If you haven’t been living under a rock for the last couple of weeks, you have surely heard that the one and only, Taylor Swift is back with a brand new album called “The Tortured Poets Department” that comes out on April 19th. After Swift deceived her entire fan base on the evening of the Grammys into thinking that “Reputation (Taylor’s Version)” was going to be her big announcement of the evening, she threw us this major curveball complete with a revamp of her social media pages and a post featuring the new album cover. As if that wasn’t enough to completely break the internet, the very next day Swift dropped the track list complete with a shocking 17 new songs. Now that we’ve all had a minute to fully process the news, here are my thoughts and predictions on the jaw-dropping fake out that is TS11.
Starting off with the most obvious change that this new era brings, the album title itself, “The Tortured Poets Department” marks Swift’s longest album title yet. This makes me curious as to how else this album will stand out from the rest. Based on the melancholy aesthetic of the album cover and track titles, many people are already predicting that the album will have an indie-pop feel along with the likes of “Folklore” and “Evermore,” which would please the solid chunk of her fans that prefer this sound to her classic pop sound. However, when it comes to Swift, fans have quickly learned to expect the unexpected.
Recently, some fans have started to complain that Swift’s continuous collaborations with producer Jack Antonoff are causing her music to become repetitive and too synthetic sounding. Certain Swifties online have started to make comments about how certain songs from Swift’s re-recordings are not holding up to the standards of their stolen counterparts because of this new sound she created with Antonoff. Some people are apprehensive that this new album will just be another repeat of the synth, electro-pop sound that can be found on “Midnights” and several of her re-recorded pop hits like “Style” and “New Romantics,” which people have said don’t sound as authentic or heartfelt as the originals.
Personally, I do not share that apprehension and have a gut feeling that, knowing how Swift likes to shake things up, “The Tortured Poets Department” will not only return us to a “Folklore”/”Evermore” sound, but also incorporate into some of these songs more rock sounding elements that will work in tandem with the general indie-pop tone. Indie-pop and indie-rock are wildly popular music genres in today’s music, with boygenius nabbing three Grammys this year and Noah Kahan releasing a new highly anticipated collaboration what feels like every other week, people are very found of this certain sound, and I think that Swift could gain a lot of praise for trying her hand at it.
Also, looking at the collaborations is helpful evidence to form a logical prediction for the direction of TS11. Swift’s social media revealed that two tracks on “The Tortured Poets Department” will have a feature; Florence and the Machine on the track “Florida!!!” and Post Malone on the track “Fortnight”. As a massive Florence and the Machine fan, I’m seriously hoping that this song contains classic Florence elements like the drums and the choirs and the electricity. However, the last time Swift included an exclamation point in a song, she, of course, diverted expectations and gave “Slut!” a more romantic, slower melody than most of us were expecting. Florence Welch obviously has the powerful vocals to create a similar more moody, slow-tempo song with Swift, but nobody can take my hope for a rock sounding song away.
As for Post Malone, I am keeping an open mind regarding that decision, even though I’m not really a rap girl, Noah Kahan’s decision to feature him on his track “Dial Drunk” was well-received by fans, so the potential for him and Swift to create a cool indie track together is there. I was skeptical of her decision to collaborate with “Fall Out Boy” on “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)” and now “Electric Touch” is one of my most played of all of her songs, so I have learned in my years as a Swiftie to take a deep breath and trust the process because you never really know what she’s going to do next, so you might as well just sit back and enjoy the excitement of the mystery.
Everyone is always going to have different opinions on Swift’s affinity for genre jumping and everyone is going to have a favorite sound of hers. Even if you still strongly advocate for a country revival or are perfectly content to let Swift continue releasing pop music, the buzz and excitement for this album cannot be denied and fans will continue to spin theories and scout for easter eggs up until the hour before the release date. Whether or not you agree with my hopes and predictions for this album, one thing we can all agree on is that, while we did not see this announcement coming, we will always be there to revel in the drama and chaos that comes from Swift’s mastermind.