The Tortured Poets Department (often shortened to Tortured Poets and abbreviated TTPD) is the eleventh studio album by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. Released on April 19, 2024, via Republic Records, the album was written and produced by Swift, Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner. Swift announced the album at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards on February 4, 2024, after winning Best Pop Vocal Album for her tenth studio album, Midnights (2022).
Swift conceived The Tortured Poets Department shortly after finishing work on Midnights and continued developing the former during the Eras Tour (2023–2024), her ongoing sixth concert tour. Self-described as her "lifeline" album, The Tortured Poets Department was perceived by Swift as a culmination of imperative songwriting. A synth-pop album with stylings of rock and folk, its production incorporates synths, piano, and guitar. The subject matter delves into Swift's psyche, introspecting on her public and private lives. Critics have described the album as a cathartic and self-conscious project, blending sorrow and humor.
Issued as a double album, the standard volume of The Tortured Poets Department consists of sixteen songs, featuring collaborations with the American rapper Post Malone and the English indie rock band Florence and the Machine. The second volume, subtitled The Anthology, was surprise-released two hours after the standard volume and contains fifteen additional songs. "Fortnight", featuring Malone, was the album's lead single.
Background and release[]
Swift released her tenth studio album, Midnights, on October 21, 2022, to widespread commercial and critical success. In 2023, she released two re-recorded albums, Speak Now (Taylor's Version) and 1989 (Taylor's Version), as part of her re-recording project. On February 4, 2024, the day of the 66th Annual Grammy Awards where Midnights had been nominated, Swift teased the release of a new album by changing the profile pictures across her social media accounts to black-and-white. Fans speculated online that she was preparing to release Reputation (Taylor's Version), a forthcoming re-recording of her sixth studio album, Reputation (2017). Swift's website also appeared as if it had malfunctioned, reporting an unusual non-standard HTTP status code 321, as well as error code "hneriergrd", which fans deciphered to be an anagram spelling "red herring." The source code of the website contained non-English words.
On February 4, 2024, Swift won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album and Album of the Year for Midnights; in her acceptance speech for the former, she announced a new studio album that she had worked on since 2022, titled The Tortured Poets Department, set for release on April 19, 2024. The album cover artwork was posted to her social media accounts, along with a photograph of a handwritten note, which incorporated English translations of the words from the source code:
And so I enter into evidence / My tarnished coat of arms / My muses, acquired like bruises / My talismans and charms / The tick, tick, tick of love bombs / My veins of pitch black ink / All's fair in love and poetry...
Sincerely, The Chairman of the Tortured Poets Department.
Conception[]
Swift characterized The Tortured Poets Department as a "lifeline" album—one that she "really needed" to make. She 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. According to Swift, creating the album proved to her the integral role of songwriting in her life. She stated, "I have never had an album where I needed songwriting more than I needed it on Tortured Poets."
In an Instagram post announcing the album's release, Swift further characterized 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."
Music and lyrics[]
The Tortured Poets Department consists of sixteen standard songs and features two guest acts—the American rapper Post Malone on the lead single "Fortnight" and the English indie rock band Florence and the Machine, led by singer-songwriter Florence Welch, on the song "Florida!!!". The album was primarily written by Swift with longtime collaborators Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner; Welch and Malone also co-wrote their respective collaborations with Swift. Billboard opined that The Tortured Poets Department is modeled after the five stages of grief, a psychological theory proposed by Swiss-American psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross in 1969, as speculated by a number of fans. The Tortured Poets Department is also characterized by its sense of meta-reference, fourth wall, and self-awareness; Business Insider journalist Callie Ahlgrim described the album's content as Swift's "messiest, horniest, and funniest", while Paul Bridgwater of The Line of Best Fit noticed underlying themes of anger and mourning.
According to critics, The Tortured Poets Department is primarily a synth-pop album. The Guardian's Alexis Petridis wrote that its sound "splits the difference between the glossy 80s-influenced pop-rock of 1989 and the small-hours understatement of Midnights". Ahlgrim described it as a pop album featuring flashes of "guitar-forward rock". Ann Powers of NPR wrote, "There are the rap-like, conversational verses, the reaching choruses, the delicate piano meditations, the swooning synth beats." Writing for The Times, Will Hodgkinson described the album as an amalgam of synth-pop, 1980s power ballads, and "the emotional AOR of Stevie Nicks". According to BBC, the second volume of the album, The Anthology, features a more acoustic, folk sound similar to Swift's 2020 albums, Folklore and Evermore. Chris Willman of Variety felt that the album often resorts to the piano but "feels like the synth-pop of Midnights, with most of the feel-good buzz stripped out; or like the less acoustic based moments of Folklore and Evermore, with her penchant for pure autobiography stripped back in."
Title and artwork[]
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. A fan theory posits that the title of the album comes as a dig to a group chat shared between Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, and Joe Alwyn titled "The Tortured Man Club." However, it is unclear whether or not this is the case.
The cover artwork, photographed by American photographer Beth Garrabrant, is a black-and-white glamour photo shot of Swift lying on a bed wearing black lingerie: a see-through top and high waist shorts, from the fashion labels The Row and Yves Saint Laurent. Both the artwork and title were parodied by numerous brands, organizations, sports teams, and franchises, and inspired numerous memes.
Promotion and release[]
The Tortured Poets Department was released on April 19, 2024, during National Poetry Month. A double album edition, subtitled The Anthology and containing 15 bonus tracks, was surprise-released two hours later on the same day. Swift revealed the standard track list and guest features on her social media on February 6, 2024. Four physical editions of the album, each titled after and containing a bonus track, namely "The Manuscript", "The Bolter", "The Albatross", and "The Black Dog", was also be made available for purchase; Swift announced the latter three editions during the Asia-Pacific leg of the Eras Tour, her sixth headlining concert tour. One of the collector's edition deluxe CDs of the album sold out on her website in its first two hours of availability. Physical copies of the album also feature an original poem by Stevie Nicks.
The album was promoted by digital service providers such as Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, Instagram, and Threads. It included five Swift-curated Apple Music playlists inspired by the stages of grief and an Easter egg hunt for new lyrics within the playlists' songs; a pop-up library of curated articles at The Grove, Los Angeles, hosted by Spotify; QR code murals in various cities worldwide that lead to unlisted YouTube shorts on Swift's channel; 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. Radio platforms iHeartRadio, which temporarily rebranded as iHeartTaylor, and Sirius XM also announced special programs in tribute of the album, featuring exclusive content from Swift. NBC provided live updates on the album's release.
The standard edition of the album was leaked in its entirety on April 17, 2024, two days before its official release, which resulted in the phrase "Taylor Swift leak" being temporarily banned from searches on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter).
On April 18, Swift announced "Fortnight" as the lead single, released in conjunction with the album. Later that day, Swift posted a teaser trailer for its accompanying music video, set for release on the album's release day. Following several Easter eggs hinting to the number "2", including a countdown on Swift's Instagram page, The Anthology was released two hours after the standard edition.
Critical reception[]
According to the review aggregator Metacritic, The Tortured Poets Department received "universal acclaim" based on a weighted average score of 87 out of 100 from 9 critic scores. A number of critics, such as The Independent's Helen Brown and The Times' Dan Cairns, praised the album's musical composition, vocal stylings and lyrical tonality. Bridgwater dubbed it Swift's most cohesive body of work to-date, finding the music sophisticated and the lyricism symbolic.
Writing for Rolling Stone, music journalist Rob Sheffield described the album as Swift's most personal, "wildly ambitious and gloriously chaotic" project. Variety's Chris Willman agreed, calling it an "audacious, transfixing" project that combines "cleverness with catharsis". NME critic Laura Molloy wrote a mixed review, opining that some of the lyrics were "cringe-inducing" and the music production was not groundbreaking, attributing the latter to Swift's persisting collaboration with Antonoff. In contrast, Alexis Petridis of The Guardian opined that the album boasts Swift's witty, "most cutting" lyrics, featuring nuanced music that shows she is "willing to take risks in a risk-averse era for pop".
Commercial performance[]
On April 18, 2024, a day before the release, Spotify announced that The Tortured Poets Department broke the record for the most pre-saved album in the platform's history. It was then announced that the album also became 2024's most streamed album in a day in less than its first 12 hours.
Track listing[]
| 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 |
| Total length: | 69:06 | |||
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17. | "The Albatross" |
|
|
3:03 |
| Total length: | 68:11 | |||
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17. | "The Bolter" |
|
|
3:58 |
| Total length: | 69:06 | |||
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17. | "The Manuscript" | Swift |
|
3:44 |
| Total length: | 68:52 | |||
| 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 | |||
Personnel[]
Musicians[]
- Taylor Swift – vocals (all tracks), piano (tracks 3, 17), background vocals (17)
- Jack Antonoff – synthesizer (tracks 1–4, 6–11, 13, 15, 17, 18, 25), programming (1–4, 6–11, 15, 17, 18, 24, 25), drums (1, 3, 4, 7–10, 13, 15, 17, 18, 24), electric guitar (1, 3, 6–11, 15, 17, 24), acoustic guitar (1, 6–9, 11, 17, 18, 25), piano (2, 4, 8, 10, 13, 17, 18), cello (2, 6, 8, 10, 15, 17, 24, 25), background vocals (2, 6, 15, 24), bass (3, 6, 8–11, 17), percussion (4, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 18, 24), Mellotron (6, 8, 10, 11, 17), organ (7), Rhodes (17), keyboards (18)
- Sean Hutchinson – drums (1, 6, 10, 15, 17), percussion (4)
- Post Malone – vocals (track 1)
- Mikey Freedom Hart – acoustic guitar, bass, electric guitar, Hammond B3 (track 2); Mellotron (3), synthesizer (4, 6, 10), percussion (10)
- Evan Smith – synthesizer (tracks 2, 6, 10), saxophone (4)
- Zem Audu – synthesizer (tracks 2, 6, 10), saxophone (4)
- Michael Riddleberger – drums (track 2), percussion (10)
- Aaron Dessner – piano (tracks 5, 10, 12, 16, 19–23, 26–31), synthesizer (5, 12, 14, 16, 19–24, 26–28, 30, 31), drum programming (5, 14, 16, 19–24, 26, 28–30), electric guitar (5, 14, 19–23, 26, 27, 29, 30), acoustic guitar (6, 19, 20, 23, 24, 26, 29), keyboards (12, 19–22, 24, 26–28, 30), bass (14, 16, 20, 22, 28–30), percussion (16, 19, 20, 22–24, 26, 27, 29, 30), mandolin (20, 23, 24), synth bass (21, 22, 24, 27, 31), banjo (23, 24), drums (30)
- Benjamin Lanz – synthesizer (tracks 5, 19–23, 27, 30), trombone (20, 22, 27), sequencer (22)
- Bobby Hawk – strings (tracks 6, 9, 17)
- Emily Jean Stone – oddities (track 8)
- Florence Welch – vocals, drums, percussion, piano (track 8)
- Glenn Kotche – drums, percussion (tracks 12, 16, 19–21, 23, 24, 26, 29, 30); snare drum, vibraphone (27)
- Oli Jacobs – background vocals, percussion, spoken word (track 13)
- James McAlister – synthesizer (tracks 14, 16, 21–23, 26, 27, 30), percussion (14, 16, 23, 26, 27, 29, 30), drums (14, 21, 22), electric guitar (14, 22), keyboards (16, 21, 26, 27), drum programming (19, 22, 26, 27, 31); acoustic guitar, synth bass (23); zither (26)
- Rob Moose – viola, violin (tracks 14, 20)
- Jason Slota – percussion (track 14)
- Abi Hyde-Smith – cello (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Brian O'Kane – cello (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Max Ruisi – cello (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Reinoud Ford – cello (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Robert Ames – conductor (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Chris Kelly – double bass (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Dave Brown – double bass (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Sophie Roper – double bass (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Elisa Bergersen – viola (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Matthew Kettle – viola (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Morgan Goff – viola (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Nicholas Bootiman – viola (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Akiko Ishikawa – violin (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Cara Laskaris – violin (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Iona Allan – violin (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Kirsty Mangan – violin (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Nicole Crespo O'Donoghue – violin (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Ronald Long – violin (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Sophie Mather – violin (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Dan Oates – violin (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29, 30)
- Eloisa-Fleur Thorn – violin (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29, 30)
- Emily Holland – violin (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29, 30)
- Anna de Bruin – violin (tracks 16, 19, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Galya Bisengalieva – violin (tracks 16, 19, 21, 24, 26, 30)
- Agata Daraskaite – violin (tracks 16, 19, 26, 27, 30)
- Julian Azkoul – violin (tracks 16, 19, 26, 27, 30)
- Amy Swain – viola (tracks 16, 19, 26, 27, 30)
- J.T. Bates – drums (tracks 16, 20, 21, 26)
- Thomas Barlett – synthesizer (tracks 16, 21, 23, 24, 26, 29–31); keyboards, piano (16, 21, 23, 24, 26, 29, 30)
- Marianne Haynes – violin (tracks 16, 21, 23, 24, 29–31)
- Jack Manning – piano (track 18)
- George Barton – percussion (tracks 19, 23, 24, 26, 27, 31), timpani (30)
- David McQueen – French horn (tracks 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Alicia Berendse – violin (tracks 21, 24, 29–31)
- Meghan Cassidy – viola (tracks 23, 29, 31)
- Natasha Humphries – violin (tracks 23, 29, 31)
- Jonathan Farey – French horn (tracks 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Paul Cott – French horn (tracks 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Patrik Berger – acoustic guitar (track 25)
- Max Welford – bass clarinet (tracks 26, 29)
- Vicky Lester – harp (track 30)
- Bryce Dessner – drum programming, piano, synthesizer (track 31)
Technical[]
- Randy Merrill – mastering
- Ryan Smith – mastering
- Serban Ghenea – mixing
- Bryce Bordone – mix engineering
- Laura Sisk – engineering (tracks 1–4, 6–11, 13, 15, 17, 18, 24, 25), vocal engineering (7, 9, 11, 12, 14, 15)
- Oli Jacobs – engineering (tracks 1–4, 6–11, 13, 15, 17, 18, 24, 25)
- Sean Hutchinson – engineering (tracks 1, 2, 4, 6, 10, 15, 17)
- Michael Riddleberger – engineering (tracks 1, 2, 4, 6, 10, 17)
- David Hart – engineering (tracks 2, 6, 10)
- Evan Smith – engineering (tracks 2, 6, 10)
- Mikey Freedom Hart – engineering (tracks 2, 6, 10)
- Zem Audu – engineering (tracks 2, 6, 10)
- Bella Blasko – engineering (tracks 5, 6, 10, 11, 14, 27, 28, 31), additional engineering (16, 19–24, 26, 29, 30)
- Jonathan Low – engineering (tracks 5, 6, 10, 11, 16, 19–24, 26–30)
- Aaron Dessner – engineering (tracks 5, 14)
- Benjamin Lanz – engineering (tracks 5, 19, 20, 22, 23, 26, 27, 30)
- Ben Loveland – engineering (track 8)
- Joey Miller – engineering (track 10), engineering assistance (13)
- James McAlister – engineering (tracks 14, 16, 19, 21–23, 26, 27, 29, 30)
- Rob Moose – engineering, recording arrangement (track 14)
- Jeremy Murphy – engineering (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29, 30)
- Thomas Bartlett – engineering (tracks 16, 21, 23, 24, 26, 29, 30)
- Maryam Qudus – engineering (tracks 20, 23, 24, 30)
- Jack Antonoff – engineering (track 24)
- Pat Burns – engineering (track 27)
- Louis Bell – vocal engineering (track 1)
- Christopher Rowe – vocal engineering (tracks 7, 9, 11, 12, 15, 20)
- Beau Sorenson – additional engineering (track 14)
- Bryce Dessner – recording arrangement (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Jack Manning – engineering assistance (tracks 1–4, 6–11, 13, 15, 17, 18, 25)
- Jon Sher – engineering assistance (tracks 1–4, 6–11, 13, 15 17, 18, 25)
- Lauren Marquez – engineering assistance (tracks 1, 13)
- Jesse Snider – engineering assistance (tracks 7, 8, 10)
- Joe Caldwell – engineering assistance (tracks 10, 13, 18, 24)
- Rḗmy Dumelz – engineering assistance (track 11)
- Laura Beck – engineering assistance (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23–27, 29–31)
Release history[]
| Region | Date | Format(s) | Edition(s) | Label | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Various | April 19, 2024 |
|
Republic | ||
| CD |
| ||||
|
The Anthology | ||||
| United States |
|
|
|||
| Japan | April 20, 2024 | CD |
|
Universal Japan |