Taylor Swift, the self-professed âChairman of the Tortured Poets Department,â will soon call into session a meeting where sheâll release her latest album.
For the most part, Swift has kept a lot of details about the album close to the chest, but as cryptic as sheâs been while rolling out her 11th studio album, there are still some things we can glean about âThe Tortured Poets Departmentâ from Swift herself.
Letâs start with what we know for sure: âThe Tortured Poets Departmentâ will be out on Friday at midnight Eastern, or on Thursday at 9 p.m. if youâre on the West Coast, and the first â the song for which is still a mystery â will be released Friday at 8 p.m. EDT after the album is released.
The songs
The album includes 16 tracks and one bonus track titled âThe Manuscript,â and features collaborations with Post Malone on a track titled âFortnightâ and with Florence + The Machine on a track titled âFlorida!!!â
Three vinyl variants will also be available for purchase, each featuring a different bonus track: âThe Bolter,â âThe Albatross,â âThe Black Dog.â
The timetable
When Swift first announced the album in February while accepting a Grammy award for best pop vocal album for 2022âs âMidnights,â she revealed that sheâs been keeping this album a âsecretâ for the last two years.
A few days later during an âEras Tourâ concert in Tokyo, Swift told her audience that she began working on âTortured Poetsâ immediately after she finished âMidnights.â
âI kept working on it throughout the US tour and when it was perfect, in my opinion, when it was good enough for you, I finished it,â she said at the time, according to from the show posted to social media.
The theme
Swift also spoke about how much this album means to her during an âEras Tourâ concert in Melbourne in February, saying âTortured Poetsâ is an album that âmore than any of my albums that I ever made, I needed to make it.â
âIt was really a lifeline for me. Just the things I was going through, the things I was writing about it was like, it kind of reminded me why songwriting is something that actually gets me through my life,â video posted to social media from the concert showed. âIâve never had an album where I needed songwriting more than I needed it on âTortured Poets.ââ
She stopped short of revealing anything about what the music will actually sound like, but all signs point to the album being about heartbreak, which can take on many forms.
The mood
To connect the dots: Earlier this month, Swift a series of playlists for Apple Music about the five stages of heartbreak. Each playlist includes songs from her catalog of music that fit each stage: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.
The titles of each playlist are lyrics that Swift had previously teased in various Instagram posts.
With the exception of 2020âs âFolklore,â Swiftâs albums are typically autobiographical in nature and her romantic relationships tend to be a recurring topic.
Swift does not appear to be experiencing any heartbreak in her current relationship with three-time Super Bowl champ Travis Kelce. Before Kelce, Swift was dating actor Joe Alwyn and in April 2023, CNN that their six-year relationship had ended.
Knowing what Swift had shared about when she actually wrote this album, we can all take from that what we will.
With that said, the feeling of heartbreak isnât only limited to romance. It could really mean anything, so weâll just leave a blank space for that.