After months of speculation and anticipation, Taylor Swift has finally released her 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, on Friday, April 19. Swift made good on her self-ordained Mastermind title, serving fans up a surprise at 2 a.m. EST: Instead of the expected 16 tracks and four bonus songs, Swift announced a “secret DOUBLE album,” bringing the total number of songs to 31 on what she has dubbed the The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology.

The full Anthology edition is currently only available online as a digital album, perhaps as a measure to prevent the second half of the album leaking ahead of release, as the standard edition did. However, a recent teaser video had a notable mention of Record Store Day on April 20, which may be a hint at where fans can expect the physical edition to be found first.

Through the two-dozen plus songs Swift released, the singer lays bare her turbulent past two years, which included the end of her long-term relationship with actor Joe Alwyn ("The Black Dog"), a highly discussed entanglement with The 1975 frontman Matty Healy ("The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived"), and a new relationship with Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce ("The Alchemy"). Oh, and there's the matter of that grueling ongoing world tour, the re-recording of her prior albums in a sort of ongoing high-stakes royalty grudge match with Scooter Braun, grappling with her fame ("Clara Bow") and the highs and lows that come with it ("But Daddy I Love Him"), along with the minutia of everyday life, coffees and playing Grand Theft Auto ("So High School").

In the closing minutes of her 2020 Netflix documentary, Miss Americana, Swift laid bare how she wanted to live her life, saying, “I want to still have a sharp pen and a thin skin and an open heart.” And this one plays like the 34-year-old has used that sharp pen to open a vein, not to mention her journal. The Tortured Poets Department isn't her longest album (Red (Taylor's Version) beats the runtime by eight minutes, thanks to that legendary 10-minute version of “All Too Well”), but its lyrics appear to be the most confessional, especially considering the many references on the album to marriage and babies.

Every track features Swift as the sole or cowriter, and producer Jack Antonoff, with whom Swift has collaborated on all of her albums since 2014’s 1989, is listed as co-writer on several tracks. The National’s Aaron Dessner, who played a key role in Swift’s pandemic-era Folklore and Evermore albums and is also a producer on The Tortured Poets Department, helped pen some, and Post Malone (credited as Austin Post) and Florence Welch each got credits on the songs they perform on, “Fortnight (Feat. Post Malone)” and “Florida!!!” respectively.

In her midnight tweet officially introducing the standard version of the album to the world, Swift wrote, “The Tortured Poets Department. An anthology of new works that reflect events, opinions and sentiments from a fleeting and fatalistic moment in time - one that was both sensational and sorrowful in equal measure. This period of the author’s life is now over, the chapter closed and boarded up. There is nothing to avenge, no scores to settle once wounds have healed. And upon further reflection, a good number of them turned out to be self-inflicted. This writer is of the firm belief that our tears become holy in the form of ink on a page. Once we have spoken our saddest story, we can be free of it. And then all that’s left behind is the tortured poetry.”

Continuing her long tradition of dropping hints and ciphers for fans to interpret and glean facts about her projects and personal life, Swift kept audiences guessing at what was next until the very last moment. In the midst of her record-breaking Eras Tour, during which she also announced and released her re-recorded albums Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) and 1989 (Taylor’s Version), many guessed that she’d soon announce a release date for Reputation (Taylor’s Version), the last album she released with former record label, Big Machine. After all, you don’t just wear a pair of snake-patterned boots if you don’t want Swifties to wear out their thumbprints texting one another snake emojis.

The Grammys, on February 4, 2024, felt like the perfect moment for a big reveal: Swift is dating Kansas City Chiefs tight end Kelce, and grumbles throughout the season accused the singer of pulling focus from the team when she attended the games. The Grammys were held the week before the Super Bowl, and the awards show was the perfect (literal) stage for Swift to do something that would draw attention. Even on the red carpet, it seemed that her black-and-white ensemble might be a final gesture before a Reputation (Taylor’s Version) reveal. However, when Swift made her way to the stage to accept the award for best pop vocal album wearing a dramatic Schiaparelli dress, there was no venom to be found, only verse.

“I want to say thank you to the fans by telling you a secret that I’ve been keeping from you for the last two years, which is that my brand new album comes out on April 19,” she said. “It’s called The Tortured Poets Department. I’m gonna go and post the cover right now backstage. Thank you. I love you. Thank you.”

Now, the chairman has spoken, and it’s on record: If you’ve crossed Taylor Swift—and if you’ve ever uttered a word about her love life or what she “should” be doing—you’re on the list right along with those who haven’t treated her with care. Consider yourself on notice and keep an eye on the mail for the time and date of your departmental hearing.