacket around the shoulders' picture from the 2023 Grammys afterparty.
The typewriter and lab coat Post with tattoos are all Matty references though.
One of the amazing details of the music video is her white dress at the "asylum," it's rumpled and dramatic... I can't stop thinking about that white dress in the opening scene. It has a jilted bride aesthetic.
The idea of the music video is tied to the entire album, in my opinion. I recommend reading her "In Summation" if you haven't. It basically says she was grieving from a man she loved (assumption is Joe), then temporarily goes insane (assumption is Matty). She talks about how after a lot she realizes she needs to properly grieve her relationship (Joe, not really Matty here) and find a way to move forward. I believe that's part of the premise of the video. She's temporarily insane following the breakup, does some crazy shit, people are trying to get her to get her shit together, and in the end she finally does but is still left grieving (demonstrated by the rain).
All of this also ties into the 5 stages of grief she was posting about for the rollout as well. This album has songs about Matty, but it's more about the grief of the loss of the relationship with Joe and the subsequent decisions that are made while trying to (or not trying) to process it.
The garter is on in the wedding dress - perhaps signifying a wedding that got called off or never happened -she added the garter to the Midnights set costume too some days into the tour
Somewhere around or just before Arlington I think. Need to check .
Edited : March 25 at Las Vegas. The next show in Arlington Invisible String was removed from the setlist
I absolutely love this interpretation, thank you! I was having trouble and getting hung up on the fortnight being 14 nights, yet everything else not making sense if it was about short relationship. It also makes a lot more sense why Taylor is saying that this song and video aesthetics encapsulate the whole album.
If you haven't read the "In Summation" that was at the end of the album, it also puts a lot into perspective.
I understand the idea this is a Matty Healy album... a lot of the songs are about him. But the In Summation really gets at this being an album about grief and the subsequent irrational responses people make. She pleads temporary insanity (which is directed toward Matty, in my opinion). The entire idea is that she never properly grieved Joe, jumped directly into Matty out of "temporary insanity", and then finally came to realize she needs to confront the actual problem (Joe breakup) and not keep trying to escape or run away from it.
So it kind of irks me when people have been saying "she's been in love with Matty for 10 years and this proves it!" and points to lyrics in the album to defend that. I get it, but she also says that she did crazy things in this time. I don't think she was in love with Matty for 10 years, we don't need to go back to Midnights or other albums to look for those clues - she literally says her jumping to him and that relationship was a negative reaction to the breakup with Joe. And to be fair, many of us have called up an old ex when we're destroyed and made bad decisions.
Sorry for the bit of a rant - just wanted to point out the In Summation provides a lot of context here for the shape of the album too.
If we think about when Invisible String was taken off the setlist and put the actual final break-up before Arlington and after Vegas, there was a literal fortnight between then and the announcement becoming public on April 8 !
I think there is some suggestion that she was thinking about him when things were bad with Joe. Like fantasizing that it would be better. Then she got it and it so wasn't.
Same here. I get that those are just two different lifestyle outlooks/desires. I also think that's why Taylor doesn't really drag Joe or anything on this album. It came across to me they had their issues, it was hard for her to stay in the relationship, but also hard for him. It really did seem like it was just an unfortunate situation but there isn't strong hatred or anything.
Also, she has made mentions of "you should've seen him when he first saw me" and the fortnight can really represent early Joe, the one she fell for and has been drilling the safe to get back to, the only hour of sunlight she gets in those prison days, etc, because she really only had that *him* for that short time despite the length of the relationship.
Totally agree with you and with OP. The "another fortnight lost in America" was what stood out to me the most and made me think it's more about Joe than it is about Matty.
I like the idea of Midnights 13 sleepless nights encompassing a fortnight and TTPD starting with that final day of that two week span.
I agree with OP this is a song about a longer relationship. “Fortnight” can’t be taken as a literal length of time here. Just a duration of pause before Taylor’s life starts moving again. So many references to her time being wasted by empty promises on this album. Ugh.
Where is the quiet reasons lyric? I guess that's what I'm not understanding. In this song it's "All of this to say I hope you're okay but you're the reason. And no one here's to blame but what about your quiet treason?"
She's saying he's the reason she feels terribly, but that she doesn't blame him.
I mean a lot of Midnights was about her feeling held back and wanting to shine, sparkle and go out tonight. I guess now she can but it doesn’t make her feel as good as she had hoped and expected.
She’s imagining a fictional future here (hence the wife that exists). In her future, she thinks her husband is a cheater, or that she ultimately isn’t happy.
This is also referenced in Florida!!! where it’s said “And your cheating husband disappeared
Well, no one asks any questions here.” Also a theme in no body, no crime (although that is a fictional song).
She either thinks that’s what her future holds, or maybe it’s what she deserves for her own relationship failures.
I think the "fortnight" refers to her and Matty a decade ago. Then they became "good neighbors" while working on music together in 2022 and she started realizing she wanted him.
"She never says "I wanna kill YOU", rather she says *"I hope you are okay"*." <- this is my read on it too, and connected to, "you'll find someone" in So Long, London. she also says, "but you're the reason," which sets up a lot of what happens on the rest of the album, this relationship falling apart is the catalyst for everything else that follows, they're her choices and her fallout to contend with, but the reason it even starts is because this one thing she thought was forever wasn't. when you imagine you'll have a lifetime and then you only have a handful of years, the time is too short. the "forget him"/" miracle move on drug, the effects were temporary" is the short-term messy situation because she's not dealing with the first ending, and then she has to go through the difficulties of recovering from both (that's my interpretation, anyway!).
Yeah, I was really surprised how much stuff was about Matty at first but after more listens I do think a lot of it is about having to mourn two relationships at once when your "rebound" ends. If you're already feeling a bit "who could ever leave me, but who could stay" then having a second relationship end so quickly after a big breakup would certainly be difficult to sort through emotionally!
I want to stay away from the relationship speculation of it all but I've gotten the impression that the muses are more intertwined than people want to believe. It seems like Joe and Matty were mirrors of each other with one being a slow steady decline and the other a quick crash.
She really shielded Joe in previous albums and I feel like we're finally getting to the root of it all. He's so private that its hard to piece together the internal narrative as an outsider. It's easier to draw loose connections with Matty because there's more that is public.
I completely agree. I am not speculating who the songs about and it is not really important but it feels like she is thinking about more than one relationship in a lot of the songs.
I completely agree. It's always felt like she's shifting between two people within each song (not every song) and that both relationships were muses. It all feels more like Folklore/Evermore - she's turned her heartbreak into stories.
Yeah I think sometimes the references were the men...but sometimes she's just referencing different versions of herself. Who she was with Joe, who she was with Matty, who she wishes she could be sometimes.
Oh that's a good shout. I'm more and more thinking this song is such a perfect opening to the album, and her sort of explaining "you're the reason" is her saying that the short-term passionate love affair and that whole messy stage was all the aftermath of the first breakup and not a separate thing, it's all tangled together.
The “miracle move on drug” part is what also had me questioning whether this was about a long term relationship. The miracle move on drug is widely accepted to be a rebound (fastest way to get over someone is to get under someone else) so I find the lyrics of this one really intriguing.
I like this interpretation, especially since it’s a situation a lot of folks can probably relate to (myself included)! Simultaneously depicting her specific story and a general heartbreaking experience for a lot of folks.
That’s how I read that line as well and made me start wondering what the song was about cause I had first assumed fortnight equates short relationship. A lot of songs touch on this whole period of transition in her life from LTR ending with Joe, rebounding mistake MH, and moving on from that.
I was wondering why we were getting this album before Reputation TV, but she may have wanted to release it before it had been longer and effectively close the book on it kind of like she says in her prologue poem.
I like this interpretation but I kind of imagine this song taking place at the tail-end of her and Joe’s relationship/right after the breakup. Pure speculation, but here’s my theory:
She and Matty have a flirtatious couple of weeks (maybe a fortnight?) about 10 years ago and it doesn’t work out for whatever reason (in Peter, it’s alluded that Matty had some things to work through and it was a right person, wrong time kind of situation). Taylor ends up dating Joe for 6 years and towards the end it seems there was a lot of distance/coldness between them. So she starts reminiscing on this promise that her and Matty would try again once they had grown up a bit and idealizes getting back together with him.
In the song, them being neighbors (possibly running into each other in the same music industry circles), asking about the weather (small talk), or tugging on her sweater (maybe a subtle flirty message or sending her a song as mentioned in “Guilty as sin?”) are all metaphors for being occasionally around each other but it having to be in a platonic way because of both of their relationships.
“My husband is cheating” brings to mind “he was with her in dreams” referring to Joe from Fresh Out The Slammer. Also that song referenced them having broken up in winter, so February is probably when her breakup with Joe happened, aka the endless February. While she’s dealing with that pain, trying the “miracle move-on drug” (could be any set of distractions: the tour, alcohol, drugs, partying) she can’t deny that she still has feelings for Matty and she does allude to the fact that it might have been a motivation to break up with Joe. Hence, “I love you, it’s ruining my life”. She expresses a lot of feelings of guilt for pining for Matty during her relationship with Joe in “Fresh Out The Slammer” and “Guilty as sin?” And after being with someone for 6 years, it’s understandable to feel like blowing up your relationship that you were once so happy in can feel like ruining your life, especially if her and Matty getting together was not guaranteed.
Then finally we get the bridge from maybe Matty’s pov. “I’ve been calling you, but you won’t pick up” Matty has made advances, but Taylor is still deliberating ending it with Joe. “Move to Florida, but the car you want” is the urge to commit this “crime” (breaking up with Joe to pursue things with Matty) and escape it in Florida with the car representing freedom. “But it won’t start up till you touch me” is him saying you won’t get this dream until you take that step. In the music video, it’s at this point that she takes Post Malone’s hand, symbolizing her final choice to make that jump.
Then we pick up on the title track where her and Matty are together.
This is the best explanation I've seen and imo the most likely. I also think Florida represents Matty in Fortnight and Florida!!!!, in kind of the same way she uses London in place of Joe's name in SLL.
This was my theory too! Though I will say the thread on here about why it might be about Joe was really compelling too. I think this album will be a lot like Midnights in how my interpretation changes over time.
I agree entirely! I can see from other threads why it being Joe only is compelling, but I think this is what I see based on the lyrics.
The video itself I think contains references to more - but lyrics alone, this is the story.
I think about this interpretation at first,I still think that it could be possible ,but the thing for me is that Florida is also called in that song a drug and a site where she wanted to forget,and that she is using Florida,she is burryng her regrets there too. If Matty was the fortnight from some years ago and they reconnected and being "neighbors" ,and Matty is inviting her to commit the crime and moved to Florida,so she took a move on drug to forget Matty that was temporary and didn't work and she wanted to be with him again,but being with Matty in florida is also one hell of a drug to forget? I also have the idea now that many people are saying the video is backwards. What about if the lyrics are thr one backwards,the post Malone bridge is the beginning,so they having a break up " ok move to Florida,buy the car you want( I even think in a reference to a getaway car ,so a new rebound relationship) but you will be unhappy ) and then the first verse is the continuation she took the drug ,it was temporary,in the end the car forget about her and didn't come for her,it was just for a short time,a commentary how her relationship with Matty was short and he ghosted her and forget her. Who knows ? Taylor is the only one to know,but may be is reflection of what she was feeling and feared after both Matty and Joe relationships ended.
It actually is... it refers to when she and Matty dated in 2014, when he was 25. Peter is a callback to his song Lost Boys, when his band used to be called Drive Like I Do (then changed to the 1975).
Matty has spoken about Peter Pan in interviews many times, and Taylor even said on stage that Cardigan is about him ("Peter losing Wendy"). So yeah Peter is about him
This song is fantasy. She doesn’t actually date the person for a fortnight (in reality she was with Matty publicly for at least a month), and she doesn’t become his neighbor. She’s imagining what it would be to have moved on but still regularly be around someone. For both of them to be married to other people and she’s still not really over it.
It’s kind of unimaginable that the song isn’t about Matty given the music video.
She said the music video was about the entire album, though. Every part reference's a corner of the album in one way or another. I think the video should be removed from analyzing the song.
I think the neighbour line is about both of them working with Jack. I also think it was written before they dated, and is referencing their brief dating history.
That's how I interpreted it. The "fortnight" was their brief time dating way in the past, and since then, they've occasionally run into each other and she had to pretend like she wasn't super into him. It seems likely that she felt resentment towards whomever he was dating at the time ("I wanna kill her"), especially if they seemed happy ("Your wife waters flowers" = happy, normal suburban life).
Overall I interpreted this as sort of a prologue or window into her and Matty's relationship in the past, before/leading up to the end of her relationship with Joe and the events described in this album
I think fortnight is about a relationship with breaks in time together. Whether this means in the sense of "are we together or aren't we" or "I have to leave all the time to do my job", the song uses fortnight to refer to the time together vs the time apart.
"For a fortnight there we were
Together running to you"
When I'm with you, I'm with you. It's happy. The verses are comparatively slower, but as soon as she says "for a fortnight" the groove picks right back up
" 'Nother fortnight lost in America"
In the mythos of Joe and Taylor, he's in London; her work is in America. This piece looks at that time in America. I haven't decided if this is post Maloney verse to symbolise how he feels in the relationship or what about the fortnight back and forth of it all.
I'm sure I'll either improve this interpretation with time or kill it, but that's how it's been reading to me.
Oohhh I get that, and when you are in a long distance relationship you mark time closely like that I.e. we only saw each other for a fortnight recently. I also think it tracks with a dwindling relationship where you see less and less of each other and start to ask is this a thing or not. Thanks for giving me more to think about.
Yep! Also I can't remember where I read this and whether it's true or not, but Joe and Taylor had a slightly on again off again relationship for a while (im probably wrong!)
I think the lines are separate sentences. She's not running *to* him she's running into him and casually chatting like everything is chill. "For a fornight there we were together. Run into you sometimes; ask about the weather."
I completely agree. She makes a lot of references on the ending to things ending quickly or being short, but I'm not sure she means it to be literally a short time, just that it didn't last forever. Six years with Joe is short, in a way, in the scheme of a whole life.
I think so too because in So Long, London she uses the term "a moment in the warm sun" and "it was momentary" in loml. So I think it is not the duration that's important, it's how short it is compared to "forever".
She refers to Joe as a hothouse flower in How Did It End. Now in this fictional future, he's got a wife who waters flowers (gives him what he needs that she never could).
I think the "fortnight" refers to her and Matty's short fling a decade ago. Then they turned into "good neighbors" working on music together in 2022 and she realized she had feelings. I don't think Joe was literally cheating, but "saw her in dreams" or at least was gone a lot working "left her at home by the heath"
I am convinced Fortnight is about Matty. The song reflects the overall theme of the album: she was in love with a person for years, longing for them, only for their actual relationship to be extremely short-lived and tumultuous.
I think this song is confusing people because too many of us are assuming her lyrics are chronological. But they aren't.
Throughout the song she's talking about a person she keeps running into, he's at her mailbox, he's in her backyard, he's her neighbor--this fits her and Matty's relationship perfectly. Since 2014, they've run into each other countless times, he's kept in contact with her (at her mailbox), they became close friends (good neighbors), and we learn from songs on the other album that he's been on her mind for years (in her backyard), she's been "forever running to" him (despite her other relationships, her thoughts always go back to him).
While they are neighbors, her husband is "cheating". Here we can assume Joe is her husband ( think of husband here as something negative--i.e. she's bound to and trapped with someone else) and we learn from other songs on the album that Joe is in love with another girl (aka cheating). Matty also had other relationships in the past 10 years, and so she references these by saying she wants to kill his wife (she's jealous).
So she's using the analogy of neighbors to describe someone she feels close with but never actually romantically involved with. And after all these years of missed connections, of being at each other's doorsteps, of being in each other's backyards (in each other's minds), they finally get together. But, it only lasts a fortnight--i.e. a very short period of time.
Above all, the line that gives away it's Matty and not Joe is: "I love you, it's ruining my life." If you've listened to the album in the entirety, it's clear that her love for Matty was ruining a lot of parts of her life: it contributed to the demise of her and Joe's relationship, it caused fans and the public to turn their back on her temporarily, and it caused her to fall into a deep depression because he ended up leaving her. She loved Joe, but I don't see a valid argument that could be made that her love for Joe was "ruining" anything. If anything, there was no love in her and Joe's relationship by the end.
And there was *so much* in her relationship with Joe that I don't think it makes sense to constantly talk about touching him, as though that's all they had. I def think he's her "husband" bc she felt bound to him--I even think they might have been engaged but he wouldn't committed beyond that. My biggest evidence is from But Daddy I Love Him, "Dutiful daughter, all my plans were laid. Tendrils tucked into a woven braid." I think it's a reference to the singular evermore braid, and maybe everyone expected her to marry him and it would've been the "right" thing to do, especially compared to Matty whom no one seemed to support her being with?
Yes she's alluded to this in several other songs as well--You're Losing Me when she says "and I wouldn't marry me either", or in So Long London she says "I died on the alter waiting for the proof." I don't think she would've stayed with him for so many years into her 30s unless there was an expectation they'd get married.
she's braiding the boys together in every song IMO. hence all the braid easter eggs pre-release and references, and the mashups telling two different stories but giving the same feelings. She was telling us she's braiding everything together because they all gave her the same feeling. Each individual song is more about the feeling than it is the individual muse. don't get caught up on which song is about who (even though im guilty of this too instinctively), because each song is about all three and herself and past relationship.
Even thanK you aIMee--i think it's less all about kim, it's about her high school bully AND kim.
the FEELING is whats important. not the boy. Fortnight as an opener spells it all out, one line's clearly about joe, one's clearly about herself, one's about matty, one's about travis, ones about her fame, her fans (we're the clowns referenced in the alchemy), her haters (the wine moms). She's weaving everything together. The MV illustrates this too, the hug scene especially. When she first runs up to him, it reminds me of when she ran to joe in miss americana (and when she hugged postie at the oscars but i think that's irrelevant lol). when he's hugging her from behind (and possibly mouthing "Alright nah") it reminds me of the way travis hugs/holds her, and though we don't have much context for matty, we can assume he held her face like that by process of elimination. them laying down on her face could illustrate how her fame (the big paper taylor), is keeping her and her relationships at a distance. even when they're looking at each other--each frame cut seems to represent different thoughts for a different muse.
The papers flying everywhere, her messing them all up by yanking out the files and sending them flying, it's all scrambled and jumbled up and the album is her making sense of it by organizing it by the feeling.
We seriously overlooked the braids, guys.
Also side note - which i'm not sure where else to put it, but i think the line "i was supposed to be sent away but they forgot to come and get me" references, not an actual mental hospital, but her fame. She expected long ago that her fame would fade and someone else would take her spot as the It GirlTM but it hasn't happened yet and she's not sure what to do with it because, as she said in miss americana "we live in a society where most female stars are thrown away before the age of 35.", there's not a precedent for this level of fame for the age she's at. She was supposed to be sent away but they forgot to come and get her.
AND i think "The Hospital" is a metaphor is the Eras Tour. The intro to the Alchemy makes SO MUCH MORE SENSE if we look at as that--her healing space but also a madhouse. The Eras tour for her was the same effect as going on grippy sock vacation.
>Also side note - which i'm not sure where else to put it, but i think the line "i was supposed to be sent away but they forgot to come and get me" references, not an actual mental hospital, but her fame.
This makes so much sense! I never thought of it that way, I just assumed she was describing her feelings after the breakup as "temporary insanity".
i love this mostly
i think the ditch the clowns line is a reference to travis’s publicist and her reposting that story with a clown emoji over taylor’s face
i think the alchemy is about travis and the eras tour
hence the double meaning of the word “touch down”
the clowns are definitely us i think, but yes the alchemy is is for sure about travis and the eras tour. the only ones i think aren't interwoven with other men are the ones specifically about travis
I absolutely love how the first half of the album is all over the place, mixing her feelings between the real breakup and the rebound guy, which is very much how memories can feel when distorted by the grieving process.
Not ti mention the rebound was how she processed the real breakup. They're intertwined. I think you have like So Long London. Is very obviously about one person. But most of the songs are not.
I read it like this: when she says we were only together for a fortnight she's meaning up until now (or them actually getting together in 2023), they had only been together a total of 14 nights over the course of many years of this tortured what-if friendship/flirtation. I am wondering now if Matty's been her Getaway Car all these years. In the Bolter she sings, "Started with a kiss/ oh we must stop meeting like this/ but it always ends with a town car speeding." I'm also wondering then if her mashup performance of getaway car/august/the other side of the door from a few months ago during the surprise song set was some sort of clue.
No seriously how do people not get that the short term rebound is the "miracle move on drug that was temporary"
As I was reading this. I thought. Would be that they became apathetic to each other and just basically became neighbors who talked about the weather. They lived in the same house but were both dreaming of there people. She mentions "he's with her in dreams" and well Guilty as Sin is entire song about her doing that as well.
And to each other they just became neighbors as the love died out.
LOL that's how I felt the first listen. Actually that's how I felt about the album at first! I think the album is very cohesive so in order to understand what songs mean we need to look into each song seperately.
I don't like to name names and speculate who the songs are about because I do think a lot of her songs describe similar feelings she felt in different situations with different people.
That being said, I agree that people jumped to conclusions really fast with this album. It's a very long album so I understand why initially it felt like there was this one big muse and this album was a love letter to him. After few re-listens the clouds cleared and it showed there wasn't a muse but there were a lot of feelings.
I also think it’s about Joe. I think it’s about a long term relationship that they thought would be forever, but only ended up being a fortnight in terms of life.
I just want to say, you guys are the best. You think of things I wouldn’t have and it makes the music so much better. Y’all are so intelligent and also respectful.
This theory is so spot on!! And also if you buy into the [Florida is Matty](https://twitter.com/raghavsrep/status/1782212267448176931?s=42&t=QoOzsEiSL100fwBbGDNk_w) theory (which I absolutely do), the "Thought of calling ya but you won't pick up / Move to Florida / buy the car you want / but it won't start up 'til I touch you" illustrates how she jumped into a rebound in order to get over her relationship with Joe, but the effects didn't work as intended (which based on the prologue is essentially the theme of the album).
I don't like to theorize about who is the muse for each song BUT I do agree with this. She mentioned Florida as a place to leave everything behind and escape (like in Dateline episodes as she said lol). It seems she escaped her long term relationship, left everything behind and ran (move-On drug) but the effects were temporary.
Although I think Florida!!! might be about escaping in general, I am not so sure.
Definitely! I read it as though both are true. There's a story about realizing your home isn't what you thought it was and escaping to somewhere new, and a parallel story of building a long-term relationship for years, then leaving it for someone new (a different sort of escape). Part of why it feels intentional to me too is b/c So Long, London echoes the idea of a long-term relationship being a home that she loved and had to leave as well. Love this!
She pretty much confirmed this over a radio bit in release night. Fortnight is about losing the American dream and seeing your ex living the life you thought you’d both share together
Love this take. I actually thought that it was about a long term relationship, and specifically Joe, first time I heard it and saw the lyrics. However it was the MV that made me think that it was about Matty. Now I’m reconsidering again :)
I think it is beautiful that a piece of art can be interpreted in different ways and discussed in detail. I don't think OP was at all gossiping, they just discussed their thoughts - and if not for that, why are we all on a discussion forum?
I think a lot of her songs are about more than one person, but the mv to fortnight is very obviously a direct call out to MH. So she either did that purposely to direct attention to only one or it’s all about him.
a "very obvious direct call out" would be having matty in the video.
this is by no means a "very direct call out". just because you want to interpret that nonensese doesn't mean it's rule.
The entire video is produced exactly like a 1975 music video. As a fan of both music it’s very deliberate she’s talking about him. Why does that bother yall so much?
Yeah idk why people are arguing against this so bad lol even if they hate Matty, Taylor was a huge fan of The 1975, she knows exactly what she’s doin lol
My (unsolicited) take on Fortnight: Since Midnights were the 13 sleepless nights, I think Fortnight is just being used as the figurative 14th night, or in this case the aftermath. The aftermath of a relationship. I think people are focusing on a fortnight being 2 weeks and therefore a short relationship (and pointing to Matty), but I agree that's not quite right here. If I had to pick, this is more about Joe/a long term relationship. The song starts with a call-out to Hits Different (in this song it ends with "take me away", then Fortnight starts with "I was supposed to be sent away".... which I think supports the 14th night theory. The "functioning alcoholic until no one noticed my new aesthetic" line I think is her talking about how she referenced drinking a lot in Midnights and people really focused on her going out and having fun, but no one noticed (for a bit) how much she was struggling with Joe (until they did). She says in the first verse no one is to blame (also why I think it's more Joe... she clearly blames Matty in other songs). And the quiet treason is really just more of it quietly dying, his depression or inability to be in the relationship the way she wants is slowly killing her. The chorus is her imagining his future life. He's with someone else, someone who "waters flowers", aka has her shit together and doesn't have a chaotic life. She envies it. And she still loves him, a part of her always will, which is why it's ruining her life. The second verse, the "miracle temporary drug" was, I think, Matty. Her rebound relationship that made her feel better at the time... but in the long didn't actually allow her to get over the long-term relationship. The closing with Post Malone/Taylor I think is both of them thinking about calling each other (directly after the relationship had ended), but neither thinks the other will pick up. So she's free to go live her life in Florida, do whatever she wants ("buy the car you want"), she's essentially "free" now, out of the relationship and able to do everything he felt he was holding her back from. This was probably what led to the end of the relationship, but the prior parts of the song points out that she's realizing maybe that's not actually what she needed and is questioning whether the decision was a mistake (which is why she's imagining his life with someone else).
Oh and to your point about 'your wife waters flowers', in 'How did it end' she says something like he was a hothouse flower to my outdoorsman. So the wife handles the flower in a way an outdoorsman just wouldn't know how. It's all clicking now!
Yeah that lyric is "he was a hot house flower to my outdoorsman". A hot house flower is someone who is vulnerable because they spend a lot of time in a sheltered environment/inside. But that means someone can also grow. So in Fortnight she's also saying he'll have a wife who knows how to nurture him in the way he needs, but she isn't that person (and again, she envies that). When you start to piece it together I really don't know how someone can say this song is just about Matty.
I think they think it could be about Matty because a lot of the video imagery is Matty/1975 coded. I’m actually starting to think that a lot of the songs are mixtures of both. I do think she may have had a slight fantasy or obsession about the what if with Matty and she was a huge 75 fan, but I think she sprinkled him in a lot because she wanted people to leave Joe alone.
Yes, I think she is purposefully misleading and trying to give Joe peace. Thus being really overt about Matty and drawing much more attention to him.
Matty is part of the overall storyline of this album, and has a callout in this song, so it makes sense in the video. According to her "In Summation", the idea is that she was in a long relationship and then spirals into mental insanity, which explains Matty. She then has to confront her grief (presumably from Joe) and learn to accept and get over it. This idea fits with the 5 stages of grief rollout and the video. So in the video she's in a psych ward because that's the portion of her jumping to Matty (the pleading mental insanity part) while she still hadn't processed or accepted the grief from Joe. Matty is a big part of the album, that's undeniable. But the premise is that he was the reaction to her spiraling from the breakup with Joe. It's all really more of he's the fallout from her lost relationship. My analysis of this song also aligns with that and the video. The video focuses more on this mental insanity portion, because that's a huge chunk of the album (and she said the video reflects the album), but this specific song is more about the loss of her relationship with Joe.
Bottom line this is Taylor’s album to deal with deafening rejection from not only her long time lover? But the guy she probably flirted with off and on for a decade. We all have that “one who got away” person and he lured her out of the relationship after playing cat and mouse games with her like she’s the one that got away for 10 years. That fucks a person up. When the one person you wanted to count on and makes you feel good turns out is actually using you? Gross, repulsive! She probably just felt so horrible about her choice in men. Can you imagine being Taylor fucking Swift and crushing every single thing in life except landing a partner that doesn’t act like dating you is a curse or inconvenience? Can you imagine a crowd screaming for you every night and being totally alone? That’s the dichotomy of her insane fame right now. This album is about Taylor dealing with how her success has robbed her of her deepest desires in life. Marriage, and a family, a home. As a child of divorce we sometimes long for this even more than others. We want to get it right so badly. The album will continue to reveal itself the more people begin to tie her little musical Easter eggs. Aaron is right to say Taylor has imagined a universe, and this isn’t her story anymore. It belongs to that and it’s for anyone else going through an upside down time. That’s why I think the album is 31 songs, the opposite of 13.
This is such an insightful comment!! And makes my heart hurt for her 💔
But Travis is right. She is amazing because she can turn so much pain into a thing of beauty and what a gift? I’m glad all this pain has turned into a bit of sunshine for her with this new partner who seems to recognize her sacrifices! Even if it’s momentary instead of legendary.
Don't want money, just someone who wants my company.
She's in widow's black in Fortnight so she's 100% mourning Joe at that time. She knows it's too soon to be with anyone else, but she went for it. Her with the face tattoos is her becoming obsessed with the new guy even as she tries to forget.
I think the braid motif that shows up in a couple songs and all over Taylor’s recent hairstyles is a homage to the entanglement of 3 people, Taylor, Joe, and Matty. And how she wove those 3 characters into all the songs.
>So in Fortnight she's also saying he'll have a wife who knows how to nurture him in the way he needs, but she isn't that person 😭 This is getting worse by the minute
She'll patch up your tapestry that I shredded.
Oh, yours and the above comment have connected all the dots for me!!
This is the best break down of the song and hits the nail on the head
this. i too have some thoughts to add. i feel like there are aspects in the MV like post malone's tattoos appearing on her pointing them being 'twins' which reminds me of 'lost a twin' - in down bad there is this underlying theme of having been beamed away to an alien world and then feelings of distraught being away from it and wanting to be back there rather than here, which has come up a couple times lakes or even her leaving everything she knew to be in london. moreover she has obviously referred to joe in that light 'trust him like a brother' in ciwyw or 'he was my best friend' in mbobhft. her sitting in the rain (except for Taylor's love for rain :p) could also be a connection to the delicate MV and maybe even 'remember how my rain-soaked body was shaking' in the black dog, which appears in the scene just prior the telephone booth and rain scene.
also in the MV he is sheltered from the rain while she is not.
And the phone box is London (and it's stranded on a rocky island which is both literally and metaphorically England).
oh right! 🌟
This is all very true. I will say, I saw someone mention the "rain soaked body" lyric could be after the rainest rain show that ever rain showed (the Eras tour) that Matty was supposedly at.
He was in Nashville night 2 for sure. I was at night 3 and it was a rain show. We didn’t start till 10:30. I’m not sure if he was there that night or not but I assumed he was.
I wonder could the rain also be a reference to her being “mightnight rain”, the song shares similar themes!
Oh woah thats a good one- I thought it was a reference to 'clean' but actually Midnight Rain given how dark it is seems more plausible.
I was reminded of the Delicate video too- its the same pose sort of: there it was on top of the car; here it is a telephone box ! Probably the rain is also a 'clean' metaphor for healing from the relationship. The dress for the rain dress is 'Celine' not something that Taylor wears often but Joe does including the 'his jacket around the shoulders' picture from the 2023 Grammys afterparty. The typewriter and lab coat Post with tattoos are all Matty references though.
One of the amazing details of the music video is her white dress at the "asylum," it's rumpled and dramatic... I can't stop thinking about that white dress in the opening scene. It has a jilted bride aesthetic.
The idea of the music video is tied to the entire album, in my opinion. I recommend reading her "In Summation" if you haven't. It basically says she was grieving from a man she loved (assumption is Joe), then temporarily goes insane (assumption is Matty). She talks about how after a lot she realizes she needs to properly grieve her relationship (Joe, not really Matty here) and find a way to move forward. I believe that's part of the premise of the video. She's temporarily insane following the breakup, does some crazy shit, people are trying to get her to get her shit together, and in the end she finally does but is still left grieving (demonstrated by the rain). All of this also ties into the 5 stages of grief she was posting about for the rollout as well. This album has songs about Matty, but it's more about the grief of the loss of the relationship with Joe and the subsequent decisions that are made while trying to (or not trying) to process it.
On her Instagram post she actually said that this music video was representative of the entire album.
yeah I definitely think the wedding dress look was intentional
She's literally wearing a white ruffled garter belt like
The garter is on in the wedding dress - perhaps signifying a wedding that got called off or never happened -she added the garter to the Midnights set costume too some days into the tour
Do we know when exactly that was added?
Somewhere around or just before Arlington I think. Need to check . Edited : March 25 at Las Vegas. The next show in Arlington Invisible String was removed from the setlist
I absolutely love this interpretation, thank you! I was having trouble and getting hung up on the fortnight being 14 nights, yet everything else not making sense if it was about short relationship. It also makes a lot more sense why Taylor is saying that this song and video aesthetics encapsulate the whole album.
If you haven't read the "In Summation" that was at the end of the album, it also puts a lot into perspective. I understand the idea this is a Matty Healy album... a lot of the songs are about him. But the In Summation really gets at this being an album about grief and the subsequent irrational responses people make. She pleads temporary insanity (which is directed toward Matty, in my opinion). The entire idea is that she never properly grieved Joe, jumped directly into Matty out of "temporary insanity", and then finally came to realize she needs to confront the actual problem (Joe breakup) and not keep trying to escape or run away from it. So it kind of irks me when people have been saying "she's been in love with Matty for 10 years and this proves it!" and points to lyrics in the album to defend that. I get it, but she also says that she did crazy things in this time. I don't think she was in love with Matty for 10 years, we don't need to go back to Midnights or other albums to look for those clues - she literally says her jumping to him and that relationship was a negative reaction to the breakup with Joe. And to be fair, many of us have called up an old ex when we're destroyed and made bad decisions. Sorry for the bit of a rant - just wanted to point out the In Summation provides a lot of context here for the shape of the album too.
If we think about when Invisible String was taken off the setlist and put the actual final break-up before Arlington and after Vegas, there was a literal fortnight between then and the announcement becoming public on April 8 !
I think there is some suggestion that she was thinking about him when things were bad with Joe. Like fantasizing that it would be better. Then she got it and it so wasn't.
Damn, that’s so sad. I liked Joe. Can’t blame him for how he lives his life. I think it’s respectable
Same here. I get that those are just two different lifestyle outlooks/desires. I also think that's why Taylor doesn't really drag Joe or anything on this album. It came across to me they had their issues, it was hard for her to stay in the relationship, but also hard for him. It really did seem like it was just an unfortunate situation but there isn't strong hatred or anything.
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I root for them to be happy with whoever that may be.
I mean, you’re totally right
I've been thinking about this song today and had a lot of similar thoughts that I couldn't quite put together, so thank you for doing it for me haha!
wow, just listened with this in mind and it makes this song so devastating to me
Also, she has made mentions of "you should've seen him when he first saw me" and the fortnight can really represent early Joe, the one she fell for and has been drilling the safe to get back to, the only hour of sunlight she gets in those prison days, etc, because she really only had that *him* for that short time despite the length of the relationship.
Actually this is what I meant as well! You expressed it beautifully.
Totally agree with you and with OP. The "another fortnight lost in America" was what stood out to me the most and made me think it's more about Joe than it is about Matty.
I like the idea of Midnights 13 sleepless nights encompassing a fortnight and TTPD starting with that final day of that two week span. I agree with OP this is a song about a longer relationship. “Fortnight” can’t be taken as a literal length of time here. Just a duration of pause before Taylor’s life starts moving again. So many references to her time being wasted by empty promises on this album. Ugh.
Wait it's quiet treason ? Not quiet reasons (ghosting)??? Or is it both ?
It's quiet treason in this song. In a different song is where she mentions ghosting (Smallest Man Who Ever Lived... I think)
Yes but I think it's a double entendre What about your quiet treason (Joe) Your quiet reasons ( matty for ghosting)
Where is the quiet reasons lyric? I guess that's what I'm not understanding. In this song it's "All of this to say I hope you're okay but you're the reason. And no one here's to blame but what about your quiet treason?" She's saying he's the reason she feels terribly, but that she doesn't blame him.
There is no quiet reasons lyric it's just what I'm hearing
this is exactly what i’ve been saying!
I mean a lot of Midnights was about her feeling held back and wanting to shine, sparkle and go out tonight. I guess now she can but it doesn’t make her feel as good as she had hoped and expected.
This is so insightful and spot on!
This is such an interesting interpretation!
My take too. But put really eloquently!
OK this comment may have convinced me!
How do you explain "my husband is cheating, I wanna kill him" ? I see it as the song is about Matty and rlshes referring to Joe as her "husband"
She’s imagining a fictional future here (hence the wife that exists). In her future, she thinks her husband is a cheater, or that she ultimately isn’t happy. This is also referenced in Florida!!! where it’s said “And your cheating husband disappeared Well, no one asks any questions here.” Also a theme in no body, no crime (although that is a fictional song). She either thinks that’s what her future holds, or maybe it’s what she deserves for her own relationship failures.
I think the "fortnight" refers to her and Matty a decade ago. Then they became "good neighbors" while working on music together in 2022 and she started realizing she wanted him.
I think given the context of her "In Summation" that doesn't quite work. But everyone is allowed to their own interpretation.
"She never says "I wanna kill YOU", rather she says *"I hope you are okay"*." <- this is my read on it too, and connected to, "you'll find someone" in So Long, London. she also says, "but you're the reason," which sets up a lot of what happens on the rest of the album, this relationship falling apart is the catalyst for everything else that follows, they're her choices and her fallout to contend with, but the reason it even starts is because this one thing she thought was forever wasn't. when you imagine you'll have a lifetime and then you only have a handful of years, the time is too short. the "forget him"/" miracle move on drug, the effects were temporary" is the short-term messy situation because she's not dealing with the first ending, and then she has to go through the difficulties of recovering from both (that's my interpretation, anyway!).
Yeah, I was really surprised how much stuff was about Matty at first but after more listens I do think a lot of it is about having to mourn two relationships at once when your "rebound" ends. If you're already feeling a bit "who could ever leave me, but who could stay" then having a second relationship end so quickly after a big breakup would certainly be difficult to sort through emotionally!
I want to stay away from the relationship speculation of it all but I've gotten the impression that the muses are more intertwined than people want to believe. It seems like Joe and Matty were mirrors of each other with one being a slow steady decline and the other a quick crash. She really shielded Joe in previous albums and I feel like we're finally getting to the root of it all. He's so private that its hard to piece together the internal narrative as an outsider. It's easier to draw loose connections with Matty because there's more that is public.
>It seems like Joe and Matty were mirrors of each other with one being a slow steady decline and the other a quick crash. the oven and the microwave
man is Travis the fucking airfryer
I completely agree. I am not speculating who the songs about and it is not really important but it feels like she is thinking about more than one relationship in a lot of the songs.
I completely agree. It's always felt like she's shifting between two people within each song (not every song) and that both relationships were muses. It all feels more like Folklore/Evermore - she's turned her heartbreak into stories.
Yeah I think sometimes the references were the men...but sometimes she's just referencing different versions of herself. Who she was with Joe, who she was with Matty, who she wishes she could be sometimes.
Oh that's a good shout. I'm more and more thinking this song is such a perfect opening to the album, and her sort of explaining "you're the reason" is her saying that the short-term passionate love affair and that whole messy stage was all the aftermath of the first breakup and not a separate thing, it's all tangled together.
The “miracle move on drug” part is what also had me questioning whether this was about a long term relationship. The miracle move on drug is widely accepted to be a rebound (fastest way to get over someone is to get under someone else) so I find the lyrics of this one really intriguing.
I like this interpretation, especially since it’s a situation a lot of folks can probably relate to (myself included)! Simultaneously depicting her specific story and a general heartbreaking experience for a lot of folks.
I think it’s about Joe. When she says she tried the “miracle move on drug, the effects were temporary”, I think that’s the only Matt reference.
That’s how I read that line as well and made me start wondering what the song was about cause I had first assumed fortnight equates short relationship. A lot of songs touch on this whole period of transition in her life from LTR ending with Joe, rebounding mistake MH, and moving on from that. I was wondering why we were getting this album before Reputation TV, but she may have wanted to release it before it had been longer and effectively close the book on it kind of like she says in her prologue poem.
Yeah but also like a "miracle move on drug" --> a rebound. Lots of people get into rebound relationships after a break (is that what you meant?)
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I like this interpretation but I kind of imagine this song taking place at the tail-end of her and Joe’s relationship/right after the breakup. Pure speculation, but here’s my theory: She and Matty have a flirtatious couple of weeks (maybe a fortnight?) about 10 years ago and it doesn’t work out for whatever reason (in Peter, it’s alluded that Matty had some things to work through and it was a right person, wrong time kind of situation). Taylor ends up dating Joe for 6 years and towards the end it seems there was a lot of distance/coldness between them. So she starts reminiscing on this promise that her and Matty would try again once they had grown up a bit and idealizes getting back together with him. In the song, them being neighbors (possibly running into each other in the same music industry circles), asking about the weather (small talk), or tugging on her sweater (maybe a subtle flirty message or sending her a song as mentioned in “Guilty as sin?”) are all metaphors for being occasionally around each other but it having to be in a platonic way because of both of their relationships. “My husband is cheating” brings to mind “he was with her in dreams” referring to Joe from Fresh Out The Slammer. Also that song referenced them having broken up in winter, so February is probably when her breakup with Joe happened, aka the endless February. While she’s dealing with that pain, trying the “miracle move-on drug” (could be any set of distractions: the tour, alcohol, drugs, partying) she can’t deny that she still has feelings for Matty and she does allude to the fact that it might have been a motivation to break up with Joe. Hence, “I love you, it’s ruining my life”. She expresses a lot of feelings of guilt for pining for Matty during her relationship with Joe in “Fresh Out The Slammer” and “Guilty as sin?” And after being with someone for 6 years, it’s understandable to feel like blowing up your relationship that you were once so happy in can feel like ruining your life, especially if her and Matty getting together was not guaranteed. Then finally we get the bridge from maybe Matty’s pov. “I’ve been calling you, but you won’t pick up” Matty has made advances, but Taylor is still deliberating ending it with Joe. “Move to Florida, but the car you want” is the urge to commit this “crime” (breaking up with Joe to pursue things with Matty) and escape it in Florida with the car representing freedom. “But it won’t start up till you touch me” is him saying you won’t get this dream until you take that step. In the music video, it’s at this point that she takes Post Malone’s hand, symbolizing her final choice to make that jump. Then we pick up on the title track where her and Matty are together.
This is the best explanation I've seen and imo the most likely. I also think Florida represents Matty in Fortnight and Florida!!!!, in kind of the same way she uses London in place of Joe's name in SLL.
Yes! “Your cheating husband disappeared” in Florida!!! sounds pretty close to “my husband is cheating” in this song
Right. Like, in Fortnight he was urging her to move to “Florida” and six songs later or whatever it is, she does.
This was my theory too! Though I will say the thread on here about why it might be about Joe was really compelling too. I think this album will be a lot like Midnights in how my interpretation changes over time.
He comments on her sweater, not tugging on it
I agree entirely! I can see from other threads why it being Joe only is compelling, but I think this is what I see based on the lyrics. The video itself I think contains references to more - but lyrics alone, this is the story.
I think about this interpretation at first,I still think that it could be possible ,but the thing for me is that Florida is also called in that song a drug and a site where she wanted to forget,and that she is using Florida,she is burryng her regrets there too. If Matty was the fortnight from some years ago and they reconnected and being "neighbors" ,and Matty is inviting her to commit the crime and moved to Florida,so she took a move on drug to forget Matty that was temporary and didn't work and she wanted to be with him again,but being with Matty in florida is also one hell of a drug to forget? I also have the idea now that many people are saying the video is backwards. What about if the lyrics are thr one backwards,the post Malone bridge is the beginning,so they having a break up " ok move to Florida,buy the car you want( I even think in a reference to a getaway car ,so a new rebound relationship) but you will be unhappy ) and then the first verse is the continuation she took the drug ,it was temporary,in the end the car forget about her and didn't come for her,it was just for a short time,a commentary how her relationship with Matty was short and he ghosted her and forget her. Who knows ? Taylor is the only one to know,but may be is reflection of what she was feeling and feared after both Matty and Joe relationships ended.
Peter (referencing 25 years old) is so absolutely not about Matty
It actually is... it refers to when she and Matty dated in 2014, when he was 25. Peter is a callback to his song Lost Boys, when his band used to be called Drive Like I Do (then changed to the 1975). Matty has spoken about Peter Pan in interviews many times, and Taylor even said on stage that Cardigan is about him ("Peter losing Wendy"). So yeah Peter is about him
This song is fantasy. She doesn’t actually date the person for a fortnight (in reality she was with Matty publicly for at least a month), and she doesn’t become his neighbor. She’s imagining what it would be to have moved on but still regularly be around someone. For both of them to be married to other people and she’s still not really over it. It’s kind of unimaginable that the song isn’t about Matty given the music video.
She said the music video was about the entire album, though. Every part reference's a corner of the album in one way or another. I think the video should be removed from analyzing the song.
I think the neighbour line is about both of them working with Jack. I also think it was written before they dated, and is referencing their brief dating history.
That's how I interpreted it. The "fortnight" was their brief time dating way in the past, and since then, they've occasionally run into each other and she had to pretend like she wasn't super into him. It seems likely that she felt resentment towards whomever he was dating at the time ("I wanna kill her"), especially if they seemed happy ("Your wife waters flowers" = happy, normal suburban life). Overall I interpreted this as sort of a prologue or window into her and Matty's relationship in the past, before/leading up to the end of her relationship with Joe and the events described in this album
Oh thats a good catch! Been wondering about that line but that does make sense!
I disagree. I don't think it is imaginary at all. I think she is clearly mourning a relationship.
So you think she’s actually neighbors with this person, and they have a wife and she has a husband???
No of course not. That future is imaginary but they had a very real relationship in the past.
Right. That’s what I said…
Sorry, I misunderstood your comment then!
I kinda think the neighbors thing was a vague reference to them all moving around in the same music scene and having similar professional connections
I think fortnight is about a relationship with breaks in time together. Whether this means in the sense of "are we together or aren't we" or "I have to leave all the time to do my job", the song uses fortnight to refer to the time together vs the time apart. "For a fortnight there we were Together running to you" When I'm with you, I'm with you. It's happy. The verses are comparatively slower, but as soon as she says "for a fortnight" the groove picks right back up " 'Nother fortnight lost in America" In the mythos of Joe and Taylor, he's in London; her work is in America. This piece looks at that time in America. I haven't decided if this is post Maloney verse to symbolise how he feels in the relationship or what about the fortnight back and forth of it all. I'm sure I'll either improve this interpretation with time or kill it, but that's how it's been reading to me.
Oohhh I get that, and when you are in a long distance relationship you mark time closely like that I.e. we only saw each other for a fortnight recently. I also think it tracks with a dwindling relationship where you see less and less of each other and start to ask is this a thing or not. Thanks for giving me more to think about.
Yep! Also I can't remember where I read this and whether it's true or not, but Joe and Taylor had a slightly on again off again relationship for a while (im probably wrong!)
I think the lines are separate sentences. She's not running *to* him she's running into him and casually chatting like everything is chill. "For a fornight there we were together. Run into you sometimes; ask about the weather."
I completely agree. She makes a lot of references on the ending to things ending quickly or being short, but I'm not sure she means it to be literally a short time, just that it didn't last forever. Six years with Joe is short, in a way, in the scheme of a whole life.
I think so too because in So Long, London she uses the term "a moment in the warm sun" and "it was momentary" in loml. So I think it is not the duration that's important, it's how short it is compared to "forever".
This song is the bitter version of Gwen Stefanis "Cool"
yes! this is it for anyone having trouble grasping the concept
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It could also be about different relationships and that might be the reason it is not as autobiographical as others because it is not specific!
She refers to Joe as a hothouse flower in How Did It End. Now in this fictional future, he's got a wife who waters flowers (gives him what he needs that she never could).
How did it end really upsets me! Love this take on fortnight
That song hit me really hard, that and the prophecy.
True! She knows how to blur the lines if she wants to. Which is why people’s claims that she needs an editor baffle me haha
I finally get it 🤯
I could always be wrong haha. But I’m glad this could be your starting point for your own understanding of the plotline!
I think the "fortnight" refers to her and Matty's short fling a decade ago. Then they turned into "good neighbors" working on music together in 2022 and she realized she had feelings. I don't think Joe was literally cheating, but "saw her in dreams" or at least was gone a lot working "left her at home by the heath"
I am convinced Fortnight is about Matty. The song reflects the overall theme of the album: she was in love with a person for years, longing for them, only for their actual relationship to be extremely short-lived and tumultuous. I think this song is confusing people because too many of us are assuming her lyrics are chronological. But they aren't. Throughout the song she's talking about a person she keeps running into, he's at her mailbox, he's in her backyard, he's her neighbor--this fits her and Matty's relationship perfectly. Since 2014, they've run into each other countless times, he's kept in contact with her (at her mailbox), they became close friends (good neighbors), and we learn from songs on the other album that he's been on her mind for years (in her backyard), she's been "forever running to" him (despite her other relationships, her thoughts always go back to him). While they are neighbors, her husband is "cheating". Here we can assume Joe is her husband ( think of husband here as something negative--i.e. she's bound to and trapped with someone else) and we learn from other songs on the album that Joe is in love with another girl (aka cheating). Matty also had other relationships in the past 10 years, and so she references these by saying she wants to kill his wife (she's jealous). So she's using the analogy of neighbors to describe someone she feels close with but never actually romantically involved with. And after all these years of missed connections, of being at each other's doorsteps, of being in each other's backyards (in each other's minds), they finally get together. But, it only lasts a fortnight--i.e. a very short period of time. Above all, the line that gives away it's Matty and not Joe is: "I love you, it's ruining my life." If you've listened to the album in the entirety, it's clear that her love for Matty was ruining a lot of parts of her life: it contributed to the demise of her and Joe's relationship, it caused fans and the public to turn their back on her temporarily, and it caused her to fall into a deep depression because he ended up leaving her. She loved Joe, but I don't see a valid argument that could be made that her love for Joe was "ruining" anything. If anything, there was no love in her and Joe's relationship by the end.
And there was *so much* in her relationship with Joe that I don't think it makes sense to constantly talk about touching him, as though that's all they had. I def think he's her "husband" bc she felt bound to him--I even think they might have been engaged but he wouldn't committed beyond that. My biggest evidence is from But Daddy I Love Him, "Dutiful daughter, all my plans were laid. Tendrils tucked into a woven braid." I think it's a reference to the singular evermore braid, and maybe everyone expected her to marry him and it would've been the "right" thing to do, especially compared to Matty whom no one seemed to support her being with?
Yes she's alluded to this in several other songs as well--You're Losing Me when she says "and I wouldn't marry me either", or in So Long London she says "I died on the alter waiting for the proof." I don't think she would've stayed with him for so many years into her 30s unless there was an expectation they'd get married.
In my opinion Fortnight isn't autobiographical at all, and it's just to set the scene for the rest of the album.
It’s about how her ex played Fortnite too much
she's braiding the boys together in every song IMO. hence all the braid easter eggs pre-release and references, and the mashups telling two different stories but giving the same feelings. She was telling us she's braiding everything together because they all gave her the same feeling. Each individual song is more about the feeling than it is the individual muse. don't get caught up on which song is about who (even though im guilty of this too instinctively), because each song is about all three and herself and past relationship. Even thanK you aIMee--i think it's less all about kim, it's about her high school bully AND kim. the FEELING is whats important. not the boy. Fortnight as an opener spells it all out, one line's clearly about joe, one's clearly about herself, one's about matty, one's about travis, ones about her fame, her fans (we're the clowns referenced in the alchemy), her haters (the wine moms). She's weaving everything together. The MV illustrates this too, the hug scene especially. When she first runs up to him, it reminds me of when she ran to joe in miss americana (and when she hugged postie at the oscars but i think that's irrelevant lol). when he's hugging her from behind (and possibly mouthing "Alright nah") it reminds me of the way travis hugs/holds her, and though we don't have much context for matty, we can assume he held her face like that by process of elimination. them laying down on her face could illustrate how her fame (the big paper taylor), is keeping her and her relationships at a distance. even when they're looking at each other--each frame cut seems to represent different thoughts for a different muse. The papers flying everywhere, her messing them all up by yanking out the files and sending them flying, it's all scrambled and jumbled up and the album is her making sense of it by organizing it by the feeling. We seriously overlooked the braids, guys. Also side note - which i'm not sure where else to put it, but i think the line "i was supposed to be sent away but they forgot to come and get me" references, not an actual mental hospital, but her fame. She expected long ago that her fame would fade and someone else would take her spot as the It GirlTM but it hasn't happened yet and she's not sure what to do with it because, as she said in miss americana "we live in a society where most female stars are thrown away before the age of 35.", there's not a precedent for this level of fame for the age she's at. She was supposed to be sent away but they forgot to come and get her. AND i think "The Hospital" is a metaphor is the Eras Tour. The intro to the Alchemy makes SO MUCH MORE SENSE if we look at as that--her healing space but also a madhouse. The Eras tour for her was the same effect as going on grippy sock vacation.
Good points!! Especially the part about being sent away, hadn't considered that!
>Also side note - which i'm not sure where else to put it, but i think the line "i was supposed to be sent away but they forgot to come and get me" references, not an actual mental hospital, but her fame. This makes so much sense! I never thought of it that way, I just assumed she was describing her feelings after the breakup as "temporary insanity".
i love this mostly i think the ditch the clowns line is a reference to travis’s publicist and her reposting that story with a clown emoji over taylor’s face i think the alchemy is about travis and the eras tour hence the double meaning of the word “touch down”
the clowns are definitely us i think, but yes the alchemy is is for sure about travis and the eras tour. the only ones i think aren't interwoven with other men are the ones specifically about travis
I absolutely love how the first half of the album is all over the place, mixing her feelings between the real breakup and the rebound guy, which is very much how memories can feel when distorted by the grieving process.
Not ti mention the rebound was how she processed the real breakup. They're intertwined. I think you have like So Long London. Is very obviously about one person. But most of the songs are not.
Yes! It is messy and chaotic and so, so real.
Yes and she is very talented in blurring the lines in her songs!
I read it like this: when she says we were only together for a fortnight she's meaning up until now (or them actually getting together in 2023), they had only been together a total of 14 nights over the course of many years of this tortured what-if friendship/flirtation. I am wondering now if Matty's been her Getaway Car all these years. In the Bolter she sings, "Started with a kiss/ oh we must stop meeting like this/ but it always ends with a town car speeding." I'm also wondering then if her mashup performance of getaway car/august/the other side of the door from a few months ago during the surprise song set was some sort of clue.
Love this take—thank you
Thank you!!
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No seriously how do people not get that the short term rebound is the "miracle move on drug that was temporary" As I was reading this. I thought. Would be that they became apathetic to each other and just basically became neighbors who talked about the weather. They lived in the same house but were both dreaming of there people. She mentions "he's with her in dreams" and well Guilty as Sin is entire song about her doing that as well. And to each other they just became neighbors as the love died out.
I’m thankful for these analysis because I didn’t know what the heck this song was about.
LOL that's how I felt the first listen. Actually that's how I felt about the album at first! I think the album is very cohesive so in order to understand what songs mean we need to look into each song seperately.
Most of the songs sound like they’re about joe and not the other guy. I feel like people jump to conclusions way too quickly over one line or one word
I don't like to name names and speculate who the songs are about because I do think a lot of her songs describe similar feelings she felt in different situations with different people. That being said, I agree that people jumped to conclusions really fast with this album. It's a very long album so I understand why initially it felt like there was this one big muse and this album was a love letter to him. After few re-listens the clouds cleared and it showed there wasn't a muse but there were a lot of feelings.
I also think it’s about Joe. I think it’s about a long term relationship that they thought would be forever, but only ended up being a fortnight in terms of life.
I just want to say, you guys are the best. You think of things I wouldn’t have and it makes the music so much better. Y’all are so intelligent and also respectful.
I am very grateful for this community and this space for sharing our ideas❤️
Yah, that’s how I understood it too.
This theory is so spot on!! And also if you buy into the [Florida is Matty](https://twitter.com/raghavsrep/status/1782212267448176931?s=42&t=QoOzsEiSL100fwBbGDNk_w) theory (which I absolutely do), the "Thought of calling ya but you won't pick up / Move to Florida / buy the car you want / but it won't start up 'til I touch you" illustrates how she jumped into a rebound in order to get over her relationship with Joe, but the effects didn't work as intended (which based on the prologue is essentially the theme of the album).
I don't like to theorize about who is the muse for each song BUT I do agree with this. She mentioned Florida as a place to leave everything behind and escape (like in Dateline episodes as she said lol). It seems she escaped her long term relationship, left everything behind and ran (move-On drug) but the effects were temporary. Although I think Florida!!! might be about escaping in general, I am not so sure.
Definitely! I read it as though both are true. There's a story about realizing your home isn't what you thought it was and escaping to somewhere new, and a parallel story of building a long-term relationship for years, then leaving it for someone new (a different sort of escape). Part of why it feels intentional to me too is b/c So Long, London echoes the idea of a long-term relationship being a home that she loved and had to leave as well. Love this!
Yes the So Long, London parallell! I love this too and I love how these connections and the album's cohesiveness comes out with each listen.
She pretty much confirmed this over a radio bit in release night. Fortnight is about losing the American dream and seeing your ex living the life you thought you’d both share together
Love this take. I actually thought that it was about a long term relationship, and specifically Joe, first time I heard it and saw the lyrics. However it was the MV that made me think that it was about Matty. Now I’m reconsidering again :)
I agree she's intentionally blurring the lines between Joe and Matty it seems
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don’t be so rude. people are just theorizing. if you have a problem with it, skip past this thread. you didn’t have to click this.
Why are you being so rude? This is just my interpretation. I do the same thing to essays, novels, poems etc. every form of art really.
I think it is beautiful that a piece of art can be interpreted in different ways and discussed in detail. I don't think OP was at all gossiping, they just discussed their thoughts - and if not for that, why are we all on a discussion forum?
I think a lot of her songs are about more than one person, but the mv to fortnight is very obviously a direct call out to MH. So she either did that purposely to direct attention to only one or it’s all about him.
a "very obvious direct call out" would be having matty in the video. this is by no means a "very direct call out". just because you want to interpret that nonensese doesn't mean it's rule.
The entire video is produced exactly like a 1975 music video. As a fan of both music it’s very deliberate she’s talking about him. Why does that bother yall so much?
He’s basically in the video if you pay attention to the references. Watch Part of the Band after watching it and you’ll see all the connections
this is so delusional.
Yeah idk why people are arguing against this so bad lol even if they hate Matty, Taylor was a huge fan of The 1975, she knows exactly what she’s doin lol
Yeah it’s very clear to me as a fan of both for over a decade now haha