Taylor Swift Joins The National for Emotional New Ballad Following Joe Alwyn Split

Taylor Swift is featured on The National's star-studded new album First Two Pages of Frankenstein in an emotional duet with frontman Matt Berninger.

The song, called "The Alcott," is about a couple who has since broken up, meeting up again, realizing that they're falling for each other anew. Swift co-wrote the lyrics with Berninger, which sparked speculation from fans that the song could be about her recent breakup from Joe Alwyn.

However, the song was written long before the reported timeline of the pair parting ways. The band had first teased the new album back in 2022, and Swift's contribution was announced in January 2023, while she was still reportedly dating Alwyn.

This isn't Swift's first time singing with Berninger. He sang on her Evermore track, "Coney Island."

In an interview with Vulture, The National member Aaron Dessner, who also co-produced Swift's albums Folklore, Evermore, and Midnights (3am Edition), spoke about how the collaborative process with Swift came together.

Dessner explained that Swift's collaboration came late in the process of making First Two Pages of Frankenstein. Before being included as a featured artist on the album, Dessner was already sending her what they were working on.

"I wasn't openly saying, 'I'd love if you could do something' and she wasn't saying that either. I'd just depend on the song. Before I sent it to her, I talked to Matt, and he agreed it might be the one to see if she had ideas," explained the musician.

However, once Swift was asked, the song transformed. "She quickly rewrote it as this conversation or dialogue between two lovers. That helped shape where we went with the production of it," said Dessner.

In the biography for the album, Dessner had also shared that he'd gotten nervous when he asked Swift to be part of the song, because she didn't respond for 20 minutes. However, it turns out Swift was penning additional lyrics.

"By the time she responded, Taylor had written all her parts and recorded a voice memo with the lyrics she'd added in a dialogue with Matt, and everyone fell immediately in love with it. It felt meant to be," he said.

Besides Swift, this The National album features Sufjan Stevens and Phoebe Bridgers. The latter sings on two songs on the record, "This Isn't Helping" and "Your Mind Is Not Your Friend."