Draft:The Black Dog (song)

"The Black Dog" (also known as "Old Habits Die Screaming") is a song written and recorded by the American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift from the double album edition of her eleventh studio album The Tortured Poets Department, subtitled The Anthology (2024).

"The Black Dog" was first released as a bonus track as part of a physical edition of The Tortured Poets Department, before it became available as a track from The Anthology. A demo version was also included in a digital edition of the album. Upon release, "The Black Dog" charted at number 26 on the Billboard Global 200 and reached Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Portugal, Switzerland, and the United States. Swift performed it at a London show of her Eras Tour (2023–2024).

Background and composition
Taylor Swift started writing songs for her eleventh original studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, shortly after finishing her previous album, Midnights (2022), and continued working on it during the U.S. leg of her Eras Tour in 2023. One of the songs she wrote was "The Black Dog", which she first called as "Old Habits Die Screaming" when conceiving it and handled the production with Jack Antonoff. It is a post-industrial ballad driven by piano instrumentation. Lasting for 3 minutes and 58 seconds, the song begins in a slow pace before building into a dynamic chorus and continues to build for the rest of the length. Josh Kurp of Uproxx said that there was influences from Phoebe Bridgers and attributed it to how the song builds up. Chris Willman from Variety commented that it had an "emo climax".

She observes him and is obsessed over what his intentions at the bar. The song incorporates thumping synth beats when Swift sings "Old habits die screaming".

Release and commercial performance
On February 4, 2024, Swift announced The Tortured Poets Department at the 66th Annual Grammy Awards and its release date on April 19. During the lead-up, she released four limited-time physical editions of the album—each named after a corresponding bonus track—for pre-order, with the last one featuring "The Black Dog". Two hours after The Tortured Poets Department was released, a double album edition subtitled The Anthology was surprise-released; "The Black Dog" is taken from The Anthology and is track number 17 from the album. The first demo recording of the song also became available on May 28 as part of a limited-time digital edition of the album. On June 21, 2024, Swift performed the track as part of a mashup with her songs "Come Back... Be Here" (2012) and "Maroon" (2022) on the London stop of the Eras Tour.

Upon the release of The Anthology, "The Black Dog" opened at its peak of number 25 on the US Billboard Hot 100. In Australia, it also reached number 25 on the ARIA Singles Chart and made her the artist with the most entries in a single week with 29. Elsewhere, "The Black Dog" debuted and peaked at number 26 on the Billboard Global 200 and charted within the national charts of Canada (26), New Zealand (26), Portugal (67), and Switzerland (95). The song also reached the Greece's International Top 100 Digital Singles chart (58), Sweden's Heatseeker chart (1), and the United Kingdom's audio streaming (31) and sales charts (60).

Personnel

 * Taylor Swift – vocals, songwriting, production, piano, background vocals
 * Jack Antonoff – production, programming, acoustic guitar, bass, cello, drums, electric guitar, Mellotron, piano, Rhodes, synthesizers
 * Bobby Hawk – strings
 * Sean Hutchinson – drums, engineering
 * Laura Sisk – engineering
 * Michael Riddleberger – engineering
 * Oli Jacobs – engineering
 * Jack Manning – engineering assistance
 * Jon Sher – engineering assistance
 * Serban Ghenea – mixing
 * Bryce Bordone – mix engineering
 * Randy Merrill – mastering
 * Ryan Smith – mastering