Taylor Swift Drops TTPD Double Album: Fans React

Taylor Swift is always full of surprises when it comes to album release week/day. With her 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, which dropped midnight on Friday, April 19th, there was more to come in the wee hours of the night.

The pop icon gave insight behind what headspace she was in when writing her album following its initial release, in a social post that received nearly 8 million likes. She called The Tortured Poets Department "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."

Talking in the third person, she adds, "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."

By 2 a.m., Swift dropped 15 more songs as part of a "secret DOUBLE album," she revealed on Instagram. The second installment is titled TTPD: The Anthology. Swift, 34, told her 283 million followers: "I’d written so much tortured poetry in the past two years and wanted to share it all with you," and thus came the double album. She concluded the post by telling fans, "And now the story isn’t mine anymore… it’s all yours. [white heart emoji]" The full double album contains 31 songs in total, Swift's lucky number 13 backwards.

As we reported, her opening track on the album is "Fortnight," featuring Post Malone. The music video drops tonight at 8 p.m., but Swift graciously shared a teaser of the video before the album dropped.

Though some Swifties indulged in the leaked audio of TTPD, dedicated fans waited until the official release before listening and sharing their thoughts online. On X (formerly Twitter), fans still had mixed reviews about Swift -- at least for the regular album. One person wrote: "Nvm she doesn’t need to add TTPD to the setlist anymore." Another asked, with a screenshot of lyrics from the track "So High School:" "Touch me while your bros play Grand Theft Auto," and said: "You all are letting her destroy the planet for THIS?"

Loving the songs, one person swooned, "me dancing to ‘I can do it with a broken heart’ even tho it’s one of the most lyrically depressing songs I’ve ever heard… but the beat is FIREEEE [fire emoji]." Another fan posted a photo drowning in wine with the words: "listening to this album when i’m in the most healthiest relationship ever." One Swiftie stood their ground online, writing: "Taylor is one of the best artists right now wether you like her or not, and seeing her get attacked daily is heartbreaking. Sabotaging the reviews, leaking the album, name calling etc and then were the bad ones for getting angry? F-- that and f-- yal."

Meanwhile, another fan compared this album to 2020's folklore. Another fan hilariously said, "Just woke up to a double album!!!! Being a swiftie is crazy because I’m always fed, surprised, and have no idea what’s going on!!!" One fan said, "me listening to the title track as if it isn’t a breakup song," with a gif of a woman dancing. Most Swifties praised Swift's cleverly written lyrics, as expected from the album's title. Another fan stated: "is it too soon for me to say that this perhaps may be one of her bestest albums ever??? like IM LOVING IT TOO MUCH SO FAR."

Post Malone has seemingly collaborated with everyone. Posty, born Austin Richard Post on July 4, 1995, started out his professional career as a rapper. However, his musical roots began with his father, Richard Post. Richard was a wedding DJ in his youth and introduced Post to many different genres of music, including hip-hop, country, and classic and newer rock.

When Malone was nine years old, he and his family moved from New York to Texas. At 12 years old, he used to play Guitar Hero, which he credits as what got him interested in learning to play a real guitar. In high school, he made a hip-hop mixtape called Young and After Them Riches, and played in a metal band and in an indie band.

Post began his musical career in 2011. He covered Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right” on YouTube in 2013, and gained recognition with his 2015 debut single "White Iverson."  He then performed with Royal Machines (Dave Navarro, Chris Chaney, Billy Morrison, Donovan Leitch Jr., Erik Eldenius), covering Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing in the Name" in 2016.

With five rap studio albums below his belt, Post holds the record for the artist with the most diamond-certified songs, with eight to his name. He has collaborated with rock and indie musicians, as well as mainstream pop stars. In 2016, he was featured on Kanye West's 2016 single "Fade" from his album The Life of Pablo. Later that year, he collaborated with Justin Bieber on "Deja Vu" and opened up for the pop star for his Purpose World Tour.

In the following years, Post collaborated with rappers like 21 Savage, Quavo, Nicki Minaj, Travis Scott, Ty Dolla Sign, Swae Lee, Young Thug, Da Baby, Megan Thee Stallion, Lil Baby, Doja Cat, The Weeknd, YG, Roddy Ricch, ASAP Rocky, Big Sean, Saweetie, Lil Wayne, Gucci Mane, Rich The Kid, The Kid Laroi, and YoungBoy Never Broke Again.

As for pop stars and indie singers, Post has been featured on tracks with Noah Kahan, Beyonce, Lorde, Khalid, and Taylor Swift. When it comes to EDM, Post has offered his vocals on tracks with DJs like Tiesto and Flosstradamus. He's even collaborated with legendary rockers Ozzy Osbourne, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Eddie Vedder, and Travis Barker!

This 2018 track from the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse animated film is so good. The song was at the top of the charts for almost a whole year since its release, receiving double diamond (20-times platinum) certification by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in the US. Swae Lee and Posty made history with the record, having the first-ever single to achieve such a certification.

This chill, feel-good collaboration with Doja Cat was released in 2022 and on Post's Twelve Carat Toothache album. The best thing about the music video is how much the two seem to be genuinely having wholesome fun with each other, and as the song's title suggests, "A Happier" song indeed. The song and video never fail to put us in a cheery mood, and we love Doja's lines, "I just gotta feeling that we might be friends for a long, long time."

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Posty evoked his inner Kurt Cobain and held this epic fundraiser from his Texas home to go towards the World Health Organization (WHO). "Something In The Way" has long been one of our all-time favorite Nirvana songs, and the way Post did an incredible job with this one. Blink-182 drumming legend Travis Barker joined him for the whole set, setting a precedence for future rock collaborations in the future for Posty.

From one of Kanye's last great albums he released, we did not even realize that Post Malone was featured until recently! The 2016 Life of Pablo track is built off of four samples: Fingers Inc.’s “Mystery of Love (Club Mix),” Hardrive’s house song, “Deep Inside,” Ms. Barbara Tucker’s vocals from “I Get Lifted,” and Rare Earth’s “(I Know) I’m Losing You.” According to Post, he said it was "amazing" working with West, who he dubbed as "one of the dopest musicians I know." The song, that we still bump to this day, was written in just five minutes. West made the beat from scratch on the spot, wowing Ty Dolla Sign and Posty.

We included two songs from Post's 2022 album Twelve Carat Toothache to wrap our best collabs list. Though we knew Post collaborated with countless rappers, dabbled with rock legends, and began his foray into the country genre, we never would have expected him to go pure folk with Fleet Foxes. Despite that, this live performance with the indie folk band on Saturday Night Live blows us away and is a really lyrically moving track as well.