On February 5th, 2024 the most anticipated music awards were celebrated and held in California. It was the 66th anniversary of The Recording Academy also well known as The Grammys. As you might well know, Taylor Swift was nominated for 6 Grammys and she took home two with them being: Best Pop Vocal Album & Album Of The Year. Impressively, Taylor won Album of the Year for the 4th time making it the most wins in that category, and also making her the first and only artist to have ever done that. That night Swift received her 13th award, standing on that stage she announced the title of her new album and era. It will be released on April 19th, 2024 and it’s called The Tortured Poets Department containing 16 tracks and one bonus track called “The Manuscript”.
I find it exciting knowing that this project was already planned 2 years ago when Taylor was going out with her previous boyfriend Joe Alwyn. The Tortured Poets Department is rumored to be also inspired by the name of Joe Alwyn’s group chat alongside other celebrities. All I know is that this era will “spill” a lot and she will get to say the things she did not talk about when they were apart. At this point this album could be about love or the idea of being in love, could this be the opposite of Lover? Lover is presumably dedicated to him and this one is the album to fully “expose” him when he was with Taylor. Many secrets might be revealed once that album is released.
English, humanities, and history girlies, this album is probably for you. We should’ve seen it coming when Taylor released “The Lakes” back in 2020 as a bonus track. Somewhat the sound of “The Lakes” and “Sweet Nothing” makes a call for those who express themselves through poetry or just writing in general. TS11 is only 49 days away and we are not so far away from discovering 17 new tracks and the story behind them. And no, folklore and this new era aren’t the same, folklore’s background was about finding peace in isolation and a storyline. This new era can be only similar to folklore but will not be the same.
On February 5th Taylor released the tracklist containing the 17 tracks divided into 4 sides in the vinyl record.
- Side A: “Fortnight” (ft. Post Malone), “The Tortured Poets Department”, “My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys”, “Down Bad”
- Side B: “So Long”, “London”, “But Daddy I Love Him”, “Fresh Out the Slammer”, “Florida!!!” (ft. Florence+ The Machine)
- Side C: “Guilty as Sin?”, “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?”, “I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)”, “loml”
- Side D: “I Can Do It With A Broken Heart”, “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived”, “The Alchemy”, “Clara Bow”, Bonus Track: “The Manuscript”.
According to the media and fan pages, while still touring, she reached another milestone; playing the biggest concert of her career at the MCG stadium in Melbourne, Australia with an audience of 96,000. There she took her time unveiling her new alternate cover for the album and also announced a new bonus track called “The Bolter”. On Wednesday, February the 23th while performing, Taylor announced another variant for her upcoming album with another bonus track called “The Albatross”. Many spectate that these variants lead to the 5 stages of grief.
The next stop of the tour would be in Singapore on March 2nd, no one knows if she will release the other bonus tracks. It’s up to us to figure out by ourselves these hints or “easter eggs” she teases when the release day approaches. It gets closer every day, as today is the start of March and in the blink of an eye you’re found waiting, the day before, for the album to be released.