Taylor Swift took everyone off guard at the 2024 Grammys with the unexpected announcement of her latest album, ‘The Tortured Poets Department’, during her acceptance speech for Best Pop Vocal Album for ‘Midnights’. The intriguing title immediately sparked conversations among fans and music enthusiasts alike. Without delay, Swift unveiled the album’s atmospheric black-and-white cover on Instagram and teased her fans with a glimpse of its poetic essence. But she did not stop there.

In the days that followed, she treated her fans to even more than they had expected. Apparently, Taylor Swift will be dropping multiple versions of her upcoming album, with a fresh one teased recently by a well-known page.

Taylor Swift’s fourth variant of The Tortured Poets Department

TaylorNation13 on X, formerly Twitter, recently teased a new ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ variant. The page shared a tweet from a fan who was shocked to see the songstress live at 5. TaylorNation13 then retweeted it saying, “Fingers crossed the next meeting is a little later“. The meeting referred to by the page hinted at Swift’s next concert of the Eras Tour, set for March 5th in Singapore. And the anticipation stems from Swift’s history of revealing new album variants during the Eras Tour.

The announcement of the album’s two bonus versions came during Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour performances in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia. On Friday, April 19, fans can expect the release of ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ in three editions: the original version and two bonus versions. Each variant will contain one of three bonus tracks – ‘The Manuscript’, ‘The Bolter’, or ‘The Albatross’, in addition to the 16 songs featured in the standard edition. This announcement only served to increase fans’ confusion and anticipation.

Following the Swiftie tradition, fans quickly started theorizing about the potential significance of the different album versions and their bonus tracks, particularly how they might relate to Taylor Swift’s past relationship with ex-boyfriend Joe Alwyn.

Theories brewed up about The Tortured Poets Department’s variants

The bonus track ‘The Manuscript’ is set to feature exclusively on the vinyl, CD, and cassette versions of the original album edition, featuring a cover with Taylor Swift lying on white bed sheets, adorned in what appears to be black lingerie. On the cover of the second variant, ‘The Albatross’, she is captured gazing into the camera, wearing a white shirt against the backdrop of the ocean. The ocean setting of the cover correlates with the word “albatross,” which refers to a seabird commonly found near the ocean and in Australia.