Taylor Swift surprises with 'The Tortured Poets Department', a double album with 31 songs leaked two days earlier than | Culture | EUROtoday

For a month and a half, April 19 was marked on the calendars of pop followers and, above all, of the thousands and thousands of followers that Taylor Swift has. The day has come. This Friday, the 34-year-old singer from Pennsylvania launched The Tortured Poets Department (already often called TTPD), her eleventh studio album with 16 songs, two of them collaborations with Florence + The Machine and Post Malone. In reality, the track with the latter, Fortnight (fortnight, in Spanish), has change into the primary single of the disk. An announcement that the artist made only a few hours earlier than publishing all of the songs. There is one thing that she, nevertheless, didn’t announce: that TTPD was going to be a double album, with 31 songs, as an alternative of 16, and greater than two hours lengthy.

Swift has tried to take care of virtually whole secrecy with this extremely anticipated division of tortured poets (as it could be translated into Spanish): she has been giving particulars in dribs and drabs, she has barely revealed some lyrics of the songs and he or she has not even launched a single earlier. But there’s something that he has repeated throughout the previous few weeks and because the first day he introduced the album: quantity two. As standard, she has launched clues about it (briefly movies, by means of QR codes positioned in numerous cities across the planet or in an ephemeral set up that resembles a small bookstore situated in a shopping mall in Los Angeles the place followers have queued for hours), and in all of the messages the quantity two has been recurring. Therefore, there had been quite a lot of hypothesis concerning the double album. On the Grammy stage, as well as, he already made the image of victory, which his collaborators and pals have repeated. A two in every single place. He introduced his single at two within the afternoon (Eastern time within the United States), and after releasing the album the performer began a two-hour countdown on her networks. With it he has solved the thriller: TTPD is a double album.

But a few days earlier than, every thing was about to explode when the album was leaked on the Internet in its entirety. It was Wednesday afternoon (within the US; in Europe late at evening). What is taken into account essentially the most anticipated musical launch of 2024 started to leak when there have been virtually two days left for its publication. Despite the American artist's tight management of her profession and narrative, the primary 16 songs from TTPD started to flow into by means of Telegram teams, and their hyperlinks have been shamelessly shared on the social community X. EL PAÍS had entry to them and so they have been full (they weren’t fragments) and of the very best high quality. Neither Swift nor her workforce commented on the matter.

The leak was initially doubtful, as a result of, first, it couldn’t be genuine, and will come from another person: placing collectively items, different music, different voices, by somebody fascinated with sabotage. Second, as a result of it could possibly be a product of synthetic intelligence, one of the crucial ample theories. And third and most twisted as a result of it may even be a method of Swift herself.

The thriller may solely be revealed when the songs have been identified, this Friday. And the outcome has been clear: sure, it was the album. Although, after all, solely half, solely the 16 initially introduced from TTPD. So as soon as launched, the world has forgotten the controversy (partly because of the truth that Swift and her individuals haven’t gotten moist) and has centered on the songs, each the primary ones and the complete model, that make up the so-called The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology. “Surprise at two in the morning: The Tortured Poets Department It's a secret double album. I had written a lot of tortured poetry in the last two years and I wanted to share it all with you, so here is the second installment of TTPD: The Anthology. 15 additional songs. And now the story is no longer mine… it is all yours,” has written on his networks about this “anthology”. This is the longest work of his profession.

The themes are, as at all times with Swift, very private. Of the preliminary 16, two are written solely by her, 5 with Aaron Dessner, a member of The National and with whom she additionally composed for Folklore, and eight with Jack Antonoff, from the group Bleachers, their standard producer. The songs are about his personal life, as standard, his greatest materials. Specifically, the breakup of her six-year relationship with British actor Joe Alwyn (within the fifth observe she goes as far as to say, “How low did you think it would fall before it imploded? […] You swore you loved me, but where were the clues? “I died at the altar waiting for the test”]her temporary romance with the musician Matty Healy, from the group The 1975, and her present courtship with the American soccer participant Travis Kelce could be key to deciphering her lyrics (because the penultimate track appears to disclose, The Alchemythe place he talks about benches, trophies, beer, songs and touchdowns).

As a curiosity, Stevie Nicks writes a poem to start out the album, however she additionally quotes it within the final track on the album, Clara Bow. In addition, actress Emma Stone seems within the credit of the track Florida!!! (the one who sings with Florence+The Machine), within the choirs. And among the many 15 songs of the second batch there may be one titled thanK you aIMee, whose capital letters are an acronym for KIM, the identify of certainly one of her nice enemies, Kim Kardashian. It seems to be devoted to her, with lyrics corresponding to: “And maybe you've thought about it another way and in your mind you never hit my black and blue spirit. I don't think you've changed much, and that's why I've changed your name, and any real clue that defines you. And one day, your son will come home singing a song that only the two of us know is about you.”

In a printed message on their social networks Two minutes (two, sure) after the discharge of the album, Swift lastly gave extra details about it: “The Tortured Poets Department. An anthology of new works reflecting events, opinions and feelings from a fleeting, fatalistic moment in time, one that was both sensational and painful in equal measure. This period in the author's life has already ended, the chapter is closed and walled up. There is nothing to avenge, no scores to settle once the wounds have healed. And, after some further reflection, a good number of them turned out to be self-inflicted. This writer firmly believes that our tears become sacred in the form of ink on a page. Once we have told our saddest story, we can free ourselves from it. And then the only thing left is tortured poetry.”

Swift shouldn’t be the primary to endure a serious leak. Great artists have gone by means of it: it occurred to Radiohead, to Madonna in 2015, the identical yr as to Bjork, with which it was her first album in 4 years; or to Wilco, which in 2002 noticed its album leaked eight months earlier than the deliberate launch, one thing that additionally occurred in 2004, 2007 and 2009. However, the proliferation of music on platforms had led individuals to assume that leaks have been one thing of the previous, till now. In a yr by which large names like Beyoncé, Shakira, Dua Lipa, SZA, Ariana Grande, Katy Perry and Lana del Rey additionally launch new music, leaks of works like these, stored below lock and key for months, additional protect the trade. In her case, the response of her followers was necessary. The singer's very loyal followers from Pennsylvania are very respectful of the singer. On social media, many have been debating whether or not to take heed to her and downplay her idol's launch however thus fulfill their need for brand spanking new music… or whether or not to proceed worshiping her and wait till Friday at 00:01 to hit the button. play. The latter have gained, vetoing even the keen first.

In any case, it’s troublesome for this leak to have an effect on gross sales or reproductions. Those who’re accessing the album are the followers, who will proceed shopping for their CDs and vinyl in bodily format (a lot of them have executed so prematurely, in order that it arrives at their residence on the primary day, one thing more and more widespread within the US) and who They will provide you with 1000’s, thousands and thousands of views on platforms like Spotify and Apple Music. In any case, what doesn’t appear to be going to endure is Swift's fortune. She is immersed in her The Eras Tour, an immense tour that began in March of final yr and has already been seen by thousands and thousands of individuals and with which it would return to the stage in May – with two stops in Madrid, amongst others – and can finish in December in Canada, on the identical time that it may well proceed watching on Disney+. Thanks to her, the singer has already accrued greater than 1.1 billion {dollars}, in accordance with the journal Forbes. She could also be offended, however she gained't lose a cent; Quite the other: the expectation will solely proceed to extend.