CAN TAY DO THE IMPOSSIBLE?

Can Taylor Swift do the impossible? Could her latest Republic rocket, THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT, soar into the rarefied air of 2 million+ in first-week activity? Numerous data-watchers are prepared to say she can.

In the streaming era, even a 1m+ debut is incredibly rare (yes, Taylor's Midnights bowed with 1.6m in 2022). A 2m opening is unheard of. But expanding the notion of what's possible has been La Swift's stock in trade over the past couple of years.

As you probably know, the new set was expanded to 31 tracks mere hours after its arrival in an "ANTHOLOGY" edition that will inevitably supercharge the already-frenzied consumption underway by Swifties. POETS quickly blew past Spotify and Amazon Music records for single-day album streams; expect more records to be set very soon.

For the time being, we'll content ourselves with reiterating that this thing is big. Very, very big.