“The Tortured Poets Department” was released on April 19, 2024 written solely by Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff, and Aaron Dessner. This artwork is rumored to be a breakup album between her and Joe Alwyn, though she is happily intertwined with Chiefs tight end, Travis Kelce.
“The Tortured Poets Department,” An anthology of new works that reflect events, opinions, and sentiments from a fleeting and fatalistic moment in time – one that was both sensational and sorrowful in equal measure. This period of the author’s life is now over, the chapter closed and boarded up. There is nothing to avenge, no scores to settle once wounds have healed. And upon further reflection, a good number of them turned out to be self-inflicted. This writer of the firm belief that our tears become holy in the form of ink on a page. Once we have spoken our saddest story, we can be free of it. And then all that’s left behind is the tortured poetry”, Taylor Swift said in her caption on Instagram.
This album is definitely for the fans who have stuck around, and not for the new young fans. Just listening to “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart,” a true fan can tell that she probably wrote this while going through her rough patch with Joe whilst starting on her Eras Tour. “Lights, camera, b***h, smile…All the pieces of me shattered as the crowd was chanting More!” is the line repeated throughout the song to represent how she was breaking behind every closed door during that time. It’s also a sort of ode to her previous song “You’re on Your Own, Kid” from her 2022 album “Midnights” as a form of healing and finding happiness in the darkness. The fans that watched her grow into the most successful independent female artist globally understand how Swift was feeling while writing this album, especially after re-watching their videos from the tour.
Track five, “So Long, London” is part two of her past song “London Boy,” which was written about Alwyn as well. Listeners can feel the pain she’s enduring during this song with endless references to past songs as well. “You swore that you loved me, but where were the clues?…I’m just mad as hell ’cause I loved this place for so long, London” which is the bridging part of the song that ties every emotion she’s feeling altogether by the end. Linked to this song are the other few heartbreaking tracks, “loml,” “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” and “How Did It End?” Swift is known to write metaphorically, but this album is truly a masterpiece in itself.
Not only is it a formulation of all of Taylor’s poetry, but the non-stop literature ties really add so much uniqueness to this work. The title itself is a playoff of the novel “The Dead Poets Society” by Tom Schulman, but also “The Alchemy” is similar to Paulo Coelho’s novel, “The Alchemist.” She also alludes to Aeshylus’s tragic play, “The Oresteia” on the track “Cassandra” and James Matthew Barrie’s “Peter Pan” on the track “Peter.” This album was truly made for people who can appreciate literature in its truest form.
31 tracks, and not a single one fails to amaze fans, even though some titles are questionable. Whether or not Taylor Swift sings one’s name in “Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus,” or in “Clara Bow” after her innuendo to actress, Clara Bow and singer, Stevie Nicks. Even if she really digs into one’s guts with “The Black Dog,” “I Hate It Here,” “I Look in People’s Windows,” or “The Bolter,” this album can truly be for anyone. Even if one is in a happy relationship, “So High School,” has the ability to relate to any English-loving girl dating a ball-player boy.
Overall, Swift outdid herself with “The Tortured Poet’s Department” from 31 brand new songs, all while she’s on tour, putting out more merchandise, and in a relationship, she never fails to impress the world with her name. She’s the real thing, she’s got it under control.