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The Tortured Poets Department

2024 studio album by Taylor Swift From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Tortured Poets Department
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For the title track, see The Tortured Poets Department (song).

The Tortured Poets Department is the eleventh studio album by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. It was released on April 19, 2024, through Republic Records, with a double album edition subtitle The Anthology being released two hours after the standard edition. Swift wrote and produced the album with Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner while she was embarking on the US leg of the Eras Tour in 2023.

Quick facts Studio album by Taylor Swift, Released ...

Using autobiographical songwriting, The Tortured Poets Department reflects Swift's cathartic episode while she was experiencing personal upheavals amidst breakups and heightened fame. Its songs depict grief and emotional tumult caused by ill-fated romance in a hyperbolic and confrontational manner, exploring themes of mourning, depression, anger, delusion, erotic desires, and self-aware humor. Musically, The Tortured Poets Department features two production styles: the standard edition is largely minimalist, mid-tempo synth-pop, characterized by synthesizers, sustained bass, and programmed drums; and The Anthology consists primarily of mellow, acoustic chamber pop and folk-pop songs driven by piano and guitar. The album incorporates elements of electronica, country, rock, folk, and western.

Swift promoted the album via social media and music streaming platforms, and she included an extended set list for the Eras Tour in 2024. The Tortured Poets Department topped charts across Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Americas; broke streaming and sales records; and became the global best-selling album of 2024. In the US, The Tortured Poets Department became Swift's seventh album to open with over a million units and first to open with two million units, spent 17 weeks atop the Billboard 200, and was certified eight-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Its songs made Swift the first artist to monopolize the Billboard Hot 100's top 14 spots, led by "Fortnight" featuring Post Malone.

Critical reception of The Tortured Poets Department upon its release was mixed; positive reviews praised the cathartic narrative songwriting as emotionally resonant and deemed the album one of Swift's finest works, but negative reviews described the production as redundant and the lyrics verbose rather than poetic. Within weeks after the initial reviews, several journalists reassessed the album and appreciated the musical and lyrical nuances, opining that the initial criticism was overshadowed by Swift's media overexposure. The album received an ARIA Music Award, a Premios Odeón, a Japan Gold Disc Award, and five nominations at the 67th Annual Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year.

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Background

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In March 2023, Taylor Swift embarked on the Eras Tour, which she conceived as a retrospective tour that paid tribute to all of the albums in her discography. The Eras Tour became the first concert tour to gross $1 billion in revenue, and its huge success propelled Swift's global fame to unprecedented levels, becoming a subject of academic studies in marketing, economics, and sociology.[1] She began working on her eleventh studio album immediately after completing her tenth, Midnights (2022), and recorded it with longtime collaborators, the producers Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner, while she was on the US leg of the Eras Tour.[2][3]

Amidst the heightened fame, throughout 2023, Swift's personal life was a subject widely covered and debated by both her fans and the press, who routinely reported on her breakup after a six-year relationship with the actor Joe Alwyn, alleged brief romantic linking with the musician Matty Healy, and new relationship with the American football player Travis Kelce.[4][5][6] At the 66th Annual Grammy Awards on February 4, 2024, during her acceptance speech for the Best Pop Vocal Album award for Midnights, Swift announced the title of her eleventh studio album, The Tortured Poets Department.[7] Swift shared to her audience at an Eras concert in Melbourne, on February 16, 2024, that writing The Tortured Poets Department was a "lifeline" for her because it made her reflect on how songwriting was an integral part of her life.[8]

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Themes and lyrics

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Standard edition

The standard edition of The Tortured Poets Department consists of 16 songs, including two written solely by Swift—"My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys" and "Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?, eight co-written with Antonoff, and five with Dessner. The rapper and singer Post Malone is featured on and co-wrote "Fortnight", and the musician Florence Welch on "Florida!!!".[9][10] In a self-written epilogue included at the end of the album's packaging, Swift situates herself as the "Chairman of the Tortured Poets Department" and details the overall narrative: she references the end of a long-term relationship, which transitions into a short-lived rebound romantic fling that painfully ends.[3] In social media posts, she framed The Tortured Poets Department as an introspective album that reflects "events, opinions and sentiments from a fleeting and fatalistic moment in time—one that was both sensational and sorrowful in equal measure".[3][11]

Tortured Poets is the culmination of a catalog full of songs in which Swift has taken us into the bedrooms where men pleasured or misled her, the bars where they charmed her, the empty playgrounds where they sat on swings with her and promised something they couldn't give.

Using autobiographical songwriting rooted in country music's detail-heavy narratives and rock music's self-mythologizing storytelling,[13][14] the songs reference her cathartic phase while dealing with personal upheavals caused by romantic failures and heightened fame.[15][16][17] A heavily personal album, The Tortured Poets Department depicts emotions like anger, mourning, confusion, regret, longing, and delusion,[3][18][19] which are told via lyrical narratives that are messy, unbridled, and unguarded[20][21][22]—they mirror the experiences of grief[17][23] and explore themes like erotic desires, forbidden love, and escaping from the public eye to extremes, in a hyperbolic and confrontational manner.[22][12][24][25] The music critic Ann Powers summarized the content as a novel-like song collection about "emotional violence" that is imposed onto women by their male lovers and even by themselves, and commented that the lyrical details were so personal that they showcased Swift at her most vulnerable but also most ruthless.[12]

The overall sentiments are grim and sombre, brought by lyrical imagery of death, murder, prison, mental health spirals, narcotics, and alcoholism,[3][19][26][27] with religious undertones and use of profanity.[17][28] The first major theme, the dissolution of a years-long relationship, is anchored by "So Long, London", in which Swift's narrator bids farewell to an ex-partner and their romance in London.[29][30] She resents how the lost love wasted her youth and how she tried to rescue it to no avail,[31] a theme that is also detailed in "My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys", in which she is in denial that the relationship is no longer salvageable.[32] The second major theme, the transition to a passionate fling that abruptly ends, is detailed across most tracks, which combine autobiographical details with fictionalized narratives and use devices like hyperbole or melodrama for impact.[3][29][33] "Fortnight" details a two-weeks-long romance that entails jealousy and murderous thoughts,[34] while "Fresh Out the Slammer" compares the old romance to a suffocating prison and depicts Swift's narrator escaping from it the moment it ends, to get together with an old flame.[3][35]

The brief fling sends Swift's narrator into a whirlwind of strong emotions blending desire and pain.[12][19] In "Down Bad", she compares the feelings caused by this short-lived infatuation to being abducted by an extraterrestrial being.[36] "Guilty as Sin?" explores her longing to be intimate with another man while being trapped in an unhappy relationship and the guilt that ensues, comparing her orgasm to death and ocean waves crashing.[37] She declares her devotion to him in "But Daddy I Love Him",[29] and, in "I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)", is determined to bring out the sweet nature of this problematic man, until she realizes at the end that she could not.[3] The painful ending is the theme of two tracks: "Loml" and "The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived", which both explore the imbalanced dynamic between Swift's narrator and her subject.[3][38] In "Loml", Swift's narrator is devastated by this "con-man" who falsely promised her marriage and kids but ultimately abandons her,[38][39] whereas in "The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived", she directs her anger and condemnation towards him, who ghosted her and thus "didn't measure up in any measure of a man", as depicted in the lyrics.[19][29]

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Swift's heightened fame and breakups during the Eras Tour influenced The Tortured Poets Department.

The album's third major theme revolves around Swift's fame and its impact on her, alluding to how she coped with the breakups while having to perform in the public eye.[12][29][40] In these songs, which reference her public image and incorporate self-aware and sometimes self-deprecating humor,[41] she confronts anyone who she thought had wronged her: detractors, music-industry executives, the press, and her fans.[12][38][42] In "The Tortured Poets Department", which details an impending heartbreak between two musicians,[43] she tells her romantic interest that she is not Patti Smith and he is not Dylan Thomas, both associating with and distancing from the "tortured poet" archetype that the title evokes.[42][44] In "But Daddy I Love Him", which is set in a religious small town, she criticizes anyone who disapproves of her romance with a troublesome man who may blemish her innocent, good-girl image. Several analyses opined that this was Swift's message to her fans to not interfere with her private life, influenced by their public outcry against her alleged fling with Healy due to his unpopularity.[38][45]

"Florida!!!", "Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?", and "I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)" incorporate elements of Southern Gothic melodrama.[38] Both "Florida!!!" and "Who's Afraid of Little Old Me" reflect Swift's anxiety when facing with her fame and identity:[43] "Florida!!!" is an escapist tale about escaping to Florida to reinvent her identity and forget past wrongdoings,[34] while "Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?" details her rage and resentment against the culture that she was brought up in, alluding to her early success when she was still a teenager.[43][38] In "I Can Do It with a Broken Heart", Swift claims that she could put on a show despite her depression from being abandoned by her romantic interests.[3] The standard edition's penultimate track, "The Alchemy", is about a burgeoning and triumphant romance using American football metaphors—the outlier in an album of heavy emotions.[43] The closing track, "Clara Bow", was named after the 1920s silent-film actress Clara Bow. In it, Swift explores how women in the music industry are consecutively viewed as replacements for someone before them.[12][29]

The Anthology

The double album edition of The Tortured Poets Department is subtitled The Anthology and contains 15 additional songs. Swift wrote three herself—"The Black Dog", "Peter", and "The Manuscript", 10 with Dessner, and three with Antonoff.[10][46] While the Anthology songs expand on the original edition's themes of heartbreak and emotional tumult, they are less directly autobiographical and use literary subtexts to convey the sentiments via metaphors and character studies.[46][47][48]

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The Anthology contains mythological references, including the albatross metaphor originated in a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge (left) and the Greek mythology of Cassandra (right).

Motifs of mythology are prominent on The Anthology.[49] "The Black Dog" and "The Albatross" draw from and reinvent English folklore imagery; the literature academic Matthew J. A. Green commented that they also feature influences of gothic literature.[50] "The Black Dog" references both a London pub and the mythical creature black dog—Swift's narrator is devastated upon learning that her ex-lover is seducing another female at the pub and, at the end of the song, compares his act of abandoning her to a dog with tail between his legs.[24][49] In "The Albatross", Swift plays with the albatross metaphor originated in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 1789 poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Her narrator compares herself to the albatross as both a sign of danger and an agent of rescue, subverting from third- to first-person narration at the final chorus. The lyrics are ambiguous; according to the philosopher Georgie Mills, they can be interpreted as either Swift's warning to someone who has wronged her or caution for a potential romantic partner.[51]

Swift similarly switches between first- and third-person storytelling in "Cassandra", a reference to the ancient Greek mythological princess Cassandra, who was a prophetess cursed by the god Apollo so that nobody believed in her prophecies. In the song, Swift's narrator details how the townsfolk murder Cassandra for her foresights, contrary to the original mythology that she is just ignored and not killed;[49] Burt wrote that Swift's "Cassandra" exerts influences from Homer and Virgil.[43] In "The Prophecy", Swift's narrator pleads to a higher being to change her destiny of loneliness and begs for a soulmate. According to Mills, the trope of prophecy evokes mythological tales such as Cassandra and Oedipus, and the lyrics incorporate biblical imagery of Eve being cursed.[52]

The Anthology also features influences from modern literature. "Peter" is based on the narrative of J. M. Barrie's 20th-century play and novel Peter Pan. Told from the perspective of Wendy Darling, the song depicts her waiting by the window for the day Peter Pan grows up and comes back to her. By the end of the song, in the bridge, she concedes that she has tried in vain and, pleading with Peter Pan to forgive her, extinguishes the candlelight.[43][53] "The Bolter" was influenced by Nancy Mitford's 1945 novel The Pursuit of Love, about a female character nicknamed "The Bolter", who stays in society's margin and looks for love anywhere and in anyone. In her song, Swift's narrator is an endearing and mischievous woman who finds pleasure in seducing bad men, whom she describes as "trophy hunters", and escaping them at every turn.[46][54]

Other tracks draw from Swift's self-awareness and fame. In "How Did It End?", her narrator explores anguish over a failed relationship and contemplates on how the public's interest in her private life plays a role in the distorted reality and gossip that ensue.[55] In "I Hate It Here", her narrator daydreams about escaping to an idealized past, imagining a beautiful landscape of secret gardens, lunar valleys, and gentle people, but she later acknowledges that nostalgia is a trap.[56] "Thank You Aimee" is a sarcastic attack on a high-school bully; Swift's narrator appreciates the bully for making her stronger and tells them that she has changed their name so that they cannot enjoy the attention.[46] The closing track, "The Manuscript", is a re-examination on a long-gone romantic relationship with an older man; while it was once painful, Swift's narrator reflects on it with maturity and acceptance.[17][46] She ends the song with the line, "The story isn't mine anymore." According to Mills, this lyric refers to the "death of the author"—by relinquishing authorship on her stories, Swift gives way for her audience to collectively construct and own theirs, thus positioning herself as a "modern-day Homer" and turning her songs into folktales.[53]

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Production and music

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According to Swift, The Tortured Poets Department took two years to complete.[7] She recorded and produced with Antonoff at Electric Lady Studios in New York City and Conway Recording Studios in Los Angeles, and with Dessner at Long Pond Studios in the Hudson Valley.[9] On tracks co-produced with Antonoff, his bandmates from Bleachers played and recorded instruments at their respective studios: Zem Audu and Evan Smith on synthesizers, Michael Riddleberger and Sean Hutchinson on drums and percussion, and Mikey Freedom Hart on guitars and keyboards.[9][57] Swift's vocals were recorded by Laura Sisk at Electric Lady, and by Christopher Rowe at Prime Recording Studio in Nashville.[9] Conducted by Robert Ames, the London Contemporary Orchestra provided string sections consisting of violins, violas, cellos, and double basses, to "Clara Bow" on the standard edition,[58] and nine tracks on The Anthology.[59]

The music of The Tortured Poets Department is minimalist,[60][61] and the songs follow the verse-chorus form.[62] Many critics commented that the song structures and instrumental compositions feature influences of country music, a genre that defined Swift's early career;[13][63][64][65] according to Jon Pareles of The New York Times, Swift plays on traditional country songwriting by employing a "choppy pre-chorus, or chorus, that arrives in two-syllable bursts", which accentuates a steady verse structure and brings a "hip-hop percussiveness".[62] Swift sings mostly in the lower ranges of her vocal register, resulting in rap-like, conversational delivery;[19][12][66] the music professor Samuel Murray attributed this to her devices like one-note melodies and recitative delivery.[33]

"Fortnight" (featuring Post Malone)
The synth-pop sound of the album's first volume is exemplified by "Fortnight", which features a pulsing synth bassline and backing vocals by Post Malone.
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The production styles of Antonoff and Dessner result in two distinct soundscapes.[21] Antonoff's synth-based approach results in mid-tempo synth-pop songs that characterize the standard edition,[a][70] with an ambient, electronica soundscape composed of sustained pads and bass,[13][19][71] electronic pulses,[21] and sparse, programmed drum machine beats.[72][73] It also incorporates elements of country, rock,[74] pop rock,[63] dream pop,[64] and sophisti-pop.[75] According to music critics, The Tortured Poets Department evokes the pop sounds of Swift's albums Midnights[b] and 1989 (2014),[c] but it is more muted and less danceable.[61][76] Dessner's acoustic arrangements are driven by piano and guitar,[21][29] resulting in mellow folk-pop and chamber pop ballads[61][77][70] that characterize The Anthology,[47][78] which also infuses elements of soft rock.[79] Critics compared this production style to his collaborations with Swift on her 2020 albums Folklore and Evermore.[d]

Songs

The first four tracks of The Tortured Poets Department exemplify the muted synth-pop sound: "Fortnight", "The Tortured Poets Department", "My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys", and "Down Bad".[80][81] "Fortnight" and "My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys" incorporate elements of new wave,[82] and "Down Bad" features R&B inflections in its dynamic shifts and vocal cadences.[74] "So Long, London" begins with vocal harmonies that resemble a cathedral choir and progresses into an electronic arrangement of trembling, fast-paced synths.[38][83]

"But Daddy I Love Him"
The instruments and composition of "But Daddy I Love Him" display influences of country and rock—two of the styles that the album incorporates.
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The next four tracks feature strong country influences, brought by a twang in their instrumental timbres.[65] "But Daddy I Love Him" combines country, folk rock, and electropop, over amplified snare drums, dynamic strings, and Swift's full voice in her upper register.[84] The reverbed electric guitar in "Fresh Out the Slammer" evokes Americana, while the composition of "Florida!!!"—gentle synths and rhythmic programming in the verses, and loud synths in the choruses, which end with a deep, tremolo electric guitar—situates it within indie rock and arena rock.[85] "Guilty as Sin?" infuses elements of pop rock and 1990s soft rock,[34][86] accentuated by live drums and melisma vocals.[74][87] The intricate arrangement of "Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?" resembles orchestral pop: deep layers of dense, galloping synth sequences, grainy Moog bass, and a mix of electric guitar and drums.[39] "I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)" is instrumented by sparse, tremolo guitars, and percussions that sound like gunshots, evoking a Wild West atmosphere and connotations of western music.[16][68][88]

The minimalistic piano ballad "Loml" is driven by slow, melancholic piano chord arpeggios and soft vocals, building up with strings towards the end, while "I Can Do It with a Broken Heart" is driven by frantic synth arpeggiators and throbbing bass programming over an upbeat dance-pop, electropop, and disco-pop sound.[89] "The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived" begins as a piano ballad and builds up with a monotone synth sequence and a climatic second part, instrumented with Swift's distorted vocals over eighth-note bass drums and crescendoing orchestral strings.[90] "The Alchemy" is a pop rock song with uneven textures of electric guitars, sixteenth-note synth sequences, and rhythm and blues-styled acoustic drums,[91] and the minimalist chamber-pop and pop-rock song "Clara Bow" is instrumented with airy, staccato strings and dual bass: one tonic, and one that harmonizes.[92][93]

The Anthology is more musically uniformed, consisting of five piano ballads ("How Did It End?", "Cassandra", "Peter", "Robin", "The Manuscript"), two piano-led ballads ("The Black Dog", "Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus"), and five guitar ballads propelled by fingerpicking ("I Hate It Here", "Thank You Aimee", "I Look in People's Windows", "The Prophecy", "The Bolter").[94] There are a few outliers: "Imgonnagetyouback" has a synth-pop production and R&B-influenced vocals,[95] and "So High School" evokes 1990s rock styles such as indie rock and alternative rock.[80][96]

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Release

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Title and artwork

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A vinyl-wrapped double decker bus advertising the album in London, May 2024

According to several critics, by naming the album The Tortured Poets Department, Swift situated herself as a songwriter rooted in poetry's tradition of detailing the human experience with lost love and self-torment: from ancient times (Catullus, Sappho) and medieval times (Petrarch) to the modern European "poète maudit" archetype (Arthur Rimbaud, Charles Baudelaire).[42][97] Burt argued that while this did not turn Swift into a "print-based poet", it showcased her ability to incorporate evocative lyrics into pop songs.[29] The lack of an apostrophe, as in The Tortured Poets' Department, was the subject of a debate in the press over grammatical correctness.[98] Literary scholars commented that the title was grammatically correct: Swift employed Tortured Poets as an attributive noun, as in the case with the title of the 1989 film Dead Poets Society, and not as a possessive noun.[99][100]

Photographed by Beth Garrabrant, the standard cover artwork is a black-and-white glamour photo shot of Swift lying on a bed wearing black loungewear: a see-through Yves Saint Laurent tank top and The Row boy shorts.[101][102][103] The black-and-white photoshoot for the album's booklet shows Swift casting her eyes downward while touting her lips; the English-literature scholar Emily J. Orlando compared Swift's posture to the paintings of the English poet Elizabeth Siddal by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, a fellow poet.[104] Media outlets described the album's visual aesthetic as gothic[50] and dark academia.[105][106][107] Both the artwork and title were parodied by numerous brands, organizations, sports teams, and franchises, and inspired numerous internet memes.[108][109]

Promotion and distribution

After the Grammy announcement, on February 5, 2024, Swift released the album cover and standard track listing via social media, and made the first physical variant, "The Manuscript", available for pre-order.[110][111] During the Australian and Singaporean shows of the Eras Tour in February−March 2024, she announced three additional physical editions that were each titled after a corresponding bonus track: "The Bolter", "The Albatross", and "The Black Dog".[112] She partnered with Target for an exclusive "Phantom Clear" collector's vinyl LP edition.[113]

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Swift included songs from the album in the Eras Tour's set list in 2024.

Swift promoted The Tortured Poets Department on social media and music streaming platforms, prompting Swifties to search for Easter eggs.[114] On Apple Music, Swift curated five playlists with each containing her previous songs, inspired by the five stages of grief.[115] Spotify hosted a pop-up library of curated articles at The Grove, Los Angeles;[116] QR code murals in various cities worldwide led to unlisted YouTube shorts on Swift's channel;[117][118] Instagram included a countdown to the album's release; and Threads added special shimmer effects to hashtags related to Swift and the album.[119] iHeartRadio and Sirius XM announced special programs with exclusive content from Swift to celebrate the album's release; the former temporarily rebranded as "iHeartTaylor".[120][121]

Via Republic Records, The Tortured Poets Department was released on both physical and digital formats on April 19, 2024; The Anthology was surprise-released on digital platforms two hours later.[122] The album was leaked two days prior, which resulted in the phrase "Taylor Swift leak" being temporarily banned from searches on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter).[123] The initial release was supported by 19 physical variants—nine CDs, six vinyl LPs, and four cassettes;[124] all physical copies include a poem by the American singer-songwriter Stevie Nicks, who is referenced in the track "Clara Bow".[125] The Anthology was released on vinyl and CD formats on November 29.[126] The Tortured Poets Department spawned two singles: "Fortnight" was released on April 19,[127] and "I Can Do It with a Broken Heart" on July 2.[128]

From May 2024, starting with the Paris shows,[e] 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".[133][134] She released live versions of several songs as bonus tracks on the physical album via her website exclusively to US customers.[135] Other limited editions of the physical album included acoustic versions of five tracks.[136][137] Limited digital variants contained "first draft phone" demo recordings of four tracks, and the Eras Tour live recordings of some tracks from the shows in Sweden, France, and the UK.[138][139]

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Critical reception

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Upon release, The Tortured Poets Department divided music critics;[147][148] secondary sources described the critical consensus as either positive[149][150] or mixed.[151] 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,[141] while The Anthology received a weighted average score of 69, from six reviews.[152]

A number of critics regarded the album as a landmark in Swift's discography. Reviews from The Independent's Helen Brown,[13] The Arts Desk's Ellie Roberts,[40] The Times' Dan Cairns,[146] PopMatters's Jeffrey Davies,[153] 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.[154] Others, including Variety's Chris Willman,[67] the i's Ed Power,[105] and The Observer's Kitty Empire, called it a quintessential Swift album containing some of the best songs of her career.[155]

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.[75] 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.[156] 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.[63][157] 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."[144] 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".[158][145][159]

The tumultuous mood and unconstrained emotion of the lyrics were also highlighted. Multiple reviews complimented the album's heavy, unfiltered emotion;[105][20][67][160] Clash's Lauren Webb described it as "a spell-binding, toxic, chaotic illustration" of deteriorating mental sanity.[143] 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".[12] 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.[161][67] To Willman, the album combines "cleverness with catharsis".[67] 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.[69]

Many critics, including Zoladz,[158] NME's Laura Molloy,[68] 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.[66][162] The New Yorker's Amanda Petrusich rather favored Dessner's input to the album as "gentler, more tender, and more surprising".[44] Horn and the BBC's Mark Savage felt the melodies were sonically monotonous and "staid",[16][144] but others argued that the minimalistic approach complemented Swift's hyper-personal lyrics;[145][155][63] Hopper opined that "Swift's confidence as an artist is at a peak" with The Tortured Poets Department.[157] 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;[163] this idea was shared by an anonymous, negative Paste review that criticized the album as rushed, hollow, and unrelatable.[164]

Extended commentary

Various peer journalists and columnists cross-examined the album's critical reception. Publications considered The Tortured Poets Department a polarizing album;[165][149][166] The Ringer's Nathan Hubbard deemed it Swift's most controversial release since Reputation (2017).[167] Journalists from The New York Times and Vox attributed this phenomenon to Swift's heightened fame and associated media overexposure.[5][168] Paste's anonymous review was singled out by other publications as "scathing";[149][169] 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".[170] 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.[171] 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.[172][173]

A number of commentators opined that the initial reviews demonstrated a flawed approach to mainstream music criticism.[5][174][175] Bloomberg News's 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.[174] In The Ringer, Nora Princiotti attributed the polarized 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.[167] Karl opined that some "reputable publications" catered to gossip instead of a serious artistic analysis,[174] while Anh highlighted that reviews mentioned aspects of Swift's public image instead of focusing on the music.[171] 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.[176]

Some early critics of the album recanted and declared they were "hasty" in reviewing it,[70] 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.[177] 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".[175] People called The Tortured Poets Department Swift's "Most Important Album" and said that it was judged "too soon".[178]

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Commercial performance

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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".[189] 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 Midnights; and the first album to accumulate one billion streams in a single week, doing so in five days.[190][191] The album also became the most streamed album in a single day on Amazon Music[192] and the most streamed pop album in a single day on Apple Music.[190] It amassed 1.76 billion streams globally within its first week of availability, an all-time record.[193] Republic Records reported global first-week consumption of four million album-equivalent units.[150] According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, The Tortured Poets Department sold 5.6 million copies to become the global best-selling album of 2024.[194]

In the US, the album accumulated 1.6 million album-equivalent units in four days,[195] selling 700,000 vinyl LPs to break the record for the highest single-week vinyl sales in the digital era previously held by Swift's 1989 (Taylor's Version) (2023).[190] It broke the single-week streaming record of Drake's Scorpion (2018), amassing 799 million on-demand streams in six days.[190] 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 streams. It became Swift's 14th number-one album, tying her with Jay-Z for the most chart toppers among solo artists.[124] All 31 songs from The Anthology debuted on the Billboard Hot 100; Swift became the female artist with the most simultaneous entries (32), the first female artist to have over 50 songs in the top 10, and the first artist to monopolize the top 14 spots.[196]

Supported by double-digit variants in digital and CD formats,[197] The Tortured Poets Department spent 17 non-consecutive weeks at number one on the Billboard 200; it became the longest-leading chart topper in Swift's career and the first album by a female artist (and third overall) to spend its first 12 weeks atop the chart.[198][199][i] Its chart dominance contributed to the number-two peaks of other highly-anticipated albums such as Billie Eilish's Hit Me Hard and Soft,[200] ¥$'s Vultures 2,[201] and Chappell Roan's The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.[202] Topping the Billboard 200 Year-End of 2024, The Tortured Poets Department was the year's most-consumed album across all metrics in the US, selling 3.491 million pure copies and amassing 6.955 million units.[203] The album was certified eight-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America in September 2025, for surpassing eight million album-equivalent units.[204]

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.[205] In the UK, 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).[206] It became the fastest-selling vinyl album since 1994 and Swift's album with the most weeks at number one (11),[207][208] and was the most-streamed and best-selling album of the year.[209] It was the best-selling album of 2024 in Spain, marking the first album by a non-Spanish-speaking artist to top the national year-end chart since the Spice Girls' Spice in 1997.[210] 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.[211] Debuting atop the Canadian Albums Chart as Swift's 14th consecutive chart topper, the album registered the highest single-week vinyl sales in the digital era and streaming figures in chart history.[212] Ten tracks from the album debuted on the Billboard Brasil Hot 100.[213]

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Accolades

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Track listing

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Notes

  • ^[a] signifies a vocal producer
  • "Loml" and "Imgonnagetyouback" are stylized in all lowercase.
  • "Thank You Aimee" is stylized as "thanK you aIMee" or "thank You aimEe".[227]
  • Physical editions of the standard album include either "The Black Dog", "The Albatross", "The Bolter", or "The Manuscript" as a bonus track.
  • The Anthology's CD package consists of two discs; one containing tracks 1–16, and the other with tracks 17–35.
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Personnel

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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, 13, 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, vocoder (17), keyboards, Prophet 5 (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), omnichord (21, 26, 29), 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 12, 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)
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Charts

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Certifications

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Release history

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Notes

  1. [a]
    As described by Variety's Chris Willman,[67] NME's Laura Molloy,[68] Consequence's Mary Siroky,[69] and The Daily Telegraph's Neil McCormick[46]
  2. [b]
    As described by Rogerson,[71] The Guardian's Alexis Petridis and Laura Snapes,[63][38] the BBC's Mark Savage,[16] and Rolling Stone's Rob Sheffield[24]
  3. [c]
    As discussed by Rogerson,[71] Petridis,[63] and Snapes[38]
  4. [d]
    As discussed by the Savage,[16] The A.V. Club's Mary Kate Carr,[48] The New Yorker's Tyler Foggart,[64] and Exclaim!'s Alex Hudson[78]
  5. [e]
    The said concert technically took place at Paris La Défense Arena in Nanterre,[129] but a preponderance of media outlets reported the location as Paris.[130][131][132]
  6. [f]
    Neil McCormick from The Daily Telegraph rated the standard edition and The Anthology edition each with a 4/5 rating.[46]
  7. [g]
    Pitchfork critics rated the standard edition 6.6/10 and The Anthology edition 6.0/10.[144]
  8. [h]
    Rob Sheffield from Rolling Stone rated the standard edition 5/5[24] and The Anthology edition 4/5.[47]
  9. [i]
    After Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life (1976) and Morgan Wallen's One Thing at a Time (2023)

References

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