Y’all already know that when Taylor Swift drops an album, the internet is going to go wild for at least, well, a fortnight. “The Tortured Poets Department” dropped on April 19 at midnight, and it is already taking the internet by storm. Now that the (secret double!!!) album has officially been released, I am incredibly excited to voice my thoughts on the files that Chairman Swift has released to us.
Who’s TTPD About?
First off, I am incredibly surprised at the amount of songs that are seemingly about Matty Healy, her brief flame of last summer. I definitely thought the primary focus of the album would be about Joe Alwyn, her “lover” from 2016-2023. However, some of the hardest hitting songs to me, like “loml” and “My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys” seem to reference her and Joe’s relationship, and how it slowly went downhill.
Still on the topic of relationships, TTPD gave us the first songs about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s relationship! “The Alchemy” and “So High School” seem to romanticize American things like football and high school in a similar way that “London Boy”, which referred to her dating Joe. I think these songs were sprinkled in there to let us listeners know that she’s doing fine now.
Taylor seemed to be far less cryptic and much more clear on who and what she was talking about in many of the 31 new songs, including “thanK you aIMee,” that seems to fire stray bullets at Kim K for the drama in 2017 that sparked the release of “reputation”. Tbh, I found it quite funny, especially after Kim’s daughter, North, was seen at the Eras Tour.
Finally, the last shock to me was that she seemed to reference her hometown and hating it several times throughout the album. My personally theory is that she went back recently and something happened that made her realize that she hates it. I’m not entirely sure, but as a girly who also kind of hates her hometown, I appreciate it.
My Favorite Tracks
Some of my personal favs on the album (in no particular order) are “The Black Dog”, “I Hate It Here”, “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart”, “Fortnight (feat. Post Malone)”, and the title track. These tracks have a lot of emotion and yet a solid beat behind them. “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” addresses how she performed on the Eras Tour even though she was heartbroken, with a surprising upbeat tone. Post Malone in the lead single “Fortnight” added a lot of depth and gorgeous layered vocals.
Overall Review
Overall, I thought this album was a 6/10. My favorite album is Midnights, which combines deep lyrics with incredible production, in my opinion. TTPD seemed to be lacking in production, and several fellow Swifties and I have agreed that many of the tracks sound similar. I’m excited to see what she does with this new era on tour, but so far, the album has a lot of skips for me.
If you’re interested in listening to “The Tortured Poets Department”, you can check it out here. Hopefully, you enjoy it more than I do!