| Loml | |
| Type: | song |
| Artist: | Taylor Swift |
| Album: | The Tortured Poets Department |
| Studio: |
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| Label: | Republic |
| Producer: |
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"Loml" (stylized in all lowercase) is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from her eleventh studio album, The Tortured Poets Department (2024). Swift wrote and produced the song alongside Aaron Dessner. A soft piano ballad, the song's lyrics mourn the loss of a short-lived relationship that leaves a long-lasting mark. The song was met with positive reviews by critics for its heartbreaking lyrics, emotional storytelling and simple piano production.
On February 4, 2024, Swift announced The Tortured Poets Department during her acceptance speech for the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album for Midnights (2022). The album cover was shared on Swift's social media shortly after the announcement. The album's tracklist was shared the following day with "Loml" as track twelve. Swift said she developed the album "for about two years" and after releasing the previous record Midnights.[1] When Apple Music enabled the album to be pre-saved, the track was labelled explicit, alongside six other tracks.[2]
The track was released by Republic Records on April 19, 2024 along with the rest of The Tortured Poets Department.[3] Swift performed "Loml" live for the first time on May 9, 2024 during the first Paris show of The Eras Tour (2023–24).[4] A variant of The Tortured Poets Department containing a recorded version of this performance was released on May 24, 2024, alongside variants containing acoustic performances of "My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys" and a mashup of "The Alchemy" and "Treacherous".[5]
"Loml" is a plano ballad with minimal production; featuring Swift's vocals accompanied by piano keys. Paste described its sound as tracing back to Swift's artistic roots from a decade ago.[6] Laura Snapes of The Guardian viewed the lyrical style of "Loml" as "digressive [and] detailed", reminiscent of "All Too Well" from Red (2012).[7] The piano melody evokes the title track of her 2020 album Evermore.
Writing for Billboard, Jason Lipshuz said the lyrics describes the re-evaluation of a premature romance with its faults and Swift dreaming up a happy conclusion that strays away from the truth.[8] In the track, a heartbroken Swift sings about being betrayed and conned by a man who told he she was the love of his life.[9] Although the acronym "Loml" commonly means "love of my life",[10] [11] the phrase is not explicitly clarified, leading to fans speculating a different phrase.[12] Swift alludes to the romance being her greatest loves in the lyric, "loss of my life," at song's conclusion.[13]
Swift observes as she slowly loses the person she loves: "You shit-talked me under the table, talking rings and talking cradles, I wish I could unrecall, How we almost had it all," Its lyrics, "Still alive, killing time at the cemetery, Never quite buried" draws parallel with the opener track of Folklore (2020), "The 1": "digging up the grave another time". Alex Hopper of American Songwriter opined the track as a relationship "post-mortem" and drew lyrical parallels to "Invisible String" and "Hits Different". Swift describes the romantic subject in "Loml" as one she believes she would marry: "talking rings and talking cradles," only to realise she had been lied to.[14]
"Loml" received acclaim from critics, with many calling it a standout track,[15] with some saying it contained some of the best lyrics from the record.[16] Ryan Fish of The Hollywood Reporter called "Loml" the most emotional track from the album. A similar sentiment is shared with Business Insider's Callie Ahlgrim who said it was the only song on the album that made her cry, writing "a love that burns, crackles, and explodes is much easier to obsess over than a love that decays, resurrects, and dies again." That's what makes the painful precision of "Loml" even more impressive."[17] Variety's Chris Willman said the song contained "one gut punch after another" and one of Swift's best lyrics.[18] Despite a scathing review of the parent album by Paste, "Loml" was highlighted as a standout track that "strips away all of Antonoff's worst pop sonics and leaves nothing but her voice and a lone piano". Ranking 274 songs, Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stones placed "Loml" at 33rd place, adding that its reaches its climax at the "hushed moment where she gives the perfectly simple epitaph: 'It was legendary/It was momentary.'"[19] In a less enthusiastic review by Olivia Horn of Pitchfork, sentimental tracks such as "So Long, London" and "Loml" fail to live up to their expectations as each lyric carries the same emotional weight. Horn writes; "There's no hierarchy of tragic detail; these songs fail to distill an overarching emotional truth, tending to smother rather than sting."[20]
Credits adapted from the liner notes of The Tortured Poets Department.[21]
| Peak position | |
| Greece International (IFPI)[22] | 31 |
|---|---|
| Ireland (Billboard)[23] | 22 |
| Malaysia International (RIM)[24] | 19 |
| Philippines (Billboard)[25] | 19 |
| Swiss Streaming (Schweizer Hitparade)[26] | 37 |
| UK Streaming (OCC)[27] | 20 |