Most of the material was written and recorded before Swift and Kelce became an item, so he isn’t a key player in the album, although he makes a key late entry, assuming no one else drove her to use football metaphors for the first time. Fans were initially surprised to see that Swift’s short, tumultuous time with Healy appears to take up the majority of the emotional real estate on the album, rather than her six years with Alwyn before that. The long poem that is included in the album packaging makes it clear that the album’s arc begins with the end of one long-dying relationship and then documents the rise and fall of a much more passionate one. The exposition in the poem lends weight to the fact that —surprisingly — this song cycle is focused on feelings about someone that most fans wouldn’t have realized had such a deep emotional effect on Swift until it came out in this record.
