Swifties and clowning go hand in hand. Taylor Swift is notorious for leaving easter eggs in music videos, her tour visuals, lyrics, the color of her nails, and so much more. But her announcing her 11th album titled “The Tortured Poets Department” was something no one was expecting.
After receiving Best Pop Vocal Album at the Grammys (her 13th Grammy), Taylor Swift shocked every swiftie, every person in the crowd, and everyone watching the Grammys, by announcing her new album, The Tortured Poets Department, which will be released on April 19th.
“When Taylor released her new album at the Grammys, I was in complete shock,” says Aly Guiterrez, a swiftie for many years, “I thought for sure she was going to announce Reputation (Taylor’s Version) because there was so much speculation about it. I am so excited for the new album and can not wait to hear all the new songs.”
The shock from her announcement was because it wasn’t Reputation (Taylor’s Version), like the hints she has been giving us for over a year now. Instead of Reputation, It was an entirely new album, with 17 songs.
The date of the release has many people speculating because April 19th last year was the day that Taylor Swift, Blake Lively, and her husband, Ryan, all went to dinner, and Blake and Ryan both unfollowed Joe Alwyn, Taylor Swift’s ex-boyfriend. This was also around the start of the Eras Tour and the confusion on if Taylor and Joe were still together.
In her speech, she said how she had been keeping this a secret for 2 years now, which means she roughly started writing it around the time Midnights was released. This is very eye-catching for swifties.
During the Midnight’s era in October of 2022, she posted many videos explaining some songs. She explained how Lavender Haze was about her 6-year-long relationship and just wanting to stay in love forever.
Later on in May of 2023, Taylor released a song titled “You’re Losing Me”. This song was very clearly the breakup song for her. Some believe that this song even hits harder than “All Too Well”, her most famous breakup song.
Many Swifties were confused about when this song was written, and how it came along. Many months later when “You’re Losing Me” was released on streaming platforms, Taylor’s good friend and co-writer for many of her songs, Jack Antonoff, posted a picture of Taylor after she wrote it, in 2021.
After Taylor told everyone that she had been writing this album for two years, fans immediately started to try to find all the clues we missed. And there weren’t many clues to debunk.
Zoe Udulutch, “Before the announcement of The Tortured Poets Department, most fans, including myself, were waiting for the re-release of Reputation.” Along with many fans, she says she lost her mind and was so happy. “Looking back, she left some clues like the website crashing before the announcement.”
She released the tracklist for The Tortured Poets Department the day after she announced the album. It has 17 songs including tracks like “Fortnight” featuring Post Malone, “But Daddy I Love Him” “I Can Do It With A Broken Heart” “Florida!!!” featuring Florence + The Machine, bonus track “The Manuscript” and so many more.
These tracks all are very noticeable names that have given us the most clues. TikTok Swifties started to debunk every song title and posted videos explaining how heartbreaking this album may be.
An example is how the song title “But Daddy I Love Him” from The Little Mermaid, was released in 1989. Taylor was Ariel for a New Year’s Eve costume party to ring in 2019. The Little Mermaid gives up her voice for the man she loves, did Taylor do the same to be with Joe? Is that why their relationship was a secret?
The song “I Can Do It With A Broken Heart” is another track that many swifties are anxiously waiting for. Many are speculating that this song was written about how she can still sing her most famous love song “Lover” with a broken heart. Videos of her are going around of her in the early stages of The Eras Tour wiping tears off her face after singing “Lover” and how she is completely zoned out.
After realizing that Taylor and Joe did break up after or during the Midnights era, many fans thought that Midnight was actually the breakup album, but now it may be The Tortured Poets Department that is the breakup album. Midnights was one of its breakthrough albums for Taylor, it broke hundreds of records and won two Grammys this year.
If the stars align and The Tortured Poets Department does the same, Taylor Swift will be breaking even more records than she has before.