Welcome to a new series in which each month on or around the 13th we’ll be celebrating one of Taylor Swift’s eleven studio albums. To do so we’ll be diving back into each album by revisiting every song and exploring some interesting, curious, niche, or simply just fun facts. In this first episode we’re going to be travelling back in time almost 20 years to celebrate Taylor’s very first album - lovingly referred to as debut.

We have finally come to the end of one of the most exciting and triumphant years for Taylor Swift. From historic award wins, to the end of the Eras Tour and even the release of a record breaking album in the midst of it all, 2024 has been an incredible year for her. As for us as fans, we were lucky enough to experience the tour first hand and enjoy all of the content released over the last twelve months. But how did this year turn out in comparison to our predictions? And what were your favourite moments? We’ll be finding out as we take a look back at our bingo card we made in January of this year as well as announcing the winners of our annual award show!

When it comes to Taylor Swift using swear words in her music, the amount of profanity she has used over time has slowly but surely grown. So much so that on one single song on The Tortured Poets Department she curses more than she had over the course of her previous 10 studio albums. For a lyricist such as Taylor, the choice of these words are very deliberate, which makes the need to produce clean versions of the same tracks very interesting as she purposefully must select words to convey a similar meaning. While this is the case for some songs, other times the alternate versions showcase extremely interesting choices that reveal a new side to the song.

To celebrate Taylor Swift’s recent Grammy nominations, this week we look into the Best New Artist Grammy curse, establishing the history behind it, deciphering the logical reasons many of these acts may have suffered, and speaking about some specific cases over the years. We’ll of course be going over Taylor’s nomination from back in the day, discussing famous cases, and finally briefly going over next year's (2025) nominees which include artists like Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, Benson Boone and RAYE among others.

A controversial topic that has been widely discussed over the last seven months has been the many versions that exist of The Tortured Poets Department. Ranging from the spreadsheets and charts fans have made to track which edition contains what, to the arguments over the fairness of Taylor’s tactics when it comes to these releases, or even the confusion over why they existed at all while the anthology was still confined to streaming. It’s been a contentious topic that has seemed to finally lead up to the latest release of what seems to be the definitive edition of Taylor’s eleventh studio album.

In this episode we speak about every single edition and version of TTPD that Taylor Swift has released over the last seven months, from the original special editions, to the many live covers, to the upcoming Anthology release. We discuss why they exist and how fair of a tactic it is within the current climate of the music industry. We finally go over everything we know about the Anthology, including bonus tracks, cover change, and release dates.

A decade ago Taylor Swift released 1989, a career changing and defining album. It marked her definitive shift from country to pop, served as a rebirth for her celebrity persona, and crafted an incredibly thought out narrative from start to finish. Even ten years later, this is the album that the general public most recognise Taylor for, with hits like Shake it Off, Bad Blood, and Blank Space being unescapable staples of pop culture. A year ago Taylor reclaimed her fifth studio album with the release of 1989 (Taylor’s Version) which, against all odds, outdid the original version’s opening week sales, reaffirming not only the popularity of 1989, but it’s rightful place as one of the most awarded and critically acclaimed pop albums in history.

In this episode we go through each and every Taylor Swift studio album and try to place it in a geographical location that somehow embodies the music and era. From Taylor’s roots in Pennsylvania, to the straight forward connection between 1989 and New York, and the escapism to somewhere completely chaotic and new in The Tortured Poets Department, we travel all around the world as we review every lyric that mentions a specific location then try and figure out where we would place each album on a world map.

Inspired by the viral Justin Bieber private concert held over the summer, that was reported to have cost around ten million dollars, we decided to give ourselves the same budget and design a personalised setlist we’d love to see Taylor Swift perform. With thirteen spots to fill, we deep dive into Taylor’s discography to choose our dream set experience, with some controversial choices along the way. We also explore other Taylor performances that may somehow be similar to the wedding that Justin Bieber played at and give our thoughts on those surprise appearances.

Welcome to Swiftly Spoken Season Four! This week we’re deep diving the topic of name dropping on Taylor Swift songs, from the innocent call outs in debut, to the shift in her approach after having been burned by someone else name checking Taylor herself, we’re going over every single reference Taylor has made over the years. Not only do we list all of the famous figures, made up characters and niche references, we also categorise them and try to see the patterns in each album as well as understand why Taylor made specific reference to these people in particular throughout her discography. We conclude by going through a fun “other” category in which we speak about indirect call outs, such as the waitress from the lakes or the high man in bejewelled. 

The Eras Tour has now come to an end in Europe, and in this episode we recap the chaotic London shows. From surprise guests, unexpected performances, to a random music video reveal, Cameron gives us a first hand account of how it all went down. We take a look back at the June concerts in Wembley that included Travis Kelce making his Eras Tour stage debut, Hayley Williams singing Castles Crumbling with Taylor, and Gracie Abrams’ first ever performance of us. We then compare the experience with the last few Eras shows that brought the European run to a close, these included even more amazing guests - Ed Sheeran, Florence Welch and Jack Antonoff all joined Taylor over the last five nights. We also take a moment to celebrate our podcast anniversary. To anyone who has joined us over the last three years we thank you! Stay tuned for season four, we have a lot planned!