"Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus" Discussion Megathread

''you turned me into an idea of sorts'' hits hard

TIL everybody was interpreting "you saw my bones out" literally, and not as the phrase "you saw me out" as in "you walked me to the door/exit"

Couldn't for the life of me understand why people were debating who the "someone new who would've bullied you in school" was when I thought it was clearly the ex's new partner, not hers

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...

this breaks me everytime😭

I’m just hearing the little piano throughout COSOSOM and it reminds me of the little random chord at the end of champagne problems. Anyone else think that? Just me??? Does it mean something? I need to know I’m not psychotic about this

This song is about multiple people - most of the lyrics can be applied to matty, joe, lost friends…. and even her fans who she was close to in 2014. On top of it Aaron dessner produced it? Prove me wrong.

As someone who is less interested in the lore than I am in Taylor’s amazing talents as a musician and lyricist, I find this song both beautiful and heart wrenching. It became my favorite as soon as I heard it. If you’ve ever loved an addict, this song is a knife to the heart. How she was able to convey the pain and sorrow in this song’s meaningful lyrics in not only jaw-dropping but also an absolute work of art.

This song has been my favorite since first listen. It’s way too underrated

This song is laced with narcotics. Can confirm.

Didn’t Taylor say something about using lyrics as a paternity test?

I've started listening to this song giving it my own meaning (I'm chronically single and not famous so I can't relate to most of her work, I'm trying to be creative to find alternative meetings). I haven't completely worked it out yet, but something along the lines that if I'm not going to live the life I wanna live and go after my dreams, I'm gonna regret it. Maybe that the older me is talking to me.

This song is so underrated! It's so sad but beautiful and I can't get enough! It's also sort of like Champagne Problems too! 🤩

Okay is it just me or “ and you saw my bones out w somebody new who seemed like he would’ve bullied you in school” sounds exactly or similar to “if the whole world was watching id still dance w you, drive high ways and byways to be there w you” (this town by Niall Horan)

I can't shake the feeling that the names are not references to random people with whom she was being cheated on, but baby names. Like the list of names going back and forth between male/female names reminds me of that kind of brainstorming. I always thought that the idea of Bigger than the Whole Sky being about a miscarriage was onto something, so I interpret this one as wondering about what would have happened if Joe and her ended up together, with children, the hologram of him holding a baby named Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus.

I love this song, especially the instrumentals ... does anyone else get major The Smiths 'Please Please Let Me Get What I Want' vibes in the best way?? Or is it just me lol?

This song really grew on me. At first I liked the chorus but didn’t have much of an impression of the song as a whole because the title was hard to remember and the pacing of the song feels like the middle of a song the whole way through—to me, it jumps right in and jumps right out without too much build-up—but after sitting down and listening to it a lot more I love how it feels like she’s still in the midst of this heartbreak. How it slows a bit for the chorus when she sings “if you want to break my cold, cold heart” is so addicting

What boggles my mind is why’d she add in a “Marcus” when that’s clearly not a woman’s name. In the first line: “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” we’re assuming that she means touching in a romantic way right? And hologram meaning she’s imagining him going out with other people. But why’d she add in a “Marcus”, do you think she’s saying that this person is bisexual?

This song has destroyed me…🥺

Is it just me or is this the best song she's ever written. It's killing me......

The piano riff in this song really reminds me of the piano at the end of champagne problems! I love this

Coming back after a week of non stop TTPD just to say this song is top tier.

This is 100% Matty and it breaks my heart

This is one of my faves from the album😭

I just love this song. It sounds like she wrote this awhile ago, while still with Joe, but thinking about Matty. Before anything actually happened. It's very tragic and sad. Love it.

I cant believe this song! Its so so beautiful and so so Matty coded, the most Matty moment on the album. She sounds heartbroken for real over this man😭, and she is explicitly stating he will always have a place in her heart💔

This one cuts deep and is so incredibly beautiful.

It also reminds me of a play on Exile somehow with the “you saw my bones out with somebody new who looked like he would have bullied you in school and you just watched it happen”

After having dealt with my first love being with a covert narcissist who had a drug problem, this song really resonates with me. Hands down my favorite from the album.

Thinking about how he said such awful things to me "you said some things that I can't unabsorb ". He had this idea of me that I was there to be a constant source of good energy "you turned me into an idea of sorts". He would tell me "you've changed and that's why I've been distant". Bring in the line "say i loved you the way that you were".

Even after getting away, I've always "wondered" what could have been if he got his act together. I know that's nearly impossible. "Will I always wonder?" I hope the answer is no.

Sorry for yapping. But I really love this song.

“Who seemed like he would’ve bullied you in school” is definitely about Travis right? like how he, a big dumb jock, would’ve bullied Matty, annoying artsy kid, in high school? 😭😭😭😭😭😭

Is it just me, or the piano sound in the beginning is the same like the ending of champagne problems?

I feel the names are an anagram. There has to be a phrase hidden in there. I see lose him, same, curse, Paris etc but I cannot figure it out 😭

This is giving me Regina Spektor vibes in the best way

Tell me I'm toxic lol but I thought of Selena and JB 💀 only because their history makes for great sad songs about loss, heartache, wondering what could be.....I definitely think Taylor is sad for Selena in that regard, and could potentially still be writing poetry about the heartache, and especially considering how feelings may have been stirred up during eyebrow gate last year.

the entirety of the relationship lasted for about a decade, the drug part of course, the floating in your orbit part I'm connecting to her constantly being in the media. Watch our phantoms I'm linking to all the content online regarding their past love, we already know Selena has reminisced on tiktok.

Personally I think the decade passing and the drug mention and the men/women is hinting towards Matty.  They are rumored to have had something back in 2014.  You can google pictures of them partying together back then and her wearing his band’s shirt out and him wearing her 1989 album shirt while performing on stage.  However, she moved on to Calvin Harris, which is why she talks about him seeing her with a bully type (she talks about this also in Question as “She was on your mind with some dickhead guy that you saw that night, but you were on something”).  Matty also has been open about his heroin addiction, and has kissed men and women in public.  It’s a beautiful song. The way she sings “wonder” makes me so sad.  

This song has been on repeat for me the past four days 💔

I didn't like this one during my first listen, but I think it's my favorite song from The Anthology so far. (Lyrically speaking. Sonically, I love So High School best but the lyrics are mediocre.)

Taylor sings these words in such a heartbreaking way and Aaron's piano is absolutely beautiful.

Her folkmorian songs are growers, but once they hit you, they'll stay with you forever.

I think this song should be titled cold, cold heart

I can't get into this song for some reason.

This is about a romance that never was. A female friend who the speaker was always secretly in love with— someone who she always wondered about. None of you have acknowledged the reference to a decade passing. None of her relationships lasted that long…

Sometimes people just write songs. Sometimes they’re just stories. They aren’t always written based on personal experience.

The listing of 4 names with or in between each one immediately reminded me of CATS! the musical and the poem The Naming of Cats. 😻

The outro of this song (the last 33 seconds from 3:00 - 3:33) might be my favorite moment on the album and, to me, the most beautiful piece of music on the album. The harmonies, the instrumentals, the sighing in the vocals--my god. It's an outro that could've lasted for, like, 1-2 minutes and I would've loved every moment (similar to how Lorde had some gorgeous extended outros on the Melodrama album such as on The Louvre and Hard Feelings).

I never thought the words 'I loved you the way that you were" could make me cry so much. 

This song is about loving an addict and it's probably about the Matty guy. I can confirm this because I saw a video of a therapist reacting to it and it made me cry coz I can relate to it and it is so deep I swear Taylor you are a genius ily

Am I the only one who think this is one of her saddest songs ever made. When she sings “I loved you” my heart breaks everytime.

I think the idea that it could be about Joe and she’s saying that it would break her “cold” and now removed heart if he said “I loved you, the way that you were”, not the person you’ve become.

Taylor went through so many changes during those 6 years, and he fell in love with her when she wanted to “run away” and “hide”. overtime, public perception of her shifted and she wanted to be in the spotlight again. joe values privacy so much. if he were to say he loved the way that she was, but his feelings changed when she became more extroverted and open, it would be heartbreaking to hear.

There’s a subtle horn section at the end of this that is very evocative of Neutral Milk Hotel

What song does this song remind us of? 

Hilarious that everyone's been discussing JA being bi and and a cheater and Taylor was all quiet and then DROPPED this album and it was all MH being bi, ghosting her, not fighting for her and just having to watch as she was now w/Travis. She's just playing with us at this point and I love it.

This song is about HARRY I will DIE on this hill.

anyone who has a "one that got away" in their life can relate to this song deeply

Has anyone latched on to “cold, cold heart” yet? I’m wondering if it’s a nod to the song by Hank Williams. I’m thinking about this portion specifically: “Another love before my time made your heart sad and blue And so my heart is paying now for things I didn't do In anger unkind words are said that make the teardrops start Why can't I free your doubtful mind, and melt your cold cold heart” We know that Taylor repeatedly ties Joe to the color blue, so it has me thinking.

I think the opening lines of the song are a reference to Matty Healy grabbing his fans’ faces at his concerts and kissing them. It’s all been captured in videos and posted online so perhaps that’s what the hologram reference is. The Marcus bit is most likely a reference to the fact that he’s kissed a few men during his concerts. He didn’t kiss any fans at his London show in Jan 2023 when Taylor gave a guest performance, but then he went right back to it when he kissed his security guard at his Denmark show. He was apparently still dating her at the time of the Denmark show. I think it was another aspect of his behavior that she was frustrated with and she felt like he wouldn’t change for her.

Oh my god…. the hologram walking in with Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus…. thats seeing through a ring camera no? like you watched someone walk in with their friends through the ring camera

I feel like this is actually one of the most important songs on the album lyrically. The track title almost seems like a clever distraction from the actual weight of what she's saying here. An "it was always you" moment.

you needed me but you needed drugs more ☹️

after a couple of listens to this song…idk its starting to feel like the drugs line isnt about illicit drugs but instead prescription drugs

Okay but does anyone know the significance to those 4 names?!

So maroon was about Matty too.