Taylor Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department leaked earlier this week, but as it turns out, people were only hearing about half of the album. Taylor gave her fans a heart attack with a “2 am surprise” – TTPD is a “secret double album” full of two years’ worth of “tortured poetry.” From what little I’ve seen, the bulk of the album seems to be about Joe Alwyn and Matt Healy, maybe more songs about Healy than her fans were expecting. Here’s Taylor’s message to her fans:
The Tortured Poets Department. An anthology of new works that reflect events, opinions and sentiments from a fleeting and fatalistic moment in time – one that was both sensational and sorrowful in equal measure. This period of the author’s life is now over, the chapter closed and boarded up. There is nothing to avenge, no scores to settle once wounds have healed. And upon further reflection, a good number of them turned out to be self-inflicted. This writer is of the firm belief that our tears become holy in the form of ink on a page. Once we have spoken our saddest story, we can be free of it.
And then all that’s left behind is the tortured poetry.
THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT is out now.
“There is nothing to avenge, no scores to settle once wounds have healed. And upon further reflection, a good number of them turned out to be self-inflicted.” Well, we can stan a reflective queen! Thank you, Tay, for admitting that so many of your wounds are self-inflicted! Speaking of, the title track is so clearly about Matt Healy, with lyrics like: “You smokеd then ate seven bars of chocolate/We declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist/I scratch your head, you fall asleep/Like a tattooed golden retriever.” Swifties are having a really hard time defending this. Healy is not a golden retriever! Charlie Puth has talked sh-t about Selena Gomez! She also references Healy apparently threatening to self-harm: “Sometimes I wonder if you’re gonna screw this up with me/ But you told Lucy you’d kill yourself if I ever leave.” The “Lucy” in question is likely boygenius’ Lucy Dacus.
And here’s the first single from the album, a collab with Post Malone (who also collab’d with Beyonce on Cowboy Carter’s “Levii’s Jeans”). This is okay?
Like… I’m never the target audience for Taylor’s music, but I agree with some of the Swifties that a lot of this sounds like rejects from Midnights? I’m sure there are some gems on TTPD and there will be some fan-faves. But I wonder if Taylor is sort of in a musical rut with Jack Antonoff producing everything?
Album covers courtesy of Taylor Swift’s Instagram.
I appreciate Taylor, but I agree with some critics – she needs a break, because at this point it’s all GREAT poetry with really repetitive melodies, same harmonies, beats and productions. It’s a lovely album, but sounds like her past 5 years albums in one album.
And I don’t even have the will to listen to the second album, I’m just not interested. Says I, who really loves folklore and 1989 both!
I like Taylor but I’m with you. At least from the two snippets I listened to on here. I really enjoyed 1989 and Lover, but Midnights was veering into a genre I don’t love (and don’t know the name for). Maybe I’ll like more as I listen on you tube but if not… I’ll wait for something poppier and less sallow.
@Laalaa, the consensus seems to be that the second is much better than the first. Give it a try, you’ll probably enjoy it more, as switches from mostly Antonoff, some Dessner to the inverse, with Aaron taking over the majority of the songs on the second half.
On Twitter, a fan was complaining that 2 songs are about Kim Kardashian and that it’s time to get over it.
That golden retriever line … does Taylor have no friends to tell her? Ugh.
And “Who’s gonna hold you like me?” is so high school. It’s what saying, “You’ll never get anybody better than me!” when you are being ditched for being a bad boyfriend.
This is not “tortured poet” territory (I was naively expecting more Folklore with inspiration from truly tortured artists like Nick Drake, Regina Spektor and Elliott Smith…don’t ask me why). But I hear the title track and it’s like, Fearless 3.0. For someone who purports to love “sad songs” this is just another lovelorn bop. This reminds me of the goth punk Reputation aesthetic without any real goth punk tracks/inspo. And it’s mostly about Prince Misogyny. Will not subscribe.
TBF I listened more and admit that I like “So Long, London”…it worked and IS a little heartbreaking, probably due to the heavy Lana vibes (the singing style in the beginning is dead-on LDR). Maybe I need to listen more/give it more of a chance/focus more on the songs about Joe.
She wrote an album’s worth of songs about a guy she dated for ten minutes? WTF.
She wrote an album about a rebound relationship that destroyed her when it ended because then she was forced around full circle to where she started: grieving her long-term relationship with new additional wounds via a guy she’d circled around for years, apparently.
Well said. It destroyed her more than I realized. She is in such a bubble I am sure she couldn’t see what he truly was with her rose coloured glasses in regards to him. I think she’d been infatuated with him for years and finally got his attention and he chewed her up and spit her out.
I relate. I got out of a long term relationship, and rebounded with a BAD GUY because I desperate to believe I was worthy of love – any love. When the rebound dumped me, I was absolutely destroyed because it seemed to prove that my deepest fears were correct. The relationship may have lasted a short time, but that was the break-up where I had to entirely rebuild my relationship to myself.
That said: Fire Jack Antonoff.
Yesssssss this is such a good take on it, Voo. She rebounded hard to Matty, hoping to forget Joe, but then that completely fell apart too. Now she’s left picking up even more pieces.
I’ve had time to listen a couple times now and her sadness just radiates throughout the whole thing.
It also makes me worry about she and Travis. They were so soon after all this.
This is an insightful take. My first long term relationship petered out and I fell hard for my rebound, who dumped me pretty quickly. That was in hindsight the worst period of heartbreak for me.
I am super grossed out by MH (and I say this as a former the 1975 fan) and was so skeeved about the idea of him being TTPD’s muse – but maybe it’s less about him personally, and more about the damage he left behind.
Not gonna lie, on yesterday’s post, some comments said things about leaks being AI and I believed it for a second. But, no. How can she write something like “ivy”, then publish this sh*t? I am sure she is gonna get all the grammies, best reviews. But, is this really what an artist is now? Streams and awards can’t be this satisfactory. And all of this for a guy who looks like ashtray? Really, in your 30’s, this is the life lessons you got? Honestly, I am really disappointed. I really thought after the success of Folklore and Evermore, she grew as an artist and we are gonna be in awe of her potential. But, nope. She left all her growth back in London, good riddance.
“He was a cad/wanting her bad”
“Taming a bear/making him care”
Someone help her!
I can’t understand why everyone on Twitter is praising this album so much. I haven’t heard the second half yet but the first half isn’t that great. So many tracks sound the exact same too lol. And, it’s written about a terrible human being. Are they just…ignoring that?
Once again, all the main attention in the first album is given to Jack Antonoff – which is why it sounds repetitive and tedious. I had to stop listening on my first run through of Midnights for the same reason.
Yes, I agree! I absolutely loved folklore and evermore, but there are only a couple of songs on Midnights that really do it for me (though I really enjoy some of the acoustic versions – go figure how I feel about Jack’s production). And after my first listen of TTPD, despite some songs that I know I will really like after a couple of listens, it’s just beginning to feel like death of a thousand synths…
I appreciate that she’s super close with Jack, but the Aaron Dessert songs really stand out so positively.
At times, I have really found myself wishing that she would just bring out a poetry book instead, because I find a lot of her lyrics really beautiful (and, I’m not going to lie, I enjoy the tea:), but I feel like they’re at times being weighed down by repetitive melodies.
I just finished listening to the entire anthology and I was honestly moved to tears during a few songs . She’s an amazing lyricist and I think this has to be one of her best albums, but my least favourite song is “fortnight” (yawn)
I love this album! Smallest Man is amazing. I also long So Long London and My Boy and Alchemy. I think the lyrics for most of songs are great. Some a little cringy but she’s always been that way.
I’ve NEVER understood why Taylor gets so much praise. Her soul-less bubblegum music has never appealed to me. Hopefully people will get tired of her eternal-victim act; her climate-ruining private jet usage; her immaturity, vindictiveness, & greediness; and her repetitive bland music, and move on to some other more talented music artists.
Eh. To me, bubblegum music has just a few bland lyrics and a really catchy beat. For the most part I think her stuff (at least what I’ve heard from this new album-admittedly only 4 songs) is the opposite. Interesting lyrics, but pretty same -y melodies.
Obviously you’ve only heard the bubble gum lyric songs.
Yeah, you can say a lot of things about her music but soulless is not really a description that I think fits. But I guess it is subjective.
I felt that way when I was only familiar with her hit singles like Shake it Off and We are never ever, but when you listen to everything, she is actually quite brilliant. She is to lyrics what Beyonce is to beats. And I say this as someone with 9 years of formal classical training and a reasonably informed understanding of music composition. She has her cringe moments and themes that repeat themselves, but you can’t deny the skill.
I have over a decade of classical music training as well as a degree in English lit which includes writing and Swift is very basic. It works for young girls but by the fiftieth song about her boyfriend it’s really not that creative or enlightening.
I am a songwriter and an award winning one at that.
I have yet to find the brilliance in her poetry she is a very ok writer childish most of the time. I just think like what you like but if you want great songwriting it isn’t going to be her she really isn’t that good. She is good at writing for teenage girls consistently and to me that is not brilliant.
I agree, she’s average. And we are entitled to our opinions.
Is average , uninspiring and juvenile music. I judge anyone over 30 who likes this, even 25.
Said what I said. I’ve no female friends who Stan Taylor (only male gays, which I’ll give a pass coz their bitchiness entertains me)
If you are a female my age obsessed with her, I don’t want to know you, because you are probably pretty boring and have shit taste
Thanks @chloe I thought I was the only one thinking all the songs sound the same. I was a fan but this album is a miss. We could’ve done with it.
I HATE Jack Antonoff’s claustrophobic beep-boop synth production with a passion. Once again, it is the Aaron Dessner songs that finally let a bit of light and air in.
But yeah, Taylor needs to find some new collaborators who will encourage her to do a bit of pruning. 16 great songs are better than 31 mixed ones, but (as with Midnights), the ‘extra’ tracks are often better than the main “Jack” ones. It kills me that he won producer of the year at the Grammys and was on stage with Taylor while Dessner was in the audience. Jack has obviously become one on Taylor’s best friends, but I think he’s holding her back creatively.
I was worried that it might be a Joe Alwyn diss album, but it’s not at all. The only songs about him are just… sad. She’s frustrated that he’s stuck in his own head and is always holding back, but by the end she has to let go.
The subtitle of this album should be “Yeah, I was stupid about the whole Matty Healy thing, and didn’t appreciate my own fans lecturing me… but we can all agree he’s a massive dickhead”.
Did Antonoff produce 1989 with Taylor? I really did like that one. But yeah there’s a specific sound and it would be nice to hear something fresh and different. But I haven’t listened to the new songs yet so idk.
No, it was Max Martin and Shellback. Antonoff produced ‘Out if the Woods” as his first song with Taylor.
Occasionally, they strike gold (Cruel Summer, My Tears Ricochet) – but his production has become increasingly repetitive and grating, IMO.
Thank you! I wasn’t sure.
This all day long! Well said.
This. I like Taylor as an artist though i have had some issues with her in the past, particularly as it relates to race(I am a Black Taylor Swift fan). My personal favs of her albums are Red, Folklore and Evermore but Midnights while easy to listen to felt like such a creative regression.
I haven’t listened to her latest, I will this weekend but I’m not hopeful if it heavily relies on Jack’s style. It is lovely that they are great friends but I don’t think he helps her really grow creatively?
For any pop music nerds, there is a great podcast called Pop Pantheon and the host Louis has been talking for ages about how Jack’s style as a producer is in a rut and one of his big wishes was for Taylor to start working with other producers and taking more risks.
I don’t get all the hate the minute she drops an album either. I consider myself a pretty well versed music listener – and I think she is a damn good lyricist.
I find it interesting that people in one breath say she doesn’t grow and then in the next shame her for making mistakes.
Matt Healy is toxic – no doubt – but most women I know have at least one under their belt, and it’s almost always a freaking rebound. I can’t throw a stone so I withhold judgment. I’ll give the album a listen over the weekend.
I love what he does for Lana but I’m just not into Taylor’s music.
But does she portray Matt as a dickhead? She seems to worship him in the Golden retriever song, even while he’s asleep.
I assumed those cringe lines were tongue in cheek about how she was so wrapped up in him at the time that’s how she saw him, but isn’t necessarily the truth about him. I’m only assuming because she eviscerates him in The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived. Like “yes everyone, I went off the deepend entirely for a gutter rat and it messed me up”. I’m REALLY giving her the benefit of the doubt here because otherwise girl what are you even talking about him being a golden retriever????
The golden retriever part fits in the context of the song. IMO it’s not as cringey as I originally thought.
The golden retriever line is real? I gave her the benefit of the doubt yesterday and assumed that it was AI…..but its real……?
oh goodness.
I was not young enough to ever be into her and while there are a few pop hits that work, I just can’t pretend any of this verbiage is poetry. It’s clear she never took an English class and had her writing critiqued because it reeks of that “I’m so great at writing so everything I say is wonderful” and so much editing is needed.
Emily Dickinson is good poetry, Maya Angelou is good poetry. This ain’t it.
I completely agree! I also don’t understand why any man would get involved with her romantically. Aren’t many of her songs thinly veiled commentary on past lovers?
@Bikney- I dunno, talented, wealthy, smart, beautiful, successful? Maybe the men that get involved with her should behave better so they don’t get written about unfavorably.
We are two decades into her writing on her break ups. Maybe the answer is that she’s a narcissist who can’t think beyond her own life.
A Great lyricist is someone like Gordon lightfoot who can make a song about a shipwreck a classic that has lasted almost 50 years. This stuff won’t. The catchy pop tunes may have more staying power, but the mumble over done stuff isn’t that good.
@Nic919 Taylor Swift won a National Poetry contest at age 10! If you are only familiar with her work through radio hits, then you are missing a big piece as to why both her fans and fellow songwriters (including such heavyweights as Paul McCartney, Carole King, Billy Joel, etc) consider her to be a lyrical genius. For example, her song “Epiphany” compares the experiences of the front line doctors during the height of Covid with the frontline soldiers storming Normandy. “Soon You’ll Get Better” details the experience of watching a loved one with cancer. “Bigger Than the Whole Sky” depicts the emotional struggle of a miscarriage. The list literally goes on and on . . .
The second half is SO much better, I’d be pissed if I’d pre-ordered a physical copy.
Did Courtney Love just make her point? 😳
She did indeed.
More like Taylor made Courtney’s point lol.
I don’t really follow Taylor Swift’s music, but I saw some lyrics yesterday from this album referencing Joe Alwyn’s struggles with depression, and it seemed so gross.
I have never and will never understand the TS obsession/declaring she’s some masterful wordsmith.
Meanwhile Fiona Apple delivers some of the most devastatingly beautiful lyrics every 5-10 years.
Fully. I have to listen b/c my 2 yr old loves her, but that about sums it up for me: It sounds like nursery rhymes for petulant teenagers.
I spent some months defending Taylor, not as a musical genius but at least a cultural monolith. I’m less convinced now, though — her gossip-lyrics have superseded the musical quality. Not impressed.
I’m mean, she’ll still keep the GDP of small countries rocking, which is cool, but as an artist I’m not impressed.
I confess I only knew of her from the showmance with Tom Hiddleston years back plus all the hype about her recent tour.
I just listened to her now and all I can say is: *that’s* what all the fuss is about?
My feel for you, boy, is decaying in front of me
Like the carrion of a murdered prey
And all I want is to save you, honey
Or the strength to walk away
Won’t do no good to go no distance
The space between us is as boundless as the dark
Won’t do no good to throw no fist, babe
You can’t intimidate me back into your arms
^ She wrote this as a TEENAGER! I mean, good lord.
Agree. I will never understand the hype with her. She has some catchy songs but that’s it. I also get annoyed that she releases 15 different versions of her albums ( and all have super exclusive songs). No wonder she is a billionaire.
@Sycorax, When the Pawn… is one of my favorite albums of all time. And I’m still not over some of the lyrics from Fetch the Bolt Cutters.
Fetch the Bolt Cutters was sooooooooo good.
THIS.
People have confused popular with good.
And here I am, loving both. Oh, well.
Same here terra. I think they’re both great lyricists.
The songs are about Taylor’s experiences. There are songs about Joe, Travis, Matty, Kim Kardashian, touring with a broken heart! It’s not about them, it’s about her feelings and story. And she gives the music to us to relate to our life if it fits.
How am I supposed to relate to this?
“But you told Lucy you’d kill yourself if I ever leave
And I had said that to Jack about you, so I felt seen”
She is sharing gossip through songs, she is leaving clues for fans to get which song is about which ex. Come on now, let’s not pretend like this is not what her music is at its core.
I have to admit I’m surprised she used actual people’s names here. I know she’s used names in songs before (like Dear John, clearly about John Mayer) but there’s always been plausible deniability with songs about exes. Those lyrics leave no doubt as to who the song is about and who she is referencing. I’m not a fan of the name dropping but I also don’t think that lyric is good at all.
This argument becomes more and more disingenuous with every album she releases.
Can a Swiftie please explain to me what the deal is with Taylor and Florida?
This is going to be a lot of fun for Swifties to analyze, dissect, and discuss! One hell of an Easter egg hunt!
As a formerly tortured poet myself (written 2 poetry books, first published at 9 years old), I’m loving this era for her, especially the clarity that comes from writing it all out and setting the anguish free.
Finally becoming aware that a lot of the pain is self inflicted with female romantic fantasies vs the reality of most men, dreams, desires, and following one’s heart even when one knows one shouldn’t, is what your 30’s is all about – learning, accepting, maturing, and moving on. I wrote my more twisted poems and stories in my 20’s and it was the most cathartic thing to elevate me into the next level of adulthood…
Looking forward to checking out this album.
Also, Post Malone is all over the duets lately – he even did a cover session with Eddie Vedder ahead of Pearl Jan’s new album that was released yesterday!
Love songs about her racist, misogynist ex? Sounds about right. It’s clear to everyone – except her fans – that if the backlash hadn’t been so big she would still be with this dude.
All I have to say is that if, for example, Rihanna went through a breakup and rebounded with a Black man who loved watching torture pr0n of white women, people would not have the same reaction or make the same excuses on her behalf.
THAT PART.
Yeah, you are absolutely right.
What if I told you that many, possibly some you know, even someone very close to you, might also consume torture pron regularly.
Shit tonnes of men love this sick stuff, they just don’t all admit it.
Sad, gross and true. This is our world.
Yay!
What if I told you that your complacent attitude is part of the problem?
Sad, gross and true. This is our world. Yay!
Oh, that part. 💯
What fascinates me about Swift – I neither love her music nor hate it, neither find her interesting nor awful, just there – is how her heavily pushed-by-fans-and-PR persona clashes so completely with the reality of her?
Her lyrics aren’t stupid but no, they’re not hugely deep, either, they’re intelligent white american poet girl obsessing about boys. She works very hard but she comes from generational wealth and is very heavily managed and guided by her wealthy, stockbroker dad. She is not a doormat nor is she actually functionally a girlboss self-made powerhouse. She is very often a womanchild, and it isn’t getting better as she ages. She can be giving and charitable but she makes many more millions than she gives in very blatantly manipulative profit making schemes and by utilizing her place as the industry’s darling. She uses her private plane and the world like it’s a private car service in a single city. She dates men that make her look good, drops then when they don’t, feeds their online abuse and rumors by gossiping about them in song.
She’s complicated, but not in the way her fans admit or engage with on average. I find her personally very boring but culturally engrossing, if that makes sense? Really the ultimate America 2024 celebrity.
@ahyes – excellent summary. Agree on all points. The most fascinating aspect is the praise and attention that’s lavished on this thoroughly mediocre artist.
A true artist is original. But she is a fitting standard bearer for our copy/paste, “sample” era of just saying it’s different bc >>>I’m<<< doing it. Like the very act of authorship confers originality, even if it's simply cloning extant work.
NYMag had an article on her fashion recently, which it summed up as "drum majorette… Corny saloon girl" – something about the assessment seems so dead on. Swift wraps herself is pre-existing, easy-to-digest ideas, images, personas…all of it. Highly marketable, but questionable authenticity.
Dating Matty Healy was perhaps the most interesting thing I've observed. A crack in the polished veneer of girlish innocence that gave us a glimpse of something mean and unpalatable lurking beneath.
In 20 years there will be TSwift tell all. I think it will be spectacular.
This is honestly the best commentary about Taylor I’ve ever seen and how I feel about her for the most part. I do think Taylor is actually a pretty good songwriter but her songs are very repetitive and often bashing and criticizing her exes. I only feel she’s become more self-aware recently (Anti Hero I guess would be a good example of this even if I don’t like the song?) about who she is and her shtick. I often think of her as a White Mean Girl, generous to her friends and very loyal but oh so petty about the stupidest things if you dare cross her in any way (like how she wrote an entire feud song about Katy Perry about an imaginary one sided feud).
@AhYes – What you wrote here seems to hit the nail on the head. Well considered, fair, and interesting. Do you write elsewhere? I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on other topics as well.
I just finished 2 listens to the new album, and I could barely tell the songs apart. I am sure the lyrics are interesting, but so much of her stuff just seems the same to me. This is the only place I can speak ill of her music as all the other women in my family are Swiftees.
That’s the first release??? Fortnight is soooooo bad.
I’m getting the feeling that we’re about to see a Swift fall from grace…judging by the natural build up/tear down that we do to celebs and her coming off of a high with her relationship with Kelce, this feels about right. And maybe it’s deserved IDK….
Completely agree bc she has totally oversaturated the market. They’re hawking this album at every turn. I got a google alert about it, an email from iheartradio telling me to listen in my car(with the make & model listed??), Spotify alerts, and OTHER emails about it. Her team is doing too much. She has dominated for the past year & already had a new album along with the TS versions she’s dropped in the same time. The smart thing to do would have been to finish up the tour & then release a new album in another year or so
It’s pretty weak, IMO. She’s really trying to be Lana del Rey but she just doesn’t have the same “Disney Princess on Acid” quality that Lana does that makes her music work so well. Kind of a let-down given how superb the latest releases from the other big pop girls like Ariana Grande, Kacey Musgraves, and Beyonce have been this year.
Idk, I don’t get the immediate hate when she drops a new album. Every time, people immediately jump to “I hate it! She’s so awful, this is the end for her, she never changes, never grows up, she should stop working with the people who made her a success!” But in my experience, her albums are growers- on second and third listens, I like them more and more. When reputation dropped, I really didn’t like it at all, now it’s one of my favorites. TTPS flows really clearly sonically from Midnights, and I feel like the lyrics are more straightforward than she usually writes- they’re clearly her thoughts instead of metaphors. It’s a “listen while I write in my journal” album, not a radio album.
I totally agree with this! I am not an original Swiftie .. I appreciate her early songs and that she was so young writing them but never chose to listen to them. I like her pop stuff (1989), because it’s fun and it’s in all the movies my son loves. Reputation grew on me with some GREAT fun anthem songs. Lover was when I took notice of her growth, and midnights took me a good month or two to realize it was my favourite of them all. I also have rediscovered folklore/evermore the last 6 months. (I was too depressed during the pandemic to listen to moody albums) Champagne Problems and My Tears Ricochet are such incredible songs, imo.
All that to say, her albums are slow burners for me too. TTPD isn’t hitting me right away, but I like a few fun songs sprinkled in and they are very moody. Although I haven’t listened to the 2nd half yet, I had to sleep LOL
It sounds to me from reading descriptions of the title that a lot of it is about Joe. My only problem is she rarely writes about her being a problem in the relationship. So I hope this isn’t all one-sided.
My 10yo is hosting a listening pool party with her crew of mini swifties this weekend so I listened to it this morning. My thoughts:
1. It’s not folklore but that’s a masterpiece
2. The second part is better than the first but if you don’t like Midnights, you might not like this
3. I’m so feeling her on Daddy I Love Him. If you haven’t ever dated a truly toxic man, you won’t relate but I have and it was a glorious 3 months of all the trauma things – good & bad.
I was looking forward to this hoping this would be another Folklore/Evermore level effort. Not that it had to be the same. But just as good. Well…not for me. Obviously TS works hard and plans and markets brilliantly. Wtf happened here. Matt Healy and Kim Kardashian are 2 absolutely revolting people and she headlines them? Jesus almighty. Well at least the visuals look promising.
She wrote a whole album about some gross guy she had a brief hook up with? Alrighty then. Whatever gets the creative juices flowing.
I was prepared to disagree with everyone about the Jack collaboration because some of my favorite songs of hers were cocreated with Jack, but yeah….. this seems like she just had to get it out rather than giving it a ton of thought and he’s too good a friend now to give her serious constructive criticism. Everyone is right that the Aaron Dresser album half is more interesting. She definitely has some very good songs on there, like VERY good, but currently mostly it’s meh.
Interestingly her best songs that aren’t ragey are the ones about Joe. I know people think that she wrote about Matty Healy more because they think she thinks he’s her soul mate, but I actually think the opposite. She doesn’t care about hurting him because he’s garbage. I really need to know what about that man has inspired multiple female artists? Like HIM?!!? You already made this mistake with John Mayer, why John Mayer Jr???
She’s giving Joe respect because it was a real loving relationship for a while. Her songs about him are sad and mature. The Black Dog is one of the best songs on the albums, same with the London song and loml. This is more interesting than Midnight for sure and Lover, but I think we might have to accept that Folklore/Evermore was her magnum opus. I hate comparing her to Beyonce because they’re very different artists, but Cowboy Carter is a well crafted creative masterpiece and so I was thrilled we were getting new music from the two biggest artists right now. Not every release is going to be a masterpiece.
I’m surprised she wrote so many about Matty Healy? She dated him for what, three-four months tops? I wonder if more songs are about Joe than we realize but because things ended so spectacularly badly with Matty due to his problematic behavior, people assume the more bitter/heartbroken songs are about Matty? I haven’t listened to any apart from Fortnight and thought it was fine, nothing amazing. I don’t have a subscription to a music platform like Apple Music or Spotify so I can’t listen to the whole album yet apart from individual Youtube videos which I am not doing for 30 songs (no one’s made a playlist yet).
As a swift fan, I can confidently say that so far what I’ve heard is a letdown. Which leads to me believe this conspiracy is true: that her Eras tour legitimately was a low key farewell tour, at least initially.
The repetition on every song is noticeable. I DONT THINK she planned on releasing most of this music. Or at least I would hope not. It’s not bad, per se, its just kinda “meh.” Its there.
Doubt she’ll win album of the year again for this one. She’ll be nominated, sure, but this not her best work. By far.
I knew she wasn’t over that Matty Healy thing. She was forced to give him up. She probably already had songs lined up about their relationship and the end. So her and her team turned it around. Just surprised she didn’t lash out at the people who made her dump Healy.
She did. It’s in the song “But Daddy I Love Him”.
From the album it sounds like she’s mad he ghosted her- doesn’t seem like she left him at all!
Just gave the album more of a look and listen and I really think that the album itself is a closing of eras.
It’s a letting go of everything that came before Travis. Manuscript seems like a letting go of all too well. The songs about Kim- it’s like a release of past trauma.
She does this big tour where she unearths all these old memories and dredges up everything- this is the purge, the he final release. I think it’s rather interesting. It makes me wonder if she will be taking an extended time off soon and maybe they are getting married after the tour ends. She is starting over new.
I like this take. It does feel like a complete diary dump of all the trauma and hurt that came before. It is an emotional beatdown for the listener–I feel like it probably wrecked her to put it together. But maybe it’s helped her move forward.
I can’t see how this album will fit into a tour, but I’m sure she’ll figure it out.
With regards to the songs being about Matty Healy, I just think he gives off way more ‘villain’ vibes than joe so it’s much easier to sell him to her audience as the bad guy.
If I am being honest with myself, I will admit that I like some of Taylor’s music. Some of her stuff is a bop. However, from my standpoint, Taylor stopped growing musically long ago. I also wonder if re-cutting her masters stunted her creativity. I mention that because here we go on another album, and again, it’s about a past/recent break-up, or Kim K or whatever, and stylistically, vocally, lyrically, it’s all the same. When Lemonade dropped, I also bought Taylor’s 1989, and I recognized that Taylor is around 6-8 years younger than Beyonce, but her sound was still languishing, a little immature, and a little bit unevolved. We had Lemonade, and it was like doors blasting open sonically, and Taylor was making songs I couldn’t get into but so much as a grown woman. Here we are again, and Taylor is still covering the same-ish ground.
Yeah that’s where I am with her. I have not listened to nearly enough of her discography to get into the deep cuts but what I’m getting is that she may be in a rut. Is her new contract almost over? I feel like she’s released an album every year for the past five or six which is a ton. Maybe she’s trying to wrap up a contract and bow out for a few years.
She really needs to take a break and grow as a person before releasing anything else. It’s all just boring and childish now
I don’t listen to her music for a couple of reasons but it’s hard to avoid all together. What she and her team is good at is the long game plan and pr and while I can admire that there is something about the fomo that they always try to build that I don’t like considering how young some of her fans are. I think that she writes for her audience so if it seems immature it’s because it’s targeted to a big part of her audience. I wonder how much of a cult following she would have if she wrote about hypothetical events? There is a deliberate voyeurism element that makes it more into a soap opera for fans to pick apart in their easter egg hunt, I remember how her fans insisted that she wan’t dating Healy for months on twitter. Hard to stay in that bubble of denial now I guess.
I can really hear Lana Del Rey influences on some of the songs I’ve heard from the album. Also, a couple of times Lorde also seeps in.
Good points. Like I’ve said in the past she tends to borrow other artists’ styles in each respective album. I heard Lorde a bit.
Overall I found this album – the whole thing, all 31 songs – boring. It sounded like an extended cut of Midnights. All the stuff that didn’t make it. The only times lyrics stood out was when they were bad. Musically, vocally, lyrically – it isn’t interesting.
I have a tendency to feel ambivalent/neutral when it comes to Taylor. I like a fair bit of her stuff, for what it is, but even this is substandard for her.
She should have waited on releasing and done some paring down and polishing up.
She really channels Lana Del Rey in Fortnight. It’s probably why I actually love the song. Plus it has Post Malone in it.
It’s too late for anyone to see this but I found a song I like! That’s usually once in a decade so I’ll quit while I’m ahead. The song Florida, Florence Welch carried it, plus I have my own Florida interludes.
LMAO at So High School about Travis. You are sooo high school!
Whewww, wait till Travis gets his hooks in the industry and doesn’t need her anymore and dumps her ass. Now THAT album, I would listen to.
She used him harder but I agree. They must have a contract. No way do those two trust each other. Travis isn’t stupid. He is probably the only one who can completely match her as far as resources AND wordplay.
I’m not going to listen to it as i’m just oversaturated by TS at this point, but I do love how all the formula one fans think that one of the songs (that has a line about Aston Martin) is about Fernando Alonso.