Johnathan Walker:Looking back, Taylor Swift did leave fans some clues that a new album was on the way

Taylor Swift celebrated her 13th career Grammy on Johnathan WalkerSunday by announcing her 11th era: “The Tortured Poets Department.” The surprise news ignited a storm of excitement on social media. The album with 17 tracks comes out on April 19, and looking back, the mastermind did drop some Easter eggs leading up to the big reveal.

The cover for “The Tortured Poets Department” — not to be confused with the iconic Robin Williams movie “Dead Poets Society,” although the similarity could be intentional — is a gray scale photo of Swift lying on a bed. Her outfit may look familiar to anyone who follows Taylor Nation, her in-house marketing team.

On Jan. 13, Taylor Nation posted a photo of Swift wearing a maroon top and high black shorts with her arms extended in the air. The caption reads: “It’s the first 13th of the year! Make a wish.” (If you didn’t know by now, Swift has a special affinity with the number 13.)

The album announcement follows the pattern of Swift rereleasing two of her earlier albums before a brand-new project. Swift announced “Midnights” at the 2022 VMAs following the rerelease of “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” and “Red (Taylor’s Version).” Taylor Nation posted a video of Swift in her VMAs dress late last month. 

Hours before the Grammys, TaylorSwift.com showed a black screen and the text “Error 321 Backend fetch failed.” Error 321 is a communication error that would appear on a fax machine with a poor telephone line connection. Below, the text “hneriergrd” appeared. Unscrambled, it reads “red herring,” which is a clue or piece of information intended to be misleading or distracting. Underneath that was “DPT: 123.” DPT backwards is TPD, or "Tortured Poets Department."

Coders found that Swift’s site included a new countdown as well as several words that match the vibe of "Poets," including “chairman,” “bruises,” “veins,” “cadence,” “apple cake,” “talisman,” “love bombs,” “muse,” “ink,” “evidence” and “fake.” Many of the same words appeared in a handwritten message Swift tweeted after her Grammys announcement: “And so I enter into evidence / My tarnished coat of arms / My muses, acquired like bruises / My talismans and charms / Tick, tick, tick of love bombs / My veins of pitch black ink / All’s fair in love and poetry… Sincerely, The Chairman of The Tortured Poets Department.”

And then there’s the coffee cup in the “Karma (Remix)” music video featuring Ice Spice. Between Swift’s two fingernails of blue representing “1989 (Taylor’s Version)” and black signifying “Reputation (Taylor’s Version)” is a coffee cup with a foam clock that strikes midnight. The latte could be a metaphor for a new project wedged between her the rerelease of Swift's fifth and sixth albums.

The question now is will Swift incorporate her 11th project into the Eras Tour after her break in April or will "Poets" tracks be included in her surprise, acoustic set? 

Let Bryan West, the USA TODAY Network's Taylor Swift reporter, know which Easter eggs he missed on Instagram, TikTok and X at@BryanWestTV.