Taylor Swift accepts the award for best pop vocal album for "Midnights" during the 66th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 4, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
LOS ANGELES (AP) – Forget her “Reputation.” Taylor Swift has a whole new album coming out.
Accepting the Grammy for best pop vocal album, Taylor said she’d been keeping a secret for two years.
“My brand-new album comes out April 19. It’s called The Tortured Poets Department. I’m going to go and post the cover right now backstage,” she announced.
And so she did.
On her Instagram, Swift posted a black-and-white image of her reclining across pillows. The top half of her face and lower half of her legs are cut off in the low-contrast image.
“All’s fair in love and poetry…” her caption read. In a little over an hour, the Instagram post alone had amassed nearly 7 million likes.
“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,” read what appeared to be handwritten lyrics posted after the album cover.
Swift had provoked mass speculation earlier in the night when her site seemed to go down. Some theorized she was gearing up to release “Reputation (Taylor’s Version),” but cryptic clues on the “crashed” site indicated that might be a misdirect.
And so it was.
The site’s back up now, focused around the upcoming album, with preordering and merchandise options. This will be Swift’s 11th studio album, not counting her re-recordings. Her last original album was “Midnights,” released in October 2022. Since then, she’s launched the billion-dollar Eras Tour and released “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” and “1989 (Taylor’s Version).”
Swift was accepting the Grammy for “Midnights” when she made the surprise announcement. As she walked the red carpet, she paid homage to her album title, donning a choker with a small clock embedded. And yes, the time was set to the midnight – even if the viewer had to tilt their head to see the hands pointing to “12.”
While a nod to the album – and reminiscent of the “tick, tick, tick” in “The Tortured Poets Department” post – the watch seemed particularly apt, given the superstar’s seemingly packed schedule over the next week. Swift is set to head back out on her Eras Tour this week, performing for four nights in Tokyo. She still will be able to make it back to the U.S. later in the week to catch her boyfriend Travis Kelce playing in the Super Bowl.
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Sen reported from New York.
