Taylor Swift announces brand-new album at Grammys: 'Tortured Poets Department'
Taylor Swift set the Swiftie world on fire by announcing a brand-new album, "The Tortured Poets Department," during the Grammys on Sunday.
"I want to say thank you to the fans," Swift said holding her Grammy for pop vocal album, "by telling you a secret that I've been keeping from you for the past two years, which is that my brand-new album comes out April 19."
Swift made the announcement after winning her 13th Grammy, for "Midnights." The artwork for the new album is a black-and-white photo of Swift lying on a bed. According to Swift's website, her 11th record will include 16 tracks plus bonus track “The Manuscript.”
All’s fair in love and poetry... New album THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT. Out April 19 🤍https://t.co/WdrCmvLHyA
📷: Beth Garrabrant pic.twitter.com/CCPhmSZ2UD— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) February 5, 2024
In the tweet she sent out shortly after her acceptance speech, a photo shows a folder open to a page with Swift's handwriting:
"And so I enter into evidence / My tarnished coat of arms / My muses, acquired like bruises / My talismans and charms / The tick, tick, tick of love bombs / My veins of pitch black ink / All's fair in love and poetry... Sincerely, The Chairman of The Tortured Poets Department."
Hours before the 66th annual Grammys, Swift's website "crashed," with the message: "Error 321 Backend fetch failed." Error 321 is a communication error that would appear on a fax machine with a poor telephone line connection. There was also a random line in bold: hneriergrd. Online sleuths have unscrambled it to get "red herring." A red herring is a "a clue or piece of information that is, or is intended to be, misleading or distracting."
🚨| A deep dive into the source code for Taylor Swift's currently down website reveals multiple words in different languages translated to
- Chairman
- Bruises
- Veins
- Cadence
- Apple Cake
- Talisman
- Love Bombs
- Muse
- Ink
- Evidence
- Fake pic.twitter.com/50XroqQBi9— The Eras Tour (@tswifterastour) February 4, 2024
This prompted the internet to look into the coding of the website, where one coder noticed multiple words in different languages translated to "chairman," "bruises," "veins," "cadence," "apple cake," "talisman," "love bombs," "muse," "ink," "evidence" and "fake."
These words correspond to the aesthetic of the new album, which feels like a black-and-white, 1950s police detective show. The internet will continue to unravel Easter eggs as Swift heads to Japan for the first leg of the 2024 Eras Tour.
The album will be released when Swift is on a break.
Follow Bryan West, the USA TODAY Network's Taylor Swift reporter, on Instagram, TikTok and X as @BryanWestTV.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Taylor Swift announces brand-new album: 'Tortured Poets Department'
