Caitlyn Shetter, Program Director
“All the pieces of me shattered as the crowd was chanting ‘more!’” Taylor Swift reveals on track 13 of her new album “The Tortured Poet’s Department: The Anthology.” The album carries the audience on her melancholic and most vindictive thoughts she’s suppressed since 2023 while performing her record-breaking Eras Tour.
“The Tortured Poets Department” is Swift’s most personal and reflective album to date. While the album is classified as pop, it is a mix of upbeat synth and slow songs. Regardless of what the song sounds like, each track was sewn together with poetic lyrics that are specific to Swift’s life while still catering to her audience.
The album begins with its first track and lead single for the album, “Fortnight,” which features Post Malone. “Fortnight” is a downtempo electropop hit that examines what Swift imagines could have come out of a past relationship. The lyrics of the song ultimately combat the sound in instances where Swift confesses, “I love you, it’s ruining my life. I touched you for only a fortnight.”
The second track of the album is the title track and gives listeners insight into a toxic relationship (rumored to be with Matty Healy) Swift was a part of. While the track is called “The Tortured Poets Department," Swift contradicts this statement by saying, “I laughed in your face and said, ‘You’re not Dylan Thomas, and I’m not Patti Smith. This ain’t the Chelsea Hotel, we’re modern idiots.’” Dylan Thomas and Patti Smith are both famous poets who were prominent guests of the Chelsea Hotel, which has built a reputation for being a romantic destination. Swift declares that her and her partner are not the greatest modern poets of their time, but rather childish lovers set for doom.
The third track, “My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys,” voices the bargaining stage of a toxic relationship where Swift tried to validate her partner's toxicity and manipulation by telling herself he only breaks what he loves. Swift gives insight into this dynamic by telling listeners, “But you should have seen him when he first got me. My boy only breaks his favorite toys.”
In track four, “Down Bad,” Swift discusses the aftermath of a relationship where she was love bombed only to be left stranded. This is another track where the beat contradicts the painful lyrics. Swift goes so far as to say, “For a moment, I knew cosmic love.” Later in the same track Swift says, “How dare you think it’s romantic leaving me safe and stranded.” This could be a call back to a lyric on her 2014 album 1989 when Swift says, “Please leave me stranded, it’s so romantic,” in the single “New Romantics.”
Swifties, the coined nickname for Swift’s fans, are well aware that Swift saves track five for the most personal, raw track of her albums. “So Long, London” is a beautiful depiction of this phenomenon and the sequel to the song “London Boy” on Swift’s 2019 album “Lover.” The song depicts her final goodbye to her six-year relationship with Joe Alwyn. The track begins with a dreamy, angelic sound while Swift proclaims, “So long London.” Grab your tissues for this one, lyrics such as, “I stopped CPR after all it’s no use. The spirit was gone we would never come to, and I’m pissed off that you let me give you all that youth for free,” examine how for the whole relationship, Swift burdened herself with the responsibility of keeping their one-sided love alive. While Swift spent every day drawing her drifting lover in, he was unable to provide any evidence that he truly loved her despite his multitude of love confessions. Swift painstakingly shares, “You swore that you loved me but where were the clues? I died at the altar waiting for the proof.”
The next track “But Daddy I Love Him” is a complete 180 from “So Long, London”. Travis Kelce, welcome to Taylor Swift’s love song universe. This song is a classic Swift pop ballad. The jovial tune complements the fun, flirty lyrics. Swift uses her humor through the line, “Screamin’ but daddy I love him, I’m having his baby! No, I’m not but you should see your faces!” Which if you are a fan like I am, probably gagged you on the first listen.
In “Fresh Out the Slammer,” Swift articulates what it felt like to rebound after losing her long term, unsatisfactory relationship. Swift compares her lackluster relationship to prison, and her rebound to her saving grace with, “Now pretty baby I’m coming back home to you. Fresh out the slammer, I know who my first call will be too.”
Track 8, “Florida!!!” featuring Florence + The Machine, takes place during the Tampa, Florida shows of The Eras Tour, which were the first stops of the tour after news of her breakup with Joe Alwyn had gone viral. Swift told iHeartRadio that she used Florida to frame her escape because the state is commonly known as a location where criminals are free to start fresh. This is how she feels after a breakup. Swift explains this liberating feeling with lyrics such as, “Yes I’m haunted, but I’m feeling just fine.”
Swift leans into her flirtatious delusional persona in “Guilty as Sin?” This track was written while Swift was daydreaming about someone before ever laying a hand on them with lyrics like, “I keep recalling things we never did, messy top lip kiss, how I long for our trysts without touching his skin. How can I be guilty as sin?”
“Who's Afraid of Little Old Me'' is a power ballad in which Swift finally lets out her frustrations about how the media has treated her from a young age. One of the strongest lyrics in this song is “I was tame, I was gentle ‘til the circus life made me weak. Don’t worry folks, we took out all her teeth. Who’s afraid of little old me?”
“Loml” is one of the deepest cuts on the album, explaining how her relationship with Alywn shifted from, “You told me I’m the love of your life,” to, “And I’ll still see it until I die. You’re the loss of my life.”
“The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” is arguably the strongest track lyrically from the album and a fan favorite. The resentful lyrics are supported through an instrumental that builds in intensity alongside the lyrics. Taylor Swift is known for her iconic bridges, and she did not disappoint with this track. Some stand out lyrics from the bridge are, “I would have died for your sins instead I just died inside, and you deserve prison but you won’t get time,” which examines the unfiltered agony this breakup laid upon Swift.
“Clara Bow” is the final track of the standard “The Tortured Poets Department” album. This track pays homage to Clara Bow, a silent film star who was known for having a tumultuous love life and struggling with her mental health due to her fame. The song begins with, “You look like Clara Bow in this lighting” and shifts to “You look like Taylor Swift in this light,” declaring that Swift sees similarities within herself and Bow.
“The Black Dog” is the first track in the anthology portion of the album. The track examines the betrayal and hurt Swift felt after discovering a former lover was having an illicit affair in the popular London pub named The Black Dog. This is another track where the melody builds as the song progresses, peaking at the bridge. Swift uses instruments as an elevation for the lyrics in this song. In the first chorus, Swift belts, “Old habits die screaming,” and on the word screaming, a loud cacophony of drums and symbols collide in a haunting manner.
“Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus” is a standout track amongst the Anthology section of the album. The track depicts the stage in the postmortem of a relationship where Swift and her former lover were both rebounding while still holding feelings for one another and wishing it worked out. As the music to the track fades, Swift says, “And if you want to tear my world apart. Say you’ll always wonder, cause I wonder. Will I always, will I always wonder?”
In “thanK you aIMee,” and no those capital letters are not typos, Swift uses a metaphorical high school to talk about the vitriol she’s received from Kim Kardashian throughout her career. In the bridge Swift confesses, “And in your mind you never beat my spirit black and blue. I don’t think you’ve changed much, and so I changed your name and any real defining clues.”
“The Bolter” is a song for all the independent people who struggle with commitment. This is one of the more upbeat songs on the album, depicting how liberating it can be to just be alone, with lyrics such as, “You can be sure that as she was leaving, it felt like freedom.”
“The Manuscript” is the perfect closing to this heart wrenching album. Slow paced piano keys guide the listener through a whirlwind of heartbreak as Swift sings the manuscript of a past relationship that sits heavy on her mind. The words intertwined with the soft melody craft a feeling of emptiness that projects onto the audience, leaving them pensive as the album comes to a close. The strongest lyrics lie in the second verse where Swift sings, “In the age of him she wished she was thirty and made coffee every morning in a French press. Afterward she only ate kid’s cereal, and couldn’t sleep unless it was in her mother’s bed,” meaning that Swift spent the duration of the relationship daydreaming about their future. Afterwards, she was so fractured by the heartbreak she fell back into innocence to avoid the shock of losing him.
Within the 31 new tracks, the Chairman of the Tortured Poets Department unveiled an instant classic that will stand as the soundtrack for a million tales of love and heartbreak. This album is a blend of the things Swift is best known for while also incorporating new themes. The summary poem of the album ends with Swift declaring, “All’s fair in love and poetry,” which stands true for these unfiltered, declassified tales. By sharing these stories with us, Swift was finally able to rid herself of heartbreak. So long Jurors, court has been adjourned.