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The Taylor Swift New Album Story: Is Her New Album An Ode To Former Lover, Alwyn?
Welcome to the Taylor Swift new album story – yep!
Only recently, Taylor Swift won another Grammy – her 13th to be specific for Midnights in the Best Pop Vocal Album. During her acceptance speech, she said a new album is slated to release very soon.
With Swift’s fans worrying over announcing her 5th re-recorded album (Reputation, Taylor’s Version), the artist shocked everyone with her big reveal – her 11th studio album. In her acceptance speech, she talked about thanking her fans by revealing a secret that she has kept with her for the past two years.
The secret? Here’s what she said, “My brand-new album comes out April 19th. It’s called The Tortured Poets Department. I’m going to go and post the cover right now backstage.”
So, she is releasing her new album. In this context, conspiracy theorists and critics have pointed out how her relationship with Kelce and even her breakup with Alwyn is part of a PR stunt.
But the thing is – why would a 13-time Grammy winner depend on PR to ensure that her new album is a success? Also, why would she fake falling for Kelce as a part of a PR stunt? Well, you never know. So, let’s dive deep into Swift’s love life and find out the truth behind her new album.
(FYI, we are rooting for Kelce and Swift!)
So, When Is Taylor Swift New Album Coming Out? What We Know So Far!
Before we start telling you all about the Taylor Swift new album story, let’s find out when this album is coming out.
So, Swift is dropping her new album, The Tortured Poets Department, on 19th April. The best part? After her announcement at the Grammys, the artist made it possible for her fans to pre-order the album on Swift’s website.
Moreover, Swift also dropped her new album’s official tracklist only last week. So, The Tortured Poets Department will feature sixteen songs as well as one bonus title track! What is the name of the bonus track? ‘The Manuscript’ (*internally screaming*)
Her other song titles include ‘I Can Do It With a Broken Heart,’ ‘But Daddy I Love Him,’ ‘My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys,’ and ‘I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can).’
The much-awaited album also has two features – yep, TWO! The first one is ‘Fortnight,’ which features Post Malone, and the other one is ‘Florida,’ which features Florence and the Machine.
After Swift’s announcement, Swifties online started looking for clues and meanings behind all the details that the artist had revealed. As per some fans, the album’s title is a nod towards Joe Alwyn, her ex-boyfriend.
A couple of years ago, in 2022, Alwyn spoke about being part of a group chat with Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal at an interview (Actors on Actors) with Mescal himself. The name of this group chat? The Tortured Man Club!
Here’s the complete interview:
The Tortured Poets Department: What Does It Include?
The Tortured Poets Department is an album with four sides, as per Swift’s post on Instagram! Based on her song names, we are gearing ourselves for a brand-new break-up album about Joe Alwyn – Swift’s former boyfriend of 6 years.
Here’s an overview of her new songs on the four sides of her album!
1. Side A:
- ‘Fortnight (feat. Post Malone).’
- ‘The Tortured Poets Department.’
- ‘My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys.’
- ‘Down Bad.’
2. Side B:
- ‘So Long, London.’
- ‘But Daddy I Love Him.’
- ‘Fresh Out the Slammer.’
- ‘Florida!!! (feat. Florence + The Machine).’
3. Side C:
- ‘Guilty as Sin?’
- ‘Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?’
- ‘I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can).’
- ‘loml.’
4. Side D:
- ‘I Can Do It With a Broken Heart.’
- ‘The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived.’
- ‘The Alchemy.’
- ‘Clara Bow.’
Bonus Track: ‘The Manuscript.’
Taylor Swift Kept Her Album Secret For Two Years: Why Though?
Swift expressed her gratitude to fans after winning her 13th Grammy for Best Pop Vocal Album by telling them how she had been keeping a secret for the past two years. The secret? A brand-new album that is slated to drop on 19th April.
According to the album’s timeline, her relationship with the British actor Alwyn was in trouble for some time before the couple finally announced the news of their breakup during Spring 2023.
The Alwyn Connect:
As a poetic end to her relationship, Swift went on to change her opening song from Folklore during her billion-dollar Eras Tour. The artist switched her opening song to ‘The 1,’ from ‘Invisible String.’
Also, two years ago, the pop star wrote a bonus track, ‘You’re Losing Me,’ as a part of the Midnights album. You already know what the bonus track is all about – a relationship that is running on life support, with the artist almost begging her lover to do anything to bring back romance in their lives.
When you look at the singer’s new album, the track list certainly has multiple nods to England and London – Alwyn is from Britain (no surprises there)! It almost feels like the fun, flirty nature of her pop hit, ‘London Boy,’ has suddenly turned into something graver with more depth with titles like ‘So Long, London,’ and ‘My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys.’
In fact, other tracks like ‘The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived,’ ‘I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can),’ and even ‘But Daddy I Love Him’ all point to something deeper, something more intense.
Moreover, while ‘loml’ is simply an acronym that stands for the love of my life, ‘Fortnight’ refers to a period of two weeks.
In addition, the song ‘Clara Bow’ is perhaps for the actress famous for her role in American Cinema during the silent film era. In fact, the album’s white-and-black motif of the album cover goes well with the Bow’s films from the Roaring Twenties!
Bow has made appearances in 46 silent movies – at the time, casting Bow meant good news for investors because fans would always turn up to watch her. (DOESN’T THAT SOUND LIKE TAYLOR HERSELF?)
The NOTE:
Most of us were so busy fawning over Swift’s album cover that we completely forgot about the NOTE – yep, there was a note.
Here’s what the note said, “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.” – Doesn’t it sound intensely heartbreaking?
If the note and cover art weren’t enough, Swift uploaded more album art and the titles of the upcoming songs.
In the B&W photo, Swift is looking down – she looks a little forlorn with her hand casually lying on her forehead. “I love you, it’s ruining my life,” is written on top of her bare shoulder. The artwork also lists the tracks of the new album.
Of course, fans went crazy with so much information and subsequently took social media by storm of speculation.
- What is the inspiration behind each title?
- What’s the backstory to the whole album?
- What does the black-and-white theme of the album portray?
- More important, who is the album about – which former boyfriend?
The Reputation Theory:
Just before the Grammys, many Swifties anticipated that Swift was going to announce the release date of her next recording. Swift’s fanbase predicted that she would be releasing Reputation (Taylor’s Version).
This speculation was the direct result of the artist changing her pictures on social media to black and white. If you remember, the color scheme for Reputation was also the same.
However, Swift used white as the accent color while focusing on the black color for her 2017 album. For Taylor Swift new album, it seems like the artist has inverted the color scheme, with white being the focus color and black becoming the accent color. Fans don’t actually think that this inversion is just a coincidence.
After all, Reputation was the artist’s first album that had songs about her former lover (Joe Alwyn). Swift’s relationship with Alwyn started the year before Reputation’s release.
As a result, you will find songs in the album that talk about the happy start of the former couple’s relationship. These are just happy love songs – and you know all is well between the two.
Moreover, in the artist’s subsequent album Lover, she sang, “I once believed love would be black and white / But it’s golden.”
Interestingly, Reputation was in black and white – that was Swift and Alwyn falling in love, while TTPD is about their breakup. So, there are colors in the middle, but they have all disappeared now, bringing Swift back to where it all started.
Also, interestingly, in the song ‘Gorgeous,’ there are words written on Taylor’s shoulder, which is very similar to the recent artwork. Fans widely believe that ‘Gorgeous’ was originally about Swift’s first meeting with Alwyn in 2016.
So, Swift went from “You’ve ruined my life by not being mine” to “I love you, it’s ruining my life.” (AAAAAHHHHHH!)
The Symbolism Behind 19th April:
Swift and Alwyn broke up in March, and the news of their split reached the world on 8th April 2023.
Interestingly, Swift is releasing the new album on 19th April 2024. The day falls just eleven days after the one-year anniversary of Swift’s breakup with Alwyn. Now, coming to 19th – last year, on 19th April, Swift’s brother and friends unfollowed Alwyn on Instagram. Moreover, on the same day, paps also photographed Swift at dinner with Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds.
At the time, a source had told a popular magazine how the breakup between the two wasn’t anything dramatic. It was like the relationship had already run its course. As a result, fans weren’t being able to spot Alwyn at any of the shows.
Moreover, another source had also spoken about how the couple had rough patches earlier but always worked things out. Apparently, they were more on and off than fans knew.
So when they broke up last year, friends actually thought that they were just taking some time apart before getting back together eventually. Unfortunately, the couple realized that they were not the right fit for each other.
Additionally, Alwyn also had a hard time dealing with Taylor’s attention and fame. The stark differences in their personalities only became harder with time, forcing them to grow apart over the years.
Taylor’s Revenge: The Woman Who Grew Up!
The couple dated for six years – but they kept things so private that the paps hardly ever spotted them publicly. Sources close to the couple have spoken about how Alwyn hated the spotlight in the past.
Right now, Taylor is in love, and you can feel it – she is with someone who is proud of her and excited to be with her! She had gotten so used to hiding her relationship from the public eye, thanks to Calvin Harris and Jow Alwyn, that she ended up following their leads.
But now, she is FINALLY dating someone who doesn’t mind screaming – ‘I am with Taylor Swift! That’s so awesome!’ And Taylor herself is so happy to be out under the public eye excited to talk about her man for a change!
After all, she is the same girl who kissed Styles in the middle of Times Square on New Year’s Eve, years ago in 2012. Low key is not really her thing, but if the guy insists, then she might just go along with it as she did for Alwyn.
So, you guys can imagine the amount of intensity she has poured out in The Tortured Poets Department – we can’t wait for April 19th. What about you?
