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‘The Tortured Poets Department’ Is Swift’s Most Masterful Work To Date

Liv Thomson
The Tortured Poets Department vinyl

Liv Thomson

Taylor Swift’s twelfth studio album is a devastating foray into love, loss, addiction and the sad reality that fame does not insulate you from heartbreak.

The Tortured Poets Department (2024) dropped on 19th April, having first been announced at this year’s Grammy Awards, where Swift took home the award for Best Album with Midnights (2022).

After weeks of hints, track title reveals, and vinyl variant sales, the album’s release became an internet phenomenon. Within days, the album smashed records across streaming platforms, infiltrating the minds and hearts of fans worldwide. Now, less than one week on, it’s already consolidated its status as one of Swift’s most masterful works to date.

https://twitter.com/TheSwiftSociety/status/1784165283491352675

The Drop

“A brutal self-dissection of Swift’s own mental health and mania”

At first, the album sounds like something you’d listen to with a nice cup of tea. It’s around track five that you realise that, actually, a shot of tequila might be more appropriate.

It’s so much more than the break-up album that audiences were anticipating. Rather, it reads more like a brutal self-dissection of Swift’s own mental health and mania at the breakdown of her relationship amidst unmanageable levels of fame, straight from the mouth of the tortured poet herself.

@chris

@Taylor Swift ARE YOU KIDDING ME? #taylorswift #torturedpoetsdepartment

♬ loml – Taylor Swift

The musical underpinnings of the album manage to retain the quintessential Taylor Swift feel, even if it’s not starkly obvious at all times.

The collaboration tracks ‘Fortnight’ featuring Post Malone, and ‘Florida!!!’ featuring Florence and the Machine are great examples of this. In ‘Florida!!!’, Swift lays her signature lyrical prowess over a beat that is distinctively Florence, creating a perfect blend of the two.

She achieves this powerful coupling on several other tracks too. ‘I Can Do It With a Broken Heart’ showcases it well; an upbeat song that should, by all accounts, have the same vibe as ’22’, but in fact has the same punch-you-in-the-face edge as ‘All Too Well’. If ‘Bejewelled’ had ever been to therapy, this would be her.

The Anthology

“We see how love can be outgrown, lost, and re-assessed.”

In a move that is perhaps unsurprising, fifteen brand new songs were released mere hours after the initial album drop. A secret double album! This collection of raw and vulnerable poetry is referred to as The Anthology (2024) – very much a part of Tortured Poets, but arguably even more visceral in its collective effect on the listener.

Featuring all four of the vinyl bonus tracks, The Anthology feels more searing in nature than the album’s first half. While still achingly sad, and very much in keeping with Folklore (2020), some tracks are particularly cutting, such as ‘thanK you aIMee'(yes, those letters are capitalised, take from that what you will). However, there’s still fun to be had in tracks like ‘So High School’.

The Parallels

“The Tortured Poets Department is Swift’s strongest lyricism since Folklore“

The Tortured Poets Department feels like Folklore and Evermore (2021) met Midnights in a club one Saturday and got talking.

Parallels are a key theme in this album, with cleverly drawn references to Taylor Swift’s past discography scattered throughout. Some stand-out lyrics can be found in ‘So Long, London’. Here, she sings “I stopped trying to make him laugh,” which directly contravenes ‘mirrorball’, when she insists she’s “still trying everything to get you laughing at me.”

Additionally, ‘New Romantics’ declares “please leave me stranded, it’s so romantic,” but ‘Down Bad’ questions how dare you think it’s romantic, leaving me safe and stranded.”

It’s in these parallels that we see her journey and growth between each album. We see how love can be outgrown, lost and re-assessed. It’s a vulnerable disposition for Swift to show her audiences, making it all the more visceral.

The Story

Depending on which vinyl variant you have, the last line of the album will differ. If you listen to ‘The Manuscript’, you’ll notice the last line is “the story’s not mine anymore.” It’s an ode to the album’s prologue, which informs listeners that “the author has closed the chapter, boarded it up.” Containing the strongest lyricism since Folklore, and whilst not everyone’s favourite, the message of the album could not be clearer. This is the album Swift needed to move on. In sharing with us, she frees herself.

Taylor Swift will resume The Eras tour in Paris on 9th May.

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Featured image courtesy of Liv Thompson.

Just another argumentative antithetical dream girl trying her best to make her sentences pretty. She has an undergraduate degree in psychology and is currently pursuing a Master's in broadcast journalism.

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