Pet Shop Boys’ Neil Tennant slams Taylor Swift’s ‘disappointing’ music: ‘No standout hits,’ popular thanks to tragic breakups
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He’s tortured over her music.
Pet Shop Boys vocalist Neil Tennant is not a Swiftie, as he recently slammed Taylor Swift on the heels of her “The Tortured Poets Department” album release.
“She fascinates me as a sort of phenomenon because she is so popular,” Tennant, 69, said while speaking at the Guardian Live event “An Evening with Pet Shop Boys” in London on Monday, per the Independent.
“I sort of like the whole thing but then think, ‘Where are the famous songs? What is Taylor Swift’s Billie Jean?'”
He went on: “‘Shake it Off’? Is it though? I listened to that the other day and it is not ‘Billie Jean.’”
Swift, 34, dropped her 11th studio album on April 19, which included a whopping 31 new songs seemingly about multiple ex-boyfriends, including Joe Alwyn, Matty Healy and John Mayer.
Swift’s fans often theorize who she’s writing about with her lyrics and Easter eggs. She and Healy, 35, briefly dated last summer after her six-year relationship with Alwyn, 33, ended. She’s previously also written about Mayer, 46, Harry Styles, Jake Gyllenhaal, Calvin Harris and more.
On her latest, she also added in love songs about her current beau, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
“To have a successful pop career now you have to have a series of relationships which are amazing and then break up tragically,” Tennant said. “I wonder what the other half of the relationship feels about this.”
Although Tennant noted that Swift’s music “brings people together,” he insisted that “the one disappointing thing is the music, not the lyrics.”
He concluded: “People don’t write songs like Karma Chameleon anymore.” (Culture Club dropped “Karma Chameleon” in 1983.)
The 1975 frontman, for his part, did share his feelings about “The Tortured Poets Department,” claiming that he hasn’t listened to it yet. Healy was asked by paparazzi about his ex and how he would “rate” his “Taylor diss track” while out in LA on Wednesday.
Songs that are seemingly about Healy include the album’s title track, “Fortnight” and “Florida!!!”
“My diss track? Oh!” he replied at the time. “I haven’t really listened to that much of it but I’m sure it’s good.”
Swift’s latest record has already broken records, selling 1.4 million copies on its first day.
