On Friday (April 19), Taylor Swift released her 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, with several surprises.
One was the late-night revelation that it is a double album with 31 tracks over two hours.
However, frequent collaborator Aaron Dessner of The National revealed one of the major details about the seething, emotional compilation in an Instagram post hours after the album dropped.
He wrote, "I'm so excited and honored to share that I have contributed to my dear friend and collaborator @taylorswift‘s brilliant 11th album — a 31 song double .....
.....album / anthology called The Tortured Poets Department," with a photo of Swift smiling in the studio and the album's moody black and white cover.
Dessner said he and Swift started writing on the tracks in 2022, after they released Folklore and Evermore, their 2020 pandemic albums, and Swift reportedly recorded Midnight.
We started working on these songs over two years ago and it feels like they have kept us company and evolved in beautiful and unexpected ways through so much ....
....life lived during this process,” Dessner wrote, marveling at the duo's recording of more than 60 songs, including 17 on the new album, over four years.