Dear Reader,
When I sent out Your Complete Guide to TTPD three days ago, I was not expecting SO much to happen before TTPDâs release. It feels like just a week ago I was seeing posts and comments that Taylor wasnât doing any promotion for her new album. Oh wait, it was. Cut to the current situation, and I feel like I can hardly keep up! đ
From a revealed timetable, a music video premiere to look forward to, Apple Music searches, Spotify lyric reveals, Easter Eggs in pop-ups and more, thereâs so much going on I decided a Part 2 to this TTPD Guide was in order. With all the 2âs surrounding this album, I suppose a second part was just meant to be. So letâs get into it!
In this newsletter youâll find:
TTPD Timetable and Tonightâs Agenda
Breaking Down The Video
8pm Music Video Premiere
April 19th Board Meeting Agenda
Apple Musicâs Word of the Day, Completed
Spotifyâs TTPD Library Pop-Up in LA
Taylorâs Spotify Lyric Reveal Videos
Chicago Murals and Error Codes
iHeartRadioâs TTPD Album Premiere
Taylor Swiftâs Instagram Countdown
Useful Links Roundup
TTPD Timetable and Tonightâs Agenda
Just like we had a Midnights release week schedule, a couple of days ago Taylor Swift shared one for TTPD! We can only see the first day and a half of the schedule so far, meaning there could be a lot to come. For Midnights the schedule included: two music videos, two TV interviews and a special chaotic surprise on release day. Weâll see what goes down for TTPD.
Breaking Down the Video
Yesterday, April 17th, Taylor Swift and Taylor Nation shared this video. Taylorâs caption called it âThe TTPD Timetableâ, and Taylor Nationâs said: âIf entry into THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT is what you seek, step out of the Midnights room and enjoy a peek.đŞ Add another board meeting to your #TTPDTimetable on Friday at 8pm ET for a music video premiere!â
Hereâs a breakdown of the video:
The video starts with a clock set at 2 o'clock in the Midnights room. As the camera zooms out we see a green couch with a cello, reminding me of this birthday post Taylor shared of her and Jack in the studio (she has a cello on her lap). On the table we can see a Midnights vinyl and scattered glitter gel pens. During the Midnights album roll-out, Taylor shared playlists (similar to her recent 5 Stages of Heartbreak playlists) with some of her discography categorized into three playlists: Glitter Gel Pen Songs, Fountain Pen Songs and Quill Pen Songs.
Itâs been reported that the TTPD library at the Spotify pop-up (more on that later) has fountain and quill pens, but no gel pens. So it looks like glitter gel pens are getting left behind in the Midnights era, and weâre entering into an era of quill and feather pen songs. Taylor described quill pen songs as using âwords and phrasings [that] are antiquatedâ; and fountain pen songs as songs with âmodern storyline or references, with a poetic twistâ.
The camera then zooms through the room to a door, passing by crumpled up papers and Midnights variant vinyls lying on the floor. Thereâs also photographs on the wall of Taylor with other Midnights collaborations, including Jack Antonoff, Lana Del Ray, and Zoey Kravitz.
We then get into a hallway, which is blindingly white and sterile, until we arrive at a door labeled âThe Tortured Poets Departmentâ. We go through the doorâs keyhole, and enter TTPDâs room. This room has doubles of so many things! 2 desks, 2 chairs, 2 cups of coffee, etc. Thereâs plastic bags that could possibly be evidence bags, and white folders that maybe hold case files? The camera pans to the wall, showing another clock pointing at 2 o'clock. On a cork board are a few photographs held up with thumbtacks, and we finally zoom into the TTPD Timetable.
All we can see from the schedule is Friday and a very small amount of Saturday. Friday has handwritten, âââ THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT RELEASE DAY âââ. Then underneath, the very exciting second event of the day is written in at 8pm ET - a TTPD Music Video release!! At the bottom of the day there are 14 tally marks. On Saturday we can see part of the phrase ârecord store dayâ, and the second line of the notes section at the bottom of the page, has the handwritten word âtimeâ.
This video really brought up the recurrence of 2âs, a continuing theme around this album. It also gave us our first look at the TTPD room. The white TTPD room looks like those rooms in TV crime dramas where autopsies are conducted, so thatâs interesting. The fact that weâre sticking with album-themed rooms continues the idea of the Lover house, where each era had its own room in that house. The announcement of a new music video is also quite notable - so weâll cover that next!
8pm Music Video Premiere
Super excitingly, weâre getting a TTPD music video on TTPD release day! Itâs crazy that we hardly have to wait any time to see this one. We havenât had a music video since âI Can See Youâ for Speak Now (Taylorâs Version). 1989 (Taylorâs Version) didnât have a music video. So it feels extra exciting to get one for this new album.
Due to the 14 tally marks found under the music video on the TTPD Timetable, many were speculating that the music video and first single from the album could be âFortnightâ (a period of 14 days), or Track 14: âThe Smallest Man Who Ever Livedâ. Today, Taylor confirmed with this post that it will indeed be âFortnight feat. Post Maloneâ!
April 19th Board Meeting Agenda
Earlier today, Taylor Nation shared this post from The Tortured Poets Department intern, including the agenda for tonightâs board meeting. It includes the 12 tracks on TTPDâs standard edition as the 12am Discussion Topics, asks that members press play simultaneously so that we can review the evidence together, and advices bringing a dictionary. I love the attention to detail and those small touches in posts like these, that just make being a Swiftie so much fun!
Apple Musicâs Word of the Day Completed
Have you been taking part in Apple Musicâs Word of the Day challenge? Itâs been so fun to scour songs looking for capitalized letters to unscramble. Today we got the final word of our phrase. Iâll go through each dayâs word, which song it was found in, the playlist that song came from (out of the 5 Taylor recently shared), and then finish off with the final phrase.
April 13thâs Word: HEREBY - found in Glitch (on the âDenialâ playlist)
April 14thâs Word: CONDUCT - found in peace (on the âBargainingâ playlist)
April 15thâs Word: THIS - found in Better Than Revenge (on the âAngerâ playlist)
April 16thâs Word: POST, found in Clean (on the âAcceptanceâ playlist)
April 17thâs Word: WE, found in We Were Happy (on the âDepressionâ playlist)
April 18thâs Word: MORTEM, found in Begin Again (on the âAcceptanceâ playlist)
The final phrase says: WE HEREBY CONDUCT THIS POSTMORTEM
The definition of postmortem is: an examination of a dead body to determine the cause of death. Oh. MY.
I also put together this quick reel showing the whole phrase, and how it made the end of âYouâre Losing Meâ hit even harder than before. You know how her heartbeat is in the background of that song? And how at the very end it stops, after the lyrics âmy heart wonât start anymoreâ? Then put that together with this phrase. I know đ
Spotifyâs TTPD Library Pop-Up in LA
On April 16th, Spotify put up a pop-up TTPD Library, inviting Swifties to look through the scene and spot all kinds of Easter Eggs. Even though I was just recently in LA, I traveled back home to the other side of the country a few weeks ago, so sadly couldnât make the pop-up in person. But thanks to social media, I feel like Iâve been able to experience some of it through my phone screen. This Spotify post about the pop-up also has a great video with lots of close-ups (swipe to the third frame of the carousel)! Thereâs so many Easter Eggs to spot:
A clock set to 2 o'clock.
TTPD lyrics, which updated every day of the pop-up to match the revealed lyrics on Spotifyâs videos.
Bookshelves containing books labeled with TTPD tracks.
A desktop calendar with the date December 13 Friday. The fact that December 13th, Taylorâs 35th birthday, falls on a Friday the 13th this year is wild. Definitely keep an eye out for something going down that day.
A globe with a pin in Florida - for the TTPD track âFlorida!!!â
Quill and fountain pens, with no glitter gel pens in sight.
A jar containing puzzle pieces with lines and letters.
A vase with dried flowers, which have been speculated to be lavender and cornelia rose - for âLavender Hazeâ and âCornelia Streetâ đ
A typewriter and a magnifying glass - common imagery around this album.
72 small drawers, which look like a library catalog.
Blacked out windows.
A hand making the âpeaceâ sign, or it could be interpreted as holding up the number two - much like what Taylor did when she announced the album.
A recurring comment I came across from people who went in person, was that the 2âs were 2ing again!
Taylorâs Spotify Lyric Reveal Videos
Every day of TTPD release week, Spotify has been sharing videos on the TTPD album page with what Taylor Nation has confirmed are TTPD lyrics. Her first video was an introduction to TTPDâs release week. Each video afterwards has been of Taylor typing a new lyric on a typewriter. I copied below a transcript of her introduction, along with the revealed lyrics from each day:
âHey Spotify, happy release week of The Tortured Poets Department album. Make sure to pre-save the album and keep checking back for more updates from the department.â
âEven statues crumble if theyâre made to waitâ
âOne less temptress. One less dagger to sharpenâ
âLost the game of chance, what are the chances?â
âAs she was leaving, it felt like breathingâ
âCome one, come all. Itâs happening again"
Chicago Murals and Error Codes
On April 16th a mural showed up in Chicago that has brought up many questions. The mural is of a QR code surrounded by âpartially faded lines of code that, upon taking a closer look, appear to be made up of repeating â13âs and âTTPDâsâ (from Billboard).
The QR code, when scanned, takes you to an error code on Taylorâs YouTube Channel. What really made eyebrows raise is that the error code is â321â - the same error code we got on the day Taylor announced TTPD. At the time, many of us thought that the error code was pointing to a Reputation (Taylorâs Version) announcement at the Grammys that night. She announced TTPD instead. It feels quite curious that this error code is popping back up.
iHeartRadio's TTPD Album Premiere
iHeartRadio will be celebrating release day in style by playing The Tortured Poets Department album in full at midnight, along with exclusive audio from Taylor Swift herself. You can check out more about the event here on their website. Especially if you donât have access to a physical copy of the album or streaming services, this could be a great option to listen to the full album the minute itâs released!
Taylor Swiftâs Instagram Countdown
Finally, one last fun fact Iâll leave you with (if you havenât come across it already) is Taylor's hidden countdown on Instagram. If you go to her profile, and swipe down, youâll first see the words âThe Tortured Poets Departmentâ at the top of the screen. Keep pulling down and youâll get taken to a real time countdown to the albumâs release. Iâm not sure what will happen when we get to midnight and the album is released - maybe itâll just disappear? But itâs such a cool little detail to add even more fun to the madness of the TTPD album rollout.
Useful Links Roundup
Taylor Swiftâs 5 Stages of Heartbreak Playlists (with links to the playlists on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music and YouTube)
TTPD Album page on Spotify
TTPD Album page on Apple Music
Thatâs a wrap on my TTPD Guides preparing us for the album release! I really hope you have found them helpful. In 7 hours weâll be listening to TTPD, and Iâm wishing you an amazing first listening experience and Iâm sure many more after. Look out for more TTPD content post-release. Iâll be filming a reaction video for YouTube, and will share my first thoughts and reactions on my upcoming April 22nd Dear Reader newsletter, going out to all paid subscribers.
Iâve so enjoyed working on these bonus emails and TTPD Guides - thank you for all of the love youâre showing this series! I especially appreciate your paid subscriptions, which really help to support all of that work. If youâre interested and able to upgrade to a paid subscription, Iâm so excited to share those bonus emails with you! Your support at any level youâre able to offer - whether itâs paid subscriptions, sharing these emails, commenting, liking, and reading - honestly means the world đŤś
I canât wait to listen to this album with you, and to share in our thoughts, musings, and tears together. In the meantime,
âCome one, come all. Itâs happening againâ,
Bekah
đś Can I Ask You a Question? đś
Have you been keeping up with all the extra reveals, Easter Eggs, and announcements Taylorâs been sharing leading up t TTPDâs release? Let me know if I missed anything!
Which revealed TTPD lyric is your favorite? The lyric, âAs she was leaving, it felt like breathingâ really hit me hard đ
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Wow, Bekah!!! What an amazing job keeping up with this crazy week! I have stayed on top of most of it because I have the week off (it's vacation week at the school where I work, not because of TTPDđ). I'm so excited to listen!
I am most shook by "Even statues crumble if theyâre made to wait." This is just a đwowđ for me.
my fav released TTPD lyric is âlost the game of chance, what are the chances?â iâve been sooooo excited for fortnight for soooooo long but ima be called basic of its my fav :(