It’s been a long time coming, but Swifties were in for a pretty hefty surprise with the release of Taylor Swift’s new album “The Tortured Poets Department” at midnight on Friday. When the album was seemingly released in its entirety, Swift started a new countdown for 2 a.m., at which point the Grammy-winning singer-songwriter dropped 15 additional songs to reveal that “Tortured Poets” is in fact a secret double album.
“I’d written so much tortured poetry in the past 2 years and wanted to share it all with you, so here’s the second installment of ‘TTPD: The Anthology,” she wrote on social media. “15 extra songs. And now the story isn’t mine anymore… it’s all yours.”
Swift first announced her new album at the Grammys in February, and the album and song titles led many to speculate on the subject(s) of this particular piece of work — undoubtedly a breakup album. In the wee hours of listening, fans have singled out exes Joe Alwyn and Matt Healey as well as Kim Kardashian as likely targets.
The “Eras Tour” mastermind pulled back the curtain on her 11th studio album a bit at midnight, saying she’s now closing this chapter in her life with its release.
“An anthology of new works that reflect events, opinions and sentiments from a fleeting and fatalistic moment in time – one that was both sensational and sorrowful in equal measure,” she wrote. “This period of the author’s life is now over, the chapter closed and boarded up. There is nothing to avenge, no scores to settle once wounds have healed. And upon further reflection, a good number of them turned out to be self-inflicted. This writer is of the firm belief that our tears become holy in the form of ink on a page. Once we have spoken our saddest story, we can be free of it. And then all that’s left behind is the tortured poetry.”
All 31 tracks of “The Tortured Poets Department” are out now. Swift will release the first music video for the album, “Fortnight” featuring Post Malone,” at 8 p.m. on Friday.
There’s also no slowing down for the album’s titular poet. Swift is taking the Eras Tour global starting May 9 in Paris, with international dates all summer followed by additional U.S. dates in the fall.
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