It began with a countdown. From the second Taylor Swift posted the ticking timer final month, it has been all eyes and ears on the previous snake queen. And for the primary time in a very long time, she’s giving us what seems to be a conventional album rollout, full with scheduled releases, a slew of radio and print conversations, and televised appearances. If her rule of the Fame period was there shall be no rationalization, the TS7 motto appears to be extra, you possibly can’t spell ‘remark’ with out ‘me!’
So what will we find out about Swift’s seventh album to this point? Nicely, not a lot, conclusively — which is precisely how she likes it. However due to her restored curiosity in interviews and her intelligent easter eggs, there’s a lot we will surmise concerning the tightly guarded mission. Test it out beneath, and preserve this web page bookmarked — we’ll be including extra intel because it is available in.
ME! IS PROBABLY A DIVERSION
Swift’s lead singles are usually purple herrings that supply little perception into the album to return (see: We Are By no means Ever Getting Again Collectively, Shake It Off, and Look What You Made Me Do). Swift admitted in her Leisure Weekly cowl story, Numerous the time I will decide a primary single as a result of I like the sensation it conveys, realizing that there is much more on the album that is very completely different from that first single.
Count on ME!, launched in April, to be an analogous deflection for a mission that’ll cowl the emotional spectrum, as she informed the magazine. I positively don’t wanna have an excessive amount of of 1 factor. You get some joyful songs and also you get the bops, as they are saying… [and also] actually, actually, actually, actually unhappy songs.
The deeper stuff, then, will come later, as with Swift’s earlier eras. She places the WANEGBT’s out first, and saves the All Too Nicely’s for the album.
IT’LL BE MORE RED THAN REP
Swift’s fourth album, 2012’s Pink, bridged her nation and pop eras, and was the closest factor she’s given us to a conventional singer-songwriter document. Notably, that was a time period Swift utilized in EW when describing TS7. She defined, This time round I really feel extra snug being courageous sufficient to be weak, as a result of my followers are courageous sufficient to be weak with me. As soon as individuals delve into the album, it’s going to grow to be fairly clear that that is extra of the fingerprint of this — that it is way more of a singer-songwriter, private journey than the final one.
It might be, then, that her resolution to unearth deep cuts on the Fame Tour — like Pink’s Holy Floor, The Fortunate One, and All Too Nicely — was much less a nostalgic journey and extra a foreshadowing.
NEW LABEL, NEW COLLABORATORS?
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Upon the tip of her contract with Huge Machine Information final yr, Swift famously signed a landmark take care of UMG and Republic Information. In fact, artists aren’t confined to their label when selecting collaborators, however they’re actually inspired to work with labelmates, and Republic has some fascinating candidates on its roster. Swift’s new cohorts embrace powerhouses like Ariana Grande and Drake — the latter of whom she’s lengthy been rumored to collab with — in addition to a few of her personal private mates, like Lorde, Hailee Steinfeld, and Jonas Brothers. May a number of of those artists have earned a spot on TS7?
SHE WORKED WITH NEW PEOPLE BEHIND THE SCENES
Upon the ME! video’s arrived in April, it was shocking to see that Swift co-directed the candy-coated dream alongside veteran Dave Meyers. For one, Meyers had by no means helmed a Swift video earlier than. Extra notably, it meant that she was broadening her scope of administrators — when you’ll keep in mind, each video from the Fame period, and about half from the 1989 period, have been directed by Joseph Kahn.
Elsewhere behind the scenes, ME! marked Swift’s first time working with producer Joel Little, a frequent Lorde and Khalid collaborator. Whether or not she additionally reunited with a few of her go-to producers — like Jack Antonoff and Max Martin — remains to be TBD, however she did inform Zane Lowe, I did work with some new individuals this time round, which is basically enjoyable.
IT HAD A TIGHT TURNAROUND
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Swift informed EW that she made TS7 in lower than three months, revealing that she posted her notorious palm bushes pic on IG the day she completed the album. That was on February 24, and he or she performed her last Fame Tour present on November 21, so there wasn’t a lot time between leaving the stage and hitting the studio.
She recalled to Kiss 92.5, I just about received into the studio once I received off tour and stayed there. I used to be very able to make the following factor. I knew precisely what I needed to make subsequent.
Even so, when Ellen DeGeneres requested her this week if the album was completed, Swift gave a surprisingly loosey-goosey reply. Yeah, she stated, except I write one thing else, after which I will simply put it on the album.
YOU’LL NEED A LOT OF TIME TO LISTEN TO IT
Swift informed EW that her impending mission shall be her lengthiest thus far, which implies it’s going to be at the very least 17 songs lengthy (Pink, her present lengthiest launch, has 16 tracks). She stated, I began to jot down a lot that I knew instantly it might in all probability be greater. … There’s a variety of rather a lot on this album.
That revelation has bolstered the favored fan principle that TS7 might be a double album, or that it will comprise 30 songs to commemorate her 30th birthday this yr. The conspiracies abound!
IF ART MIRRORS LIFE, THERE COULD BE A LOT OF LOVE SONGS
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Contemplate this: For the primary time in her profession, Swift is about to drop an album whereas courting the identical particular person she was with on the time of her final album. (No shade; simply information.) That’d be British actor Joe Alwyn, whom she had already been courting for a yr when Fame arrived in 2017. It is her longest public relationship by far, and though she and Alwyn admirably preserve issues away from the general public eye, it might imply we’re in for a few of Swift’s deepest love songs but.
THERE ARE LAYERS UPON LAYERS OF CLUES IN ME!
Swift has a well-documented historical past of planting breadcrumbs for detective-minded Swifties to find. However she could have outdone herself with ME!, admitting that there are dozens of references hidden within the vid.
In a Capital FM interview, she defined, First spherical is stuff that they will see that predicts what is going to occur in a pair months. There’s second-tier easter eggs which shall be revealed upon the album. Then there’s third-tier easter eggs, that are probably the most deeply embedded easter eggs, which shall be proven on the tour. Exhausted but?
WE ALREADY KNOW WHAT THE ALBUM IS CALLED… KINDA
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On Twitter, Swift divulged that the brand new album title is definitely revealed someplace within the video AND so is the title of the second single. She indicated to Lowe that many followers had picked up the album identify already, and there are quite a lot of in style guesses making the rounds. Amongst them: House, Daisy, Coronary heart, Lover, and Kaleidoscope.
NEW ERA, FRESH AESTHETIC
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Gone are the darkness and snakes that outlined the brooding Fame period. As you have actually picked up by now, Swift is embracing a sunnier, extra pastel-hued aesthetic for TS7, which followers picked up on again in February together with her IG overhaul.
I actually was simply attempting to vary up my Instagram aesthetic to prepare for the brand new album, she defined to Fox Melbourne. I used to be simply posting pastel photos to attempt to go from a darkish to a light-weight, and type of present them what the colour scheme could be for the following album.
In an iHeartRadio interview, Taylor additional described this period as mischievous, glittery, and a bit bit extra playful than final time. She echoed that sentiment with Lowe, including that it is way more playful and truly inward-facing, and extra about her as an individual. It is type of taking these partitions down from round you that I felt like I needed to put up.
SHE OWES IT ALL TO HER FANS
The pace with which she made her new album, the constructive power surrounding it, and the lightness of her new aesthetic can all be credited to her Swifties, she says. She defined to Lowe, I actually do credit score the followers for the whole resurgence of exuberance and pleasure in the direction of music and making new music. And the way in which that I felt about this enthusiasm in the direction of making new music is what made me get within the studio so quick and simply make music actually rapidly after the tour. I used to be searching into the group and seeing a lot love and care and these individuals actually, actually are so fantastic to me they usually actually have been those that made me really feel like no, I am able to put out new music.
She added, I am able to type of do it a bit bit extra like I used to. I really feel extra snug.
Sounds just like the Previous Taylor is not useless in any case.
