The lingering question kept fans up: 2 AM, who do you love did Taylor Swift really just release 15 more songs for The Tortured Poets Department?
And listeners were enchanted to find out the answer is yes. Two hours after dropping her 11th studio album at the stroke of midnight on April 19, Taylor debuted a whole second part.
"It's a 2am surprise: The Tortured Poets Department is a secret DOUBLE album," the 14-time Grammy winner wrote on Instagram. "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."
Those 15 songs include "The Black Dog," "imgonnagetyouback," "The Albatross," "Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus," "How Did It End?," "So High School," "I Hate It Here," "thanK you alMee," "I Look in People's Windows," "The Prophecy," "Cassandra," "Peter," "The Bolter," "Robin" and "The Manuscript."
If you add these to the first 16 Taylor released, that brings TTPD's total track count to 31. And when it came to fans' level of excitement, let's just say they couldn't shake it off.
"TAYLOR SWIFT IS A MASTERMIND," one social media user wrote on X. "THE LENGTH OF THE ANTHROPOLOGY IS 2 HOURS 2 MINUTES AND ITS A DOUBLE ALBUM AND ALL [two] OMG. #TSTTPD #TaylorSwift."
Added another, "Double album is insane. Taylor Swift I love you."
Although, some fans were already ready for it as Taylor appeared to drop several hints about a double album. Not only was the clock in her teaser video set to 2 a.m., but social media sleuths had noticed the singer had frequently been flashing two fingers—including when she first announced the album at the 2024 Grammys.
For those who haven't listened to The Tortured Poets Department yet, Taylor filled in a blank space on what it's about.
"The Tortured Poets Department," she wrote on Instagram. "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."
And while the album release marks the start of a new era, the 34-year-old indicated it also represents the end of another.
"This period of the author's life is now over, the chapter closed and boarded up," she continued. "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."
For a breakdown of some of the songs—including apparent references to Joe Alwyn, Matty Healy and Travis Kelce—keep reading.