Taylor Swift released her highly anticipated record The Tortured Poets Department — the 11th studio album from the megastar who is already reeling from the success of The Eras Tour’s global triumph.
Just a few hours since the drop, Swift surprised fans with 15 extra songs as a follow-up “secret double album”. An extended version of the album, titled, The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology is also out on music streaming platforms now.
"All's fair in love and poetry... New album THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT. Out now," she wrote on her Instagram account as the album dropped at 12AM EST/ 9:30 AM IST.
Swift had revealed the album's release at the Grammys in February, a night that saw the 34-year-old billionaire win a record-breaking fourth Album of the Year prize. With the drop of TTPD, the artist could very well be on track for a fifth.
Since her bombshell announcement, her loyal legion of Swifties have been working around the clock shelling out fan predictions. The working theory is that the album centers on her ex, British actor Joe Alwyn, who Swift dated starting in 2016 until they broke up about a year ago. Before their breakup, Alwyn had multiple songwriting credits on her albums under a pen name, William Bowery.
Having featured in Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Favourite, opposite Emma Stone, Alwyn and and fellow actor Paul Mescal of Aftersun fame, revealed in 2022 that they had a group chat called “The Tortured Man Club,” which also included Mescal’s All Of Us Strangersco-star, Andrew Scott. The Swifties think their queen's album title is a likely reference to that text circle.
Swift has repeatedly eviscerated her former lovers in song, including dropping lyrical takedowns of John Mayer and Jake Gyllenhaal.
Her current beau, Super Bowl-winning NFL player Travis Kelce, has already praised her new work. "I have heard some of it, yes, and it's unbelievable," he told reporters in February. "I can't wait for her to shake up the world when it finally drops."
Swift has already had an earth-shattering past year or so, staging the first billion-dollar tour with her ongoing series of Eras concerts, breaking myriad chart records, making Grammys history, and enjoying her moment in fame as TIME magazine’s Person of teh Year 2023.
After a highly publicized dispute with Big Machine executives regarding ownership of her first six albums, she made the cunning, risky decision to re-record those albums as the “Taylor’s Versions” to those albums to own their rights. It paid off, delighting ardent fans, bringing new Swifties into the fold, and earning her renewed respect within the industry.
Swift already revealed the tracklist, with titles including "So Long, London," "I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)" and "The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived."
Florence + The Machine is among those set to make cameos on the album, as is Post Malone, who Swift said Thursday will feature on her first single "Fortnight." "I've been such a huge fan of Post because of the writer he is, his musical experimentation and those melodies he creates that just stick in your head forever," she wrote on Instagram.
Swift said a video companion for the track will come out late Friday after the album drops, which is 5:30 AM on Saturday for Indian Swifties.
With Reputation Taylor’s Version and Debut Taylor’s Version seemingly around the corner, things are shaping out spendidly for Swifties this year.
