Tortured Poets: A Review

For Swifties, the anticipation began the night of the Grammy’s. It was at that ceremony on February 4th, 2024 that pop messiah Taylor Swift announced her new album the Tortured Poets Department. Naturally, her disciples across the country expressed feverish excitement and interest, noting in particular the album’s far longer name in comparison to her previous one-word albums like Midnights. The album was highly anticipated due to her recent breakup with long term boyfriend, Joe Alwyn, making fans especially keen to learn how her heartbreak would manifest into lyrics. Regardless of personal context or anticipation, a record breaking 1 billion people listened to the album in only the first week of its release. 

The first track of the album, Fortnight, is a slow synthy pop song with lyrics acknowledging the end of a fleeting relationship and the bitterness of the man moving on, as somber verses lament that “his wife waters flowers, she wants to kill him.” The song's melodic harmonies with artist Post Malone cultivate a sense of nostalgia and pining; akin to her last album Midnights, the synthy electronic elements are there, but slower, and driven by a strong bass line and soft acoustic guitars. Swift’s gradual regression from Midnights feels like a goodbye. She’s leaving behind something, while still paying homage to it.

I really enjoyed the production of this album as Jack Antanoff’s classic anodic direction of the songs was prevalent and well intertwined with the folky work of Aaron Desner, making it nuanced and certainly not redundant; instead, it feels new and refreshing. It's not only fun but thought provoking, and Swift’s keen grasp of language creates a listening experience that feels unique to Tortured Poets. 

One can’t talk about a Taylor Swift album without acknowledging the fifth track, a track infamously known as being the most lyrically driven ballad of each album; some examples include All Too Well or Dear John.  The lyrics of Tortured Poets’ fifth track, So Long London, are, in my opinion, some of Swift's finest. In the song, the artist is grieving a relationship, but there's an undertone of anger and resentment. Lyrics like “How much sadness did you think I had?” or “I’m pissed off I let you get all of that youth for free” embodies the pain of a goodbye, while validating the wrong she felt during the relationship.

Just two hours after the album’s initial release, Taylor Swift announced that Tortured Poets was in fact a double album, leaving Swift to release an additional 15 tracks: Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology. The Anthology is a sharp contrast to the original album, as the songs are heavily acoustic in comparison to the electronic ambience of the original album. Personally, I wished that the songs were better integrated into the first 16 tracks in order to make the music blend more seamlessly. However, there are some highlights within this second release, the best song of the album as a whole lying in the bonus tracks. Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus is a heartbreaking piece with a poignant piano instrumental, and includes some of Swift's most vulnerable lyrics in her entire discography, with verses like “You said some things that I can’t unabsorb/ you turned me into an idea of sorts/ you needed me but you needed drugs more/ and I just watched it happen” striking a chord within listeners. As a long term Taylor Swift fan, these lyrics felt deeply personal; it felt like hearing a side of her that I hadn’t prior. 

Overall, The Tortured Poets Department is a deeply vulnerable album. It’s the manifestation of heartbreak, grief, anger and acceptance. This album is nothing like what she’s put out before, and I hope to see more of this from Taylor Swift in the future. 

Kat Stephens