Taylor Swift unveils 5 new Apple Music playlists set around stages of heartbreak

Taylor Swift is known for paying attention to what her fans say. When the tracklist for The Tortured Poets Department was announced, Swifties theorised that the album explores the various stages of heartbreak. With just weeks left for the release of her 11th studio album, the 34-year-old singer has crafted five new playlists on Apple Music, corresponding to each stage, namely- denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance.
The Cruel Summer hitmaker curated the five playlists ahead of the April 19 release of TTPD on Friday. A statement from Apple Music states, “When Taylor Swift announces an album, the world takes an interest. That’s certainly what happened in the days after she unveiled The Tortured Poets Department, as intrepid Swifties began hunting and assembling and pinning clues to digital corkboards, eventually landing on the theory that her 11th studio album is sure to explore the five stages of heartbreak.”
The statement continues, “And when Swifties agree upon a theory, Taylor takes an interest- so naturally, she’s responded by crafting a series of exclusive playlists, choosing songs of her own that fit each stage.” These playlists include songs from her past 10 albums and are named after the taglines of previously announced deluxe editions. However, the fifth one, which represents the stage acceptance, is named after one of the songs on TTPD, I Can Do It With a Broken Heart.
Here’s what Swift said about each playlist:
This playlist explores the first stage of heartbreak, which Swift states is “denial.” It includes songs like Lavender Haze, Snow on the Beach, Lover, Cruel Summer, Willow, Betty, Treacherous, Wildest Dreams, and other love-drunk songs. In a voice message shared as part of the playlist, Swift said, “This is a list of songs about getting so caught up in the idea of something that you have a hard time seeing the red flags, possibly resulting in moments of denial and maybe a little bit of delusion. Results may vary.”
The second stage of heartbreak- anger, is represented by a collection of Swift’s songs that Apple Music states are “some of her best and most beloved songs” that “boast an edge.” This playlist includes songs like Bad Blood, Vigilante S**t, Illicit Affairs, We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together, Dear John, and Better Than Revenge.
Swift said of the playlist, “These songs all have one thing in common, I wrote them while feeling anger. Over the years, I’ve learned that anger can manifest itself in a lot of different ways, but the healthiest way that it manifests itself in my life is when I can write a song about it, and then oftentimes, that helps me get past it.”
Addressing the third stage of heartbreak, which is represented by the Am I Allowed to Cry playlist, Swift said, “This playlist takes you through the songs that I’ve written when I was in the bargaining stage, times when you’re trying to make deals with yourself or someone that you care about, you’re trying to make things better, you’re oftentimes feeling really desperate because oftentimes we have a gut intuition that tells us things are not going to go the way that we hope, which makes us more desperate, which makes us bargain more.”
This playlist is loaded with songs from her album Lover, like Death by a Thousand Cuts, Soon You’ll Get Better, Afterglow, Cornelia Street, The Archer. It also features songs from her other albums, like I Wish You Would (Taylor’s Version), The Story of Us (Taylor’s Version), and The Other Side of the Door (Taylor’s Version).
“We’re going to be exploring the feelings of depression that often lace their way through my songs. In times like these, I’ll write a song because I feel lonely or hopeless. And writing a song feels like the only way to process that intensity of an emotion,” Swift said of the fourth playlist.
It includes songs like Maroon, You’re Losing Me, Champagne Problems, Dear Reader, and Bigger Than the Whole Sky. “And while these things are really, really hard to go through, I often feel like when I’m either listening to songs or writing songs that deal with this intensity of loss and hopelessness, usually that’s in the phase where I’m close to getting past that feeling,” she added.
The fifth and final playlist is named after a track from her upcoming TTPD album and represents the stage of “acceptance.” It includes songs like You’re On Your Own Kid, Midnight Rain, Labyrinth, and August.
Swift explained the playlist saying, “Here we finally find acceptance and can start moving forward from loss or heartbreak. These songs represent making room for more good in your life, making that choice because a lot of time when we lose things, we gain things too.”