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loml

THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT (2024)

“loml” is track twelve on Taylor’s eleventh studio album, THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT (2024). It was released on April 19, 2024, through Republic Records. In the song, Taylor uses “loml” as both an acronym for “love of my life” and “loss of my life.”

Background

Taylor released her tenth studio album, Midnights, on October 21, 2022, to widespread commercial and critical success, becoming the biggest album of the year. Midnights was eventually nominated for six Grammy Awards at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards on February 4, 2024. The morning of the ceremony, Taylor teased the release of an album by changing her profile picture across all social media platforms to a black and white version of the already existing cover artwork of Midnights. This led to her fans speculating online that she was preparing to release reputation (Taylor’s Version), a forthcoming re-recording of her sixth studio album, reputation (2017). Taylor’s website also appeared to have crashed, replaced with the non-existent HTTP status code 321, as well as error code “hneriergrd”, which fans deciphered to be an anagram spelling “red herring”. They also analyzed the source code of her website and found hidden, foreign-language words, which they then translated into English. The words found would be revealed to be words in Taylor’s handwritten note for the album.

Taylor won the Grammy Awards for “Best Pop Vocal Album” and “Album of the Year” for Midnights a few hours later. In her acceptance speech for the former, she revealed a new studio album, titled THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT, and announced its release date of April 19, 2024, which she had been keeping secret for nearly two years. Its cover artwork was subsequently posted on her social media accounts, along with a photograph of a handwritten note:

«And so I enter into evidence / My tarnished coat of arms / My muses, acquired like bruises / My talismans and charms / The tick, tick, tick of love bombs / My veins of pitch black ink / All's fair in love and poetry…Sincerely, The Chairman of the Tortured Poets Department.»

Taylor Swift

The album’s tracklist, including “loml,” was revealed a day later.

Live Performances

“loml” received its first live performance acoustically on piano on May 9, 2024, in Paris during one of Taylor’s shows on “The Eras Tour” (2023-2024). The audio was officially released a couple of days later. On July 28, she paired the song up with “Don’t You” (2021) in Munich.

Lyrics

[Verse 1]
Who’s gonna stop us from waltzing
Back into rekindled flames
If we know the steps anyway
We embroidered the memories
Of the time I was away
Stitching “We were just kids, babe”
I said, “I don’t mind. It takes time.”
I thought I was better safe than starry-eyed
I felt aglow like this
Never before and never since

[Chorus 1]
If you know it in one glimpse, it’s legendary
You and I go from one kiss to getting married
Still alivе killing time at the cemеtery
Never quite buried
In your suit and tie, in the nick of time
You lowdown boy, you standup guy
You Holy Ghost, you told me I’m
The love of your life

[Post-Chorus 1]
You said I’m the love of your life
About a million times

[Verse 2]
Who’s gonna tell me the truth
When you blew in with the winds of fate
And told me I reformed you?
When your impressionist paintings of heaven
Turned out to be fakes
Well, you took me to hell, too
And all at once, the ink bleeds
A con man sells a fool a get-love-quick scheme
But I felt a hole like this
Never before, and ever since

[Chorus 2]
If you know it in one glimpse
It’s legendary
What we thought was for all time
Was momentary
Still alive killing time at the cemetery
Never quite buried
You cinephile in black and white
All those plot twists and dynamite
Mr. Steal Your Girl, then make her cry
You said I’m the love of your life

[Bridge]
You shit-talked me under the table
Talking rings and talking cradles
I wish I could un-recall
How we almost had it all
Dancing phantoms on the terrace
Are they second-hand embarrassed
That I can’t get out of bed
Cause something counterfeit’s dead
It was legendary
It was momentary
It was unnecessary
Should’ve let it stay buried

[Final Chorus]
Oh, what a valiant roar
What a bland goodbye
The coward claimed he was a lion
I’m combing through the braids of lies
“I’ll never leave”…
“Never mind”
Our field of dreams, engulfed in fire
Your arson’s match, your somber eyes
And I’ll still see it until I die
You’re the loss of my life.