Fresh off the heels of Taylor Swift’s “The Life of a Showgirl,” a decidedly upbeat, joyful album that is also the glaring antithesis to her 2024 album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” everyone has a certain someone’s name on their lips: actor, songwriter, and Swift’s former long-term boyfriend, Joe Alwyn. But why? Well, because the album is so starkly different. “See what happens when Joe Alwyn is your muse and not some man who bangs spoons together whenever he wants Taylor to cook dinner for him,” one X user tweeted, referencing her fiancé, Travis Kelce. Meanwhile, another quipped, “you know what? maybe joe alwyn did write some songs on folklore.”

During Swift’s ultra-private romance with Alwyn, he worked on three of her albums, including “folklore,” “evermore,” and “Midnights.” As it turns out, Alwyn wrote under the pen name of William Bowery — a fact Swift revealed in “Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions,” a Disney+ documentary that was filmed in 2020, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Well, Joe and I really love sad songs. We’ve always bonded over music. We just really love sad songs, what can I say?” she said when asked about writing “Champagne Problems,” and the couple’s penchant for heartbreak ballads. However, during an interview with BBC Radio 1 on October 3, when asked about her footballer fiancé, Kelce, and his reaction to “The Life of a Showgirl” album, Swift described him as “a real vibes guy.” Suffice to say, one of these things is not like the other.

While some may be critiquing Taylor Swift’s new album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” as an over-the-top display of giddiness, Swift is adamant that the album’s still “got teeth to it” — as she told BBC Radio 1 host Greg James. “It’s a full picture of, of like the full life experience,” she explained. And while she admitted that she used to worry that if she found a relationship that truly made her happy, her writing might suffer, she said she’s been pleasantly surprised. “It turns out that’s not the case,” she declared. According to Swift, writing the new album was like “catching lightning in a bottle.” No doubt, the newfound happiness she has with Travis Kelce probably has a little something to do with that.

Obviously, Joe Alwyn is nowhere to be found on Swift’s latest album. Instead, co-writers of “The Life of a Showgirl” include Max Martin and Shellback. “The three of us have made some of my favorite songs that I’ve ever done before,” she recalled during an appearance on the “New Heights” podcast in August, while noting that this album would be the first time they were working together “where it’s just the three of us.” She added, “There’s just something about them … These guys, they, like, they’re just geniuses in different avenues, in different ways.” Still no word yet on what Alwyn thinks of Swift’s new album. The world may never know.