‘The Tortured Poets Department’: Breaking down Taylor Swift’s ‘sensational and sorrowful’ album

It's official! Less than 24 hours after its release, "Tortured Poets" was named Spotify's most-streamed album in a single day. And that's not all. The audio-streaming giant also said Swift became the most-streamed artist in a single day in the platform's history.

According to a press release Spotify issued Friday evening, today's records mean that Swift holds the three most-streamed albums in a single day in Spotify history. "Midnights" and "1989 (Taylor's Version) hold the No. 2 and No. 3 spots following "Tortured Poets."

The release of "Tortured Poets" involved both global and digital scavenger hunts. One of them, uncovered through clues in the lyrics of Swift's discography on Apple Music revealed the sentence, "We hereby conduct this post-mortem."

Now, based on the lyrics to one of the songs released on the double album, we know what that means.

"How Did It End?" opens with the lyrics, "We hereby conduct this post-mortem," which the narrator implies is about the death of a relationship.

"He was a hot house flower to my outdoorsmen/ Our maladies was such/ We could not cure them/ And so a touch that was my birthright became foreign," she sings, implying the issues in the central relationship overruled any existing love and affection.

She then dives into the public nature of this "post mortem" and how her heartbreak can turn into a public spectacle — again.

"Come one, come all/ It’s happenin’ again/ The empathetic hunger descends/ We’ll tell no one/ Except all of our friends/ We must know/ How did it end?"

Aaron Dessner of The National reacted to the release of "The Tortured Poets Department" by thanking Swift for her trust in him.

Dessner produced several songs on the album and first began collaborating with Swift on 2020's "Folklore."

"So incredibly grateful and honored to contribute to this vast and ambitious album -- it’s not lost on me how lucky I am that @taylorswift13 shares her insane talents and trusts me to help make this music I hope you enjoy all 31 songs as much as I do!!" he tweeted.

In addition to Spotify's streaming record, "The Tortured Poets Department" has officially broken an Amazon Music record, becoming the platform's most-streamed album for a first day, the streaming platform confirmed to TODAY.com Friday.

"I Hate It Here" is one of the 15 songs released on the double album, and it's causing a bit of a stir online for one lyric specifically.

“My friends used to play a game where/ We would pick a decade/ We wished we could live in instead of this/ I’d say the 1830s but without all the racists/ And getting married off for the highest bid,” Swift sings.

She goes on to complicate the story, saying no era is “fun”: “Nostalgia is a mind’s trick/ If I’d been there, I’d hate it/ It was freezing in the palace.”

Swift’s version of the 1830s might involve palaces but people are pointing out what else it involved. Thirty years before the Civil War took place, slavery still was legal throughout the American South.

One X user wrote, “Pretty astonishing to stipulate that she wants to live in the 1830s, ‘except without the racists,’ and not mention slavery, so slavery still exists but everyone’s chill about it.”

One of the 15 surprise songs released on Swift's second part of "Tortured Poets" is called "imgonnagetyouback" — and it immediately sparked comparisons to Olivia Rodrigo's song of a similar title, "Get Him Back!"

Rodrigo's "Get Him Back!" was released as part of her sophomore album, "Guts," in 2023. Its lyrics had the narrator battling whether to get back together with someone or get revenge.

Rodrigo’s bridge goes: “I wanna key his car/ I wanna make him lunch/ I wanna break his heart/ And be the one to stitch it up.”

On her track, Swift sings: “Whether I’m gonna be your wife or/ Gonna smash up your bike, I haven’t decided yet/ But I’m gonna get you back.”

The comparison is notable due to the apparent falling-out Swift and Rodrigo had after the release of “Sour.” Rodrigo was accused of borrowing too much from Swift’s song “Cruel Summer” when she wrote her song “Deja Vu.” Swift and her collaborator Jack Antonoff were retroactively credited as co-writers on the Rodrigo song, but Rodrigo later told Time, “It was really frustrating to see people discredit and deny my creativity.”

Some fans also suspected Rodrigo’s 2023 song “The Grudge” was about Swift.

Read more here.

Flavor Flav has entered the chat.

The rapper shared a review of Taylor Swift's 11th studio album on X Friday, calling it "sad and real."

"The best art is created from struggle and sadness,,, da anthology is sad and real and Taylor,,, It makes me wanna punch anyone that hurt that woman’s feelings,,, but no one can punch them worse than Taylor and her piano and pen. happy she found happiness," he wrote.

Flavor Flav has publicly declared himself a Swiftie on multiple occasions. He notably attended the "Eras Tour" in June 2023.

"In my RED (Taylor’s Version) Era and makin new friends at #TaylorSwift," he posted on X.

While so much of “Tortured Poets” is about heartbreak, “So High School” examines that giggly, adolescent kind of romance, transporting back to feeling like you’re 16 again.

The song has several references to staples of youth, like “I’m watching ‘American Pie’ with you on a Saturday night” and “Truth, dare, spin bottles” and “Touch me while your bros play ‘Grand Theft Auto.’”

While we know Swift likes to write autobiographical songs, whom this song could be about is anyone’s guess. It does not seem to contain direct nods to certain people in the way that “thanK you aIMee” or “So Long, London” may have.

Click here for the full article.

Swifties have officially resumed their search for all the Easter eggs they might've missed in the lead up to the "Tortured Poet Department."

Looking back at her interview with Time as the 2023 Person of the Year, here are some hidden references that might have been references to "Tortured Poets" all along.

Stevie Nicks

Swift and the Fleetwood Mac frontwoman have had a longstanding relationship, having performed together all the way back in 2010 at the Grammy Awards. Nicks, while not featured on the album, lends her pen to an introductory poem for the album. She's also referenced in "Clara Bow," one of three women who have been historically examined by the public for their heartbreaks.

Nicks was interviewed by Time for the profile of Swift.

“I don’t give Taylor advice about being famous,” Nicks said. “She doesn’t need it.”

Kim Kardashian

Swift and Kim Kardashian have had a long-running feud since the reality star's comments and actions contributed to the public backlash that led to "Reputation" in 2017.

Fans immediately noticed on the surprise double album of "Tortured Poets" that one of the tracks, “thanK you aIMee,” has capital letters that spell "KIM." The lyrics appear to be about a mean girl at school.

Kardashian, her ex Kanye West and the public feud with Swift was a focus in her Time interview. (See a timeline of their feud here.)

“You have a fully manufactured frame job, in an illegally recorded phone call, which Kim Kardashian edited and then put out to say to everyone that I was a liar,” Swift said in the interview. “That took me down psychologically to a place I’ve never been before. I moved to a foreign country. I didn’t leave a rental house for a year. I was afraid to get on phone calls. I pushed away most people in my life because I didn’t trust anyone anymore. I went down really, really hard.”

'The Eras Tour'

Predictably, a large part of her Time interview was about her record-breaking "Eras Tour," which began in March 2023.

But "I Can Do It With A Broken Heart," in which Swift's narrator sings about being "miserable" while performing for a crowd, puts the tour, and some of Swift's comments, in a new light.

"All the piеces of me shatterеd as the crowd was chanting, “More” / I was grinnin’ like I’m winnin’ / I was hittin’ my marks / ‘Cause I can do it with a broken heart," she sings.

In December 2023, Swift told Time: “I knew this tour was harder than anything I’d ever done before by a long shot."

The comment was also made in reference to her strict training regiment at the gym to prepare for back-to-back nights of three hour-plus shows. In "Down Bad," Swift notably sings, "Now I'm down bad crying at the gym."

'Barbie'

Despite some fan theories, Swift was not featured on the soundtrack for the 2023 summer blockbuster "Barbie."

But the film's director, Greta Gerwig, was interviewed about Swift in the Time article.

“Her work as a songwriter is what speaks most clearly to me,” Gerwig said. “To write music that is from the deepest part of herself and have it directly speak into the souls of other people.”

Could it have been a clue to the theme of "My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys"? In the album's third track, Swift compares herself to a toy with a "plastic smile," repeatedly crushed by a boy, like a child.

There's even a passing referencing to playing with Ken dolls: "I felt more when we played pretend/ Than with all the Kens."

"The Tortured Poets Department" smashed Spotify's record for most album streams in a single day, the streaming platform confirmed to Billboard Friday.

The standard version of the album dropped at midnight, and the record was broken in less than 12 hours.

Taylor Swift has taken over radio stations, from Channel 13 on SiriusXM to iHeartRadio briefly renaming itself to iHeartTaylor and sharing messages from the songwriter.

Swift revealed in a soundbite played on iHeartRadio that "Florida!!!", the eighth track of the album featuring Florence + the Machine, was inspired by "Dateline."

"I'm always watching, like 'Dateline,'" Swift said with a laugh. "People, you know, have these crimes that they commit where they immediately skip town and go to Florida. They try to reinvent themselves, have a new identity, blend in."

It's the same with heartbreak, she said.

"I think when you go through a heartbreak, there's a part of you that thinks I want a new name. I want a new life," she said.

Or perhaps in Swift's case — a new era?

Swift has been open about her love for certain shows, books and other pop culture phenomenon. Her cats — Meredith Grey, Olivia Benson and Benjamin Button — are famously named after fictional characters.

In a 2016 interview with Vogue, Swift said her favorite show of all time is "Friends," but she named "Dateline" as her favorite show currently on air.

Just as fans were recovering from the shock of Taylor Swift releasing a secret double album overnight, Swift surprised fans yet again by doing something she rarely does: liking an Instagram post featuring memes about her love life.

The Instagram post in question, shared by the media company Betches, included a scene from the Lifetime reality series “Dance Moms” that showed coach Abby Lee Miller standing in front of the show’s infamous pyramid ranking system.

On “Dance Moms,” the pyramid ranked the best dancers of the week — but here, the pyramid ranks several of Swift’s exes (along with her current partner, Travis Kelce).

Kelce’s name unsurprisingly sits on the top of the pyramid, while Taylor Lautner, Tom Hiddleston and Harry Styles occupy the middle row.

Along the bottom row are Calvin Harris, Jake Gyllenhaal, Matty Healy, and her most recent ex, Joe Alwyn.

The Instagram post features four other slides, including a screenshot of a post from the Betches X account that reads, “Decoding Taylor Swift easter eggs feels like working 2 jobs, training for a marathon, dating a man who is emotionally unstable, and clocking in the overnight shift at the FBI all at once.”

Another slide features a screengrab of what appears to be a fan’s X post, reading, “Every time we get a new lyric the hunger games cannon goes off.”

Swift didn’t appear to comment on the post, or clarify which meme(s) she appreciated the most, but the fact that she liked it at all launched her fans into orbit.

Click here for the full article.

While Stevie Nicks' poem introduces the album, Swift also shared her own poem written "in summation," like the findings of an academic thesis.

In the poem, she writes that the album is both a "warning" and a "reminding" that she "had been struck with a case/ of a restricted humanity." As a result, she's entering a "plea" for "temporary insanity."

She described being caged, seemingly by a relationship: "Lovers spend years denying what’s ill fated/ Resentment rotting away."

But that ended, in "one conversation," but something familiar returned to her: "Then a crash from the skylight/ Bursting through/ Something old, someone hallowed/ who told me he could be brand new."

She writes that she was "out of the microwave" and "out of the slammer" — potentially a reference to track 7, "Fresh Out The Slammer."

But still, that didn't last, either.

In closing, she writes that it wasn't a "love affair," but a "mutual manic phase" and "self-harm."

She adds, "it’s the worst men that I write best."

Per usual, Swift does not name the inspiration behind her songs. But it's notable that news broke in April 2023 that Swift and actor Joe Alwyn had split after more than six years together. A few weeks later, she was spotted out with The 1975 frontman Matty Healy, sparking dating rumors around May 2023.

Read the full prologue:

At this hearing

I stand before my fellow members

of the Tortured Poets Department

With a summary of my findings

A debrief, a detailed rewinding

For the purpose of warning

For the sake of reminding

As you might all unfortunately recall

I had been struck with a case

of a restricted humanity

Which explains my plea here today

of temporary insanity

You see, the pendulum swings

Oh, the chaos it brings

Leads the caged beast to do

the most curious things

Lovers spend years denying what’s ill fated

Resentment rotting away

galaxies we created

Stars placed and glued

meticulously by hand

next to the ceiling fan

Tried wishing on comets.

Tried dimming the shine.

Tried to orbit his planet.

Some stars never align.

And in one conversation, I tore down the whole sky

Spring sprung forth with dazzling freedom hues

Then a crash from the skylight

Bursting through

Something old, someone hallowed,

who told me he could be brand new

And so I was out of the oven

And into the microwave

Out of the slammer and into a tidal wave

How gallant to save the empress

from her gilded tower

Swinging a sword he could barely lift

But loneliness struck at that fateful hour

Low hanging fruit on his wine stained lips

He never even scratched the surface

of me.

None of them did.

“In summation, it was not a love affair!”

I screamed while bringing my fists

to my coffee ringed desk

It was a mutual manic phase.

It was self harm.

It was house and then cardiac arrest.

A smirk creeps onto this poet’s face

Because it’s the worst men that I write best.

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

All’s fair in love and poetry

Sincerely,

The Chairman

of The Tortured Poets Department

TODAY independently determines what we cover and recommend. When you buy through our links, we earn a commission.

This may be the Swift’s most transparent album yet — literally and figuratively.

This morning, TODAY got a first look at one variant (exclusively available at Target) that underscores this transparency in the form of two “Phantom Clear” vinyl discs.

And song lyrics aren’t the only pieces of evidence fans have to pore over. In keeping with the titular theme, this edition also contains two very personal poems: an introductory poem by Stevie Nicks (see more about that here) and a summary poem by Swift herself.

We analyzed the pages for potential clues and meaning here.

The CD version of Swift's 11th album, "The Tortured Poets Department," contains a 24-page book jacket with new photos of the singer as well as two introductory poems that set the stage for the album.

One of those poems was written by none other than Stevie Nicks — who notably gets name-dropped in the 16th track, "Clara Bow."

Nicks’ handwritten poem contains some key information at the very top that caught our eyes. “For T — and me...” is the dedication, suggesting that the message is for Swift and for Nicks herself. Swift’s favorite number 13 (which is also the date of her December birthday) is referenced twice: Aug. 13, 2023 (the date the poem was written) and Sept. 13 at 8:50 p.m. (could this be the precise time it was delivered?). Austin, Texas, is also listed as the location where it was written.

Nicks begins: “He was in love with her/ Or at least she thought so/ She was brokenhearted/ ~Maybe he was too~/ Neither of them knew.”

Nicks continues further down: “She brings joy/ He brings Shakespeare —/ It’s almost a tragedy — Says she’/ Don’t endanger me.” What’s most intriguing here is the repetition of the phrase “Don’t endanger me.” The words are also underlined, with the word “Pause” and an arrow pointing to them. Clearly, Nicks seemed to be emphasizing this particular line.

The poem continues: “She tells the truth/ She writes about it/ She’s an informer.” This could again allude to Swift’s transparency, and a history of sharing truths about her life and relationships through songwriting.

In a 2023 interview with TODAY.com, Nicks spoke about her friendship with Swift and the similarities in their approach to songwriting. “I never don’t tell the truth. And I think that’s something that if Taylor Swift, who is my friend, if Taylor got anything from me, that’s what she got,” she said. In the same interview, Nicks also said she thinks of her own writing as poems rather than songs.

Click here for more.

The Taylor Swift-Kim Kardashian-Kanye West feud that stems all the way back to 2009 is a piece of pop culture lore that just about everyone is familiar with by now. It seems Swift may not be over it though (after all, she did touch on it in her Time magazine story last year).

A first observation about this new Swift song called "thanK you aIMee" is its stylization — the K and IM are capitalized, which of course spells KIM.

Now let's look a bit closer at the song's lyrics. This is a song about a bully and rising up from the ashes. Some tidbits that could allude to the feud:

"I dreamed that one day I could say/ All that time you were throwing punches/ I was building something"

"It wasn't a fair fight/ Or a clean Kill/ Each time that aIMee stomped across my grace/ And then she wrote headlines/ In the local paper laughing at each baby step I'd take"

"I built a legacy that you can't undo/ But when I count the scars/ There's a moment of truth/ That there wouldn't be this/ If there hadn't been you"

Swift dropped an extra 15 "TTPD" songs as part of a surprise "double album."

With the additional 15 songs, that brings the total number of tracks for this era to 31, her lucky No. 13 backward. It also makes the album her longest ever, edging out of “Red (Taylor’s Version)” by one song.

Here's the full track list, including the new songs:

1. Fortnight (feat. Post Malone)
2. The Tortured Poets Department
3. My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys
4. Down Bad
5. So Long, London
6. But Daddy I Love Him
7. Fresh Out the Slammer
8. Florida!!! (feat. Florence + The Machine)
9. Guilty as Sin?
10. Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?
11. I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)
12. loml
13. “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart”
14. The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived
15. The Alchemy
16. Clara Bow
17. The Black Dog
18. imgonnagetyouback
19. The Albatross
20. Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus
21. How Did It End?
22. So High School
23. I Hate It Here
24. thanK you alMee
25. I Look in People's Windows
26. The Prophecy
27. Cassandra
28. Peter
29. The Bolter
30. Robin
31. The Manuscript

In the lead-up to the "Tortured Poets" release date, Swift announced four editions of the album, each featuring a different bonus track.

Originally Swifties feared this would mean it'd be a minute before the bonus tracks would be available to stream. Then, a 2 a.m. surprise rolled around.

Swift announced that "Tortured Poets" was a "double album," and she released "The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology," with 15 bonus songs, including the four bonus tracks: "The Manuscript," "The Bolter," "The Albatross" and "The Black Dog."

A nice name, “Clara Bow,” and the title of track 16 on "Tortured Poets." It may ring a bell, particularly among Swifties’ older relatives. That’s because Bow was not just a real person — a movie actress who lived from 1905-1965 — but she also was the first true “It Girl.”

She was one of the first Hollywood sex symbols and celebrities, and received 35,000 letters per month at her peak, as biographer David Stenn, who wrote “Clara Bow: Runnin’ Wild” (2000) told TODAY.

“We could not believe it,” Bow’s great-granddaughters, Nicole Sisneros and Brittany Grace Bells, told People magazine in February, when they learned of the track Swift would be releasing. “We were shocked and then the intrigue set in because no one from our family has been contacted or knew about this prior.”

Clearly, there’s something about Clara that has captured Swift’s imagination. But what?

“If I were to hazard a guess, it’s because Clara Bow was both celebrated and condemned in the media in a way that male stars never were,” Stenn said. “I don’t think that double standard sadly, has left.”

He added: “Clara Bow experienced an unprecedented amount of both and endured and prevailed.”

Sound familiar? Well, let’s draw back our Bow and take aim at these facts about the “It Girl” of the past, who’s all the buzz nearly 120 years after she was born.

Click here for the full article.

We have a play call from Taylor Swift: “Call the amateurs and cut them from the team!”

The second-to-last song on “The Tortured Poets Department,” “The Alchemy,” is one of the only pure love songs on an album that skews melancholy.

This is a story of a love that “happens once every few lifetimes,” Swift’s narrator sings. Alchemy refers to the quest in ancient and Medieval times to find a philosopher’s stone, which would make it possible to turn any substance, like lead, into gold.

In the context of relationships, like this song, alchemy could suggest the meeting of two people to form something wholly new, though something inexplicable (like, cough, love).

Beyond medieval magic, what’s especially notable is that “The Alchemy” is replete with football imagery.

Click here for the full article.

Continuing the themes of rage and heartbreak throughout "Tortured Poets," Swift's narrator calls out the subject of Track 14 for "rusting my sparkling summer."

"I don't miss what we had, but could someone give / A message to the smallest man who ever lived?" she sings.

Taylor Swift shocked her fans early Friday morning by releasing a second half of her much-anticipated album “The Tortured Poets Department.”

After the first 16 songs were made available at midnight, a countdown appeared on her website indicating something else would be coming at 2 a.m. ET.

Shortly after 2 a.m., Swift announced that “Tortured Poets” is a “secret double album.”

“I’d written so much tortured poetry in the past 2 years and wanted to share it all with you, so here’s the second installment of TTPD: The Anthology. 15 extra songs. And now the story isn’t mine anymore… it’s all yours,” she captioned the announcement.

Full story here!

With an upbeat tune reminiscent of "Bejeweled" and "Karma" from "Midnights," Swift performs "I Can Do It With A Broken Heart," seemingly referencing her time performing on the "Eras Tour," which started in March 2023.

While Swift's narrator is "miserable, and no one even knows," she's also "grinning like I'm winning" and "hitting my marks" — "'cause I can do it with a broken heart."

In what might be one of the saddest songs on the album, Swift's narrator sings about being told she's the love of someone's life "about a million times."

But in a final twist, the song title's acronym actually means something else.

"You're the loss of my life," Swift sings.

Track 11 asks a provocative question, again inspired by a modern dating colloquialism. To "fix" someone means getting a partner to address certain flaws for the sake of the relationship.

The song's narrator says the man is "a perfect case for my certain skillset." In response to the people disapproving of her relationship, she says, "I can fix him, no really I can / And only I can."

While the title implies a cutesy tone with "little old me," track 10 turns into a rage-filled rant.

In "Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?" Swift's narrator declares, "You don't get to tell me about sad."

The song chronicles someone owning her status as something fearsome, answering the song title's question with, "Well, you should be."

Fans were delighted to see lyrics from "Tortured Poets" teased at a Spotify pop-up in L.A. during release week.

There's just one problem.

Swifties report not hearing those lyrics on the standard version of "The Tortured Poets Department."

Taylor Nation, the official fan account for Swift, responded to some of the questions from fans cryptically, noting, "That's weird," adding a new hashtag, #TTPDBoardMeeting.

The upbeat backbeat of "Guilty as Sin?" feels almost out of place with another set of lyrics that inspired the heartbreak playlists Swift created: "Am I allowed to cry?"

In the song, Swift's narrator recalls fantasizing about a man "without ever touching his skin."

"What if he's written 'mine' on my upper thigh only in my mind?," she sings, before later asking, "How can I be guilty as sin?"

With a seemingly similar theme to "But Daddy I Love Him," Swift questions why she should care about what other people think, singing, "They're gonna crucify me anyway."

"What if the way you hold me is actually what's holy?" she sings.

Attention: Members of the Department — the wait is over. Taylor Swift’s 11th studio album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” has officially dropped!

We’ve been eyeing the Phantom Clear vinyl edition, exclusively available at Target, ever since Swift announced it on her official social media accounts. “I wish I could un-recall how we almost had it all,” Swift shared in an Instagram post with an image of her holding the clear vinyl. Is this a lyric off the new album? Now we can finally review the evidence to find out.

If you missed your chance to pre-order, you’ll need to calm down because it’s officially available to shop now at Target. The variant includes two Phantom Clear vinyl discs featuring all 16 tracks, plus a bonus track titled “The Manuscript.” And that’s not all: The Target-exclusive vinyl comes with a 24-page book jacket with never-before-seen photos and three replicated pages of Swift’s handwritten lyrics.

Click here for the full article.

The second track on "Tortured Poets" with a guest feature is "Florida!!!" with Florence + the Machine.

This album channels Florence Welch's vibe, with resounding instruments and the scream-like chorus of "Florida." (We see why the exclamation points were important for the title!)

The theme of the song seemingly kicks in at the bridge with, "I need to forget, so take me to / Florida."

The Sunshine State was also notably mentioned in track 1, "Fortnight." Other similarities between the two songs include mentions of a "cheating husband."

Jack Antonoff, Swift's longtime friend and collaborator, who wrote several songs on "The Tortured Poets Department," shared some of his thoughts about the album on X shortly after it dropped at midnight.

He specifically shouted out "Fresh Out The Slammer" and "Down Bad," two songs he produced.

Based on the track title alone, people were reminded of the "Reputation" song "Ready For It?" more specifically the lyric, "He can be my jailer / Burton to this Taylor." "Reputation" is widely suspected to be about Joe Alwyn.

Now, Swift's narrator is "fresh out the slammer." In the song, she "did my time" and is now at the "starting line" of what sounds like a new relationship.

"Fresh out the slammer, I know who / My first call will be to," Swift sings.

When the track list to Taylor Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department“ dropped, fans zoomed in on the title of track six: “But Daddy I Love Him.”

The title appeared to be lifted from a line in “The Little Mermaid.” It’s what Ariel shouts at her domineering father, King Triton, while pleading to join Prince Eric, her human love: “Daddy, I love him!”

Allie (Rachel McAdams) in “The Notebook” says a similar line while defending her relationship with a boy from the other side of the tracks: “Yes, daddy, I love him.“

Are the song’s lyrics about Ariel or Allie? Not quite: They appear to be an allegory, though, about rejecting the need for approval, defying public expectation and following your heart.

From the start, Swift’s narrator positions herself in an adversarial relationship to, well, everyone else: “I just learned these people only raise you just to cage you.” (This could potentially echo a lyric from 2020’s “This Is My Trying”: “They told me all of my cages were mental.”)

Her defiance comes in the form of romantic freedom — and being loud about it.

In the song, Swift sings about a “dutiful daughter” being undone by a man who is her total opposite: “He was chaos, he was revelry.” The song echoes her romantic interest’s description in 2010’s “Mine,” in which she sings about a boy who “made a rebel of a careless man’s careful daughter.”

The chorus sounds like something audacious said just to provoke a reaction.

“Screaming, “But daddy I love him! / I’m having his baby" / No I’m not, but you should see your faces,” she sings.

The narrator continues to call out anyone who is telling her what to do — even if they take on a tone of trying to help. People have an issue with her relationship and try to intervene: “Soon enough the elders had convened down at the City Hall / ‘Stay away from her.’”

Her response is merciless: “I’d rather burn my whole life down than listen to one more second of all this b----ing and moaning.”

Click here for the full article.

In 2019, Taylor Swift released the upbeat pop song “London Boy.” Five years later, she’s saying “so long” to the city with her new song “So Long, London.”

Both “London Boy” and “So Long, London” are the fifth songs of their respective albums: “Lover” and “The Tortured Poets Department.”

“London Boy” was widely received as an ode to her then-boyfriend, Joe Alwyn. She and the English actor split in the spring of 2023 after six years together.

In “So Long, London,” she appears to be saying goodbye to the city, and the relationship that put her there.

Click here for the full article.

The fourth track packs a punch. "Down Bad" is a colloquialism for having "strong and usually unrequited feelings of attraction, desire, or infatuation," according to Merriam-Webster.

In the song, Swift's narrator crafts an extended metaphor of being "beamed up" into outer space and experiencing a "cosmic love." But it doesn't last, leaving her "down bad" and "crying at the gym."

Other alien references include the lyrical phrase, "encounters closer and closer," likely a tongue-in-cheek reference to 1977's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."

The third track of "Tortured Poets" introduces a simple theme: The narrator compares herself to a toy, repeatedly destroyed by her "boy."

She seemingly justifies the behavior by noting, "You should've seen him / When he first got me."

Other notable lyrics include a passing reference to playing with a Ken doll — fitting as the new album comes just days after "Barbie" star Ryan Gosling performed "All Too Well" on "SNL," receiving praise from Swift herself.

As fans get their first listen of "The Tortured Poets Department," a feature on Swift's Instagram has officially started a countdown to 2 a.m. ET.

✌️✌️ We'll see you there!

In "The Tortured Poets Department," Taylor Swift fittingly references two famous poets: Dylan Thomas and Patti Smith.

Thomas was a 20th-century Welsh poet known for "Do not go gentle into that good night." Smith, born less than 10 years before Thomas' death, is a singer-songwriter and poet associated with the punk rock movement.

In the chorus of the song, Swift sings, "You're not Dylan Thomas / I'm not Patti Smith," but the reference isn't pointing to a romantic relationship. The key to their connection lies in the next line: "This ain't the Chelsea Hotel."

In addition to albums like "Horses," Smith is also known for her writing, including her 2010 memoir, "Just Kids," which chronicles her relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe in the summer of 1969, where they made a home at the Chelsea Hotel in New York.

In her memoir, Smith mentions Thomas and his influence on the space, as he spent his last few days there before he died at a hospital in New York in 1953.

Taylor Swift announced the release of "Tortured Poets" with an Instagram post, calling the album "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."

But that story is finished, she 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."

Continuing with the elaborate metaphors set up in "Fortnight," Swift introduces a new motif in track two of "The Tortured Poets Department." In the opening lyrics she sings, "You left your typewriter at my apartment / Straight from the Tortured Poets Department."

The chorus follows Swift's narrator confronting the reality of a situation.

"You're not Dylan Thomas / I'm not Patti Smith / This ain't the Chelsea Hotel / We're modern idiots," she sings, referencing the famous poet and singer.

This song also features more *pointed* references, including name-dropping Charlie Puth, the singer of "See You Again," as well as a "Lucy" and "Jack." (More on that soon.)

The subject of "The Tortured Poets Department" isn't painted in the best light by the narrator, with lyrics like, "Who's going to know you, if not me?"

But Puth proves the winner: "We declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist."

"Tortured Poets" opens with "Fortnight," featuring Post Malone.

The track, written by Swift and Jack Antonoff, has a medium tempo and chill synth backbeat. On the even, rhythmic chorus, Swift sounds almost ethereal, with a slight echo.

The lyrics seem to paint a portrait of a short-lived affair: "I touched you for only a fortnight," she sings. Swift's narrator also describes herself as a "good neighbor" to the object of her affections, sung by Malone.

In the first chorus, Swift sings, "Your wife waters flowers / I want to kill her." On the second go around, she says, "My husband is cheating / I want to kill him."

The story ends with the narrators suggesting moving to Florida — a potential thematic connection to track 8 "Florida!!!"? — and buying a car.

"But it won't start up, 'til I touch, touch, touch you," the song ends.

“Fortnight” is also the first time we hear one of the lyrics featured on the four alternate versions of the album: “I love you, it’s ruining my life.”

The chairman (Taylor Swift) has officially called this meeting to order.

Follow along as TODAY staff break down the 16 tracks on the standard version of "Tortured Poets."

Within minutes of the new album announcement back in February, fans took to social media to share theories about the album, ranging from the Easter eggs everyone missed to the title — and how it might connect to her ex boyfriend, Joe Alwyn, an actor.

Reports that Swift and Alwyn broke up started circulating in April 2023 after they first struck up a relationship in 2016.

Since then, Swift’s entered into a highly publicized romance with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.

The theorizing about the inspiration behind “The Tortured Poets Department” only intensified after Swift released the song titles on Feb. 5. The track list alone suggests the album may be about a breakup, with songs like, “I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)” and “I Can Do It With A Broken Heart.”

Swift has previously said she won’t confirm what — or who — her songs are about. Rather than address her personal life in interviews, Swift weaves details into songs.

“I don’t talk about my personal life in great detail. I write about it in my songs, and I feel like you can share enough about your life in your music to let people know what you’re going through,” Swift told Glamour in 2012.

Here’s why fans think her upcoming 11th album will divulge details about her former relationship with Alwyn.

The ‘Tortured Poets Department’ timeline

When Swift announced “The Tortured Poets Department,” she said the new album was a “secret” she had been keeping from fans for “the last two years.”

Two years before the Grammys in February 2022, Swift and Alwyn were still reportedly together, and the “Conversations with Friends” made a rare comment about their notoriously private relationship in an interview that April, telling the Guardian what it was like co-writing songs together.

“It wasn’t like, ‘It’s 5 o’clock, it’s time to try and write a song together,’” he said. “It came about from messing around on a piano, and singing badly, then being overheard, and being, like, ‘Let’s see what happens if we get to the end of it together.’”

But the relationship might not have been all smooth sailing.

Connections to ‘You’re Losing Me’

In addition to “Tortured Poets,” fans also suspected Swift sung about Alwyn in the “Midnights” vault track “You’re Losing Me,” which she released in May 2023. The song is a devastating look at the end of the relationship and came out just weeks after reports of her split with Alwyn.

But Swift’s collaborator, Jack Antonoff, later revealed on his Instagram story that the song was written in December 2021, significantly before reports of their breakup. This signaled to fans that the couple went through a rough patch before the release of “Midnights” and the song “Lavender Haze” in October 2022, a song about ignoring outside noise to protect the “real stuff,” as Swift sang.

“This was 10 months after you’re losing me, The entire timeline has changed,” one fan wrote beside pics of Swift and Alwyn on a walk in 2022.

With “You’re Losing Me” having been written shortly before the window of time when “Tortured Poets” became a “secret” project, fans are doing the math: Swift’s split with Alwyn may have inspired more than just one track.

Right after announcing the album’s alternative cover and bonus track during her Feb. 16 concert, Swift performed “You’re Losing Me” for the first time live, further connecting the two projects in fans’ minds.

‘The Tortured Man Club’

One of the first connections to Alwyn fans made involves the new album’s title.

Amid the announcement, X users resurfaced a December 2022 interview between Alwyn and Paul Mescal for Variety, in which the two revealed that they were part of a WhatsApp chat entitled the “The Tortured Man Club.” Actor Andrew Scott was the third member of the chat, they said.

“It hasn’t had much use recently,” Alwyn said at the time, to which Mescal replied, “No, I feel like we’re less tortured now.”

Click here for the full article.

Fortnight? Or Fortnite?

The name of the first track of "The Tortured Poets Department" sparked memes even before the album came out, mostly because the song and one of the most popular video games of the last few years are homophones.

Fortnite, a popular battle video game, first dropped in 2017. The multiplayer survival game reached the pop culture zeitgeist by 2020, inspiring the memorable kids dance craze of "flossing."

But no, Swift is probably not singing about the video game on her new album "The Tortured Poets Department." The spelling of the track's title suggests she's referring to a fortnight, or a unit of time for two weeks / 14 days. While the word has largely fallen out of fashion in the U.S., it's still used in Britain, according to Grammarist.com.

In the first look at her upcoming music video for "Fortnight," Taylor Swift seems like she is on some kind of warpath.

The six-second clip opens with a typewriter writing out the phrase, "I love you, it's ruining my life."

The rest of the clips are so fast, if you blink you'll miss them. But most scenes feature Swift in a rage, clad in some sort of full-length gown.

At one point, she stands in an office setting, in a black Victorian-style outfit as papers on fire land around her. In another scene, clad in a strapless white dress, she throws a chair through a window in an attempt to escape a clinical-looking room.

One close shot of Swift shows her shackled to a bed, with her eyebrows drawn on in thin lines. Fans were quick to note that the look is reminiscent of Hollywood starlet Clara Bow, who's name makes up the 16th track of the album.

Branded Tinseltown's first true "It Girl," Bow was a film actor who lived from 1905-1965. She got her start in silent films before transitioning to "talkies" and her look — bowed lips, doll-like face, thin eyebrows — became the look du jour of the 1920s.

But things weren't always easy for Bow, who became the target of much gossip and speculation over the years. For more on her life, click here.

While we wait, we're trying to decipher all the "two" theories.

Ahead of the release of her highly anticipated 11th studio album “The Tortured Poets Department” on April 19, rather than drop a single from the record, Taylor Swift released five new playlists of her own songs instead.

Swift’s playlists, with titles that refer to the cover art from special editions of “The Tortured Poets Department,” encompass the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.

But some of her choices sparked strong reactions from fans. For example, on her playlist about denial — or as Swift describes it, a phase of heartbreak that involves missing “red flags” — the singer included her romantic 2019 song, “Lover,” which is thought to be inspired by her ex, Joe Alwyn.

Read on to learn more about each of Swift’s playlists, and some of the surprising songs included.

‘I Love You, It’s Ruining My Life,’ or denial

For “I Love You, It’s Ruining My Life,” Swift explained, “This is a list of songs about getting so caught up in the idea of something that you have a hard time seeing the red flags, possibly resulting in moments of denial and maybe a little bit of delusion. Results may vary.”

Songs from this playlist include “Snow on the Beach” and “Bejeweled” from “Midnights,” “Cruel Summer” and “False God” from “Lover,” “Style” and “Wildest Dreams” from “1989,” “Treacherous” from “Red,” and more. Two of the songs included, “Betty” and “Sweet Nothing,” were co-written by Alwyn under the pen name William Bowery.

‘You Don’t Get to Tell Me About Sad,’ or anger

“These songs all have one thing in common: I wrote them while feeling anger,” Swift explained. “Over the years, I’ve learned that anger can manifest itself in a lot of different ways, but the healthiest way that it manifests itself in my life is when I can write a song about it and then oftentimes, that helps me get past it.”

Among the songs on the playlist were“Vigilante S--t” and “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve” from “Midnights,” “Exile” and “Mad Woman” from “Folklore,” “Bad Blood” from “1989,” “Dear John” and “Better Than Revenge” from “Speak Now,” and “Tell Me Why” and “Forever & Always” from “Fearless.”

‘Am I Allowed to Cry?,’ or bargaining

“Times when you’re trying to make deals with yourself, or someone that you care about. You’re trying to make things better,” she explained. “You’re oftentimes feeling really desperate because oftentimes we have a gut intuition that tells us things are not going to go the way that we hope which makes us more desperate which makes us bargain more.”

Swift included her songs “This Is Me Trying” and “Peace” from “Folklore,” “The Archer” and “Cornelia Street” from “Lover,” “Come Back…Be Here” from “Red,” and her feature on the song “Renegade” by Big Red Machine, a band composed of two of her collaborators, Aaron Dessner and Justin Vernon.

‘Old Habits Die Screaming,’ or depression

In her playlist “Old Habits Die Screaming,” Swift said she wanted to take listeners through her songs that explore “the feelings of depression that often lace their way” through her music.

“In times like these, I’ll write a song because I feel lonely or hopeless and writing a song feels like the only way to process that intensity of an emotion,” she explained. “And while these things are really, really hard to go through, I often feel like when I’m either listening to songs or writing songs that deal with this intensity of loss and helplessness, usually that’s in the phase where I’m close to getting past that feeling.” 

Swift included “Bigger Than the Whole Sky” from “Midnights,” “My Tears Ricochet” from “Folklore,” “Champagne Problems” and “Right Where You Left Me” from “Evermore,” “Nothing New” and “All Too Well” from “Red,” and “Last Kiss” from “Speak Now.” 

She also included the vault track “You’re Losing Me,” released shortly after news of her split with Alwyn broke, which fans at the time said had some of “the saddest lyrics ever.” 

‘I Can Do It With a Broken Heart,’ or acceptance

In her final playlist, Swift explained that her “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” playlist brings songs where “we finally find acceptance and can start moving forward from loss or heartbreak.”

“These songs represent making room for more good in your life,” she explained. “Making that choice because a lot of times when we lose things, we gain things too.”

She included the songs “Labyrinth” from “Midnights,” “August” and “Invisible String” from “Folklore,” “Happiness” and “Long Story Short” from “Evermore,” “This Love” and “Clean” from “1989,” “Begin Again” from “Red,” and “Breathe” from “Fearless.”

Click here for the full article.

Shortly after Swift announced "The Tortured Poets Department" at the Grammys, music lovers confused it with the title of a throwback Hollywood movie starring the late Robin Williams.

After Swift’s surprise announcement, Google searches for the 1989 drama “Dead Poets Society” skyrocketed 588%, according to NoDepositRewards.com, an online group that promotes casinos around the world.

Other than both employing the word “poets” in their titles, the movie, which takes place at a fictional elite boarding school, and Swift’s album don’t appear to have much else in common.

Except ...

There’s the fact that “Dead Poets Society” was released in 1989, which is Swift's birth year and the title of one of her albums. And, of course, her new album could possibly feature songs exploring sorrow and heartbreak, topics the movie explored, too.

Come to think of it, Williams’ character in the movie, an unorthodox English teacher named John Keating, inspires his young students to live by the Latin credo carpe diem, or “seize the day.” Didn’t Swift say kind of the same thing in her 2014 hit “Shake It Off”?

Click here for the full article.

Fans famously thought Swift's black-and-white profile picture change and her 2024 Grammys outfit predicted news of "Reputation."

Feb. 4 came after months of hints that seemed to point towards the rerecording, from a slew of green outfits reminiscent of a snake, the album’s signature motif, to a tweet filled with capital S’s tied to her Time Person of the Year interview. Plus, fans have already heard snippets of the “Taylor’s Version” “Look What You Made Me Do” and “Delicate” tracks.

It seemed like every few weeks fans predicted a new date for the anticipated rerecording, including Nov. 10, Nov. 26, Dec. 13 and of course, Feb. 4, the date of the Grammys.

The official X account for the Empire State Building even fell for it at one point.

Instead, Swift announced "Tortured Poets," a brand new album.

Still, just hours before the new album arrives, fans are holding out for a "Reputation" surprise.

Similar to (incorrect) theories surrounding the October 2023 release of "1989 (Taylor's Version)," fans think "Tortured Poets" could be a "double album" drop, meaning the singer would release a second surprise tied to "Tortured Poets."

Some have even assembled theories that the "Reputation" rerecording could be involved. The reveal of the Apple Music puzzle result — "We hereby conduct this post mortem" — immediately reminded Swifties of the imagery surrounding "Reputation" in 2017, specifically a line from a poem associated with the album: "And in the death of her reputation / She felt truly alive."

One user found "REP" like part of a word search in one of Swift's Instagram posts.

"im not trying to be ungrateful im just delusional but i think dropping reputation taylor’s version together with the tortured poets department would be kinda perfect because they’re two bookends of the same relationship," one fan wrote on X, pointing out that while "Reputation" is thought to be about Joe Alwyn, "Tortured Poets" is thought to be about their split.

But some Swifties are tired of the "Reputation" speculation. The months of failed predictions have led the "theorizing" to be re-classified as "clowning."

The red herring that started it at all.

When Taylor Swift arrived to the Grammys Feb. 4 dressed in black and white, fans were convinced that an announcement regarding her "Reputation" rerecording was imminent.

Swift arrived to the 2024 Grammy Awards in Los Angeles in a stunning strapless white gown, with black elbow-high gloves.

The stark tones of her Grammys look, combined with the new black-and-white tint to her profile pictures online, fueled theories that Swift’s next major announcement will center on the rerecording of her sixth studio album.

The original album art for “Reputation” featured the singer in black-and-white with print covering the side of her face, almost like a newspaper.

Swift’s acceptance speech for her 13th Grammy Awards complicated that theory, however: She revealed a new album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” was on the way. This album cover is also black and white, like “Reputation.”

The outfit now reveals the aesthetic of the album, later confirmed through the official cover art.

Sensuous, luxurious and almost old-Hollywood style — fitting for the final track "Clara Bow" — captures the vibe of "Tortured Poets."

The music video teaser for "Fortnight" also revealed Swift in a white dress with a similar silhouette to the one she wore on Grammys night.

Click here for the full article.

Taylor Swift's official fan account, Taylor Nation, announced official "Tortured Poets Department" merchandise around 8 p.m. ET, less than four hours before the album's release.

Products include hoodies, sweatpants, earrings, a choker necklace and more.

A black jacket with "All's fair in love and poetry" along the back as well as "Tortured Poets Department" jacket sold out in less than 30 minutes.

Taylor Nation dubbed the attire, "Department-issued uniforms and matching accessories."

Taylor Swift is revealing a first look at her upcoming music video for "Fortnight" off her new album. The song will debut on her "Tortured Poets Department" album in just under four hours.

In a post shared Thursday night, a video shows snippets in black-and-white from the music video, which drops Friday at 8 p.m. ET.

"At this hearing, I stand before my fellow members of The Tortured Poets Department with a summary of my findings," she captioned the post. "Album tonight. Fortnight music video tomorrow at 8pm et."

While Travis Kelce, football superstar and boyfriend of Taylor Swift, isn't expected to be the inspiration behind her next album "The Tortured Poets Department," the tight end has previously commented on it.

Ahead of Super Bowl 58 in Las Vegas, which his team went on to win in overtime, Kelce told reporters that he had already listened to part of the album.

“I have heard some of it. It is unbelievable,” Kelce said, per Variety. “I can’t wait for her to shake up the world when it finally drops.” 

Kelce and Swift first sparked dating rumors in July 2023, after he talked about attending one of her "Eras Tour" shows on his podcast. Her first appearance at a Chiefs game in September 2023 came nearly five months after reports of Swift's split with Alwyn broke in April 2023.

Click here for a refresher on the timeline of Kelce and Swift's relationship.

Swift's 11th studio album became the most pre-saved album on Spotify Thursday, the streaming platform announced around 11:15 a.m. — 12 hours before the album drops at midnight.

The countdown page lists all the tracks on the standard version of the album. By pre-saving, the album is automatically added to a user's library once the album becomes available to stream.

After Swift announced her new album while winning her 13th Grammy, her social media accounts also shared the news.

“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/ All’s fair in love and poetry…” the post read, signed "The Chairman of The Tortured Poets Department."

Then, during the solar eclipse on April 8, Swift shared a video of an old-fashioned typewriter typing out the following phrase:

Crowd goes wild at her fingertips, half moonshine, full eclipse

Swift would go on to announce that Target will carry special vinyl variants of the album on April 14 with another post to her Instagram, writing what appeared to be more lyrics in the caption: “I wish I could un-recall how we almost had it all.”

Then, as part of a Spotify pop-up event in Los Angeles, several more lines were revealed starting on April 16:

Even statues crumble if they’re made to wait

One less temptress, one less dagger to sharpen

As she was leaving, it felt like breathing

Lost the game of chance, what are the chances?

Come one, come all / it’s happening again

Anyone who knows Taylor Swift also knows that she loves an important message that's hidden in plain sight. Easter eggs, one could call them, or clues or signs.

Fans of Swift believe they've detected a new clue that could indicate something important: A pattern of Swift plotting the number two everywhere as of late.

Allow this Swiftie TikToker to break it down for you:

Here's a recap of where we've seen twos:

- When Swift revealed at the Grammys she’s releasing “TTPD,” she said she had been working on the album for two years and held up two fingers. (Review the video here.)

- The “TTPD” logo looks like a Roman numeral II.

- In an animated video released by Swift this week teasing her upcoming music video, a clock is seen on a wall set to 2:00.

- In a pop-up Spotify installation in Los Angeles promoting "TTPD," fans spotted a few two references: there's a statue of a hand holding up two fingers and there are clocks also set to 2:00. (See more Easter eggs from this pop-up in the blog post below.)

And, on Wednesday, Swift tweeted on X, "✌️ days til THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT."

So what could all this mean? Swifties on TikTok have some theories: Could Swift be releasing a double album or a doing a two-album drop? ("Reputation (Taylor's Version)" anyone?) Or could this indicate a second act coming to "The Eras Tour"? After all, one would expect "TTPD" to be incorporated into the tour somehow, especially considering "The Eras Tour" as we know it has been memorialized with a concert film that's now streaming.

The possibilities behind the "two theory" are quite endless — but keep an eye on those twos.

Taylor Swift has been revealing more lyrics from her upcoming album at a Spotify pop-up in Los Angeles.

Held at The Grove, an outdoor shopping mall, a library-like display will continue to unveil more stanzas featured in the upcoming album.

Here are the lyrics we’ve seen so far at the display:

• Crowd goes wild at her fingertips, half moonshine, full eclipse
• Even statues crumble if they’re made to wait
• One less temptress, one less dagger to sharpen
• As she was leaving, it felt like breathing
• Lost the game of chance, what are the chances?
• Come one, come all / it's happening again

In addition to the lyrics being revealed from an old-fashioned book, the decor from the “library” is also believed to hold many more clues, fans believe.

Below, we’ve rounded up and synthesized some of the fan theories.

Card Catalog

Back in ye olden days before everything was online, we used to look up books in the library by using the physical card catalog.

The Spotify display includes one such dresser, with 72 drawers total and six of them open with flowers and lace spilling out.

Fans have suggested that the open six drawers represent the six years Swift spent with her ex, actor Joe Alwyn, and the total of 72 represents the total months they spent together.

Other fans (disclaimer: some of whom did not initially seem to know what card catalog is) postulated that the display also reminded them of a mausoleum and that the album is a post-mortem of Swift and Alwyn’s relationship.

Globes

There were a few globes on display in the pop-up, all with Miami, Florida, marked by a pin or in one instance, a nail.

As we know, there is a song titled “Florida!!!” on the album. There are fan rumors that something happened in Florida, so we’ll have to wait and see what the lyrics reveal.

Typewriters

There are a few typewriters in the scene — matching the aesthetic of the album— including one that is labeled No. 3. The paper in the No. 3 typewriter is the track list, leading some Swifties to think that the label means that the third song of “TPD” —“My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys” — will be the first single.

Some fans have pointed out that the T and B keys seem to be slightly off or askew on a few of the typewriters.

Cages                       

For the birdcage, some fans speculated it might be a metaphor for how Swift felt in her previous relationship but one particularly interesting theory comes from @FolklorianAna on X.

“I’m sure that Taylor (Swift) has read ‘A Doll’s House’ by Henrik Ibsen and used it as a huge inspiration for TTPD,” she posted. “This play portrays a woman who cares for her husband but feels like she’s in a cage (the cages on Spotify library). Her husband also calls her constantly ‘Little Skylark.’”

There is also a statue of birds resting on a tree branch featured in the display.

Clocks

All the clocks point to 2:00 — it’s unclear exactly what is happening but we personally are rooting for it to be something at 2 p.m. and not 2 a.m.

We should mention that in the video she released earlier this week, there was a yellow clock seemingly set in the “Midnights” album universe that also said 2:00.  

Dried/dead flowers

There are loads of dried flowers in the display, which fans have noted include lavender — a reference to “Lavender Haze” from “Midnights” which Swift has previously alluded to being about Alwyn in a now-deleted video.

Fans have also speculated that the flowers include dried Cornelia roses — truthfully, our knowledge of plants is limited and we didn’t take a close-up photo of the flowers for later analysis but that does feel right.

Swift’s song “Cornelia Street” from her 2019 album, “Lover.” That album is widely believed to be about Alwyn in general, and the song is about the beginning of a relationship and falling in love.

Another fan, @giftedswifted, wrote they spotted daisies and poppies in the display underneath the book.

Swift wrote in “Don’t Blame Me” on her 2017 album “Reputation” that “I once was poison ivy, but now I’m your daisy.”

The poppy reference could be from her 2022 album “Midnights” in the song “The Great War.”

“Say a solemn prayer, plant a poppy in my hair,” she sings in a song clearly about a breakup using war as a metaphor.

Lace

On a related note, there is a ton of lace all around the display, which many fans have speculated is tied to how Swift and Alwyn did not get married despite being together for the aforementioned six years.

Puzzles

In jars on the shelves, there are puzzle pieces. Some fans have said that the pieces are from The Lines puzzle, a known difficult puzzle to solve.

This could just be a meta puzzle moment — Swift literally had us at the mall on a Tuesday morning looking for easter eggs in a display and fans around the globe doing different but similar investigations — or it could be something more.

Tambourines

There are literally just a bunch of tambourines throughout the display. We didn’t have any great theories on this but one fan online, @BlankSpaceProd, has postulated that the tambourines have something to do with feat. Florence + The Machine, who is featured on “Florida!!!”

December 13

One of the dates featured in the display is Friday, Dec. 13. Some fans have pointed out that Swift’s birthday is on Dec. 13 but she was born on a Wednesday. This year’s Dec. 13, Swift’s 35th birthday, is on a Friday, so it’s probably safe to assume the calendar is referencing is 2024.

(Another date keeper featured in the display says April 19, which is probably a reference to the date the album drops. Famous last words, though, right?)

“The Story of Us”

There is a (seemingly blank) notebook on a shelf with the handwritten letters “US” in what appears to be black pen scribbled on the front. Some fans have suggested that this is a reference to “The Story of Us” (Taylor’s Version) from her album “Speak Now.”

The books

Obviously, a library has to have books and many of them feature the titles of Swift’s songs on them.

The fan account @TSwiftErasTour noted that the book for “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” from the upcoming album seems to have scribbled handwriting all over it. Another book — one that looks “disgusting” as @TSwiftErasTour pointed out — seems to have “Saint” embossed on the side.  

Peace sign

There is a statue of a hand forming the peace sign or the number two on one of the shelves. Swift made the same gesture as she announced her new album after winning her 13th Grammy on Feb. 4.

Swift’s main X account also used the peace hand symbol to mean two on April 17.

Statues

There are white busts featured in the display, including one that seems to be Diana (Artemis) of Ephesus, the goddess of childbirth, fertility and the moon.

One viral tweet from @vigilantesht claims that the “original statue of Diana crumbled while waiting to be shipped to London in the 6th century due to years of neglect, succumbing to the passage of time and the elements.”

TODAY.com has not been able to verify this theory and there are many surviving statues of Diana/Artemis that look similar to the bust featured in the Spotify display.

Questionable theories

Because the display is in person in Los Angeles, most Swifties are getting their information about the pop-up online from people’s photos and videos.

Some fans have said that there is a bullet in the display but based on our analysis and experience, what fans perceived to be a bullet is actually just a fountain pen cap.

Starting earlier this week, Apple Music had debuted a game for Swifties: It put together a scavenger hunt of words hidden within lyrics stored in Swift's songs on Apple Music.

On Day 1, capitalized letters spelling out "HEREBY" were found in the track "Glitch." The same pattern continued in the following five days.

Day 2: "CONDUCT" was found in "Peace."

Day 3: "THIS" was found in "Better Than Revenge."

Day 4: "POST" was found in "Clean."

Day 5: "WE" was found in "We Were Happy."

Day 6: "MORTEM" was found in "Begin Again."

When unscrambled, the final message reads, "We hereby conduct this post mortem." If you're wondering what that means, we are too.

A mysterious mural with a QR code and “Tortured Poets” text first cropped up in Chicago earlier this week, and later similar ones erected in other major cities around the globe, including Paris, Melbourne and Sāo Paolo.

When the mural in Chicago initially appeared, the QR code led to a YouTube short with animated typewriter text that said "Error 321." That QR code now leads to a clip of a typewriter printing the letter T. The QR codes left in other cities lead to similar clips providing a different letter.

These letters had to be a message from Swift left for fans to unscramble, right? Right! Swifties on social media were able to decode the letters — which ended up spelling out "for a fortnight."

As we now know, "Fortnight," a track off "TTPD" featuring Post Malone, is the album's first single, Swift shared Thursday afternoon. She revealed the news at taylorswift.com/forafortnight.

Taylor Nation earlier this morning released what it called a "listening agenda" for "TTPD," staying within the theme of manuscripts.

It's a page of paper that tells readers about a "board meeting" happening at 12 a.m. and to consult your "tortured muse" before attending. It lists the album's tracks as topics of discussion, followed by directions to bring a listening device, snacks, a uniform and a dictionary. Cute!

The day after Taylor Swift announced her 11th album at the Grammy Awards, she shared a first look at the track list and introduced the first special edition, subtitled "The Manuscript."

She went on the announce four total exclusive editions of the album available in CD or vinyl, each featuring a different bonus track. While vinyl versions of each variant were available for a limited time, currently all four special editions in CD form are available for pre-order at Target.

Here's a guide to all the variants of "The Tortured Poets Department" and all the bonus tracks:

‘The Manuscript’

The edition of the album was first announced Feb. 5. The cover art features Swift looking forlorn and features the text, "I Love You, It's Ruining My Life." This text is also the name of the first of Swift's "five stages of heartbreak" playlist, released through Apple Music on April 5.

This edition features a bonus track called "The Manuscript." You can listen to the track by purchasing a vinyl or CD, available for pre-order at Target or on Swift's official online store.

'The Bolter'

Swift announced "The Bolter" edition of "Tortured Poets" in Melbourne Feb. 16. The alternate cover features a new photo of Swift and the text, "You Don't Get to Tell Me About Sad."

The album's exclusive song, "The Bolter," can be heard on an exclusive CD version of the album, available for pre-order at Target.

'The Albatross'

Swift announced "The Albatross," another variant of the album, on Feb. 23 during her "Eras Tour" show in Sydney. This version features a photo of Swift looking down with the text, "Am I Allowed To Cry?"

This version, with the bonus track "The Albatross," is available as an exclusive CD for pre-order at Target.

'The Black Dog'

Swift announced her fourth and final special edition, "The Black Dog," on March 3 in Singapore. This album cover's subtitle reads, "Old Habits Die Screaming."

The bonus track "The Black Dog" can be heard on an exclusive CD available for pre-order at Target.

The standard version of "The Tortured Poets Department" album will have 16 songs.

Here's the track list, along with the length of each song, according to Spotify:

1. "Fortnight," featuring Post Malone — 3:48
2. "The Tortured Poets Department" — 4:53
3. "My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys" — 3:23
4. "Down Bad" — 4:21
5. "So Long, London" — 4:22
6. "But Daddy I Love Him" — 5:40
7. "Fresh Out The Slammer" — 3:30
8. "Florida!!!," featuring Florence + The Machine — 3:35
9. "Guilty as Sin?" — 4:14
10. "Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?" — 5:34
11. "I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)" — 2:36
12. "loml" — 4:37
13. "I Can Do It With a Broken Heart" — 3:38
14. "The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived" — 4:05
15. "The Alchemy" — 3:16
16. "Clara Bow" — 3:36

But this is Taylor Swift we're talking about. Of course there are bonus tracks. Various special editions of “TTPD” will have bonus songs called “The Manuscript,” “The Bolter,” “The Albatross” and “The Black Dog.”

Hip-hop star Post Malone, known for his 2018 hit "Rockstar," is having a big year. His latest album, "Austin," dropped in July 2023, but the rapper is featured on what might be two of the biggest albums of the year.

Post Malone was featured on Beyoncé's "Cowboy Carter" album, which came out March 29. The rapper crooned a sweet duet with Beyoncé called "Levii's Jeans."

Then, he's set to be featured on "Fortnight," the opening track of "Tortured Poets" that's also going to be the album's lead single.

Since Taylor Swift announced her 11th album and shared the track list, alleged "leaked" versions of the tracks have popped up on social media — but most fans chalked it up to the use of artificial intelligence.

An alleged leak of "Fortnight," the first track on the album featuring Post Malone, cropped up on TikTok as early as Feb. 15, just 10 days after she released the track list. The upbeat version with the lyrics seemingly sung by Swift, "Never made it clear, never made it right/ I've been waiting here going on a fortnight," is believed by fans to be created through AI.

AI music generators allow users to select a genre, mood, theme and existing song inspirations to create a song.

Some purported "leaked" versions of tracks from "Tortured Poets" were later debunked to be existing songs overlaid with an AI voice generator made to sound like Swift. For example, one alleged leak of "loml" was actually the lyrics and tune of "Homemade Dynamite" by Lorde.

But murmurings of a leak picked up April 17, ahead of the album's drop at midnight on April 19. Online, largely anonymous users running fan accounts shared screenshots purporting to have the song files, some of which seemingly landed on X. Many Swifties rallied online to against those leaks.

TODAY.com has reached out to reps for Swift for comment.

Users were unable to search "Taylor Swift leak" on X by Wednesday afternoon. Typing the query into the search bar yielded a "Something went wrong. Try reloading" result. This was the same result that users got when they tried to search Swift's name around Jan. 27, shortly after explicit deepfakes of Swift went viral.

It wouldn't be the first time one of Swift's albums have leaked online. Variety reported that, in 2014, Swift's fifth studio album, "1989," leaked three days before it was set to come out.

"The Tortured Poets Department" will officially drop in 10 hours, at 12 a.m. ET on April 19 and 9 p.m. PT on April 18.

The album will be available to stream on Spotify here and on Apple Music here. You can also learn ways to buy physical copies here.

Swift, meanwhile, had put a clock on taylorswift.com/forafortnight counting down to *something* happening at 2 p.m. ET. It turned out to be a link to preorder a CD for the album’s lead single, “Fortnight,” featuring Post Malone.

Swift earlier in the week released a video teasing her first music video off “TTPD,” which is presumably “Fortnight.” It drops at 8 p.m. ET on April 19.