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The Black Dog

Bonus Track | THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT: THE ANTHOLOGY (2024)

“The Black Dog” is track seventeen on THE ANTHOLOGY, the double album edition of Taylor’s eleventh studio album, THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT (2024). Written by her alone, it captures the moment she realizes an ex forgot to turn off his location, leading her to discover he is visiting a familiar bar called The Black Dog and wondering what he is doing there. Fittingly, the song was originally called “Old Habits Die Screaming.”

Background

Taylor developed her eleventh studio album, THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT, “for about two years” after finishing her previous album Midnights (2022). “The Black Dog” specifically was recorded at Electric Lady Studio in New York City on May 18, 2023. Taylor 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.»

Taylor Swift

The album’s “Black Dog” deluxe edition along with the song was announced during Taylor’s “The Eras Tour” show in Singapore on March 3, 2024. On the digital version of the album, “The Black Dog” opens the second part of TORTURED POETS, titled THE ANTHOLOGY. As the title suggests, it is a series of scattered musings and ruminations on different aspects of Taylor’s life and career from 2022-2023, obscured through either a fictional or metaphorical lens.

After its release, the song made a notable cultural impact. The band The Starting Line, referenced in the lyrics, expressed gratitude for the shout-out, which coincided with a 55% surge in streaming of their catalog. Meanwhile, the Vauxhall pub The Black Dog experienced a surge of visiting Swift fans and even added Swift-themed items to their menu—despite Taylor later confirming that she had no personal connection to the bar.

Lyrical Theme

“The Black Dog” showcases Taylor’s signature storytelling style, in which a single, seemingly minor detail expands to reveal deeper emotional truths. The lyrics focus on her mourning a past relationship and explore the theme that losing someone can also mean losing the places tied to that connection—a motif also explored on the album track “So Long, London.”

The song centers on a bar called the Black Dog, a spot she and an ex-partner once frequented. It opens with Taylor realizing her phone still tracks his location, as he forgot to disable sharing, and watching him head to the bar. In the chorus, she imagines him inside, drawing the attention of a younger woman unable to recognize one of their favorite songs by The Starting Line. These observations deepen her heartbreak, leading her to consider hiring a priest in a symbolic attempt to exorcise her emotional demons. The song shifts from sorrow to anger, as she wishes him a miserable time in the bar: “And I hope it’s shitty in The Black Dog.” A clever lyric, “tail between your legs, you’re leaving,” likens him to a dog, emphasizing shame and defeat.

The song has sparked speculation about its inspiration. Philosopher George Mills described it as a “modernization of the black dog myths from folklore,” with the bar symbolizing “the death of [Taylor’s] relationship.” The track also echoes Winston Churchill’s famous metaphor for depression, while the real-life pub in Vauxhall became a pilgrimage site for Swifties, fueling rumors about her former partners, including Joe Alwyn and Matty Healy. In an October 2025 interview, Taylor clarified that these speculations were inaccurate:

«Still nobody knows what I'm even talking about on that song. They think they know, but they have no idea.»

Taylor Swift

The Philadelphia-based pop-punk band The Starting Line gets mentioned twice in the song. The group exploded into the emo scene in 2002 with a song called “The Best of Me,” which presumably is the unnamed Starting Line song Taylor keeps referring to in the lyrics. Speaking to Variety in April 2024, singer Kenny Vasoli said: “I feel like it’s trying to impart some sort of nostalgia of the time and the kind of music that we were making at that time, and I’m very flattered that we were the representation of that. […] I’m so glad that it seems to be used in a relatively positive light. It’s really been quite an unexpected showering of love, and a very grateful moment for the band, because it’s not something that we ever could have saw coming, especially not from someone of her magnitude. It’s a very sweet name-drop.”

Production

Musically speaking, THE ANTHOLOGY sets a starkly different tone from the main album in general, with its first track being “The Black Dog.” It is a post-industrial power ballad. A sparse arrangement led by bare piano accompanies the song, which begins at a slow pace and builds up for the rest of its length. Music critics noticed influences from Phoebe Bridgers’s works because of how the song intensifies towards the end.

Live Performances

Taylor performed “The Black Dog” live on piano, as part of mashups of her other songs, three times throughout “The Eras Tour” in 2024. She debuted the track at a London concert on June 21, combining it with “Come Back… Be Here” (2012) and “Maroon” (2022). Introducing the song, she told the crowd:

«I’ve never played this one live, so, wish me lots of luck and send thoughts and prayers.»

Taylor Swift

At a Warsaw show of the tour on August 3, she sang a mashup of “The Black Dog” and fan-favorite “exile” (2020), which surprised and relished the audience. Taylor once more performed the song and fused it with “Haunted” (2010) during a New Orleans tour show on October 25.

Critical Reception

“The Black Dog” was widely praised by critics and considered a standout track on THE ANTHOLOGY. Rolling Stone’s Rob Sheffield called its concept “classic Nashville-worthy,” while Variety’s Chris Willman ranked it among Taylor’s ten best songs. NME’s Hannah Mylrea described it as some of her “most searing songwriting,” and Gabriel Saulog of Billboard Philippines highlighted its clever lyricism as a window into Taylor’s mind. The song’s storytelling—turning the minor detail of a bar visit into a meditation on heartbreak, memory, and betrayal—was particularly lauded for its relatability and emotional depth.

Production and vocals also drew acclaim. Reviewers praised the song’s dynamic piano ballad arrangement, Taylor’s nuanced vocal control, and the swelling chorus, with Tom Breihan of Stereogum noting its alignment with her “old-school Nashville-honed storytelling chops.” Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph described it as an angry, vindictive track with a “massive” sound, while Ryan Fish of The Hollywood Reporter called the chorus “huge and roaring,” perfectly suited for live performances.

Commercial Performance

Upon release, “The Black Dog” reached the Rop 30 of the Billboard Global 200 (at 26) as well as the national charts of the United States (25), Canada (26), and New Zealand (26). In Australia, the song peaked at No. 25 on the ARIA Singles Chart and helped Taylor become the artist with the most single–week entries on the chart with 29. The track further entered the national charts of Portugal and Switzerland, with respective peaks of 67 and 95. On other charts, it reached Greece’s International Top 100 Digital Singles chart (at 58), Sweden’s Heatseeker chart (1), and the United Kingdom’s audio streaming (30) and sales charts (61).