To absolutely no one's surprise, Taylor Swift's The Tortured Poets Department debuted at No.1 on the Billboard 200 chart on April 29, making this her 14th studio album on top. In addition, she also debuted at No. 1 on the U.K. Official Charts last Friday.
Swift is now tied with Madonna as the top female artist in the U.K.
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It's all in the numbers, and Swifts fans were clearly out there securing their purchases in droves. Total sales units clocked in at 2.61 million units, with 1.9 million units as traditional album sales, vinyl sales (still only as a single LP) at 859,000 and streaming at 891 million units. This puts Swift in a tie with Jay-Z for the most U.S. No. 1 albums among solo artists.
Swift had one billion streams on Spotify the week of the album's release.
For the U.K. counterpart, the Official Charts numbers released on April 26 tell the same story. Swift secured her 12th Number 1 album after having had the biggest opening week since Ed Sheeran's ÷ (Divide) in 2017. Swift is now tied with Madonna and Bruce Springsteen for the most Number 1 albums in the U.K. On the Singles Chart, Swift went straight to the No. 1 position with "Fortnight (feat. Post Malone)" achieving her third Official Chart Double.
Martin Talbot, Chief Executive of Official Charts Company, said in a release: "What a week for Taylor Swift! It is always fantastic news for the entire music sector to have an artist of Taylor’s calibre returning with new music – but the fact she has done so with such huge, record-breaking impact underlines again why we love music, and her, so much."
Taylor Swift - The Tortured Poets Department (Official Lyric Video)
The Tortured Poets Department has also hit one billion streams on Spotify in its first week of release. Juxtaposed against the numbers, most reviews have been on the positive side, but there have been some notable criticisms.
An anthology of new works that reflect events, opinions and sentiments from a fleeting and fatalistic moment in time.
The Guardian had a cross-section of readers who gave responses ranging from "one of her best lyrically" to "bland, samey, and seems to exist as a second-thought accompaniment." A review in Paste declared "Fortnight" "chokes on the vomit of its own opaqueness," and asks the question: "Can Swift win another Album of the Year Grammy simply because she released a record during the eligibility period? The Tortured Poets Department reeks of 'because I can,' not 'because I should.' "
In a quick-fire review of the album upon its release, Q opined: "First and foremost, it’s an epic breakup album... Beyond that, though, it’s also an epic journey through the recent life and times of Taylor Swift, providing not only a plethora of occasionally-only-slightly-couched glimpses into what I’m led to understand are her relationships and/or 'situationships' with Joe Alwyn, Matty Healy and, yes, even Travis Kelce, but also her career and her musical evolution."
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