As expected, international pop sensation Taylor Swift released her highly anticipated eleventh studio album titled, “The Tortured Poets Department,” at nine p.m. PST last Friday, but with a special surprise in store. Two hours following the album’s release, Swift made headlines again with an additional surprise: a second album, or rather a continuation of the first.

At 11 p.m. PST Swift took to Instagram to announce a special “2am surprise.” Swift continued her post stating that her eleventh studio album is a secret double album. Swift stated that there are two installments of “The Tortured Poets Department” because of how many songs she has written over the past two years. Swift ended her post by telling her fans that the name of her second installment is titled, “The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology.”

“The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology” consists of 15 tracks. The names of the tracks are as follows:

1. The Black Dog
2. imgonnagetyouback
3. The Albatross
4. Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus
5. How Did it End?
6. So High School
7. I Hate It Here
8. thanK you alMee
9. I Look in People’s Windows
10. The Prophecy
11. Cassandra
12. Peter
13. The Bolter
14. Robin
15. The Manuscript

With the addition of 15 songs the tracklist of “The Tortured Poets Department” consists of 31 songs that amount to two hours and two minutes of playing time.

Much like the first installment of Swift’s new album, “The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology” delves into the five stages of grief that follow heartbreak: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Swift also provides commentary on the new love that follows heartbreak, thanks those who had little faith in her ability to make her career a reality, and shares her experience with feeling lost and alone in a world full of people.

Swifties worldwide were left speechless by Swift’s announcement. Some of them even took to social media to upload their live reactions to Swift’s double album. One Instagram user, Alecksis Victoria, took to Instagram to share her and her friends’ reaction to seeing an extended version of Swift’s album on Spotify. In the video, Victoria and her friends gather around one of their phones as they view the second installment of “The Tortured Poets Department” on Spotify, appearing both shocked and excited. In the video, a member of Victoria’s friend group is hilariously seen saying that they want to go to bed. Other Swifties took to social media apps to defend Swift for the heat her new album faced following its release, requesting that others respect Swift as she and her team have put a lot of work into her new album.

In addition, Swift’s longtime producer behind “The Tortured Poets Department,” Jack Antanoff, took to Instagram to share his reaction to Swift’s album being released. Antanoff’s post included exclusive, never-before-seen photos of Swift recording the album along with a short caption. In his Instagram caption, Antanoff called Swift’s new album his “favorite work” that he and Swift have crafted together and even called the days spent creating the album the “most inspiring” moments of his life.

Despite shocked reactions that Swift’s album was a double album, fans of Swift weren’t altogether shocked that some announcement was coming. For months, Swifties have noticed that Swift has been constantly dropping Easter eggs in the form of teasing the number two, both on tour and in suspicious Instagram captions. Swift even flashed a peace sign at the 2024 Grammy’s when she accepted the Grammy for Album of the Year and announced the release date of “The Tortured Poets Department.”

Aarohi Patel, a junior at Eleanor Roosevelt High School, had her doubts about Swift’s album at first, but has grown to love it.

“After my first listen, I didn’t really like it that much, but it’s definitely growing on me. I love that the overall vibe is really similar to ‘Folklore’ and ‘Evermore’ since those are my favorite albums by her,” Patel said. “I was so happy about the double release because in my opinion, the second album has a lot of really good songs, and I would even say that it’s better than the original release. I like that she finally reveals the truth about what was going on during her relationship. The album also in a way supports the theories that her albums ‘Folklore’ and ‘Evermore’ were not fictional, which is really interesting to think about.”

Contrastingly, Parker Peterson, another junior at ERHS, was left displeased with Swift’s album.

“I think it was very commercial-oriented and rushed. I think the production is a major step down [and] the lyrics not only are mediocre but also sometimes controversial,” Peterson said. “The second half of the album is much better in my opinion. I do think it is still all very rushed and cheap as she seemed to value quantity over quality and her writing was the weakest it’s ever been.”