Swiftly Spoken Swiftly Spoken

In our last episode before the release of The Tortured Poets Department, we break down Taylor Swift’s five stages of heartbreak playlists which she recently released through Apple Music. Said to have been inspired by Swiftie theories, these five lists compile many of her most loved tracks into the themes of denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. We go through these carefully selected compilations, commenting on some of the most shocking selections and then give our final thoughts on what may be awaiting us in just over a week’s time!

With under a month to go for The Tortured Poets Department, inspired by a similar episode we made when Midnights was released, we decided to get together to create a list of thirteen songs we think should be listened to as a sort of “prequel” to Taylor Swift’s eleventh studio album. As we compiled this list we kept in mind lyrical content that might be paralleled, genre and sounds that could be explored, and stories that may be told as well as tried to make connections between Taylor’s songs and the little we know about her upcoming album. We also discuss the tracklist and the new tidbits of information we have received recently.

As the most recent leg of The Eras Tour comes to an end, we’re getting closer and closer to Taylor Swift’s eleventh studio album, The Tortured Poets Department. With just over a month to go we discuss everything we know about the four exclusive versions of the album, the lyrics that have been revealed, the details Taylor has given about the creation of her latest project, and of course we recap the outlandish rumours that have spread over the last few weeks.

A couple of years ago Taylor Swift decided to classify her music into three groups, depending on the type of symbolic pen she felt like they were written with. The fun-loving, care-free, bubbly glitter gel pen; the confessional, heart-wrenching fountain pen; and the old-timey, poetic quill. Over time she released three playlists which included many of her songs classified into these groups, however, we disagree with some of these picks (which were made to primarily help with streaming and did not include any music which had not been rerecorded at that point). So, we decided to rearrange these lists, in an attempt to make coherent choices which fit the descriptions of each pen as well as include music from her entire discography. With The Tortured Poets Department on the horizon we also take a guess at what type of music we might find on her 11th studio album!

After the surprise announcement Taylor gave on Sunday night at the Grammys we got together for an emergency episode in which we react to the exciting news of a new album being released on April 19th. We chat about Taylor's Grammy wins, her record breaking win for Album of the Year, and then of course theorise about The Tortured Poets Department. From the name, to the concept, to the confirmed tracklist, we give all our initial reactions and thoughts surrounding this new era we are suddenly in!

As we have previously mentioned, we love breaking down strange relations between Taylor’s music, and that’s exactly what we do in this week’s episode. We discuss the relations between Taylor Swift’s ten studio albums, connecting them lyrically, thematically, based on real life events, or sometimes just purely due to vibes. Starting with Red we work our way through how we view these relations between the bodies of work that come together to form one big “family tree” or musical universe. From the established sisterly connection between folklore and evermore, to the reciprocal relations between 1989 and Midnights, and even the recent unexpected link between reputation and Debut (so lovingly called debutation), we explore our current intertwined interpretation of Taylor’s music.