Following the release of her second studio album K.T.S.E. (2018), Taylor announced that she would be updating the album and re-releasing it in June or July.[9][10][11] After a Twitter user asked for the whereabouts of her updated album, Taylor revealed that her hopes for a new version had been deflated. "I guess we ain't getting one," she bluntly replied. Minutes later, Taylor sent a second tweet explaining how she intends to release the updated music. "A lot of clearance issues, shit takes time. At this point I will leave album the way it is & will just debut the extended records thru my visuals!" she said.[12][13] In October 2019, Taylor spoke to Entertainment Weekly that she was working on a new album titled, The Album after many disappointments and frustrations with her previous record. She revealed that she took more creative control on the album in comparison to K.T.S.E., which had a verse cut without her knowledge and was shorter than she wanted. She said that she was ready to "take full accountability that I need to be 110 percent on everything that I do" and not let anyone compromise her creative vision. She revealed that for the album, she was focused on "fixing what didn't work the first time, getting a better rollout, more records, longer records. . . just giving everybody more." She aimed to release new music by the next year.[14]
Two days prior to the album's release, Taylor celebrated her Juneteenth release with an album listening party, alongside friends like Cardi B, Lena Waithe, Karrueche Tran, and Winnie Harlow.[15][16] Taylor sparked controversy and was criticized by social media outlets after photos from the event showed most attendees with their masks partially off or not on at all despite the restrictions to keep them on while being in public during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.[17][18][19][20] Taylor went on to address the apparent lack of masks:『... For all the internet covid experts 🙄😜we had REAL Covid Police & medics that made sure we were all safe and able to have a good time all while following covid regulations,』she wrote. "Custom '#TheAlbum' Masks and hazmat suits were also provided!"[21][22] Taylor shed more light on the situation during a video interview with Angie Martinez, doubling down on her claims that she and her team took extra steps to ensure guests' safety.
"So this is what I knew was kind of gonna happen, If you notice, we all had yellow suits. They were custom HAZMAT suits ... custom masks, everything ... It was hot. You know, as a pregnant woman, I can't breathe in them things. You got to realize, if everybody got on masks, the photographers can't get what they want ... So the moment n***as take their masks off for five minutes, it's flash, flash, flash, flash ... So now it's just looking like we don't even have 'em on ... as soon as we put them back on, now all the cameras is ghosts, 'cause it does nothing for the lenses."[23]
Taylor went on to say it was a 60-person party in a 15,000-feet house with a lot of activity taking place outside. She also said there were "COVID prevention people" at the event. "Pretty much the 'COVID police' ... You could not even walk in the house without putting on your HAZMAT suit and your mask," Taylor said. "... We were extremely safe."[23]
Taylor explained why she decided to release the album on Juneteenth:
"With releasing the album on Juneteenth, it's important because if you noticed the lead singles that I led with were "Made It" and "We Got Love". So I've always been here. I've always been about us being celebrated and celebrating my culture and my people. For everything to happen, from my album getting delayed and it falls perfectly on Juneteenth, yes, it's a celebration.[24]
Complex's Eric Diep summarized the album: "The album is broken up by "studio" rooms (which appropriately spell out "album" reading from top to bottom). At 23 songs in length, it is significantly longer than Taylor's previous album, K.T.S.E., which was eight songs. Taylor was part of G.O.O.D. Music's seven-song album rollout, promising to re-release an updated version of K.T.S.E., but it never materialized. From those sessions, "We Got Love" appears at the end of The Album, replacing Kanye West with her doing his verse. Lauryn Hill speaks about wealth and abundance at the end".[25] Taylor's husband Iman Shumpert appears on "Wake Up Love", while their daughter Junie is featured on "Come Back to Me."[25]
The Album debuted at number eight on the US Billboard 200 chart, earning 32,000 album-equivalent units (including pure album sales of 4,000 copies) in its first week.[26] This became Taylor's first US top-ten debut on the chart.[26]
"We Got Love" contains a sample of "We've Got Love (You Better Believe It)", written by Ronald Preyer, Vernon Bullock, Charles Ingersoll and Robert Solomon, and performed by The Younghearts.
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