The stunningly dystopic tale tells the story of star-crossed lovers set in a dystopian romance
Taylor Swift has dropped the first video for her album The Tortured Poets Department. Single “Fortnight” features Post Malone, who also appears in the video.
The scene begins with Swift waking up in a white gown and chained to a bed in a topsy turvy asylum. Soon, however, the video cuts to clips of the singer wiping her face to reveal tattoos etched across her skin to her and Malone in a stark white room filled with typewriters. Seemingly telling the tale of star-crossed lovers, the duo find themselves in surreal settings from embracing on a lone highway as they’re caught in a tornado of loose paper to an eerie lab where Ethan Hawke plays a bespectacled scientist.
Swift praised Post Malone on Instagram the day before releasing her new album. “I’ve been such a huge fan of Post because of the writer he is, his musical experimentation and those melodies he creates that just stick in your head forever,” she wrote. “I got to witness that magic come to life firsthand when we worked together on ‘Fortnight.’”
Post Malone has been having a big year working with the pop girls. He made an appearance as part of the “astrology council” in Jennifer Lopez’s film This Is Me… Now, alongside Jane Fonda, Kim Petras, and Keke Palmer. He also appeared on Beyoncé’s country album Cowboy Carter, duetting with the singer on “Levii’s Jeans.”
Swift’s Tortured Poets is her 11th album, following 2022’s Midnights. Two hours after releasing the album on Friday morning, she surprised fans with 15 new songs declaring that it is actually a double album. “It’s a 2am surprise: The Tortured Poets Department is a secret DOUBLE album,” Swift announced on Instagram. “I’d written so much tortured poetry in the past 2 years and wanted to share it all with you, so here’s the second installment of TTPD: The Anthology. 15 extra songs. And now the story isn’t mine anymore… it’s all yours.”
