Revenge of a broken heart

Even billionaires have it tough. Taylor’s 11th studio album tackles the transient nature of love, flaky blokes and the downside of superstardom.

Swift compares global fame variously to an asylum, a circus, and the gallows. Her main targets here though are her exes. Break her heart and the world is going to know about it.

The end of Taylor’s six-year relationship with English actor Joe Alwyn in April last year fuelled much of her emotional trauma.

“You said I’m the love of your life, about a million times,” she sings on touchingly raw piano ballad Loml, adding, “You s***talked me under the table, talking rings and talking cradles.”

Her lyrics are the album’s strongest element. Lines like “I love you, it’s ruining my life” pack comic savagery.

Taylor’s short-lived fling with her “move-on drug” Matt Healy of The 1975 inspired this blunt assessment: “You’re not Dylan Thomas/I’m not Patti Smith/This ain’t the Chelsea Hotel/ We’re modern idiots.”

Stand-out songs include the swampy Florida!!! featuring Florence Welch – an escapist anthem about burying regrets – and Who’s Afraid Of Little

Old Me?

But Daddy I Love Him is the funniest. “But I’m having his baby,” Swift protests defiantly, before defusing parental rage with “No I’m not, but you should see your faces!”

Strong tracks are outnumbered by so-so ones, though. There are 31 songs when you include The Anthology edition, that’s two whole hours of music when less would have been a lot more.

Most are co-written with longtime producer Jack Antonoff or with Aaron Dessner, from The National, who brings tenderness and gentle warmth.

Swift is one of the most streamed artists of all time, so the demand for new music is constant.

She would be wise to set her own pace.