Taylor Swift drops secret second album two hours after release of TTPD

Fans have been trying to decipher what a repeated ‘two’ sign has meant in the lead up to the release of her new album, The Tortured Poets Department.

Two hours after that album dropped on Friday, Swift released a “surprise” second album.

“The Tortured Poets Department is a secret DOUBLE album,” she wrote on social media.

“️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.”

The double album means Swift released 31 new songs on Friday.

Ahead of the release, hopeful fans had speculated the star may also drop the re-recorded “Taylor’s Version” of Reputation, but the idea she would release two brand new albums was seen as impossible.

Since 2019, she has released four new studio albums, another four “Taylor’s Version” re-recorded projects, and the enormous Eras World Tour that, once finished, will have played more than 150 shows across the globe.

Swift is known to drop ‘Easter eggs’ in her music videos, song lyrics, announcements and other promo to give clues about her upcoming work.

A repeated ‘two’ sign in the lead up to TTPD’s release sparked many theories.

This included Swift throwing up two fingers as she announced her eleventh studio album onstage at the Grammys in February, again during The Eras Tour, and a hand sculpture with the same sign was on display at a pop-up Spotify installation at The Grove in Los Angeles – among other signs of the number two.

When releasing TTPD earlier on Friday, Swift wrote: “The Tortured Poets Department. An anthology of new works that reflect events, opinions and sentiments from a fleeting and fatalistic moment in time – one that was both sensational and sorrowful in equal measure.

“This period of the author’s life is now over, the chapter closed and boarded up. There is nothing to avenge, no scores to settle once wounds have healed. And upon further reflection, a good number of them turned out to be self-inflicted. This writer is of the firm belief that our tears become holy in the form of ink on a page. Once we have spoken our saddest story, we can be free of it.

“And then all that’s left behind is the tortured poetry.”

There is still more for fans to look forward to with the music video for Fortnight featuring Post Malone dropping 10am AEST.

Read news.com.au’s review of Taylor’s new album here.