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There was by no means any doubt that Taylor Swift’s newest launch, “The Tortured Poets Department,” was going to be huge. The query was simply how huge.
And the reply is, gigantic.
“The Tortured Poets Department,” Swift’s eleventh studio album, opens at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart with historic numbers, together with enormous ends in streaming and vinyl gross sales. It is Swift’s 14th chart-topping title, tying her with Jay-Z for the second-most No. 1 albums by any act within the 68-year historical past of Billboard’s flagship album chart; solely the Beatles, with 19, have extra.
In its first week out, “Tortured Poets” had the equal of two.6 million album gross sales within the United States, in accordance with Luminate, which tracks the information behind Billboard’s charts. That is the most important total first-week take for any album since Adele’s “25” in 2015, which opened with practically 3.5 million, pushed by in-store CD gross sales.
The “equal” determine is a composite, primarily based on a components utilized by Luminate and Billboard to reconcile the varied methods listeners now purchase and eat music. And in every manner, “Tortured Poets” was a smash.
It bought 1.9 million copies in conventional album gross sales, together with 859,000 for vinyl alone, which blew away Swift’s personal earlier document of 693,000 LPs, set simply six months in the past. Advance gross sales via Swift’s web site — begun the day Swift introduced the album, on the Grammy Awards — had been key. She supplied an array of tinted vinyl variants and CDs, some in “deluxe” variations marketed with autographs or on-brand trinkets like engraved bookmarks that went for as a lot as $50 apiece. According to Billboard, 1.4 million copies of the album had been bought on its first day, many preordered over the past two months.
The opening adopted a promotional blitz that included a blanketing of social media and radio, tie-ins with streaming platforms and IRL happenings like an Easter-egg-filled library set up at a Los Angeles procuring heart. “Tortured Poets” additionally arrived following a number of years of Swift’s growing saturation of popular culture, together with her Eras Tour producing an estimated $1 billion in ticket gross sales final yr, with months left to go.
In conventional album gross sales, “Tortured Poets” had the third-biggest outcome since SoundScan, the predecessor of Luminate, started holding dependable gross sales knowledge in 1991. Ahead of it are solely ’N Sync’s “No Strings Attached” (2.4 million in 2000) and “25,” which bought just below 3.4 million copies when it got here out. (Adele didn’t initially launch her full album on streaming providers, however the streams for its first single, “Hello,” added a bit to her total quantity.)
Swift’s vinyl take alone is an eye-popping high-water mark within the format’s long-bubbling revival. As lately as 2006, solely about 900,000 LPs had been bought within the United States in a complete yr. By embracing the format and releasing collectible editions, Swift practically equaled that sum herself in a single week. In 2023, in accordance with Billboard, she moved 3.5 million vinyl data, about one out of each 15 LPs bought within the United States.
Two hours after Swift launched the 16-track “Tortured Poets,” she revealed an “Anthology” version of it — digital solely, not less than for now — that expanded the unique LP right into a double album with 15 further songs. The full 31-track digital doorstopper garnered 891 million streams within the United States in its first week, one other excessive; the earlier document, 746 million for Drake’s 25-track “Scorpion,” had stood since 2018.
According to Swift’s label, Republic Records, “Tortured Poets” had the equal of 4 million gross sales all over the world final week, and it begins at No. 1 on charts in Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Australia and varied different nations.
Reviews of “Tortured Poets” had been blended to optimistic; along with outright raves (Rolling Stone labeled it an “instantaneous traditional”), some criticized the size of the complete double album and the standard of Swift’s newest songs. In The New York Times, Lindsay Zoladz referred to as the discharge “sprawling and infrequently self-indulgent,” and deemed the 15 added tracks “largely superfluous.” The review-aggregation website Metacritic credited the preliminary “Tortured Poets” LP with an total rating of 76 out of 100, and gave “The Anthology” a 69. Those could also be passing grades, however for Swift — whose final new studio LP, “Midnights,” acquired an 85 — they’re notably low, and counsel a break up in vital versus standard opinion in regards to the celebrity’s music.
Any naysaying critiques, nevertheless, did nothing to gradual the consumption of “Tortured Poets.” Swiftie consideration has now shifted to the European leg of her tour, which begins close to Paris on May 9, and whether or not any of her newest batch of songs will make the set listing.
Also on this week’s chart, Future and Metro Boomin’s “We Don’t Trust You,” the primary of the Atlanta hip-hop stars’ two latest collaborative releases, is No. 2. (Their second, “We Still Don’t Trust You,” was No. 1 final week however falls to No. 6.) Beyoncé’s “Cowboy Carter” is No. 3 and Morgan Wallen’s “One Thing at a Time” is No. 4. Pearl Jam’s “Dark Matter” opens at No. 5, the veteran rock band’s thirteenth LP to achieve the Top 10.
