The National‘s Aaron Dessner has admitted to being “forever grateful” to have worked on Taylor Swift‘s new album ‘The Tortured Poets Department’.
The guitarist and producer worked on Swift’s 11th studio effort along with his brother Bryce Dessner and Bleachers‘ Jack Antonoff.
Dessner has a long working history with the the singer after producing her previous three albums and “re-recorded” LPs including 2020’s ‘Folklore’ and 2021’s ‘Evermore’.
Swift also provided vocals and lyrics for ‘The Alcott’ on The National’s 2023 album ‘First Two Pages Of Frankenstein’.
Posting on his Instagram, Dessner wrote: “I’m so excited and honoured to share that I have contributed to my dear friend and collaborator @taylorswift’s brilliant 11th album – a 31 song double album / anthology called ‘The Tortured Poets Department’.
“We started working on these songs over two years ago and it feels like they have kept us company and evolved in beautiful and unexpected ways through so much life lived during this process.”
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He continued: “It’s hard to believe Taylor and I have now recorded over 60 songs together (17 across this anthology!!) in the 4 years since we began working together on ‘Folklore’ in 2020. I am forever grateful to Taylor for sharing her insane talents with and trusting me with her music.
“I believe these songs are some of the most lyrically acute, intricate, vulnerable and cathartic Taylor has ever written and I am continually astonished by her skills as a songwriter and performer.”
He also thanked fellow producer Antonoff along with his brother Bryce and several engineers who are credited with working on the LP, adding that he “could never have made all this music without a village of friends supporting me”.
Dessner concluded: “It’s not lost on me how lucky I am that this is my job and I feel so grateful to be a part of creating this vast, magically detailed and symbolic world of songs Taylor has crafted that we all get to inhabit and enjoy. Keep searching and you’ll find some new detail, layer or sliver of meaning with each listen.”
“The Taylor thing was super organic,” Berninger told NME in an In Conversation interview. “We’ve known her for a long time and obviously Aaron has been doing so much amazing stuff with her.
“I wrote ‘The Alcott’ with my wife Carin [Besser] in mind, Aaron sent it to Taylor and she added her own perspective on it and wrote all her parts to it. It was a true duet where she heard that and inhabited the character that I was singing about – which is almost always Carin.”
Berninger continued: “It’s not really a strategic game. Obviously Aaron’s work with Taylor Swift is going to bring a different kind of spotlight, but it’s been fun and cool. All of that has been a really healthy branching out.”
Asked about what had come with that new “spotlight” courtesy of Swift, Berninger said that there had been “no bad surprises”.
“We’re getting a lot of friendship bracelets,” he continued. “What I see in Taylor Swift is her incredible generosity to her fans and the people who love her. She makes such a joyous event of everything. I was up until midnight with my daughter and her friends waiting for ‘Midnights’. She makes an event out of a record and a work of art and it hardly ever happens anymore. The Beatles would pull that off and I’m absolutely in awe of her ability to bring so much excitement and joy to so many people. It’s in my home and I love it.”
Berninger added: “With The National, part of our commitment to putting on great shows is because these nights we spend with strangers singing together is what really matters – how magical and strange that is.”
Reviewing ‘The Tortured Poets Department’, NME awarded it three stars and described it as a “rare misstep” for Swift, adding: “Arriving at the peak of her imperial phase, Swift’s 11th studio album is surprisingly flat and, at times, cringeworthy.”
Following the LP’s release, Swift will resume her career-spanning ‘Eras Tour’ in Europe next month before heading to the UK and Ireland in June. Swift is due to play eight shows at Wembley Stadium in London this summer as part of the run, with support coming from Paramore.