Taylor Swift finally unveils “The Tortured Poets Department”, her eleventh opus and, surprise, it’s a double album

The star announced her release in February during the Grammy Awards ceremony, the prestigious American music awards where she won, for the fourth time, the trophy for best album of the year.

The queen of pop Taylor Swift released a new album on Friday April 19, the eleventh opus of the American country singer who has become a world star, shattering records one after the other. Her millions of fans, also called the “Swifties”, were impatiently awaiting it and tried to detect in each publication of the star clues about what awaited them.

“All is fair in love and poetry… New album The Tortured Poets Department is available now“, she wrote on Instagram.

Thirty-one songs

The fans were not at the end of their surprises since the singer announced, around 2 a.m. (American time), two hours after the release of the first 16 songs, that this eleventh opus was a double album: 15 other titles come add up, making a total of 31 pieces.

The album lasts two hours instead of the sixty minutes initially planned. Among the known elements: the album contains collaborations with the British rock group Florence + the Machine and the American rapper Post Malone, who accompanies him on the first track Fortnight.

“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 wrote on Instagram on Thursday. “I had the opportunity to see this magic come to life when we worked together on Fortnight,” she added, announcing the release of a music video late Friday.

At the age of 34, Taylor Swift became the first artist to become a billionaire thanks to income from her music alone.

Story of an idyll ended

Among the theories circulating about this new album: The Tortured Poets Department would open up about the singer’s ex, the British actor Joe Alwyn. The name of the opus would also be taken from a group discussion called “The tortured man club” (“The club of the tortured man”, in French) that the actor held with Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott, two other actors.

The track list already gives some clues: So Long, London (Goodbye London), I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can) (I can change it, no really I can) and The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived (The shortest man who ever lived) – an English man actually appears to be involved in the affair. Coming back, without taking gloves, on her former companions has also become a tradition for Taylor Swift, song after song. The current elected official is American football star Travis Kelce, recently victorious in the Super Bowl. And for him, the new album “It’s incredible”.

With her new Grammy victory in February, Taylor Swift did better than American music legends like Frank Sinatra, Paul Simon or Stevie Wonder. Nearly 20 years after getting started, nothing seems to be stopping her.

A release three weeks after Beyoncé

Her new album 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 become a competitor for the next Grammys. With perhaps, also, the new album of another star: Billie Eilish is released Hit Me Hard and Soft on May 17. But all these rich and influential artists insist at every opportunity: it’s the music that counts.

This latest album, Taylor Swift recently said, “reminded me that writing music is what keeps me going.” The Pennsylvania native began writing songs as a teenager and got 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 succeeded in convincing her fans and the music industry, another tour de force for this essential artist in American popular culture. With 283 million subscribers on Instagram, she is 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 takes the lead. word on this subject.