The Tortured Poets Department may be the latest album Jack Antonoff has worked on with Taylor Swift, but it has quickly become one of his favorites.
The music producer, 40, told TIME that he learned “so much” working on Swift’s 11th studio album in an interview published on Tuesday, October 1. “Every album we’ve done together, I’ve learned so much,” Antonoff said. “That one, to me, was just the ultimate. It vacillates so much emotionally that I felt like it was truly what it’s like to be alive right now.”
He went on to note: “So much of it is people just put out things that are definitive. Right now, it’s like, ‘I’m hurt, I’m mad, I’m sweet,’ ‘I’m pissed, I’m joyful, I’m hateful.’ That album — because it’s this crazy journey of love, lost love, betrayal and hurt, and then even the escapism chapter with ‘Florida!!!’ which is one of my favorite parts — I see it as our opus. It’s a whirlwind. It was a whirlwind to make it. I love it so much for that reason.”
Swift, 34, announced TTPD at the 2024 Grammys in February, during which she accepted the Album of the Year award for Midnights alongside Antonoff. The pair first collaborated on Swift’s 2014 album, 1989, and have gone on to work together on each of her subsequent records, including Reputation, Lover, Folklore, Evermore, Midnights and TTPD. Antonoff has also served as a producer on Swift’s first four rerecorded albums (a.k.a. Taylor’s Versions): Fearless, Red, Speak Now and 1989.
Antonoff told the outlet that “the only true goal when making an album is to capture the feeling of the moment,” adding, “For me, an album takes about a year for it to settle into where it’s actually living and not just buzzing. But I learned a lot. It had me writing a little bit, just even in my own stuff, a little more flipping in and out of emotions, like one would in their head.”
Referring to TTPD, he stated: “[The album] moves quickly into different emotional territory, which I think is how a lot of us are living. I think that’s why so many people are listening to it.”
TTPD has broken several records since its April release, becoming the best-selling album of 2024, becoming the most-streamed album in a single week on multiple platforms and spending multiple weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart.
“Love this album more than i can say … love you all very much,” Antonoff tweeted in celebration of TTPD’s drop. “More later very overwhelmed … love you Taylor.”
One month later, Swift added a new segment for the album into the setlist of her record-breaking Eras Tour.
Swift, who will play her final Eras Tour show in December in Canada, has yet to reveal what her next project will be. According to Antonoff, he is just as clueless as Swifties are.
“I never know until we do it. I don’t really plan,” he said of their next collaboration. “Everything always happens in the moment in the room. I can have thoughts and feelings of like, ‘This would be cool, that would be cool,’ but I always find it clouds me in understanding where they’re at.”
The Bleachers frontman fueled rumors of an upcoming project last month by sharing an Instagram pic of him and Swift working with producer Sounwave. While the photo was dated as being taken in December 2023, Swifties pointed out that Sounwave, 38, was not credited on TTPD, seemingly hinting that they were working on something else at the time. (Sounwave was listed as a producer on several songs on Swift’s Midnights album, which was released in 2022.)
