All the Texas references in Taylor Swift’s new album

AUSTIN (Nexstar) — Millions of Taylor Swift fans spent the weekend listening to her new album “The Tortured Poets Department,” unpacking hidden messages and decoding lyrics in the pop star’s 11th studio album.

The 14-time Grammy winner is no stranger to breaking records, but managed to outdo herself again with the release of her 31-track double-album, “TTPD: The Anthology.”

Swift dropped the surprise double album on Friday at 1 a.m. CT after releasing the expected first one at 11 p.m. CT. Within hours of releasing the album, Swift smashed streaming records. According to Spotify, “TPPD” got 300 million streams in 24 hours.

Over the weekend, her fans — more fondly referred to as Swifties — have posted their analyses and theories on social media about the singer’s love live, “Bad Blood” with other celebrities and feelings about her larger-than-life fame.

Swifites are notorious for combing through every “Easter egg” or clue in the 34-year-old’s lyrics and have taken notice that the singer references two states in several songs: Florida and Texas.

According to Swift — who provides commentary on the songs on Amazon Music — the song “Florida!!!” featuring Florence + the Machine tells the story of someone trying to escape the pain of heartache, fantasizing about moving to Florida as that escape. In her commentary, Swift says the inspiration came from watching “Dateline.”

“People have these crimes that they commit. Where do they immediately skip town and go to? They go to Florida,” Swift said. “They try to reinvent themselves, have a new identity, blend in. I think when you go through a heartbreak, there’s a part of you that thinks, ‘I want a new name. I want a new life. I don’t want anyone to know where I’ve been or know me at all.’ And so that was the jumping off point. Where would you go to reinvent yourself and blend in? Florida!”

During her 2023 Eras tour, Swift did shows in back-to-back weekends going from Arlington to Tampa and then back to Houston.

Swift sings of two direct references to Texas

Her first nod to the Lone Star State is in “Florida!!!” featuring Florence + the Machine, where both Swift and Florence Welch sing of excitement about ditching the Lone Star State: “So you pack your life away just to wait out the s**t storm back in Texas.”

On a second direct reference, Swift calls out Texas’ infamously-intricate (and indefinitely under construction) highways. In “I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can),” Swift writes, “The dopamine races through his brain / On a six-lane Texas highway.”

The album doesn’t only include direct mentions of Texas. The album’s lead single, “Fortnight,” features rapper and singer Austin Richard Post, who goes by Post Malone and calls Grapevine, Texas home. Post was also just featured in Beyoncé’s debut country album, Cowboy Carter.

Aside from the lyrics, some fans have pointed to a notable shift in the 34-year-old singer’s Eras tour set list during her Texas stops.

During the folklore set, Swift originally opened with her song “invisible string,” a love song about fate drawing two people together. It’s rumoured to be written about her then-boyfriend of six years, Joe Alwyn. But fans note Swift switched up the songs to swap “invisible string” with “the 1” during her stops in Dallas and Houston, a song in which Swift reflects on a lost romance.

The ‘invisible string’ tying Taylor to Texas

The pop star has recalled visiting Houston as a child with fond memories, as her family has roots in Texas’ largest city.

“I remember going and visiting my aunt and thinking that this was the best shopping (The Galleria) I’ve ever seen,” Swift told the Houston Chronicle in 2007.

During her 1989 World Tour in 2015, the singer told fans it was one of her “favorite places to play shows,” noting her family’s connection to the city.

Swift’s “saintly” mom, Andrea Swift, has deep ties to Houston. According to People Magazine, she attended Memorial High School and went on to graduate from the University of Houston.

Andrea would go on to marry Scott Swift in 1988, a financial adviser for Merrill Lynch in Houston at the time. The couple then moved to Pennsylvania where they had Taylor in 1989 and a then later gave birth to their son, Austin. Nod to ATX, anyone?

Perhaps all this Texas-talk could merely be a metaphor for the post-breakup freedom Swift may have experienced, as she intimately shares excruiating details of heartbreak with listeners in what is already being declared as her most vulnerable album to date.

After all, any “cowboy like me” knows the pride Lone Star residents feel about their liberties, and of course any lore about this state and its rich history.

This is where I will leave you, “Dear Reader.” As a self-inducted member of The Tortured Journalists Department, I hope you enjoy sorting through more Texas-sized Easter egg’s in Swift’s TTPD.

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