When you think of a song about a teenage love story, chances are your thoughts turn to Taylor Swift. However, her brand new album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” is a stunning contrast to the innocence of her previous records, with adult heartbreak bleeding through nearly every song.
On tracks like “So Long, London,” “loml,” and “How Did It End?” Swift seemingly reminisces on her previous relationship with British actor Joe Alwyn, and the lyrics are devastating in the best way. Then, she adds some levity to the album with songs like “imgonnagetyouback,” “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart,” and “Down Bad” whose upbeat melodies are almost designed to be radio hits, though many of the lyrics from these tracks cut deep anyway.
However, there is so much poetry in “The Tortured Poets Department” that the album sometimes feels cluttered, full of beautiful words that lack concrete meaning. Many a listener had to google words like “petulance” and “sanctimonious,” because though it feels like you should know what they mean, you don’t.
Swift is surely a poet, but upon first listen, this type of vague lyricism doesn’t lend itself to an album full of songs that are meant to tell a story.
Of course, Swift is a mastermind, and a self-proclaimed one at that, so all criticism of “The Tortured Poets Department” is nitpicky. Overall, the album is a masterpiece, a perfect breakup album, a scream-in-the-car album, and one of Swift’s best feats of songwriting.
Never have Swift’s songwriting skills been more apparent, in fact, than on “The Tortured Poets Department.”
Here is some of the best poetry from the album:
On track six, “loml,” Swift writes, “You talked me under the table/Talking rings and talking cradles/I wish I could un-recall/How we almost had it all.” These lyrics describe a relationship that was built on hopes and dreams and then came crashing down. At the end of the song, Swift turns the titular phrase on its head, whispering, “You’re the loss of my life.”
Changing a familiar phrase to fit her narrative is a trope that’s worked for the singer throughout her entire career, and it reappears in “The Black Dog,” where the singer shouts, “Old habits die screaming.”
The legend of track five is a piece of Swiftian lore, as every track five on each of the singer’s albums has gained a reputation for being the most emotional, heartbreaking song on the record. “So Long, London,” may be one of her better track fives.
The song is a goodbye to the city of London, England, where Swift spent much of her time during her previous relationship with actor Joe Alwyn. Lyrics like “I’m p***** off you let me give you all that youth for free,” and “You swore that you loved me but where were the clues?/ I died on the altar waiting for the proof,” seemingly call out Alwyn and their six-year relationship that didn’t end in marriage.
The song, sonically, is reminiscent of her previous album “reputation,” but lyrically paints a portrait of a dying relationship and all of Swift’s vanished dreams of marriage and a family.
Track number 13, Swift’s favorite number, is titled “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart.” The glittery pop synth that Swift has become known for makes an appearance on this song, serving as a fun contrast to the lyrics, which are about Swift’s emotions during her recent world tour. “Lights, camera, and smile, even when you wanna die/He said he’d love me all his life,” she sings. “All the pieces of me shattered as the crowd was chanting, ‘More.’”
This is perhaps the most ironic song in Swift’s entire discography, as the song is about how Swift was on tour for her fans while going through heartbreak. The song itself is a product of the internal promises Swift has made to her fans, yet it’s about how hard it’s been to deliver these things to them.
Taylor Swift is an enigma; she is constantly planning, dropping clues, and winking joyously to her devoted fans. She meticulously plans every aspect of her life just to give her fans something to analyze and dissect, because it’s fun. “The Tortured Poets Department” is no exception—it’s full of allusions to the singer’s personal life, past albums, and inner thoughts.
It’s clear that Swift went through real heartbreak. And the way she coped with it (lucky for us) was to write songs and sing them—reminding everyone that Swift is a human being, rather than this larger-than-life figure the world has turned her into. And that is exactly why people love her.
Inklings Staff Score: 8.8/10
