Well, it’s finally out, The Tortured Poets Department by Taylor Swift and it was a double album like she’s been hinting for so long with her 2’s. I’m Swiftie enough to follow all the easter eggs and clue and investigate things etc…I just go on TikTok and watch the people that do have theories – it’s fun but I don’t have the time! 😅 But I’ve been so curious about this album because of the grayscale or “greige” as she says in one song of her songs, it’s such a gloomy aesthetic. There is a lot of songs to process and just remember, this is just my interpretation of her songs and my first impressions. Everyone has their own and that’s all good! Let’s get into it:

1. Fortnight (feat. Post Malone) – unexpected slow tempo, beat is very pop-synth, lyrics are interesting…(fortnight is 2 weeks – so is this about Matty Healy?!🤭 since they were so short lived in public last year), kinda thought Post Malone’s part would be more pronounced but I think I like it. This one is a grower I think.
2. The Tortured Poets Department – slow tempo beat again, Matty again…”a tattooed golden retriever” lol…oh wow…this situationship she had with him really affected her – relatable!😅
3. My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys – so far the beats feel the same, feels like one continuous song, slight differences here and there but tempo is the same and feels like the same song…”once I fix me, he’s gonna miss me” YUP…all the time. “stole my tortured heart, left all these broken parts” ouch.
4. Down Bad – still kind of slow but I love the funky sounds it starts with – oh she said “fuck it if I can’t have him” – he really had her down bad! “I loved your hostile takeovers” – I felt that. He really screwed with her heart and brain. The ending sounds like a song from Lana Del Rey 🤔
5. So Long, London – track 5? Will it break my heart? Love how it starts like bells chiming? Another slow one. Oh Joe…this one is sad and I think about their relationship or the ending of it. This one reminds me of Folklore and Evermore – and it makes sense because it’s co-written with Aaron Dessner and I LOVE her songs with him.
6. But Daddy I Love Him – AH! this gives me Fearless/Love Story vibes and I love it! Another Aaron Dessner song. My favorite so far 🥰 maybe because it sounds so different from the first 5. Great lyrics – she even came for the fans who was going on and on about her and Matty “all this bitching and moaning” and that chaotic time! 😅 It is her life guys and girls, she’s grown enough to make her own mistakes and learn from it. Such a good song!!
7. Fresh Out of the Slammer – back to slow but again, that guitar sound in the beginning and throughout giving me Lana vibes, maybe “Brooklyn Baby”?. She was in prison doing her time and now she’s out and running back to “him”. Whoa – tempo change.
8. Florida!!! (feat. Florence + the Machine) – someone explain Florida to me, or the significance of it. She mentions Florida in Fortnight too. Love how this song is more hard hitting at some parts of the song, love Florence’s voice. What happened in Florida?! lol…🤷🏻‍♀️. I know this one has layers, I just can’t decode it right now. Also…I’m realizing all these guitar sounding/Lana vibes are Jack Antanoff songs which makes sense.
9. Guilty as Sin? – she’s fantasizing! Ah! 🤭 Kind of reminds me of her song “I Can See You”…fantasies. Question is who is she fantasizing about? 👀
10. Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me – ohhhh this one is good. She screams, finally! Reminds me of 1989 and I’m a 1989 girly. Love this song and the theme. “I was tame, I was gentle till the circus life made me mean”. Seems like she’s talking about the entertainment industry and how it’s changed her.
11. I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can) – another slow one that gives me Lana vibes – oh Matty how you had her in a chokehold. But so relatable. “I can fix him, no, really, I can and only I can.” Yes, I have been this delusional but not anymore. LOL..love that she comes to her senses at the end of the song!👏🏼👏🏼
12. loml – giving me Evermore vibes – UGH, this one is so good and such a sad, heartbreaker song. Thank you Aaron Dessner. “Talking rings and talking cradles”. I wanna say both about Joe and Matty.
13. I Can Do It With a Broken Heart – finally an upbeat song?! wow! Aw damn, her heart was breaking and broken but she had her Eras Tour, she kept going even with her broken heart…honestly she deserves to take a break as long as she wants! Very synth-pop.
14. The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived – Aaron Dessner song again. “Cause it wasn’t sexy once it wasn’t forbidden.” This one reminds me of All Too Well…great story telling. Love it.
15. The Alchemy – she likes her white wine. “Touch down”? Is this aTravis song?! 🤭 aww she’s saying why fight the magic happening between them – cute!🥰
16. Clara Bow – yup another Aaron Dessner song, love how it sounds. Another song about her experience with fame and the music industry. As much as I love her sad love songs, I totally love any songs about herself and how she deals with fame, the public, the fans, etc…great song! “It’s hell on earth to be heavenly”. That’s heavy. I love how she mentions her own name at the end…almost like talking about the next starlet, a successor, who will have to endure this hell of the entertainment industry.
17. The Black Dog – love how the hard guitars came in, I like this one a lot and probably need a few listens but I like how it builds.
18. imgonnagetyouback – this one’s okay I think, still same slow tempo so it kind of sounds like other songs and nothing is really standing out for me on it – giving me 1989 vibes but I wish it was a little more dynamic maybe just to make it stand out a little more.
19. The Albatross – Folklore vibes – gotta be an Aaron song. Love the sound, not sure what it’s about yet, need a few more listens but I love it. I think she’s saying she’s the albatross? Will have to see what people say about it.
20. Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus – Evermore vibes – wait – she mentions “scarlet maroon” and I was getting that it’s about Matty way before that line….but does this mean Maroon is about Matty?! Because I love Maroon and I didn’t feel like it was a Joe song. Whoa…”Will I always wonder?”. Oh that wondering and what ifs.
21. How Did It End? – wow these extra songs are the Folklore/Evermore storytelling songs. Sad, sad song. ☹️ “It’s happening again, how did it end?” UGH. To go from ending it with Joe after 6 years, to the crazy ending with Matty right after? I don’t know how she did those first Eras Tours shows with all this going on.
22. So High School – YES. guitars, drums! 1990’s/2000’s teen rom-coms?! Awww a Travis song!! I love it. So cute! Oh this is sooo high school, at least when I was in high school! lol I’m rooting for them.
23. I Hate It Here – “secret gardens in my mind” yes…I escape too Taylor! Folklore/Evermore vibes again.
24. thanK you aIMee – I saw this one being broken down on Tik Tok and I was like ohhhhh. I can definitely see it! It’s about a certain person who tried to tear Taylor down. Great song, just a big F-U to any person that’s tried beating you down.
25. I Look in People’s Windows – this is an interesting song. “I’m addicted to the ‘if only'” – I used to relate to that! I’ll need a few listens on this one. I think this one is just okay for me.
26. The Prophecy – Folklore/Evermore vibes – so so good, so witchy! Love the lyrics “please, I’ve been on my knees, Change the prophecy”. Ugh the begging. This is one of my favorites! Shades of “greige”?! Yes I had to google that word old. Gray/beige pallete.
27. Cassandra – more Folklore/Evermore vibes! amazing storytelling “In a mourning warning no one heard.” WOW – tortured poets for real!! This one is deep – love it and need a few more listens!
28. Peter – Peter Pan? Another Matty song? But this time a sad Matty song and not so much anger, more reflective. “And I won’t confess that I waited, but I let the lamp burn.” Sadness that she was pining for him that long.
29. The Bolter – for sure the Aaron Dessner songs are probably some of my favorites in this whole Anthology! It’s the story-telling for me, I love it. I love that this one is a little upbeat since it’s kind of rare on this album.
30. Robin – I think this song is about innocence. I picture Christopher Robin (Winnie the Pooh) but as a mom this is giving me so many visuals of children and my hopes of them to stay innocent as long as they can be.❤️ Sweet song.
31. The Manuscript – hmmm looking back on All Too Well?! whoa…”But the story isn’t mine anymore.” She’s not going to dwell on it – good for her! I like this ending.

I need a few more listens to figure out which of 31 songs is my favorite. Top ones so far is But Daddy I Love Him, loml, and The Prophecy. I’m sure a few more will be growers. I know I love So High School

I will say this on my first two listens…I feel like it’s too slow in tempo and the first couple songs blend into one continuous song it feels like. It’s why I love But Daddy I Love Him, because it changed sound and beat, made me think of Fearless, which is a much needed switch up. Then it went back to slow tempo but I get it…it’s “The TORTURED POETS Department”…so these were going to be sad, slow songs! Who knows maybe it’s like Midnights and will grow on me?

It’s obvious I loved all the Aaron Dessner produced songs. The storytelling just shines and Folklore is in my top 3 Taylor albums. Funny, I never really listened to Evermore until this year! Yeah I don’t know why…I think during the pandemic and Folklore was on repeat, I couldn’t take more sad songs so I didn’t listen to Evermore. I took a chance this year and started listening to it and really love a bunch of songs on there!

It sounds like this album is Midnights/Folklore/Evermore combined with a few nods to Fearless and Red? I will say I am a 1989/Rep/Folklore girl so I’m happy about all the Aaron Dessner tracks – he and Taylor together make amazing music. Most of the songs on TTPD just felt like they blended into one which was just okay to me. I was waiting for a song to jump out at me and Florida! definitely did but I guess I should have expected something more low tempo since the theme was “greige”.

As for subject matter…wow! I didn’t anticipate it being a lot about Matty Healy but I TOTALLY get it and it allllll makes sense now with all that took place last year between them – she really unloaded all her feelings about this situation-ship. I love that there is a song or 2 about Travis – it’s the only happy tracks on this album! Of course the Joe was are just sad but definitely a goodbye. I think she already made 5 albums about their relationship so what else is there to say there? I love how she also addressed how people need to stay out of her business and if she wants to go wreck her life with some guy she’s so in love with – LET HER – she’s a grown up and she can make mistakes and learn from them too. 😅 Why is it always the bad boys that wreck you so bad? So relatable lol…and SO glad that phase of my life is over. She talks about her mental health a lot and she was really going through something bad and smiled through it all with a drink in her hand.

I love how she ends the Anthology with The Manuscript. Very much like “Dear Reader” but it’s definitely telling us that this whole chapter of messy guys, etc…is over for her. And I hope she does find Happiness and I’m rooting for her and Travis so hard but even if it’s not with him I think as fans we just want her to be okay. ❤️

And yeah…I bought the vinyl even though I have no record player. 😅 Last time I had a record player I was a kid and I would play my uncle’s records like Queen and my grandpa’s music from the 50’s. I’d beg to play with the records. I guess it’s time to get one! I have wanted to get some vinyls but I figured I didn’t need another expensive hobby. 😭 I bought The Albatross because I love the grayness of it and I liked the title of that song. I’m glad I love the song also now that I have heard it, but I now wish I had the vinyl for the DOUBLE album.

This poem Taylor wrote is at the end of vinyl and I LOVE the line:

“A smirk creeps onto this poet’s face

Because it’s the worst men that I write best.”

😅 Because YES, we can’t have this album if Matty wasn’t the worst to her unfortunately. I don’t feel like Joe was the worst…I think they tried hard and it just fell apart.

Are you going to listen to the album? What did you think of the album?

I have been listening to a few major drops like Ariana and Beyonce’s records so I may do a post of them too since I haven’t been finding good books to read lately. 😔 At least music is doing it for me!