Taylor Swift - The Tortured Poets Department (out April 19th)

I am currently enjoying this in a quiet Sunday morning on vacation way but it's a LOT to work through. Who has 2 hours to sit down and really listen to it front to back, mam?
 
Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus is arguably the most heartbreaking chorus she's written since Safe and Sound. :(

side B of this record is an improved and vulnerable evermore imo. it's also bittersweet to see her admit that the hate-train that Kim had started has become her biggest muse at this point... they say what doesn't kill you makes you aware... what happens if it becomes who you are?
 
The Tortured Poets Department is off to a blockbuster start in the U.S. On its first day of release, on April 19, the set sold 1.4 million copies in traditional album sales, according to initial reports to data tracking firm Luminate. That marks Swift’s biggest sales week ever for any album in the U.S. (Luminate’s sales, streaming and airplay data powers Billboard’s charts. All numbers in this story are for the U.S. only.)

Plus, the set’s 31 songs (available on its deluxe streaming and digital editions) generated 243.4 million official on-demand audio streams in the U.S. on April 19, led by the album’s first single, “Fortnight,” featuring Post Malone, with 18.4 million streams. (That’s more than double the number of streams generated on the first day of Swift’s last release, 1989 [Taylor’s Version]; its 21 songs spurred 110 million streams on its opening day.)
 
in Taylor-context, we brush past just how much album sales have declined since No Strings Attached, isn't it like a -85% decline since 2000? surely this release and hype could have easily crossed 4m first week in the US two decades ago.

her power is truly unprecedented.
 
joanne said:
in Taylor-context, we brush past just how much album sales have declined since No Strings Attached, isn't it like a -85% decline since 2000? surely this release and hype could have easily crossed 4m first week in the US two decades ago.

her power is truly unprecedented.
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Except two decades ago you would have had a CD, cassette and vinyl at most. You would not have had the ridiculous multi formatting that has gone on here.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s incredible, not taking that away from her, but it’s not comparing like for like.
 
it is truly hard to compare and decipher releases' success from different decades, but i'm not sure the new streaming digital formula has made it easier to up the numbers though. if anything, quite the opposite, no? the most popular female streaming giants like Ariana and Olivia have albums that accumulate 7-10 billion streams yet they struggle to clear 200k first week with upcoming eras, even though they play by the same rules as Taylor (multiple variants and covers, etc.)
 
Yeah, it isn't apples to apples. It probably isn't even apples to oranges, just too many variables in the mix (formats, cost of living, streaming etc etc)

Ticket sales feel like a more scalable barometer because that product hasn't changed as much other than prizes skyrocketing and we all know she is decimating everyone else on that front.
 
Apples to guavas maybe ? Anyway comparison is the thief of joy (Taylor’s Version)
 
Being a conscientious objector when it comes to streaming "services", I'll have to resort to ulterior means for the 'Anthology' half. Which I will, don't worry. But I'll likely have another spin of the album proper first. It is way too big a serving and will likely become indicative of a certain type of largesse that the CD era also gave us in terms of what an album could be. The non-physical deluxe is like the double album or the 78 minute CD - there are people with an automatic aversion to such things.
 
THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT by @taylorswift13 broke the record for the biggest debut week streams of 2024 in just 2 days (496M) surpassing ‘eternal sunshine’ by Ariana Grande.
 
Regarding comparing sales (you can't) and multi-formatting, I get that she's far from the only one who does it, but for me there is a difference to just releasing different formats, artwork, coloured vinyl etc, and then purposely choosing to release different formats including different tracks, so the only way you can physically own all the music is to buy multiple copies. I appreciate that's only really an extension of a theme, but it sits uncomfortably with me.

Is that a commonplace thing across big acts now, or just a Taylor Swift thing?

I don't actually know how big a Taylor Swift thing it is. I've just read a lot of GRIPING on social media.
 
This feels like a real slog seven songs in. I've never been fully convinced by her, and am somewhat mystified by her utter commercial dominance, but I've bopped to my fair share of songs over the last decade.
 
The second disc or whatever starts off really strong but after So High School (on which I love her vocal delivery) it takes a serious dip with I Hate It Here, the Kim song and the especially wretched I Look In People's Windows.

There are some highlights towards the end like The Bolter, but if she was going to insist on chucking out 31 songs in one go, the piano songs could have done with being distributed a little better.

Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus is very pretty though.
 
42% drop in streams on day #2, which is kind of inevitable given the debut. Midnights was a 37% drop or something
 
I think the length here is easier to get used to than in Cowboy Carter, because that one feels more like its meant to be listened to as an album. Here, I think I'll just end up discovering songs on this for the next few months
 
I don't know, Cowboy Carter can be cherry picked but works so well as a play in full experience and doesn't feel an hour-plus
 
lolly said:
Regarding comparing sales (you can't) and multi-formatting, I get that she's far from the only one who does it, but for me there is a difference to just releasing different formats, artwork, coloured vinyl etc, and then purposely choosing to release different formats including different tracks, so the only way you can physically own all the music is to buy multiple copies. I appreciate that's only really an extension of a theme, but it sits uncomfortably with me.

Is that a commonplace thing across big acts now, or just a Taylor Swift thing?

I don't actually know how big a Taylor Swift thing it is. I've just read a lot of GRIPING on social media.
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Multiple vinyl colours is an epidemic - Charli XCX is up to 9 variants for her upcoming album available for pre-order including 4 picture discs that are already sold out. Billie Eilish is doing 8 vinyl variants and has a piece on her website with the full disclosure. As such, Swift's 5 looks positively restrained. However, what is NOT normal is this business of changing one song on 3 of the 5 pressings. Olivia Rodrigo added a different bonus track to each of the 4 variants she sold on her website but didn't tell anyone that she's done so in advance - it was a genuine easter egg. However, once this got out, sales shot up and now she's releasing an extended LP with all 4 of those songs and...of course...one other. It feels like an escalation of something that was already becoming disquieting.

As I've said before, it's the singles market of the 80s and 90s now added to albums. I bought 4 formats of Blur's "Sunday Sunday" in 1993 to get all 8 b-sides but did so at a cost of £6.96. "Everyone" was doing it then too - singles were almost always multiformatted with remixes, live tracks etc, demos and the odd actual song that was worth having. So here was are 30 years later; physical singles are dead and the same tactics are being employed on albums. Double albums at that. I'm not keen.
 
I haven't bought physicals since I started using Spotify premium in 2015/2016, so to me it's just more content to stream. But I could see why it's frustrating to collectors, especially since the individual bonus track vinyls were released at least a month in advance. Very manipulative. And just bothersome/wasteful to have four redundant collectors items which lack the other bonus tracks.

But i still stan, and love the album. I'm still working my way through the anthology, which is admittedly weaker. "Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus" is gorgeous and a frontrunner for me thus far. "So High School" is also wonderful. The rest is kind of samey and weaker melodically, but will give it time to grow.
 
ALBUM #1 RATE/RANK:

The first three are probably interchangeable in their position still. The first half of the album is definitely stronger here.

10 So Long, London - a moody banger, the second half of it 2:10 through the end is supreme

10 Guilty as Sin - she's done this before but does it so well

10 My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys - a HIT but i fear it will become the "getaway car" of the album and never be released.

09 Fortnight - her best lead single in a while for me, love the 80s influence. kind of reminds me of a more downbeat "if you leave" by OMD. very john hughes coded.

09 But Daddy I Love Him - that chorus is huge, sounds like another hit but might be a little long

08 The Tortured Poets Department

08 Florida!!!

08 Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?

07 The Alchemy - could see this growing more

07 Clara Bow - this too

07 I Can Do It With a Broken Heart

07 Fresh Out the Slammer

07 Down Bad

06 I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)

05 loml - can't tell if this is a slow burn grower or just dull

05 The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived
 
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Don’t get me
octophone said:
Multiple vinyl colours is an epidemic - Charli XCX is up to 9 variants for her upcoming album available for pre-order including 4 picture discs that are already sold out. Billie Eilish is doing 8 vinyl variants and has a piece on her website with the full disclosure. As such, Swift's 5 looks positively restrained. However, what is NOT normal is this business of changing one song on 3 of the 5 pressings. Olivia Rodrigo added a different bonus track to each of the 4 variants she sold on her website but didn't tell anyone that she's done so in advance - it was a genuine easter egg. However, once this got out, sales shot up and now she's releasing an extended LP with all 4 of those songs and...of course...one other. It feels like an escalation of something that was already becoming disquieting.

As I've said before, it's the singles market of the 80s and 90s now added to albums. I bought 4 formats of Blur's "Sunday Sunday" in 1993 to get all 8 b-sides but did so at a cost of £6.96. "Everyone" was doing it then too - singles were almost always multiformatted with remixes, live tracks etc, demos and the odd actual song that was worth having. So here was are 30 years later; physical singles are dead and the same tactics are being employed on albums. Double albums at that. I'm not keen.
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Billie Eilish?

Wasn’t she moaning about multi formatting and artists not being sustainable the other day?
 
still digesting, processing and fathoming but all i know right now is

10 So Long, London
10 Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Markus
10 Fresh Out the Slammer
10 Guilty as Sin?
10 Clara Bow
 
I think The Black Dog might be an early favourite of mine after the first couple of listens.
 
At the "little bits of lots of songs popping into my head hither and thither" stage. This makes me want to delay the Anthology tracks a wee bit longer.
 
here's my current slimmed down/most torturedest poets edition



I like how it plays, getting stronger/more interesting as it goes on
 
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