loml

THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT (2024)

“loml” is track twelve on Taylor’s eleventh studio double album, THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT (2024). Written and produced by her and Aaron Dessner, it is a melancholic piano ballad. Taylor mourns the loss of a relationship that was once full of promises but ended in devastation, using extensive death-related imagery of phantoms and graveyards. Whereas “loml” is a popular colloquialism for “love of my life”, the conclusion of the song denotes it as “loss of my life”.
Table of Contents

Background

Taylor developed her eleventh studio album, THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT, “for about two years” after finishing her previous album Midnights (2022). She reflected on the creation of the album as a “lifeline” for her, as it took place amidst media reports on her personal life and her relationships with Joe Alwyn, Matty Healy, and Travis Kelce:

«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

The album’s tracklist, including “loml,” was revealed shortly after.

Lyrical Theme

“loml” begins with Taylor reflecting on a relationship reignited from “rekindled flames” that were “never quite buried,” strongly hinting that the song chronicles her decade-long connection to British singer-songwriter Matty Healy. They reunited after a period of distance, during which Taylor confesses she sacrificed her feelings for him for the sake of stability, admitting, “I thought I was better safe than starry-eyed.” In fellow TORTURED POETS song “Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus” she admits that she further changed herself in countless ways throughout the years, but never lost interest in him.

Upon rekindling their romance, Matty promised Taylor dreams of marriage, and even children; a lifetime together. However, he abruptly ended the relationship without warning shortly after, effectively ghosting her. Taylor comes to terms with the betrayal, describing herself as a “fool” and him as a “con-man” who sold her “a get-love-quick scheme.” The broken promises leave her heartbroken and depressed, questioning her choices, as she laments, “Dancing phantoms on the terrace/ Are they second-hand embarrassed/ That I can’t get out of bed/ ‘Cause something counterfeit’s dead.”

By the end, Taylor is consumed by profound disappointment, summing up her feelings with devastating clarity: “It was legendary / It was momentary / It was unnecessary / Should’ve let it stay buried.”

Production

Taylor wrote and produced “loml” with her frequent collaborator and close friend Aaron Dessner. It is a ballad with a minimal production featuring Taylor’s vocals accompanied by piano keys, evoking an intimate and melancholic soundscape. There were comparisons of the production style of “loml” to that on her two 2020 albums, folklore and evermore. Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone specifically compared the piano melody to that from the title track of evermore.

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. In Miami on October 19, 2024, she played the song together with “White Horse” (2008).

Critical Reception

“loml” was picked as a standout from THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT in many album reviews. Critics generally acclaimed the emotional songwriting that they found resonant and affecting. Several critics highlighted different lyrics as their favorite. Paste and Laura Snapes of The Guardian singled out the line “a con-man sells a fool a get-love-quick scheme” as a standout; the former also picked the lyric, “And all at once, the ink bleeds.” Melissa Ruggieri of USA Today thought that her vocals contained an ache that would make listeners “feel raked over with nails”.

“loml” has appeared on some rankings of Taylor’s entire catalog. Placing the song at No. 21 on his list of 75 best songs by her, Variety‘s Chris Willman said that it contained some of her best lyrics by stacking “one gut punch after another”. Ranking all of her 274 songs up until April 2024, Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone placed “loml” at the 33rd place; he said that the song “hits home” because of its ordinary and “unmelodramatic” qualities and that it peaked with a “perfectly simple epitaph”; “It was legendary/ It was momentary.”

Commercial Performance

When THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT was released, tracks from the album occupied the Top 14 of the US Billboard Hot 100; “loml” debuted and peaked at No. 12 on the chart, where Taylor became the first artist to monopolize the Top 14. In Australia, the song reached No. 15 on the ARIA Singles Chart and made her the artist with the most entries in a single week with 29. Elsewhere, “loml” peaked at No. 16 on the Billboard Global 200 and reached the Top 20 in the Philippines (19), Malaysia (19), Canada (17), and New Zealand (16).

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.

General Information
ArtistTaylor Swift
AlbumTHE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT
ReleasedApril 19, 2024
Recorded2023
StudiosLong Pond (Hudson Valley)
Narwhal Studios (Chicago)
Electric Lady (New York City)
Prime Recording (Nashville)
Sterling Sound (Edgewater)
GenreAlternative
Length4:36
LabelRepublic Records
SongwritersTaylor Swift
Aaron Dessner
ProducersAaron Dessner
Taylor Swift
THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT CHRONOLOGY
I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)lomlI Can Do It With a Broken Heart
Song Certification
"Platinum" certification by the Recording Industry Association of America. Signifying 1,000,000 units sold.
Song Artwork
Live Performance
Lyric Video
Official Audio
Official Live Audio