Taylor Swift surprises fans with 31-track double album

(NewsNation) — Taylor Swift released her highly anticipated “The Tortured Poets Department” on Friday, surprising fans with a 31-song double album.

The Grammy winner first released the initial 16-track album at midnight. At 2 a.m., Swift then released an additional 15-song album titled “The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology.”

“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,” Swift wrote in an Instagram caption. “And now the story isn’t mine anymore … it’s all yours.”

The songs are a natural continuation of the first half of the album; many return to her “evermore” and “folklore” sound, with an assist from her collaborator Aaron Dessner.

Collaborations include “Fortnight,” featuring Post Malone, and “Florida!!!” featuring Florence + the Machine. A selection of other song titles: “Down Bad,” “I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can),” “loml” and “Clara Bow.”

Parts of the album were described in a review by the Associated Press: “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,” wrote Maria Sherman, an AP music writer.

Swift surprise-announced the release in February at the Grammys after receiving the trophy for best pop vocal album for her tenth LP, “Midnights.” 

At a show in Melbourne, Australia, Swift described the album as “a lifeline,” adding “I’ve never had an album where I needed songwriting more than I needed it on ‘Tortured Poets.,'” The Associated Press reported.

This is Swift’s 11th studio album, not counting her re-recordings. Her last original album was “Midnights,” released in October 2022. Since then, she’s launched the billion-dollar Eras Tour and released “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” and “1989 (Taylor’s Version).”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.