Taylor Swift announced on Tuesday night (April 16) that her new music video is set to drop shortly after her 11th studio album Department of Tormented Poets arrives later this week — but it didn't stop there. The pop star also posted a cryptic Instagram video filled with Easter eggs for her new season, leaving Swifties scrambling to decipher them in time.
The mysterious clip begins with an animated first-person view of a room filled with crumpled papers, colorful vinyl, photos and other items that refer to Swift's latest album, Midnight. He then simulates the viewer exiting the room, walking down a stark corridor and entering another wing labeled 'The Tortured Poets Department', in which a diary hanging on the wall reveals that the singer's new perspective will fall at 8 p.m. ET Friday (April 19), 8 p.m. later Tormented poets reaches streaming services.
The calendar doesn't specify which of Swift's new record's 16 songs will get the music video treatment, but it does provide a possible clue. Towards the bottom, someone scored 14 points, possibly indicating that the song in question is 14th on the track list, also known as “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived”.
Or, it could be a reference to a track, “Fortnight” featuring Post Malone. (How many days are in a fortnight? That's right, 14.)
The video comes as Swifties continue to dig into what's hidden on Spotify Tormented poets pop-up library in Los Angeles, which is decorated with texts, dried flowers, figurines and more. Most enticing is a book of stanzas displayed in a clear case, the pages of which turn in an unknown program to reveal one new verse at a time. Recently, it carried the message: “One less temptation, one less dagger to sharpen.”
But fans might be remiss not to look for Easter eggs in Swift's new animation, especially when it comes to what's left behind in Midnight room. Swiftie sleuths on the internet have already begun to come up with theories about the sunshine streaming through the windows, the time displayed by a wall clock and the gel pens littered on the table (linked to something the pop star once said about how she mentally categorizes her songs ).
Check out the clip, as well as some Swiftie-inspired theories, below.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/taylor-swift-first-tortured-poets-department-music-video-announced-1235658776/
