Taylor Swift - ‘The Tortured Poets Department’: New Album 2024 Release Date and Tracklist

During her 2024 Grammy acceptance speech for Best Album, Taylor Swift took the opportunity to announce her brand new project, The Tortured Poets Department.

The record, which is Taylor's first completely new body of work since 2022's Midnights, was released on April 19th 2024.

"An anthology of new works that reflect events, opinions and sentiments from a fleeting and fatalistic moment in time - one that was both sensational and sorrowful in equal measure," she wrote on her socials as the album was released. "This period of the author’s life is now over, the chapter closed and boarded up. There is nothing to avenge, no scores to settle once wounds have healed. And upon further reflection, a good number of them turned out to be self-inflicted. This writer is of the firm belief that our tears become holy in the form of ink on a page. Once we have spoken our saddest story, we can be free of it."

"And then all that’s left behind is the tortured poetry."

Releasing The Tortured Poets Department on April 19th at midnight CT she then surprised fans by releasing a further 15 songs for The Tortured Poets Department: Anthology at 2am CT, which included the previously announced bonus tracks 'The Bolter,' 'The Manuscript,' 'The Albatross' and The Black Dog' along with 11 other songs.

"It’s a 2am surprise," she wrote in a post on her socials. "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. 🤍"

The album features high-profile appearances from Post Malone and Florence + The Machine.

During her momentous Grammy speech on Sunday, January 4, Taylor explained that the project serves as a token of her gratitude to her listeners, “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, which is that my brand new album comes out April 19th”.

Amidst a deafening sea of cheers and screams, Taylor shared, “It's called ‘The Tortured Poets Department’. I'm gonna go and post the cover right now back-stage. Thank you, I love you!”

She followed it by posting the atmospheric black and white album artwork artwork and a cryptic note.

The latter reads:

“And so I enter into evidence

My tarnished coat of arms

My muses, acquired like bruises

My talismans and charms

The tick, tick, tick of love bombs

My veins of pitch black ink

All's fair in love and poetry...

Sincerely, The Chairman of The Tortured Poets Department”

Although the global megastar didn't release any entirely original projects in 2023, Taylor Swift ensured her fans’ playlists were kept well-stocked by dropping re-recorded versions of Speak Now and 1989, two of Taylor's most-loved albums.

Now that the album is out in the world it's time to begin unpacking all the lyrics, but with a whopping great 31 tracks to get through, it might take a little longer than usual.

It'll be fascinating to see whether Taylor performs any of the new songs as part of the ‘Surprise Songs’ segment of her 2024 Eras tour setlist now that the album has been released.

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