Who knew what Taylor Swift’s newest period would carry? Or even what it will sound like? Would it construct off the moodiness of “Midnights” or the folks of “evermore”? The nation or the ’80s pop of her newest re-records? Or its two predecessors in black-and-white covers: the revenge-pop of “Reputation” and the literary Americana of “folklore”?
“The Tortured Poets Department” is an amalgamation of the entire above, reflecting the artist who — on the peak of her powers — has spent the previous couple of years re-recording her life’s work and touring its materials, filtered via synth-pop anthems, breakup ballads, provocative and matured issues.
In moments, her eleventh album looks like a bloodletting: A cathartic purge after a significant heartbreak delivered via an ascendant vocal run, an elegiac verse, or cell, synthesized productions that underscore the powers of Swift’s storytelling.
And there are surprises. The lead single and opener “Fortnight” is “1989” grown up — and options Post Malone. It may appear to be a humorous pairing, however it’s a very long time coming: Since a minimum of 2018, Swift’s followers have identified of her love for Malone’s “Better Now.”
“But Daddy I Love Him” is the return of country Taylor, in some ways — fairytale songwriting, a full band chorus, a plucky acoustic guitar riff, and a cheeky lyrical reversal: “But Daddy I love him / I’m having his baby / No, I’m not / But you should see your faces.” (Babies seem on “Florida!!!” and the bonus observe “The Manuscript” as properly.)
The fictitious “Fresh Out The Slammer” begins with a very fairly psych guitar tone that disappears beneath wind-blown manufacturing; the brand new wave-adjacent “My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys” brings again “Barbie”: “I felt more when we played pretend than with all the Kens / ‘Cause he took me out of my box.”
Even earlier than Florence Welch kicks off her verse in “Florida!!!,” the refrain’ explosive repetition of the tune title hits arduous with nostalgic 2010s indie rock, maybe an alt-universe Swiftian tackle Sufjan Stevens’ “Illinois.”
As one other title states, “So Long, London,” certainly.
It could be a disservice to learn Swift’s songs as purely diaristic, however that observe — the fifth on this album, which her followers sometimes peg as essentially the most devastating slot on every album — evokes hanging parallels to her relationship with a sure English actor she break up with in 2023. Place it subsequent to a sleepy love ode like “The Alchemy,” with its references to “touchdown” and chopping somebody “from the team” and properly … artwork imitates life.
Revenge continues to be a pervasive theme. But the place the reprisal anthems on “Midnights” had been vindictive, on “The Tortured Poets Department,” there are new complexities: “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” combines the musical ambitiousness of “evermore” and “folklore” — and adds a resounding bass on the bridge — with sensibilities ripped from the weapons-drawn, obstinate “Reputation.” But right here, Swift principally trades victimhood for self-assurance, warts and all.
“Who’s afraid of little old me?” she sings. “You needs to be,” she responds.
And but, “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” could also be her most biting tune thus far: “You didn’t measure up in any measure of a man,” she sings atop propulsive piano. “I’ll forget you, but I won’t ever forgive,” she describes her goal, probably the identical “tattooed golden retriever,” a jejune description, talked about within the title observe.
Missteps are few, present in different mawkish lyrics and songs like “Down Bad” and “Guilty as Sin?” that falter when positioned subsequent to the album’s extra meditative pop moments.
Elsewhere, Swift holds up a mirror to her melodrama and melancholy — she’s crying on the gymnasium, do not inform her about “sad,” is she allowed to cry? She died inside, she thinks you may want her useless; she thinks she may simply die. She listens to the voices that inform her “Lights, camera, bitch, smile / Even when you want to die,” as she sings on “I Can Do It with a Broken Heart,” a tune about her personal performances — onstage and as a public determine.
“I’m miserable and nobody even knows!” she laughs at the end of the song before sighing, “Try and come for my job.”
“Clara Bow” enters the pantheon of nice closing tracks on a Swift album. The title refers back to the Twenties silent movie star who burned quick and vibrant — an early “It girl” and Hollywood intercourse image topic to vitriolic gossip, a sufferer of simple, on a regular basis misogyny amplified by superstar. Once Bow’s harsh Brooklyn accent was heard within the talkies, it was rumored, her profession was over.
In life, Bow later tried suicide and was despatched to an asylum — the identical establishment that seems on “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” “Clara Bow” works as an allegory and a cautionary story for Swift, the identical manner Stevie Nicks’ “Mabel Normand” — one other tragic silent movie star — functioned for the Fleetwood Mac star.
Nicks seems in “Clara Bow,” too: “You seem like Stevie Nicks in ’75 / The hair and lips / Crowd goes wild.”
Later, Swift turns the digicam inward, and the tune ends together with her singing, “You look like Taylor Swift in this light / We’re loving it / You’ve got edge / She never did.” The album ends there, on what may very well be learn as self-deprecation however stings extra like irritating self-awareness.
Swift sings a few tortured poet, however she is one, too. And is not it nice that she’s allowed herself the inventive license?
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