What is the meaning of Taylor Swift’s new album title ‘The Tortured Poets Department’?

admin April 17, 2024

Taylor Swift performing live on stage at an 'Eras Tour' show

Taylor Swift is set to release her 11th studio album ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ this week – and there has been much speculation amongst fans over its title.

The pop star will release the follow-up to 2022’s Grammy-winning ‘Midnights’ on Friday (April 19). It’ll feature collaborations with Florence + The Machine (on ‘Florida!!!’) and Post Malone (on ‘Fortnight’).

Other song titles on the imminent record include ‘My Boy Only Breaks His Favourite Toys’, ‘Down Bad’, ‘But Daddy I Love Him’, ‘I Can Do It With A Broken Heart’ and ‘The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived’. See the full tracklist here.

It appears that ‘Tortured Poets’ was inspired by the five stages of grief. Recently, Swift tackled denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance over five Apple Music playlists – each representing one of these stages.

In a description of the final playlist in the series (which includes the tracks ‘The 1’, ‘Happiness’ and ‘Closure’), the singer-songwriter explained: “Here we finally find acceptance and can start moving forward from loss or heartbreak.

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

Many fans had previously speculated that ‘Tortured Poets’ could delve into Swift’s six-year relationship with actor Joe Alwyn (Conversations With Friends), as well as the pair’s 2023 break-up.

The album’s title could be a reference to the WhatsApp group Alwyn shared with fellow actors Andrew Scott (Fleabag) and Paul Mescal (Normal People) – the latter of whom was previously engaged to Swift’s friend and collaborator Phoebe Bridgers.

Alwyn revealed the title of the group chat, the ‘Tortured Man Club’, during an interview with Variety in late 2022. Rumours of Mescal and Bridgers’ break-up started circulating at around the same time.

According to Alwyn, it was Scott who started the Whatsapp group. “He’s just on it every day,” Mescal explained. “He’s just on it by himself.”

It was then reported in early April 2023 that Swift and Alwyn had ended their long-term relationship. A source at the time described the split as amicable and “not dramatic” (via Elle).

Yesterday (April 16), a ‘Tortured Poets’ event in Los Angeles, California seemingly offered another clue regarding Swift’s next era.

A library card file unit featured as part of the pop-up installation at The Grove was made up of 72 boxes – perhaps representing the 72 months (or six years) Swift and Alwyn were together.

Fan account ‘Taylor Swift Charts’ shared an image of the cabinet in question (see below). Additionally, some users noted that six of the boxes appeared to be open, which could symbolise important dates in the timeline of the ex-couple’s relationship.

One person tweeted: “Now WHAT IF those open mailboxes were not chosen randomly and instead they point to an event that happened in those months? What happened on their 10th month together? Then on their 2nd anniversary?”

The ‘Tortured Poets’ song ‘So Long, London’ is possibly a sequel to the Alwyn-inspired ‘London Boy’ from 2019’s ‘Lover’. On the latter cut, the artist sang about spending time with her then-boyfriend in various parts of his hometown – such as Brixton and Shoreditch.

‘The Tortured Poets Department’ reportedly features Swift’s past collaborators Jack Antonoff and The National‘s Aaron Dessner as co-writers, as well as Florence Welch and Post Malone on their respective collaborations.

Elsewhere, Swift has been sharing snippets of lyrics from the LP – including “Crowd goes wild at her fingertips/ Half moonshine, full eclipse“, “Even statues crumble/ If they’re made to wait“, and “One less temptress/ One less dagger to sharpen“.

Alwyn contributed to Swift’s 2020 albums ‘Folklore’ and ‘Evermore’ along with Antonoff and Dessner, as well as its follow-up record ‘Midnights’. He is credited under the pseudonym William Bowery.

Shortly after the pair’s split, Swift reportedly dated The 1975 frontman Matty Healy for a brief period. Healy joined Phoebe Bridgers on stage while she was opening for the star on the ‘Eras Tour’ in the US around that time.

There were also rumours of a Healy collaboration on ‘1989 (Taylor’s Version)’, but this did not come to fruition.

In December 2022, Healy shared a photo of himself kissing Bridgers while Bo Burnham stood behind them. He captioned the post: “Gay Poets Society”.

This was a reference to the Robin Williams-starring film Dead Poets Society, which has been mentioned as a possible inspiration for the title of ‘The Tortured Poets Department’. What’s more, the movie was released in 1989 – the year Swift was born, and the title of her huge 2014 album.

Back in February, Swift revealed what appeared to be a verse from one of her new songs in an announcement post on social media.

It read: “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.”

She concluded: “All’s fair in love and poetry… Sincerely, The Chairman of The Tortured Poets Department.”

Earlier this year, Swift explained that writing ‘Tortured Poets’ was “really a lifeline for [her]”. She added: “Just the things I was going through and the things I was writing about.”

Swift continued: “It kind of reminded me of why songwriting is something that actually gets me through my life, and I never had an album where I needed songwriting more than I needed it on ‘Tortured Poets’.”

In other news, Swift has shared a hidden message about her new album on Apple Music.

She will release a music video for the record’s first single at 8pm ET on Friday, according to her TTPD Timetable. Watch the clip above.

Following the LP’s release, Swift will resume her career-spanning ‘Eras Tour’ in Europe next month before heading to the UK and Ireland in June. Swift is due to play eight shows at Wembley Stadium in London this summer as part of the run, with support coming from Paramore.

Ticketmaster recently confirmed that it would be making a U-turn on its ‘lead booker’ rule for Swift’s 2024 UK dates.

Last month saw Swift’s new concert film The Eras Tour (Taylor’s Version) arrive on Disney+ – check out the full setlist for the movie here.

The post What is the meaning of Taylor Swift’s new album title ‘The Tortured Poets Department’? appeared first on NME.



What is the meaning of Taylor Swift’s new album title ‘The Tortured Poets Department’?
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