Here is everything you need to know about Taylor Swift's new album 'The Tortured Poets Department'
Taylor Swift's new album is out this week! Photo / AP via NZH
If you thought Swiftie mania would ease up anytime soon, think again. Taylor Swift’s 11th album, The Tortured Poets Department, is her latest project since the start of her successful tour - but what do we know about the album and what can we expect from its release? Presumably, knowing Swift, an album of number one hits.
Taylor Swift is making waves yet again following the large ripples from hugely successful Eras Tour, her relationship debut with NFL star Travis Kelce and stylish Coachella appearances hand-in-hand with her beau.
The pop icon’s new album, The Tortured Poets Department, is fast approaching the ears of eager Swifties worldwide and has the internet in turmoil over the finer details of the much-anticipated release.
Who is the album about? What is the reason for the name? When do we get to listen to it? A little bit of digging and Swift-style Easter egg hunts have provided the answers to all of fans’ burning questions.
When is the album coming out?
Taylor Swift’s 11th album will be available on vinyl, cassette, CD and digital album on April 19, at 4pm.
When was it announced?
After beating Ed Sheeran, Kelly Clarkson, Miley Cyrus, and Olivia Rodrigo in the category, Swift grinned as she gave her acceptance speech saying: “Okay, this is my 13th Grammy. Which is my lucky number. I don’t know if I’ve ever told you that.
Revealing she has been secretly working on her 11th studio album, she said: “So 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 going to go and post the cover right now backstage. Thank you, I love you! Thank you!”
Moments later the cover art was posted to her Instagram account showing a black and white image of her reclining across pillows. The top half of her face and lower half of her legs are cut off in the low-contrast image.
She captioned the post: “All’s fair in love and poetry.”
What is the album about?
In the weeks that followed the album announcement, Swift dropped small teasers hinting at its contents.
On the first night of her Eras Tour’s Melbourne leg, she made a telling confession about her latest project, saying: “Tortured Poets is an album − I think more than any of my albums that I’ve ever made − I needed to make it. It was really a lifeline for me.”
“It kind of reminded me of why songwriting is something that actually gets me through my life,” she shared, sitting at her piano. “I’ve never had an album where I needed songwriting more than I needed it on Tortured Poets.”
However, many Swifties have theorised that the album was not only a means of survival for the singer, but a way to process her breakup from actor and boyfriend Joe Alwyn.
Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn. Photo / Getty Images
Is it about about Joe Alwyn?
Many fans have theorised that The Tortured Poets Department centres around Alwyn, whom she dated for six years.
The album’s release date is said to be exactly one year since Swift’s friends and brother unfollowed Alwyn on Instagram, thus suggesting the couple broke up on April 19, 2024. Swift was snapped having dinner with Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively that night – who both reportedly unfollowed Alwyn as well.
What’s more, the track list for the album shares a few Easter eggs that hint at Alwyn’s inclusion.
Not only do the song titles include apparent references to the English actor and their past relationship, such as So Long, London, but Swift recently revealed that the album is about heartbreak while sharing five playlists with Apple Music, which some fans believe TTPD could explore thematically.
In each playlist, Swift has chosen songs that depict the different stages of a break-up: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.
Why is the album called The Tortured Poets Department?
In support of Swifties’ theory that the album is about Alwyn, fans dug up a clip of the Conversations With Friends actor which seemingly points to the album’s title as a reference to her former beau and his pals.
In an interview with Variety in December 2022, Alwyn - alongside Paul Mescal - revealed that the pair shared a WhatsApp group chat with Andrew Scott called “the Tortured Man Club.”
“So what’s the name of the WhatsApp group we’re in?” Mescal asks, to which Alwyn replies, “It’s either the ‘tortured’ or the ‘lonely’—'Tortured Man Club,’ I think. Me, you, and Andrew. It hasn’t had much use recently.”
“No,” Mescal affirms. “I feel like we’re less tortured now.”
What is the track list?
Swift only waited a day after announcing The Tortured Poets Department to reveal the album’s track list on Instagram.
Side A
• Fortnight (feat. 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!!! (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
Swift has since revealed three more bonus tracks on the album: The Albatross, The Black Dog and The Bolter, which she announced at her Melbourne shows in February.
Taylor Swift performs at the Tokyo Dome on February 7. Photo / Getty Images
How long has Swift been writing the album?
During her first Eras Tour show in Japan on February 7, just a couple of days after announcing the album, Swift revealed that the album had been in the making for longer than many had thought.
“I’ve been working on it for about two years,” she confessed to the audience at Tokyo Dome. “I kept working on it throughout the US. tour, and when it was perfect - in my opinion when it’s good enough for you - I finished it and I am so, so excited that soon you’ll get to hear it.”
She added, “I’ve been working on Tortured Poets since right after I turned in Midnights,” which would’ve been a few months before her last album dropped back in October 2022.
Are there any notable collaborations on the album?
The Tortured Poets Department features two major collaborations: Post Malone, who sings on Fortnight, as well as Florence + The Machine on Florida!!!
Both Malone and the band’s frontman Florence Welch have praised Swift in the past, with the rapper dubbing Swift “a great f****n’ songwriter” in an interview with Howard Stern last year.
Welch and Swift gushed about each other in a 2015 Billboard interview, with Swift saying: “What sets Florence apart? Everything. Every time I’ve been around her, she is the most magnetic person in the room — surrounded by people who are fascinated by the idea of being near her.”
This article was first published by the NZ Herald and is republished here with permission.
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