Unless you’re living under a rock, you have probably heard about Taylor Swift’s new album announcement. The Tortured Poets Department — Swift’s eleventh studio album — was announced at the Grammys on February 4th following Midnights receiving the Album of the Year award. The album is set to drop on April 19th, 2024. Here’s everything that we know about the album’s announcement and release:
The Build-Up
Fans of Swift’s sixth studio album, Reputation, speculated that the Grammys would be the place to announce the release of Swift’s very own (Taylor’s Version), making this album the second-to-last to be reclaimed by the artist. The fans have speculated on the album’s announcement numerous times, and the 2024 Grammys was the next wave.
Swift, evil genius that she is, played into these speculations. Her outfit was black and white and she had six necklaces on. Further, her online presence was giving fans something to investigate. She and many of her close friends had changed their profile pictures to black and white a few days prior. The day of the Grammys, Swift’s official website was down with an error code of 321, lost phone connection (likely a reference to the iconic line, “The old Taylor can’t come to the phone right now”). Because of this, the fans were pretty certain that this would finally be the release of Reputation (Taylor’s Version).
However, blondie was fooling us all along. The note at the bottom of the error code said “hneriergrd” which a fan decoded to spell out “red herring”.
You’ve got to give it to her, Taylor is and always will be five steps ahead of the fans.
The Announcement
When Swift took the stage after winning her fourth Album of the Year award, we all knew something big was coming. She announced that she was thanking the fans by telling us, “a secret that [she’s] been keeping from you for the last two years,” which was, of course, The Tortured Poets Department.
Later, Swift posted the album cover and some (presumably) lyrics on her Instagram, along with a note that says, “All’s fair in love and poetry… Sincerely, The Chairman of The Tortured Poets Department”. This was followed a day later by a post of the back album cover, giving us the names of the tracks on this new album.
The Timeline
All together, Taylor gave us a lot of moving pieces to analyze. To get it all straight, let’s look at the timeline.
Taylor Swift started working on this album two years ago, which puts us in late 2021 and early 2022. As fans know, this was in the middle of her relationship with Joe Alwyn — her longest-running relationship to date. This relationship was also one that was extremely private, with one of the main problems coming from Alwyn struggling “with Taylor’s level of fame and the attention from the public” (People Magazine). And, during this period of time, the two seemed to be struggling. In fact, Midnight’s bonus track, “You’re Losing Me” was written in December of 2021, putting us just around that mark of two years ago.
Then there’s the drop date. Swift and Alwyn officially ended their relationship on April 8th of 2023. The Tortured Poets Department drops on April 19th of 2024, exactly one year and eleven days after the announcement.
Track Analysis
There are a number of tracks that show this album as a break-up album, but there are two in particular that I want to look at.
Track five, called, “So Long, London” seems to be a clear reference to Swift’s relationship with the British actor. Swift’s seventh studio album, Lover, stays true to its name in terms of its content. The songs are filled with the warmth, anxiety, and rollercoaster that is love, and many of these songs are clearly about Alwyn. One of them, the track “London Boy”, is a fun, upbeat pop song about how much Swift loves her boy from London. Given the title of track five on The Tortured Poets Department, we can be assured that this album will probably not be as complimentary.
Then there’s track 6, “But Daddy I Love Him”. Originally, I thought this title was like any of the others, until this post caught my attention. It speculates that the title of this track is a direct reference to The Little Mermaid, in which Ariel has to give up her voice to be with the person she loves. Given the problems that arose, this explanation could be more than likely.
It’s safe to say that, with the names of some of these tracks and the timeline of Swift’s relationship with Alwyn, The Tortured Poets Department is set to be a break-up album, and this one looks… heavy.
Either way, The Tortured Poets Department comes out in just two months, and this is going to be one for the eras.