The Tortured Poets Division has fairly the employees! Taylor Swift launched her extremely anticipated new double album on Friday (April 19), and throughout the LP’s 31 tracks lies a slew of references to celebrities inside and outdoors the worlds of music and poetry.
When the “Merciless Summer season” singer first revealed the Tortured Poets tracklist in February, a lot of the eye landed on the 2 high-profile featured artists. Grammy-nominated alt-rock band Florence + the Machine seems on “Florida!!!” and Submit Malone seems on “Fortnight,” which Swift confirmed because the set’s first single on Thursday (April 18).
Outdoors of these collaborations, nonetheless, the tracklist additionally included a track titled “Clara Bow.” Serving because the nearer for the album’s first disc, “Clara Bow” additionally references an American actress who rose to fame in the course of the silent-film period, transitioned to “talkies” and in the end turned a number one cultural image of the Roaring ’20s.
Because it seems, these tracks had been simply the tip of the iceberg. The Tortured Poets Division — which broke a significant Spotify document in lower than 12 hours — shouldn’t be solely impressed by Tay’s much-buzzed-about relationships with The 1975‘s Matty Healy and Kansas Metropolis Chiefs tight finish Travis Kelce, however it additionally comprises references to stars starting from Boygenius‘ Lucy Dacus to Kim Kardashian.
The Tortured Poets Division serves as each Swift’s eleventh studio album and her first album of latest music since 2022’s Grammy-winning Midnights. Longtime collaborators Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner assisted in writing and producing the document, persevering with a streak that stretches again to 2014’s 1989 for Antonoff and 2020’s Folklore for Dessner.
Maintain studying for an inventory of all of the celebrities Taylor Swift name-dropped instantly or not directly on The Tortured Poets Division.
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Charlie Puth
Track: “The Tortured Poets Division”
Lyric: “You smoked and ate seven bars of chocolate/ We declared Charlie Puth needs to be an even bigger artist”
T-Swift exhibits some main like to Charlie Puth on the title monitor. Puth has earned 4 high 10 hits on the Billboard Scorching 100, together with “Consideration” (No. 5) and the Selena Gomez-assisted “We Don’t Speak Anymore” (No. 9). On the Billboard 200, the acclaimed singer-songwriter has earned three consecutive high 10 albums.
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Lucy Dacus
Track: “The Tortured Poets Division”
Lyric: “Typically I’m wondering in case you’re going to screw this up with me/ However you inform Lucy you’d kill your self if I ever depart.”
If the Tortured Poets title monitor actually is about Swift and Healy’s relationship, “Lucy” may very well be in reference to Lucy Dacus of Boygenius. In any case, Dacus and Healy had been mates earlier than Swift entered the image, though that dynamic in the end soured. Final 12 months, Healy deactivated his X account after Dacus responded to certainly one of his tweets wherein he threw some shade at her and her Boygenius bandmates.
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Jack Antonoff
Track: “The Tortured Poets Division”
Lyric: “And I had mentioned that to Jack about you/ So I felt seen / Everybody we all know understands why it’s meant to be/ ‘Trigger we’re loopy.”
C’mon, which different Jack may Taylor presumably be referencing?!
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Dylan Thomas & Patti Smith
Track: “The Tortured Poets Division”
Lyric: “I laughed in your face and mentioned/ ‘You’re not Dylan Thomas, I’m not Patti Smith / This ain’t the Chelsea Resort, we’rе trendy idiots’”
Swift references Welsh “Do Not Go Light Into That Good Evening” poet Dylan Thomas and “As a result of the Evening” rocker Patti Smith on the title monitor for her eleventh studio album.
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Kim Kardashian
Track: “Thank You Aimee”
Lyric: “I don’t assume you’ve modified a lot/ And so I modified your identify, and any actual defining clues,” in addition to “And in the future, your child comes dwelling singin’/ A track that solely us two is gonna know is about you.”
OK, so Taylor spends the track referring to an “Aimee” and by no means really name-drops Kim Ok., however the capitalization of the track’s title — “thanK you aIMee,” with the capital letters spelling out “Kim” — is intentional, based on Swifties. Within the track, “Aimee” causes Swift “searing ache,” not not like the way in which the chips fell again in 2016 when the then-married Kim Kardashian and Ye (previously often called Kanye West) publicly sparred with Swift over the “New Slaves” rapper’s personal T-Swift name-drop in his Rihanna-assisted Billboard Scorching 100 hit “Well-known” (No. 34). Followers additionally assume the pop celebrity hints at Kim and Ye’s daughter North with the road a few little one coming singing “a track that solely us two is gonna know is about you,” a possible reference to when the fact star and North danced to certainly one of Tay’s songs in a video.
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Stevie Nicks
Track: “Clara Bow”
Lyric: “You seem like Stevie Nicks in ’75/ The hair and lips/ The group goes wild at her fingertips/ Half moonshine, a full eclipse,” Swift sings, nodding to the start of Nicks’ Fleetwood Mac period.
Stevie Nicks — who has earned 4 Scorching 100 high 10 hits and 6 Billboard 200 high 10 titles as a soloist — additionally penned a poem for the bodily copies of The Tortured Poets Division that performs on Taylor’s signature lovelorn lyricism.
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Clara Bow
Track: “Clara Bow”
Lyric: “You seem like Clara Bow on this mild/ Exceptional/ All of your life, do you know you’d be picked like a rose?”
In fact, the long-lasting actress is referenced by means of the track with a title that instantly references her.
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Taylor Swift
Track: “Clara Bow”
Lyric: “You seem like Taylor Swift on this mild/ We’re lovin’ it/ You’ve received edge, she by no means did/ The long run’s vibrant, dazzling.”
Each nice pop star indulges in a meta second. In “Clara Bow,” Taylor name-drops herself, poking enjoyable on the approach the media and the tradition at giant has perceived her artwork and persona over the course of her profession.
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The Blue Nile
Track: “Responsible as Sin?”
Lyric: “Drownin’ within the Blue Nile/ He despatched me ‘Downtown Lights’/ I hadn’t heard it shortly”
Within the opening strains of this soft-rocking Tortured Poets lower, Taylor references Scottish different band The Blue Nile. The group — who final performed collectively in 2008 — scored a Scorching 100 entry again in 1990 with “The Downtown Lights,” which reached No. 10 on Trendy Rock Tracks, now often called Various Airplay.
