Taylor Swift breaks our hearts again with Track 5 ‘So Long, London'

In a heartbreak letter to the English capital city Taylor Swift had called home, the singer says so long to London. The choice of this song for Track 5 on her new album "The Tortured Poets Department" is intentional. Throughout Swift's 11 eras, Track 5 is reserved for a special, vulnerable song.

“Track five is kind of a tradition that really started with you guys," Swift said live on Instagram in July 2019, "because I didn’t realize I was doing this, but as I was making albums, I guess, I don’t know why, but instinctively I was just kind of putting a very vulnerable, personal, honest, emotional song as Track 5."

“So Long, London” puts Swift’s poetry prowess on display. It reads in part:

I didn’t opt in to be your odd man out

I founded the club she’s heard great things about

I left all I knew, you left me at the house by the heath

I stopped CPR, after all it’s no use

The spirit was gone, we will never come to

And I’m p****d off you let me give you all that youth for free

Swift showcases the emotions of processing a breakup, saying goodqbye to a partner and also to a community she considered a home. One line that especially pierces in the “Tortured Poets” track: “I’m p****d you let me give you all that youth for free.”

'Tortured Poets' release live updates:Taylor Swift's album has dropped

A look back at Track 5s

Known to be break-up anthems or songs with exposed relationship emotions, here are lyrics from each of Swift's 11 track fives:

• Debut - "Cold As You": "You never did give a damn thing, honey / But I cried, cried for you / And I know you wouldn't have told nobody if I died, died for you / Died for you"
• Fearless - "White Horse": "And there you are on your knees / Begging for forgiveness, begging for me / Just like I always wanted but I'm so sorry / 'Cause I'm not your princess, this ain't a fairy tale / I'm gonna find someone someday / Who might actually treat me well"
• Speak Now - "Dear John": "You are an expert at sorry and keeping the lines blurry / Never impressed by me acing your tests / All the girls that you've run dry have tired lifeless eyes / 'Cause you burned them out / But I took your matches before fire could catch me / So don't look now / I'm shining like fireworks over your sad empty town"
• Red - "All Too Well": "Time won't fly, it's like I'm paralyzed by it / I'd like to be my old self again / But I'm still trying to find it / After plaid shirt days and nights when you made me your own / Now you mail back my things and I walk home alone"
• 1989 - "All You Had To Do Was Stay": "People like you always want back the love they gave away / And people like me wanna believe you when you say you've changed / The more I think about it now, the less I know / All I know is that you drove us off the road"
• Reputation - "Delicate": "This ain't for the best / My reputation's never been worse, so / You must like me for me / We can't make / Any promises now, can we, babe? / But you can make me a drink"
• Lover - "The Archer": "Dark side, I search for your dark side / But what if I'm all right, right, right, right here? / And I cut off my nose just to spite my face / Then I hate my reflection for years and years / I wake in the night, I pace like a ghost / The room is on fire, invisible smoke / And all of my heroes die all alone / Help me hold onto you"
• Folklore - "My Tears Ricochet": "You had to kill me, but it killed you just the same / Cursing my name, wishing I stayed / You turned into your worst fears / And you're tossing out blame, drunk on this pain / Crossing out the good years / And you're cursing my name, wishing I stayed / Look at how my tears ricochet"
• Evermore - "Tolerate It": "While you were out building other worlds, where was I? / Where's that man who'd throw blankets over my barbed wire? / I made you my temple, my mural, my sky / Now I'm begging for footnotes in the story of your life / Drawing hearts in the byline / Always taking up too much space or time"
• Midnights - "You're On Your Own Kid": "From sprinkler splashes to fireplace ashes / I gave my blood, sweat and tears for this / I hosted parties and starved my body / Like I'd be saved by a perfect kiss / The jokes weren't funny, I took the money / My friends from home don't know what to say / I looked around in a blood-soaked gown / And I saw something they can't take away"
• The Tortured Poets Department - "So Long, London":

'The Tortured Poets Department'

If you didn't get the memo from the department's Chairman, "Tortured Poets" is Swift's 11th era album with 16 tracks and four bonus songs (four versions of the album each have a different bonus track).

Swift announced the project at the Grammys, when she won her 13th career Grammy for pop album of the year. Post Malone and Florence and The Machine are two contributors on the pop album.

Its track titles are brutal. Fans speculated the album was about Swift’s six-year relationship with English actor Joe Alwyn and their breakup. Both stars kept the relationship out of the public eye. The back of the first version of the album reads, “I love you, it’s ruining me,” serving as a dagger-to-the-chest harbinger.

The album was released during Swift's two-month break from her massively popular and economically fruitful Eras Tour. "Tortured Poets" serves as an exclamation point to the behemoth success the billionaire has seen over the past year since the three-plus-hour show launched in Glendale, Arizona. Swift will return to the stage in Paris, France, on May 9. Fans anticipate that her newest era will be added to the show.

'The Tortured Poet's Department' drops April 19...are you ready for it? Catch Taylor Swift live with tickets atVivid Seats, shopmerchandise, and stream her latest onDisney+. Purchases you make through our links may earn us and our publishing partners a commission.

Don't miss any Taylor Swift news; sign up for the free, weekly newsletter "This Swift Beat."

Follow Taylor Swift reporter Bryan West on Instagram, TikTok and X as @BryanWestTV.