Inside Taylor Swift’s ‘Tortured Poets Department’ Pop-Up in Los Angeles: All the Easter Eggs – Page Six

Music

By Desiree Murphy

Taylor Swift gives more clues about her new album, “The Tortured Poets Department.”

Ahead of her highly anticipated release on Friday, the singer teamed up with Spotify for a special “library installation” at The Grove in Los Angeles, curated specifically for her eleventh studio album.

Page Six stopped by the exhibit on Tuesday, where we got an up-close look at all the Easter eggs hidden throughout the pop-up exhibit.

One of the most notable clues was displayed in the center of one side of the exhibit. It was an open book that revealed a few new words within its pages: “One temptress less.” One less dagger to sharpen” and “Even statues collapse if you keep them waiting.”

The surrounding volumes were written exclusively by “Taylor Swift” and featured the titles of some of the tracks from her upcoming album, such as “Down Bad”, “But Daddy I Love Him”, “Clara Bow” and “The Bolter”.

Fans have speculated that many of the unreleased songs will be about Swift’s failed romance with Joe Alwyn since she announced the new project at the 2024 Grammy Awards.

The album’s title appears to be a wild nod to an all-boys group lyric the actor had written, called “The Tortured Man Club,” with his friends Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott. And now, with the new clues from the expose, it’s clear that Swift won’t shy away from revealing the details of their breakup.

One example, as eagle-eyed Swifties noticed at the event, was a library card catalog displaying 72 individual boxes. Many have parsed this number to symbolize 72 months, which equates to six years, the same length of time Swift was in a relationship with Alwyn before hooking up with her current beau, Travis Kelce.

Others paid particular attention to one of the sculptures arranged on the library shelves, symbolizing Diana of Ephesus, “the goddess of childbirth and fertility and the goddess of the moon.”

“The original statue of Diana collapsed while waiting to be shipped to London in the 6th century due to years of neglect, succumbing to the passage of time and the elements,” said one fan. tweeted viaimplying that the treatment of the statue might be reminiscent of how Swift felt while dating Alwyn.

The pens on display were also interesting – only quills and quills, no glitter – which might be a clue to the dark, melancholic themes many of his fans expect with an album about heartbreak. Swift has previously explained how her songs fall into the three different pen categories.

The “Fountain” songs are “modern personal stories, written like poetry, about those moments you remember all too well when you can see, hear and feel everything in vivid detail,” she told Apple Music in 2022, while the tracks “Quill” feature a “Period piece detail…all old-fashioned, like you’re a 19th century poet crafting his next sonnet by candlelight.”

Meanwhile, Swift said “glitter gel pen” songs are typically happy and upbeat, with “lyrics that make you want to dance, sing along and throw glitter around the room.”

Other Easter eggs included globes with thumbtacks marking the state of Florida (the name of one of the new tracks And where Swift performed her first post-split Eras Tour show), notebooks with “Us” written on the front in black marker (apparently a nod to her 1999 song “The Story of Us”), and dried flowers, including lavender (perhaps symbolizing the death of the romantic feelings she expressed about Alwyn in 2022’s “Lavender Haze.”

Swift’s birthday, December 13, was also prominent inside the exhibit, along with April 19 (the new album’s official release date), a clock set to 2 p.m. and empty birdcages meant to symbolize freedom.

Swift, 34, and Alwyn, 33, called it quits in April 2023 after six years of dating. Unlike the singer’s PDA-heavy new relationship with Kelce, 34, the former couple was notoriously private, keeping much of their years-long romance out of the public eye.

Although the exact reason for their split has not yet been revealed, the “Lover” singer previously said it was because the English actor didn’t want to get married.

Swift’s “Tortured Poets Department” pop-up, presented by Spotify, is open to the public Tuesday, April 16 through Thursday, April 18 from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. at The Grove ahead of the album’s release on April 19.