Taylor Swift’s 11th album, The Tortured Poets Department, will be released on April 19, 2024. Taylor’s last album, Midnights, was released in October 2022, making it the first new album released in a while.
Since her last album, she has been re-releasing her old albums since. Swift severed ties with Scooter Braun, her manager, and his company Big Machine Records. After this, Braun took control of her music, which angered Taylor as she was in the process of buying it back. He was only given the rights to her songs because it was stated in the contract she signed at 15. Braun then sold her songs to Shamrock Holdings.
This situation took away Swift’s rights to her own music and prevented her from making money from these songs. She joined a new label and has re-recorded the albums Speak Now, 1989, Fearless, and Red. When Swift re-released her songs, she renamed them by adding Taylor’s Version after the song title. This gave her the rights to her own music once again because they technically count as covers of her old songs, making them original in the eyes of the law. Swift now controls the licensing and profits from the new music. She has done this with all of her old albums except for Reputation and Taylor Swift, which was what she was working on rather than releasing new music.
This album, The Tortured Poets Department, has been highly anticipated by her fans. The fans have taken to social media platforms such as TikTok and X, formerly Twitter, to express their excitement. Rumors about the meaning of the titles, the colors, and who the album will be about have been the topic of discussion. As of now, Post Malone and Florence + The Machine have confirmed that they will be featured on the album.
Many Swifties, as her most devoted fans are called, believe the album will be centered around Swift’s ex-boyfriend, Joe Alwyn. The various album editions have words at the bottom left corner that appear to spell out “JOE”. The title itself has also been tied back to Joe from a 2022 interview where he revealed that he is in a WhatsApp group chat called “Tortured Man Club.” The 5th track, which is widely known among fans as being the saddest track, is called “So long, London.” This can be tied back to Joe because he is from London. Previously, Swift had a song called “London Boy” from her Lover album about him. Recently, the length of the songs have been released. “So long, London” is said to be 9:28 minutes long. This is very significant because Taylor sang a cover of the popular song “September” changing the lyrics to “Do you remember the 28th night of September.” Possibly an anniversary of Tswift and Alwyn.
Taylor Swift fans and haters heavily debate the release of this new album. I asked Lowellville students on an anonymous poll about their opinions on Taylor Swift and her upcoming album, and some of them were brutal. The most aggressive response that I received stated, “Taylor Swift is the most overrated artist in the history of mankind. She is very manipulative and hypocritical, for the certain reason that she plays the victim in all of her songs. She is never the victim and we need to take more thorough investigation into her songs and her relationships.” Many students expressed that they aren’t excited for the release of this album and that Taylor’s music is not their favorite.
The Lowellville Swifties are very excited. When asked why they are excited I received many responses along the lines of, “It seems like it will have elements of Folklore in it, which is one of my favorite albums” or “It seems like it will be something completely new and different than what we’ve seen before.” Someone on the poll also mentioned the theory about the stages of grief and expressed that they are excited to find out more.
Lowellville Senior Natalie Parry expressed her opinions on the upcoming album. She said that she was originally hoping that it would have a Lana Del Ray vibe to it, but rumors have sparked that it will be a synthpop album, which she is intrigued about. She said that she is excited to see if this album will have a new vibe than her previous ones, as the song and album titles are different from the previous ones. She said, “I just love Taylor Swift and everything she does.”
Lowellville eighth grader Morgan DeMain is excited about the upcoming album since the last one was released two years ago. She is also intrigued by what kind of genre the music will be. She stated, “I’m hoping that it will be a sad album with slower and breakup songs. I also hope that they will reference Joe Alwyn.”
No matter the vibe or genre of the new album, there is no denying Swift’s fan base are excited and ready for a new album. With the amount of publicity surrounding Swift, it comes as no surprise that fans are talking and speculating about the release of The Tortured Poets Department. Swifties will have to wait until mid-April to listen to what the album is all about.