Yahoo Sports Taylor Swift's Tortured Poets Department : Double Album, Tracklist, Bonus Songs, Release Date, and Everything to Know
Photo Credit: Beth Garrabrant
If a new Taylor Swift album announcement was on your Grammys 2024 bingo card, congratulations! At the Grammys, she announced that TS11 is coming soon, and it is called The Tortured Poets Department.
“This is my 13th Grammy, which is my lucky number; I don’t know if I’ve ever told you,” she said in her Grammys speech after winning Best Pop Vocal Album. She added that she wanted to say thank you to the fans “by telling you a secret that I have been keeping for the last few years.” The secret: The Tortured Poets Department, her 11th album, is here, and because she likes to keep surprising fans, it's a double album.
Related: Taylor Swift Tortured Poets Department Album Review
The Tortured Poets Department came after fan theories galore that reputation (Taylor's Version) was on the docket for the Grammys. And then the realization that it was a misdirect — “red herring” trended, an unscrambled clue from her website, which was “down” as a bit. She definitely pulled it off.
Below, find out everything you need to know about The Tortured Poets Department, including release date, tracklist, bonus tracks, double album, and much more. Keep reading for it all or jump ahead to your preferred section with the arrows below:
→ Release date and announcement
→ Inspirations
→ Tracklist
→ Bonus songs
→ Double album
→ Lead single
→ Buying/streaming
→ First draft phone memos
When did Taylor Swift's The Tortured Poets Department come out?
Since there's little she loves more than a protracted album rollout, Swift's 11th album, The Tortured Poets Department, had a release date from the get-go. The record hit stores and streaming on April 19, 2024 — a date that some fans noted is exactly one year to the day since Swift went out to a well-publicized dinner with Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds, and the couple unfollowed her ex Joe Alwyn immediately after.
Related: Every Change Taylor Swift Made to the Eras Tour Post- TTPD
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What is The Tortured Poets Department about?
So we don't have a ton of info about the album yet — though some are already hoping for a “slutty folklore” — but we do have an album cover. On Instagram on Grammy night, Swift shared a very Ariana Grande-esque image of Swift lying on a bed with the album title in a serif font. In lieu of a typical longer album-related caption, she wrote simply, “All’s fair in love and poetry...”
A second slide featured an artist statement of sorts: “And so I enter into evidence / My tarnished coat of arms / My muses, acquired like bruises / My talismans and charms / The tick, tick, tick of love bombs / My veins of pitch black ink. All's fair in love and poetry… Sincerely, The Chairman of The Tortured Poets Department.”
During several Eras Tour dates, Swift also discussed the album and the impetus behind it. At a Melbourne date, she revealed, "Tortured Poets is an album — I think more than any of my albums that I’ve ever made — I needed to make it. It was really a lifeline for me. Just the things I was going through and the things I was writing about. It kind of reminded me of why songwriting was something that actually gets me through my life.”
Related: Taylor Swift Tortured Poets Department 5 Stages of Grief Theory, Explained
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How many songs are on The Tortured Poets Department's tracklist? How long are the TTPD songs?
Originally, it was announced that The Tortured Poets Department would have 17 tracks total, 16 regular plus one bonus track called “The Manuscript.” However, on February 16, Swift announced an extra bonus song titled “The Bolter.” She followed suit with “The Albatross” on February 23 and finally “The Black Dog” on March 3.
On February 5, Swift dropped the whole tracklist, which includes features with Post Malone and Florence + the Machine, and on April 11, she shared the lengths of all the tracks. A couple days later, we got the full list of TTPD songwriters, including collaborations with Aaron Dessner, Florence Welch, and Post Malone in addition to Jack Antonoff.
“Fortnight” (feat. Post Malone) 3:48 (Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff, Austin Post)
“The Tortured Poets Department” 4:53 (Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff)
“My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys” 3:23 (Taylor Swift)
“Down Bad” 4:21 (Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff)
“So Long, London” 4:22 (Taylor Swift, Aaron Dessner)
“But Daddy I Love Him” 5:40 (Taylor Swift, Aaron Dessner)
“Fresh Out the Slammer” 3:30 (Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff)
“Florida!!!” (feat. Florence + the Machine) 3:35 (Taylor Swift, Florence Welch)
“Guilty as Sin?” 4:14 (Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff)
“Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” 5:34 (Taylor Swift)
“I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)” 2:36 (Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff)
“loml” 4:37 (Taylor Swift, Aaron Dessner)
“I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” 3:38 (Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff)
“The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” 4:05 (Taylor Swift, Aaron Dessner)
“The Alchemy” 3:16 (Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff)
“Clara Bow” 3:36 (Taylor Swift, Aaron Dessner)
Related: Who Was Clara Bow? The Real Story of Taylor Swift’s Tortured Poets Department Heroine
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What are the Tortured Poets bonus tracks?
Swift first announced “The Bolter” during the Melbourne stop of her Eras Tour. She later took to social media to confirm the track would be part of a new exclusive edition of the album, available for a limited time on her website. The song announcement was accompanied by an alternative cover art. “You don't get to tell me about sad,” a teaser for the song reads on the version's back cover.
Swift announced another bonus track, “The Albatross,” during one of her tour stops in Sydney. “Am I allowed to cry?” the song's teaser reads on social media.
She announced the final bonus track, “The Black Dog," during the second show of her Eras Tour in Singapore after performing evermore's "Long Story Short" for the first time. Much like the case with the two previous ones, Swift first announced the news on stage and shortly after posted confirmation on her social channels. “Old habits die screaming…” the caption for the song reads. You can check out the alternative cover art for this version of the album below:
With all bonus tracks — "The Manuscript," "The Bolter," “The Albatross,” and "The Black Dog" — the number of new songs on The Tortured Poets Department goes up to 20.
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Wait, is The Tortured Poets Department a double album?
Yes! In the most Taylor Swift move ever, the singer dropped 15 surprise songs — including the bonus tracks mentioned above — just two hours before the original album release, confirming that The Tortured Poets Department is indeed a secret double album. The second album is called TTPD: The Anthology, and it's available exclusively on digital platforms.
Taylor Swift's The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology Cover
Photo Credit: Beth Garrabrant“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,” Swift announced on Instagram as the clocks struck 2 a.m. ET. “And now the story isn’t mine anymore… it’s all yours.”
The full tracklist for TTPD: The Anthology is as follows:
17. “The Black Dog” 3:59 (Taylor Swift)
18. “imgonnagetyouback” 3:42 (Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff)
19. “The Albatross” 3:04 (Taylor Swift and Aaron Dessner)
20. “Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus” 3:33 (Taylor Swift and Aaron Dessner)
21. “How Did It End?” 3:59 (Taylor Swift and Aaron Dessner)
22. “So High School” 3:49 (Taylor Swift and Aaron Dessner)
23. “I Hate It Here” 4:04 (Taylor Swift and Aaron Dessner)
24. “thanK you aIMee” 4:24 (Taylor Swift and Aaron Dessner)
25. “I Look in People’s Windows” 2:12 (Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff and Patrik Berger)
26. “The Prophecy” 4:10 (Taylor Swift and Aaron Dessner)
27. “Cassandra” 4:00 (Taylor Swift and Aaron Dessner)
28. “Peter” 4:44 (Taylor Swift)
29. “The Bolter” 3:58 (Taylor Swift and Aaron Dessner)
30. Robin” 4:01 (Taylor Swift and Aaron Dessner)
31. “The Manuscript” 3:45 (Taylor Swift)
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What is the lead single on Tortured Poets?
The day before the album was released, Taylor Swift shared that the first single off The Tortured Poets Department would be her Post Malone collab, “Fortnight.”
“I’ve been such a huge fan of Post because of the writer he is, his musical experimentation and those melodies he creates that just stick in your head forever,” she wrote on Instagram. “I got to witness that magic come to life firsthand when we worked together on ‘Fortnight.’”
The single dropped at midnight on April 19, and the music video premiered at 8 p.m. ET on the same day.
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How do I buy/stream Taylor Swift's The Tortured Poets Department and The Anthology?
Both The Tortured Poets Department and The Anthology are available for purchase on Taylor Swift's website. Special vinyl, CD, and cassette versions for the original album only are for sale as usual, shipping around release week. The vinyl will feature a “collectible 24-page book-bound jacket with three handwritten lyrics unique to this vinyl and never-before-seen photos," while the CD has a 10 x 10 double-sided poster. Both records are now also avilable on streaming services.
Related: Taylor Swift's Eras Tour: The Pinnacle of Taylor on Her Own Terms
The Tortured Poets Department is Taylor Swift's 11th album and follows the critical and commercial success of Midnights and her ongoing global tour, the Eras Tour. It's notable that she said this is a secret that has been kept for years, so clearly, a lot of planning is going into these releases…who knows what else she has up her sleeve?
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When did Taylor Swift release the first draft phone memos for The Tortured Poets Department?
Taylor Swift released the first draft phone memos for The Tortured Poets Department on May 17, 2024. Swift released TTPD first draft phone memos for the tracks “Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?,” “Cassandra," and “The Black Dog” on new digital albums. The new first draft tracks are not available to purchase individually. Digital downloads including the new song are only available for customers in the United States.
As expected the first draft demos include some lyrical changes. In “Who’s Afraid Of Little Old Me?,” for example, Swift sings: “You don't get to tell me that I'm bad” instead of the final “You don’t get to tell me you feel bad.” In “The Black Dog” first draft, she sings: “That was intertwined in the magic fabric of our dreaming / But tail between your legs, you're leavin'” instead of “That was intertwined in the tragic fabric of our dreaming / 'Cause tail between your legs, you're leavin'.”
Last but not least, in the first draft of “Cassandra,” Swift sings: “When the first shot's fired, there's screamin' / In the street, there's a raging riot” instead of “When the first stone's thrown, there's screamin' / In the streets, there's a raging riot.”
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This story was updated as more information about Taylor Swift's The Tortured Poets Department became available.
Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue
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