Upon writing this review, I have listened to Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department (TTPD) exactly once, with the exception of Fortnight, since I also watched the music video. This review is based on The Anthology edition, the two hour and two minute double album that includes 31 tracks. These are my first impressions, not a full analysis.
For a bit of context, I’ve only been a Swiftie since Midnights came out. I have long respected Taylor as a business woman and for the way she manages her brand, but didn’t have any strong feelings (positive or negative) about her music. Midnights changed all that. As a songwriter and music production teacher, I felt I simply couldn’t ignore the fact that this artist had just held the top 10 spots in the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks straight. Part of my philosophy as an arts teacher is that effective art communicates effectively to the audience. Clearly Swift had found an incredibly effective way to connect with a massive audience, so I finally sat down and listened to see what all the fuss was about and was immediately hooked.
I had a lot of trepidation leading up to this album. I sensed that this new era was careening dangerously close to feeling like a pity party. All of the artwork, the marketing on Tayor’s social media accounts, and especially the titles on the tracklist pointed toward this being an album focused almost solely on the pain that resulted from Swift’s past relationships. While I feel like this is a brilliant move from a marketing perspective and would likely resonate with a decent portion of Taylor’s fanbase, I was worried that Taylor has already been painted this way for too long; as the one-trick pony who can only write break up songs. To my friends and family who aren’t Swifties, this would be proof that she really can’t do anything else. I was longing for more of a Folklore/Evermore aesthetic both musically and lyrically.
Fortnight was initially not my favorite. It felt like a cobbled together mashup of neo-folk-like ambience, intimate bedroom pop, but still trying to be Midnights in its overall sonic palette. The result from my perspective, is a faraway, small sound, rather than the pop anthem I would expect from the lead single on a Taylor record. However, after seeing the music video (and therefore cementing the sound of this song in my head) I feel it’s a solid song both musically and lyrically. It’s catchy and playful, but with some depth and emotional conflict that gives it some richness that I did not perceive on my first listen. I found The Tortured Poets Department to be underwhelming for a title track. Sonically, it’s very similar to Fortnight and I started to worry that this album was going to have a bit too much Jack Antonoff for my taste. To be clear, I think Antonoff is incredibly talented and has produced some excellent work that I have loved for many years. Antonoff’s work with Fun and the tracks he produced with Lana Del Rey on her 2023 release stand out as some of my favorite work from him. Antonoff has co-written and produced some of my favorite Taylor songs as well (several songs on Reputation and a good portion of the Lover album including the title track), but I feel that lately the sound of the music he has been making with Taylor has become more and more homogenous and less creative. By the time I was halfway through My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys, I was feeling like TTPD was the album that I had dreaded, and not the album that I had hoped for.
Then Down Bad came on, and I started to have some hope. The vibe had shifted a bit, and this felt more like a classic Taylor bop. So Long, London brought with it some clever world play, and a driving beat that really propels the song forward. As a side note, I had seen a “leaked” screenshot on Instagram that showed the tracklist with times for each song. In that list, So Long, London was billed to be 9 minutes 28 seconds long. This turned out to be completely fake, but at the time, it looked like Joe Alwyn was getting his own “ten minute version.” I have to admit I’m a little disappointed, but at the same time, Swift’s relationship with Alwyn has already been the subject of many, many songs. Maybe he doesn’t deserve any more air time.
Florida!!! was the first track that really grabbed me. This epic collaboration with Florence & the Machine displays some of the best of what Taylor can do in terms of storytelling, especially her well utilized technique of using a repetitive hook that changes meaning throughout the song, and includes some excellent production from Antonoff. Florence Welch’s vocals are, as always, spectacular and her Machine really brings it on this song. Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me? left me with some questions. There are some interesting, albeit mixed, metaphors in this song; combining references to circus performers with what sounded like references to being someone who might be held in an asylum. I get the message that Swift is pushing back against an industry who loves to be entertained by her but also tries to keep her in a creative box and critiques her every move in her personal and professional life. Again, this is based on my first listening and no other research. I could be totally off base here.
The way that I Can Do It With A Broken Heart breaks the fourth wall makes it challenging to listen to in a way that I think shows growth for Taylor as a songwriter. I think Taylor is trying to honestly convey to her audience the toll that her career has taken on her personal life and mental health. Swift speaks often about how thankful she is to her fans for their support, but doesn’t often push back against what they demand from her. This is a tricky message to deliver, given Swift’s level of industry success, immense wealth, and overall privilege, but I think she threads the needle well in these lyrics.
The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived was the last song in the initial 16 tracks of the initial non-Anthology release that stood out to me. It’s a break up song, but a solid one. I had heard speculation leading up to the release of the album that TTPD might follow the arc of the five stages of heartbreak (similar to the five stages of grief) and this song seemed to land solidly in the anger stage, as much of the album does up to this point.
The Black Dog and the other three bonus tracks that share a name with the four editions of the album (The Manuscript, The Albatross, and The Bolter respectively) are all excellent songs. These songs, to me, are less about the typical sadness of a relationship ending, and more about dealing with the aftermath from different perspectives. Some of these reflect healthy ways of moving on, some reflect obsession and borderline stalker behavior, but musically, they rise up as some of the better developed songs on the album.
I couldn’t help but draw comparisons between imgonnagetyouback and Olivia Rodrigo’s Get Him Back!, which I found to be a way to tag Rodrigo back for the instances where Rodrigo has interpolated a few of Taylor’s songs. It’s important to note that Rodrigo did this legally and with permission from Swift and her publisher. I’m not sure if Taylor was intentionally referencing Rodrigo’s song (and neither does the Internet at this point), but if she was, this might further the narrative that Swift does actually approve of Rodrigo taking direct inspiration from her music. It might also tell the opposite story. Knowing Taylor, we will probably never know for sure.
thanK you aIMee is likely to draw some criticism, and I’m still forming my own opinions about whether bringing Kim Kardashian’s child into their feud is acceptable. To me, the overall message of the song shows the arc of Swift’s initial anger about Kim’s past actions toward something close to forgiveness; or at least as close to forgiveness as Swift will likely get related to this particular issue. At the bare minimum, the conclusion of this song acknowledges that the very public drama between Taylor and Kim is part of what shaped Swift into who she is today.
Once I settled into the second half of The Anthology edition of the album, I started to hear the Folklore/Evermore poetry and sonics that I was really hoping for with the release of this album. Somewhere around this point in my listening session, I looked up the full credits for the album and found that the majority of the songs that I had a positive reaction to, including many songs on the second half of the album, were produced or co-written with Aaron Dessner, who co-wrote and produced significant portions of Folklore and Evermore. Many of the songs I had a less enthusiastic reaction to were co-written or produced by Antonoff. Songs like I Hate It Here, I Look in People’s Windows, and The Manuscript solidified for me the idea that the two halves of the album were intentionally written for different demographics within Taylor’s fanbase. The first half, featuring a mix of dreamy, bedroom pop and synth-laden bangers, is meant for her younger fans who are more likely to relate to her vivid, cathartic depictions of love gone wrong. The second half, with its more acoustically driven sonic palette and more varied subject matter, was written for the millennials that fell in love with the rich almost-cinematic world Swift constructed in her Folklore and Evermore eras.
Overall, I’m very pleased with most of the songs on TTPD, and I think much of the rest of it will grow on me as many Taylor albums have in the past. I remember initially feeling that the 1989 (Taylor’s Version) vault tracks were nothing special, but within a week, I felt that the expanded musical variety and thoughtful poetry in these songs represented the best part of the album. Reputation initially caught me completely off guard and felt like too drastic a departure from the rest of Swift’s catalog for me to latch onto, but I now regard it as my favorite Taylor album. I look forward to spending more time with The Tortured Poets Department and digging into this new era.