Taylor Swift, one of the most famous pop stars of all time, keeps on impressing everyone with her work. On April 19th, she released her 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department. To keep the excitement going, she announced it was a double album and released another 15 songs to the album calling it The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology.
This album is influenced mostly by two of Swift’s previous exes: Joe Alwin (“I Can Do It With a Broken Heart”, “The Black Dog”, “loml”) and Matty Healy (“Florida!!!”, “Guilty as Sin?”, “Fortnight”). However, there are two songs, about Travis Kelce; her current boyfriend (“The Alchemy”, “So High School”), a few about her career (“Clara Bow”, “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?”, “Fresh Out the Slammer”), and one about her past feud with Kim Kardashian(“thanK you aIMee”).
There hasn’t been a “breakup” album from Taylor Swift since her fourth studio album, Red, or the re-record called Red: Taylor’s Version in 2021 about her ex-boyfriend Jake Gyllenhaal. The Tortured Poets Department was a wave of something different than what Taylor has been writing for the past few years. This combined with the downfall of Taylor’s six-year relationship with Joe Alwin is why the album was getting so much coverage before it came out.
The Billboard announced the week of April 28th, that the album made a historic debut at number one in the Billboard 200. It set the largest streaming week ever for an album. This album will be her 14th number-one, making her a tie for the most among soloists with Jay-Z. She also had the Billboard Hot 100 filled in all ten spots with her new Tortured Poets Department songs. She became the first artist to have the entire top 10 filled in a single week.
She has broken many records with this album according to Billboard, including, Spotify’s most pre-saved countdown, best-selling vinyl release, single day Spotify album streams, single day Spotify song streams(300 million), apple music pop album, fastest album to 1 billion streams on Spotify, and biggest streaming week of all time.
This album has still gotten some mixed reviews. The majority of people who like Taylor Swift have loved this album and the aesthetic of it. But on the other hand, some people do not like it. Some think that it is too slow, serious, or steering away from her previous music. The album is different from what some people are used to. But overall it is breaking records and succeeding with flying colors.
Taylor Swift is one of the most famous stars of the century. Her constant work and effort for putting new things out for her fans is amazing. She will always surprise and outdo everyone’s expectations. Especially with her new album, The Tortured Poets Departement!
