Out with one era, in with another: once again, mega-popstar Taylor Swift has returned with a new installment to her discography. Poignantly titled “THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT,” Swift’s 11th studio album is a carefully curated look into a shattered heart following the end of a passionate relationship. This time, she’s letting listeners hear more about her life than ever before (which, in comparison to Swift’s previous work, is quite the statement in itself).
Despite being thematically comparable to her previous works, the four-time Album of the Year winner infuses a new voice of intensity into the record’s whopping 31-track run, recounting the agonizing details of a broken connection through diaristic retellings and intense self-introspection. From disparaging tales of humor in songs, like the album’s title track and “But Daddy I Love Him,” to raw, calamitous themes of romantic affiliation in tracks like “loml” and “The Black Dog,” Swift lays her heart out in drastic detail for listeners to dissect and translate into their own feelings.
As soon as you hit play on the opening track “Fortnight,” featuring rapper Post Malone, Swift makes it clear that this album has no limits on what topics will be touched upon, with only the guideline of relentless honesty hanging over each track. Moments into the first track of the album, Swift remarks about how she was “supposed to be sent away, but they forgot to come and get me,” setting the virtuous tone of the record, while also introducing its relaxed, indie-adjacent sound. Lyrically, there is no shortage of vigor and transparency throughout the subsequent songs. In the title track “The Tortured Poets Department,” Swift recounts her mental health struggles and the impractical structure of her previous relationships while also holding on to the desperation of wanting to revive a romantic connection. The melancholy of Swift’s vocals also plays greatly into the emotions blanketed over each track, with the alluring delivery of lines like “Who’s gonna hold you like me?” The title track is worthy of being the record’s namesake, as it perfectly encapsulates the haunting and wistful emotions baked into each song on the record.
Swift’s brushes with heartbreak are poetically discussed in several ways throughout the album. In anthems like “Down Bad,” Swift reaches into her ferocious resentment for her ex-lovers, expressing herself through the sincerity of lines like “I might just die, it would make no difference” which is about not being with a desired partner. Songs like “Guilty as Sin?” and “Florida!!!” (featuring indie-pop star Florence Welch) touch on similar themes of letting passion overtake you in the name of love. The quality and classic nature of Swift’s discography comes from when her feelings are laid out in their purest form, and this album does an excellent job of making sure the picture is painted perfectly for the listener.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a work of Swift’s if there wasn’t a handful of tracks set aside to unleash the feeling of unfiltered heartbreak. Songs like “The Albatross,” “The Prophecy” and “So Long, London” tap into the somber side of Swift’s innermost feelings, letting listeners know the pain of the 34-year-old singer-songwriter. Songs where Swift pours her heart into a glass for the world to see never feel like arm-twisting on this record, as every heartbreak song is not only genuine but also a creative way of expressing the burn of losing one that you love.
In an engaging diversion from the central theme of romantic anguish, Swift also uses some of the record’s tracks to address topics of the self in songs like “Clara Bow,” “I Hate It Here” and “The Manuscript.” In a rare instance, Swift addresses herself by name in “Clara Bow,” adding an interesting fourth wall break about the standards and ideas that people have surrounding the exterior women in entertainment put on to succeed. The tracks addressing Swift herself are a superb addition to the record, emphasizing the songwriter’s ability to weave her personal style into an array of unique topics discussed through song.
As powerful as the album is lyrically, it can fall a bit flat sonically. As nice as the indie sound is for the project, it does not take long for the listener to grow jaded by the album’s frequent use of synth waves, soft piano chords and recycled beats. In all honesty, it’s a shame, as the album could have easily soared to new heights if the lyrics were coupled with diverse, more compelling backdrops behind them. With 31 tracks, it doesn’t help that much of the record is on a similar wavelength in terms of sound, and many of the songs quickly begin to blur into each other from the first couple of chords. Fans have criticized Swift in the past for not wavering on her production choices for each record, working pretty much solely with producers Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner for each album since “folklore” was released in 2020. Unfortunately, the lack of diversity in producers is apparent on this record. Although Swift’s lyrics are strong, each track has a hard time standing on its own with the production it’s given.
“THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT” is a celebration of the maturity and wisdom Swift has gained since the start of her career and a triumph of a record for the chart-topping pop icon. The record manages to be a different take on Swift’s lyrical style despite its familiar production, and the project firmly stands apart from the rest of her releases, cementing it as its own unique “era.” Through sharp-cutting lyrics, brutal honesty and bittersweet self-reflection, Swift immerses herself and her fans into a new world of possibilities for future projects.
Even in her most ambitious endeavors of music, Swift manages to stay relatable, connecting with her listeners on hyper-specificities that even the consumers themselves didn’t know they related to. It’s hard to not be excited about where Swift will take her career in the subsequent months and years following this record, whether there’s another heartbreak in the pipeline or another hard series of conversations with the self in the future, one thing remains certain: Swift will always keep writing, and we will have the privilege of hearing what she has to say.
PHOTO COURTESY OF LOS ANGELES TIMES
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