In a world of Spotify and TikTok, where people tend to prefer individual songs over albums, only Taylor Swift could get away with dropping a 31-song double album. The songs, while popular, aren’t exactly the definition of radio hits. “The Tortured Poets Department” is an album for her fans, people who already like her music and will listen to a 31-song album… approximately 1.76 billion times. That’s now a global record for the most streams an album has gotten in its first week.
Is the album worth it, or is it just the last name Swift that made it popular? Probably a bit of both. The album is vulnerable, emotional, and has her famous lyricism. It’s also long, mellow, and can feel repetitive. I’m not sure I’d say it comes together as a good album — it’s more of a diary — an amazing diary at that, filled with beautiful songs and poems. One of the founders of Franklin’s Taylor Swift Club, Davis Finney, agrees. “She writes her feelings and puts them into words … she create[s] with the idea that all emotions are valid.”
The album is hard to describe in relation to her others. Its tracks are more simple instrumentally, leaving room for lyrics to switch between blunt honesty and complex metaphors. Even just the name of the second half of the album, “The Anthology,” had many reaching for a dictionary.
Nevertheless, listeners are divided in their opinions of the music. “Honestly, [it] felt like a watered down and stretched out version of ‘Midnights,’” says Liam Palfreyman, who wasn’t a fan of Swift’s most recent work. “She barely stepped out of her comfort zone with almost the same sounds and music as her previous albums.”
However, some argue that it isn’t identical to previous albums, even if Swift hasn’t completely reinvented herself. Hailey Dickinson, a ‘Swiftie’ at Franklin, loved the album and thought it was an expansion for Swift as an artist. “This one’s a step above … it’s not the same pop thing she was doing in [her] previous album, ‘Midnights,’ and it’s not the same slow folk music that she’s done previously.”
Finney took a stance in the middle, calling the album “a push” in some ways, but not a major one. “I think [for Swift] this album was much more focused on capturing emotion than reinventing herself.” The album isn’t a copy of a previous one, but it isn’t anything shockingly new for the artist either. The question of whether it has to be a reinvention to be good lies with the listener, and many have criticized the music industry’s push for women to make themselves new over and over, including Swift herself.
Musically, the album has some specific traits, showing her country roots as well as her more current pop style. About the style, Finney says, “I also think the melodies and hooks in this album sound very unique to the rest of her discography and [she’s] almost a bit more playful with her voice at times.” He went on to say that her songs sounded a little more theatrical in some ways than in previous albums and that the chorus melodies sounded new for her.
Many have commented that Swift only writes about men, and although this album certainly seems to mostly be about men, at its core “The Tortured Poets Department” is about emotion. It’s a real, raw journey through Swift’s recent life.
Still, let’s talk about the men. When fans theorize who her songs are about, this album brings three main names to mind: Joe Alwyn, her long-term boyfriend whom she broke up with in 2023; Matty Healy, her situationship from 2014 whom she also briefly dated after Alwyn; and Travis Kelce: her current boyfriend, and a football player for the Kansas City Chiefs. There have been a lot of theories about who each song is about. Many can agree that her songs “The Alchemy” and “So High School” are about Kelce, but the disagreement starts when trying to pick apart the album’s sadder songs, which have clues pointing to both Alwyn and Healy. I believe many of the songs are a mix of both of them, and the truth of what’s about who is something we can only gain from Swift herself.
One of her songs, however, seems to tell us in the title alone. Track 24 is titled “thanK you aIMee” which is seemingly a direct attack on Kim Kardashian, who’s had bad blood with Swift for years. It’s certainly been a controversial move on her part. Dickinson sees it as “very tip of the iceberg of what controversy could be. I feel like in music there are a lot of people who go a lot more extreme and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that because music’s a form of expression.” Finney holds a similar opinion, saying that it may be petty to include her name but that it’s not Swift’s job to lie about her feelings, especially seeing as the singer has never claimed all her feelings are justified. Celia Wood has been a fan for years but isn’t a fan of the song. “I don’t like Kim either, but Taylor preaches kindness and feminism and … [this] went against both in my opinion.” Wood sees it as a bad example for Swift to set, especially with so many young girls seeing her as a role model.
“ThanK you aIMee” isn’t the only controversial song on the album. Her song “I Hate it Here” has been the subject of a lot of controversy over accusations of racism. The singer has long been called a ‘white feminist,’ and dating the problematic Matty Healy certainly wasn’t helpful for her image in that way. Swift is being burned for a line saying she’d like to go to the 1830s, just without racism. Many fans feel that it’s a very white perspective, and glosses over the terrible realities of that time period for people of color. Others say that since the singer is telling her audience how nostalgia is a “mind’s trick,” and it wasn’t great in the past, that her song was written with specific intent.
Still another song has some questionable parts. Swift and fellow pop star Oliva Rodrigo have had a complicated history, including an accusation of Rodrigo copying some of Swift’s music. This seems a little ironic, considering that Swift’s song “imgonnagetyouback” is very lyrically similar to Rodrigo’s song “Get Him Back” — not her finest moment.
Overall, this is a music review, and here’s my final review. Individual songs on the album appeal to people, but it doesn’t come over well as a whole. The songs are too similar to make a well-rounded album. I did however like many of the songs individually, and if you’re a Swift fan, you’ll definitely like most — if not all — of the album.
