Taylor Swift fans were overjoyed when the songwriter revealed that ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ was a double album with many surprises.
The new album, which dropped on Friday, had many reading deep into lyrics and looking for clues leading up to the big day.
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Swift dropped the news of her release onstage at the GRAMMYs on Feb. 4 while accepting her 13th trophy from the Recording Academy. Many thought they were getting a new album for Reputation (Taylor’s Version) drop but instead got something better.
“OK, this is my 13th GRAMMY, which is my lucky number. I don’t know if I’ve ever told you that,” Swift quipped while accepting the Best Pop Vocal Album award for her last original album, Midnights. “I want to say thank you to the members of the Recording Academy for voting this way, but I know that the way that the Recording Academy voted is a direct reflection of the passion of the fans.”
Swift continued, “I want to say thank you to the fans by telling you a secret that I have been keeping from you for the last two years, which is that my brand new album comes out April 19th. It’s called The Tortured Poets Department. I’m gonna go post the cover right now backstage. Thank you, I love you.”
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Filled with lyrics about breakups, self-reflection and healing, many have been praising the album.
“The Tortured Poets Department. An anthology of new works that reflect events, opinions and sentiments from a fleeting and fatalistic moment in time — one that was both sensational and sorrowful in equal measure,” Swift wrote. “This period of the author’s life is now over, the chapter closed and boarded up. There is nothing to avenge, no scores to settle once wounds have healed. And upon further reflection, a good number of them turned out to be self-inflicted.”
“This writer is of the firm belief that our tears become holy in the form of ink on a page. Once we have spoken our saddest story, we can be free of it,” she continued. “And then all that’s left behind is the tortured poetry.”
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The album cover, shot by Beth Garrabrant, the black-and-white picture shows Swift lying on a bed, surrounded by pillows. The second slide of her Instagram post featured a handwritten page of what appeared to be lyrics, which read, “And so I enter into evidence / My tarnished coat of arms / My muses, acquired like bruises / My talismans and charms / The tick, tick, tick of love bombs / My veins of pitch black ink.”
At the bottom of the page, Swift wrote, “All’s fair in love and poetry – sincerely, The Chairman of The Tortured Poets Department.”
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Swift teased the “TTPD Timetable” with an animated video posted to Instagram that confirmed a music video would will be dropping Friday evening at 8 p.m. ET.
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The clip opens with a clock reading 2:00 inside a room that is very similar to her ’70s-inspired Midnights visuals. The camera exits the room and moves down a bland hallway before landing on a door labeled “The Tortured Poets Department.”
On the wall is a bulletin board with photos and a calendar highlighting “The Tortured Poets Department Release Day” on Friday, April 19. Below that is a note that reads, “8 p.m. ET – Music Video release!!” followed by 14 tally marks.
Swift later revealed that the first single and upcoming music video would be “Fortnight” featuring Post Malone.
“At this hearing, I stand before my fellow members of The Tortured Poets Department with a summary of my findings,” Swift captioned a teasy clip of the music video, which she posted hours ahead of the album’s release. “Album tonight. Fortnight music video tomorrow at 8pm et.”
Featured on the tracklist are collaborations with Post Malone (“Fortnight”) and Florence + the Machine (“Florida!!!”). Swift’s longtime collaborators Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner are also listed in the credits for co-writing several of the new tracks.
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When announcing The Tortured Poets Department in February, Swift teased that the project had been in the works for two years. At a tour stop in Tokyo, Japan, Swift further elaborated on the timeline.
“I’ve been working on Tortured Poets since right after I turned in Midnights,” she told the audience at the Tokyo Dome, clarifying that albums are submitted “months in advance” so they can be finalized.
🚨| Taylor Swift announcing new variant of "THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT" at tonight's show of 'The Eras Tour" in Melbourne, Australia! #MelbourneTSTheErasTour
— The Eras Tour (@tswifterastour) February 16, 2024
“I’ve been working on it for about two years,” she confirmed of Tortured Poets. “I kept working on it throughout the U.S. tour and when it was perfect, in my opinion, when it was good enough for you, I finished it.”
She continued, “I am so, so excited that soon you’ll get to hear it, soon we’ll get to experience that together, and I’m just like, I’m over the moon about the fact that you guys care about my music. It still blows my mind. I love doing this, I know I keep saying that, but that’s because it’s true.'”
a 2022 video of Swift’s ex-boyfriend, Joe Alwyn, resurfaced in which he revealed that he was in a group chat with friends called “The Tortured Mans Club.”
The track “So Long, London” had many’s attention as some wondered if it was a reference to Alwyn, who is English.
During a tour stop in Australia, Swift told the audience that creating Tortured Poets was a necessary outlet during a tumultuous time.
“This album, this new one, Tortured Poets, is an album that I think more than any of my albums that I’ve ever made — I needed to make it,” she said.
“It was really a lifeline for me, just the things I was going through, the things I was writing about,” she continued. “It kind of reminded me of why songwriting is something that like actually gets me through my life.”
She added, “I’ve never had an album where I needed songwriting more than I needed it on Tortured Poets.”
There is not any detail clear if the current album is about her current relationship to Travis Kelce, but some believe there are some lyrics in question.
In an Instagram Story on April 8, she revealed some of the very first lyrics from the album as a tease from the album’s upcoming release.
“Crowd goes wild at her fingertips / Half moonshine, Full eclipse,” she shared. It’s unclear which song the lyrics come from.
The other things many are pointing out on the album include jabs at Kim Kardashian and subtle lyrics about Matty Healy.
The jab comes in the form of a track on part two of TTPD titled “thanK you aIMee.” And yes, the capitalized letters do indeed spell out the name KIM. What follows is an allegorical retelling of Taylor and Kim’s history in the form of Taylor versus a high school bully.
“When I picture my hometown / There’s a bronze spray-tanned statue of you,” Taylor sings in the first verse. “And a plaque underneath it / That threatens to push me down the stairs, at our school.”
And in the second verse, Taylor slams the headlines that she alleges Kim caused with her actions—such as when she shared footage of the infamous 2016 phone call between Taylor and Kanye West—while noting the discrepancy in their career growth at the time.
“And it wasn’t a fair fight, or a clean kill / Each time that Aimee stomped across my gravе,” she sings. “And then she wrote hеadlines / In the local paper, laughing at each baby step I’d take.”
There are some lyrics in question about Matty Healy, but according to reports he is a bit relieved.
“Matty still thinks very highly of Taylor but we were all nervous about what she might have said on the album,” the insider tells Us, noting that people close to The 1975 musician “couldn’t be happier” with how the record turned out.
“Matty’s family knew about the relationship,” the insider explains. “And they were worried that Taylor was going to rip him apart. Matty has struggled with life in the public eye, and he’s been doing really well, but the last thing that he needs is for every Swiftie in the world to think he’s a villain.”
A separate insider tells Us that Healy was “really appreciative” to receive a heads-up from Taylor’s team about TTPD. “He was worried that their story would be shed in a negative light,” the source explains, adding he had concerns “the public wouldn’t get the full story.”
Fans can stream the full album on Spotify now.
