Taylor Swift has smashed her own records with new album ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ becoming the first album to reach one billion plays on Spotify in a week, making it her twelfth number one album in the UK.

The much anticipated album was announced at the 2024 Grammy Awards in February where she dropped her first ‘Easter Egg’, holding up two fingers when accepting her Grammy and since then, she has been seen posing, holding up two fingers. This led to Swifties around the globe trying to decode the meaning behind the sign in relation to the new album.

So far, the two sign has meant a double album. Swift released ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ on Friday 19th April at 5am UK time and two hours later, at 7am, she released 15 more tracks in another volume titled ‘The Anthology’ making ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ a double album with 31 tracks. The bonus tracks are currently only available on streaming services.

Originally, Swifties believed that the singer would announce ‘Reputation Taylor’s Version’, given the black and white theme on her socials and the themed outfits she wore leading up to and at the Grammy’s. However, to their surprise, she announced her eleventh era. Freya Mitchell, Swiftie said: “I was very convinced she was going to announce ‘REP TV’ especially with the black and white theme on her social media on the lead up to the Grammy’s.”

Swifties in York are absolutely loving the new album, Mercedes Haddish, Swiftie said: “‘The Tortured Poets Department’ is amazing, Taylor has out done herself with this one.”

Many celebrated the release with listening parties. DOE Bakehouse, York based doughnut shop, held a listening party for the Tortured Poets Department on the evening of April 19th which included a paint and sip(BYOB) where ticket holders could paint Taylor Swift themed pottery, have some booze and enjoy limited edition Taylor Swift doughnuts while listening to the new album.

Alex Brown, Doe employee said:” The tickets sold out almost straight away. We had two events, one at Layerthorpe and one at our Church Street store. We decorated the tables to be Taylor Swift themed, played Tortured Poets and celebrated with a mountain of Taylor Swift doughnuts. It was great! I’m not the biggest Taylor Swift fan but I really enjoyed listening to the album.”

Given the popularity of the event, Alex said: “We will definitely host a listening party again when she releases her next album, there tends to be a Taylor Swift themed event once every month at Doe and next month, we’re doing an Eras Tour paint and sip to celebrate her being in the UK.”

The new songs take you inside Swift’s mind and journey through the last two years of her life, expressing heartache, betrayal, censure and the struggles of fame. She opens up, showing her vulnerability, spilling her emotions to the listeners.

Swift is a legendary poet of teen romance. Her fame has come from writing about her failed relationships, dragging the men involved through the mud. However, her albums until now have been about young love. This is her rawest album yet, she has matured from frivolous relationships and has experienced heartbreak from an adult relationship.

Records Broken

Taylor Swift has become the quickest artist to reach a dozen number one albums in the UK.

Swift has soared passed The Beatles who released their 12 UK number one albums over the course of 14 years. She has only taken 11 years and six months to achieve hers.

‘The Tortured Poet’s Department’ became 2024’s number one album in 48 hours based purely on album sales and listens online.

The album has now spent four weeks at number one on the Billboard Top 200.

In York, ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ has taken over music shops and has generated an enormous sales income.

Kevin(did not wish to give his surname), sales assistant at York HMV said: “The album completely took over the shop and people queued early outside the store to buy it but we had to turn them away because the albums arrived on the day of its release, after the store opened, not the day before which is unusual so there was a lot of scrambling to get everything priced and on the shelves that morning. Due to it being such a huge release, the album has been played throughout the store since it came out because there has been nothing nearly as big released to go up against Taylor Swift.”

Kevin spoke about the flux in sales Taylor Swift has brought to the store over the last three years, saying: “She has definitely brought an interest back to music in physical form, it’s nice to see younger customers who would normally stream their music come in an purchase CDs and vinyls again.”

Songs

The Tortured Poets Department sees Taylor Swift collaborating with other big names, Florence + The Machine and Post Malone.

Taylor Swift released a ‘Track By Track’ on Amazon Music to explain the meaning behind all the songs on ‘The Tortured Poets Department’. She described ‘Fortnight’ featuring Post Malone, saying: “‘Fortnight’ is a song that exhibits a lot of the common themes that run along this album. One of which being fatalism- longing, pining away, lost dreams.”

The song is currently at number one on the Billboard Top 200 Global charts.

Freya Mitchell, Swiftie, said: “I really like the duets although I don’t think Post Malone really adds anything to ‘Fortnight’, Taylor could sing it herself and the song would be just as good. But Florence is really good on Florida, her verse is super cool and I think her and Taylor’s vocals go well together.”

Florida seems to be the place to run off to and reinvent yourself in ‘TTPD’. This track is sung as a duet with Florence + The Machine who Swift co-wrote the song with. Unlike Fortnight, the lyrics don’t seem to be hinting at any past relationships. In her Amazon Music voice note, Swift said that she was inspired to write the song when watching an episode of “Dateline”. She said in the commentary that the song is about escaping “harsh consequences and judgement and consequences” hence running off to Florida.

The Title has three exclamation points at the end which may seem excessive however, it is clear why when hearing the chorus. ‘Florida!!!’ features a booming chorus where Swift and Florence roar: “Florida/ Is one hell of a drug/ Florida Can I use you up?” while drums bang in the background.

Like with many of Taylor Swift’s songs, people are able to relate to the lyrics throughout ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ albeit on a much more raw and deep emotional level. Freya said: “Personally, I relate to ‘The Prophecy’ the most because I have also felt like the world is against me and I truly understand the underlying message of just wanting people around you to like you for who you are.”

Some Swifties believe that ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ is a sister album to ‘Reputation’ given the reverse colour scheme of the album and topics of the songs. Mercedes said: “‘TTPD’ seems like the answers to ‘Reputation’ and a revisited more mature version of the themes. Its almost as if she’s waited for Reputation’s original listeners to grow up so she can deliver a maturer version they will relate to now.”

Taylor Swift told fans on social media: “I’d written so much tortured poetry in the last two years and wanted to share it with you.” “And now the story isn’t mine anymore…its all yours”