Jack Antnoff, Aaron Dessner, Taylor Swift Getty Images (3)
Taylor Swift‘s The Tortured Poets Department is here, and her two closest creative partners – Aaron Dessner and Jack Antonoff — couldn’t be happier. Literally.
Antonoff, 40, joined the rest of the Swifties, waiting for TTPD to drop at midnight on Friday, April 19, and was overwhelmed with emotion over the new album. “Love this album more than I can say,” Antonoff posted on X.
“Love you all very much,” he added. Antonoff, who cowrote and coproduced 8 songs on TTPD (and two tracks on The Anthology, the surprise collection Swift, 34, released at 2 am on Friday, revealing TTPD as a double album.)
“More later,” wrote the Bleachers frontman. “Very overwhelmed … love you, taylor.”
Dessner, 47, shared his thoughts on TTPD on Instagram while posting a photo of Swift in the recording booth. “I’m so excited and honored to share that I have contributed to my dear friend and collaborator [Swift’s] brilliant 11th album,” he began. “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.”
Dessner – who has 5 songs on TTPD, and cowrote/coproduced most of The Anthology with Swift – said it was “hard to believe” that they’ve recorded over 60 songs since he joined her inner circle in 2020 for her folklore album.
“I am forever grateful to Taylor for sharing her insane talents with and trusting me with her music,” he wrote.” I believe these songs [on TTPD] 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.”
Dessner also thanked Antonoff for “his open-hearted and open door collaboration with me through all these many projects” before going on to thank all those who “continue to contribute generously to my work. I could never have made all this music without a village of friends supporting me.”
Prior to being associated with Swift, Dessner was best known for helping found the rock band The National. Swift recruited him for her twin cottagecore albums, folklore and evermore, and since then, he’s been one of her closest creative partners; his production work is featured on Fearless (Taylor’s Version), Red (Taylor’s Version), Midnights (3am Edition).
As for Antonoff, his friendship with Swift began in 2013, when they worked on “Sweeter Than Fiction” for the One Chance soundtrack. Since then, they’ve been twin (musical) flames, with Antonoff contributing to her albums 1989, Reputation, Lover, folklore, evermore, Midnights, The Tortured Poets Department and the Taylor’s Version re-recordings of Fearless, Red, Speak Now and 1989.
