If this album has taught me anything, it’s that I’m mentally unwell.
Taylor Swift’s new album “The Tortured Poets Department” came out at midnight on April 19. Surprisingly to fans and listeners, this album was a double album. The second part of the album “The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology” came out at 2 a.m. There are 31 songs collectively on the album.
The album is labeled as pop, but most songs don’t fit that genre, in my opinion. The songs range from what you would hear on a “girls’ night out playlist” on Spotify, to music you cry to in the shower. Some, oddly and beautifully enough, fit into both categories.
A lot of the songs had me bring out the dictionary and made me search terms that I was worried would put me on a federal watchlist.
This album reminds me a lot of her “Folklore” and “Evermore” albums, but with little sprinkles of “1989” and “Reputation” mixed in. This album takes the best parts of her previous albums and combines them into something completely new. The lyrics were pure poetry—and sometimes hard to understand without additional research—and vulnerability. Even the songs that are more pop focused are still incredibly raw with her emotions. This album is transparent in a way that we haven’t seen from her before. She goes into topics such as heartbreak, love, and sexual desires.
The single on this album is “Fortnight”, which features the popular artist Post Malone. To be honest, when I first found out that they were going in on a song together, I was confused. I never would’ve paired them together in my mind. That opinion changed when I heard the song.
For the first bit of “Fortnight”, I didn’t like it. The song grew on me once I heard the bridge. To be honest, I think Post Malone’s vocals saved that song. His voice combined with hers created something so beautiful and addictive in my mind, and I haven’t stopped listening to it since. If he wasn’t singing on that song, I probably wouldn’t be as much of a fan.
Fans, myself included, have been speculating about who certain songs are about. There’s one song that makes it very obvious who the song is about: Kim Kardashian.
The song “thanK you aIMee” on “The Anthology” portion of the album literally spells out the name Kim. This alludes to the 2016 Kanye West and Kardashian feud with Swift. This scandal caused Swift to hide from the public eye that slandered her. For those who don’t know the lore, this happened before the “Reputation” album came out.
The other rumoured muses for some of the songs on the album are Travis Kelce, a football player for the Kanas City Chiefs and her current boyfriend; Joe Alwyn, an actor and her former boyfriend; and Matty Healy, a member of the band The 1975 who reportedly dated Swift.
I’ve seen discourse online about how her albums are always about falling in love and breaking up. I’m going to speak on my personal beliefs because this is a review, not facts, so feel free to disagree with me. In my opinion, Swift has muses just as other great artists do. An artist is to capture something they witness or feel, and turn it into something beautiful, and that’s what she does. These muses give her inspiration, but they do not create the song. I think people who use the argument that her songs are all about love and breaking up give the muses too much credit. Their argument takes away from the lyricism and melodies she’s created. The muses I speak of are not just the men in her life. She’s written songs about herself and the people who have impacted her life, whether that be in fiction, real life, or history books.
Additionally, because I’m on a roll, the album is literally called “The Tortured Poets Department.” So, for those who are speaking about how it’s all about heartbreak and her life, I say this in response: what did you expect her to write about? This isn’t the 1989 album where she can give you “Shake it Off” and call it tortured poetry. I’m not a poet, but when I do write poetry, it’s always when I’m feeling emotional, and I need to release my pain out on paper. I can’t tell you a person who would write a poem about how they love to party and have fun with their friends. It’s “The Tortured Poets Department”, it’s supposed to be tortured—it’s in the name.
If you couldn’t tell by now, I’m a huge fan of Swift’s work. I genuinely believe this is the best album she’s created. It’s the most vulnerable album she’s made thus far. It may not be the most cinematic album collectively, but it’s the album that can grab your soul once you understand and resonate with the meanings of the songs.
If you haven’t listened to it, I recommend with all my heart that you listen to it. There’s music you can dance to, and there’s music you can cry to. There’s something for everyone in the “The Tortured Poets Department.”
