Taylor Swift’s release of her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, was already set to be the music industry event of the year, but she doubled down on its sales power two hours after its debut.
Instead of being a typical one-album release, Tortured Poets has twice the usual number of tracks, Swift revealed in a 2 a.m. ET social media post.
“It’s a 2 a.m. surprise: The Tortured Poets Department is a secret DOUBLE album. ✌️,” she posted on Threads. “I’d written so much tortured poetry in the past two years and wanted to share it all with you. So here’s the second installment of TTPD: The Anthology. 15 extra songs. And now the story isn’t mine anymore … It’s all yours.”
In retrospect, Swift has been hinting at this news since the moment she announced the album at the Grammy Awards. Fans (and media) just couldn’t figure out the clues.
At the podium, accepting the award for Best Pop Vocal Album, she flashed a “V for victory” hand sign, which no one paid much attention to. But as Swift would market the album on social media, the two fingers showed up repeatedly. Now we know why.
It’s not only good news for fans, it’s a symbolic different sort of finger to the parties that leaked the first half of Tortured Poets online Wednesday night.
The album is widely expected to be the top seller of 2024, breaking first week sales records and sending Swift’s fame (and fortune) to even higher levels. And if it does break that record, she’ll only be topping herself.
Swift set the current record last October with the release of 1989 (Taylor’s Version). In its first week, that album topped Billboard’s charts with 1.653 million units, signifying both album sales and streaming figures.