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As you may have heard, today marks the release of Taylor Swift’s new album The Tortured Poets Department, which turned out to be a surprise double album called The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology. She once again worked closely with Bleachers’ Jack Antonoff and the National’s Aaron Dessner, both of whom cowrote and produced extensively across the tracklist. Dessner, who entered the Swiftverse during early COVID days and has been a core contributor to her albums ever since, has chimed in this morning with a statement on the new project. Here’s what he has to say:
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. 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. It’s hard to believe Taylor and I have now recorded over 60 songs together (17 across this anthology!!) in the 4 years since we began working together on Folklore in 2020. I am forever grateful to Taylor for sharing her insane talents with and trusting me with her music. I believe these songs are some of the most lyrically acute, intricate, vulnerable and cathartic Taylor has ever written and I am continually astonished by her skills as a songwriter and performer.
I also want to thank the incredible @jackantonoff for his open hearted and open door collaboration with me through all these many projects and all of my talented friends who continue to contribute generously to my work. I could never have made all this music without a village of friends supporting me — especially the engineering talents @heyjonlow @bellaicecream and @sharp_stick and as always my brother @brycedessner made many vital contributions and other friends like @900x @tingalayo @lanzprojects and @mooserob who have helped me so much over the years. Thank you to @serbangheneamixes for mixing these songs and @randymerrill_sterling for mastering. And all of these friends for their amazing contributions: @glennkotche @jt_bates_ @notfastbutslota @lcorchestra @robertamesmusic @jeremymurphymusic @spacemoth__ @beaunoise
It’s not lost on me how lucky I am that this is my job and I feel so grateful to be a part of creating this vast, magically detailed and symbolic world of songs Taylor has crafted that we all get to inhabit and enjoy. Keep searching and you’ll find some new detail, layer or sliver of meaning with each listen.
Sorry to bury the lede, but Glenn Kotche is on there? Now that the idea of Swift and the National has been long since normalized, let’s get her in the studio with Loose Fur next time, yeah?
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