Swiftly Spoken

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 nic...

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...

As we continue to explore The Tortured Poets Department, in this episode we update our “songs that fit on other albums” series by attempting to classify Taylor Swift’s 31 songs compiled on The Anthology version of TTPD onto all of her previous ten studio albums. With some difficulty along the way, we chronologically work our way through her discography, matching songs with lyrical, sonic or themat...

After listening to Taylor Swift’s eleventh studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, for the last few months, we decided to revisit the five playlists created back in April as a way to promote the project. While prior to the release we initially discussed these playlists and the songs they included, back then we promised to have another look once the new tracks from TTPD and the anthology had b...

After taking a brief pause from the Taylor’s Version project, we make the most of the height of The Eras Tour to look back at our old predictions for Taylor’s re-recorded albums. We go through some of the ideas and possible vault tracks we uncovered over the last couple of years and firstly compare our Speak Now and 1989 predictions to the real thing. This leads us into discussing the future for R...

This Friday Taylor Swift finally brings The Eras Tour to London for the first round of shows.  To celebrate, we have decided to compile all of the most interesting places a swiftie may want to visit in and around the English capital, including an in-depth review of all of the places mentioned in London Boy, as well as a long list of other, lesser known, interesting stops. From traditional pubs, ex...

In this episode we are finally giving some of our first-hand thoughts, tips, reactions and recommendations for Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour after one of us was recently lucky enough to attend their local shows, while the other’s tour dates are just around the corner!! We go through some of the highlights of the concert, including Taylor’s changes in outfits, the new Tortured Poets Department secti...

We finally give our reactions to the surprise second half of The Tortured Poets Department, a collection of incredible songs that transform the project into an Anthology! We reveal some of our absolute favourites, speculate about why Taylor may have chosen to add only four of these tracks onto the physical deluxe albums and analyse our favourite lyrics from these poetic songs.

In this episode we finally sit down after having gathered our thoughts on Taylor Swift’s eleventh studio album and discuss all of the intricate details and lyrics weaved into the standard version of The Tortured Poets Department. We give our first reactions to the revealing tracks, break down overarching themes and make tentative connections to previous work and between tracks. We also attempt to...

In our last episode before the release of The Tortured Poets Department, we break down Taylor Swift’s five stages of heartbreak playlists which she recently released through Apple Music. Said to have been inspired by Swiftie theories, these five lists compile many of her most loved tracks into the themes of denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. We go through these carefully selecte...

With under a month to go for The Tortured Poets Department, inspired by a similar episode we made when Midnights was released, we decided to get together to create a list of thirteen songs we think should be listened to as a sort of “prequel” to Taylor Swift’s eleventh studio album. As we compiled this list we kept in mind lyrical content that might be paralleled, genre and sounds that could be ex...

As the most recent leg of The Eras Tour comes to an end, we’re getting closer and closer to Taylor Swift’s eleventh studio album, The Tortured Poets Department. With just over a month to go we discuss everything we know about the four exclusive versions of the album, the lyrics that have been revealed, the details Taylor has given about the creation of her latest project, and of course we recap th...

A couple of years ago Taylor Swift decided to classify her music into three groups, depending on the type of symbolic pen she felt like they were written with. The fun-loving, care-free, bubbly glitter gel pen; the confessional, heart-wrenching fountain pen; and the old-timey, poetic quill. Over time she released three playlists which included many of her songs classified into these groups, howeve...

After the surprise announcement Taylor gave on Sunday night at the Grammys we got together for an emergency episode in which we react to the exciting news of a new album being released on April 19th. We chat about Taylor's Grammy wins, her record breaking win for Album of the Year, and then of course theorise about The Tortured Poets Department. From the name, to the concept, to the confirmed trac...

As we have previously mentioned, we love breaking down strange relations between Taylor’s music, and that’s exactly what we do in this week’s episode. We discuss the relations between Taylor Swift’s ten studio albums, connecting them lyrically, thematically, based on real life events, or sometimes just purely due to vibes. Starting with Red we work our way through how we view these relations betwe...

In our first episode back this year we discuss some of our predictions for what Taylor Swift may release or surprise us with in 2024. To do so, we describe our bingo board, which includes references to Reputation (Taylor’s Version), the upcoming possible changes to The Eras Tour, and the possibility of TS11, Taylor’s rumoured eleventh studio album. We also go through some of our hopes and dreams f...

Welcome to the final episode of 2023! In this one we celebrate Taylor’s amazing year as we reminisce over the many releases, tour dates, performances, and magic moments we’ve lived through over the last twelve months. We also announce the winners of our Swiftly Spoken Awards voted for by you! We’d like to thank you all for joining us this year and wish you all a very happy and healthy New Year!

To celebrate the holidays we explore Taylor’s Christmas EP, initially released in 2007! We go over its multiple releases as well as the name change from Sounds of the Season: The Taylor Swift Holiday Collection to its shorter version. Then we talk about the four covers Taylor included on this release in addition to her original two Christmas time songs, which are very different to what you may ima...

This week we delve into all things Taylor Swift (Taylor’s Version), the final re-recording we have yet to discuss! When it comes to Taylor’s 2006 debut album, the reclaimed version has a lot of potential we explore in this episode, including the possible album aesthetics, release and promo predictions, and of course what may be included on the tracklist. Alongside the standard and deluxe songs, we...

Motivated by Taylor Swift’s recent viral lyric change at The Eras Tour in Argentina, this week we explore some of her most memorable live lyric changes that have the potential to completely shift the interpretation of the full song! We go through our favourite performances that add or adjust lyrics from each and every era, which include an entire bridge added to Permanent Marker, a sweet shout out...

We finally get together to discuss all things 1989 (Taylor’s Version), including how well the rerecording fares against the original version, the changes in producers, the newly revealed cut lyrics from songs like Wonderland and New Romantics, and, of course, those incredible Vault Tracks! We break down some of the lyric parallels as well as try and work out why these songs never made the cut back...

Last week we both attended the premiere screenings of The Eras Tour Film, and were overjoyed to see Taylor Swift’s record breaking performance in HD! In this episode we go over our experiences, from exchanging friendship bracelets, collecting the exclusive merch, and finding the appropriate moment to go to the bathroom. We also discuss our favourite moments from the movie, including the details we...

With 1989 (Taylor’s Version) just around the corner, we make our return by going over all of the hidden details that have slowly been revealed over the last couple of weeks, including Sweeter Than Fiction (Taylor’s Version) being included on the Tangerine edition! We then break down all of the current theories and rumours surrounding the 1989 (TV) release. Some of the most prominent ones mention a...

This week we look into a phenomenon known in the music industry as the sophomore slump, which usually occurs when an artist's second album underperforms or underwhelms in comparison to their debut project. We explore how the term came about, look into the reasons behind why the sophomore slump may occur and then discuss some examples of albums that seem to have either suffered or avoided the s...

This week we celebrate the two year anniversary of Swiftly Spoken Podcast by going over some of our favourite moments, memories, and episodes. We also thank you for some of our achievements along the way and reflect on everything that has changed in the Taylor Swift fandom over the last couple of years. We then move on to classifying every single Taylor Swift album as seasons, be it Lover as a sum...