The Tortured Poets Department

 

January 15th 2025

 

Taylor’s Tortured Times: A Rave Review

 

Dear Listeners,

 

13 is Taylor Swift’s  lucky number, but her 11th studio album sure seemed lucky. The album The Tortured Poets Department was streamed 300 million times in 24 hours, and sold 1.4 million vinyl copies in the first day. It claimed 17 weeks of being number one on Billboard’s top 200 albums by December 21st, and the songs “monopolized” the top 14 spots on Billboard's Hot 100. The Tortured Poets Department sold almost 2.5 million copies through the first half of 2024, and was one of Swift’s most successful titles to date. The album was a huge hit for Swift fans all around the world and will forever be remembered as one of the greatest albums of all time.

The new album has a much different feel than any other album Swift has released. She mainly produces fast pop music, occasionally dabbling in slower sadder songs with a little more meaning. Whilst all of her songs are catchy, she rarely does any music like this. The Tortured Poets Department (TTPD) is medium-slow, and has rhythms that sway and flow, opposed to jumping and shouting. The new album has Swift using a low, mello voice, occasionally going high. The words are open to interpretation, but most people think it is a reference to her past boyfriends, especially the song “Tortured Poets Department”. Because of this major difference, she also capitalized on selling vinyl records of the album, which surprisingly sold massive amounts, even though according to Top entertainment trends for 2023: only 15% of music listeners have record players. All in all, Swift is going all in on this album, and it seems to be paying off.

The theme of the new album is largely focused on love and heartbreak. Swift included lots of lines such as  “like I lost my twin, What if I can’t have him(?)”, referring to the fact that she feels like her partner is slipping away. Most of the album ebbs and flows like this, going through sad songs, vengeance songs, and some songs that are reminiscent of her other albums, such as Midnights. She also has a song that has a Romeo and Juliet story line (“But Daddy I Love Him”) that has a similar theme to one of her other songs “Love Story”, but is told in a much slower and sadder tone. While listening to this album, the words and rhythms can make people feel different things, like heartbreak or frustration. This album does that in a way that none of Swift’s other albums do, and while most of her supporters love it, there are certainly some that prefer to stay away from that album, even if they are hardcore fans. 

If I had to rate this album, I would probably consider the new rhythms she included, and how other people are reacting. I would give this album 82/100 👍 on my rating scale. If you tend to stay away from explícito music then stay away from this album. There are plenty of loud and easy to hear F-bombs, and other stuff that would be generally frowned upon, but nothing worse than that. If you are still listening, then I would definitely recommend this to most people, and in my opinion is great, just not amazing.

 

Best Regards,

            Emmett Dunn