The moment Swifties and music critics have been waiting for has arrived, as pop megastar Taylor Swift released her most recent album, The Tortured Poets Department, on Friday at midnight, Eastern time (04:00 UTC), with a total of 16 tracks.
However, Swift announced two hours later (06:00 UTC) that the album was actually an anthology of 31 songs, with an additional 15 also released on Spotify and other music streaming platforms.
It’s a 2am surprise: The Tortured Poets Department is 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. 15 extra songs. And now the story isn’t mine… pic.twitter.com/y8pyDK8VTd
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) April 19, 2024
"It's a 2am surprise: The Tortured Poets Department is a secret DOUBLE album," Swift wrote on social media. "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. 15 extra songs. And now the story isn't mine anymore... it's all yours."
According to Rolling Stone, the anthology marked the singer's 11th LP to date, and saw her reuniting with both Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner, as well as her collaborations with Florence and the Machine for "Florida!!!" and Post Malone for "Fortnight".
Variety further revealed that Stevie Nicks contributed a handwritten poem she wrote for Swift.
Some tracks on Tortured Poets revealed her recent experiences with her most recent relationships. Swifties identified them as long-time ex-boyfriend Joe Alwyn and The 1975 vocalist Matty Healy.
The anthology also explored her own public image and grief, with the final track, "The Manuscript," emphasizing the importance of healing one's self.
It could be recalled that Swift announced the album at the Grammy Awards in February while accepting the award for Best Pop Vocal Album for Midnights.
The latest album was the fifth in a streak of new material since 2021, which included the "Taylor's Version" of some of her albums previously released by Big Machine Records.
Swift is also currently in the middle of her Eras Tour, with its European leg beginning in May in Paris, ahead of the Olympics, where she would be joined by Paramore. The tour would end with a short North American leg this autumn, with Gracie Abrams rejoining as her opening act.
On the other hand, music critics have mixed reactions to the new album, with some dismissing it as lackluster compared to her past material.
Variety's Chris Willman called it "audacious," "transfixing," and "the Taylor Swift-est Taylor Swift record ever," while Rolling Stone's Rob Sheffield called it "wildly ambitious and gloriously chaotic."
However, the NME's Laura Molloy rated the album with three stars out of five, saying that the album contained "some of her most cringe-inducing lines yet" and that it lacked "the genuinely interesting shifts that have punctuated Swift's career so far."
"Swift seems to be in tireless pursuit for superstardom, yet the negative public opinion it can come with irks her, and it's a tired theme now plaguing her discography and leaving little room for the poignant lyrical observations she excels at," she added. "It's why the pitfalls that mire her 11th studio album are all the more disappointing - she's proven time and time again she can do better."
Meanwhile, the Evening Standard's music journalist El Hunt concurred with Molloy, finding Tortured Poets "underwhelming and clunky," giving it two stars out of five.
"As well as serving as a post-mortem on love, The Tortured Poets Department also bears similarities with 2017's Reputation," Hunt wrote, "though it has none of the harshness, it gives a more subtle version of its knack for pantomime villainy, and also examines Swift's complex relationship with fame."
"Dissecting heartbreak, and the complications of trying to navigate it in the glare of public scrutiny, may well make for ripe songwriting fuel, but as an idea, it is nothing new," the critic added. "And sonically, The Tortured Poets Department feels like ground that has already been trodden."
