Do Situationships Make For Better Breakup Albums?

When Taylor Swift released The Tortured Poets Department in April, many fans expected a devastating breakup album inspired by her six-year relationship with Joe Alwyn. Instead, she delivered many scathing tracks widely believed to be about a reported two-month situationship with Matty Healy.

For the past three years, situationships have been a popular, if frustrating, part of the modern dating lexicon, a term for people who are romantically involved but unwilling to commit to each other.

Swift isn’t the only artist inspired by this type of affair. A few months after Tortured Poets, Sabrina Carpenter released Short n’ Sweet, which is believed to be partly inspired by a surprising and brief love triangle. Both albums debuted at the top of the charts, with Swift breaking several records and achieving the second-largest sales week in history.

Obviously, breakup records are an industry mainstay, from Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill to Adele’s 21 and SZA’s SOS. But with Swift and Carpenter’s critically acclaimed records, they’re proving that situationships can sometimes inspire more raw and brutally honest songcraft.

Let’s dive in.

Taylor’s “Down Bad” For Situationships

In the Tortured Poets booklet, Swift wrote a prologue in which she leaned into the situationship of it all, calling it a lapse in judgment. “‘In summation, it was not a love affair!’ I screamed,” she wrote. “It was a mutual manic phase ... A smirk creeps onto this poet’s face, because it’s the worst men that I write best.”

This sentiment is perhaps most obvious in “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived,” which has gone viral for having one of Swift’s most blistering bridges. “The Black Dog,” which mentions a band and London pub that Healy loves, is a bold declaration of resentment, and when Swift realizes the truth about her situationship, you can feel all her pain in the Western-infused ditty “I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can).”

In fact, some of Tortured Poets’ tracks about situationships (e.g., “Down Bad” and “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart”) have out-streamed the album’s few classic breakup songs, proving how much they resonate with fans.

Sabrina’s “Dumb & Poetic” Situationship

Many fans expected Carpenter’s breakout album, Short n’ Sweet, to be full of frothy, witty pop bops like its lead singles “Espresso” and “Please Please Please.” But while she delivered those in spades, few predicted how many songs seem to be inspired by a rumored love triangle between her, Shawn Mendes, and Camila Cabello.

Carpenter opens the album with “Taste,” a breezy jam that reminds her former lover’s ex that she got with him first. She continues the love-triangle talk on the country-tinged “Sharpest Tool” and “Coincidence,” the latter of which appears to allude to Mendes and Cabello’s reconciliation, and the epic takedown “Dumb & Poetic,” which fans have linked to some of Mendes’ interests.

With these songs, Carpenter seems to be looking back on the situation with the humor and cheekiness that have defined her hits thus far.

It’s a departure from the reflective breakup songs on her previous album, and it’s had more successful results: Her situationship-inspired lyrics, like “Heartbreak is one thing, my ego’s another / I beg you don’t embarrass me, motherf*cker,” have become some of the most popular TikTok sounds of the year.

The Prevalence Of Situationship Albums

Swift and Carpenter aren’t the only artists who’ve released albums about situationships in 2024, suggesting the topic’s fruitfulness.

Dua Lipa’s Radical Optimism dealt with the trials and tribulations of the dating scene, including a bittersweet goodbye to a lover in “Happy for You.” Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft outlined a brief but beautiful fling, from the lust of “Lunch” and undying devotion in “Birds of a Feather” to a nonchalant, regret-filled send-off in “L’Amour de Ma Vie.”

Given how over half of Americans aged 18-34 have been in a situationship, it shouldn’t be surprising that “it’s complicated” romances are dominating music. There’s still a considerable need for classic breakup albums — hello, Adele — but Swift’s decision to spend more of her songwriting energy on a situationship than a six-year relationship shows how much they can mess with your head.