The Tortured Poets Department | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | April 19, 2024 | |||
Recorded | 2022–2024 | |||
Studio |
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Genre | ||||
Length | 65:08 | |||
Label | Republic | |||
Producer |
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Taylor Swift chronology | ||||
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The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology | ||||
Singles from The Tortured Poets Department | ||||
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The Tortured Poets Department [lower-alpha 1] is the eleventh studio album by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift,released on April 19,2024,through Republic Records. It was expanded into a double album two hours after its release,subtitled The Anthology,containing a second volume of songs.
Swift began writing The Tortured Poets Department shortly after finishing her tenth studio album, Midnights (2022),and continued developing it during the Eras Tour in 2023. She conceived The Tortured Poets Department as a "lifeline" songwriting project amidst the heightened fame and media scrutiny ensuing from the tour. The songs introspect on her public and private lives,detailing tumult and sorrow via motifs of self-awareness,mourning,anger,humor,and delusion. Produced with Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner,the album is a minimalist synth-pop,folk-pop,and chamber pop effort with rock and country stylings. The composition is largely mid-tempo,driven by a mix of synthesizers and drum machines with piano and guitar,whereas the visual aesthetic draws mainly from dark academia.
The album broke various sales and streaming records,regionally and globally. It achieved the highest single-day and single-week streams for an album on Spotify,and topped the charts across Europe,Asia-Pacific,and the Americas. In the United States,The Tortured Poets Department opened with first-week 2.6 million album-equivalent units,including 1.9 million pure sales—Swift's biggest sales week and record-extending seventh release to open with over a million units. It topped the Billboard 200 chart for a record 14 non-consecutive weeks,with the release of multiple versions contributing to this longevity. The album's tracks made Swift the only artist to monopolize the first 14 positions of the Billboard Hot 100,with the single "Fortnight" leading.
Upon the album's release,critical reception was polarized. The majority of reviews were positive,praising Swift's cathartic songwriting for its emotional resonance and wit,but some found the album too long and lacking profundity. Subsequent assessments appreciated the album's musical and lyrical nuances that emerged upon further listens,and disputed the credibility of the initial critiques for focusing on Swift's public image rather than the album's artistic merit. Swift included songs from the album in the revamped set list of the Eras Tour,starting in May 2024.
Swift released her tenth studio album, Midnights ,on October 21,2022,to critical praise and commercial success. [1] [2] In 2023,she released two re-recorded albums, Speak Now (Taylor's Version) and 1989 (Taylor's Version) ,as part of her "Taylor's Version" re-recording project after a dispute over the ownership of her first six studio albums. [3] [4] Both re-recordings were released amidst Swift's sixth headlining concert tour,the Eras Tour. [5] [6] At the 66th Annual Grammy Awards on February 4,2024,Swift won Best Pop Vocal Album and Album of the Year for Midnights. During her acceptance speech for the former category,she announced The Tortured Poets Department as a new original studio album that she had worked on since 2022. [7] This announcement was met with surprise from her fans,who had anticipated her to announce the re-recording of her 2017 album, Reputation ,based on her social media clues. [8] [9]
Swift began conceiving the album immediately after submitting Midnights to her record label,Republic Records,and continued working on it in secret throughout the U.S. leg of the Eras Tour in 2023. [10] While she was creating the album,her dating life continued to be a widely covered topic in the press,who reported on Swift's relationships with Joe Alwyn,Matty Healy,and Travis Kelce. [11] [12] At the Eras Tour concerts in Melbourne in February 2024,Swift said that The Tortured Poets Department was a "lifeline" for her and an album that she "really needed" to make, [13] reflecting on how it made her confirm that songwriting was an integral part of her life. [14] In an Instagram post,Swift described the album as "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". [15]
The standard edition consists of 16 songs; Swift wrote three of them herself and co-wrote the rest mostly with Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner. Post Malone featured on and co-wrote "Fortnight", and Florence and the Machine featured on "Florida!!!", which was co-written by the band's frontwoman Florence Welch. [16] Swift produced all tracks with Antonoff and Dessner. [17]
The album is rooted in personal songwriting, exploring Swift's introspections on the events in her private and public lives. [18] [19] She was inspired by her tumultuous relationships [20] and the public perception of her celebrity [21] [22] to create lyrical narratives that were messy, unbridled, and unguarded, [19] [23] [24] containing meta-references to her personal life through allusions and name-dropping. [25] [26] Heartbreak is the primary topic, [27] [28] [29] [30] expressed via themes such as delusion, anger, mourning, and death. [31] [32] [33] [34] While the lyrics evoke vulnerable and devastating sentiments, they also incorporate humor and hyperbole. [23] [27] [32] Critics found them either self-aware [32] or self-conscious. [35] Swift considered the album a cathartic exercise [36] and described the content as "fatalistic" with overarching themes of "longing, pining, lost dreams". [21]
Critics characterized The Tortured Poets Department as a post-breakup album. [19] [37] [38] Ann Powers wrote in NPR that throughout the record, "Swift is trying to work out how emotional violence occurs." [39] In The Conversation , the music professor Samuel Murray opined that the album uses melodrama as a narrative device to "celebrate emotional vulnerability as she shares her innermost thoughts". [40] Business Insider 's Callie Ahlgrim described the album's content as Swift's "messiest, horniest, and funniest". [41] In The Independent , Helen Brown suggested that Swift's songwriting draws on her country music roots to explore detail-heavy narratives. [42] While some critics argued that the album is autobiographical in nature, [42] [43] Pitchfork's Shaad D'Souza argued that it straddles the confessional and the fictional storytelling. [44]
Mainly produced by Swift and Antonoff, the album's standard portion is primarily synth-pop, [lower-alpha 2] with a mid-tempo production incorporating subdued synths and sparse drum machines. [lower-alpha 3] Critics found the production minimalist [lower-alpha 4] and compared this synth-based sonic approach to the sound of Midnights. [lower-alpha 5] PopMatters 's Igor Bannikov described it as "simplistic, indie-ish, and almost muted", [54] The Guardian 's Alexis Petridis wrote that it additionally features "the glossy 80s-influenced pop-rock" of Swift's 2014 album 1989 , [52] and The Times ' Will Hodgkinson described the album as an amalgam of synth-pop and 1980s power ballads. [55] Swift mostly sings in her lower vocal register to deliver rap-like, conversational verses. [26] [35] [39] As per Murray's analysis, the album uses some of Swift's familiar devices such as one-note melodies and recitative delivery with a conversational rhythm. [40] The music is "downcast", departing from danceable pop, as per The Economist . [56]
Several tracks feature a more stripped-down instrumentation, driven by piano [39] [29] or guitar, [57] with stylings of varied genres; "But Daddy I Love Him" and "Guilty as Sin?" incorporate live drums and influences of country and rock, [58] "Down Bad" evokes R&B in its dynamic shifts and cadences, [22] [58] "Fresh Out the Slammer" features Western-rock electric guitars, [41] and "I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)", "Florida!!!", and "Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?" experiments with Southern gothic. [53] Tyler Foggart of The New Yorker dubbed The Tortured Poets Department a mix of dream pop and Southern gothic infused with some "country-ish vibes", [59] while Josh Kurp of Uproxx thought that the album was genre-less. [18]
The second part of the double album, subtitled The Anthology, mostly consists of chamber pop [60] and folk-pop [54] piano ballads. [61] Swift and Dessner produced the majority of the second volume, which has an acoustic, folk-oriented sound [62] instrumented by picked acoustic guitar, soft piano, and subtle synths, [43] which critics likened to the sound of Swift's 2020 albums Folklore and Evermore . [lower-alpha 6] Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph argued that this mellower sound allows for more subtlety in the lyrics, which explore Swift's character studies ("Cassandra", "Peter", "Robin") and self-reflection ("The Albatross", "The Bolter", "I Look in People's Windows", "I Hate It Here"). [43]
The lack of an apostrophe in the official title, as in The Tortured Poets' Department, was the subject of a debate over grammatical correctness. Scholars stated that Swift employed Tortured Poets as an attributive noun, as in the case with the 1989 drama film Dead Poets Society , and not as a possessive noun that warrants an apostrophe. [64] The cover artwork, photographed by Beth Garrabrant, is a black-and-white glamor photo shot of Swift lying on a bed wearing black lingerie: a see-through top and high waist shorts, [65] [66] [67] from the Row and Yves Saint Laurent. [66] [68] Both the artwork and title were parodied by numerous brands, organizations, sports teams, and franchises, and inspired numerous memes. [69] [70] [71] Media outlets described the album's visual aesthetic as gothic, especially dark academia. [72] [73] [74] [75]
After the Grammy announcement, Swift revealed the standard track listing via social media on February 6, 2024. [16] Swift announced four physical editions that were each titled after a corresponding bonus track: "The Manuscript", "The Bolter", "The Albatross", and "The Black Dog"; she announced the latter three editions during the Australian and Singaporean shows of the Eras Tour. [76] She partnered with Target for an exclusive "Phantom Clear" collector's vinyl edition. [77]
The album was promoted on digital platforms like Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, Instagram, and Threads, prompting Swifties to search for Easter eggs. [78] It included five Swift-curated Apple Music playlists containing her old songs inspired by the five stages of grief; [79] a pop-up library of curated articles at The Grove, Los Angeles, hosted by Spotify; [80] QR code murals in various cities worldwide that led to unlisted YouTube shorts on Swift's channel; [81] [82] a countdown to the album's release revealed upon refreshing Swift's Instagram profile; and special shimmer effects on Threads posts tagged with hashtags related to Swift and the album. [83] iHeartRadio and Sirius XM announced special programs with exclusive content from Swift to celebrate the album's release; the former temporarily rebranded as "iHeartTaylor". [84] [85]
The Tortured Poets Department was released on April 19, 2024. A double album edition, subtitled The Anthology and containing 15 bonus tracks, was surprise-released digitally two hours later. [86] Two days earlier, the standard edition of the album was leaked, [87] which resulted in the phrase "Taylor Swift leak" being temporarily banned from searches on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter). [88] The Tortured Poets Department was available in 19 physical variants—nine CD, six vinyl, and four cassette variants, with deluxe CDs and cassettes being exclusive to Swift's official website. [89] Physical copies of the album included an original poem by the American singer-songwriter Stevie Nicks. [90] "Fortnight" was released as the lead single in conjunction with the album, accompanied by a music video. [91] Universal Music released "I Can Do It with a Broken Heart" to Italian radio on July 2. [92]
From May 2024, starting with the Paris shows, Swift revamped the set list of the Eras Tour to include songs from The Tortured Poets Department in a new act, which she informally described as "Female Rage the Musical". [93] [94] [lower-alpha 7] Swift subsequently released the live versions as bonus tracks on the physical album via her website exclusively to US customers. [98] Other limited editions of the physical album included acoustic versions of five different tracks. [99] Limited digital variants contained first draft phone demo recordings of four different tracks, and the Eras Tour live recordings of different tracks from the Paris shows, the Stockholm shows, the Lyon shows, and the London shows. [100] [101] [102] The release of limited-edition bonus-track versions was accused by some social media users of being a way for Swift and her fans to maintain the album's number-one position on the charts. [103] [104] [105] [106]
Aggregate scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
AnyDecentMusic? | 7.5/10 [107] |
Metacritic | 76/100 [lower-alpha 8] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [110] |
Clash | 8/10 [111] |
The Daily Telegraph | [lower-alpha 9] |
The Guardian | [52] |
The Independent | [42] |
NME | [45] |
Pitchfork | 6.6/10 [lower-alpha 10] |
Rolling Stone | [lower-alpha 11] |
Slant Magazine | [49] |
The Times | [112] |
Publications described the critical consensus upon release as positive [113] [114] or mixed. [115] According to the review aggregator Metacritic , The Tortured Poets Department received "generally favorable reviews" based on a weighted average score of 76 out of 100 from 24 critic scores. [108] Its second part, The Anthology, scored 69 from six critic scores. [109]
A number of critics regarded the album a landmark in Swift's discography. Reviews from The Independent 's Helen Brown, [42] The Arts Desk 's Ellie Roberts, [23] The Times' Dan Cairns, [112] PopMatters 's Jeffrey Davies, [51] and Will Harris of Q praised the album as one of Swift's most solid outputs, considering the musical composition, vocal stylings and lyrical tonality as ambitious and tastefully experimental. [116] Others, including Variety's Chris Willman, [29] the i 's Ed Power, [72] and The Observer 's Kitty Empire, called it a quintessential Swift album. [117]
Swift's songwriting was a source of compliment. The Line of Best Fit 's Paul Bridgewater dubbed it her most cohesive body of work to-date, finding the music sophisticated and the lyricism symbolic. [33] To Ludovic Hunter-Tilney of the Financial Times, the album is a stylistic evolution for Swift, with writing that marks a "characteristically appealing turn" into moody melodrama. [30] Alexis Petridis of The Guardian and Alex Hopper of American Songwriter thought that the album has Swift's wittiest lyrics, featuring nuanced musical choices that show Swift is "willing to take risks in a risk-averse era for pop" and "constantly evolving and pushing her limits", respectively. [52] [118] In a more measured review, Olivia Horn of Pitchfork felt the lyrics did not "distill an overarching emotional truth, tending to smother rather than sting." [47] Others, such as The New York Times ' Lindsay Zoladz, Slant Magazine 's Jonathan Keefe, and Exclaim! 's Alex Hudson, described some lyrics as weak and overwritten; Hudson claimed that many of its tracks "mistake verbosity for poetry". [119] [49] [62]
The tumultuous mood and unconstrained emotion of the lyrics were also highlighted. Multiple reviews complimented the album's heavy, unfiltered emotion; [72] [19] [29] [120] Clash 's Lauren Webb described it as "a spell-binding, toxic, chaotic illustration" of deteriorating mental sanity. [111] Powers opined that The Tortured Poets Department shows Swift's newfound freedom, with a "lack of concern about whether these songs speak to and for anyone but herself". [39] In a similar perspective, rave reviews from Rolling Stone 's Rob Sheffield and Variety 's Chris Willman described the album as Swift's "gloriously chaotic" and "audacious, transfixing" project, respectively. [27] [29] To Willman, the album combines "cleverness with catharsis". [29] Consequence 's Mary Siroky, on the other hand, found this style of lyricism jarring and "outright bizarre" at times, and felt the album was an attempt at self-parody rather than a showcase of Swift's songwriting acumen. [48]
Many critics, including Zoladz, [119] NME 's Laura Molloy, [45] and Stereogum 's Tom Breihan, argued that Swift and Antonoff's collaboration on The Tortured Poets Department was uninventive due to a sonic similarity to their past collaborations. [26] [121] The New Yorker's Amanda Petrusich rather favored Dessner's input to the album as "gentler, more tender, and more surprising". [122] Horn and the BBC's Mark Savage felt the melodies were sonically monotonous and "staid", [36] [47] but others argued that the minimalistic approach complemented Swift's hyper-personal lyrics; [49] [117] [52] Hopper opined that "Swift's confidence as an artist is at a peak" with The Tortured Poets Department. [118] According to Mary Kate Carr of The A.V. Club , the album is "perfectly good" but arrived at a time when Swift has "nothing to prove" anymore, resulting in a stagnant point in her artistry; [123] this idea was shared by an anonymous, negative Paste review that criticized the album as rushed, hollow, and unrelatable. [25]
Various peer journalists and columnists cross-examined the album's critical reception. Publications considered The Tortured Poets Department a polarizing album; [32] [113] [124] The Ringer's Nathan Hubbard deemed it Swift's most controversial release since Reputation (2017). [125] Journalists from The New York Times [126] and Vox attributed this phenomenon to Swift's heightened fame and associated media "overexposure" between 2020 and 2024, including eight album releases, the influential Eras Tour, and her relationship with Travis Kelce. [12] Paste's anonymous review was singled out by other publications as "scathing"; [113] [127] Sumnima Kandangwa of the South China Morning Post opined that they hid their reviewer's identity because Swifties "can become quite spirited when it comes to protecting their favourite singer". [128] The album's Pitchfork score is Swift's lowest from the website. Sputnikmusic published reviews with three different ratings in a short period of time, each lower than the one before; Minh Anh of L'Officiel found this to be a confusing way to rate music. [129] Swift shared the album's positive reviews on her social media, tagging the respective authors, which some considered as a response to Paste and other unfavorable reviews. [130] [131]
A number of commentators opined that the initial reviews demonstrated a flawed approach of mainstream music criticism. [12] [132] [133] Bloomberg News' Jessica Karl wrote that the "lengthy" duration of the album made the reviewers "[stay] up until dawn to finish listening to an album" to publish, contributing to some reviews that were hasty, criticizing both the "exclamation-pointed digs" at Swift in Paste and the "instant classic" review by Rolling Stone. [132] In The Ringer, Nora Princiotti attributed the polarizing reviews to the unexpected double album release, and Nathan Hubbard argued that some "cooler-than-thou" critics from sites like The New Yorker, The New York Times, and Paste used Swift's billionaire status to downplay the personal issues she detailed in the album. [125] Karl opined that some "reputable publications" catered gossip instead of a serious artistic analysis, [132] while Anh highlighted that reviews mentioned aspects of Swift's public image instead of focusing on the music. [129] The New Yorker's Sinéad O'Sullivan asserted that Swift's albums contain multiple layers of self-referential "lore", writing that the unfavorable reviews were due to critics not taking that into account or not allotting enough listening time. [134]
Some early critics of the album recanted and declared they were "hasty" in reviewing it, as per Slate's Chris Molanphy, who opined it has become a "widely agreed point" in later critical commentary that The Tortured Poets Department "grows on you" after more listens; Molanphy stated he liked the album better than he did a week before. [135] CNN's Oliver Darcy said he had judged The Tortured Poets Department quickly, stating that he reviewed it keeping in the mind its mixed critical reception, and found the album overlong and unimpressive in agreement with other critics, but a week later, "after spending more time with the two-hour sonic feast, more methodically touring through its subtleties and nuances, I am ready to declare that it is one of Swift's best works yet." Darcy opined that the album cannot be fully digested at "the speed of TikTok", and criticized reviewers who do not let music albums "marinate" and instead expect "instant satisfaction". [133]
The Tortured Poets Department broke numerous consumption records, leading The Guardian to comment that it "cemented Swift as the biggest pop star this century by many metrics". [136] On Spotify, it became the most pre-saved album of all time; the most streamed album in a single day, surpassing 200 million and then 300 million streams and breaking the all-time record previously held by Swift's Midnights; and the first album to accumulate one billion streams in a single week, doing so in five days. [137] [138] The album also became the most streamed album in a single day on Amazon Music [139] and the most streamed pop album in a single day on Apple Music. [137] It amassed 1.76 billion streams globally within its first week of availability, an all-time record. [140] Republic Records reported global first-week consumption of four million units. [114]
In the United States, the album accumulated 1.6 million album-equivalent units in four days, [141] selling 700,000 vinyl LPs to break the record for the highest single-week vinyl sales previously held by Swift's 1989 (Taylor's Version) (2023). [137] It broke the single-week streaming record previously held by Drake's Scorpion (2018), amassing 799 million on-demand streams in six days. [137] After a full week of availability, The Tortured Poets Department debuted atop the Billboard 200 with 2.61 million units, including 1.914 million pure copies and 891.34 million on-demand streams. It became Swift's 14th number-one album, tying her with Jay-Z for the most chart toppers among soloists. The album also registered the second-largest week by overall units and the third-largest week by pure sales in Billboard history. [89] The album continued to chart at number one on the Billboard 200 for 14 more non-consecutive weeks, becoming the longest-leading chart topper in Swift's career, [142] and resulting in high-profile releases by other artists debuting at number two, such as Dua Lipa's Radical Optimism , [143] Billie Eilish's Hit Me Hard and Soft , [144] and ¥$'s Vultures 2 . [145] It is also the third album in history and first by a female artist to spend its first 12 weeks atop the chart. [146] [lower-alpha 12]
All 31 songs from The Anthology debuted on the Billboard Hot 100, occupying the entire top 14 simultaneously for the first time in chart history. Swift set the record for most simultaneous entries by a female artist (32) and became the first woman to surpass 50 career top-10 songs. [147] By July 2024, The Tortured Poets Department has sold 2.47 million pure sales and accumulated 4.66 million units in the United States. [148] Sales were boosted by multiple variants of the album, with double-digit variants in digital and CD mediums. [149]
The Tortured Poets Department broke chart records in other countries. In Germany, it recorded the largest streaming day for an album and debuted atop the chart with the highest sales week for an international solo artist in seven years. [150] In the United Kingdom, it became the fastest-selling album by any artist in seven years and by a non-British artist in 18 years, and it tied Swift with Madonna for the most female number-one albums on the UK Albums Chart (12). [151] It became the fastest-selling vinyl album since 1994 and Swift's album with the most weeks at number one (8). [152] [153] On the Australian ARIA Charts, The Tortured Poets Department became Swift's 13th number-one album, a record among female artists; its songs set records for the most simultaneous entries by a single artist in the top 10 (10), top 50 (29), and top 100 (31) of the singles chart. [154] Debuting atop the Canadian Albums Chart as Swift's 14th consecutive chart topper, the album registered the highest single-week vinyl sales and streaming figures in chart history. [155] Ten tracks from the album debuted on the Billboard Brasil Hot 100. [156]
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
1. | "Fortnight" (featuring Post Malone) |
| 3:48 | |
2. | "The Tortured Poets Department" |
|
| 4:53 |
3. | "My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys" | Swift |
| 3:23 |
4. | "Down Bad" |
|
| 4:21 |
5. | "So Long, London" |
|
| 4:22 |
6. | "But Daddy I Love Him" |
|
| 5:40 |
7. | "Fresh Out the Slammer" |
|
| 3:30 |
8. | "Florida!!!" (featuring Florence and the Machine) |
|
| 3:35 |
9. | "Guilty as Sin?" |
|
| 4:14 |
10. | "Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?" | Swift |
| 5:34 |
11. | "I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)" |
|
| 2:36 |
12. | "Loml" |
|
| 4:37 |
13. | "I Can Do It with a Broken Heart" |
|
| 3:38 |
14. | "The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived" |
|
| 4:05 |
15. | "The Alchemy" |
|
| 3:16 |
16. | "Clara Bow" |
|
| 3:36 |
Total length: | 65:08 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
---|---|---|---|---|
17. | "The Black Dog" | Swift |
| 3:58 |
18. | "Imgonnagetyouback" |
|
| 3:42 |
19. | "The Albatross" |
|
| 3:03 |
20. | "Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus" |
|
| 3:33 |
21. | "How Did It End?" |
|
| 3:58 |
22. | "So High School" |
|
| 3:48 |
23. | "I Hate It Here" |
|
| 4:03 |
24. | "Thank You Aimee" |
|
| 4:23 |
25. | "I Look in People's Windows" |
|
| 2:11 |
26. | "The Prophecy" |
|
| 4:09 |
27. | "Cassandra" |
|
| 4:00 |
28. | "Peter" | Swift |
| 4:43 |
29. | "The Bolter" |
|
| 3:58 |
30. | "Robin" |
|
| 4:00 |
31. | "The Manuscript" | Swift |
| 3:44 |
Total length: | 122:21 |
Notes
Musicians
Technical
Weekly charts
| Monthly charts
|
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Australia (ARIA) [191] | Platinum | 70,000‡ |
Austria (IFPI Austria) [192] | Gold | 7,500‡ |
Denmark (IFPI Danmark) [193] | Platinum | 20,000‡ |
France (SNEP) [194] | Platinum | 100,000‡ |
Germany (BVMI) [195] | Platinum | 150,000‡ |
Italy (FIMI) [196] | Platinum | 50,000‡ |
New Zealand (RMNZ) [197] | 2× Platinum | 30,000‡ |
Poland (ZPAV) [198] | Platinum | 20,000‡ |
Portugal (AFP) [199] | Platinum | 7,000‡ |
Spain (PROMUSICAE) [200] | Platinum | 40,000‡ |
Switzerland (IFPI Switzerland) [201] | Gold | 10,000‡ |
United Kingdom (BPI) [202] | 2× Platinum | 600,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. |
Region | Date | Format(s) | Edition(s) | Label | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Various | April 19, 2024 |
| Republic | [203] | |
| |||||
| The Anthology | [86] | |||
United States |
|
| [204] [205] | ||
Japan | April 20, 2024 | CD | The Manuscript | Universal Japan | [206] [207] |
May 17, 2024 |
| ||||
The Billboard 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States. It is published weekly by Billboard magazine to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists. Sometimes, a recording act is remembered for its "number ones" that outperformed all other albums during at least one week. The chart grew from a weekly top 10 list in 1956 to become a top 200 list in May 1967, acquiring its existing name in March 1992. Its previous names include the Billboard Top LPs (1961–1972), Billboard Top LPs & Tape (1972–1984), Billboard Top 200 Albums (1984–1985) and Billboard Top Pop Albums (1985–1992).
The American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift has released 11 original studio albums, 4 re-recorded albums, 5 extended plays (EPs), and 4 live albums. Her albums discography has accumulated 114 million album-equivalent units worldwide, 51 million of which are certified in the United States. In terms of pure sales, she has tallied 46.6 million albums in the United States and 7 million albums in the United Kingdom. On the US Billboard 200, As of August 2024, she has accumulated 14 number-one albums—seven of which sold one million first-week copies, and 81 weeks at number one—more than any other solo act.
"My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys" is a song written and recorded by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift for her eleventh studio album, The Tortured Poets Department (2024). Produced by Swift and Jack Antonoff, it is a synth-pop song featuring pounding drums and elements of new wave. The lyrics are about being abandoned by a love interest, using metaphors and from the perspective of a toy.
"The Tortured Poets Department" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift and the title track of her eleventh studio album (2024). Swift wrote and produced the track with Jack Antonoff. A synth-pop song, "The Tortured Poets Department" incorporates drums, sparkling synths, and electronic sounds. Its lyrics satirize a relationship between two pretentious artists.
"Down Bad" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from her eleventh studio album, The Tortured Poets Department (2024). She wrote and produced the track with Jack Antonoff, who played the song's instruments with members of his band Bleachers. A synth-pop song with R&B inflections, "Down Bad" is about a momentary infatuation, comparing falling in love with being abducted by an extraterrestrial being.
"So Long, London" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from her eleventh studio album, The Tortured Poets Department (2024). She wrote and produced the track with Aaron Dessner. A downtempo chamber pop and synth-pop tune, "So Long, London" is set over to 4/4 house beats and has a piano and synthesizer instrumentation. Its lyrical content concerns a failed romance and explores a narrator processing the fallout and its aftermath.
"But Daddy I Love Him" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from her eleventh studio album, The Tortured Poets Department (2024). Swift and Aaron Dessner wrote the track, and they produced it with Jack Antonoff. Musically, "But Daddy I Love Him" is an electronica and folk rock ballad with elements of country and rock. Its lyrics target detractors of Swift's love life.
"Florida!!!" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift featuring the English band Florence and the Machine, and is the eighth track on Swift's eleventh studio album, The Tortured Poets Department (2024). Swift wrote the track with the band's frontwoman Florence Welch, who also sang lead vocals, and produced it with Jack Antonoff. An Americana and Southern Gothic-influenced power ballad with indie rock guitars and drums, its lyrical content revolves around seeking relief through escapism and alcohol, using Florida as a geographical metaphor.
"Guilty as Sin?" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from her eleventh studio album, The Tortured Poets Department (2024). She wrote and produced the song with Jack Antonoff. It is a 1990s-tinged pop rock and soft rock track combining rock, country, and folk styles, accentuated by guitars and live drums. The lyrics see Swift's character sexually fantasizing about a man while being in a relationship.
"Loml" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from her eleventh studio album, The Tortured Poets Department (2024). Swift wrote and produced the song alongside Aaron Dessner. A soft piano ballad, the song's lyrics mourn the loss of a short-lived relationship that leaves a long-lasting mark. The song was met with positive reviews by critics for its heartbreaking lyrics, emotional storytelling and simple piano production.
"I Can Do It with a Broken Heart" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from her eleventh studio album, The Tortured Poets Department (2024). Written and produced by Swift and Jack Antonoff, the song is about Swift's perseverance and professionalism while going through personal hardships during the early days of the Eras Tour.
"The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from her eleventh studio album, The Tortured Poets Department (2024). She wrote and produced the song with longtime collaborator Aaron Dessner. A rock breakup song about an unnamed ex-lover, "The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived" begins as a piano ballad with blinking programming before transitioning into a vitriolic bridge.
"Clara Bow" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from her eleventh studio album, The Tortured Poets Department (2024). The track was named after the silent-film actress Clara Bow. Swift and Aaron Dessner wrote and produced the track, which was inspired by Swift's conversations with record label executives. A folk-leaning pop rock track, it comments on Swift's fame.
"The Alchemy" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from her eleventh studio album, The Tortured Poets Department (2024). Swift wrote and produced the track with Jack Antonoff. A pop rock track with R&B influences, "The Alchemy" uses extensive football imagery to describe a burgeoning romance after going through heartbreak.
"Fortnight" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift featuring vocals from American rapper and singer Post Malone, taken from Swift's eleventh studio album, The Tortured Poets Department. The two artists wrote the track with Jack Antonoff, who produced it with Swift. Republic Records released the song as the lead single concurrently with its parent album on April 19, 2024. A 1980s-inspired downtempo electropop and synth-pop ballad, "Fortnight" is instrumented by a pulsing synth bassline. Its lyrics portray a woman in an unhappy marriage who becomes next-door neighbors with an ex-lover who is also married, and the two vow to escape to Florida.
"Thank You Aimee" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, from the double album edition of her eleventh studio album, The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology (2024). Swift and Aaron Dessner wrote the track, and the two produced it with Jack Antonoff. A country folk and country pop track instrumented by guitar strums, its lyrics are about dealing with a high-school bully.
"So High School" is a song by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from the double album edition of her eleventh studio album, The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology (2024). Written and produced by Swift and Aaron Dessner, "So High School" has a 1990s-tinged production incorporating various rock styles like alternative rock, indie rock, and pop rock. The lyrics are about how a romantic relationship makes Swift relive the feeling of young love.
"Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?" is a song written and recorded by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift for her eleventh studio album, The Tortured Poets Department (2024). She and Jack Antonoff produced the track, which is a Southern Gothic-inspired chamber pop song that incorporates dense echo and strings. The lyrics were inspired by Swift's bitter feelings while reflecting on her teenage rise to stardom, and they compare a narrator to a wicked witch and a trapped circus animal, detailing how her upbringing in an asylum contributes to her callous and viscous nature.
"The Black Dog" is a song written and recorded by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from her eleventh studio album, The Tortured Poets Department (2024). It was first included as a bonus track for a physical edition of the album and then released digitally as part of a double album edition subtitled The Anthology. Produced by Swift and Jack Antonoff, "The Black Dog" is a slow-building post-industrial ballad containing a sparse, piano-led production and a momentary shift in dynamics in the chorus. Its lyrics portray Swift's character tracking an ex-partner at a bar and experiencing heartbreak and resentment after finding him.
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