The Tortured Poets Department
“The Tortured Poets Department” by Taylor Swift arrived on April 19 at midnight as one of the most anticipated albums of 2024.
Her 11th studio album consists of 16 songs, one hour and five minutes, and is a collection of emotions with total honesty written in poetic prose.
Swift and her producers, Aaron Dessner and Jack Antonoff worked together to create the songs. The album uses the synth sound from “Midnights” and the lyrical composition from “Folklore” and “Evermore” for its signature sound.
The album is emotionally complex and contains themes from heartbreak to loss, depression, motivation and love. In “Fortnight (feat. Post Malone),” the first single of the album, explores ideas of how deeply affected someone can be after being together for a fortnight. In the song, her love is ruining her life. These themes are also further elaborated upon in the music video.
Another song on the album is “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart.” It has an upbeat, dance production, but the lyrics elude to two of her struggles performing on The Eras Tour.
The lyrics “They said, ‘Babe, you gotta fake it ‘til you make it’ and I did, lights, camera, b****, smile, even when you wanna die,” reflect her struggle continuing to play pretend about her emotions.
The track five-song, normally an especially vulnerable song, titled “So Long London” is suspected to be about Joe Alwyn, Swift’s ex-boyfriend of six years.
It seems to be reflective of their relationship and breakup with lyrics like, “every breath feels like rarest air when you’re not sure if he wants to be there.” Their relationship was notoriously private, any glimpse adds a piece to the forever incomplete puzzle.
The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology
Swift is known to leave Easter eggs to her fans about her next moves.
In the last two months, fans have been scouring her social media for hints and lyrics to “The Tortured Poets Department.” Many fans noticed Swift’s continual use of the number two, which they believed to be a hint.
At 2 a.m. on April 19, Swift released a second secret album called “The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology.” At over two hours with 31 songs, The Anthology is an extension of the first, including “thanK you aIMee,” “The Bolter,” “The Manuscript,” “So High School” and more.
Swift is no stranger to writing emotional songs with depth and truth.
On previous albums, she usually writes one song that is particularly vulnerable and seems to hint about her current or previous romances; however, “The Tortured Poets Department” is the most vulnerable overall and fans have been searching for the smallest clues Swift has left in the lyrics.
So far, fans found connections to exes Joe Alwyn, Matt Healy and her current romance Travis Kelce.
While Swift contemplates her next move, there is no doubt that the rest of the department will be listening, analyzing and crying to her music.
In the future, there may be a deluxe version or more singles, so the world will be waiting. But for now, the “Swifties” are happy to be included in “The Emotionally Destroyed Listeners Department.”
