“A surprise version”: Taylor Swift releases a double album, already promised to break all records

The queen of pop Taylor Swift released The Tortured Poets Departments on Friday, her new album. Just two hours after the release of his eleventh album, the American megastar surprised everyone, unveiling an extension of fifteen other tracks, entitled The Anthology.

“It’s a two a.m. surprise: “The Tortured Poets Department” is a secret double album,” she announced on social media. I've written so much tortured poetry over the past two years and I wanted to share it all with you, so here is the second installment, “The Anthology” [...] And now the story is no longer mine. .. she’s all yours.”

The release of the first part was announced by the singer in February, during the Grammy Awards ceremony, the prestigious American music awards where she won the trophy for best album of the year for the fourth time. Since then, her millions of fans, the “Swifties”, have been counting the days and trying to detect clues about what awaits them in each publication of the star.

Among the known elements: the album contains collaborations with the British rock group Florence and The Machine and the American rapper Post Malone, who accompanies him on the first track Fortnight (two weeks, in French). “I am a very big admirer of Post [Malone] because of his quality as an author, his musical experiments and these melodies that he composes and which stay in your head forever,” the singer confided Thursday on Instagram. I had the opportunity to see this magic come to life when we worked together on 'Fortnight'."

And until the release of the first part of the album on Friday, fans had no idea what awaited them. Doubts arose when the “Swifties” realized that the clues left by Taylor Swift, in this case extracts of lyrics, did not correspond to any of the pieces present on The Tortured Poets Department.

According to the singer, this new album reveals “new works that reflect the events, opinions and feelings of a fleeting and fatalistic moment, both sensational and painful”. But “this period of the author's life is now over [...] All that remains is tortured poetry,” Taylor Swift confided on Instagram when unveiling The Tortured Poets Department.

Taylor Swift is known for returning, without taking any gloves off, to her relationships with former companions. And this new album is no exception to the rule. Among the many theories made by fans: The Tortured Poets Department is reportedly talking about the singer's ex, British actor Joe Alwyn. The name of the opus would also be taken from a group discussion called “The tortured man club” (“The tortured man club”, in French) that the actor held with Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott, two other actors.

Some song titles already give some clues: So Long, London, I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can) and The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived. After reflection, an English man seems to be involved in this new album, which already promises to break all records.

Taylor Swift's current chosen one is none other than American football star Travis Kelce, recent Super Bowl winner. And for him, the new album “is incredible”. Nearly 20 years after she started, nothing seems to be able to stop her. With her new Grammy victory in February, Taylor Swift did better than American music legends like Frank Sinatra, Paul Simon or Stevie Wonder.

And his world tour, The Eras Tour, launched in 2023, is expected to garner a total of two billion dollars in revenue after having already broken the symbolic billion ceiling last year, a first in the history of music.

Taylor Swift has been writing songs since she was a teenager, getting her start in the country capital of Nashville. By gradually moving away from this very American style, she is climbing the rankings. In 2018, she left the Big Machine label and joined Universal, without the rights to her previous albums. By re-recording her first records to regain control, she managed to convince her fans and the music industry. Another tour de force for this essential artist of American popular culture.

Over the years, she has become so influential among American youth that the political world is beginning to imagine the impact she could have on the presidential election in November, even if she rarely speaks on the subject. .

Her double album released Friday landed on platforms three weeks after that of another American icon: Beyoncé and her Cowboy Carter. The singer's new opus, with rich country influences, could be a competitor for the next Grammy. With perhaps, also, the new album from another music star: Billie Eilish who will unveil her third disc, Hit Me Hard and Soft, on May 17.

But all these rich and influential artists remind us at every opportunity that only music matters. Taylor Swift, who recently became the first artist to become a billionaire on her music alone, spoke out about the new album, saying it "reminded her that writing music is what which keeps me standing.