Taylor Swift’s “Tortured Poets Department” album is filled with songs titled after proper names, including “Robin,” “Cassandra,” “Peter” and “thanK you aIMee.” There’s one curious song also called “Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus” that has listeners looking closely.
This is the 20th track on the double album of “Tortured Poets” and right at the beginning we get the sole mention of our title names, Chloe, Sam, Sophia and Marcus.
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What is this song about though? Well, this one is lyrically dense and seems to be Swift tortured by the “what ifs” of a past romance and the ghost of that person haunting her. We have a reference of a “hologram” stumbling into her apartment, followed by the lines, “Hands in the hair of somebody in darkness/ Named Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus.” It’s unclear who these people could be, though perhaps Swift is simply saying this “somebody” could be anybody with any name.
Another part of the song has Swift singing about a person battling addiction, while she shapes herself into the person they want her to be: “You needed me, but you needed drugs more/ And I couldn’t watch it happen/ I changed into goddesses, villains and fools/ Changed plans and lovers and outfits and rules/ All to outrun my desertion of you.” (Swift’s songs are often autobiographical, she has said in the past, and Swifties have searched for clues in “Tortured Poets” songs that hint at her exes, including Matty Healy and Joe Alwyn. Healy has been open about his struggles with addiction.)
Swifties have also spotted a lyric that calls back to another song of Swift’s titled “Maroon,” off her 2022 album “Midnights.” She sings: “So if I sell my apartment/ And you have some kids with an internet starlet/ Will that make your memory fade from this scarlet maroon?”
Read the full lyrics of “Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus” here:
Your hologram stumbled into my apartment
Hands in the hair of somebody in darkness
Named Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus
And I just watched it happen
As the decade would play us for fools
And you saw my bones out with somebody new
Who seemed like he would've bullied you in school
And you just watched it happen
If you want to break my cold, cold heart
Just say, "I love you the way that you were"
If you want to tear my world apart
Just say you've always wondered
You said some things that I can't unabsorb
You turned me into an idea of sorts
You needed me, but you needed drugs more
And I couldn't watch it happen
I changed into goddesses, villains and fools
Changed plans and lovers and outfits and rules
All to outrun my desertion of you
And you just watched it
If you want to break my cold, cold heart
Just say "I loved you the way that you were"
If you want to tear my world apart
Just say you've always wondered
If the glint in my eye traced the depths of your sigh
Down that passage in time
Back to the moment I crashed into you
Like so many wrecks do
Too impaired by my youth
To know what to do
So if I sell my apartment
And you have some kids with an internet starlet
Will that make your memory fade from this scarlet maroon?
Like it never happened
Could it be enough to just float in your orbit?
Can we watch our phantoms like watching wild horses?
Cooler in theory, but not if you force it
To be, it just didn't happen
So if you want to break my cold, cold heart
Say you loved me
And if you want to tear my world apart
Say you'll always wonder
'Cause I wonder
Will I always
Will I always wonder?
