Surprise, surprise, another Taylor Swift album. The Tortured Poets Department is Swift’s 11th studio album, marketed as an album about personal life but alluding to being about her ex-boyfriend, Joe Alywn, but upon listening, it’s actually (mostly) about Matty Healy, the lead singer of The 1975. Not surprising considering roughly a year ago on her Eras Tour, she mouthed the words, “This one is about you. You know who you are. I love you!” I went into this album thinking it’ll resemble Folklore (2020), one of my favourite works from her, written and produced with care. While I applaud her work ethic to satisfy her fans’ cravings for more, more, more, I found I disliked this album for a plethora of reasons. 

The album has been critiqued for being too long, monotonous and clunky with mediocre production as Jack Antonoff ruins (mostly) everything he touches when it comes to Taylor’s work, and even Aaron Dessner, the guy who produced “The Great War” and “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve” on Midnights (2022), becoming another ‘yes-man’ to Taylor, and I agree; her music wasn’t really challenged in this particular album. Though, there’s a lot that has already been said and I reckon people are tired of hearing the same critiques for the hundredth time. I want to approach this from an analyrical perspective.

I had to really sit down with the album in order to properly listen to it because again, it was just too long and the worst part is, all the songs sound very similar. The lyricism is very clunky, as if there was no one to edit it, and I admit, I’m not a songwriter myself. But the album reminds me of when you’re running on two hours of sleep trying to write a coherent 2500-word essay due the next day, which makes for pretty good lyrics to dissect or cringe at.

My personal favourites are: “You smoked 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” (The Tortured Poets Department). I’m still in utter disbelief that she referred to Healy as a tattooed golden retriever, given that he is racist, homophobic, and Islamophobic. Not very golden retriever-esque.

“You know how to ball, I know Aristotle / Brand new, full throttle / Touch me while your boys play Grand Theft Auto.” (So High School)

And my absolute favourite: “Tell me something awful / Like you are a poet / Trapped inside the body of a finance guy” (I Hate It Here). I’m just thinking about all the finance bros on Hinge that will use this line.

But on a more serious note, I originally was going to discuss the whole album but after sifting through 31 monotonous songs, there was one that really spoke out to me: “But Daddy I Love Him,” but not for the reason that people really expect. The lyricism is clunky, but the lyricism in this song reveals something about Swift: she doesn’t really care about her fans.

The song “But Daddy I Love Him” is about Matty Healy. Despite Matty Healy’s long paper trail of racism, homophobia, xenophobia, Islamophobia, and all the other isms, Swift still pursued a situationship with him. She tells off her fans in “But Daddy I Love Him” claiming she’s “tired of all the bitching and moaning,” and “I don’t cater to all these vipers in empath’s clothing” because of all the backlash she received during her month-long fling with Healy. But the bigger issue here is that she knew about Healy’s past controversies and she was perfectly okay with it. And people say, “You are the company you keep.” 

She revealed that she was angry at her own fans for victimising her, despite Swift marketing herself as a victim following the Kimye incidents, and she blames them for ruining her relationship with Healy. Not a good look.

Following the release of TTPD, it’s safe to say that Swift probably needs a break from releasing music and I don’t mean this in a snarky way. With the way her fanbase is built, they are constantly demanding more, more, more, and it can’t be healthy living up to constant pressure from fans who view her as a content-pumping machine rather than an actual human. Unfortunately, as a result of constant demand, the production fell short and this album felt more like an inside story, requiring listeners to know the expansive lore between Swift, Alywn, Healy and Kim Kardashian before actually listening to it. At least with her previous albums, such as Speak Now and Red, there was enough anonymity on who the album was about to allow speculation and listener relatability. With TTPD, it simply fell short. It’s not another 1989, or Red, or Lover even. It’s just another album to be added to her discography.

Image: Unsplash