Music

Taylor Swift Fans Are Freaking Out About This New Band Called “Tool”

Tool's 'Fear Inoculum' is set to knock Taylor Swift's 'Lover' off the top of the charts - and her fans are losing their minds.

Tool Taylor Swift photo

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A few days ago, to the surprise of absolutely no one, Taylor Swift’s new album Lover landed at #1 on the Billboard album charts. It was Swift’s sixth #1 record, recording the biggest sales week of any album since her last album reputation was released back in 2017.

It was generally expected that she’d hold onto the #1 position for at least another week or two, but now she’s fighting a battle with an enemy most of her fans have never even heard of: Tool.

Tool’s Fear Inoculum is currently raking in big, big numbers in its first week, and it’s predicted to land album sales of up to 300,000 in the US (according to Forbes) which would put it comfortably in the #1 position ahead of Lover, which is expecting sales of 260,000 in its second week. Fear Inoculum is already ahead of Lover on the iTunes album charts in Australia and the US, with Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! coming in third.

Swift fans, most of them not being terribly familiar with the prog-metal strains of Tool, are now losing their minds over the prospect of Lover being knocked off the charts.

Tool fans, meanwhile, are wasting no time in throwing shit at Taylor Swift fans.

Lana Del Rey fans are, presumably, just sitting back and smoking a cigarette in California. And the rest of us are just delighting in one of the most unlikely stan battles of recent years.

If you’re still making your mind up over which album to stream, have a read of our reviews of Fear Inoculum and Lover.


Jules LeFevre is Junkee’s Music Editor. Follow her on Twitter