The Tortured Poets Department

The Tortured Poets Department is the eleventh studio album by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. It was written and produced by Swift, Jack Antonoff, and Aaron Dessner, and released on April 19, 2024, via Republic Records. Swift announced the album at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards on February 4, 2024, after winning Best Pop Vocal Album for her preceding work, Midnights (2022). The Tortured Poets Department was expanded into a double album upon release, subtitled The Anthology, featuring a surprise second volume of songs. Swift conceived The Tortured Poets Department shortly after finishing work on Midnights and continued developing it during the Eras Tour (2023–2024), her ongoing sixth concert tour. She described The Tortured Poets Department as her "lifeline" album, conceived as a culmination of her imperative songwriting. It contains 31 songs across its two volumes, with the American rapper Post Malone featuring on the opening track and lead single, "Fortnight", and the English indie rock band Florence and the Machine on the track "Florida!!!". A minimalist synth-pop and folk-pop effort with rock and country stylings, The Tortured Poets Department consists of largely midtempo songs driven by synthesizers and drum machines alongside organic instruments such as piano and guitar. Its subject matter focuses on Swift's psyche, exploring her outlook on her public and private lives using introspective storytelling. The lyrical content is characterized by themes of sorrow, self-awareness, melodrama, and humor. The album polarized critics: most reviews were positive and praised Swift's cathartic songwriting for its emotional resonance and wit, while the rest suggested a lack of lyrical profundity; critics were also divided on the album's production with some deeming it tasteful and others calling it uninventive. Commercially, The Tortured Poets Department broke a string of records globally and topped the official charts in 13 countries. It gained the highest single-day streams for an album on the streaming platform Spotify. In the United States, the album sold 2.6 million album-equivalent units in its first week, the biggest sales week of her career and her record-extending seventh release to open with over a million units in the country. The Tortured Poets Department also became the fastest-selling album of the 2020s decade in the United Kingdom, and the first album to monopolize the top 10 positions of Australia's ARIA Singles Chart.