Heartbreak and hits: Inside Taylor Swift's surprise 'double' release

From superstar to the biggest pop star in the world: This is the journey that singer-songwriter Taylor Swift has been on over the past year and a half.

The 34-year-old has reached such an unprecedented level of fame that every step she takes in public is certain to make the news. Like when she was spotted dancing with her boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs footballer Travis Kelce, at the Cochella Valley Music and Arts Festival in California. Or when they went out for a sushi dinner last week.

Time Magazine, in crowning Swift Person of the Year 2023, put it this way: "To discuss her movements felt like discussing politics or the weather - a language spoken so widely it needed no context. She became the main character of the world."

Swift's last - newest, not re-recorded - album came out in the fall of 2022. This Friday, when her latest record "The Tortured Poets Department" was released, Swift has been in the middle of the most successful tour ever seen in the history of music for over a year.

New reports about her latest record-setting achievements have become commonplace by now.

Unsurprisingly perhaps, then, Swift took to social media just hours of the midnight release of "The Tortured Poets Deparment" with "a 2 am surprise."

In the post early Friday, Swift revealed that the record was "a secret DOUBLE album," announcing the release of a second instalment of TTPD dubbed "The Anthology" that includes 15 additional songs.

"I'd written so much tortured poetry in the past 2 years and wanted to share it all with you," she said.

So what can we expect from "The Tortured Poets Department," which includes 16 songs, and its surprise second instalment, brought to us by the first person to become a billionaire solely through record sales and concert appearances? Swift's millions of fans have long since begun to interpret hints from the initial album which appears to have been leaked hours before the scheduled release.

Heartbreak and other allusions

Swift is known for taking inspiration from her own life experiences, most notably her past relationships. Fans suspect that TTPD might be about the break-up with British actor Joe Alwyn whom she dated for several years until 2023.

The new album's title appears to reference an anecdote told by her ex-partner. In an interview in 2022, Alwyn said that he and fellow actors Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott had a WhatsApp group called "The Tortured Man Club."

Previously announced songs such as "I Can Do It With A Broken Heart" or "My Boy Only Breaks His Favourite Toys" also suggest that heartbreak is a central theme. "So Long, London", the fifth track on Swift's 11th studio album, is also rumoured to be about Alwyn, after her 2019 song "London Boy" was also about the actor.

Electro-pop or indie folk?

The music - partly quiet, keyboard-heavy retro pop, partly indie folk - only acts as a backdrop for the stories that Swift wants to tell. These are the focus of "The Tortured Poets Department" - a concept album that is dedicated to different phases of a break-up and full of allusions.

Following the release, producer Jack Antonoff was euphoric with praise, writing on social media: "Love this album more than I can say .... love you all very much ... more later very overwhelmed ... love you Taylor."

Swift surprisingly announced her new album at the Grammy Awards in February after winning Album of the Year honours for "Midnights." Given her ongoing Eras Tour, a mammoth undertaking across five continents, her fans had not been expecting new music so soon.

Why does Taylor keep making albums? - 'Because I love it'

Over the past few months, it has been shown that Swift's concerts measurably stimulate the economies of the places she visits and some are wondering whether she will become a factor in the US presidential elections in case she decides to publicly endorse a candidate. It also seems that she can help a popular sport - American Football - which no one thought could become even more popular, to gain even more traction thanks to her relationship with Kelce.

One thing is certain, the albums - and the hits - will keep coming. As Swift said at a recent concert in Toky: "Everyone's like: 'Why do you make so many albums?' I'm like: 'Man, because I love it! I love it so much.'"