After Taylor Swift won a Grammy for her album Midnights, Swifties anticipated an announcement of her re-recording of her sixth studio album Reputation. Instead, Swift gave fans her 11th album titled The Tortured Poets Department, coming out April 19.
She took the stage on Feb. 4, at the 66th Grammy Awards after many Easter eggs in the hours prior to the awards show such as changing her social media profile pictures to black and white and purposefully closing her website to display an error code, which fans figured out to be a “red herring,” or distraction.
With 16 tracks, the album, two years in the making, is expected to be record-breaking for Swift. It will feature collaborations with artist Post Malone on the song “Fortnight” and the band Florence + the Machine on the song “Florida!!!”.
“I’ve never had an album where I needed songwriting more than I needed it on Tortured Poets,” Swift said before announcing the bonus track “The Bolter.”
Furthermore, Swift announced three more cover art variants of the album in the surprise songs section of the “Eras Tour,” which are named after the corresponding bonus track. They are “The Bolter,” “The Albatross” and “The Black Dog.”
It’s rumored that the surprise songs Swift performed after announcing the bonus tracks will be similar in theme to those songs. For example, some fans think that “The Bolter” will be like her song “You’re Losing Me” from Midnights.
Many fans speculate the album is based on her six-year relationship and breakup. In a partnership with Apple Music, five playlists curated by Swift herself based on the five stages of grief were released, fueling a fan theory.
The playlists themselves shocked fans though, as songs like “Lover” were put on the “I Love You, It’s Ruining My Life” playlist, which is about the first stage of grief: denial. It gave fans a different interpretation of the song and an idea of what the album will be about.
Now, Swift is gearing up to have the largest album release of 2024, despite months without promotion. It will only be three days before we finally hear 20 new songs from Swift.
