The Tortured Poets Department Review

Now, you have probably either listened to this album already or heard of it, but if you haven’t done either, here is a little overview of The Tortured Poets Department: Taylor Swift’s 11th album. This album was announced at the 2024 Grammys after Swift won Best Pop Vocal Album (her 13th award!) for Midnights. That same night she won Album of the Year for the fourth time (the only person to do that, ever) for Midnights.

Swift also surprised us with another album called The Tortured Poets Department - The Anthology at 2 a.m. on April 19th. I am going to be reviewing both because if I only did one I feel like it wouldn’t do justice to Taylor Swift so here we go! 

In the first album of TTPD, there are 16 songs. The biggest songs from that album are “Fortnight” (79,618,568 streams), “Down Bad” (52,103,997), and the title song “The Tortured Poets Departmen”t (49,124,645 streams). “Fortnight” was the first single Swift released from the album. The song features Post Malone and goes with a music video published the same day. My personal favorite song on the album is “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart.” I love how the music is more of a pop song but when you really look at the song lyrics it is more of a depressing song. Another favorite of mine is “Clara Bow” which alludes to the famous film actress from the 1920’s Clara Bow and American singer-songwriter Stevie Nicks. This song is similar to a love song in the way Swift compliments others until the end when she reflects on herself, describing herself negatively. Both “The Alchemy” and “Florida!!!” (featuring Florence + the Machine) are songs near the top of my rank that I have listened to many times. Fans speculate that “The Alchemy” is about Swift’s current boyfriend: Travis Kelsey. Overall I really enjoyed listening to the first album and definitely recommend it. 

In the second album, Swift added 15 more songs totalling up to 31 songs released in a span of two hours. She published the second wave of songs at 2 a.m. and surprised everyone. On that album, she included the four bonus songs announced during the Eras Tour. My favorite song from the double album is “The Manuscript.” I love how it describes a woman trying to truly find herself after losing it when giving herself away to older men. The song that people are most stuck on is “thanK you aIMee” which fans believe is about Kim Kardashian and North West drama between Swift, Kanye West, and Kim Kardashian. I really enjoyed “Cassandra” which is about the murder of a singer's friend who had died, how no one believed her, and the grief that followed. 

All in all this album is very good. When I first listened to it, the album reminded me of Swift's albums evermore and folklore. This album is amazing and I recommend it to anyone who is looking to expand their music horizons!