Taylor Swift’s latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, takes listeners on a journey through love, loss, and fame, delivering some of her best music yet.
Taylor Swift has released her latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, but that is not all. She had a special surprise in store for her fans, which many speculated because she has been hinting at twos for a while now. This was a double album drop, with The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology dropping just two hours later, which includes 15 more songs, bringing the grand total up to 31 — 13 backwards because, of course.
The Tortured Poets Department Album Review
This album reads like Taylor Swift’s diary. She has always been willing to go there for her fans, which is why many relate to her music, but this time it feels even more personal. She is even willing to go after herself in songs like The Bolter and Who’s Afraid Of Little Old Me?. In her Instagram caption, she makes sure to let fans know this isn’t the time to come at her exes, and that she brought some of this on herself:
The Tortured Poets Department. An anthology of new works that reflect events, opinions and sentiments from a fleeting and fatalistic moment in time – one that was both sensational and sorrowful in equal measure. This period of the author’s life is now over, the chapter closed and boarded up. There is nothing to avenge, no scores to settle once wounds have healed. And upon further reflection, a good number of them turned out to be self-inflicted. This writer is of the firm belief that our tears become holy in the form of ink on a page. Once we have spoken our saddest story, we can be free of it.
And then all that’s left behind is the tortured poetry.
As far as first impressions go, this album has it all. Some songs feature catchy beats combined with devastating lyrics, causing listeners to not know what to do with themselves. Other times, there are diss tracks, like thanK you aIMee, which is very clearly aimed at Kim Kardashian and even goes so far as to mention North being a Swiftie (and yes, it is amazing).
There are songs for every stage of heartbreak, which was part of her advertising of the album. When we are obsessed and willing to do anything to make it work, no matter what. The rebounds. The sleepless nights. The endless tears. And persevering through it all, to get the job done. I Can Do It With A Broken Heart, which is in reference to performing The Eras Tour in front of thousands of fans when you would rather curl up in a ball and die, is quite possibly the most devastating of them all.
While we all though The Tortured Poets Department was going to be a breakup album for her 6 year relationship with Joe Alywn, it is much more than that. There are some songs that appear to be Matty Healy focused, the singer from The 1975. Now, to be fair, they had a rumored fling back in 2014 and somehow found their way back to each other in 2023 for a short time.
Also, many argue that Midnights is the Joe breakup album, so we have already gotten many songs inspired by him. Yes, there are mentions of imaginary rings and a wedding that didn’t happen. She would have married Joe, but he didn’t want to marry her. This was for the best, because now she has Travis. And in her own words, no one has had her, not like this.
At the same time, Taylor Swift has always been good at keeping her fans guessing. She weaves in enough clues towards both Matty and Joe to almost never make it completely obvious. It even seems as though she is talking about both relationships in certain songs. And then, we get to what we never expected — a handful of Travis Kelce songs.
Their whirlwind relationship has had fans on cloud nine for Taylor, and clearly she is right there with them. So High School and The Alchemy are heavily Kelce inspired, filled with football references and the revelation that she is very much in love. Is this what the future of Taylor Swift’s music if going to be? Most likely.
While The Tortured Poets Department is very much influenced by heartbreak, from both Joe and Matty, The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology goes back over many events in her life. She is closing the door on her past, and opening the one to her future.
Here’s the thing, this album is so much more than the men that have come in and out of her life. This album is about many things that have happened to her. About how this industry will chew you up and try to spit you out – comparing you to others. How fans become a bit too attached, and will demand their favorite artists date certain people, be available for them at all times, and even provide the genre of songs they wish, not the artist.
A mob showed up outside Jack Antonoff’s rehearsal dinner and wedding just to get a glimpse of Taylor Swift for God’s sake. And it was horrific to watch unfold for those who respect her as an artist.
In Clara Bow she even references herself by name, the first time she has ever done this in her lyrics. The song not only seems to bring to light how famous people are often compared to one another, but also that she herself isn’t even Taylor Swift anymore. Not really anyways.
In my opinion, there are no skips on this album. Each song tells a story about her life. She comes at her fans a little bit, and rightfully so, as detailed above. How they beg her for more when she is a broken shell on the ground and just needs to give herself time to heal. We need to learn to respect her more. Taylor Swift is a human being. We would do well to remember that.
This album is her way of healing. She made these songs for herself, and no one else. That is what is so special about it.
The Tortured Poets Department is a deep and personal album. The lyrics are poetic, which is likely why she chose this album name. There are catchy songs that are a straight bop, but the majority are more on the folk-pop side in terms of feel. She has let us into her mind once again, and we welcome it.
Rating: 5 out of 5
The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology Tracklist
Looking for The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology songs ranked?
- Fortnight (Ft. Post Malone)
- The Tortured Poets Department
- My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys
- Down Bad
- So Long, London
- But Daddy I Love Him
- Fresh Out The Slammer
- Florida!!! (Ft. Florence + the Machine)
- Guilty as Sin?
- Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?
- I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)
- loml
- I Can Do It With A Broken Heart
- The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived
- The Alchemy
- Clara Bow
- The Black Dog
- imgonnagetyouback
- The Albatross
- Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus
- How Did It End?
- So High School
- I Hate It Here
- thanK you aIMee
- I Look in People’s Windows
- The Prophecy
- Cassandra
- Peter
- The Bolter
- Robin
- The Manuscript
NEXT: Every Mashup Taylor Swift Has Sung on The Eras Tour
Tessa Smith is a Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer-approved Film and TV Critic. On Camera personality and TV / Film Critic with 10+ years of experience in video editing, writing, editing, moderating, and hosting.