The Tortured Poets Department- a tortured poet’s review.
It’s that time of the year again, when Taylor Swift drops not one but two albums. Should this be considered normal this point?
As a tortured poet myself, I had been intrigued by this album’s title ever since the name drop a few months back. This is a review of The Tortured Poets Department by Taylor Swift. I’ll get to the anthology later.
I listened to the album on a long walk outside with pebbles in my sneakers. These are my initial thoughts and reactions to my initial top 3 songs after the first listen-through (*list subject to change as I continue re-listening to the album).
The Tortured Poets Department by Taylor Swift album photo. Photo courtesy of Apple Music .
So Long, London
Recommended method of consumption: over-ear headphones. The song begins with these ghostly and yet angelic “so. long. London”s bouncing from ear to ear. The little bit of just music after this reminded me of the beginning of Call It What You Want from Reputation. I cannot get enough of the double meanings in the songwriting here (this is the tortured poet within me coming out lol). The way so long as a farewell and also an exaggerated length of measure is seamlessly swapped throughout the song is so smooth and comfortingly calculated.
The aspect that shook my heartstrings is around the 1:40 minute mark at the end of the lyric And I'm pissed off you let me give you all that youth for free. Her voice shakes, like a shaky exhale. It sounds physically painful to sing the word free. She’s singing like she’s running out of air but forcing herself to keep her composure. It’s so subtle but speaks so loudly to the storyteller’s perspective. I actually didn’t notice this until my fourth or fifth listen through
When do you know when to leave a failing relationship? How empty can you let your cup get before deciding it’s time to exit? How do you leave a declining relationship with a partner being pulled into depression and their own mental health struggles? London is forever tainted.
There are segments in the song where the rhythmic background pounding is more apparent. This felt like a familiar pounding I’ve felt in my ears when I’m overwhelmed and scared and anxious and my vision goes fuzzy. This pounding laces a sense of fear into an otherwise angelic soundscape. The more I focused on that pounding, the harder it actually became for me to breathe myself.
But Daddy I Love Him
Now this is the anthem for the emotionally-aware, headstrong and (maybe a little) rebellious daughters. I picture her as an oldest daughter, which really makes describing her as precocious really fit the bill (did i have to google the meaning of that word? yes, yes i did).
This song reminded me of the more relatable version of Love Story. As much as I adore Love Story and fantasize of walking down the aisle to a string-quartet version of it, that song is more of a daydream compared to this one. This sounds more grown-up and realistic, as sad as that is. It talks about how the messiness of when other people get involved in love stories that aren’t their own. That’s when you have to be headstrong and push forward instead of simply gliding into your lover’s arms playing a Juliet.
The lyrics that audibly made me exclaim “YESSSS” and snap my fingers was I'll tell you something about my good name / It's mine alone to disgrace. How an arrangement of letters mixed with a little bit of family history can dictate the future of someone’s story is wild. It somehow gives others (cough cough @NoseyAunties cough) the audacity to share what they think when they aren’t even in the same equation. This line in empowering in its own right. We all have the right to succeed and also make mistakes.
The lines joking about being pregnant with the wild boy’s baby were so clever. In tense situations when you’re trying to convince people about something big, it’s a clever tactic to drop a bigger bombshell every now and then. So then, the thing you actually want doesn’t seem as crazy in comparison.
She found her escape in a lover and yet, still comes back home because her parents came around to all this, as seen in the altered and final chorus. This is another aspect I really enjoyed of this song. The ending chorus changed accordingly as the story evolved. It’s the intentionally planned choruses that, with the slightest changes, still fit the format of the song while adapting to the end of the story that excites the poet in me. This is a technique I and other poets practice, especially in short-form pieces for maximal impacts.
Guilty as Sin?
Calling the fellow chronic daydreamers. It’s our love-struck delulu daydreaming song. This reminds me another grown-up version of a previous Taylor Swift song- Wildest Dreams. It’s cool to see her discography mature and she matures in real time. This song is so sensual. This crush isn’t like schoolhouse type, it’s a big-girl adult kind of crush. But it’s still so giddy to explore a fantasy. We can make them feel as real as we want, but do we also need to feel their guilt too?
My favorite lyrics (besides the obvious chorus and especially that final chorus) are I keep these longings locked / In lowercase inside a vault. That’s such a smart way to describe and categorize that subcategory of secrets we keep. Have you ever had those fears that one day, some dumb soul will invent a mind-reading tool and it’ll be used on you without your consent? Well, I have. I can definitely sympathize with trying to hide my thoughts even deeper within MY OWN HEAD. All that to say that I can most certainly relate to trying to psyche myself out (and whoever may be trying to read the inner works of my mind like an enigma) by putting the thoughts I’m trying to convince myself to ignore in less-emphasizing fonts or shadowed, cornered filing cabinets for later. It’s not that big a deal since it’s in lowercase, right? Asking for a friend…
I think we still have to discuss the chorus, how can we not: What if he's written 'mine' on my upper thigh / Only in my mind? Come on, that’s the inspiration for Bridgerton-esque storylines. This feels like callback to Mine by Taylor with the iconic chorus, You are the best thing that’s ever been mine. It also heavily reminds me of that part from Call It What You Want: I want to wear his initial / On a chain 'round my neck, chain 'round my neck / Not because he owns me /But 'cause he really knows me. Picturing someone so strongly, passionately and certainly wanting you with zero hesitation… It’s word bracelets like these further fuel the hope/optimism in the hopeless romantics <3 (especially the single ones).
