Taylor Swift Calls New Album ‘The Tortured Poet’s Department’ a “Lifeline for Me” While Onstage in Melbourne

Much has happened in Taylor Swift’s life since the release of her last album, Midnights, in October 2022: she launched the record-breaking Eras Tour, which is ongoing and currently on its Australia run. She and her boyfriend of six years, Joe Alwyn, broke up last April. She and her new boyfriend, Travis Kelce, captured the world’s undivided attention upon publicly unveiling themselves as a couple in September 2023. She released a concert film about the Eras Tour, was named Time’s Person of the Year, broke yet another record at the Grammys (she’s now won Album of the Year four times), and watched her boyfriend win a Super Bowl, in overtime, no less.

So, yeah, Swift has a lot of possible content opportunities for her next record, The Tortured Poet’s Department, which drops April 19—a reveal she made at the Grammys. During her concert last night in Melbourne, Swift said of the forthcoming album that “I needed to make it. It was really a lifeline for me,” per Us Weekly. “It sort of reminded me why songwriting is something that actually gets me through life and I’ve never had an album where I’ve needed songwriting more than I needed it on Tortured Poets.”

The Tortured Poet Department is Swift’s eleventh studio album, and last night she also revealed to the Melbourne crowd that there would be a special bonus version of the record. “I wanted to show you something tonight because we’ve got an alternate cover to The Tortured Poets Department that nobody has seen and there’s an exclusive song on this vinyl called ‘The Bolter,’” she said in the leadup to a surprise song performance of “You’re Losing Me,” a vault track from Midnights. “This is called ‘The Bolter Edition.’ Look at that cover, it’s so tortured [and] so poetic. I wanted to show that to you here in Melbourne because you’ve just been the best that you could possibly be.”

“The Bolter Edition” features a sepia-toned photo of the performer lying on a bed looking off into the distance, taken also by Beth Garrabrant, who photographed the other album cover, as well.

Of announcing the record onstage at the Grammys, “I had told my friends, I told [producer] Jack [Antonoff], but I hadn’t really told very many other people,” Swift said onstage earlier this month in Japan. “I thought, ‘Okay, if I’m lucky enough to win one thing tonight, I’m just gonna do it. I’m just gonna announce my album.’ And luckily enough, that ended up happening.”

She added “My backup plan was I was gonna do it tonight in Tokyo,” she said. “But thanks to you and your support, I was lucky enough to win a Grammy and tell you about it onstage at the Grammys,” before adding that “We can debrief tonight and talk about it.”