Breaking down everything we know about Taylor Swift's album 'Tortured Poets Department'

Taylor Swift will release her 11th album on April 19, and here’s everything we know about “The Tortured Poets Department,” or "TTPD" for short.

There are 17 tracks on what appears to be a break-up album. Post Malone and Florence and The Machine are two contributors. The titles are brutal. Fans speculate the album is about Swift’s six year relationship to English actor Joe Alwyn. Both stars kept the relationship out of the public eye. The back of the album reads, “I love you, it’s ruining me” which may serve as a dagger-to-the-chest harbinger.

Keep scrolling for an analysis of what the track titles may mean.

How many tracks are on 'Tortured Poets Department'?

Side A: 

• "Fortnight" (ft. 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!!!" (ft. 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"
• "The Manuscript" (Bonus Track)

Why announce the new album at the Grammy’s?

Taylor Swift loves numerology, especially when it comes to the number 13. On Feb. 4, the singer won her 13th career Grammy for pop vocal album.

"I want to say thank you to the fans," Swift said in her acceptance speech, "by telling you a secret that I've been keeping from you for the past two years, which is that my brand-new album comes out April 19."

During night one of her concert in Tokyo, Swift said she intended to announce the album in Japan but switched to the Grammys.

"I had this plan in my head and I told my friends, I told Jack, but I hadn’t really told many other people," she said. "I thought, 'OK, so if I’m lucky enough to win one thing tonight, I’m just going to do it. I’m just going to announce my new album.'"

What were the Easter eggs?

Hours before the Grammys, TaylorSwift.com “crashed” showing an “Error 321 Backend fetch failed.” Error 321 is a communication error that would appear on a fax machine with a poor telephone line connection. Below, “hneriergrd:” appeared to be an unscrambled version of “red herring,” which is a clue or piece of information intended to be misleading or distracting. And underneath that was “DPT: 123.” DPT backwards is TPD, "Tortured Poets Department."

Swift loves to keep her fandom guessing. The clown emoji and term “clowning” is common in the community because fans will build a case pointing to a possible Swift announcement and be completely wrong. In the instance of "TTPD," Swift made it seem like she was going to announce the rerelease of “Reputation (Taylor’s Version)” in Japan. Two weeks before opening night at the Tokyo Dome, Swift changed the subtitles of her music video “Look What You Made Me Do” to Japanese. At the end of the “Karma (Remix)” music video, she held a coffee cup. Her blue fingernail was positioned by the eight (blue signifying “1989” and eight meaning an August announcement) and a black nail by the two (black is the color of “Reputation” and two is February). 

But this follows her pattern of two rereleases then a new project. In 2021, she announced “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” and “Red (Taylor’s Version)” before announcing “Midnights” in 2022. In 2023, she surprised Eras Tour audiences with artwork from “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” and “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” during her acoustic set.

If she continues the pattern, “Reputation (Taylor’s Version)” and her debut album may not be announced until next year. Or maybe there will be a glitch and she’ll coordinate “New Year’s Day,” a song off of the sixth album, with ringing in 2025.

What is the aesthetic of 'TTPD'?

Every era has a different color associated with it. This looks like this will be the “white heart” era as Swift has shared the emoji as her Instagram story highlight for TTPD. 

The motif of the album is like a scene from a black-and-white detective show from the early-to-mid 1900s. The faded photos and evidence folders seem to point to tracing evidence in the death of a relationship, which the titles echo. 

Coders found that the backend of Swift’s site included several words that match the vibe: “chairman,” “bruises,” “veins,” “cadence,” “apple cake,” “talisman,” “love bombs,” “muse,” “ink,” “evidence” and “fake.”

What does this mean for the Eras Tour?

Swift has a break from the Eras Tour between March 9 (when she wraps a six-night stint in Singapore) and May 9 (when she begins again in Paris, France). The album will come out on April 19 which begs the question of how will it be incorporated into the three-and-a-half-hour show? 

Will she take the 17 songs and make them a part of her surprise songs? Will she add a new era? Will she open the show with "TTPD"? If that’s the case, will she cut from other eras or take this show to four hours? The Eras Tour continues to break records, boost local economies and evolve. Time will tell the answers to these questions.

What could the track titles mean?

Nothing is confirmed or certain until the album comes out, but here are some possibilities of what Swift's 11th era may entail.

"Fortnight" (ft. Post Malone)

A fortnight is a two-week period or 14 days. Swift loves numerology, and her favorite number is 13. 

"The Tortured Poets Department"

Half of Swift’s albums have not had a title track including her debut, “1989,” “Reputation,” “Folklore” and “Midnights." When Swift announced "TTPD," she tweeted out handwritten lyrics which may be on this track: “And so I enter into evidence / My tarnished coat of arms / My muses, acquired like bruises / My talismans and charms / 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.”

"My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys"

A title about self-sabotage. 

"Down Bad"

Merriam-Webster defines this slang as “in a bad state or condition” such as being depressed or “marked with strong and usually unrequited feelings of attraction, desire or infatuation.”

"So Long, London"

Track five on each of Swift’s albums is usually the most heart-wrenching. “So Long, London” is intentionally placed and may be an open, but tragic love letter to England’s capital.

"But Daddy I Love Him"

This line is iconic in the “Little Mermaid” when King Triton finds out that Ariel loves Prince Eric and he forbids her from pursuing him. It’s trying to convince an authoritative figure (…or even yourself) that your emotions outweigh logic and a relationship that’s run its course can work.

"Fresh Out the Slammer"

The slammer is slang for jail or prison, metaphorically speaking, it’s getting out of a relationship. 

"Florida!!!" (ft. Florence + The Machine)

A week before her split with Alwyn, Swift switched the first song of her “Folklore” set from “Invisible String,” a song about two people being destined for one another, to “The 1,” a retrospective song about what might have been. Her first concert after news broke of the ended relationship was in Tampa, Florida. 

"Guilty as Sin?"

Guilty as sin is a matter of fact statement that someone is, without a doubt, culpable in a crime. The question mark in this track title shows the turmoil of knowing a certainty but then having to second guess it. This was also the name of a 1993 movie in which a female lawyer represents a man accused of killing his wife. As she digs into his past, she reaches a moral dilemma and grapples with the possibility of betraying her client. 

"Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?"

This title may be a nod to “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” The classic play, written in 1962 by Edward Albee, is a dark comedy about an older couple who invite young houseguests over for a dysfunctional and cruel night of fun of games. 

"I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)"

Call a therapist because there’s a lot to unpack with this title. It may be about a toxic relationship in which one party perceives the other as the problem or having defective qualities. It’s an assertion of wanting to control a situation.

"loml"

“loml” stands for “love of my life.” This could be a reflective track filled with fond memories, or it could be a sarcastic and jaded take. Swift sometimes songs in the complete opposite direction of their titles, like in one of her most melancholic songs, “Happiness.” 

"I Can Do It With a Broken Heart"

Swift worked on the album for two years. She started writing it after “Midnights” in 2021. She wrote it during her massively successful Eras Tour. In 2022, Swift talked to Jimmy Fallon about “Midnights” and incessantly putting pen to paper. “I love writing songs, poems, stories, scripts,” she said. “In the last six or seven years, I’ve just been constantly making things. And the more things I make, the happier I am. So I’ve just continued to do it.”

"The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived"

Calling someone a small man is to say they are ordinary without anything special: wealth, fame, power, etc. Adding the superlative “who ever lived” means there has never been anyone smaller… like ever.

"The Alchemy"

Alchemy is an ancient branch of chemical science and philosophy used to discover the possibility of a universal cure for diseases or a prolonged (maybe even indefinite) life. 

"Clara Bow"

The American actress appeared in 46 silent films. Investors knew fans would fill the seats if her name was in the credits. The black-and-white motif of "The Tortured Poets Department" matches a movie Bow would have starred in during the Roaring '20s.

"The Manuscript" (Bonus Track)

Is this clever word play for “Man U Script” or is this is one of Swift’s explanatory tracks? Maybe it’s just a bonus track. For “1989,” the singer ended the album with three tracks explaining how she wrote “Blank Space,” “I Know Places” and “I Wish You Would.” Either way, the manuscript was intentionally chosen to be a bonus track.

Follow Taylor Swift reporter Bryan West on Instagram, TikTok and X as @BryanWestTV.