On April 19, 2024, Taylor Swift dropped her 11th studio album, after a wildly successful year including the highest grossing tour of all time, becoming the most listened to artist in the entire world, and being named TIME’s person of the year. Following the success of her previous album, Midnights, which won Album of The Year at the Grammys, The Tortured Poets Department has a lot to live up to. Amongst fans, casual listeners, and music critics, it seems like everyone has an opinion on this divisive album.
The Tortured Poets Department, or TTPD, which has become the popular acronym for the album, was advertised as a collection of works regarding the most recent phase of Taylor Swift’s life. Taylor Swift describes the album as, “temporary insanity,” and both the track titles and content thoroughly explain her thoughts in this phase of her life. Many celebrities welcome their fans into their personal life with open arms, yet while Taylor Swift is radio silent on all social media platforms, her albums depict her innermost thoughts and feelings in words that can only be described as poetry. Taylor Swift fan Abbie Hunter (12) said, “My top five favorite songs from the new album are ‘So High School,’ ‘Down Bad,’ ‘I hate it here’, ‘So long, London,’ and ‘I can do it with a broken heart.’” Overall, this album appears to be her most vulnerable yet.
Taylor Swift has now released 11 albums overall. Throughout all these albums, she has broken records in country, pop, and folk music, and illustrated that by channeling her energy into different sounds she has a song for everyone. Keira Orr (12) has been a fan since her self-titled album, where Taylor Swift first advertised herself as a country singer from a small town who moved to Nashville to make it big. The Tortured Poets Department has its own unique sound, where elements of country music are interwoven with folk and pop to create an exclusive sound. Although Orr prefers her earlier albums, she stated, “My favorite song is ‘But Daddy I Love Him’ because it reminds me a lot of her earlier country music which I prefer. I really liked this record overall and enjoyed how she mixed in country sounds!”
As Taylor Swift has become increasingly popular over the past year from her rerelease of albums and exciting Eras Tour, many people have recently begun to listen to her music. Kaylie Holt (12) became a fan over the past year as she was invited to go to the Eras Tour. Holt was a fan of her new music, but had never listened to her old albums until this year. Although Holt definitely prefers Taylor Swift’s newer albums, such as Lover, folklore, evermore, and Midnights to her older works, Holt still cites The Tortured Poets Department as, “Definitely one of my favorites already. I like how it’s kind of a mix between Midnights and folklore. I feel like it’s some of her best lyricism. My favorite song is ‘So Long, London.’”
Overall, The Tortured Poets Department is one of Taylor Swift’s most heavily reviewed works, and although the album works for some people, that doesn’t mean that everyone is going to be a fan. The subjectiveness with music has never been clearer as the reviews continue to roll in, and Swift’s ability to integrate real life stories into her songs seems to have caused this rift in opinion. In conclusion, there’s no harm in giving something a listen, and if one is especially interested in the meaning behind the words in music, this might be the album for you.