This year has already been a lot for me. If I thought 2023 was rough, it seems like 2024 will be more rough. So what does that mean? That means we hyper-fixate on our small indie underground superstar [I’m joking.. this is a fandom joke]: Taylor Swift.
During the Grammy’s she announced her next album. We were all beside ourself thinking that Reputation TV was coming, when in fact it was not. About a year ago I had predicted that she was following a release of: 2 re-releases, 1 new release, and that prediction was correct.
Fearless, Red, Midnights, Speak Now, 1989, The Tortured Poets Department, and then its going to be Reputation and Debut [on her birthday or last day of tour probably]. In my heart I still thought this was going to be the way it was released only because of the Grammy considerations. Since they follow the year of the vote, she probably wouldn’t get another grammy for a re-released album, so it is smart to release something new. Plus on a personal level it’s probably more relatable for her to release stuff that is newer and more true to her current life and feelings now than being stuck in the past.
So let’s start with her grammy look and her new released album work [Beth Garrabrant always slays to me: photographer].
No one knew what was going on, but Lana Del Ray showing up like a poet, Taylor in Black and White, and all of her besties changing their profile picture to black and white that exact day of the Grammy’s made all of our fandom very suspicious. However, her midnights profile photograph went a bit more sepia – which was not Reputation at all, so the fandom was split between getting a new album, or getting another re-release.
I guess Taylor had told Jack that if she got a Grammy she’d announce her new album, but if she didn’t she was going to announce it in Tokyo. She announced it on her first Grammy win, that tells us that she really didn’t think she was going to win Album of the Year. People [external people] threw a fit about her winning, but profitably.. who else even came CLOSE to midnights?? Literally no one. Taylor has dominated this year with music, sales and tour crowds. It doesn’t even matter how you feel about her, this is just literal profit proof that she is dominating the industry. Whether you think she deserves it or not is irrelevant. She has a very loyal fan base who will follow her any where she goes. She has created that in us.
So she announced TTPD, and the title is something we aren’t used to seeing. Her albums are generally one worded albums. Red, Fearless, Debut, Speak Now [originally wanted to name it Enchanted], Reputation, Lover, 1989, Evermore, Folklore, Midnights. Now we have.. The Tortured Poets Department. Why? This is a new phase. My guess is after the Eras tour ends in November/December, she is going to move on to an entirely different phase.
The look of this album feels like a step beyond Midnights.
It still feels a bit of anguish, upset feelings, raveling in the past of what could have been. So I’m not sure the exact sound of this album but it feels like it will be lyrics and penmanship that is more like Evermore but may have a few bops that revolve around the sound of Bejeweled. In the naming of this album, it was released that Joe Alwyn had a group called the tortured man club.
Now we don’t know if Taylor was upset about this, or if she was picking at it. Or if she knew this was a sarcastic group and is naming this album in more of a sarcastic ‘woe is me’ type of thing. That’s all for speculation. [The right image is a joke made by a fan but it really was a group chat he had lol]
I personally do not think this album will be a diss album like people think. I do think that it will be about the differences faced in a relationship. This idea of building something so rich during the time you needed it, and then coming to realization that you are two different people who want two different things. I really think the idea of Bejeweled will be one that is evident on this album. and I miss you, but I miss sparkling.
When Taylor and Joe met she was at the lowest part of her Reputation, so she thought… we the stans didn’t, and she hunkered down and spent that year in private with him. She released Lover, and then the pandemic hit. Two more years of isolation because the world was shut down, and that was the way he preferred to live his life. But girlie has always loved the limelight and preforming. So as she started to want to do that again, and her name began to rise in the media again, I feel like he just didn’t like it. They realized they wanted different things. However, it’s incredibly hard to build something up and be in it for a long period of time, and accept that it is not what we need any more – and move on. God the turmoil in that decision is so rough.
However, now as she is dating Travis, who can handle the heat of the media, it’s been really interesting to analyze how these two men handle questions differently. Joe never really wanted to answer people about his favorite Taylor Swift song, or acknowledge her as his partner at all. This, I think partially, is because he didn’t want to live in her shadow, but also like.. brah you are dating THE Taylor Swift. If you can’t handle it… that’s not her fault… you knew who she was. Travis on the other hand, leans into every question, and annoyingly to even the fans – he allows the media to override his own fame and successes by his girlfriends. I think he is so patient while answering questions that should be about the Super bowl but are rather about his relationship and her tour.
TTPD is going to be interesting as a release, because in Tokyo and Australia she said that she wrote this album as a lifeline, that she absolutely needed it, and it’s why she loves music so much. So her heart will probably be on the line with this album but I don’t think it’s going to be in a way we expect. But timing wise, it’s got to be strange singing songs about your last two years when you are in a much better place. Seeing her current relationship, and her being able to handle the hate and glorification of her over exposure, makes me actually very excited for the music she is probably currently making behind closed doors. Musicians have to sometimes have a hard time preforming music of their past when they are finally passed some of those feelings. Also, having a partner who understands when you preform them – that they are apart of your past and not about of the current representation – is also really important.
I am also wondering if we will hear songs about the fandom like she’s played in the past. WE KNOW there is push and pulls of fame. We see links of it everywhere. Linkin Park, Ryan Caraveo, Machine Gun Kelly, Taylor all have songs that talk about the glass case that is fame. Lucky one, Castles Crumbling, Out of the Woods, I know places, Lavender Haze, etc., are all songs of hers [and there are more too] that talk about the media and it’s hardships its created in her life and romantic life too. I would love for her to release that honesty in this album. However, she told her last crowd they were the love of her life, which LOML is a title on this coming soon album… so will that song be about us??? The thing that got her through the heartache was preforming?
I still cannot believe she wrote You’re Losing Me, in 2021. My heart is broken. For two years she kept that slow burn of a dying relationship a secret. I understand why. She didn’t want Midnights to be linked to a breakup album.. but in hearing the lyrics now, it most definitely was. This discussion of the media and crowds tampering with her relationship and the realization of fear, that the things she worries about most, were coming true once again. So TTPD isn’t going to be a break up album.. it’s going to be a coping with reality album.. and I hope we get ONE song about her current feelings with her life and relationship. Because it’s so cute.
SO MY ART.
I mixed the Grammy look with the cover of TTPD and created a few [ a lot of ] images of if they were blended.
All in all I am SO excited about new music. I can’t believe its in less than 2 months.
I feel undeserving.
What do you think about this new album and its concept??