Taylor Swift producer Aaron Dessner says 'Tortured Poets Department' is 'the most lyrically sharp, complex, vulnerable' Taylor ever

Taylor Swift had a lot of surprises in store for her fans when she released her highly anticipated 11th studio album, Department of Tormented Poets, on Friday (April 19). Among them the late-night bombshell that it's actually a double album, with 31 tracks spanning two hours.

But it was frequent collaborator Aaron Dessner of The National who gave one of the biggest revelations about the stirring, emotional collection in an Instagram post just hours after the album's release. “I am so excited and honored to share that I have contributed to my dear friend and partner @taylorswifthis brilliant 11th album — a 31-song double album / anthology called Department of Tormented Poets,” she wrote in the post, which also included a shot of a smiling Swift in the studio and images of the album's moody black-and-white cover art.

Dessner revealed that he and Swift began working on the songs in 2022 after releasing their two 2020 pandemic albums. Folklore and Foreverand apparently after she records her album in 2022 Midnight. “We started working on these songs two years ago, and we feel like they've kept us company and evolved in beautiful and unexpected ways through so much life we've lived in the process,” Dessner wrote, admiring the fact that the duo has recorded now. more than 60 songs together over the past four years, including 17 on the new album.

“I am forever grateful to Taylor for sharing her insane talents and trusting me with her music. I believe these songs are some of the most lyrically intense, complex, vulnerable and cathartic Taylor has ever written, and I am constantly amazed at her abilities as a songwriter and performer,” she wrote. Dessner also thanked another of Swift's most consistent collaborators, Jack Antonoff, crediting him for “working with me with an open heart and an open door on all these many projects.” Dessner and Antonoff roughly split co-production duties with Swift on the album.

The multi-talented songwriter/producer/composer also thanked his twin brother and National Band colleague Aaron Dessner, engineers Laura Sisk, Jonathan Low, James McAlister, Thomas Bartlett (aka Doveman) and Bella Blasko, and musicians Glenn Kotche ( drummer of Wilco). Benjamin Lanz (synths, trombone) and Rob Moose (viola, violin), among many others.

“It hasn't been lost on me how lucky I am to have this job, and I feel so grateful to have been a part of creating this vast, magically detailed and symbolic world of songs that Taylor has created for us all to inhabit and enjoy,” Dessner wrote. . “Keep searching and you'll find some new detail, layer or piece of meaning with each listen.”

See Dessner's post below.