Taylor Swift shocks fans with secret late night double album. Here are some of the best reactions
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Taylor Swift fans might be calling in sick for work after the music superstar kept them up extra late and pulled off the ultimate power move by surprising fans with a double album announcement at midnight MDT Friday after dropping “The Tortured Poets Department” two hours earlier.
Swifties were caught by surprise when the clock struck 10 p.m.; there was a two hour countdown timer on Swift’s Instagram profile. It allowed fans enough time to get through the original 16 tracks of the album before she announced on social media she had dropped 15 more tracks on “The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology.”
“It’s a 2am surprise: The Tortured Poets Department is a secret DOUBLE album. ✌️ I’d written so much tortured poetry in the past 2 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. 🤍,” Swift posted on Instagram.
SORRY IF THIS HAS ALREADY BEEN SAID IVE BEEN VERY ELUSIVE TODAY BUT MY BRAIN JUST MADE THIS CONNECTION pic.twitter.com/6stMxUVAxM
— ASH (INDY N3 ✨) (@ashslippedawayy) April 16, 2024
However, she didn’t make the move without dropping Easter eggs for eagle-eyed fans first. Earlier this week, fans started noticing how often Swift was referencing the number two.
Black today and
White yesterday✌🏻 #TTPDSpotify #TSTTPD pic.twitter.com/lpwxqk67o9— Isha ⸆⸉ (@folkloreof1989) April 17, 2024
She held up two fingers when announcing the album during the Grammys, a clock was set to two in the Spotify library art pop-up in Los Angeles, and Post Malone and Florence Welch, who both feature on the album, recently shared public instances of holding up the number two with their hands.
The album includes references to multiple historical figures, Greek mythology and poets, and fans are also speculating if some of the songs refer to Swift’s exes, as well as some of her rivals.
Fan reactions to Taylor Swift’s ‘The Tortured Poets Department’
The true blue Swifties who stayed up through the night to hear the entire 31-track album shared strong reactions and support for Swift’s work.
Here are some of those reactions:
The Tortured Poets Department is a tour de force. A messy album of angry, sad and triumphant diary entries about a breakup that made her spiral.
During a time when Taylor Swift could have played it safe, she took another risky detour to reflect and heal herself.
What a triumph.— Alex Goldschmidt (@alexandergold) April 19, 2024
travis has her writing like she’s hilary duff riding to school in a convertible this is delicious
— katelyn (@noitskatelyn) April 19, 2024
This album is not about a man.
This is about the razor-sharp double edge of your own ambition. About climbing to the mountaintop and finding yourself all alone, completely exposed. About losing a sense of ownership over your own life, because everyone else has laid claim to it.— My Tweets Ricochet (@tweetsricochet) April 19, 2024
— Taylor Swift Facts (@blessedswifty) April 19, 2024
YOU CAGED ME THEN YOU CALLED ME CRAZY I AM WHAT I AM CAUSE YOU TRAINED ME pic.twitter.com/I0NqFHc8P2
— Taylor Throwbacks (@ThrowbackTaylor) April 19, 2024
taylor swift going from midnights to the tortured poets department: pic.twitter.com/vUpnfTKVVX
— kadriye (@tayspetsch) April 18, 2024
the way we thought ttpd was coming at joe but instead she decided to shade EVERYBODY.
— bry ⸆⸉ (@clarabowlor) April 19, 2024
Who else is awake?!
— Hidden Valley Ranch (@HVRanch) April 19, 2024
It’s all a lot to process. Heavy subjects. Drugs, marriage, cheating, mental health. I feel like she leaked her own diary. I love this album but I feel so sad for everything that Taylor went through. She’s in a good place now but wow 💔
— SKAR ✿ (@ivyndaisies) April 19, 2024
Critical reactions to Taylor Swift’s ‘The Tortured Poets Department’
Here are some initial critical reactions to Swift’s raw, vulnerable and poetic collection of songs:
“These 31 pensive pop tracks are the antithesis to “Lover.” Heartbreak and misery wrapped in melody. Rainbows faded into sepia tone. An era endured not enjoyed,” Melissa Ruggieri wrote for USA Today.
“Time and again, Swift has identified artistic opportunities that other stars would have blanched at (or at the very least, set aside for a different time, so as to not muck up any professional momentum), and she has leapt into them fearlessly, always coming out on top. ... The Tortured Poets Department is extreme in its emotions and uninterested in traditional hits; not everyone will love it, but the ones who get it will adore it fiercely. As Swift continues this current astonishing run of superstardom, she has once again pushed herself to strike a new pose. It’s what makes her special — and what turns The Tortured Poets Department into yet another triumph,” Jason Lipshutz wrote for Billboard.
“In moments, her 11th album feels like a bloodletting: A cathartic purge after a major heartbreak delivered through an ascendant vocal run, an elegiac verse, or mobile, synthesized productions that underscore the powers of Swift’s storytelling,” Maria Sherman wrote for The Associated Press.
“As breakup albums go, it’s a doozy, as they would have said back in Clara Bow’s day — an unapologetically dramatic (if often witty) record that will be soundtracking untold millions of tragic rifts to come,” Chris Willman wrote for Variety.
“The Eras Tour took over the world in a way that I don’t think she even expected. With that nostalgic momentum, she could have released an album that leaned heavily on familiarity. It might have been good, even great, but Taylor is at her best when she’s challenging herself to subvert expectations. ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ isn’t the album people thought it would be. It’s rawer. It’s funnier. It’s more poetic and unapologetically dramatic. Most of all, it’s another classic from the preeminent songwriter of her generation,” Josh Kurp wrote for UPROXX.
“I love this album to pieces,” Rob Sheffield wrote for Rolling Stone.
I love this album to pieces https://t.co/XDrk3qs0pI pic.twitter.com/MbwdC8Scrm
— rob sheffield (@robsheff) April 19, 2024