She also shared a prologue, which seems to be comprised of unreleased lyrics: “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,” she concluded. “Sincerely, The Chairman of The Tortured Poets Department.”

Fans are already dissecting the album announcement and the track list for Easter eggs. Indeed, several song titles indicate The Tortured Poets Department will be a true break-up album, with callbacks to old love songs in Swift’s catalogue.

Here are some of the many fan theories about Swift’s new album.

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The release date

As the queen of Easter eggs, Swift has always carefully peppered hints about her upcoming albums through Instagram posts, captions, pictures and more. So it's no surprise that the release date of her next album, April 19, appears quite significant.

According to fans, it is the same day that the songstress was spotted having dinner with Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds in 2023, after which both actors promptly unfollowed her ex Joe Alwyn on Instagram.

The title: The Tortured Poets Department

The album’s title is a conspicuously wordy phrase for Swift, who tends to prefer one or two-word album titles.

However, the title may be another sly reference to Swift’s ex-boyfriend, Alwyn. The actor previously said he was in a group chat with Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott called “The Tortured Man Club”.

The Matty Healy connection

Healy may be another aforementioned muse (“My muses, acquired like bruises”) for The Tortured Poets Department. Before he deleted his Instagram account, Healy shared a photo of himself kissing Phoebe Bridgers – flanked by her current boyfriend Bo Burnham – with the caption “Gay Poets Society”.

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Of course, that caption was a cheeky nod to the classic film Dead Poets Society – but the movie was released in 1989, famously the same year Swift was born. Given Swift’s affection for Easter eggs, it’s reasonable to assume it’s all connected.

The song titles

“My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys”

Fans think this song is a reference to the lyrics “Bad, bad boy, shiny toy with a price / You know that I bought it” from Swift’s “Cruel Summer”.

“So Long, London”

Track five, “So Long, London,” is likely a nod to the Lover track “London Boy,” which fans presume was inspired by Alwyn. (He was born and raised in North London; Swift moved to the English city shortly after they began dating.)

More importantly: there are rumours that this song might be a whopping nine minutes and 28 seconds long!

“Fresh Out the Slammer”

Track seven’s title is a euphemism for getting out of jail. Back in 2017, Swift compared her partner to a captor on the Reputation single “ … Ready For It?” (“He can be my jailer, Burton to this Taylor”).

“Clara Bow”

The final track on the album’s standard edition, “Clara Bow”, is named after a silent film-era actor who was described by her biographer David Stenn as “sexually aggressive and confident – a real role model”.

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“Clara Bow was in charge,” Stenn told The Los Angeles Times. “She domesticated the men. She taught men to come to her. She never gave up her autonomy or her independence.”

“The Bolter”

Fans are convinced that “The Bolter”, a bonus track, is about Alwyn too.

During their six-year relationship, Swift and Alwyn were almost never spotted together, reportedly because the latter wanted to avoid the spotlight and keep the relationship private.

Fans believe the song’s title is in reference to a viral video of Alwyn running from a building to the car with Swift in tow, in an attempt to avoid the crowd of fans and paparazzi waiting for them.

“But Daddy I Love Him”

While fans believe most of this album is dedicated to Swift’s relationship with Alwyn, some are speculating that “But Daddy I Love Him” may be about another ex-boyfriend, Harry Styles.

The line “but daddy, I love him” is a reference to a line protagonist Ariel said in the iconic Disney movie The Little Mermaid. However, after Styles was recently seen sporting a shirt with the quote on it, fans believed the bonus track might be dedicated to him.

The five stages of grief

To prepare fans for The Tortured Poets Department, Swift curated five distinct playlists for Apple Music. Each playlist draws a parallel between a new album lyric and one of the stages of grief, as outlined by the famed psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross.

Additional reporting by Sumnima Kandangwa.