Welcome back to The Tortured Poets series! In honor of part 2 of this series, alongside the surprise double album The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology being released at 2am on release day, the long-awaited (see: 2+2 days after release) review is here.
Disclaimer: all of these thoughts and opinions are my own, swayed by none other than my music taste and my prior life experiences.
The Tortured Poets Department was everything I expected and simultaneously nothing I expected it to be. This album is Taylor using her own lyricism as a way to heal, spitting out lyrics to get over the whirlwind of recent events that has occurred. When you reach astronomical heights in your career like never before at the same time that you have to process not one, but two relationships, Taylor knew this is how she had to transition out of that phase of her life.
The Tortured Poets Department, despite what some critics have been saying, is supposed to represent a rough draft of everything Taylor is trying to put into words. Even with maturity, life can get messy, and that’s what this album attests to do. Taylor’s most verbose album to date, this project is a win for appreciating Swift’s complex lyricism, despite being intricate in a different way than before.
Despite this album taking listeners on lyrical highs, The Tortured Poets Department is not for everyone, especially on first listen. And you can tell Taylor didn’t create this album for the fans (“But Daddy I Love Him” as a call out to them), or the critics, but for herself as a way to say everything out loud on her own accord. Her comments on social media regarding the album alongside the closing track on The Anthology “The Manuscript” clearly reveal that she wants this chapter of her life to be closed, and for the listeners to have her stories without constantly over analyzing the who, what, where, etc.
The biggest qualms I’ve seen, and tended to agree with some critics with is the production, especially on the original half of the album. In my opinion, Taylor Swift has hit a creative ceiling with Jack Antonoff: While they work well together (one of my favorite Taylor Swift songs of all time is “Getaway Car” and hearing them play it together as my surprise song will forever be ingrained in my mind), I’ve noticed that his production on her songs has gotten less innovative stemming from his work on Midnights, yet this album shows how their sound needs a bit of a refresh. Ironically, upon first listening to “The Tortured Poets Department”, I thought it was what I expected Midnights to sound like with the indie sleaze aesthetic. I get it: Jack’s production on this project is supposed to call back to The 1975’s music, which the frontman of the band is a lot of what this album is speculated to be about, but it is getting repetitive.
And “Fortnight”, especially for an opening track and lead single, is too muted production-wise. It’s missing that extra oomph, the stand-out element that a song in that exact position to have. Taylor has been nailing both opening track and lead single selection since folklore, and she chose the more lowkey mid-tempo track over some of the album’s high points. The only reason why “Fortnight” makes sense as an opener is because it sets up the story for the album, especially with the "I love you, it's ruining my life" motif.
Now, some accolades and high points: The Tortured Poets Department is going to be a body of work that will get better upon each listen, even if 31 songs and 2 hours and 2 minutes of lower-tempo, acoustic lyric driven songs can seem daunting for the average listener. But like I said earlier, this album is not for the average music consumer, the “fans” that joined for The Eras Tour hype train, but for the diehard Swifties, the appreciators of lyric-driven songs. Alongside that, Aaron Dessner’s production, particularly on The Anthology in which he produced the majority of those tracks, complimented the project. Aaron is truly one of her musical soulmates, and the way that he and Taylor can take a listener to a vivid, particular setting and emotion while listening to their collaborations is noteworthy. While folklore and evermore take you into a cabin in the woods, The Tortured Poets Department sets you up in a dimly lighted room with a typewriter in hand, and you can feel it throughout the project.
And this isn’t a Taylor Swift album with gut-wrenching, literary-award winning lyricism. By taking a step back from filtering her pen, she’s truly able to express herself lyrically like she never has before. There are so many iconic lyrical moments from this album: standouts include the entire bridge of “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived”, and the devastating lyrics “You swore that you loved me, but where were the clues, I died on the altar waiting for the proof, you sacrificed us to the gods of our bluest days” from “So Long, London.” Taylor is also continuously serving out dishes of relatability, including the bit “I’m so depressed, I act like it’s my birthday every day, I’m so obsessed with him, but he avoids me like the plague, I cry a lot, but I am so productive, it’s an art” from “I Can Do It With A Broken Heart”, and “down bad crying at the gym, f*ck it if I can’t have him” from “Down Bad.”
But also, The Tortured Poets Department is Taylor Swift at her funniest and self-aware. The only true happy love song on this record, “So High School” is filled with the most tongue-in-cheek lyrics, “Truth, dare, spin the bottle, you know how to ball, I know Aristotle, brand new, full throttle, touch me while your bros play Grand Theft Auto.” Only Taylor Swift can be poetic while simultaneously dropping “Aristotle” and “Grand Theft Auto” in the same set of lyrics. Speaking of car references, Taylor Swift made arguably one of the most meta references by name-dropping a certain sports car brand; “I’m an Aston Martin, that you drove straight into a ditch.” (If you Google “Taylor Swift” and “Aston Martin” together you’ll know why - no wonder Travis Kelce was gushing about the album in an Alpine hat.)
From a musical standpoint, this album calls back to Taylor’s old work with melodious, instrumental, and lyrical motifs that references a lot of her eras. Upon first listen, I noticed that “Cassandra” was very reminiscent both musically and thematically to “mad woman” off of folklore, and could be a sequel to the song. “The Prophecy” also in my opinion, is the love child of “High Infidelity” and “illicit affairs.” Even the piano motif in “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” reminded me of “tolerate it”, and directly calls back to the song. Even though Midnights is the direct portal to all of her eras, The Tortured Poets Department isn’t afraid to reference songs from different projects.
Most importantly, my favorite tracks: “Who’s Afraid Of Little Old Me” is the standout track on the project. Everything from the build to the storytelling makes this song the perfect climax song. Alongside that, “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” is demonstrative on how the way Taylor puts emotions into words is so resonant with listeners, myself included. My other favorites include another iconic track 5 “So Long, London”, the banger duet with Florence + The Machine “Florida!!!” “So High School” which makes me feel so giddy with every listen, “The Prophecy” for all of us overthinkers, “imgonnagetyouback” which absolutely sent me at 2am on release day with the Aston Martin lyric, and “Down Bad” with continues to grow on me with every listen.
The Tortured Poets Department marks a full departure between the “Eras” model in re-invention, and puts a major theme from Midnights “I’m the problem, it’s me.” Ironically, that lyric from “Anti-Hero” is a major thesis statement of this album, alongside no longer dwelling upon the hurt, just letting it go and releasing it for the world to hear. Is The Tortured Poets Department groundbreaking? No, but only in the sense that it is Taylor Swift providing her narrative and passing it along to the listeners. The Tortured Poets Department is marking a big turning point in her career, and focuses on putting the poetry first.
Stream The Tortured Poets Department wherever you stream music.
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