Hello, hi, and good morning! Taylor Swift is over in Melbourne after resuming her Eras Tour and treated the crowd to some Brand! New! Information! about her upcoming album, The Tortured Poets Department—by which I mean she unveiled both the name of a bonus track ("The Bolter") as well as an alternative album cover right before performing "You're Losing Me." (Read into that how you will 👀.)
Tay also seemingly told the crowd the following re: TTPD: "I needed to make it, it was really a lifeline for me, it sort of reminded me why songwriting gets me through life. I've never had an album where I needed songwriting more than I needed it on Tortured Poets. I wanted to show you something tonight because...we've got an alternate cover to the Tortured Poets Department that nobody has seen. And there's an exclusive song on the vinyl called 'The Bolter.' So this is called The Bolter Edition."
The musician also spoke about the album while performing in Tokyo, and confessed to the crowd, "I’ve been working on Tortured Poets since right after I turned in Midnights. So, you turn in an album months in advance so you can make vinyls, which are the best. And so I started working on it immediately after that and I've been working on it for about two years. I kept working on it throughout the US tour, and when it was perfect, in my opinion, when it was good enough for you, I finished it. And I am so so excited that soon you'll get to hear it, soon we’ll get to experience it together."
As you're likely WELL AWARE, fans think Tortured Poets might be about Joe Alwyn due to song titles like "So Long, London" and "Fresh Out the Slammer" (which could be a reference to the lyrics "you can be my jailer" from her song "...Ready for It?").
Meanwhile, a source dished to the Daily Mail that, "If it is a diss album, that is shady. [Joe] helped her with songwriting on her past album so it will really come as a shock to him if she talks about their breakup, as it is something he has not spoken of at all. Regardless of what she does, he will still not respond because he has removed himself from her narrative and is very glad he did."
Anyway, head here if you wanna spiral about the release date:
