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It's officially release week for Taylor Swift's upcoming album The Tortured Poets Department, and she's put out some pretty interesting promo.
For example, from April 16–18, fans can visit her Spotify library installation at The Grove in Los Angeles.
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She also released a video of "The TTPD Timetable."
There's also this mysterious QR code that appeared in Chicago's North River area.
As you know, Taylor's a "Mastermind" who loves to plant hidden clues and secret details in her work — and the Swifties are basically CIA decoders in training.
Here are 32 Easter eggs and details Swifties have spotted in Taylor Swift's album promo for The Tortured Poets Department:
Here are a few examples:
"Mary's Song" — "Two a.m. riding in your truck."
"The Way I Loved You" — "And it's two a.m. and I'm cursing your name."
"Breathe" — "It's two a.m., feelin' like I just lost a friend."
"I Wish You Would" — "It's two a.m. in your car" and "it's two a.m. in my room."
2. In the Midnights room, it's no longer midnight because daylight is streaming in through the window. This could possibly be connected to "Daylight" from Lover.
In the song, lyrics like "I've been sleeping so long in a 20-year dark night, and now I see daylight, I only see daylight" use daylight as a metaphor for coming out of a dark time into the light of genuine love — something Taylor appears to have done recently through her new relationship with Travis Kelce.
3. On the floor of the Midnights room, there are several crumpled up pieces of paper lying there, evoking the lyrics of "All Too Well" from Red.
In "All Too Well," Taylor sings, "I'm a crumpled up piece of paper lying here 'cause I remember it all, all, all too well."
4. She left her glitter gel pens in the Midnights room. In her NSAI's Songwriter-Artist of the Decade Award acceptance speech, she said, "I've never talked about this publicly before, because, well, it’s dorky. But I also have, in my mind, secretly, established genre categories for lyrics I write. Three of them, to be exact. They are affectionately titled Quill Lyrics, Fountain Pen Lyrics, and Glitter Gel Pen Lyrics."
Describing the third category, she said, "Frivolous, carefree, bouncy, syncopated perfectly to the beat. Glitter Gel Pen lyrics don't care if you don't take them seriously because they don't take themselves seriously. Glitter Gel Pen lyrics are the drunk girl at the party who tells you that you look like an angel in the bathroom. It's what we need every once in a while in these fraught times in which we live."
5. And some of Taylor's Instagram pictures from the making of Midnights are framed on the wall.
6. The camera exits the Midnights room, goes down a sterile office hallway, and enters The Tortured Poets Department, which is obviously a very on-the-nose way of signaling we're entering a new era.
7. The door to TTPD is apparently upside down!
8. And a calendar on the bulletin boards has a new music video scheduled for release on Friday!
9. Fans in NYC spotted new lyrics on a digital billboard. It says, "One less temptress. One less dagger to sharpen."
10. And as previously mentioned, there's this giant QR code in Chicago.
Currently, it leads to this YouTube Short, which is captioned, "A letter from the department." The letter is "T."
View this video on YouTube
11. Also, Taylor previously mentioned this area of Chicago during a comedy bit on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in 2021.
Here's the full clip, with this part starting at the 5:41 mark:
View this video on YouTube
12. Fans have actually spotted QR codes revealing new letters all over the world.
13. For the past few days, Taylor has revealed new words of a secret phrase hidden in the lyrics of old songs on Apple Music. So far, the message is "We hereby conduct this post."
And now, let's dive into this Spotify library installation. I am there in all ways except physically.
14. The dried flowers on display relate to "Lavender Haze" from Midnights and "Cornelia Street" from Lover.
15. There's a peace sign statue, which mimics a hand gesture Taylor made during her 2024 Grammys acceptance speech.
16. There are books with titles matching the TTPD track list — and "Guilty as Sin?" is the biggest one.
17. Another book has the word "Us" on it, evoking "The Story of Us'" from Speak Now.
18. There are two books titled The Tortured Poets Department. Basically anytime Taylor releases a new album lately, there's a double album theory.
19. An antique-looking book on display revealed more lyrics: "Even statues crumble if they're made to wait."
Also, the white lace veil beneath could possibly be a reference or link to this line from "You're Losing Me": "I wouldn't marry me either."
20. The book pages were turned, revealing these new lyrics: "Lost the game of chance, what are the chances?"
21. There's a card catalogue with 72 drawers, which some fans theorize may represent the six years Taylor spent in a relationship with Joe Alwyn because 72 months equals six years.
22. This hourglass evokes the "Karma" music video.
23. Some fans compared the card catalogue to a morgue. On the first night of the Eras Tour, Taylor reportedly said, "You know, my albums have characteristically been, sort of, excruciatingly autobiographical where, like, when I put out an album, it just feels like getting some sort of live-streamed, public autopsy."
24. Like the clock in the Midnights room, there's a clock in the library set to 2 a.m. Fans also linked it to Taylor's pocket watch in the "Bejeweled" music video, where the countdown to exile stops at two.
25. There's a puzzle in a jar. It may be "The Lines" by Bgraamiens Puzzle.
26. There's a globe with a nail in Florida. On TTPD, track 8 is "Florida!!!" Taylor was reportedly in Florida when reports of her breakup with Joe Alwyn first surfaced.
27. Fans have identified a bust of Diana of Ephesus (aka Artemis). To the Romans, she was the goddess of wild animals, hunting, and fertility. Her name is linked to the Latin word for daylight, dius. The original statue's temple was destroyed, but fragments of it remain — some notably at the British Museum in London.
28. In artworks from ancient Rome and Greece, Diana typically hunts with a bow and arrow (a possible reference to "The Archer") and sometimes a hound (a possible link to "The Black Dog").
29. The Temple of Artemis was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world — just like the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, which Taylor mentioned in "cowboy like me."
On the track, she sings, "Now you hang from my lips like the Gardens of Babylon."
30. As seen in this TikTok from The Today Show, there's a desktop calendar with the date Friday, Dec. 13 — which is this year!
31. Also as seen in Today's TikTok, there's a rose in a glass case, similar to the one in Beauty and the Beast.
The TTPD track "But Daddy I Love Him" is a line from The Little Mermaid, making for two Disney princess references.
32. And finally, Today's TikTok also shows birdcages similar to the one in the "Look What You Made Me Do" music video.
Have you spotted any other Easter eggs or interesting details in Taylor's The Tortured Poets Department promo? Let me know in the comments!
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