By Chris Willman
Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic
Taylor Swift has announced a third, and “final,” limited special edition of her upcoming album “The Tortured Poets Department,” themed around a bonus track, like the previous two. The exclusive track that gives this variant its title: “The Black Dog.”
Swift made the announcement during a “secret songs” segment at the closing night of her engagement in Singapore.
As a title, “The Black Dog” will be intriguing to fans who know it as a popular expression for depression or melancholy, as said to have first been used by Samuel Johnson in the 1700s and popularized in the 20th century through its association with Winston Churchill.
Although little is known about the Swift song, she did include a presumed lyrical snippet, “Old habits die screaming…,” in further announcing the forthcoming edition on social media.
The cover for this editoin pictures Swift upright — unlike some of the previous cover art — but tangled up in her own arms. The photography, as with the other editions, comes from a shoot by Beth Garrabant.
The color for this vinyl edition: black.
This version of the album will be available only through Swift’s webstore, with a cutoff time of Wednesday at 2 p.m.
There had been some fan speculation that Swift would be using the concert as an opportunity to announce “Reputation (Taylor’s Edition),” due among other things to the seeming Easter egg of a black heart, along with her performance of the “Reputation” song “Dress” at her previous gig. But in this case, any clues involving the color black turned out to have a much more direct correlation, with the new song.
The previous limited editions of the album were centered around the bonus tracks “The Albatross” and “The Bolter,” both of them no longer on sale in her webstore. A different “deluxe” edition, one that was announced at the time of the album being revealed, is still on sale, with “The Manuscript” as the extra track. All of the physical CD/vinyl/cassette editions put on sale so far have one of these four songs as an extra track, with only the digital release being sans a bonus song.
All editions of “The Tortured Poets Department” come out April 19.
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