{"id":79132,"date":"2024-04-20T20:31:04","date_gmt":"2024-04-20T20:31:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/taylor-swift-surprises-fans\/"},"modified":"2024-04-20T20:31:04","modified_gmt":"2024-04-20T20:31:04","slug":"taylor-swift-surprises-fans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/taylor-swift-surprises-fans\/","title":{"rendered":"Taylor Swift surprises fans"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Taylor Swift surprised fans with her new record \u201cThe Tortured Poets Department\u201d on Friday, revealing it was a double album featuring songs about heartbreak and a period described as \u201cthe saddest story\u201d of the singer\u2019s life.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Taylor Swift\u2019s 11th studio album, featuring 16 tracks, was released at midnight EDT (0400 GMT). Two hours later she revealed a second installment with 15 more songs.
\u201cI\u2019d written so much tortured poetry in the past 2 years and wanted to share it all with you,\u201d Swift wrote on Instagram.<\/p>\n

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\u201cPoets\u201d came 18 months after 2022\u2019s \u201cMidnights.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spotify said \u201cPoets\u201d broke the record for the platform\u2019s most-streamed album in a single day this year, achieving the feat in less than 12 hours.<\/p>\n

Taylor Swift, 34, has been setting music industry milestones and boosting local economies with The Eras Tour, which resumes in Paris in May.<\/p>\n

Time magazine named Swift its 2023 Person of the Year, citing her musical accomplishments and influence on everything from pop culture to voter registration.<\/p>\n

A description of \u201cPoets\u201d on Instagram said it was \u201can anthology of new works that reflect events, opinions and sentiments from a fleeting and fatalistic moment in time \u2013 one that was both sensational and sorrowful in equal measure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis period of the author\u2019s life is now over, the chapter closed and boarded up,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The post also suggested that Swift used the writing process to heal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis 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,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

The Instagram post did not say which events Swift was referring to. Fans have speculated she was writing about her relationship with British actor Joe Alwyn. The pair split in April 2023 after six years of dating.<\/p>\n

A representative for Alwyn could not immediately be reached for comment.<\/p>\n

Taylor Swift is among several of music\u2019s top female artists releasing albums in what is being called \u201cPop Girl Spring.\u201d Beyonce\u2019s \u201cCowboy Carter\u201d debuted in March. Dua Lipa and Billie Eilish have releases scheduled for May.<\/p>\n

Reviews of \u201cPoets\u201d were mostly positive, with Rolling Stone calling the music \u201cwildly ambitious and gloriously chaotic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Billboard said the album was \u201cextreme in its emotions and uninterested in traditional hits; not everyone will love it, but the ones who get it will adore it fiercely.\u201d
Other critics were not as impressed. Britain\u2019s NME described it as \u201csurprisingly flat and, at times, cringeworthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2018THE MOST HONEST\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fans dissected each tidbit of the new album, even noting that avowed cat lover Swift chose to release it on National Cat Lady Day.<\/p>\n

Anne Most, a Swift fan who lives in Los Angeles, said \u201cPoets\u201d felt like a crossover between the pop album \u201cMidnights\u201d and the folk record \u201cFolklore.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLyrically it\u2019s the most honest Taylor\u2019s ever been, and it makes your heart hurt for what she went through,\u201d Most said, adding, \u201cHas anyone checked on Joe?\u201d<\/p>\n

Many Swifties, as her fans are called, said they stayed up late into the night to stream the songs. \u201cI\u2019m only a couple of songs in and I\u2019m obsessed. Thank you Taylor,\u201d a fan who identified herself as Nikki wrote on Swift\u2019s X account.<\/p>\n

Others headed to record stores to buy CD or vinyl versions.<\/p>\n

Mike Batt, 59, co-owner of Silver Platters record store in Seattle, said he had a rush of customers seeking \u201cPoets\u201d when he opened in the morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing with Taylor is it\u2019s not just a flash in the pan type of thing,\u201d Batt said. \u201cShe has reinvented herself from the country artist that she started out, to the singer songwriter that she is today, and more of a pop artist than a country artist.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd everything about it, from her embracing her fans and making them feel special, it\u2019s reciprocated,\u201d Batt added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n