With The Tortured Poets Department *finally* on the horizon, Taylor Swift continues to drop hints on what fans can expect from this brand-new album. Since she announced the project and began embracing its aesthetic at the 2024 Grammy Awards, The Tortured Poets Department’s central themes of heartbreak and sadness became apparent.
As Swift revealed the vinyl variants during her Eras Tour shows in Sydney, Melbourne, and Singapore, fans noticed a correlation to the popular psychological concept of the five stages of grief. She later confirmed this by curating playlists for Apple Music, matching some songs from her previous eras to each of the five stages.
Swift then sent fans on an easter egg hunt, where they found secret messages that spelled “hereby,” “conduct,” “this,” and “post” in the songs “Glitch,” “peace,” “Better Than Revenge,” and “Clean.” These clues fall in line with the office-like theme Swift’s been teasing over the past couple of months, as well as solidify the fact that we’ll definitely need to keep a dictionary handy when listening to The Tortured Poets Department.
Meanwhile on social media, Swift has shared two lyrics from The Tortured Poets Department so far: “Crowd goes wild at her fingertips / Half moonshine, full eclipse” and “I wish I could un-recall how we almost had it all.” I don’t know about you, but these lines punched me right in the gut. In Swift’s library-like installation at the Grove in Los Angeles, a book display features two more lines: “even statues crumble if they’re made to wait” and “as she was leaving, it felt like breathing.”
Swifties are flocking to X (formerly known as Twitter) and Reddit to share their theories of what The Tortured Poets Department has in store.
One running theory about TTPD is that the song “Fortnight” has a ton of significance. A fortnight is a period of two weeks – the amount of time we initially thought the COVID-19 quarantine was going to last. In that light, this is a pretty genius theory about how “Fortnight” sets the scene for The Tortured Poets Department.
Plus, it’s very possible that Taylor’s breakup with Joe was officially announced two weeks after it actually happened. If this is true, I think “I Can Do It With A Broken Heart” covers how Taylor played career-defining shows of the Eras Tour amid tumult and heartbreak.
Another theory fans are standing by is that “loml” doesn’t stand for “love of my life.” It’s no secret that Swift is a master of wordplay and figurative language, and especially with the dark concept of The Tortured Poets Department, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the case.
Whether these theories turn out to be correct or not, one thing’s for certain: The Tortured Poets Department is going to wreck me on Apr. 19. If I were you, I’d start stocking up on the tissues now.