Taylor swift delivers again with pure eminence. The awaited album, The Tortured Poets Department, is now available on all music streaming platforms.
Swift and her team have been working diligently to produce what is now her 11th studio album. Fans have been ecstatic for the new music since Swift’s announcement of the album at the 2024 Grammy Awards in February. The night of the release, Swift surprised her fans with a double album drop. At midnight on Apr. 19, 2024 the original album was released, and at two a.m., the second part of the album called The Anthology was released. This album could be seen as one of her most vulnerable pieces of work that she has released so far.
Swift is prominently known to plant “easter eggs,” or hidden messages, in all of her work. She has planned her music career up to three years prior to every announcement, and leaves hints for her fans to either piece together or not. Elly Kennedy (25) said, “I realized that she has been hinting at releasing this album since the Eras Tour, but nobody even knew it.” Because of Swift’s puzzles, fans are always reading deeper into her lyrics, Instagram posts, speeches, dates, and even the length of her released songs. It is not uncommon for fans to catch on to her secrets, but most of the time she leaves her fanbase with a good surprise. Kennedy also said, “I think that she might be hinting toward retiring as that is referenced in her song ‘Clara Bow.’” In the song, Swift mentions many timely, remarkable figures, then mentions herself perhaps indicating that she may also soon be a timely figure.
With an additional 15 songs to the album, that makes 31 total songs for fans to unpack and choose their favorites. Chloe Crider (26) said, “After just a few listens, I think my favorite is either ‘Down Bad’ or ‘My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys.’” Swift collaborated with a few other artists like Post Malone and Florence & The Machine, who contributed to her fast-selling album. Swift sold 1.4 million copies in just the first day of availability, which quickly made it the best selling album of 2024 in the US. This was the biggest opening week for an album since Adele’s album 25 that was released in 2015.
