Perhaps Taylor Swift and Matty Healy were only meant to be together in Neverland.
Following the release of Taylor's new album The Tortured Poets Department on April 19, fans pointed out multiple songs seemed to be inspired by her brief romance with The 1975 musician in spring 2023, including "The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived," "Fresh Out the Slammer," "The Tortured Poets Department" and "Fortnight." (Even the music video starring Post Malone appears to feature several Easter Eggs about the frontman).
Some of the new tracks seemingly inspired by Matty also call back to her songs from prior albums, weaving an invisible string throughout both her discography and The 1975's emotional hits.
Notably, Tortured Poet's "But Daddy I Love Him" has parallels to her Midnights song "Question...?" Both center on other people judging a relationship she's long wanted—from "Every single one of your friends was makin' fun of you" in 2022 to "God save the most judgmental creeps / Who say they want what's best for me" in 2024.
But of the new album's Anthology tracks, Taylor's song "Peter" appears to offer deeper insight into her dynamic with Matty since first sparking romance rumors 10 years ago.
"You said you were gonna grow up / Then you were gonna come find me," Taylor laments, hinting that she thought she'd end up with the song's love interest later on in life. The 34-year-old later adds, "And you said you'd come and get me, but you were 25 / And the shelf life of those fantasies has expired."
Indeed, Matty was 25 years old in 2014, when they were seen getting close during her 1989 era. (Remember the matching T-shirts?)
Other lyrics compare her lover to Peter Pan, grieving their romance as "lost to the 'Lost Boys' chapter of your life / Forgive me, Peter, please know that I tried."
And Matty's also used the children's book character to describe himself over the years. In fact, he called himself "a sort of emo Peter Pan self-lacerating Pied Piper kind of character" during a 2016 interview with Big Issue.
"It's very easy to be Peter Pan when you do what I do, and of course you're gonna be Peter Pan," he further explained to Music Week in 2018. "But you have to grow up, nobody likes an old infant."
Raising even more eyebrows is the fact that it's not the first time Taylor has compared a boyfriend to Peter Pan. In her 2020 folklore track "Cardigan"—which she's previously said was inspired by a fictional teenage love triangle—Taylor wrote about a young love: "I knew you / Tried to change the ending / Peter losing Wendy."
What's more, Matty had mouthed the same tribute two days before when The 1975 performed "About You" in Manila, as seen in fan footage on social media.
"I know a place / It's somewhere I go when I need to remember your face / We get married in our heads / Something to do while we try to recall how we met," the 35-year-old sings in the intro. "Do you think I have forgotten?"
Taylor, too, would go on to write about a make believe marriage in her Tortured Poets song "Fresh Out the Slammer," crooning, "Ain't no way I'm gonna screw up now that I know what's at stake / Here, at the park where we used to sit on children's swings / Wearing imaginary rings."
As for The 1975's other songs that may trace back to the "Shake It Off" artist? Internet sleuths are pointing to the 2016 song "She's American" and the 2013 song "fallingforyou," in which Matty sings, "I'm so excited for the night / All we need's my bike and your enormous house / You said some day we might / When I'm closer to your height."
Taylor seemingly mimicked the formatting of the space-less title in her Tortured Poets song "imgonnagetyouback," which appears to allude to—shocker—Matty's said bike.
"Whether I'm gonna be your wife or / Gonna smash up your bike, I / Haven't decided yet," she declares. "But I'm gonna get you back."
To decode more songs from The Tortured Poets Department, read on: