Sidebar: The Tortured Poets Department
it's time to go!
Taylor Swift’s new album, The Tortured Poets Department, came out last Friday. I have been a big Taylor fan for basically as long as she has been making music. But she’s finally done it! She’s finally done too much and burned me out!
The Tortured Poets Department is Taylor’s first release since her breakup from actor Joe Alwyn, her boyfriend of nearly seven years. I expected this album to be largely about him. Instead, the primary muse here appears to be musician Matty Healy, her rebound fling after breaking up with Joe. This bait and switch is the most interesting thing about the album. That and the lyric where she says, “We agreed that Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist.”
This album, which is technically a “double album,” is 31 tracks long. These songs were all either co-written and/or co-produced with Jack Antonoff (a music partner since 1989 in 2014) or Aaron Dessner (a music partner since folklore in 2020). I think she has reached a point of diminishing returns in both of these creative partnerships, especially with Jack Antonoff. Nothing on this album sounds new - these tracks could all be Midnights, folklore, or evermore cast-offs (and maybe some of them were). Everything runs together. Lyrically, it’s very bloated. No hooky melodies stand out. It feels like content for the sake of content (and to try to break some streaming records). I fear that Taylor The Star has eclipsed Taylor The Artist.
Brevity has never been Taylor’s strong suit. She is a maximalist; we’re talking about a musician who performs a ten-minute version of one of her songs every night on tour. However, Taylor is at her very best when she has an editor. Typically, her co-writers or producers serve as her editors, but it appears that Jack and Aaron have let her run absolutely wild this time. The Tortured Poets Department is too many songs that sound too similar in way too many words.
From a fan perspective, I know I sound greedy. We just received two hours worth of new Taylor Swift music! Sixteen year old me would lose her mind at the thought of that! But this album does not do it for me. I wish it did!
I suppose that I am so desperate for Taylor to try a new sound and work with different producers, that I’m going to be disappointed until she does. Maybe I’m asking too much, but for someone who’s made a career out of changing sounds and taking risks, she seems stuck. At one point, her partnerships with Jack and Aaron were gamechangers! But I think it’s time to find someone new. I’m sure Charlie Puth is available!
Of course, there are a few gems hidden among the madness. I think “But Daddy I Love Him,” a spiritual successor to “Love Story,” is the highlight of the entire album (and not just because she says “Hannah” in this song!). If Taylor would FINALLY just hire me as her editor, this is the version of TTPD I would suggest she release:
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