Through the creation of Midnights and her recent Eras Tour, Taylor Swift garnered an even larger fanbase and broke billionaire status. With this came anticipation for her newest album, The Tortured Poets Department, which has been featured heavily on the radio and critical reviews for what many believe is a disjointed sound and unclear theme.
However, many fans disagree and believe that Swift created this album for her fan base rather than for the general masses. In either case, the album has surpassed her own Spotify record with a staggering 300 million streams in a 24 hour period, compared to her initial 185 million streams for Midnights. In any sense, I believe that this album is yet another artistic masterpiece.
As The Tortured Poets Department, abbreviated TTPD by its fans, ushered in yet another era for Swift, fans’ excitement turned into hesitant criticism of the album’s lyrics and content. Personally, while I believe that Swift is a poetic writer, some of the songs on this album feel abrupt. Without context, some lyrics come off as detached, such as “I’d say the 1830s but without all the racists and getting married off for the highest bid” from “I Hate it Here.” This line, which comes across as startling and off-kilter, is actually a criticism of the 1830s.
Despite these serious themes, this album’s musical background contains an electro-pop sound, allowing the music to conflict with the lyrics. Electro pop allows for a more upbeat background to pair with the prevalent piano throughout the album.
In preparation for this album, fans quickly jumped on the idea that there could be a double album. The idea that this new drop could be derived from the number two came from rigor mortis which takes approximately two hours to complete after death and the peace signs that she displayed in her recent Instagram posts..
These theories turned out to be correct: after an early release of the original album on Apple Music, The Anthology dropped at 2 a.m. This addition held fifteen new songs — completing TTPD with 31 tracks.
This wasn’t the only popular theory being shared by the masses, fans theorized over the muses of this upcoming album based on the lyrics Swift featured on her Instagram story and the titles of her tracklist.
Though Swift and Joe Alwyn’s separation broke the media and many Swifties’ hearts, this new album seems to leave Alwyn primarily out of the heat. Many references within songs such as “I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)” and “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” describe drug addictions and fame — two things Alwyn isn’t associated with.
Many of the songs in TTPD and The Anthology allude to her current relationship with football player Travis Kelce, examples being “The Alchemy” and “So High School.” Containing lyrics such as “Truth, dare, spin bottles / You know how to ball, I know Aristotle.” which can be connected to Swift’s writing and Kelce’s professional football playing.
Fans have attempted to break down the lyrics to no avail with various disagreements about what songs may pertain to which person. The difficulty stems from the ambiguity of Swift’s lyricism, allowing fans to draw inspiration from any of her romantic entanglements. These the question: was there a specific person in mind for these songs? Art is subjective and applies to the lived experiences of people with vastly different lives. In this album it seems that Swift created pieces to resonate with different relationships she had rather than just having clear cut tracks.
However, some songs seem to have been created for the sole purpose of pointing a finger at figures from Swift’s life. The song “thanK you aIMee” spells the name Kim, referring to Kim Kardashian, who is well known for her part in the television series “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” and her role in causing the “downfall” of Swift before her Reputation era.
Much of the criticism of this album comes from lyrics such as the one featured above that seem to be the complete opposite of poetry. But as the recurring idea of a “manuscript” suggests, these pieces are Swift’s previously unpublished works that have been put into a larger anthology — a collection of published poems.
Though the original album initially yielded radio ready songs, many of them feel as if they are lacking creativity and depth. Swift doesn’t push her vocals to the limit in this album but the sound feels familiar and comforting nonetheless.
Much of this album completes pieces of thought in her previous albums. ‘Peter’ is a reference to the song ‘Cardigan’ from Folklore where Swift references the book Peter Pan by James Matthew Barrie. While in ‘Cassandra’ Swift references the mythical Cassandra of Troy who was cursed to see the future and have no one believe her — shedding light on the misogyny that Swift and the women around her experience. Much like her track ‘Mad Woman’ in Folklore which feels like an introduction to the song.
These literary references aren’t new to Swift, and neither are her classical and historical references. She creates her own type of poetry in order to share the stories of others.
Swift likens herself to this generation’s tortured superstar. Though this has garnered a surprising amount of backlash on the internet, Swift has proven to be extremely popular among people of all ages. And, with this, she has demonstrated in dealing with the harsh realities of fame. However, in her documentary, Miss Americana, she spoke about her mental health struggles which she displays for the world in this album.
The idea that this album could be juvenile when it showcases the struggles of a woman attempting to fit into the standards society has set for her as she wrestles with the price of fame goes against what the media has asked of her. Critics wanted more Swift but what is the price they are willing to pay for her?
One of the biggest criticisms of this album is that all the songs sound the same. While there is a consistent tune throughout the entirety of the album, it is evident that there is repetition. However, this doesn’t need to be perceived as a bad thing. In fact, consistency within an album showcasing her personal struggles and thoughts creates a sense of harmony.
While recent criticism that this album is messy is valid and there are places where Swift could’ve spent more time to create a more succinct sound, to say that it is unpoetic is unfair to the work put into this album. The selling point of The Tortured Poets Department is a list of letters and thoughts penned out and thrown to the world like disjointed notes passed out in class and then thrown to the bottom of your backpack, but it’s that specific charm that brings fans of Swift returning album after album.