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Anticipation was growing at a fever pitch before Taylor Swift’s latest album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” dropped at midnight EDT. But the pop superstar had a huge surprise on tap: It’s actually a double album.
When Part One dropped, Swift wrote on Instagram, “All’s fair in love and poetry… New album THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT. Out now 🤍”
Then came the shocker, revealed in an Instagram post saying, “It’s a 2am surprise: The Tortured Poets Department is a secret DOUBLE album. ✌️ I’d written so much tortured poetry in the past 2 years and wanted to share it all with you, so here’s the second installment of TTPD: The Anthology. 15 extra songs. And now the story isn’t mine anymore… it’s all yours. 🤍.”
Swift described the album as “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.”
She also said that time has been “closed and boarded up. There is nothing to avenge, no scores to settle once wounds have healed. And upon further reflection, a good number of them turned out to be self-inflicted.”
“Entertainment Tonight” correspondent Denny Directo called the record some of her most vulnerable work.
“Fans were left with more questions than there were answers, so good luck trying to decipher who these songs are about, what they mean,” Directo told CBS News. “… I feel like there’s more heartbreak songs on this than there are love songs.”
Hours ahead of the record’s release, Swift said on social media that its first single was “Fortnight,” featuring Post Malone, and its music video was released Friday night.
Swift praised the Grammy-nominated artist’s musical experimentation and melodies “that just stick in your head forever.”
“I got to witness that magic come to life firsthand when we worked together on Fortnight,” Swift said in her post.
“Fortnight” isn’t the only track on the album on which Swift worked with another artist. Florence and The Machine is also featured.
Swift posted an initial tracklist to social media in February one day after she announced the album at the Grammys, where she won for best pop vocal album. Here’s the list of all 31 songs:
Swift resumes her wildly successful Eras Tour next month in Europe with shows scheduled for Austria, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the U.K. until August. In the fall, the tour returns to North America with performances in Indianapolis, Miami, New Orleans, Toronto and Vancouver, British Columbia.
Here are the dates for upcoming shows:
Alex Sundby is a senior editor at CBSNews.com. In addition to editing content, Alex also covers breaking news, writing about crime and severe weather as well as everything from multistate lottery jackpots to the July Fourth hot dog eating contest.
First published on April 18, 2024 / 4:31 PM EDT
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