Taylor Swift’s latest album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” emerges as a profound exploration of love, loss, and self-reflection.
Taylor, a master of narrative songwriting, delves deeper into her artistic reservoir to produce an album that resonates with emotional intensity and showcases her maturity as an artist.
She explores new sounds while staying true to the dynamic storytelling that’s defined her career.
Straying from the fictionalized narrative storytelling in “folklore” and “evermore”, Taylor reminds the world that she’s the queen of heart-wrenching breakup songs, as she releases her first breakup album in over a decade, with “Red”, which produced the breakup song of all breakup songs, “All Too Well 10 Minute Version”.
With recent albums like “reputation” and “Lover” reflecting a stable personal life for the last six years, at least that’s what it appeared to be.
“The Tortured Poets Department” is a collection of tracks that play like pages from an intensely personal journal. Swifties received a surprise at 2 AM as Taylor revealed in an Instagram post that this was a double album release and went on to release “The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology,” which included 15 additional songs, making the album a collection of 31 songs total.
The theory was that this album would depict the breakup between Taylor and Joe Alwyn.
While he does get a handful of songs that were written about him, this album surprisingly contains songs about her six-week relationship with Matty Healy of The 1975.
It’s not a shock that she would include songs about that time in her life, but the depth with which she describes her relationship with Healy is what has Swifties screaming.
Here’s a breakdown of the songs of Side 1.
Fortnight (ft. Post Malone)
It’s the collaboration the world didn’t know it needed. Taylor’s song with Post Malone is a tragic take on love and loss, the wonder and chaos of a double-edged sword.
A song that questions what would’ve been and describes the fatalistic nature of the relationship has lines like “I love you, it’s ruining my life.”
If this doesn’t explain someone’s state of mind in a relationship that’s stagnant and doesn’t impact you in a healthy manner, then who knows what does. Taylor chose a perfect song as a first single.
The Tortured Poets Department
Title tracks can either be incredible masterpieces or incredible disasters. Thankfully, this is an incredible masterpiece.
Rumored to be about Matty Healy, Taylor takes jabs at typewriters (who uses typewriters anyway?) and tortured poets like Dylan Thomas and Patti Smith.
This song brings themes of resentment to the forefront and the jabs are indications of things Taylor admired about Matty and what she felt they represented as two tortured poets themselves.
Lines like “You smoked, then ate seven bars of chocolate” and “You fall asleep like a tattooed golden retriever” were the biggest indications to Swifties that this is about her short time with Matty.
It’s a representation of self-awareness because she writes “I chose this cyclone with you,” so she knows that her choice has a consequence, but she doesn’t regret it.
My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys
This song perfectly captures the stage of denial in a toxic relationship that’s difficult to accept.
Adding to the list of Matty Healy tracks, the third song of the album describes the part of the relationship where the girl is the shiny new toy and brings the promise of new possibilities.
That is, until the boy realizes that he’s played with his new toy too much, breaks it, and decides he doesn’t want to play with it anymore, which is what Taylor describes Matty did with her.
This led to the denial stage of not being able to admit that something is wrong with the relationship and that it’d get back to that beginning stage where everything was new and exciting. What a metaphor!
Down Bad
This one is dedicated to… Matty Healy. A mix of melancholia and anger, Taylor announces to the world that yes, she was in love with Matty, get over it.
With lyrics like “They’ll say I’m nuts if I talk about the existence of you,” she reveals that she was aware of the public response to the news of her dating Matty and how people thought she was crazy for picking someone like Matty who’s made controversial comments and has an unusual approach to performing.
However, she calls out the haters for not allowing her to have this cosmic love she needed following her breakup with Joe Alwyn.
So Long, London
Joe Alwyn, this is your moment. Grab a tissue, a glass of wine, or whatever you think will help with the pain that’s about to hit you.
With a similar intro like “Death By A Thousand Cuts” and “Call It What You Want,” Taylor says goodbye to her London boy, Joe.
She describes her anxiety about trying to keep Alwyn interested in their relationship and how she’s never really felt secure in a partnership of six years.
Taylor also blames Joe for ruining a place that she deeply loved and changing the way she sees it from now on. Gut-wrenching!
But Daddy I Love Him
When the title of this track was revealed, everyone thought of The Little Mermaid. In another song dedicated to her time with The 1975 singer, Taylor uses religious references to express the judgment she faced for her relationship with Matty.
She jokingly writes “I’m having his baby, no I’m not but you should see your faces,” to jab at the people who would horrified at the idea of Swift tying her life to someone they don’t approve of.
Genius!
She goes on to proclaim to the haters, “I’d rather burn my whole life down than listen to one more second of all this bitchin’ and moanin’” and follows this with “I’ll tell you somethin’ ‘bout my good name it’s mine alone to disgrace, I don’t cater to all these vipers dressed in empath’s clothing.”
Say it louder! She doesn’t owe anyone anything and she will live her life the way she wants to, as she should.
Fresh Out The Slammer
Comparing your six-year relationship to being locked in a prison? Yikes!
Reaching out to an old flame after breaking up with your boyfriend isn’t a new concept. Taylor talks about Matty never really leaving her mind and him entering her thoughts throughout the time she was Joe.
She reveals that she incorporated Matty into her poems, or songs, in the past and the present.
Florida!!! (ft. Florence + The Machine)
Everyone can relate to wanting to escape their reality and start somewhere fresh, leaving behind all of the troubles and responsibilities.
This feeling was exactly what Taylor intended to capture in this song. In an interview, Taylor said that she watches Dateline and that she noticed a pattern of people committing crimes, wanting to run, and ending up in Florida.
She compared this to wanting to escape heartbreak and creating a new identity so no one knows your past. Florida is the destination.
Guilty As Sin?
“False God” fans, this is your song. In this sensual song, Taylor describes the fantasies we lock away deep inside our minds and never tell a soul about so we aren’t judged for those fantasies that we can’t control.
With lyrics like, “Without ever touching his skin how can I be guilty as sin?” she questions if these daydreams make her just as guilty as if she were to actually act on those impulses.
Taylor continues the religious references and compares the way this person holds her to something holy. Are we allowed to cry?
Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?
Anger, rage, and manic thoughts, this song pierces the soul. Taylor calls out society for thinking it has any type of ownership over her and other artists.
She’s been in the public eye since she was a teenager and even then critics had no problem judging a child.
In the song she says “I was tame, I was gentle ‘til the circus life made me mean” and “you wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum where they raised me.”
It’s the first time she’s addressed this aspect of her life in this way, she’s unapologetically saying that the public wanting to see her in pain and then critiquing her pain through her work is unacceptable.
I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)
Every woman to ever exist always believes she can fix a man. His attitude, bad habits, manners, etc.
However, there’s a point where nothing you do can justify bad behavior.
In the song, Taylor realizes that the man she thought she knew is a jerk and questioning whether he was always that way.
The reality is that you can’t change someone who doesn’t want to change, and it’s a lesson even Taylor has to learn.
loml
This one’s also for you, Joe Alwyn.
Taylor describes the love bombing she felt throughout her relationship with Joe and how they never got past the stage of planning their future. In other words, they were stagnant.
She felt conned because here comes along a man that promises the ideal future for her, but no follow through.
In the end, it was a waste and that’s the heartbreaking realization. She ends the song with “you’re the loss of my life” meaning this isn’t something that will leave her anytime soon or ever.
I Can Do It With A Broken Heart
A bop. An anthem. She is the moment. With this track, Taylor opens up about the demands of her job and how no one can do it better than she can.
No matter what is going on in her life, she still has to perform and sometimes Swifties don’t know it.
She describes her heartache during her sold out Eras Tour and the glitter and wonder of it all blinds the fans to her sadness.
She says “All the pieces of me shattered as the crowd was chanting, “More” and “I was grinnin’ like I’m winnin’, I was hittin’ my marks ‘cause I can do it with a broken heart.”
At the end she says “‘Cause I’m miserable (haha) and nobody even knows; Ah, try and come for my job.” Even at her worst, she gives the world her best.
The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived
It’s your time to shine again Matty, and you might need to go into hiding for this one.
The drug use references make it clear that the smallest man who ever lived is Matty in the flesh.
Several links indicate that his need for drugs was essentially the cause of the rift between the two.
“You didn’t measure up in any measure of a man.” Oh no! The song finishes with a rant that personifies rage and possibly hate towards this man that disillusioned her.
The Alchemy
Travis Kelce has entered the chat. The undeniable chemistry between the two is the inspiration for this song and ultimately she says he brought her back to life.
Taylor talks about Travis being dedicated to her and that he respects her in a way she’s never been respected before.
Despite their busy schedules, they both make time for each other, showing that they’re willing to put in the work.
Clara Bow
If you’re a fan of “Nothing New” then you’ll love this song.
It reflects the commentary heard over and over again when a young new artist enters the scene, specifically young women.
“You look like so and so” while also tearing down the woman they’re making the comparison to.
Taylor said she picked women who had done great things in the past and have been the models to live up to.
The women she mentions in the song are Clara Bow and Stevie Nicks. For the very first time, Swift also name drops herself and conveys how another young woman entering the music industry will have to live up to her but be better.
This album is messy and chaotic in the best ways. Just when you think Taylor has done everything, she reminds you that there’s nothing she can’t do.
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