Taylor Swift Released Her New Album, "Lover", And It Turns Out She's Been Dropping Easter Eggs For Months

    We're finally stepping into the daylight and letting all of these Easter Eggs go...

    Ellie Bate
    by Ellie Bate

    BuzzFeed Staff

    It's officially the best day of the year, because Taylor Swift just released her seventh studio album, Lover, and I'm not exaggerating at all when I say it's wall-to-wall bops.

    If you know anything about Taylor, you'll know she loves hiding Easter Eggs for fans to find in her music videos, interviews, Instagram captions... Literally anywhere she can, basically.

    Republic Records / giphy.com

    And, of course, the album is no different. It turns out Taylor's been dropping hints about ~every~ track on the album for months now.

    Here are all the biggest hints you might have missed...

    1. "I Forgot That You Existed"

    Entertainment Weekly, Genius / genius.com

    In May, Taylor appeared on the cover of Entertainment Weekly and did her first sit-down interview in three whole years. The jacket she wore on the cover was adorned with a collection of pins and badges that we were assured were Easter Eggs for the upcoming album, as well as just things Taylor loves.

    One of the badges was a picture of Drake, and fans speculated that it might be hinting at a collaboration on the album — but when Taylor dropped the tracklist last week, there was no such collab in sight.

    It turns out the first track on the album includes the lyrics: "I couldn't get away from you / In my feelings more than Drake, so yeah."

    Oh, ~and~ she name-dropped "In My Feelings" in her essay about pop music for Elle magazine, which was released in February.

    2. "Cruel Summer"

    Republic Records / youtube.com

    Of course, "Cruel Summer" appeared as a tattoo on Ellen DeGeneres' forearm in the music video for "You Need To Calm Down", and fans immediately assumed it was the name of a song on the album.

    The video also includes an instance of the dice motif that's been recurring since the Reputation era, and it's ~finally~ been solved.

    Republic Records / youtube.com, Genius / genius.com

    "Devils roll the dice, angels roll their eyes" is a lyric from "Cruel Summer".

    3. "Lover"

    Republic Records / youtube.com

    Obviously, the music video for "Me!" showed Taylor sitting on a unicorn above a neon sign that read "Lover", teasing both the album title and the title track.

    4. "The Man"

    Republic Records / youtube.com

    The music video for "You Need To Calm Down" shows a framed painting on the wall of Taylor's trailer that reads: "Mom, I am a rich man."

    It's a famous quote from a Cher interview, where she said: "My mom said to me, 'You know, sweetheart, you should settle down and marry a rich man.' I said, 'Mom, I am a rich man.'"

    But, little did we know, it was also a hint at the fourth track on the album.

    Some fans also think that Taylor and her dancers wearing suits in the music video for "Me!" was an Easter Egg for "The Man".

    Republic Records / youtube.com

    5. "The Archer"

    Republic Records / youtube.com

    The "YNTCD" video also shows Hayley Kiyoko as an ~archer~ shooting an arrow at a bullseye emblazoned with the number 5. At first, fans thought it was hinting at a Hayley/Taylor collaboration for track 5, but it turns out it was a more literal hint at the song's title.

    6. "I Think He Knows"

    Republic Records / youtube.com, Genius / genius.com

    In the final scene of the "Me!" video, we see Taylor and Brendon dancing around the street in rainbow-coloured rain, which is reminiscent of the lyrics to the chorus of track 6: "He got my heartbeat / Skipping down 16th Avenue."

    The lyric refers to a street in the Music Row area of Nashville, so it kind of has a double meaning — Taylor's saying her ~lover~ makes her want to make music.

    Republic Records / youtube.com

    The recurring dice motif also appears in track 7, with the lyric: "The whole school is rolling fake dice / You play stupid games, you win stupid prizes."

    The lyrics of "Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince" also make reference to a pageant — which is reminiscent of this scene in the "YNTCD" video.

    Republic / youtube.com

    8. "Paper Rings"

    Republic Records / youtube.com, taylorswift.tumblr.com

    The lyric video for "Me!" included a ~very~ subtle Easter Egg for "Paper Rings" — there were rings made from paper scattered on the table Taylor was writing the lyrics on.

    She confirmed it was an Easter Egg on Tumblr when the tracklist was announced.

    9. "Cornelia Street"

    Republic Records / youtube.com, Genius / genius.com

    The lyric video featuring the paper rings also references a line in the opening verse of "Cornelia Street", which goes: "We were a fresh page on the desk / Filling in the blanks as we go."

    10. "Death By A Thousand Cuts"

    Entertainment Weekly, Genius / buzzfeed.com

    In this song, Taylor compares the end of a relationship to a death — which is very reminiscent of the "I tried" gravestone pin she was wearing on her jacket on the cover of Entertainment Weekly.

    11. "London Boy"

    Republic Records / youtube.com

    You can see some London landmarks — namely Big Ben and St Paul's Cathedral — in the cityscape behind Taylor in a few shots of the "Me!" music video.

    12. "Soon You'll Get Better" (ft. Dixie Chicks)

    Republic Records / youtube.com, elle.com

    Fans began speculating about the possibility of a Dixie Chicks collab when they spotted a portrait of the band on the wall of Taylor's apartment in the music video for "Me!".

    However, we didn't realise that when Taylor mentioned them in her essay about pop music for Elle magazine, that was also a hint of what was to come. She said listening to the Dixie Chicks reminded her of being twelve years old — and the collaboration appears at track 12 on the album.

    13. "False God"

    Republic Records / youtube.com, Genius / genius.com

    The beginning of the "Me!" music video shows Taylor having an argument in French with Brendon Urie, and the subtitles contained a ~lot~ of clues for the album. One of the subtitles, "I can't talk to you when you're like this", appears as a lyric in the pre-chorus of "False God".

    The music video also shows Brendon standing at the window, staring out at Taylor dancing on the street below, which she confirmed on Tumblr was an Easter Egg for the same song.

    14. "You Need To Calm Down"

    Republic Records / youtube.com

    During the same argument, Brendon tells Taylor: "You need to calm down."

    15. "Afterglow"

    Republic Records / youtube.com, Genius / genius.com

    The name of this track appears on Scrabble tiles in the music video for "Lover", and if you know anything about Taylor, you'll know she loves leaving Easter Eggs via the medium of Scrabble.

    It looks like she also hinted at the themes of "Afterglow" in her "30 before 30" article for Elle magazine, where she wrote: "Apologising when you have hurt someone who really matters to you takes nothing away from you."

    16. "Me!" (ft. Brendon Urie)

    Elle, elle.com

    Similarly to her collaboration with the Dixie Chicks, Taylor hinted that she was working with Brendon in her Elle magazine essay, where she said listening to his band Panic! at the Disco reminded her of being sixteen. (The song is track 16 on the album.)

    She also dropped this ~very~ subtle hint when she revealed the magazine cover on Instagram.

    Instagram / instagram.com

    17. "It's Nice To Have A Friend"

    Republic Records / youtube.com, Genius / genius.com

    In the music video for "Me!", we see Taylor sitting on the roof of a building under a light pink sky, which is a direct reference to a lyric from the second verse of "It's Nice To Have A Friend". Fans think this is also a reference to the song "King Of My Heart" from Reputation, which goes: "Up on the roof with a schoolgirl crush / Drinking beer out of plastic cups."

    The song also discusses themes of marriage, and during the scene on the roof in the music video, we see Brendon offering Taylor a ring.

    18. "Daylight"

    Elle, Genius / genius.com

    In March, Taylor wrote an article for Elle detailing 30 things she's learned before she turns 30 in December. At the end of lesson 30, she wrote: "I need to be able to forgive myself for making the wrong choice, trusting the wrong person, or figuratively falling on my face in front of everyone. Step into the daylight and let it go."

    She also used the phrase to caption a photo from the magazine shoot on Instagram. And, as it turns out, "step into the daylight and let it go" is the last lyric on Lover.

    Did you spot any Easter Eggs we might have missed? Let us know in the comments! And don't forget to stream Lover! 💗