While countless murals are splattered across Chicago skyscrapers, the newest mural in Chicago has made quite the entrance. On Monday, April 15, a mural went up on a building at 33 W. Grand Avenue. Still, it wasn’t just any mural—it was a black-and-white scripture—specifically a QR code—reminiscent of Taylor Swift’s upcoming album The Tortured Poet’s Department.
The type and the QR code comprised lowercase “ttpd” letters and the number “13.” If we hadn’t seen someone painting it, we would have believed it came straight from the typewriter Swift. Swift has used it in the promotional material for the album, which arrives Friday, April 19.
Those who scanned the QR code with their phones discovered a secret, unlisted short on Swift’s official YouTube page. The video shows a white piece of paper with ink smudges across the corner. The words “ERROR 321” are typed out slowly. There seems to be a faded “13” in the paper, which scrolls down once “ERROR 321” is typed out.
However, this isn’t the first time fans have seen “ERROR 321.” Shortly before she TTPD after winning Best Pop Vocal Album at the 2024 Grammys, her official website went down—with a similar message. Fans who attempted to access it were welcomed with a message: “Error 321 Backend fetch failed / Backend fetch failed / hneriergrd / DPT: 321 / Vanish Cache Server.” The decoded hodgepodge of letters read “red herring” and “DPT” as the reverse initials for the Tortured Poets Department.
TTPD Swift’s latest album might be her most vulnerable. It appears to have been inspired, in part, by the five stages of grief. The title is conspicuously wordy for Swift, who usually has two-word album titles. However, the title may be a sly reference to Swift’s ex-boyfriend, Joe Alwyn. Swift’s album The Tortured Poets Department drops at midnight Eastern time on Thursday.