I have a small confession to make: I am only a gentle Swiftie. As in, I keep up with her music, generally know her cats’ names, she was my top artist on Spotify Wrapped and now I kind of know what a tight end is. Into the deep corners of Swiftie theory, however, I am not. But even I am convinced that this one is true.
So in honor of Taylor Swift’s 34th birthday today, let’s discuss three major clues that Reputation is the next Taylor’s Version on the docket.
This is one of the clues that first kicked off the theory when Swift released her “Karma” music video featuring the rapper Ice Spice. At the end of the video, the shot pans down to Swift’s hands holding a cup of coffee with a clock face etched into the milk foam. You can see one thumbnail is painted blue, while the other is black. The former is believed to be alluding to her 1989 era, while the latter represents Reputation. Fans are speculating that there will be either a release or announcement in February because her thumb is positioned by the numeral two.
Beyoncé famously showed up to support Swift at the premiere of the latter’s concert film, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, so it’s only natural that she’d return the favor. When Renaissance premiered in London, Swift showed up in a sparkly, silvery dress with a thigh-high slit.
As any good Swiftie knows, the singer loves dropping a good Easter egg and nothing is ever an accident. Many fans pointed out that the left strap of the dress seemed to resemble a snake crawling up her shoulder—a nod to the gargantuan animatronic reptile that was a major motif during the Reputation tour in 2018, perhaps?
ICYMI, Swift is TIME’s Person of the Year and Reputation was all over it—literally. The songwriter speaks extensively about the album and that period of her life with writer Sam Lansky. She promises the vault tracks will be “fire.” But it’s the photos that are the most eye-caching. An entire Reddit thread has popped up drawing parallels between the shoot and her Reputation era. Read: fierce black outfits, sharp makeup and what is reportedly the black guitar she took on the Reputation tour.
This is only the latest development, as the year has been littered with other clues, including her VMAs speech where she said that she “loves slinking around different genres” (the snake reference!) and the fact that the countdown clock at her tour is 2:23. It seems random, but because we know Swift never is, we have to concur that backs up the initial theory in “Karma.”
Who knows if a February release is imminent? For now, I’ll be kept on my toes—and playing “All Too Well” on repeat.
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