The Tortured Poets Department review - Taylor’s step in the wrong direction

  

Taylor Swift has undeniably had the world on chokehold for the last year, with governments fighting to get her to perform in their countries as her large following is enough to affect their whole economies and her “Taylor’s Versions” taking advantage off her fans’ nostalgia.

  The latest product of the fame is The Tortured Poets Department which was marketed as an introspective album given its serious name accompanied by the black and white album covers, this looked to be a potential deep dive into Taylor’s more personal side as she looks to recover from a tumultuous time love-wise with two relationships ending.

  A lot of the album’s marketing had an emphasis on the lyrical side of the album, with Taylor referring to the lyrics as “poetry”, and the aesthetic of having a typewriters to truly sell the words that she would use on this album.

  Many of her dedicated fans would of course hype this up, with some going as far as to say that you may need a dictionary to dissect this album, which is a bold claim considering her album had not been released yet.

  The anticipation surrounding the album skyrocketed with voters already tipping it to win the GRAMMY award for Album of the Year. 

  Okay?

  A lot of expectation was clearly put on the shoulders of this album and when it released, what we got was 16 mellow tracks that feel like one long medley. 

  Halfway through, one may already get sick and bored due to how repetitive the album is. Many un-noteworthy moments could make a listener just stop listening to the album altogether as it is not entertaining in the slightest.

  Could the relatively dull instrumentals be saved by the “poetry” that Taylor has brought this album up to be? Nope. In fact, take whatever the opposite of poetry is and that’s the album there.

  Corny lines that throw you off instantly such as “It’ll be the 1830s but without all the racists” in “I Hate It Here” and “my friends smell like weed or little babies” in “Florida!!!”. These lyrics could work well to sell Taylor’s general cheesy quirky self, but the main issue is that this album is supposed to have beautiful, thought-provoking lyrics that normal poetry is supposed to do, so it’s incredibly out of place. The song titles don’t help, either.

  For someone that many regard as “the greatest songwriter of the century”, this certainly does not help her case in the slightest and may even diminish the epithet given to her in the long run.

  A key aspect for a great songwriter is to look at the progression that they make as an artist throughout their careers. Notable instances such as The Beatles, who many Swifties compare her to and claim to be better than them, had a significant step up in the later stages of their career by being bold and experimental with their music whilst keeping their fame and success which further made them remembered in music history.

 However, a woman pushing her mid 30s coming up with lines that just ruin the experience such as “Touch me as your bros play Grand Theft Auto” after decades of writing songs is just lazy and forgettable. 

 However, there are still positives in the album. Songs like loml and So Long, London shows that Taylor still has the caliber in her to deliver a good track, which is only proving that this album plagued with inconsistency. 

  A big problem Taylor has had throughout her career is in her albums, it is very inconsistent. In albums like "Lover" where you have her biggest song 'Cruel Summer' and the day-dreamy lyrics and vocals of 'Daylight', the whole album is brought down by "ME!" and "London Boy" who Swifties themselves claim to be some of her worst.

  This album is no different, with the listener being put through the beautiful ballad of "loml", which is my favourite of the album, just to be put into "I can do it with a Broken Heart" which is the silliest and funniest song in a bad way.

  The overall album is also somewhat salvaged by the Anthology that Taylor dropped two hours after the initial release with a different producer, Aaron Dessner, helping out with the songs and the improvement in quality of the instrumentals is blatant.

  The quality difference between the original version and the anthology is blatant, with the anthology having more clearer and energetic songs. 

  A good showcase of Taylor’s range with piano ballads such as “Peter” along the uplifting “So High School”, it really does feel like the old Taylor from the early 2010s who wrote all the generation-defining hits was put on display.

  Though it is unsure if the anthology will count when it gets nominated for any awards, the abundant thing is that it lifts the album up from unlistenable to decent enough to sit through.

  All in all, The Tortured Poets Department was a misstep music-wise and marketing wise, with songs that can make one fall asleep and lyrics that can throw any listener off in a bad way. Though one may wonder if her loyal fanbase or some critics will even care or point out the mediocrity that this album brings, as some fear speaking out against her name.

  A stain to her high reputation she has built across the last two decades, this is an album for her to forget. If she wants to come back creatively, she needs a break to properly sit down and actually write these songs in order for her to hit her creative peaks that were seen on Evermore and Folklore which were both albums that were created during times when Taylor didn’t have anything else going on with her life leaving those albums to be her only focus, and it paid off.