Taylor Swift - Tortured Poets Department Black Dog press photo | Beth Garrabrant, courtesy of Republic
Taylor Swift’s “The Tortured Poets Department” launched late Thursday/early Friday to absolutely massive commercial expectations, and the early indications are that it is resonating as expected.
The album blasted to #1 on the US iTunes album sales chart following its release, and it remains there as of press time at 12:45AM ET Friday morning.
iTunes will, of course, ultimately be just a fraction of the song’s opening week performance. The album is expected to deliver monster physical/direct-to-consumer sales numbers, while also posting blockbuster track streaming figures.
A clean version of the album appears at #4 on the iTunes chart, with Pearl Jam’s new “Dark Matter” and Anne Wilson’s new “REBEL” respectively landing at #2 and #3. Pastor Mike Jr’s new “I Got Away” EP directly follows the Swift album at #5.