The Tortured Poets Department is the eleventh studio album by the American singer-songwriterTaylor Swift. It was released on April 19, 2024, throughRepublic Records, and was expanded into adouble album, subtitledThe Anthology, two hours after the release. Swift was inspired to develop the album by the media scrutiny on her life amidstthe Eras Tour in 2023.
Swift wrote and produced the album withJack Antonoff andAaron Dessner. Representing her cathartic episode while she was experiencing personal upheavals caused by romantic fallouts and heightened fame, its introspective songs depict emotional tumult, with self-awareness, mourning, anger, humor, and delusion as dominant themes. Musically,The Tortured Poets Department is aminimalistsynth-pop andchamber pop effort withcountry androck stylings, whileThe Anthology revisits thefolk-pop sound of Swift's 2020 albumsFolklore andEvermore. The composition is largelymid-tempo, driven by a mix ofsynthesizers anddrum machines with piano and guitar. The visual aesthetics were influenced bydark academia.
Critical reception toThe Tortured Poets Department was polarized upon release; most of the reviews praised Swift's witty and emotionally resonant songwriting, but some found the album lengthy and lacking profundity. Subsequent assessments appreciated the album's musical and lyrical nuances more, while disputing initial critiques for allegedly focusing onSwift's public image rather thanartistic merit. Its accolades include anARIA Music Award, aPremios Odeón, aJapan Gold Disc Award, and five nominations at the67th Annual Grammy Awards, includingAlbum of the Year. Swift included songs from the album in a revamped Eras Tour set from May to December 2024.
Swift began conceiving the album immediately after submittingMidnights to her record label,Republic Records, and continued working on it in secret throughout the U.S. leg of the Eras Tour in 2023.[10] While she was creating the album, her dating life continued to be a widely covered topic in the press, who reported on Swift's relationships withJoe Alwyn andTravis Kelce, as well as her alleged romantic relationship withMatty Healy.[11][12] At the Eras Tour concerts inMelbourne in February 2024, Swift said thatThe Tortured Poets Department was a "lifeline" for her and an album that she "really needed" to make,[13] reflecting on how it made her confirm that songwriting was an integral part of her life.[14] In anInstagram post, Swift described the album as "an anthology of 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".[15]
The album is rooted in personal songwriting, exploring Swift's introspections on the events in her private and public lives.[18][19] She was inspired by her tumultuous relationships[20] and the public perception of her celebrity[21][22] to create lyrical narratives that were messy, unbridled, and unguarded,[19][23][24] containingmeta-references to her personal life through allusions and name-dropping.[25][26] Heartbreak is the primary topic,[27][28][29][30] expressed via themes such as delusion, anger, mourning, and death.[31][32][33][34] While the lyrics evoke vulnerable and devastating sentiments, they also incorporate humor and hyperbole.[23][27][32] Critics found them either self-aware[32] or self-conscious.[35] Swift considered the album a cathartic exercise[36] and described the content as "fatalistic" with overarching themes of "longing, pining, lost dreams".[21] In retrospect, whilst discussing her next albumThe Life of a Showgirl (2025), Swift describedThe Tortured Poets Department as a "data dump of everything I've thought, felt, experienced in two or three years."[37]
The album explores various themes to the extremes that Swift had not done before: erotic desires, forbidden love, and escaping from the public eye,[38][39] with songs usingmelodrama as anarrative device.[40] They draw on Swift'scountry roots to incorporate detail-heavy narratives[41] androck traditions of personal yet also self-mythologizing storytelling.[42] Some songs are not strictly self-referential and employ fictional elements.[43] According to the literary criticStephanie Burt, the album title evokes the Europeanpoète maudit ("cursed poet") archetype of self-destructive poets who suffered from love, such asArthur Rimbaud,Charles Baudelaire, orDylan Thomas. Burt argued that Swift both embraces and rejects this archetype by acknowledging her most intense emotions but also making fun of them with "barbed words, sharp hooks, and sarcastic replies".[44]
Critics characterizedThe Tortured Poets Department as a post-breakup album.[19][38][45] In her analysis forThe Nation, Burt divides the album into three themes. First is the dissolution of a years-long relationship, represented by "So Long, London". Second is a short-lived yet intense romance in the immediate aftermath and its sudden fallout, anchored by the head-over-heels infatuation portrayed in "But Daddy I Love Him", the abandonment in "Down Bad", and the destructive ending in "The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived". Third is the pressure of fame that obliged Swift to keep performing in the public eye, represented by "Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?" and "Clara Bow".[46] Concurring with this narrative arc,Ann Powers wrote inNPR thatThe Tortured Poets Department reads like a novel where Swift explores how "emotional violence" is imposed onto women by their male lovers and even by themselves.[39]
The Tortured Poets Department has aminimalist production[47][48] that primarily draws fromsynth-pop[a] andchamber pop,[49] incorporating elements ofpop rock,[50]soft rock,[51]dream pop,[49][52]electronica,[41] andpower ballads.[53] In an analysis forThe New York Times,Jon Pareles wrote that Swift employs a "choppy pre-chorus, or chorus, that arrives in two-syllable bursts", adding to a steady verse structure and bringing a "hip-hop percussiveness" to the songwriting rooted in country music.[54] Josh Kurp ofUproxx argued that the album cannot be categorized into a singular genre.[18] ForSlant Magazine's Jonathan Keefe, the minimalist quality puts the emphasis on the lyrical narratives, with the music being a "vibe" rather than a focus.[47]
The production styles of Antonoff and Dessner result in two distinct soundscapes.[24] Antonoff'ssynth–based approach[46] results in synth-pop songs[a] whosemid-tempo compositions are characterized by sustainedpads andbass, electronicpulses, and sparsedrum machine beats.[b] These elements were compared by critics to those on Swift's previous pop albumsMidnights[c] and1989 (2014),[d] but they create a more muted and less danceable sound.[48][62] The first four tracks are exemplary of this: "Fortnight", "The Tortured Poets Department", "My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys", and "Down Bad";[22][63] the last of which featuresR&B inflections in its dynamic shifts and vocalcadences.[64]
The second half, primarily produced with Dessner, features acoustic arrangements that are driven by piano andstrings.[24][46] He and Swift also produced the majority of the second volume,The Anthology,[67][56] consisting of mellow piano ballads.[68] His production style evokesfolk arrangements, which critics categorized asfolk-pop[48] and compared to his works on Swift's 2020 albumsFolklore andEvermore.[e] According to Burt, two of the Dessner-produced tracks—"Clara Bow" and "So High School"—feature new textures and instrumentaltimbres from Swift's past songs;[46] the former has astring section performed by theLondon Contemporary Orchestra,[70] and the latter evokes 1990s rock styles such asindie rock andalternative rock.[22][71] Two tracks that were jointly produced by Antonoff and Dessner—"But Daddy I Love Him" and "Thank You Aimee"—both have prominent country stylings, showcased through lush, sweeping string arrangements.[71][58]
Swift mostly sings in the lower ranges of hervocal register to deliverrap-like, conversational verses;[26][35][39] the music professor Samuel Murray attributed this conversational quality to some of Swift's familiar devices including one-note melodies andrecitative delivery.[40] On some songs, Swift experiments with her vocals in a wider range: "Guilty as Sin?" has amelisma chorus;[64] "The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived" features analto delivery that reaches the bottom end of her range against a7/4time signature; and "Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?" has her singing in screechysoprano.[46]
The lack of an apostrophe in the official title, as inThe Tortured Poets' Department, was the subject of a debate overgrammatical correctness. Scholars stated that Swift employedTortured Poets as anattributive noun, as in the case with the 1989 drama filmDead Poets Society, and not as apossessive noun that warrants an apostrophe.[72] The cover artwork, photographed byBeth Garrabrant, is a black-and-whiteglamour photo shot of Swift lying on a bed wearing black loungewear: a see-throughYves Saint Laurent tank top andThe Row boy shorts.[73][74][75] Both the artwork and title were parodied by numerous brands, organizations, sports teams, and franchises, and inspired numerous memes.[76][77][78] Media outlets described the album's visual aesthetic asgothic, especiallydark academia.[79][80][81][82]
After the Grammy announcement, Swift revealed the album cover and the standard track listing via social media with the first physical variant "The Manuscript" with the said bonus track available for pre-order on February 5, 2024.[16][83][84] Swift additionally announced three limited run physical editions that were each titled after a corresponding bonus track: "The Bolter", "The Albatross", and "The Black Dog" during the Australian and Singaporean shows of the Eras Tour.[85] She partnered withTarget for an exclusive "Phantom Clear" collector's vinyl edition.[86]
The album was promoted on digital platforms likeApple Music,Spotify,YouTube, Instagram, andThreads, promptingSwifties to search forEaster eggs.[87] It included five Swift-curated Apple Music playlists containing her old songs inspired by thefive stages of grief;[88] apop-up library of curated articles atThe Grove, Los Angeles, hosted by Spotify;[89]QR code murals in various cities worldwide that led to unlistedYouTube shorts on Swift's channel;[90][91] a countdown to the album's release revealed upon refreshing Swift's Instagram profile; and special shimmer effects on Threads posts tagged with hashtags related to Swift and the album.[92]iHeartRadio andSirius XM announced special programs with exclusive content from Swift to celebrate the album's release; the former temporarily rebranded as "iHeartTaylor".[93][94]
Swift changed the setlist ofthe Eras Tour (2024) to include a new act for the album.
The Tortured Poets Department was released on April 19, 2024. Adouble album edition, subtitledThe Anthology and containing 15 bonus tracks, wassurprise-released digitally two hours later.[95] Two days earlier, the standard edition of the album wasleaked,[96] which resulted in the phrase "Taylor Swift leak" being temporarily banned from searches on the social media platform X (formerlyTwitter).[97]The Tortured Poets Department was available in 19 physical variants—nine CD, six vinyl, and four cassette variants, with deluxe CDs and cassettes being exclusive to Swift's official website.[98] Physical copies of the album included an original poem by the American singer-songwriterStevie Nicks.[99] "Fortnight" was released as the lead single in conjunction with the album, accompanied by a music video.[100]Universal Music released "I Can Do It with a Broken Heart" to Italian radio on July 2.[101]The Anthology was released in vinyl and CD formats on November 29.[102] As of October 2024, there were a total of 36 separate releases of the album across all formats.[103]
From May 2024, starting with the Paris shows, Swift revamped the set list of the Eras Tour to include songs fromThe Tortured Poets Department in a new act, which she informally described as "Female Rage the Musical".[104][105][f] She released live versions of certain songs as bonus tracks on the physical album via her website exclusively to U.S. customers.[109] Other limited editions of the physical album included acoustic versions of five tracks.[110][111] Limited digital variants contained first draft phonedemo recordings of four tracks, and the Eras Tour live recordings of some tracks from the Paris, Stockholm, Lyon and England shows.[112][113][114]
Upon release,The Tortured Poets Department divided music critics;[120][121] secondary sources described the critical consensus as either positive[122][123] or mixed.[124] According to the review aggregatorMetacritic,The Tortured Poets Department received "generally favorable reviews" based on aweighted average score of 76 out of 100 from 24 critic scores,[116] whileThe Anthology received a weighted average score of 69, from six reviews.[125]
A number of critics regarded the album as a landmark in Swift's discography. Reviews fromThe Independent's Helen Brown,[41]The Arts Desk's Ellie Roberts,[23]The Times' Dan Cairns,[119]PopMatters's Jeffrey Davies,[126] and Will Harris ofQ 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.[127] Others, includingVariety's Chris Willman,[29] thei's Ed Power,[79] andThe Observer'sKitty Empire, called it a quintessential Swift album containing some of the best songs of her career.[128]
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.[33] To Ludovic Hunter-Tilney of theFinancial Times, the album is a stylistic evolution for Swift, with writing that marks a "characteristically appealing turn" into moody melodrama.[30]Alexis Petridis ofThe Guardian and Alex Hopper ofAmerican 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.[50][129] In a more measured review, Olivia Horn ofPitchfork felt the lyrics did not "distill an overarching emotional truth, tending to smother rather than sting."[58] Others, such asThe New York Times' Lindsay Zoladz,Slant Magazine's Jonathan Keefe, andExclaim!'s Alex Hudson, described some lyrics as weak and overwritten; Hudson claimed that many of its tracks "mistake verbosity for poetry".[66][47][67]
The tumultuous mood and unconstrained emotion of the lyrics were also highlighted. Multiple reviews complimented the album's heavy, unfiltered emotion;[79][19][29][130]Clash's Lauren Webb described it as "a spell-binding, toxic, chaotic illustration" of deteriorating mental sanity.[118] Powers opined thatThe Tortured Poets Department shows Swift's newfound freedom, with a "lack of concern about whether these songs speak to and for anyone but herself".[39] In a similar perspective, rave reviews fromRolling Stone'sRob Sheffield andVariety's Chris Willman described the album as Swift's "gloriously chaotic" and "audacious, transfixing" project, respectively.[27][29] To Willman, the album combines "cleverness with catharsis".[29]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 atself-parody rather than a showcase of Swift's songwriting acumen.[59]
Many critics, including Zoladz,[66]NME's Laura Molloy,[55] andStereogum's Tom Breihan, argued that Swift and Antonoff's collaboration onThe Tortured Poets Department was uninventive due to a sonic similarity to their past collaborations.[26][131]The New Yorker'sAmanda Petrusich rather favored Dessner's input to the album as "gentler, more tender, and more surprising".[132] Horn and the BBC's Mark Savage felt the melodies were sonically monotonous and "staid",[36][58] but others argued that the minimalistic approach complemented Swift's hyper-personal lyrics;[47][128][50] Hopper opined that "Swift's confidence as an artist is at a peak" withThe Tortured Poets Department.[129] According to Mary Kate Carr ofThe 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;[133] this idea was shared by an anonymous, negativePaste review that criticized the album as rushed, hollow, and unrelatable.[25]
Various peer journalists and columnists cross-examined the album's critical reception. Publications consideredThe Tortured Poets Department a polarizing album;[32][122][134]The Ringer's Nathan Hubbard deemed it Swift's most controversial release sinceReputation (2017).[135] Journalists fromThe New York Times[136] andVox attributed this phenomenon to Swift's heightened fame and associated media "overexposure" between 2020 and 2024, includingeight album releases, theinfluential Eras Tour, andher relationship with Travis Kelce.[12]Paste's anonymous review was singled out by other publications as "scathing";[122][137] Sumnima Kandangwa of theSouth 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".[138]Sputnikmusic published reviews with three different ratings in a short period of time, each lower than the one before; Minh Anh ofL'Officiel found this to be a confusing way to rate music.[139] Swift shared the album's positive reviews on her social media, tagging the respective authors, which some considered as a response toPaste and other unfavorable reviews.[140][141]
A number of commentators opined that the initial reviews demonstrated a flawed approach to mainstream music criticism.[12][142][143]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 inPaste and the "instant classic" review byRolling Stone.[142] InThe 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 likeThe New Yorker,The New York Times, andPaste used Swift's billionaire status to downplay the personal issues she detailed in the album.[135] Karl opined that some "reputable publications" catered to gossip instead of a serious artistic analysis,[142] while Anh highlighted that reviews mentioned aspects of Swift's public image instead of focusing on the music.[139]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.[144]
Some early critics of the album recanted and declared they were "hasty" in reviewing it, as perSlate's Chris Molanphy, who opined it has become a "widely agreed point" in later critical commentary thatThe Tortured Poets Department "grows on you" after more listens; Molanphy stated he liked the album better than he did a week before.[145] CNN's Oliver Darcy said he had judgedThe 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 ofTikTok," and criticized reviewers who do not let music albums "marinate" and instead expect "instant satisfaction".[143]People calledThe Tortured Poets Department Swift's "Most Important Album" and said that it was judged "too soon".[146]
The Tortured Poets Department broke numerous consumption records, leadingThe Guardian to comment that it "cemented Swift as the biggest pop star this century by many metrics".[157] On Spotify, it became the most pre-saved album of all time; themost streamed album in a single day, surpassing 200 million and then 300 million streams and breaking the all-time record previously held byMidnights; and the first album to accumulate one billion streams in a single week, doing so in five days.[158][159] The album also became the most streamed album in a single day onAmazon Music[160] and the most streamed pop album in a single day onApple Music.[158] It amassed 1.76 billion streams globally within its first week of availability, an all-time record.[161] Republic Records reported global first-week consumption of four millionalbum-equivalent units.[123] According to theInternational Federation of the Phonographic Industry,The Tortured Poets Department sold 5.6 million copies to become the global best-selling album of 2024.[162]
In the United States, the album accumulated 1.6 million album-equivalent units in four days,[163] selling 700,000 vinyl LPs to break the record for the highest single-week vinyl sales in the digital era previously held by Swift's1989 (Taylor's Version) (2023).[158] It broke the single-week streaming record previously held byDrake'sScorpion (2018), amassing 799million on-demand streams in six days.[158] After a full week of availability,The Tortured Poets Department debuted atop theBillboard 200 with 2.61 million units, including 1.914 million pure copies and 891.34 million on-demand streams. It became Swift's 14th number-one album, tying her withJay-Z for the most chart toppers among solo artists. The album also registered the second-largest week by overall units and thethird-largest week by pure sales inBillboard history.[98] The album continued to chart at number one on theBillboard 200 for 17 total non-consecutive weeks, becoming the longest-leading chart topper in Swift's career,[164] and contributed to the number-two peaks of albums such asBillie Eilish'sHit Me Hard and Soft,[165][166]¥$'sVultures 2,[167][168] andChappell Roan'sThe Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess.[169][170] It is also the third album in history and the first by a female artist to spend its first 12 weeks atop the chart.[171][j]
All 31 songs fromThe Anthology debuted on theBillboard Hot 100, occupying the entire top 14 simultaneously for the first time in chart history. Swift set the record for most simultaneous entries by a female artist (32) and became the first woman to surpass 50 career top-10 songs.[172] The album wascertified eight-times platinum by theRecording Industry Association of America in September 2025, for surpassing eight million album-equivalent units.[173] It topped theBillboard 200 Year-End chart of 2024, selling 3.491 million pure copies and amassing 6.955 million units to become the year's best-selling and most-consumed album in the United States.[174] Sales were boosted by multiple variants of the album, with double-digit variants in digital and CD mediums.[175]
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.[176] In the United Kingdom, 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 withMadonna for the most female number-one albums on theUK Albums Chart (12).[177] It became the fastest-selling vinyl album since 1994 and Swift's album with the most weeks at number one (11),[178][179] and was the most-streamed and best-selling album of the year.[180] 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 theSpice Girls'Spice in 1997.[181] On the AustralianARIA 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.[182] Debuting atop theCanadian 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.[183] Ten tracks from the album debuted on theBillboardBrasil Hot 100.[184]
^Aswad, Jem; Garcia, Thania; Horowitz, Steven J.; Willman, Chris (December 13, 2024)."The Best Albums of 2024".Variety.Archived from the original on December 13, 2024. RetrievedDecember 13, 2024.
^"Czech Albums – Top 100".ČNS IFPI.Note: On the chart page, select17.Týden 2024 on the field besides the words "CZ – ALBUMS – TOP 100" to retrieve the correct chart. Retrieved April 29, 2024.
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