The Tortured Poets Department[a] is the eleventh studio album by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. It was written and produced by Swift, Jack Antonoff, and Aaron Dessner, and released on April 19, 2024, via Republic Records. Swift announced the album at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards on February 4, 2024, after winning Best Pop Vocal Album for her preceding work, Midnights (2022). The Tortured Poets Department was expanded into a double album upon release, subtitled as The Anthology, featuring a surprise second volume of songs.
| The Tortured Poets Department | ||||
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.png) Standard cover | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | April 19, 2024 | |||
| Recorded | 2022–2023 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 65:08 | |||
| Label | Republic | |||
| Producer |
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| Taylor Swift chronology | ||||
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| Alternative cover | ||||
 The Anthology double album cover | ||||
| Singles from The Tortured Poets Department | ||||
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Swift conceived The Tortured Poets Department shortly after finishing work on Midnights and continued developing it during the Eras Tour (2023–2024), her ongoing sixth concert tour. She described The Tortured Poets Department as her "lifeline" album, conceived as a culmination of her imperative songwriting. It contains 31 songs across its two volumes, with the American rapper Post Malone featuring on the opening track and lead single, "Fortnight", and the English indie rock band Florence and the Machine on the track "Florida!!!".
A synth-pop and folk-pop effort with rock and country stylings, The Tortured Poets Department consists of largely midtempo songs driven by minimalist synthesizers and drum machines alongside organic instruments such as piano and guitar. Its subject matter focuses on Swift's psyche, exploring her outlook on her public and private lives using introspective storytelling. The lyrical content is characterized by themes of sorrow, self-awareness, melodrama, and humor. Publications reported that the album polarized critics; the majority of reviews were positive and praised Swift's cathartic songwriting for emotional resonance and wit, while others suggested the album lacked the conciseness and impact of Swift's previous works. Some critics found the album's sound tastefully produced, while others found it uninventive and monotonous.
Commercially, The Tortured Poets Department broke a string of records globally and topped the official charts in 13 countries. It gained the the highest single-day streams for an album on the streaming platform Spotify. In the United States, the album sold 2.6 million copies in its first week, the biggest sales week of her career and her record-extending seventh release to open with over a million units in the country. It also became the fastest-selling album of the 2020s decade in the United Kingdom, and the first album to monopolize the top 10 positions of Australia's ARIA Singles Chart.
Background and conception
Swift released her tenth studio album, Midnights, on October 21, 2022, to widespread commercial and critical success.[1] In 2023, she released two re-recorded albums, Speak Now (Taylor's Version) and 1989 (Taylor's Version), as part of her re-recording project.[2] On February 4, 2024, the day of the 66th Annual Grammy Awards where Midnights had been nominated, Swift teased the release of a new album by changing the profile pictures across her social media accounts to black-and-white. Fans speculated online that she was preparing to release Reputation (Taylor's Version), a forthcoming re-recording of her sixth studio album, Reputation (2017).[3] Swift's website also appeared as if it had malfunctioned, reporting an unusual non-standard HTTP status code 321, as well as error code "hneriergrd", which fans deciphered to be an anagram spelling "red herring."[4] The source code of the website contained non-English words.[5]
On February 4, 2024, Swift won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album and Album of the Year for Midnights; in her acceptance speech for the former, she announced a new studio album that she had worked on since 2022,[6] titled The Tortured Poets Department, set for release on April 19, 2024.[7][8] The album cover artwork was posted to her social media accounts, along with a photograph of a handwritten note, which incorporated English translations of the words from the source code:[5][9]
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.[10]
Swift characterized The Tortured Poets Department as a "lifeline" album—one that she "really needed" to make.[11] She began conceiving the album immediately after submitting Midnights to her record label, Republic Records, and continued working on it in secret throughout the U.S. leg of the Eras Tour in 2023.[12] According to Swift, creating the album proved to her the integral role of songwriting in her life. She stated, "I have never had an album where I needed songwriting more than I needed it on Tortured Poets."[13] In an Instagram post announcing the album's release, Swift further characterized the album as "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."[14]
Composition
Lyrics
The Tortured Poets Department consists of sixteen standard songs and features two guest acts—the American rapper Post Malone on the lead single "Fortnight" and the English indie rock band Florence and the Machine, led by the singer-songwriter Florence Welch, on the song "Florida!!!".[15] The album was primarily written and produced by Swift with longtime collaborators Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner; Welch and Malone also co-wrote their respective collaborations with Swift.[16]
The album is rooted in personal and introspective songwriting, exploring Swift's retrospective emotions of a line of events in her private and public lives.[17][18] Some critics commented that she was inspired by her tumultuous relationships[19] to create lyrical narratives that were messy, unbridled, and unguarded,[18][20][21] containing meta-references to her personal life through allusions and name-dropping.[22][23] According to The Economic Times, the album "predominantly explores the unpredictable nature of love, questioning the madness of anchoring our existence to a sentiment that can vanish in an instant."[24] Whereas, The Conversation described the album's lyrics as "a euphoric rejection of societal expectations".[25]
Swift, speaking to the audience at a Melbourne show of the Eras Tour, described the album as her most cathartic project yet;[26] the track "I Can Do It with a Broken Heart" details how she was undergoing an emotional breakdown while going on tour.[27] Ann Powers wrote in NPR that throughout the album, "Swift is trying to work out how emotional violence occurs."[28] Highlighting the excessive media coverage on Swift's heightened fame and turbulent personal life, Vulture's Craig Jenkins opined that the album finds her "more interested in redrawing boundaries", with songs like "The Tortured Poets Department" and "But Daddy I Love Him" addressing the scrutiny on her past relationships.[29]
Delusion, heartbreak and feeling imprisoned are the primary topics of the album,[30] expressed via themes of anger, mourning,[31][32] death,[33] and humor.[20] A number of critics felt that Swift's self-awareness and humor elevated the album's lyricism,[30] whilst using melodrama as a narrative device.[25] Swift described the album as "fatalistic" with extensive lyrics about "life or death" that are hyperbolic or dramatic; this is exemplified by the opening track, "Fortnight", whose themes of "longing, pining, lost dreams" recur throughout the album.[34] Melissa Ruggieri of USA Today considered the album the antithesis to Lover (2019).[35] Besides heartbreak from lost love, other themes include the public perception of her as a celebrity ("Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?" and "Clara Bow") and reinventing oneself ("Florida!!!").[34] Business Insider's Callie Ahlgrim described the album's content as Swift's "messiest, horniest, and funniest".[31] In The Independent, Helen Brown suggested that Swift's songwriting draws on her country music roots to explore detail-heavy narratives.[36] While some critics argued that the album is autobiographical in nature,[36][37] Pitchfork's Shaad D'Souza argued that it straddles the confessional and the fictional storytelling.[38] CNN journalist Olivier Darcy called the album "unrelenting poetry".[39]
Production and music
The standard part of the album is largely synth-pop,[b] with a mid-tempo production incorporating subdued synths and sparse drum machines.[c] Swift mostly sings in her lower vocal register to deliver rap-like, conversational verses.[28][23][42] Critics found the production minimalistic;[46][47] PopMatters's Igor Bannikov described it as "simplistic, indie-ish, and almost muted".[48] The Guardian's Alexis Petridis wrote that its sound "splits the difference between the glossy 80s-influenced pop-rock of 1989 and the small-hours understatement of Midnights".[49] Writing for The Times, Will Hodgkinson described the album as an amalgam of synth-pop, 1980s power ballads, and "the emotional AOR of Stevie Nicks".[50] Josh Kupp of Uproxx, who dubbed the album a wordy, genre-less project, was amongst the critics who felt that the album abandons mainstream radio appeal.[17][31] Several tracks feature a more stripped-down instrumentation, driven by piano[28][40] or guitar,[51] with stylings of other genres; "But Daddy I Love Him" and "Guilty as Sin?" incorporate live drums and influences of country and rock, "Down Bad" evokes R&B in its dynamic shifts,[52] and "Fresh Out the Slammer" features Western-rock electric guitars.[31]
The second part of the double album, subtitled The Anthology, mostly consists of folk-pop[48] piano ballads.[53] Dessner produced the majority of the second volume, which has an acoustic, folk-oriented sound[54] instrumented by picked acoustic guitar, soft piano, and subtle synths.[37] According to the BBC's Mark Savage, this second half features a more "sedate" sound that evokes Swift's 2020 albums, Folklore and Evermore,[26] an observation that was shared by The A.V. Club's Mary Kate Carr[55] and Exclaim!'s Alex Hudson.[54] Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph argued that this mellower sound allows for more subtlety in the lyrics, which explore Swift's character studies ("Cassandra", "Peter", "Robin") and self-reflection ("The Albatross", "The Bolter", "I Look in People's Windows", "I Hate It Here").[37]
Title and artwork
The lack of an apostrophe in the official title, as in The Tortured Poets' Department, was the subject of a debate over grammatical correctness. Scholars stated that Swift employed Tortured Poets as an attributive noun, as in the case with the 1989 drama film Dead Poets Society, and not as a possessive noun that warrants an apostrophe.[56] A fan theory posits that the title references a group chat shared between Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, and Joe Alwyn titled "The Tortured Man Club".[57]
The cover artwork, photographed by American photographer Beth Garrabrant, is a black-and-white glamour photo shot of Swift lying on a bed wearing black lingerie: a see-through top and high waist shorts,[58][59][60] from the fashion labels the Row and Yves Saint Laurent.[59][61] Both the artwork and title were parodied by numerous brands, organizations, sports teams, and franchises, and inspired numerous memes.[62][63][64] Some media outlets aligned the album's title and visual aesthetic to dark academia.[65][66]
Promotion and release
The Tortured Poets Department was released on April 19, 2024, during National Poetry Month.[8] A double album edition, subtitled The Anthology and containing 15 bonus tracks, was surprise-released two hours later on the same day.[67] Swift revealed the standard track list and guest features on her social media on February 6, 2024.[15] Four physical editions of the album, each titled after and containing a bonus track, namely "The Manuscript", "The Bolter", "The Albatross", and "The Black Dog", were also made available for purchase; Swift announced the latter three editions during the Asia-Pacific leg of the Eras Tour, her sixth headlining concert tour.[68] One of the collector's edition deluxe CDs of the album sold out on her website in its first two hours of availability.[69][70] Physical copies of the album also include an original poem by Stevie Nicks.[71]
The album was promoted by digital service providers such as Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, Instagram, and Threads. It included five Swift-curated Apple Music playlists inspired by the stages of grief and an Easter egg hunt for new lyrics within the playlists' songs;[72][73][74] a pop-up library of curated articles at The Grove, Los Angeles, hosted by Spotify;[75] QR code murals in various cities worldwide that lead to unlisted YouTube shorts on Swift's channel;[76][77] a countdown to the album's release revealed upon refreshing Swift's Instagram profile; and special shimmer effects on Threads posts tagged with hashtags related to Swift and the album.[78] Radio platforms iHeartRadio, which temporarily rebranded as iHeartTaylor, and Sirius XM also announced special programs in tribute of the album, featuring exclusive content from Swift.[79][80][81]
The standard edition of the album was leaked in its entirety on April 17, 2024, two days before its official release,[82] which resulted in the phrase "Taylor Swift leak" being temporarily banned from searches on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter).[83] On April 18, Swift announced "Fortnight" as the lead single, released in conjunction with the album.[84] Later that day, Swift posted a teaser trailer for its accompanying music video, set for release on the album's release day.[85] Following several Easter eggs hinting to the number "2", including a countdown on Swift's Instagram page, The Anthology was released two hours after the standard edition.[86]
The Black Dog, a pub in Vauxhall, London, received a surge in attention and visits by Swifties after it was mentioned in the album song of the same name.[87][88]
Critical reception
Reviews
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AnyDecentMusic? | 7.5/10[89] |
| Metacritic | 76/100[d] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [92] |
| Clash | 8/10[93] |
| The Daily Telegraph | [e] |
| The Guardian | [49] |
| The Independent | [36] |
| NME | [41] |
| Pitchfork | 6.6/10[f] |
| Rolling Stone | [g] |
| Slant Magazine |  [46] |
| The Times | [95] |
According to the review aggregator Metacritic, The Tortured Poets Department received "generally favorable reviews" based on a weighted average score of 76 out of 100 from 23 critic scores.[90] Its second part, The Anthology, received a score of 69/100 from 6 critic scores.[91] A number of critics, such as The Independent's Helen Brown,[36] The Arts Desk's Ellie Roberts,[20] The Times' Dan Cairns,[95] PopMatters's Jeffrey Davies,[96] and Will Harris of Q, praised the album as one of Swift's most solid outputs, considering the musical composition, vocal stylings and lyrical tonality as ambitious and tastefully experimental;[97] Others, including Variety's Chris Willman,[40] the i's Ed Power,[65] and The Observer's Kitty Empire, called it a quintessential Swift album.[98]
Swift's songwriting was a source of compliment. The Line of Best Fit's Paul Bridgewater dubbed it Swift's most cohesive body of work to-date, finding the music sophisticated and the lyricism symbolic.[32] To Ludovic Hunter-Tilney of the Financial Times, the album is a stylistic evolution for Swift, with writing that marks a "characteristically appealing turn" into moody melodrama.[99] Alexis Petridis of The Guardian and Alex Hopper of American Songwriter thought that the album has Swift's wittiest lyrics, featuring nuanced musical choices that show Swift is "willing to take risks in a risk-averse era for pop" and "constantly evolving and pushing her limits", respectively.[49][100] In a more measured review, Olivia Horn of Pitchfork felt the lyrics did not "distill an overarching emotional truth, tending to smother rather than sting."[44] Others, such as The New York Times' Lindsay Zoladz, Slant Magazine's Jonathan Keefe, and Exclaim!'s Alex Hudson, described some lyrics as weak and overwritten; Hudson claimed that many of its tracks "mistake verbosity for poetry".[101][46][54]
The tumultuous mood and unconstrained emotion of the lyrics were also highlighted. Multiple reviews complimented the album's heavy, unfiltered emotion;[65][18][40][35] Clash's Lauren Webb described it as "a spell-binding, toxic, chaotic illustration" of deteriorating mental sanity.[93] Powers opined that The Tortured Poets Department shows Swift's newfound freedom, with a "lack of concern about whether these songs speak to and for anyone but herself".[28] Rolling Stone's Rob Sheffield described the album as Swift's "wildly ambitious and gloriously chaotic" project.[94] Chris Willman of Variety agreed, calling it an "audacious, transfixing" album combining "cleverness with catharsis".[40] Consequence's Mary Siroky, on the other hand, found this style of lyricism jarring and "outright bizarre" at times, and felt the album was an attempt at self-parody rather than a showcase of Swift's songwriting acumen.[45]
Many critics, including Zoladz,[101] NME's Laura Molloy,[41] and Stereogum's Tom Breihan, argued that Swift and Antonoff's collaboration on The Tortured Poets Department was uninventive due to a sonic similarity to their past collaborations.[23] The New Yorker's Amanda Petrusich rather favored Dessner's input to the album as "gentler, more tender, and more surprising".[102] Horn and the BBC's Mark Savage felt the melodies were sonically monotonous and "staid",[26][44] but others argued that the minimalistic approach complemented Swift's hyper-personal lyrics;[46][98][49] Hopper opined that "Swift's confidence as an artist is at a peak" with The Tortured Poets Department.[100] According to Mary Kate Carr of The A.V. Club, the album is "perfectly good" but arrived at a time when Swift has "nothing to prove" anymore, resulting in a stagnant point in her artistry;[103] this idea was also shared by an anonymous, negative Paste review that criticized the album as rushed, hollow, and unrelatable.[22]
Post-review commentary
The album's reviews garnered commentary from other journalists and cultural critics. Publications considered The Tortured Poets Department a polarizing album;[30][104][105][106] The Ringer's Nathan Hubbard deemed it Swift's most controversial album since Reputation (2017).[107] The New York Times' Matt Stevens and Shivani Gonzalez attributed this phenomenon to a media overexposure of Swift in 2020–2024, including eight album releases, the influential Eras Tour, and a high-profile relationship with Travis Kelce.[108]
Paste's negative review of the album was singled out by other media outlets as harsh and "scathing".[105][109][110] Swift shared the album's positive reviews on her social media, tagging the respective authors; some considered it a response to Paste.[111] Laura Harding of The Irish Times wrote that "Swift appears to either be focusing on the positive reviews or responding to the more negative ones by sharing some of her favourites".[112] Sumnima Kandangwa of South China Morning Post opined that Swifties "can become quite spirited when it comes to protecting their favourite singer", leading to media outlets like Paste hiding the identity of their reviewers to evade backlash.[113]
Bloomberg News columnist Jessica Karl opined, while some reviews of the album were "well-considered", others were pre-written and "daft". She explained that critics are "staying up until dawn to finish listening to an album as if it's a college paper we're cramming to complete by the morning" and long albums like the 31-track Tortured Poets frustrate them. Karl also felt that reviews appearing online within hours of an album's release discredits both the plaudits and criticism. She condemned the Paste review for making "a litany of petty, exclamation-pointed digs" at Swift, and dismissed Sheffield's rave review from for calling the album a classic within a day, as well as criticizing articles by "reputable publications" like Time and The Philadelphia Inquirer for catering gossip to the masses and fandom instead of a serious analysis of the art.[114]
Nora Princiotti, in The Ringer, opined that the album's unanticipated expansion into a 31-track listen with The Anthology veered the critical reception towards polarization. Hubbard agreed, and opined that "cooler-than-thou" critics from sites like The New Yorker, The New York Times and Paste used Swift's new billionaire status to downplay the personal issues she detailed in the album.[107] CNN's Darcy admitted he was quick to judge The Tortured Poets Department. He stated that he reviewed it keeping in the mind its mixed critical reception, and found the album overlong and unimpressive in agreement with other critics, but a week later, "after spending more time with the two-hour sonic feast, more methodically touring through its subtleties and nuances, I am ready to declare that it is one of Swift's best works yet." Darcy opined that the album cannot be fully digested at "the speed of TikTok", and criticized reviewers who do not let music albums "marinate" and instead expect "instant satisfaction".[39] Will Rowe, writing for Kotaku, considered The Tortured Poets Department the most "abrasive" album to even Swift's own fanbase, claiming some fans found the album confusing and "off-putting" initially; Rowe insisted that the album demands a "deep dive" to understand it.[115]
Commercial performance
The Tortured Poets Department broke numerous streaming records on Spotify. On April 18, 2024, a day before the release, the album broke the record for most pre-saves in the platform's history.[116] It became 2024's most streamed album in a single day in less than 12 hours after its release.[117] The album subsequently became the first in Spotify history to surpass 200 and 300 million streams in one day, thus breaking the all-time record for most streamed album in a single day, previously held by Swift's own Midnights and helping her surpass her own all-time record for most streamed artist in a single day.[118] Five days after its release, The Tortured Poets Department became the first album to accumulate one billion streams in a single week.[119] The album also set streaming records on other platforms; it was the most streamed album ever in a single day on Amazon Music with less than 12 hours of availability,[120] and surpassed Midnights to become the most streamed pop album in a single day on Apple Music.[121]
In the US, Target Corporation confirmed that The Tortured Poets Department was its "largest music pre-order of all time".[122] Billboard reported that the album sold 1.6 million equivalent units in its first day alone, including 243.4 million on-demand streams and 1.4 million pure copies, of which 600,000 were vinyl LPs.[123] After four days of tracking, the album sold 700,000 vinyl LPs, surpassing Swift's 1989 (Taylor's Version) for the highest-ever US single-week sales.[124] The Tortured Poets Department generated 799 million on-demand streams in the US in six days, breaking the record for largest streaming week previously held by Drake's Scorpion (2018).[125] The album debuted atop the Billboard 200 with 2.61 million units, including 1.914 million pure copies and 891.34 million on-demand streams. It became Swift's 14th number-one album, tying her with Jay-Z for the most chart toppers among soloists, and the second-largest week by overall units in Billboard history.[126]
Elsewhere, Swift recorded the largest streaming day for an album and artist in German history, with 11.5 million and 14.4 million streams, respectively. The Tortured Poets Department debuted at number one with the highest sales week in the country for any artist in two years and for a solo artist in seven years.[127] In the UK, the album sold 220,000 units in its first three days and 270,000 units in its first week, becoming the fastest selling album in the country in seven years and surpassing Midnights' first-week sales figures to become the fastest selling album of Swift's career.[128][129] In Australia, The Tortured Poets Department became Swift's 13th number-one album, a record among female artists; its songs also set records for most simultaneous entries by a single artist in the top 10 (10), top 50 (29), and top 100 (34) of the ARIA Singles Chart.[130]
Track listing
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Fortnight" (featuring Post Malone) |
| 3:48 | |
| 2. | "The Tortured Poets Department" |
|
| 4:53 |
| 3. | "My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys" | Swift |
| 3:23 |
| 4. | "Down Bad" |
|
| 4:21 |
| 5. | "So Long, London" |
|
| 4:22 |
| 6. | "But Daddy I Love Him" |
|
| 5:40 |
| 7. | "Fresh Out the Slammer" |
|
| 3:30 |
| 8. | "Florida!!!" (featuring Florence and the Machine) |
|
| 3:35 |
| 9. | "Guilty as Sin?" |
|
| 4:14 |
| 10. | "Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?" | Swift |
| 5:34 |
| 11. | "I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)" |
|
| 2:36 |
| 12. | "Loml" |
|
| 4:37 |
| 13. | "I Can Do It with a Broken Heart" |
|
| 3:38 |
| 14. | "The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived" |
|
| 4:05 |
| 15. | "The Alchemy" |
|
| 3:16 |
| 16. | "Clara Bow" |
|
| 3:36 |
| Total length: | 65:08 | |||
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Producer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17. | "The Black Dog" | Swift |
| 3:58 |
| 18. | "Imgonnagetyouback" |
|
| 3:42 |
| 19. | "The Albatross" |
|
| 3:03 |
| 20. | "Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus" |
|
| 3:33 |
| 21. | "How Did It End?" |
|
| 3:58 |
| 22. | "So High School" |
|
| 3:48 |
| 23. | "I Hate It Here" |
|
| 4:03 |
| 24. | "Thank You Aimee" |
|
| 4:23 |
| 25. | "I Look in People's Windows" |
|
| 2:11 |
| 26. | "The Prophecy" |
|
| 4:09 |
| 27. | "Cassandra" |
|
| 4:00 |
| 28. | "Peter" | Swift |
| 4:43 |
| 29. | "The Bolter" |
|
| 3:58 |
| 30. | "Robin" |
|
| 4:00 |
| 31. | "The Manuscript" | Swift |
| 3:44 |
| Total length: | 122:21 | |||
Notes
Personnel
Musicians
- Taylor Swift – vocals (all tracks), piano (tracks 3, 17), background vocals (17)
- Jack Antonoff – synthesizer (tracks 1–4, 6–11, 13, 15, 17, 18, 25), programming (1–4, 6–11, 13, 15, 17, 18, 24, 25), drums (1, 3, 4, 7–10, 13, 15, 17, 18, 24), electric guitar (1, 3, 6–11, 15, 17, 24), acoustic guitar (1, 6–9, 11, 17, 18, 25), piano (2, 4, 8, 10, 13, 17, 18), cello (2, 6, 8, 10, 15, 17, 24, 25), background vocals (2, 6, 15, 24), bass (3, 6, 8–11, 17), percussion (4, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 18, 24), Mellotron (6, 8, 10, 11, 17), organ (7), Rhodes (17), keyboards (18)
- Sean Hutchinson – drums (1, 6, 10, 15, 17), percussion (4)
- Post Malone – vocals (track 1)
- Mikey Freedom Hart – acoustic guitar, bass, electric guitar, Hammond B3 (track 2); Mellotron (3), synthesizer (4, 6, 10), percussion (10)
- Evan Smith – synthesizer (tracks 2, 6, 10), saxophone (4)
- Zem Audu – synthesizer (tracks 2, 6, 10), saxophone (4)
- Michael Riddleberger – drums (track 2), percussion (10)
- Aaron Dessner – piano (tracks 5, 10, 12, 16, 19–23, 26–31), synthesizer (5, 12, 14, 16, 19–24, 26–28, 30, 31), drum programming (5, 14, 16, 19–24, 26, 28–30), electric guitar (5, 14, 19–23, 26, 27, 29, 30), acoustic guitar (6, 19, 20, 23, 24, 26, 29), keyboards (12, 19–22, 24, 26–28, 30), bass (14, 16, 20, 22, 28–30), percussion (16, 19, 20, 22–24, 26, 27, 29, 30), mandolin (20, 23, 24), synth bass (21, 22, 24, 27, 31), banjo (23, 24), drums (30)
- Benjamin Lanz – synthesizer (tracks 5, 19–23, 27, 30), trombone (20, 22, 27), sequencer (22)
- Bobby Hawk – strings (tracks 6, 9, 17)
- Emily Jean Stone – oddities (track 8)
- Florence Welch – vocals, drums, percussion, piano (track 8)
- Glenn Kotche – drums, percussion (tracks 12, 16, 19–21, 23, 24, 26, 29, 30); snare drum, vibraphone (27)
- Oli Jacobs – background vocals, percussion, spoken word (track 13)
- James McAlister – synthesizer (tracks 14, 16, 21–23, 26, 27, 30), percussion (14, 16, 23, 26, 27, 29, 30), drums (14, 21, 22), electric guitar (14, 22), keyboards (16, 21, 26, 27), drum programming (19, 22, 26, 27, 31); acoustic guitar, synth bass (23); zither (26)
- Rob Moose – viola, violin (tracks 14, 20)
- Jason Slota – percussion (track 14)
- Abi Hyde-Smith – cello (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Brian O'Kane – cello (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Max Ruisi – cello (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Reinoud Ford – cello (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Robert Ames – conductor (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Chris Kelly – double bass (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Dave Brown – double bass (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Sophie Roper – double bass (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Elisa Bergersen – viola (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Matthew Kettle – viola (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Morgan Goff – viola (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Nicholas Bootiman – viola (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Akiko Ishikawa – violin (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Cara Laskaris – violin (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Iona Allan – violin (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Kirsty Mangan – violin (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Nicole Crespo O'Donoghue – violin (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Ronald Long – violin (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Sophie Mather – violin (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Dan Oates – violin (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29, 30)
- Eloisa-Fleur Thorn – violin (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29, 30)
- Emily Holland – violin (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29, 30)
- Anna de Bruin – violin (tracks 16, 19, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Galya Bisengalieva – violin (tracks 16, 19, 21, 24, 26, 30)
- Agata Daraskaite – violin (tracks 16, 19, 26, 27, 30)
- Julian Azkoul – violin (tracks 16, 19, 26, 27, 30)
- Amy Swain – viola (tracks 16, 19, 26, 27, 30)
- J.T. Bates – drums (tracks 16, 20, 21, 26)
- Thomas Barlett – synthesizer (tracks 16, 21, 23, 24, 26, 29–31); keyboards, piano (16, 21, 23, 24, 26, 29, 30)
- Marianne Haynes – violin (tracks 16, 21, 23, 24, 29–31)
- Jack Manning – piano (track 18)
- George Barton – percussion (tracks 19, 23, 24, 26, 27, 31), timpani (30)
- David McQueen – French horn (tracks 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Alicia Berendse – violin (tracks 21, 24, 29–31)
- Meghan Cassidy – viola (tracks 23, 29, 31)
- Natasha Humphries – violin (tracks 23, 29, 31)
- Jonathan Farey – French horn (tracks 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Paul Cott – French horn (tracks 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Patrik Berger – acoustic guitar (track 25)
- Max Welford – bass clarinet (tracks 26, 29)
- Vicky Lester – harp (track 30)
- Bryce Dessner – drum programming, piano, synthesizer (track 31)
Technical
- Randy Merrill – mastering
- Ryan Smith – mastering
- Serban Ghenea – mixing
- Bryce Bordone – mix engineering
- Laura Sisk – engineering (tracks 1–4, 6–11, 13, 15, 17, 18, 24, 25), vocal engineering (7, 9, 11, 12, 14, 15)
- Oli Jacobs – engineering (tracks 1–4, 6–11, 13, 15, 17, 18, 24, 25)
- Sean Hutchinson – engineering (tracks 1, 2, 4, 6, 10, 15, 17)
- Michael Riddleberger – engineering (tracks 1, 2, 4, 6, 10, 17)
- David Hart – engineering (tracks 2, 6, 10)
- Evan Smith – engineering (tracks 2, 6, 10)
- Mikey Freedom Hart – engineering (tracks 2, 6, 10)
- Zem Audu – engineering (tracks 2, 6, 10)
- Bella Blasko – engineering (tracks 5, 6, 10, 11, 14, 27, 28, 31), additional engineering (16, 19–24, 26, 29, 30)
- Jonathan Low – engineering (tracks 5, 6, 10, 11, 16, 19–24, 26–30)
- Aaron Dessner – engineering (tracks 5, 14)
- Benjamin Lanz – engineering (tracks 5, 19, 20, 22, 23, 26, 27, 30)
- Ben Loveland – engineering (track 8)
- Joey Miller – engineering (track 10), engineering assistance (13)
- James McAlister – engineering (tracks 14, 16, 19, 21–23, 26, 27, 29, 30)
- Rob Moose – engineering, recording arrangement (track 14)
- Jeremy Murphy – engineering (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29, 30)
- Thomas Bartlett – engineering (tracks 16, 21, 23, 24, 26, 29, 30)
- Maryam Qudus – engineering (tracks 20, 23, 24, 30)
- Jack Antonoff – engineering (track 24)
- Pat Burns – engineering (track 27)
- Louis Bell – vocal engineering (track 1)
- Christopher Rowe – vocal engineering (tracks 7, 9, 11, 12, 15, 20)
- Beau Sorenson – additional engineering (track 14)
- Bryce Dessner – recording arrangement (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29–31)
- Jack Manning – engineering assistance (tracks 1–4, 6–11, 13, 15, 17, 18, 25)
- Jon Sher – engineering assistance (tracks 1–4, 6–11, 13, 15 17, 18, 25)
- Lauren Marquez – engineering assistance (tracks 1, 13)
- Jesse Snider – engineering assistance (tracks 7, 8, 10)
- Joe Caldwell – engineering assistance (tracks 10, 13, 18, 24)
- Rḗmy Dumelz – engineering assistance (track 11)
- Laura Beck – engineering assistance (tracks 16, 19, 21, 23–27, 29–31)
Charts
| Chart (2024) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums (ARIA)[132] | 1 |
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[133] | 1 |
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[134] | 1 |
| Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[135] | 1 |
| Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[136] | 2 |
| French Albums (SNEP)[137] | 1 |
| German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[138] | 1 |
| Icelandic Albums (Plötutíðindi)[139] | 1 |
| Irish Albums (OCC)[140] | 1 |
| Italian Albums (FIMI)[141] | 1 |
| Japanese Albums (Oricon)[142] | 4 |
| Japanese Combined Albums (Oricon)[143] | 4 |
| Japanese Hot Albums (Billboard Japan)[144] | 5 |
| Lithuanian Albums (AGATA)[145] The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology | 3 |
| Lithuanian Albums (AGATA)[145] | 4 |
| New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[146] | 1 |
| Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[147] The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology | 1 |
| Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[147] | 2 |
| Scottish Albums (OCC)[148] | 1 |
| Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[149] | 1 |
| Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[150] | 1 |
| UK Albums (OCC)[151] | 1 |
| US Billboard 200[152] | 1 |
Certifications
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom (BPI)[153] | Gold | 100,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. | ||
Release history
| Region | Date | Format(s) | Edition(s) | Label | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Various | April 19, 2024 |
| Republic | [154] | |
| |||||
| The Anthology | [155] | |||
| United States |
|
| [156][157] | ||
| Japan | April 20, 2024 | CD |
| Universal Japan | [158][159] |
| May 17, 2024 |
| [159] |