Taylor Swift’s new album “The Tortured Poets Department” is slated to be released on April 19. Swift announced the album during her acceptance speech after winning Best Pop Vocal Album at the 66th annual Grammy Awards this year. This will be Swift’s eleventh studio album. | Photo provided by UMG and Taylor Swift.
Singer-songwriter Taylor Swift surprised her fans by announcing a new studio album on Feb. 4 at the 66th annual Grammy Awards.
Swift’s album “Midnights,” released Oct. 21, 2022, won the Grammy Awards for Best Pop Vocal Album and for Album of the Year, her 13th and 14th Grammy Awards. After winning the former, Swift announced her upcoming 11th studio album “The Tortured Poets Department” will be releasing April 19.
Swift also noted the album had been secretly in production for the past two years.
Earlier the same day, Swift’s social media accounts changed their profile pictures to a black-and-white version of her “Midnights” album cover, prompting speculation Swift was set to release “Reputation (Taylor’s Version),” one of two studio albums produced under Big Machine Records yet to receive a rerecording and one that features a black color palette.
The tracklist for the album was released the next day, showcasing the album’s 4 sides and 16 tracks, plus a bonus track “The Manuscript” to be released on physical editions.
The tracklist will include collaborations with rapper and singer-songwriter Post Malone on the song “Fortnight,” and with English indie band Florence and the Machine on the song “Florida!!!”
The album looks to be more poetic in its style, with sentence-length song names and the longest title of a Taylor Swift album yet. Swift’s previous releases all capped out at two words, or three if one spells out 1989. Whether the prose-like album title betrays a prose-like nature remains to be seen.
The album’s apparent themes of love and heartbreak will be familiar to Swifties, but from the language of the tracklist and album alone, it seems “The Tortured Poets Department,” will come from a more painful place.
