#chloe et al

[lyricsbyts]

chloe or sam or sophia or marcus — t.s

[ourstaturestouchtheskies]

cards from charlotte's art history tarot – major arcana // Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus – Taylor Swift

[hope-ur-ok]

the urge I had to name this track Chloe et al because I didn't want to type out the names (I am an inherently lazy person)

[bloodmoonlich]

What will become of me once I've lost my novelty?

[clarabowmp3]

too impaired by my youth...to know what to do

[sororygilmore]

your idea of me (chloe et al. by taylor swift x body better by maisie peters x all too well by taylor swift)

[gofightwin]

[youllalwaysfindyourwaybackhome]

thinking about "growing up precocious sometimes means not growing up at all" and "I have this thing where I get older but just never wiser" and "they expected me to find somewhere, some perspective, but I sat and stared right where you left me" and "I never grew up it's getting so old" and "will you still want me when I'm nothing new?" and "I got wasted like all my potential" but also "wish I never grew up, it could still be simple" and "give me back my girlhood it was mine first" and "she'll say she got the map from me" and "but the woman who sits by the window has turned out the light" and "when your girlish glow flickers" and '"I'll get older but your lovers stay my age"' and "tried to change the ending, peter losing wendy" and "you said you'd come and get me but you were twenty five and the shelf life of those fantasies has expired" and "just say 'I loved you the way that you were'" and "how did I go from growing up to breaking down" and how there are these fascinating, overlapping, and contradictory themes in taylor's work of both not growing up or changing and also of growing up and outgrowing situations and changing and the effects of that and as someone in their late twenties who bounces between feeling my age and feeling like I'm still a teenager and feeling old beyond my years (often in the same day), I'm not sure if there is anything more relatable than those feelings

[midnightsslut]

actually ‘the tiniest notion of reminescent thought that wanders off into wondering, the spark that lights a tinderbox of fixation. and now is irreversible. the flame has caught. you’re wide awake’ is exactly what fortnight, chloe et al, peter, and i hate it here are all about. if you entertain the what if even a single time, you can never let it go until you start the car and actually turn it into reality.

[speaknowwarrior]

Chloe et al. is the saddest song on Tortured Poets

It's so underrated and probably one of my favorite songs she's written (watch me change my mind a week later).

I mean, just look at some of the lyrics:

If you wanna break my cold, cold heart Just say, "I loved you the way that you were" If you wanna tear my world apart Just say you've always wondered

Pain. Just pain.

For this song, knowing the context really helps understand the song so much better.

And I slept on this song for the first week after TTPD was released, and then it finally clicked with me yesterday

[jewishrizahawkeye]

hello fellow members of the tortured poets department.

id like to continue entering into evidence analysis from previous days i missed. next is chloe or sam or sofia or marcus

previous day's here:

standard tracks: masterpost

anthology tracks: the black dog, imgonnagetyouback, the albatross

chloe et al. is similar to my explanation to evermore’s theme of “a love album about heartbreak”. because at it’s core it’s a song about heartbreak and longing in a similar fashion to champagne problems or tis the damn season.

the narrator is still reeling and dealing with this heartbreak and knowing it was the right decision but still can’t recover from it. like i was thinking about it because, i’ve mentioned this before, but addiction runs in my family and how heartbreaking the “you needed me but you needed drugs more/and i couldn’t watch it happen” is. and a common theme on the album is having to chose to save yourself over a relationship (“sacrificed us to the gods of your bluest days”) and the longing that comes from that and the constant wondering of what could’ve been or come from it.

so in chloe and oomfs it’s the narrator thinking about this relationship that happened and they crashed into each other at one point but the narrator bolted and left this person but it haunted them for years. and when they eventually came back together they realized it wasn’t anything anymore and they were romanticizing their past and what they had and that’s the only way they can have each other is in the memory of their old love and the idea of what they could’ve been instead of what they actually were. and the narrator criticizing them for it but her also doing it herself by wondering what would’ve been if they hadn’t run. even with knowing what they know they still can’t ever get the feeling gone. the idea of them and the love that could’ve been us always there…

if we do look at the album like this and the relationship the narrator leaves there old partner for, it can be seen as the person she always wondered was a "what if..." but never tempted her until her relationship was slowly dying and killing her. then she remembered the fleeting memories of happiness and what ifs and ran back to him and vice versa, both abandoning everyone to be together, and running on nothing but the memory of feelings and touches between each other. only for both to realize it's long since dead but neither is ever going to fully move on because they'll still try to find some way for them to end up together but it'll never happen because they broke up for a valid reason the first time and nothing can bring them back to life... dancing phantoms on the terrace/are they second hand embarrassed that i can't get out of bed/because something counterfeit is dead... would it be enough to just float in your orbit/could we watch our phantoms like watching wild horses/cooler in theory but not if your force it to be...if one thing had been different/would everything be different today?...will i always wonder?

[chloe-or-sam-or-sophia-or-marcus]

Peter / Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus / The Manuscript / I Almost Do / All Too Well / I Bet You Think About Me

[letters-adressed-to-the-fire]

pov: you’re addicted to the “if-onlys” (or me when I’m over-analyzing Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus)

Yes, I’m gonna analyze the entire song. No, I don’t need an introduction. Yes, let’s dive into it.

Let’s start with the very interesting use of the word "hologram".

"Your hologram stumbled into my apartment"

We’ve seen Taylor use "phantom" and "ghost" to talk about past relationships in other songs (for example: loml), but we’ve never seen her use "hologram." Why? Well, this suggests she might be talking about something more present, as if the relationship had become so worn out that he stopped being a real person to her and turned into a hologram—something close yet untouchable.

But, this line, followed by “hands in the hair of somebody in darkness” paints a picture of someone cheating. So, even if Taylor intended this, the ambiguous nature of the verse means it’s necessary to approach it from a different angle too.

Yes, the idea of her coming into her apartment and being followed by the presence of the person she loved, does resembles the idea of a ghost. But the use of "hologram" indicates something different this time, she’s talking about the person’s current actions, and given Taylor’s past relationships with famous people, it makes sense that she would know when they started seeing someone new.

So, what does this mean? With these lines Taylor is bringing a completely different emotion to the song, one that permeates throughout: The rarely discussed how, when someone you loved starts moving on, you’re left wondering, "Why am I staying behind?" and "Why does it still hurt?"; and how this can lead to drowning in "what ifs" and trying to remember why it didn’t work out.

"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"

In the same note, this part of the verse mirrors Taylor's narrative but from the guy’s point of view. She’s now saying the same thing happened to him.

There’s something common in both perspectives tho, Taylor is not just saying “you’re with someone else”, she’s saying “you’re with someone else and that makes me angry”. In the first lines, the mention of names like "Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus" emphasizes her anger and condescension, showing that she doesn’t care about the specifics of who he’s with, just that it’s not her. Paralleling this, the line “who seemed like he would’ve bullied you in school” suggests she’s trying to provoke her ex by mentioning something that would bother him, not because the new partner is a bully (obviously), but because it’s a sore spot for her ex.

"And I just watched it happen" "And you just watched it happen"

Here, we are already introduced to one of the key elements of the song: the act of watching. Throughout all the song, Taylor will resort to this bit to depict a sense of helplessness.

In the first verse, it is used to portray how both parts of the relationship watched each other drift apart without trying to reconcile.

“And I couldn't watch it happen” “And you just watched it”

In the second verse, she couldn’t bear to watch, indicating she took action to stay away from him; which was also possible because the guy didn’t do anything to stop her.

“Like it never happened?” “It just didn't happen”

By the third verse, she dropped this act of watching, now she’s stating facts and contemplating whether pretending it never happened is a viable way to move on.

Now, we’ll move to the chorus.

To start, we need to discuss the double meaning behind the line “I loved you the way that you were”: Did he love her for who she was without needing to change, or did he only love a past version of her? Both interpretations are equally devastating.

“If you wanna tear my world apart Just say you've always wondered”

Then we are presented to the most heart-wrenching part of the song. Taylor is already wondering, and it would destroy her to know she’s not alone in this. This could mean either she’s hoping to get back together, or she fears she’ll never move on. Imagining a scenario where they meet years later and he admits he’s always wondered about their potential could terrify her, showing how significant this person was to her.

*Part 2 in a few days!!! I'll be discussing some metaphors and some alternative interpretations (because I'm me and I love to complicate things)*

[lossisyours]

thinking of chloe et al in terms of the “you’ll always be my favourite what if”. thinking of how it’s such a conceptual ode to the midnights of it all (in the vein of maroon and midnight rain and question...? etc.) when you’re looking back in the rearview of your life. thinking about some part of you being stuck in a moment in time forever, not waiting so much as not having any energy or will or purpose to go anywhere, and feeling it grow weathered and rotting where its been left. thinking of a former lover’s trailing back down the memory lane – a lifetime too late. wouldn’t it just kill you, if they said they’d always wondered? thinking about us wanting someone to think of us when we’re thinking of them. thinking of there’s no such thing as bad (or good) thoughts, how only your actions talk.

[lady-a-stuff]

I feel like Chloe et al is a travel through a past relationship and thinking about what caused the breakup (You needed me but you needed drugs more And I couldn't watch it happen) and how they dealt with the post-breakup time (Changed plans and lovers and outfits and rules All to outrun my desertion of you) and how the relationship affected them (Will that make your memory fade from this scarlet maroon like it never happened).

The chorus is the persona recognizing that it would hurt to know that the other person really loved her when they were together. But also the "I loved you the way that you were" seems to say that she changed, she's not the same and that's why it can't work now (Can we watch our phantoms like watching wild horses Cooler in theory but not if you force it To be).

The persona also say that it would hurt to know that the other person wondered about them, about: what if we worked out, what if we were still together? And would hurt mostly "Cause [she] wonder"

To add even more pain she finishes questioning "will I always wonder?" and this is a conversation with the lost of hope in loml and The Prophecy: will I never find the forever? Will I always wonder what if we had everything?

[mastermindmp3]

Chloe et al.

Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus (hereby referred to by Chloe et al.) is a very classic Taylor Swift song. With a strong emphasis on the lyrical twists on phrases, distinct visual imagery, and an understated backing track (the piano is crystal clear, and the later backing vocals are so lovely.)

We see that idea of a distinct visual in the opening lines. The speaker describes "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."

Describing her (presumably, lover) as a hologram implies that they are not, truly, real. They are not grounded, not a physical thing she can have. Later in the song, she mentions a lover who "needed drugs more," so this hologram-state could also imply that they are under the influence. Her lover has their hands in another person's hair; they are bold enough to bring their affair almost to her door, with someone the narrator can't even see. The names dropped in this opening are not literal people, but the kind of exasperation of "who is it this time?" names listed from the top of a hat. They are, also, rather generically common English names.

And I just watched it happen. The narrator, knowing that her lover is not solid, not real, doesn't seem to bother to stop them. She goes on to describe how the two drift over "the decade," and how her lover, too, "just watched it happen."

(Also, I love the use of the phrase "saw my bones out with somebody new." If her lover is a hologram, unreal, then she is bones - solidly real but dry, dead.)

An interesting point in all of this is ambiguity. The narrator doesn't know who her lover is seeing in darkness, and she addresses this song directly to her lover(s?) I did see an analysis bringing up that the speaker could be addressing two different people, as the chorus's main refrains imply different types of relationships.

If you want to break my cold, cold heart, just say "I loved you the way that you were." Here, it sounds like the narrator and her lover have been together for a very long time, and her lover no longer loves her present self, longing for her before the change. If you want to tear my world apart, just say you've always wondered. This, on the other hand, implies a lover who is returning, who is tempting her with old times.

This reading is also propped up by other songs from the Tortured Poets Department which confirm the idea (Who's going to stop us from waltzing back into rekindled flames) However, I like that it is also left in the dark, even for the listener. Who is left wondering if they could've made it? Who said they loved her the way she was?

The final verse ponders her lover(s), and has my favorite extended metaphor I think Swift has ever written. "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." It's so direct: We tried to force this relationship to work, and it broke down. The idea of phantoms as past lovers (dancing phantoms on the terrace / my beloved ghost and me / well, me and my ghost, we had a hell of a time ) is scattered throughout the Tortured Poets Department.

Yet, the question goes unanswered - all her questions do. She doesn't know if it'll be enough to "float in your orbit," if the memory can fade from this "scarlet maroon." Chloe et al. much like its title, is a song uncertain, and in that uncertainty, the speaker reveals a bit of her heart, the held anxiety like a breath underwater. The only actual conclusion the narrator comes to that she will wonder.

"Will I always wonder?"