Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus
Bonus Track | THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT: THE ANTHOLOGY (2024)
Table of Contents
Background
According to Taylor, she developed THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT immediately after submitting Midnights, and worked on it for two years. She significantly further developed the album during the first US leg of “The Eras Tour” (2023-2024). During one of stadium tour’s shows in Melbourne, she described writing the album was a “lifeline” for her:
«TORTURED POETS is an album that I think, more than any of my albums that I’ve ever made, I needed to make it. It was really a lifeline for me, just the things I was going through, and the things I was writing about. It kind of reminded me of why songwriting is something that actually gets me through my life. And I’ve never had an album where I needed songwriting more than I’d needed it on TORTURED POETS.»
Taylor Swift
Lyrical Theme
Taylor’s songs are often autobiographical, though she never shared her inspiration for this song in particular. Still, it seems most likely that she is referencing her romance with singer-songwriter Matty Healy. Assuming so, “Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus” could be the one song on the album that explains Taylor’s innermost feelings about her failed relationship with him. Producer Aaron Dessner shared on Instagram in April 2024:
«I believe these songs are some of the most lyrically acute, intricate, vulnerable and cathartic Taylor has ever written and I am continually astonished by her skills as a songwriter and performer.»
Aaron Dessner
Another song that seems to connect to “Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus” and its theme of constant wondering and reminiscing is “Maroon“, a song of off Midnights. Here, 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?”
Live Performance
Commercial Performance
Lyrics
[Verse 1]
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
[Chorus]
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
[Verse 2]
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
[Chorus]
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
[Bridge]
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
[Verse 3]
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
[Final Chorus]
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
[Outro]
Cause I wonder
Will I always
Will I always wonder?
Artist | Taylor Swift | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Album | THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT | |||
Released | April 19, 2024 | |||
Recorded | 2023 | |||
Studios | Long Pond (Hudson Valley) Prime Recording (Nashville) | |||
Genre | Alternative | |||
Length | 3:33 | |||
Label | Republic Records | |||
Songwriters | Taylor Swift Aaron Dessner | |||
Producers | Aaron Dessner Taylor Swift | |||
THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT CHRONOLOGY | ||||
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