Album Review: The Tortured Poets Department by Taylor Swift

Call me a tortured poet — I can’t stop listening to Taylor Swift’s 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department. After six months spent fully absorbing (and loving) every aspect of Tortured Poets, I truly believe Swift delivered one of her most vulnerable, poignant, and compelling works of art to date… nearly two decades into her musical career. From beginning to end, Tortured Poets feels like a journey through the pages of Swift’s very own diary. Every intimate word so intricately weaved into every poem. Swift’s story, yet so relatable for all — showcasing, once again, her truly prolific craft. Themes of love and loss that circle the drain of life — introspective thoughts of falling in love in the public eye, of the scrutiny that comes with public relationships, of love and loss and lustful emotions. In all, I’m of the opinion that Swift’s creativity shines in Tortured Poets — an unguarded, poetic, lyrical masterpiece that feels very folklore-meets-Midnights, yet brand new all the same.

With Tortured Poets, Swift put her truest emotions into her lyricism, reminding me why I fell in love with her music all those years ago. From my first listen, alone on the couch at midnight April 19th (the Anthology surprise later that morning), so many moments left me feeling my feels. I’m a lover of music that makes me FEEL something — and Tortured Poets did just that. Every track brought something different to the total project. There were standout favorites (The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived, loml, Guilty as Sin?, The Black Dog, The Prophecy). There were growers (pretty much the whole Anthology — it took a couple listens to really appreciate). There were moments I had to pause and repeat and repeat again (when loml turned out to be “loss of my life”, the bridge of The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived, D-Y-I-N-G in How Did It End?). Months later, it feels like my life has been forever altered to two states of being — BTTPD (Before The Tortured Poets Department) and ATTPD (After The Tortured Poets Department). No doubt my husband agrees.

And now for my favorite lyrics from each song on Tortured Poets, some of my favorites from Taylor Swift’s entire discography. So many of the words feel like poetry in musical form. An amazing display of lyricism from one of the world’s best.

Fortnight (feat. Post Malone):

“All of this to say I hope you're okay / But you're the reason / And no one here's to blame / But what about your quiet treason?”

The Tortured Poets Department:

“But you're in self-sabotage mode / Throwing spikes down on the road / But I've seen this episode and still loved the show / Who else decodes you?”

My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys:

“'Cause I knew too much, there was danger in the heat of my touch / He saw forever, so he smashed it up, oh, oh”

Down Bad:

“I loved your hostile takeovers / Encounters closer and closer / All your indecent exposures / How dare you say that it's—”

So Long, London:

“And you say I abandoned the ship / But I was going down with it / My white-knuckle dying grip / Holding tight to your quiet resentment”

But Daddy I Love Him:

“I'll tell you something right now / I'd rather burn my whole life down / Than listen to one more second of all this bitchin' and moanin' / I'll tell you something 'bout my good name / It's mine alone to disgrace / I don't cater to all these vipers dressed in empath's clothing”

Fresh Out The Slammer:

“All those nights, he kept me goin' / Swirled you into all of my poems / Now we're at the starting line, I did my time”

Florida!!! (feat. Florence + The Machine):

“So I did my best to lay to rest / All of the bodies that have ever been on my body / And in my mind, they sink into the swamp / Is that a bad thing to say in a song?”

Guilty as Sin?:

“I dream of crackin' locks / Throwin' my life to the wolves or the ocean rocks / Crashin' into him tonight, he's a paradox / I'm seeing visions / Am I bad or mad or wise?”

Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?:

“So tell me everything is not about me / But what if it is? / Then say they didn't do it to hurt me / But what if they did? / I wanna snarl and show you just how disturbed this has made me / You wouldn't last an hour in the asylum where they raised me”

I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can):

“They shake their heads sayin', "God, help her" / When I tell 'em he's my man / But your good Lord doesn't need to lift a finger / I can fix him, no, really, I can”

loml:

“Our field of dreams engulfed in fire / Your arson's match, your somber eyes / And I'll still see it until I die / You're the loss of my life”

I Can Do It With a Broken Heart:

“I cry a lot, but I am so productive, it's an art / You know you're good when you can even do it with a broken heart”

The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived:

“I would've died for your sins, instead, I just died inside / And you deserve prison, but you won't get time”

The Alchemy:

“These blokes warm the benches / We've been on a winning streak / He jokes that it's heroin, but this time with an "E" / 'Cause the sign on your heart / Said it's still reserved for me / Honestly, who are we to fight the alchemy?”

Clara Bow:

“It's hell on earth to be heavenly / Them's the breaks, they don't come gently”

The Black Dog:

“Now I wanna sell my house / And set fire to all my clothes / And hire a priest to come and exorcise my demons / Even if I die screaming / And I hope you hear it”

imgonnagetyouback:

'‘Pick your poison, babe, I'm poison either way”

The Albatross:

“Wise men once said / "One bad seed kills the garden” / "One less temptress, one less dagger to sharpen" / Locked me up in towers / But I'd visit in your dreams / And they tried to warn you about me”

Choe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus:

“If the glint in my eye traced the depths of your sigh / Down that passage in time back to the moment / I crashed into you, like so many wrecks do / Too impaired by my youth to know what to do”

How Did It End?:

“Say it once again with feeling / How the death rattle breathing / Silenced as the soul was leaving / The deflation of our dreaming / Leaving me bereft and reeling / My beloved ghost and me / Sitting in a tree / D-Y-I-N-G”

So High School:

“I feel so high school every time I look at you / I wanna find you in a crowd just to hide from you / And in a blink of a crinklin' eye / I'm sinkin', our fingers entwined / Cheeks pink in the twinklin' lights / Tell me 'bout the first time you saw me”

I Hate It Here:

“I'm lonely, but I'm good / I'm bitter, but I swear I'm fine / I'll save all my romanticism for my inner life and I'll get lost on purpose / This place made me feel worthless”

thanK you aIMee:

“All that time you were throwin' punches, it was all for nothin’ / And our town, it looks so small from way up here / Screamed, "Thank you, Aimee" to the night sky and the stars are stunnin' / 'Cause I can't forget the way you made me heal”

I Look in People’s Windows:

“Does it feel alright to not know me? / I'm addicted to the "if only"”

The Prophecy:

“And I look unstable / Gathered with a coven 'round a sorceress' table / A greater woman has faith / But even statues crumble if they're made to wait / I'm so afraid I sealed my fate / No sign of soulmates”

Cassandra:

“Blood's thick but nothin' like a payroll / Bet they never spared a prayer for my soul / You can mark my words that I said it first / In a mourning warning, no one heard / No one heard, not a single word was heard”

Peter:

“Forgive me, Peter, please know that I tried / To hold on (Hold on) to the days (To the days) / When you were mine / But the woman who sits by the window / Has turned out the light”

The Bolter:

“Ended with the slam of a door / But she's got the best stories / You can be sure / That as she was leaving / It felt like freedom”

Robin:

“The time will arrive for the cruel and the mean / You'll learn to bounce back just like your trampoline / But now we'll curtail your curiosity / In sweetness”

The Manuscript:

“The only thing that's left is the manuscript / One last souvenir from my trip to your shores / Now and then, I reread the manuscript / But the story isn't mine anymore”

What a privilege it’s been to grow up alongside the eras of Taylor Swift’s music. Such a talented artist and a true generational talent. There’s no one else I’d rather have in my #1 spot. I look forward to the next re-recordings and all the eras yet to come.

Are you a tortured poet too? What’s your favorite Tortured Poets track? I have a hard time ranking music — my favorites change all the time. As for now, heading into middle October, Guilty As Sin?, So High School, and Robin have been staple “on repeat” favorites for me lately. I’ve really come to LOVE Robin.

Enjoy!

JBW