Taylor Swift Drops TTPD Double Album: Fans React
Taylor Swift is always full of surprises when it comes to album release week/day. With her 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, which dropped midnight on Friday, April 19th, there was more to come in the wee hours of the night.
The pop icon gave insight behind what headspace she was in when writing her album following its initial release, in a social post that received nearly 8 million likes. She called The Tortured Poets Department “an anthology of new works that reflect events, opinions and sentiments from a fleeting and fatalistic moment in time – one that was both sensational and sorrowful in equal measure.”
Talking in the third person, she adds, “This period of the author’s life is now over, the chapter closed and boarded up. There is nothing to avenge, no scores to settle once wounds have healed. And upon further reflection, a good number of them turned out to be self-inflicted. This writer is of the firm belief that our tears become holy in the form of ink on a page. Once we have spoken our saddest story, we can be free of it.
And then all that’s left behind is the tortured poetry.”
(Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
TTPD Double Album
By 2 a.m., Swift dropped 15 more songs as part of a “secret DOUBLE album,” she revealed on Instagram. The second installment is titled TTPD: The Anthology. Swift, 34, told her 283 million followers: “I’d written so much tortured poetry in the past two years and wanted to share it all with you,” and thus came the double album. She concluded the post by telling fans, “And now the story isn’t mine anymore… it’s all yours. [white heart emoji]” The full double album contains 31 songs in total, Swift’s lucky number 13 backwards.
As we reported, her opening track on the album is “Fortnight,” featuring Post Malone. The music video drops tonight at 8 p.m., but Swift graciously shared a teaser of the video before the album dropped.
Tortured Poets Department Fan Reactions
Though some Swifties indulged in the leaked audio of TTPD, dedicated fans waited until the official release before listening and sharing their thoughts online. On X (formerly Twitter), fans still had mixed reviews about Swift — at least for the regular album. One person wrote: “Nvm she doesn’t need to add TTPD to the setlist anymore.” Another asked, with a screenshot of lyrics from the track “So High School:” “Touch me while your bros play Grand Theft Auto,” and said: “You all are letting her destroy the planet for THIS?”
Loving the songs, one person swooned, “me dancing to ‘I can do it with a broken heart’ even tho it’s one of the most lyrically depressing songs I’ve ever heard… but the beat is FIREEEE [fire emoji].” Another fan posted a photo drowning in wine with the words: “listening to this album when i’m in the most healthiest relationship ever.” One Swiftie stood their ground online, writing: “Taylor is one of the best artists right now wether you like her or not, and seeing her get attacked daily is heartbreaking. Sabotaging the reviews, leaking the album, name calling etc and then were the bad ones for getting angry? F– that and f– yal.”
Meanwhile, another fan compared this album to 2020’s folklore. Another fan hilariously said, “Just woke up to a double album!!!! Being a swiftie is crazy because I’m always fed, surprised, and have no idea what’s going on!!!” One fan said, “me listening to the title track as if it isn’t a breakup song,” with a gif of a woman dancing. Most Swifties praised Swift’s cleverly written lyrics, as expected from the album’s title. Another fan stated: “is it too soon for me to say that this perhaps may be one of her bestest albums ever??? like IM LOVING IT TOO MUCH SO FAR.”
