Obviously, No.1 last week was The Tortured Poets Department by Taylor Swift. It’s just, what records will Swift continue to set with this new album? And although she has always done amazing things, the new album’s achievements are still overwhelming.

The album debuted with the biggest streaming week of any album ever. As the 14th No.1, it made Swift the solo artist with the most No.1s – on par with Jay-Z – in the nearly 70-year history of the Billboard 200. Overall, they are only better than The Beatles with 19. No.1.

Continue the records

Overall, all of Taylor Swift’s studio albums and recording projects since 2008’s Fearless (her second album) have debuted at No.1.

According to Luminate, in the US in the week ending April 25, The Tortured Poets Department debuted with 2.61 million equivalent album units, compared to traditional album sales. (buy digital download albums, CDs, vinyl and cassettes) is 1.914 million. Of these, vinyl record sales accounted for a staggering 859,000.

The album’s 31 tracks combined brought in 683,000 units from streams, equivalent to 891.34 million official on-demand streams, marking the largest streaming week ever for an album, surpassing the record Before that was Drake’s Scorpion with 745.92 million views.

In addition, The Tortured Poets Department also had the second largest album week in units since the Billboard 200 in units in December 2014 (behind only Adele’s album 25 with 3,482 million in 2015), the sales week 3rd biggest in the modern era (after 25 with 3.378 million copies and N’Sync’s No Strings Attached with 2.416 million copies) and the biggest vinyl sales week in the modern era.

Swift announced this album during the Grammy Awards on February 4. The album was released on April 19, along with the first single, Fortnight , featuring Post Malone.

Swift’s 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department was released – at midnight – digitally with the standard 16 tracks as well as a series of 17-track physical editions. Two hours later, Swift announced an extended release with 31 songs.

She wrote at the time: “The 2 a.m. surprise: The Tortured Poets Department is a secret double album. I’ve written a lot of painful poems over the past 2 years and wanted to share them all with you, so here is the second part of The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology . And now the story is no longer mine… It belongs to all of you.

In total, the album has up to 20 versions!

The need to compose

Taylor Swift describes this album as a “lifeline” – the album she “really needed” to make.

She started formulating it right after completing the Midnights album and continued to secretly work on it during her Eras Tour in the US in 2023. During that time, her dating life was constantly the main focus. topic of discussion. The press constantly reported on her love story with Joe Alwyn and later with Matty Healy and Travis Kelce.

According to Swift, the creation of the album demonstrated the indispensable role of songwriting in her life. “There has never been an album that I felt needed to compose more than The Tortured Poets Department ” – she shared. For her, this is “a collection of new works that reflect events, opinions and feelings, from a fleeting and fateful moment – a wonderful yet sad moment” .

Critics gave the album relatively positive reviews with a Metacritic score, based on 24 reputable sources, of 76/100.

Infused with synth pop, folk pop, rock and country, the album is considered by many to be a turning point in Swift’s music with its sophisticated sound and iconic lyricism, showing Swift taking risks in her music. pop music’s risk-averse era of constantly evolving and pushing its limits. It seems that Swift has found a new freedom, writing music just to satisfy herself.

On the contrary, there are also critics who feel that the familiar collaboration between Swift and Jack Antonoff is lacking in creativity, sounding similar to previous collaborations. It seems like Swift is stagnant in her art, with nothing left to prove. Paste magazine even said that the album was rushed, empty and irrelevant.

Regardless of the mixed praise and criticism, it cannot be denied that The Tortured Poets Department is another victory for Swift. She was at a stage where no one was sure of her limits. However, the album’s figure of 2.61 million units still surprised many people, considering that the previous album, Midnights (2022), “only” earned 1.578 million units in the first week.

So what is the key factor for Swift to surpass the previous historic weeks of Midnights and 1989 (Taylor’s Version) (2023)? In addition to the quality of the music, careful planning was clearly involved.

The album was released at a time when everyone was excited about her private life with her three famous lovers. Swift’s image is also much bigger than the Midnights thanks to the historic Eras Tour . And of course, like the strategy many artists use, a full-length album with 31 songs and up to 20 album variations is always very useful in the numbers race.

However, the large number of songs caused mixed reactions from even some critics – who felt the music quality lacked control. Still, seeing as how Swift fans are aggressively going after these critics (some of whom must remain anonymous), it’s clear that the position may be a bit shaky but the heat of Swift’s stardom isn’t going to cool down anytime soon.

What everyone is curious about now is when Swift can surpass Adele’s 25 . While huge, The Tortured Poets Department ‘s 2.61 million units is still a long way from 25 ‘s 3.48 million units. With current music consumption, the chances seem slim but then again: No one can be sure of Taylor Swift’s limits!

Taylor Swift sets Spotify record with ‘The Tortured Poets Department’