The Tortured Poets Department: A New Era

By Kayla Harper

This past week on April 19, 2024, the 14 time Grammy winner, Taylor Swift, released her 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department. The week leading up to the album’s release was filled with fun activities in which Swifties around the world could participate in decoding secret messages and analyzing clues.  Each solved puzzle revealing lyrics and themes of the upcoming album.  On April 18, fans solved a global puzzle by putting together letters found in QR codes placed in cities around the world, revealing the lead single from the album would be the first track, “Fortnight (feat. Post Malone)”.  After the puzzle was solved, Swift shared the song would have a music video released on April 19 at 8pm EST.

Within the first day of it’s release, The Tortured Poets Department broke many records, one of them being that it is the first album in history to reach 300 million streams in a single day, additionally, “Fortnight (feat. Post Malone)” became Spotify’s most streamed song in a single day.

Of Swift’s pop albums, The Tortured Poets Department, is arguably the most complex, emotionally, lyrically and sonically.  The album came out of a time in Swift’s life in which she was experiencing the breakup of a long-term relationship, in the midst of the peak of her career, resulting in one of her most honest pieces to date.

During the Eras Tour stop in Melbourne, Australia, Swift explained to the crowd, “Tortured Poets is an album that I think, more than any of my albums that I’ve ever made, I needed to make it…it was really a lifeline for me…just the things I was going through, the things I was writing about…it kind of reminded me of why songwriting is something that like actually gets me through my life and I’ve never had an album where I needed songwriting more than I needed it on Tortured Poets.” (Swift).

In relation to Swift’s past work, The Tortured Poets Department, sounds as if the lyricism of folklore and evermore has been conjoined with the lyrics and instrumentation of Red, while incorporating the edginess and brutal honesty of reputation and Midnights.  Additionally, there are moments where Swift seems to call back to her earlier style heard on albums like self-titled, Fearless, and Speak Now, lyrically, thematically and melodically.  “But Daddy I Love Him”  is quite literally “Love Story” part two!  However, at the same time it is the different from anything we have heard from Swift before.  It almost sounds like a mix of Lana Del Rey and Swift’s styles lyrically and sonically.

Swift’s main collaborators on the album were Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner, both of which she has worked with on many projects before.  You can hear the influence of both woven throughout the album.  Swift also collaborates with Post Malone on the lead single “Fornight (feat. Post Malone)” and with Florence and The Machine on “Florida!!! (feat. Florence and The Machine)”.

After listening to  The Tortured Poets Department, when it dropped at fans, who were trying to process the 16 brand new tracks on the standard edition of the album, noticed a countdown to 2am on Swift’s Instagram profile.  Fans quickly linked the time 2am to the many hints at the number two we had received from Swift and her team since the albums announcement back in February, many speculating it meant a double album.  Sure enough these fans were right as Swift announced The Anthology containing 15 more tracks.

Although it maintains the themes of heartbreak, revenge and growth found in The Tortured Poets Department, sonically and lyrically The Anthology seems to reflect Swift’s pandemic albums, folklore and evermore more closely.  Some fans even joke that it is the long lost third sister, Woodvale (if you know, you know).

There is a lot to talk about considering The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology contains 31 tracks total.   Therefore I am going to need more time to listen to each one before I give you my take on each song as I have done for many of Swift’s previous albums (ex. https://offtherecordwithkayla.ca/2024/01/12/midnights-behind-each-track-of-taylor-swifts-tenth-studio-album/).   However, you can expect an article with an in-depth review of each song eventually!