On Friday, April 19, Taylor Swift released her long-awaited 11th studio album, “The Tortured Poets Department.” Swift surprised fans with a secret 2 a.m. double release, bringing the total song count for TTPD to 31.
“The Tortured Poets Department” is Swift’s most honest and raw songwriting yet. Like many Swifties, I was fully prepared for a breakup album centered around her six-year relationship with Joe Alwyn, so I was shocked at the album’s variability in theme and muses.
Sonically, the album is a mix of “folklore” and “Midnights.” When it was announced at the Grammys, fans had mixed reactions to it being billed as synth-pop, the same genre as “Midnights.” In actuality, about half of the album is synth-pop and the other half could best be described as indie folk. As a die-hard “folklore” stan, I was pleasantly surprised by how heavily some songs resembled her previous work from the album.
Thematically, TTPD focuses on loss, confusion, anger and finding love after losing it. Swift makes several references to a wedding that never happened in song lyrics as well as the Spotify art installation that was unveiled before the release. The installation featured dried cornelia flowers and pieces of what appeared to be a wedding veil torn apart. The pop star gushes about her new relationship with Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce in “So High School” and “The Alchemy,” two songs that showcase the head-over-heels puppy love the pair seem to have.
“The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” is definitely in the same conversation as “All Too Well” and “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve” for the most gut-wrenching Taylor Swift drags of all time. Another strong contender is “So Long, London,” the devastating fifth track.
“But Daddy I Love Him” has also been stuck in my head since Friday. On the track, Swift describes a forbidden romance, the older sister of “Love Story,” according to Rolling Stone Magazine.
As with any Taylor Swift release, fans and detractors alike have flocked to the internet to try to assign each song to Joe Alwyn, Matty Healy and everyone in between. Swift is an artist who has always been very open and honest about her private life, which can be a double-edged sword.
Many fans now feel entitled to know all of her personal details, even things she chooses to keep private, like specific muses for songs. While it’s understandable that listeners want to make sense of her songwriting, people also need to remember that artists are human beings who deserve privacy and respect for their personal lives, even if they are in the public eye.
Swift calls attention to this in her track “I Can Do It with a Broken Heart,” which alludes to her performing the highly successful Eras Tour amidst her painful breakup with Alwyn. She sings about how she’s “miserable” and “no one even knows.”
Instead, she is expected to put on a show of colossal proportions while she crumbles inside. In the background of the song, you can hear her in-ear monitor from the Eras Tour — if you listen closely, you will hear “1, 2, 3, 4.” The upbeat tempo is paired with some of her most heartbreaking lyrics to date, which highlights the importance of giving artists the same grace and time to heal as we would give anyone else. She sings: “All the pieces of me shattered/As the crowd was chanting ‘more.’”
Swift is known for including “unhinged” lyrics in some of her songs, and this album did not disappoint. In “But Daddy I Love Him,” the pop star sings, “I’m having his baby/No I’m not but you should see your faces,” which is a possible allusion to fans speculating that she and Alwyn were expecting during their six-year relationship. She also randomly hypes up Charlie Puth by singing that he “should be a bigger artist” on the title track. Honorable mentions include calling out Kim Kardashian by name in the title of “thanK you aIMee” and name dropping herself in “Clara Bow.”
As unhinged as her songwriting can be, it can often also be heartbreaking. On track five, she sings, “My friends said it isn’t right to be scared/Every day of a love affair.” She also describes the tendency to miss someone that hurt you, singing “Six weeks of breathing clean air/I still miss the smoke.”
Even amidst all the chaos, Swift is on top of her game after the release of “The Tortured Poets Department,” with no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
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