Here Is A Definitive Breakdown Of What Taylor Swift Fans Think Every Single Song On Her Upcoming Album “The Tortured Poets Department” Will Be About

When she collected the award for Best Pop Vocal Album, Taylor told fans that she had been keeping a secret from them “for the last two years,” and that the new record will be released on April 19.

Taylor then shared the sultry black and white album artwork to her Instagram account, alongside a handwritten note which many think is part of what will be the record’s prologue. 

Then on Monday, Taylor fueled the excitement when she released more new artwork, as well as the titles of the 17 songs on the upcoming album.

This speculation was only fueled by Taylor changing all of her social media pictures to black and white, in keeping with the Reputation color scheme.

Taylor’s 2017 album has always been associated with black and white, with white being used as the accent color while black was the focus.

But Taylor appears to have inverted this for The Tortured Poets Department, which appears to use white as the main color and black as the accent — and fans don’t think that this reversal is a coincidence. 

You see, Reputation was the first of Taylor’s albums to include songs about Joe, with the star chronicling the beginning of their relationship, which started a year before Rep’s release, through a series of happy love songs. 

In her subsequent album Lover, Taylor sings: “I once believed love would be black and white / But it's golden.”

And somebody else suggested that Taylor’s 2020 lyrics: “You showed me colors you know I can’t see with anyone else” might be the key behind this switch as they added: “Taylor always uses colors to refer to her partners and all of the album art for TPD is....black and white?”

And these weren’t the only lyrical parallels that fans found through just the album artwork, with another relating the words written on Taylor's shoulder in the photo to lyrics in her song "Gorgeous," which is widely believed to be about the very first time that she met Joe in 2016.

They wrote: “From ‘you’ve ruined my life by not being mine’ to ‘I love you, it’s ruining my life’ AAAAHHH.”

The tracklist has faced similar Swiftie detective work, so here’s a full breakdown of each song title and the speculated meaning.

The opening track is one of two collaborations on TTPD, with a highly-anticipated feature from American rapper Post Malone.

And it has been pointed out that this song's position could link to Taylor’s 2022 album Midnights, the standard edition of which had just 13 tracks about sleepless nights throughout her life.

In case you didn’t know, a fortnight is another word used to describe two weeks, or 14 days, with one fan writing: “‘Fortnight’ is such a good name for an opener. A fortnight is 14 nights. Ya know, after the 13 Midnights tracks.”

Somebody else pointed out that this could be the first of many nods that we get to English actor Joe in the tracklist, with “fortnight” being a largely British term that is rarely used in America. 

This song obviously shares its name with the album’s title, which was linked to Joe within hours of it being shared on Sunday.

A 2022 interview with Joe and Irish actor Paul Mescal quickly resurfaced online, in which they reveal they are part of a WhatsApp group chat with fellow actor Andrew Scott called the "Tortured Man Club.”

While it was Andrew who started the group and chose the name — which is believed to have been inspired by the characters all three members have portrayed on screen — many found it hard to believe that the similarity between Joe’s group chat name and the title of what is widely assumed to be a Joe breakup album is a coincidence. 

Another Swiftie has also theorized that Taylor referring to herself as the “chairman” of the department suggests that the songs might actually be about more than one of her “broody, artistic exes.”

Pointing out that Taylor herself appears to suggest that the album will explore more than one of her muses, they wrote: “She's the chairman of the department because she loved and left them all! She even told us the album is about more than Joe, by highlighting ‘my muses, acquired like bruises.’”

Little has been said about track number three, but one person did point out a similarity between this song title and Taylor’s hit “Cruel Summer.”

The 2019 song is believed to detail the early days of her and Joe’s romance, and implies that they actually had a very casual arrangement when they first started dating. 

The moment that Taylor realized that she’d caught deep feelings for Joe is then captured in the iconic bridge where she recalls drunkenly crying in the back of a car before screaming, “I love you," adding: “Ain’t that the worst thing you’ve ever heard?”

In the song’s first verse, Taylor appears to refer to Joe as a “toy,” singing: “Bad, bad boy, shiny toy with a price / You know that I bought it.”

It’s fair to say that “Down Bad” is perhaps one of the vaguest song titles on the tracklist, but some believe it may be similar to Taylor’s 2019 song “False God,” which is widely considered one of her “sexiest” songs to date.

Others wondered if the implication that the song will be about lust and attraction is actually another “troll” from Taylor following the release of her 1989 (Taylor’s Version) vault track “Slut!”

When the song’s title was announced, many believed it would be a feminine rage anthem addressing the endless slut-shaming that she was facing during this time in her life, but it ended up being a tender love song. 

Interestingly, the Urban Dictionary definition of the phrase “down bad” is the “act of sacrificing your morals and reputation to try and interact with someone romantically,” which could relate to Taylor’s ill-advised and highly controversial relationship with Matty Healy last May.

Many of Taylor’s devoted fans ended up speaking out against the romance due to Matty’s reputation and history of making racist, antisemitic, and misogynistic comments, but Taylor refused to acknowledge the scrutiny and even appeared to double down on the fling before it came to an abrupt end at the end of the month. 

While the inspiration behind “Down Bad” remains up in the air, the same can definitely not be said for The Tortured Poets Department’s fifth track, which has a very explicit reference to Joe.

As I’m sure you are aware, Taylor previously released a love song called “London Boy” that was inspired by her relationship with Joe, with Taylor even relocating to England’s capital during their relationship and spending the vast majority of the COVID-19 lockdown there. 

She recently reflected on moving to a “foreign country” during a pivotal time in her life in an interview with Time magazine, and if this song title is anything to go by, she is officially washing her hands of the city that she once called home.

One fan noted that the album’s release date even ties into this concept, with the American Revolution — which led to America’s independence from the United Kingdom — starting on April 19, 1775. 

Meanwhile, the fact that “So Long, London” is the fifth track on the album is not lost on fans, with the song that takes this place on all of Taylor’s releases being known for having a very specific meaning that exposes Taylor at her most vulnerable.

Fan theories about this song are largely similar to “But Daddy I Love Him,” with the phrase “fresh out of the slammer” relating to being newly released from prison.

Many believe that this song could be Taylor reflecting on her newfound freedom after coming out of a six-year relationship where she felt trapped.

And one fan noted that this isn’t the first time that Taylor has appeared to use a prison analogy with regard to her relationship with Joe as they brought up her 2017 song “…Ready for It?”

In this song, which is believed to be about Taylor first falling for Joe, she sings: “He can be my jailer, Burton to this Taylor,” which is also a reference to Elizabeth Taylor and her ex-husband Richard Burton.

In addition, Taylor expressed her regret over "locking" herself away for "years" during her relationship with Joe in her recent Time magazine interview.

“Florida!!!” is the second collaboration on The Tortured Poets Department, with Taylor teaming up with Florence + the Machine for the brand new track.

Fans quickly realized that Tampa, Florida was the location of Taylor's first Eras show after her breakup with Joe was made public.

She notoriously changed the setlist during this show, swapping out "Invisible String" — arguably the most Joe-coded song in her entire discography — for "The 1," which is a wistful imagining of what could have been.

As a result, it is now thought that “Florida!!!” could be Taylor reflecting on and coming to terms with the definitive end of her relationship while still having to put on a brave face and perform for her fans. 

It has been pointed out that “guilty as sin” is a line from Taylor’s song for the Where The Crawdads Sing movie soundtrack, where she sings: “Carolina knows why for years they've said / That I was guilty as sin and sleep in a liar's bed.”

The question mark in the title has also left fans wondering if this song is going to play out like a court case, with one person writing that they are “getting a lot of detective vibes” from the album as a whole, and this further fuels it. 

Some have also suggested that Taylor might be exploring her own role in the demise of her and Joe’s romance in this track, and that it could be an introspective look into how she may have also been “guilty.”

Circling back to the aforementioned Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor link, it has been pointed out that these two actors starred in the 1966 movie adaptation of Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?, which many think could have been the inspiration behind this song title.

If you didn’t know, the infamous play tells the story of a bitter, elderly couple who use their houseguests as fuel for their anger and emotional agony toward one another.

And considering Taylor previously used Elizabeth and Richard to describe falling in love with Joe, could she now be using the same stars to describe falling out of it?

The overwhelming response to this song title has been speculation that it is about Taylor’s relationship with Matty, who undeniably has the biggest “bad boy” reputation of all of Taylor’s exes. 

While Taylor did make a point of stating that she has been keeping this album a secret for two years — suggesting that it existed as a concept prior to her ill-fated fling — there are several song titles that suggest that events that happened after her and Joe’s split will also be included. 

After all, it is entirely possible that Taylor added more songs to the album as she processed the relationship’s end, which is why it isn’t being released until more than a year later.

Furthermore, Taylor and Matty have a long history and were first linked together in 2014. This means that Taylor would have been well aware of his persona since then, and that she may have entered into a relationship with him with the mindset that she can change him.

Fans also believe this song was written post-split and, similar to "Florida!!!", will be about Taylor proceeding with her record-breaking Eras Tour in spite of her heartbreak.

The title also reminded fans of a quote from Taylor’s Time interview that supported this theory, where she said: “I know I’m going on that stage whether I’m sick, injured, heartbroken, uncomfortable, or stressed. That’s part of my identity as a human being now.” 

Judging by the title, this song arguably has the potential to be the album’s most brutal track — but fans are divided over who the unlucky subject of the song may be.

Following the apparent theme of the album, many have claimed that it could be another lashing for Joe. However, it has also been argued that it could follow in the footsteps of Taylor’s song “No Body, No Crime” and tell more of a fictional story about an unidentifiable man.

Others have wondered if it was inspired by Taylor’s ex Joe Jonas, who recently faced mass scrutiny for his split from his wife Sophie Turner, who was taller than him. 

Not only has Taylor sung negative songs inspired by Joe in the past, she also publicly supported Sophie throughout the breakup.

Some have even shared their hope that this song will be more political and actually take a swipe at a public figure, such as Donald Trump, rather than any of Taylor’s exes. 

For the uninformed, “alchemy” is a term used to describe the attempt of transforming a cheap base metal into something more precious, like silver or gold — which fans think could be analogous to Taylor’s relationship with Joe. 

Throughout her discography, Taylor has referred to this particular romance as “golden,” and it has been theorized that this song is her coming to terms with the fact that she perhaps saw things that she wanted to see but actually weren’t there. 

“Gold is obviously an important symbol in many of the songs she’s written about Joe. Could be about how their relationship changed over time? Or looking back at how they first became ‘golden’ and how maybe she saw things in him that weren’t really there?” one fan asked. 

“Possibly symbolic, alchemy refers to turning an ordinary object into something with special properties (like creating gold from cheap metal). Could be referring to ‘the alchemy’ she tried to perform to save their relationship,” another theorized. 

“Clara Bow” has also left many people excited, with Clara a real life person who is widely considered to be the world’s first “it girl” after she rose to prominence as an actor in the 1920s.

And Swifties have found some pretty meaningful quotes from Clara that appear to relate to Taylor, suggesting that this song may be about the way that she resonates with the icon.

One of the resurfaced quotes is: “I'm almost never satisfied with myself or my work or anything...by the time I'm ready to be a great star I'll have been on the screen such a long time that everybody will be tired of seeing me,” which is a sentiment that Taylor herself has expressed over the years. 

Another is: “All the time the flapper is dancing and laughing, there’s a feeling of tragedy underneath.” This can be directly linked to Taylor’s 2020 song “Mirrorball,” where she reflects on using her brokenness to entertain people.

Discussing “Mirrorball” at the time, Taylor explained: “[Mirrorballs] are broken a million times and that is what makes them so shiny. We have people like that in society too. They hang there and every time they break it entertains us.”

“The Manuscript” is listed as a bonus track on The Tortured Poets Department, and it has been theorized that it could be a summary of the rest of the album that details all that Taylor has learned. 

Somebody else noted the fact that the album’s “file name” is listed as “The Manuscript” instead of the album’s title, questioning whether this means that there may be even more files to come. 

Having analyzed the entire thing, many fans are also of the belief that Taylor’s upcoming album will tell a cohesive story from beginning to end, with the tracklist seemingly flowing seamlessly from the final days of a relationship, coming to terms with its ending, and then heading back out into the world.

But of course, none of this will be confirmed until the album is released on April 19, and it’s worth mentioning that Taylor does have a history of making albums that are a “bait and switch” — meaning that fans go in expecting one thing, only to be confronted with a different concept entirely.