The Tortured Poets Department

The Tortured Poets Department
The Tortured Poets Department
	Standard cover
Studio album by Taylor Swift
Released	April 19, 2024
Recorded	2022–2024
Studio	Audu (Brooklyn); Big Mercy (New York City); Conway Recording (Hollywood); The Dwelling (New York City); Electric Lady (New York City); Electric Feel (Los Angeles); Esplanade (New Orleans); Hutchinson Sound (Brooklyn); Long Pond (Hudson Valley); Miloco (London); Narwhal (Chicago); Pleasure Hill (Portland); Prime Recording (Nashville); Rue Boyer (Paris); Smilo Sound (Orcas Island); Tiny Telephone (Oakland); Unknown locations (Biarritz, Los Angeles, Paris);
Genre	Synth-pop; folk-pop; chamber pop;
Length	65:08;
Label	Republic
Producer	Taylor Swift; Jack Antonoff; Aaron Dessner; Patrik Berger;
Taylor Swift chronology
The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology
	Digital double album cover
Singles from The Tortured Poets Department
	"Fortnight"; Released: April 19, 2024; "I Can Do It with a Broken Heart"; Released: July 2, 2024;

The Tortured Poets Department^[a] is the eleventh studio album by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift, released on April 19, 2024, through Republic Records. It was expanded into a double album two hours after its release, subtitled The Anthology, containing a second volume of songs.

Swift began writing The Tortured Poets Department shortly after finishing her tenth studio album, Midnights (2022), and continued developing it during the Eras Tour in 2023. She conceived The Tortured Poets Department as a "lifeline" songwriting project amidst the heightened fame and media scrutiny ensuing from the tour. The songs introspect on her public and private lives, detailing tumult and sorrow via motifs of self-awareness, mourning, anger, humor, and delusion. Produced with Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner, the album is a minimalist synth-pop, folk-pop, and chamber pop effort with rock and country stylings. The composition is largely mid-tempo, driven by a mix of synthesizers and drum machines with piano and guitar, whereas the visual aesthetic draws mainly from dark academia.

The album broke various sales and streaming records, regionally and globally. It achieved the highest single-day and single-week streams for an album on Spotify, and topped the charts across Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Americas. In the United States, The Tortured Poets Department opened with first-week 2.6 million album-equivalent units, including 1.9 million pure sales—Swift's biggest sales week and record-extending seventh album to open with over a million units. It topped the Billboard 200 chart for a career-best 15 weeks, while its tracks made Swift the only artist to monopolize the Billboard Hot 100's top 14 spots, with the single "Fortnight" leading. The album received six nominations at the 67th Annual Grammy Awards, including a record seventh Album of the Year nomination for Swift.

Upon the album's release, critical reception was polarized. The majority of reviews were positive, praising Swift's cathartic songwriting for its emotional resonance and wit, but some found the album lengthy and lacking profundity. Subsequent assessments appreciated the album's musical and lyrical nuances that emerged upon further listens, and disputed the credibility of the initial critique for allegedly focusing on Swift's public image rather than artistic merit. Swift performed songs from the album in the revamped set list of the Eras Tour, starting in May 2024.
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[a]