Taylor Swift is counting down to something. There’s a countdown clock on her website. Her social channels the last few days are all pointing to “4.26”. The obvious would be new music, six months before she’s known to prefer to release new music, in the fall, but now that she has a new record deal, maybe in the new era, Taylor’s time is April. Everything else seems to be happening in April.

Here are the new visuals …

The colour palette seems to line up with her appearance at the iHeart Radio Awards a few weeks ago:

So we’re looking at pastels, hearts, and a cloudy dreamy mood…like the sun burst through thereputationdark and hardness (well, her version of dark and hard anyway) to reveal a Taylor that’s lighter, rosier, and in love. And open to love. All love. Because “rainbow” could be a theme here too and Taylor has become more and move public and vocal about her support of LGBTQ+ rights, mostrecently donating $113Kto the Tennessee Equality Project, pushing back against a series of proposed state bills that would infringe on LGBTQ+ freedoms.

That date though…

4.26. April 26. Next Friday.

For a lot of people, like millions and millions of people, literally, that day has already been marked. That day isAvengers: Endgameday. And as much as I care about Taylor Swift, and of course I do, the only thing I care about on 4.26 (for now at least) is how the Avengers are going to take out Thanos and whether or not Tony Stark is going to die because I really, really do think he’s going to die. Pepper’s going to have a baby and he’s going to die (remember he was talking about peeing in his sleep?). That’s the 3 hours and 2 minutes I care about on April 26 and I know I’m not alone.

Sure, Taylor’s big enough that she’s going to generate her share of headlines and attention apart from the Avengers but at the very least, she’s going to have to share it with Cap and company. And this is basic scheduling 101, right? She’s always been particular with dates. All of the big names are particular with dates. That’s part of the work – strategic timing is part of the work. So she must have really wanted to get this, whatever it is, out in April. Near the end of April, which is also when Baby Sussex is supposedly due. Babies cockblock everything. This royal baby will cockblock everything PLUS.