After Taylor Swift's surprising announcement about her eleventh studio album The Tortured Poets Department at the Grammys this year, fans are eagerly awaiting the album drop on April 19. Leave it to Swift to always keep us surprised.
Unlike the re-recorded (Taylor’s Version) albums Swift has been releasing since 2021, The Tortured Poets Department is a completely new era for the Swiftie community. However, in true cryptic and Machiavellian form, Swift has been slowly dropping Easter eggs to tease the aesthetic and sound of what is sure to be her next hit album.
To prepare for The Tortured Poets Department here are some of Swift’s songs that may help Swifties and non-Swifties alike make sense of the new album as we await its release.
Five Taylor Swift songs to prepare you for The Tortured Poets Department
No. 1 - "the last great american dynasty" - folklore
It is no secret to seasoned fans that Swift favors the use of allusion in her songwriting. Allusion is a literary device where a writer makes references to well-known people, objects, or events to make a comparison. Two such examples on The Tortured Poets Department that demonstrate this are "But Daddy I Love Him" and "Clara Bow." The first is likely a reference to a scene in the classic Disney movie The Little Mermaid in which Ariel shouts this line at her father King Triton as he tries to prevent her from pursuing Prince Eric. However, the latter reference to "Clara Bow" is a bit more obscure than the first and requires a slight film history lesson.
Clara Bow was a famous silent film star who successfully made the transition to “talkies” when movies began to include audio dialogue. Clara Bow was also given the nickname “The ‘It’ Girl” due to her success in the popular movie “It” as well as several other film roles. Now an ‘It Girl” herself, Swift is using Clara Bow as her muse causing some Swifties to draw comparisons to her song “the last great american dynasty” which centers on Standard Oil heiress and socialite, Rebekah Harkness.
Together Harkness, Bow, and Swift form a triumvirate of self-made women and, much like Clara Bow’s accomplishments on the silver screen, it should be noted that Harkness was a philanthropist with a Doctor in Fine Arts. With this being taken into consideration, one can clearly see that all of their common threads (or invisible strings) are a career in the entertainment industry. It is possible then that Swift is trying to draw comparisons to herself through these women who, like her, were trailblazers in their time.
No. 2 - "Dear Reader" - Midnights
Yet another part of Swiftie legend is the idea that Swift’s final track on each album will lead thematically into the overall aesthetic of the next album. For example, the final track of Swift’s 2010 album Speak Now is “Long Live” which is an upbeat song where Swift celebrates her fans. This track leads perfectly into her next album 1989 which encapsulates much of the same message.
A more recent example of this is speculated to be the relationship between Swift’s last album Midnights whose final track is a song called “Dear Reader.” In this song, Swift sings about the pressures of mega-fame and the struggles that often come with it. Within her lyrics, she bemoans the words, “Dear reader/ Burn all the files, desert all your past lives/ And if you don't recognize yourself/ That means you did it right.” Upon the announcement of The Tortured Poets Department, fans were quick to notice references to office jargon such as taking meeting minutes.
Taylor Swift has also released four variants of The Tortured Poets Department vinyl containing four bonus tracks: "The Manuscript," "The Albatross," "The Bolter," and "The Black Dog." On each variant, the bonus track appears under a heading that says “File” followed by the track title. The inclusion of file names, along with the implications of the word “Department” in the album’s title, could mean that Swift’s latest album will contain imagery associated with office culture or academia.
No. 3 - "the lakes" - folklore
While the flavor of The Tortured Poets Department has yet to be determined, that has yet to stop Swifties from speculating the possible genre of the album. Given the album’s title, track list, and cover art, Swifties seem to be in agreement that The Tortured Poets Department will likely have melancholy undertones.
Much like Swift’s twin albums, folklore and evermore, The Tortured Poets Department is believed to fall in the indie-pop genre. Given this fact, I recommend the track “the lakes” which is a bonus track on the deluxe version of folklore. The references to poetry are unmissable on this track with Swift dreamily singing the lyrics “Take me to the lakes where all the poets went to die/I don't belong, and my beloved, neither do you” as well as the line “I want auroras and sad prose.”
No. 4 - "London Boy" - Lover
Appearing on Swift’s 2019 album Lover, “London Boy” is believed to be an ode to Swift’s ex-boyfriend of six years, Joe Alwyn who hails from the U.K. When reports surged last April that the pair broke up, the Swiftie community was rocked to its core. Swift and Alwyn’s relationship was a fixture of her album lore, with Swifties speculating that Alwyn was Swift’s muse for songs dating back to the Reputation album.
Given this fact, The Tortured Poets Department has a track called “So Long, London” which is likely Swift’s reflection on the culmination of their relationship. It is also unmissable that “So Long, London” is the fifth track on the album. Swift has historically made each album’s fifth song her saddest, such as Speak Now’s “Dear John” or Red’s “All Too Well,” therefore we can predict that this latest addition will likely be a tearjerker.
No. 5 - "All Too Well (10-minute Version) (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault)" - Red (Taylor’s Version)
Chances are if you know Taylor Swift, you will know her ground-breaking song "All Too Well." A fan-favorite track that is often regarded as Swift’s magnum opus, "All Too Well" transcends the definition of a “breakup song.” Upon the arrival of Red (Taylor’s Version), "All Too Well" was distributed in its original five-minute format as well as an unreleased 10-minute variant. Once the stuff of Swiftie legend, "All Too Well (10 Minute Version)" reinvigorated the original version’s popularity following Swift’s release of the All Too Well short film featuring Sadie Sink and Dylan O'Brien.
"All Too Well" is a heart-wrenching lamentation of love lost and turned cold and it is a must-listen track for any music historian. With Swift’s well-known history of writing albums inspired by her own life, The Tortured Poets Department will likely feature glimpses into some of her biggest moments from the past several years, including her aforementioned split from Joe Alwyn. Listening to "All Too Well" is essential for preparing to listen to The Tortured Poets Department because it provides listeners with an easy foray into Swift’s masterful songwriting especially in times when she is heartbroken and conflicted.
The Tortured Poets Department has 16 new tracks plus one bonus track which are as follows:
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"