Jake Shane, who has nearly 3 million followers on TikTok thanks to his viral comedy videos under the handle @octopusslover8, is reviewing albums for Billboard with exclusive new essays and videos. Find his latest Billboard album review below, for Taylor Swift’s just-released The Tortured Poets Department album.

Taylor Swift, known for her vulnerability, has never been so vulnerable.

First thing Friday (April 19), Swift welcomed us into The Tortured Poets Department, her earth-shattering 11th studio album. Except, upon arrival, listeners discovered it was more a graveyard than a classroom. The air is cold and filled with tension from ghosts of relationships past — each step inviting the listener  closer and closer into stories frozen in time. The end result is an album that feels like pages ripped from Swift’s diary loosely scattered across a frosty gravesite — each tomb sharing its own story of grief, loss and, in some instances, love.

Tortured Poets is undoubtably Swift’s most personal album to date — which, for Swift is a hard feat to beat. Through classic Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner production, Swift’s pen floats on lyrics sharp to the touch. This is especially true on the Dessner-produced track 5, “So  Long, London.” In it, Swift says goodbye to a relationship she gave everything for, but received no ROI. “My spine split from carrying us up the hill,” Swift proclaims; this is Swift at her very best, painting a photo of heartbreak so vivid that it almost feels like our bones are breaking too. Close listeners will notice the beginning of the track sounds similar to Swift’s love song “Call It What You Want” off her sixth studio album Reputation. Perhaps the most cutting lyrics, though, on “So Long, London” come in the second verse, when Swift admits her regret for holding on to the “sinking ship” that the relationship was: “I’m pissed off you let me  give you all that youth for free.”  

One of Swift’s defining talents is how she builds a cohesive narrative throughout her albums, and here, that ability has never been more on display. On Tortured Poets, Swift walks the listener through a barren graveyard filled with withered bones and torn memories, only to finally reach sunlight — on the final two tracks of the album (not including the extra 15 songs that dropped at 2 a.m. ET), Swift has once again found love. On “The Alchemy,” Swift sings of a love so undeniable, she is returning to her old, pre-tortured ways: “I haven’t come around in so long. But I’m making a comeback to where I belong.”

As always, Swift’s lyricism shines bright (arguably brighter than ever before). This is notable on the absolutely devastating “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived,” where Swift looks in the rearview of a past relationship with more questions than answers. “You hung me on your wall. Stabbed me with your push pins. In public, showed me off. Then sank in stoned oblivion.” Swift’s pen is pointed, but, then again, when is it not? She doesn’t want to talk to said “man,” but she wants a message delivered: “You didn’t measure up in any measure of a man.”  

On “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart,” Swift is at her most bare, detailing the heartbreak-turned -depression she faced while performing the biggest tour of her career (and perhaps of all time). “She’s having the time of her life there in her glittering prime. The lights refract sequin stars off her silhouette every night. I can show you lies,” Swift croons over a synth beat. Swift calls back to folklore’s “mirrorball” by proving once again that she can be anything we want her to be, even if it’s not true. It is one of the first times Swift has broken the third wall since the start of the record-breaking tour, and it is almost reassuring to listeners and fans alike. Taylor is human, too, even when her stardom questions the laws of physics.

One of the greatest tales Swift tells is that of heartbreak to healing; she did it on Reputation, and on Tortured Poets she has done it once more — this time, though, with more maturity and the clarity only age can bring. At the end of the album, Swift has once again found love and  forgiven heartbreak. It might not be her true love, but she’s happy — oh, and she’s Taylor Swift. Who can argue with that?

You can find Shane’s review of Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter here.

Live Nation shares fell 10.9% to $89.98 this week after The Wall Street Journal reported the U.S. Department of Justice plans to file a lawsuit against the company in the coming weeks. The DOJ could seek any number of remedies, but, in recent years, there have been calls from both the public and private sectors to break up the company and separate the concert promotion business from the ticketing business. 

In February, Senator Amy Klobuchar, who helped organize the Jan. 2023 Senate hearing at which Live Nation president/CFO Joe Berchtold testified, called on lawmakers to “update and enforce antitrust laws” to prevent Live Nation and Ticketmaster from working on concert to “keep ticket prices high.”

“This merger never should have been allowed to happen,” Klobuchar wrote on X in February. “Break them up,” Senator Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote in November 2022 following the Taylor Swift pre-sale fiasco. Likewise, the American Economic Liberties Project and the American Antitrust Institute have both called for the DOJ to break up the company. 

Live Nation shares have fallen 15.1% in the four weeks since the week ended March 22 but remain up 34.3% year to date. The company will report first-quarter earnings on May 2. 

The large declines seen among some of the most valuable music companies caused the Billboard Global Music Index to drop 4.5% this week — its largest one-week loss since November 2022. That brought the index’s decline over the past two weeks to 7.5% after it reached an all-time high the week ended April 5. 

Major stock indexes also suffered substantial losses this week. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite fell 5.5% to 15,282.01 as video streaming giant Netflix and chipmaker Nvidia fell 9.1% and 10%, respectively, on Friday (April 19). The S&P 500 dropped 3.0% to 4,967.23. In the United Kingdom, the FTSE 100 fell just 1.2% to 7,895.85. South Korea’s KOSPI composite index lost 3.4% to 2,591.86. China’s Shanghai Composite Index was an outlier, rising 1.5% to 3,065.26.

Radio giant iHeartMedia had the biggest decline of the week after dropping 12.8% to $1.90. That brought the company’s year-to-date loss to 28.8% and its 52-week decline to 54.3%. Music streaming leader Spotify suffered the largest drop in terms of lost market capitalization, however, after an 8.2% decline, to $275.79, raised $4.9 billion of market value. Spotify will release first-quarter earnings on Tuesday (April 23). 

Hipgnosis Songs Fund shares predictably surged this week on news that Concord has offered to acquire the company for $1.4 billion, or $1.16 (0.94 pounds) per share. The stock finished the week up 24.2% to 0.919 pounds ($1.14), just under Concord’s offer price. The board encouraged shareholders to accept Concord’s bid, which was a 32.2% premium over the prior day’s closing price. That would provide immediate returns, the board explained, because the company needs “substantial financial and governance changes to improve its financial performance” that will suppress the share price in the meantime.

The other big gainers for the week came from South Korea. HYBE gained 8.2% to 230,500 won ($167.70) and SM Entertainment rose 4.0% to 78,100 won ($56.82). Year to date, HYBE is down 1.3% and SM Entertainment is off 15.2%. 

TOMORROW X TOGETHER lands its sixth No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart, as minisode 3: TOMORROW opens atop the tally (dated April 20). The set sold 103,500 copies sold in the U.S. in the week ending April 11, according to Luminate. Also, the top 10 welcomes debuts from Conan Gray, The Black Keys, Vampire Weekend, Khruangbin and J. Cole.

Billboard’s Top Album Sales chart ranks the top-selling albums of the week based only on traditional album sales. The chart’s history dates back to May 25, 1991, the first week Billboard began tabulating charts with electronically monitored piece count information from SoundScan, now Luminate. Pure album sales were the sole measurement utilized by the Billboard 200 albums chart through the list dated Dec. 6, 2014, after which that chart switched to a methodology that blends album sales with track equivalent album units and streaming equivalent album units. For all chart news, follow @billboard and @billboardcharts on both Twitter and Instagram.

TOMORROW X TOGETHER’s minisode 3: TOMORROW enters with 103,500 copies sold. Of that sum, physical sales comprise 101,500 (all from CD sales), while digital downloads comprise 2,000. The album’s sales were supported by its availability across 17 collectible CD editions (including exclusive editions sold by Barnes & Noble, Target and the act’s webstore), all containing randomized paper merchandise (but with the same audio tracklist). It was also issued across multiple digital download variations, including five iterations that each contained a different voice memo as a bonus track, plus an edition that boasted bonus remixes.

Conan Gray notches his third top 10-charting effort on Top Album Sales as Found Heaven starts at No. 2 with 27,000 copies sold. It also matches his chart-high, as Kid Krow peaked at No. 2 in 2020. Vinyl sales powered more than half of the set’s first week (58%), with nearly 16,000 copies sold of the album across 10 vinyl variants (including exclusives for Amazon, Barnes & Noble, independent record stores, Target and Gray’s official webstore; the latter also offered a signed edition). The album also launches at No. 1 on the Vinyl Albums chart. Seven different iterations of the CD edition of the album were available (most with the same tracklist, just with different cover art) including one that was signed by the artist. Found Heaven was also issued as a standard digital download album, along with an alternative version, with different cover art, sold through the artist’s webstore.

Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter falls to No. 3 after debuting at No. 1 a week earlier. The set sold 21,000 copies in its second week (down 88%). While Cowboy Carter’s CD and vinyl editions were available to purchase only via Beyoncé’s official webstore in the set’s first two weeks of release, those physical configurations became widely available to all retailers beginning on April 12. (The album has also been purchasable as a digital download, widely, since its release on March 29.)

The Black Keys’ Ohio Players debuts at No. 4 on Top Album Sales with 20,000 copies sold, marking the seventh top 10-charting effort for the band. The set was available in seven vinyl variants, a standard CD, standard cassette, standard digital download, and a deluxe boxed set containing branded merchandise (a T-shirt and sticker set) and a CD.

Vampire Weekend’s Only God Was Above Us bows at No. 5 on Top Album Sales, with 16,000 copies sold. It’s the act’s fourth top 10-charting effort and brings the group its first debut on the ranking since 2019’s Father of the Bride bowed at No. 1 (May 18, 2019 chart). The new album was available in four vinyl variants, a standard CD, standard download, and two deluxe boxed sets (each containing a branded T-shirt and a copy of the CD).

Khruangbin’s A La Sala steps in at No. 6 on Top Album Sales with 14,000 copies sold, garnering the act its fourth top 10-charting effort. 80% of the album’s first-week sales were from vinyl offerings, six in total. It was also issued as a standard CD, cassette and digital download.

J. Hope’s Hope On the Street, Vol. 1 falls 2-7 in its second week on the chart, with 9,000 sold (down 80%).

J. Cole’s Might Delete Later rounds out the six debuts in the top 10 on Top Album Sales, as the surprise release from the rapper bows at No. 8 with 9,000 sold (all from a standard digital download). It’s the seventh top 10-charting set for the artist.

Closing out the top 10 are a pair of former No. 1s from Taylor Swift, as Lover falls 3-9 (7,000; down 28%) and 1989 (Taylor’s Version) drops 4-10 (6,500; down 28%).

In the week ending April 11, there were 1.294 million albums sold in the U.S. (down 3.7% compared to the previous week). Of that sum, physical albums (CDs, vinyl LPs, cassettes, etc.) comprised 964,000 (down 3.3%) and digital albums comprised 329,000 (down 4.9%).

There were 525,000 CD albums sold in the week ending April 11 (up 1.4% week-over-week) and 433,000 vinyl albums sold (down 8.7%). Year-to-date CD album sales stand at 6.698 million (down 31.3% compared to the same time frame a year ago) and year-to-date vinyl album sales total 6.858 million (down 49.3%).

Overall year-to-date album sales total 18.177 million (down 36.8% compared to the same year-to-date time frame a year ago). Year-to-date physical album sales stand at 13.626 million (down 41.9%) and digital album sales total 4.551 million (down 14.5%).