MUSIC
With a week to go before release, what do we know about the new Taylor Swift album?
‘The Tortured Poets Department’, Taylor Swift’s new studio album is set to drop on 19 April.
The clock is ticking down towards the release of Taylor Swift’s eleventh studio album with ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ set to see the light of day on Friday, 19 April.
Unlike other high profile releases, this time around there are no lead singles and as yet, no strategic leaks of tracks to afford us a taster of how the record may sound although Swift’s current partner Kansas City Chiefs player Travis Kelce, one of the select few to have has heard the album and he maintains that ‘it’s unbelievable’.
Swift kannounced the release at the 2024 Grammys ceremony in Los Angeles: “I want to say thank you to the fans by telling you a secret that I’ve been keeping from you for the last two years …” as she confirmed the release of the studio album and her social media channels then posting the front cover with the full track-listing being confirmed some 24 hours later.
The Tortured Poets Department: running order
“Fortnight”
“The Tortured Poets Department”
“My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys”
“Down Bad”
“So Long, London”
“But Daddy I Love Him”
“Fresh Out the Slammer”
“Florida!!!!”
“Guilty as Sin?”
“Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?”
“I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)”
“loml”
“I Can Do It With a Broken Heart”
“The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived”
“The Alchemy”
“Clara Bow”
Bonus Track: “The Manuscript”
Tortured Poets Department: release formats
The album will be released in a variety of formats: a vinyl version, CD version and a cassette will all be released with all three versions featuring the bonus track ‘The Manuscript’. There will also be two limited edition vinyl versions of the album available via pre-order featuring transparent and white vinyls. A white cassette version is also set to be made available in certain markets and, once again, only available on pre-order.
US fans have four limited deluxe CD versions to choose from with each version offering a different bonus track with ‘The Albatross’, ‘The Black Dog’, ‘The Bolter’ and ‘The Manuscript’ the additional tracks.
Guest artists on ‘Tortured Poets’
Guest artists are a constant on recent studio albums with Lana del Rey and Ice Spice featuring on 2022 studio release Midnights and Swift having worked with the likes of Future, Ed Sheeran, Bon Iver and Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody in the past.
The new album sees both Post Malone and Florence Welch credited as the two guests on the record and appear on Florida and ‘Fortnight’ respectively.
Track by track review
Join AS USA next week when we plan to bring you all a live album track by track review upon release.