Tortured Poets Department Review

Taylor Swift is torturing us with love, hate and poetry.  

Taylor Swift launched not only her Swifties, but the world in a frenzy with the latest release of her new album, The Tortured Poets Department.  

Sonically this album is a combination of her previous albums 1989, Reputation, and Midnights. The synth pop beats reign supreme over Swift’s voice on this new album which is reminiscent of her previous album Midnights. Swift clearly has no ifs, ands, or buts to give with this new masterpiece, taking on her former lovers and past foes.  

The albums track list explores a wide variety of different themes such as revenge, death and self-loathing. 

The album starts with the lead single Fortnight featuring Post Malone. This song revolves around a relationship that only lasted a short time. Upon first listen I found it a little confusing if she was singing about her relationship or if it was a fictional story. The blends of Swift’s and Malone’s voices mixed well together beautify. 

Another song with worth mentioning is the song But Daddy Love Him. This song is very reminiscent of her 2008 hit Love Story. This tune sings about her father’s disapproval for a man she was seeing. This up-tempo pop song weaves us through the disapproval to the approval.  

On track 8 Swift takes us to Florida. This song featuring Florince and the Machine is an ominous track where Swift sings of escaping to Florida. This song through its lyrics is similar to Swift’s song No Body No Crime from Evermore. The song talks about Hurricane Florence, disappearing husbands and the mysteries of what happened in Texas. This song is one of the best highlights of the entire album.  

On the tenth track is a song called Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me? This track references the ways in which we as a society raise up artists just to tear them down and Swift really dove in headfirst to the dark and twisted aspect and not holding back. This song is also sonically reminiscent of My Tears Ricochet from her 2020 album Folklore with all the gothic elements and this is one of those songs that make you think-wow.  

On track 7’s Fresh out the Slammer Swift slaps with a western sounding track about who the first person she’d call after getting out of jail. This song has a country vibe not just a typical Country vine but a Beyonce Cowboy Carter vibe with its saloon style sound.  

Lastly swift has also delved into pure heartbreak on this album and no song could have fit this better than loml. This tearful track talks about Swift cherishing the love of her life only to go from “love of my life to the loss of my life.” However, this song would have been perfect for the Track 5 slot (Taylor is known for putting the most heart and gut-wrenching songs in that slot) this tune was more of a tearjerker than So Long London.  

If you thought Taylor was done, you were sadly mistaken as she released another album called The Tortured Poets Department the Anthology. This album has a sonically different sound than the first album.  

This album features a more acoustic sound reminiscent of Folklore and Evermore with a hint of Fearless. This album features a few interesting tracks such as Thank You Aimee which is an acoustic ballad about Swift singing to a sworn enemy. Another noteworthy track is called So High School. This song is Swift feeling like she is in a high school relationship. It features an up-tempo pop rock sound very reminiscent of her past albums Fearless and Speak Now. The songs sound could be compared to Hits Different from Midnights.  

In conclusion this album is a musical masterpiece that shows Taylor not holding back. I enjoyed the more acoustic sound of the second album and the fact she was not holding any punches. I give this album 4 Z’s.