THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT is Taylor Swift’s 11th studio album. Swift is 34 years old, and she has been writing music since her teenage years. Her first album Taylor Swift debuted in November of 2006. She has won over 324 awards, released 15 albums, and went on six tours over her 18-year career. The pop star announced the album at the 2024 Grammys, after winning her 13th Grammy. The album was released on April 19th, alongside its extended version, THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT: THE ANTHOLOGY, with 31 combined tracks. The album quickly became a favorite. Many fans stayed up late to listen to the album. I did not, but I did get around to listening to the entire album, and I believe some songs deserve recognition and some don’t.
One of the best tracks on the album is ‘But Daddy I Love Him.’ It is the sixth song in the album and a beautiful track. The song discusses a girl dating a guy that her dad disapproves of. In the end, the dad finally approves of their relationship, giving the couple a happy ending. The song has good lines, one going: ‘I’m having his baby, no I’m not, but you should see your faces’ giving the fans a jolt of surprise when listening to the song for the first time. Another one of my favorites is ‘The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived,” which is about Swift’s relationship with Singer-songwriter Matty Healy. The chorus says, ‘And I don’t miss what we had, but could someone give a message to the smallest man who ever lived,’ then leads into the heartbreaking bridge. Swift added the song to her Eras Tour setlist, and fans still scream their hearts out to this song. Another noteworthy track on the album is ‘So Long, London’. This emotional song is about Swift’s 6-year relationship with actor Joe Alwyn, who lived in London. Swift sings about having to leave London after their breakup. Swift’s realization that the relationship was finally over, when she sings ‘I stopped CPR after all it’s no use,’ is the line that hit me in the gut the hardest. When Swift’s tour came to London, on the last night, she played the song, which is what all the fans wanted to hear.
The album did have some low points for me, with the first song that didn’t quite hit the mark being ‘Fortnight (ft. Post Malone)’. This song was Swift’s first single for the album and is the most overused song on the album. It’s the ‘Cruel Summer’ of THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT, and the track was both overplayed from the beginning and a let down considering how little it showcased Post Malone’s true musical ability. The next track that didn’t make my cut is ‘Fresh Out The Slammer’. I never really liked this one, probably because it never made sense to me. The imagery suggests that it’s about leaving a “prison” of some sort (presumably a relationship?) but the symbolism misses the target in ways that are below the genius that Swift has demonstrated at other points in her career. Admittedly, I still jam out to the song, but I probably will never go “This one is my favorite.” In last place for me is ‘Down Bad’. I frowned when this song got added to the Eras Tour setlist. ‘Now I’m down bad crying at the gym’ is the line that got a lot of attention when the album debuted, but I genuinely hate this song. The main reason for my hate toward ‘Down Bad’ is the excessive use of the f-word in the song, making it extremely explicit in ways that aren’t necessary to convey the meaning. The word is used 18 times in one song, which is not only a lot of weekend words for a singular song, but which feels forced and out of place for a singer that started freely swearing about one album ago.
In typical Swift style, she always delivers when her albums come out, and the drop of an album comes with a great deal more than just music. With surprise merch drops the night of the release and double albums, it is always fun to stay up and listen to the album when it releases. This was my first album drop as a fan of Swift’s music, and it was a lot of fun to hear new music with people who have listened to her since 2008. I also loved the release because I got to sit in a class with my best friend and listen to some of the new songs with her. It is a sad but fun album to listen to with songs that will make you cry or smile every time you listen to those songs. I hope that you decide to listen to this amazing album that Taylor Swift put 2 years of her life into. Even if you weren’t a fan before, this album has something relatable for everyone.