Taylor Swift Unveils a Bold New Lyric From ‘Tortured Poets Department’: ‘Even Statues Crumble’

The streaming service premiered the snippet of an unknown track at its Swiftie library installation in Los Angeles Tuesday, the first of three days the pop-up is set to take place. A display case resting on pressed flowers and a lacy white veil at the event finds an open book of “Tortured Poets Department” stationary reading the new lyric in all-caps: “Even statues crumble if they’re made to wait.”

Around the same time, a video appeared on the Spotify page for Tortured Poets showing Swift herself sitting at a typewriter, hammering out the same phrase.

The revelation isn’t the first time the metaphor-loving Grammy winner has given fans a taste of the new album, which follows her 2022 Billboard 200-topping LP Midnights. On April 8, the day of the 2024 total solar eclipse, she shared the topical lyric on social media: “Crowd goes wild at her fingertips. Half moonshine, full eclipse.”

Then, on Sunday (April 14), Swift celebrated the news that Target would be carrying special vinyl variants of Tortured Poets by posting another fragment: “I wish I could un-recall how we almost had it all.”

It’s also possible that the taglines assigned to each deluxe edition of the record double as lyrics. For instance, the backside of “The Manuscript” version of the project features the phrase “I love you, it’s ruining my life,” while “The Bolter” carries the message, “You don’t get to tell me about sad.”

The very first piece of the album Swift gifted to fans, however, came on the day she announced Tortured Poets at the 2024 Grammys. Shortly after breaking the news during her best pop vocal album acceptance speech, the superstar posted on Instagram: “And so I enter into evidence my tarnished coat of arms/ My muses, acquired like bruises, my talismans and charms/ The tick, tick, tick of love bombs/ My veins of pitch black ink/ All’s fair in love and poetry …”

See how Spotify unveiled the new Tortured Poets Department lyric below.

A #TSTTPD lyric has been revealed at today’s in person board meeting! 🤍 https://t.co/lNMrOG6ZVK

— Taylor Nation (@taylornation13) April 16, 2024

NEW SPOTIFY VIDEO!!! #TSTTPD @taylornation13 pic.twitter.com/OssXMc3z8Q

— imogen (Taylor’s version) (@1mogenn) April 16, 2024