Why Fans Think Taylor Swift Shaded Joe Alwyn With New Album Title ‘The Tortured Poets Department’
Joe Alwyn may want to sleep with one eye open on April 19! The actor’s ex Taylor Swift is releasing her new album, The Tortured Poets Department, on that date and fans think the title is a shady reference to Joe.
After Taylor, 34, announced the album title at the Grammys on Sunday, February 3, Swifties quickly uncovered an interview that Joe, 32, did in December 2022. While sitting down with Paul Mescal for Variety’s Actors on Actors segment, the Conversations With Friends star discussed a group chat he was in called The Tortured Man Club.
“It hasn’t had much use recently,” Joe admitted in the interview, to which Paul, 28, replied, “No. I feel like we’re less tortured now.” The guys also revealed that Andrew Scott was the third member of the WhatsApp group.
Taylor and Joe’s split was first reported in April 2023, but they had reportedly already been broken up for several months at that point. Taylor’s friend and producer Jack Antonoff also recently revealed that the pop star penned the song “You’re Losing Me,” which is seemingly about her breakup from Joe, in December 2021, so fans have speculated that the exes had been having issues for quite some time before they actually ended things.
The “Karma” songstress announced her new album while accepting the award for Best Pop Solo Album at the Grammys. She took home the honor for her October 2022 record, Midnights. Later in the evening, she also won Album of the Year, making her the first artist to ever win that honor four times.
Along with The Tortured Poets Department reveal, Taylor shared that she had been keeping the album a secret from fans for two years, which dates the album’s conception to months before the release of Midnights. The reveal had fans in a frenzy as they tried to work out the timeline, but Taylor has stayed tight-lipped so far.
However, she did further tease the release by sharing the album cover on Instagram, along with a poem that gave some insight into what we can expect from the music.
“And so I enter into evidence my tarnished coat of arms,” the poem said. “My muses, acquired like bruises, my talismans and charms. The tick, tick, tick of love bombs, my veins of pitch black ink.”
The Tortured Poets Department will be coming out in the midst of Taylor’s Eras tour, which begins its next string of shows on Wednesday, February 7. After four nights in Tokyo, the Grammy winner is expected to fly back to the United States to support Travis Kelce in the Super Bowl on February 11. She then has several shows in Australia before the tour goes on hiatus until May.
