Taylor Swift - The Tortured Poet's Department - album discussion thread

[OldHabitsDieScreaming]

Hello Swifties! Thought I would start a thread to chat about TS11 or TTPD or whatever we're calling it 😁Don't know about you but the excitement is building for this old-enough-to-know-better Swiftie and I'll be taking the long way into work tomorrow so I can listen to it in Peace...(see what I did there?)

So this thread is for anyone who loves TS and wants to talk/think/muse/swoon over the newest output from the hardest-working woman in music!

Personally I'm intrigued and delighted that Aaron Dessner seems to have co-writing credits on several tracks - I'm a committed Folklore/Evermore fan and more in a similar vein will be very welcome!

(Oh, and while hopefully this doesn't need saying, please don't bother posting to say how shit/overrated/talentless you think TS is. This is a fan / appreciation thread about a specific piece of work and it would be lovely to keep it that way.)

I imagine as a billionaire she’ll cope. Plus most people listening will also buy the album (often multiple versions too) so she’s hardly missing out on the sale which I absolutely appreciate is a massive issue for smaller artists.

Nothing, NOTHING, Taylor Swift does is by accident. If there is a leak, it's on purpose and even then is it legit? The lyrics I've seen shared certainly don't even sound like something she'd write.

Some of the quoted lyrics, that people are saying is a MH reference could easily be about someone else. I don't think MH was even that important to have songs written about him

I don't think any of what's been leaked is legit

5am!!!

The rumour is that there will be two albums out…..

Apparently linked to Karma??

Reporting with a TS inspired name change! I have also read some discussion of the leaked album (not heard any of it). It would be good if people in this thread didn't do any spoilers until it's actually released.

Regarding the leaks - it's happened every time there's been a physical release since 1989. It's a file that's been ripped from a CD. CDs & vinyls are obviously out in stores ready to be on the shelves tomorrow so it's impossible to stop someone leaking.

Thanks for this... I'll be setting an alarm!!!

tomorrow in UK. I’m a little apprehensive, but I don’t think she will add this to the ears tour.

1. her set is already 3.5 hours long, she can’t make it longer, so the only option would be to cut an already very tight set list (which ignores 1 era entirely, and barley touches another)
2. the spirit of the Eras tour seems to be to celebrate her past eras, whereas TTPD is her musical future
3. she is obsessively terrified of leaks. All dancers in her lead single music videos on listening to click tracks to keep them on beat not the actual song. She flew a cd in a private jet in a briefcase to Ed Sheeran for him to hear a song they wrote together, then flew it home straight after he heard it. She would have to work with dancers, choreographers, graphic designers, sound engineers… to prepare a TTPD set - it doesn’t ring true she would trust this wide of a circle with her unreleased music
4. its a pretty fundamentally massive change part way through which would cause grief on both sides. Europeans gutted that they have a lesser Red and Fearless set (for example) and the Americans angry they didn’t hear the new album live.

she might surprise me though. And I wouldn’t be shocked at all if they were used as surprise songs.

Thanks for this. I've standing tickets in Edinburgh so getting excited/anxious/everything.

just my guess!! Please don’t take my word for it. But if you are anxious about it then maybe check to see what happens when she recommences the tour in Paris, it’s about a month before Edinburgh so time to process your feelings!

I think she'll add a TTPD era. They could have prepared songs any with dancers (realistically 2 max 3 songs) with a click track. There's still 3 weeks before the tour restarts so plenty of time for professionals to get it performance ready.

I think the European leg will mark the start of Eras Tour Part II.

If anything she'll do TTPD tracks as the surprise songs I think rather than them being added to the actual set list.

I’m hoping not, easy to say having not heard the new material. I saw Red, 1989, and Rep live, so feel less precious about those. But Fearless was the era I became a fan and have such a soft spot for it, I also adore Speak Now (criminally underrated), and songs like Tim McGraw, Cold as You, Picture to Burn, and Mary’s Song still bang now! I just feel this is the last time she will shine a light on the older works, so makes me sad to think a new album will boot them out of a thing designed to celebrate them. I actually would prefer she didn’t even perform TTPD as surprise songs, though I know that is unrealistic.

Has anyone seen the countdown on the US website?

www.taylorswift.com/forafortnight/

What is happening?!

Oof I have no idea!

Isn't that a countdown to a single release? That's the rumour I've heard...

I agree that TTPD songs may only end up as surprise songs, if at all, on the tour. Definitely not a whole new Era. At least maybe I might be able to get tickets for a TTPD tour!

To be fair, she could probably churn off endless songs about Matty. He's quite 'material heavy'.

Got my physical copy coming tomorrow. First I've bought in over a decade.

I'll be disappointed if Healy features at all. He was a 5-min wonder, relationship-wise, and he's a massive dickhead to boot. I hope she doesn't waste any creative energy on him.

I'm so excited!

I've managed to avoid spoilers and leaks although I've seen tweets about people being disappointed- this was the same the day before Midnights came out and I still love it. I remember someone posting the lyrics to Karma and thinking the same woman who wrote evermore and folklore can't be writing about karma being a cat and yet here we are with closing the Eras tour.

Haven’t they been friends for years though and there have always been rumours of something with him in the past so maybe a bit of an on-off thing?

I think TS risks people being a little fatigued with her, not her fault at all but she's been everywhere for the best part of 18 months some have her on such a high pedestal and have such high expectations that they are going to feel disappointed if the album isn't some massively magical thing. I'm looking forward to receiving my album tomorrow, the first new physical CD I've bought in at least a decade and intend to go on a long drive somewhere to listen to it as the only CD player I have is in the car It's an awful lot of pressure for one person to live up to though.

At least a decade. It was a 1975 concert in 2014 where "kissgate" happened and there were rumours about TS and MH back then.

There have been leaks before. All of the Girls You Loved Before was leaked along with another (still unreleased) song Need. She then officially released AOTGYLB as a Lover vault track which did feel a bit random and maybe like a response to the leak.
The person who leaked it said "I've hacked those, if I get paid $X, I'll release them" and people online raised the money.

As an aside, the bits of Need I've heard sound good and I hope she'll release that one as well!

I feel like these leaks would have been taken down by now? Some have been up for hours and hours

There's an official video been posted somewhere (her website, Instagram? I think) and it mentions a video dropping two hours before.

I agree that sometimes lyrics just written down do not come across the same as when they're sung. "Karma is a cat purring on my lap" is a great example. In isolation it's a bit wtf, but Karma is a great song! A lot of the lines form Invisible String would also be odd just written down on their own.

From the two lyrics I've seen leaked (both from the same song I believe), I hope this is the case again. I've not heard any of the leaked stuff, only read a couple of lines.