Album Review: Taylor Swift's 'The Tortured Poets Department' Double Album Is Daggers Wrapped in a Lullaby

CNN
—

“Take your seat because Taylor Swift”Section of tortured poets“The meeting has been formally called into session, a surpriseit is a huge double album consisting of 31 songs.

The first-time Grammy winner released her highly anticipated 11th studio album on Friday, with the album appearing on Apple Music sometime before its scheduled midnight release time. At 2 a.m. EST, Swift surprisingly released a 15-song bonus album titled “TTPD: The Anthology.”

Tortured Poets Department's 16-track debut album is generally a relaxing, laid-back listen on the surface, but if you pay attention to the lyrics — as most thorough Swifties do — you'll discover a messy, complex stream of consciousness as Swift works through waves of heartbreak and longing Anger and self-reflection.

One example among many comes in the album's twelfth track, “loml” — which translates to “love of my life” online — in which Swift sings, “I wish I didn't remember how we got almost everything.” After singing the phrase “Love of my life” at the end of the song, she concluded by saying: “You are the loss of my life.”

Marking the album's drop, Swift books That the album is “a selection of new works that reflect the events, opinions and feelings of a fleeting and fateful moment — one that was both exciting and sad in equal measure,” she wrote on her verified Instagram page on Friday.

“This period of the author’s life has now ended, and the chapter has been closed and closed. There is nothing to be avenged, and no scores to settle once the wounds have healed. “On further reflection, it turns out that a large number of them were self-inflicted,” she wrote. “This writer is firmly convinced that our tears become sacred in the form of ink on a page. Once we tell our saddest story, we can be free from it and then all that is left behind is tortured poetry.

The songs Swift chose to feature collaborators on are some of the album's highlights. The album's eighth single, “Florida!!!” With Florence + The Machine is a wonderful match of two unique voices blending together, with Florence Welch's signature melancholic singing style complementing Swift's vocal range on the melodic track.

“Fortnight,” the album’s lead single featuring Post Malone, is the dynamic first song, and perhaps the catchiest, on the album. “I love you, it's ruining my life,” Swift sings pensively, with Post Malone's smooth vocals echoing her own.

The music video for “Fortnight” will be released at 8 PM EST on Friday, according to Swift books On her Instagram page Thursday, she said she's a “huge fan” of Post Malone “because of his writing, his musical experience, and those tunes he creates that stick in your head forever.”

Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner, two of Swift's frequent songwriters and collaborators, are credited with composing a number of songs throughout the album, and Swift is credited as the sole writer on two – “My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys”. and “Who's afraid of me little one?”

“Anthology,” which will be released later Friday, includes previously announced exclusive vinyl bonus tracks “The Black Dog,” “The Albatross,” “The Bolter,” and “The Manuscript,” as well as several Other new ones.

“Tortured Poets Oath” comes amid Swift’s record-breaking run “Tour of the Ages” And Grammy wins Earlier this year, it is on track to exceed sales and streaming expectations.

“This is probably the most anticipated album I've ever seen in my career,” said Tom Polman, chief programming officer and president of the label I Heart RadioHe told CNN in a recent interview. “It's not just a music event, it's a pop cultural event that I think everyone in America will be talking about and celebrating together.”

According to Spotify, the album was released on Thursday Most previously saved album In the history of the music streaming platform.

At a pop-up Spotify library activation event at The Grove in Los Angeles on Thursday, Swifty told CNN: “I have a feeling she's going to give us everything on this album and I'm really looking forward to it. I will say, I feel like it's kind of delayed by a few years, so I'm ready for this Album to tell her the whole truth.

In February, SWIFT Announce The album was presented at the Grammy Awards, while it won the Best Pop Vocal Album award for the album “Midnights” for the year 2022.

“It was really a lifeline for me,” Swift said of “Tortured Poets” during a concert in Melbourne in February, according to a video. Screenshots Posted on social media.

“Just the things I was going through, the things I was writing about, it was kind of reminding me why songwriting is the thing that keeps me going in my life,” she said.

CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister contributed to this story.

This story has been updated with additional information.