The opinions and views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the opinion of Byte or Byte’s editorial board.
Looking back on Taylor Swift’s 12th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department (TTPD), the album never got the appreciation it deserved during its initial release. Getting to look inside Swift’s personal life during The Eras Tour felt so intimate and special, making for a deeply emotional and detailed album. With all of the easter eggs pointing to the number two as well as the double album of TTPD and The Anthology, it feels fitting to revisit the album on its second anniversary.
An Album of Depth
The best thing about the album is the depth to which Swift goes to explain her feelings. Although listeners will never know the full story of the album—adding some mystery to Swift’s personal life—her songwriting makes for a detailed and descriptive retelling of the crash and burn of a long-burning relationship, as well as an intense and passionate short-term relationship that was destined to fail.
On all physical versions of Swift’s albums, she writes a prologue to introduce the album to the listener, and TTPD is one of the most beautifully written prologues in her discography. The metaphors within the writing are very clever. A personal favorite line of mine is, “and so I was out of the oven and into the microwave.” Swift explains both relationships she experienced through this album with such a simple line as comparing an oven and a microwave. Both appliances are made to cook whatever’s inside, but one does it by slowly heating up over a long period of time until it’s done, while the other takes less time, but does it in an intense and radioactive way. “He never even scratched the surface of me. None of them did,” is one of the most Taylor Swift lines to be written by her, and it came 18 years into her career, not even on an album track. The prologue to the album is some of her best writing, and I urge anyone who skipped it to go back and read it. It’s a perfect look inside her brain during her writing process.
The writing on the album itself is hauntingly beautiful. The metaphors are so rich and make songs come to life with their description. “Down Bad” is a great example of Swift’s storytelling through writing. She describes the feeling of a short-lived relationship as if she got abducted by aliens and is expected to move on as if nothing ever happened after it ends. It’s so bizarre, but surprisingly it works really well. When I listen to an album for the first time, it’s a very intimate experience, because I want to digest the production and writing at the same time. TTPD was one of the first times both the sound and the storytelling went so well together that I was able to understand a lot of the metaphors and intended feelings on the first go around. Swift has always been a strong storyteller and the fantasy aspect of TTPD really shined through.
Addicting Sound
Swift has been known to experiment with sound, especially synth pop, and TTPD does it in such an addictive and unique way that it feels different from any of her other projects. This album sparked a lot of debate from fans about whether or not longtime friend and producer of Swift, Jack Antonoff, is making her music sound too similar to each other; but I’d argue that her past works with him aren’t that related. Reputation as an album sounds a lot different than folklore or Midnights. TTPD does use synth pop throughout the album, but in a way that felt new and refreshing. Antonoff has also produced music for other artists like Sabrina Carpenter, Lorde, and Kendrick Lamar, showing his range as a producer, meaning Swift’s sound could be a personal choice when working with him.
Swift is also no stranger to mimicking the sounds of the people who inspire her, and TTPD has The 1975 written all over it. Matty Healy—being a strong factor in the writing of the album—severely influenced her sound. “Guilty as Sin?” and “About You” work so well together that it seems as though they were made to be played back to back. “Guilty as Sin?” is about fantasizing about someone else while in a relationship, and with “About You” being about still thinking about the one who got away, they fit each other thematically and sonically. “Guilty as Sin?” also references the song “The Downtown Lights” by The Blue Nile, which pairs very well against the song as well.
The Eras Tour Set
It’s an impressive feat to say you went on a massive two-year-long tour, created an album on the tour—about your life while being on said tour—and were able to add the songs to your setlist on the same tour. The Tortured Poets Department set on tour was so creative, it really brought the album to life. With such a dramatic album, it deserves dramatic production and the entire set does it justice. From sitting on the bleachers during “So High School” to the alien abduction of “Down Bad,” and even the theatrical showgirl rendition of “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” (which may have inspired The Life of a Showgirl), it felt really immersive to experience TTPD live. Having only a few months of break in between her 2023 leg and the release of the album, Swift and her team put on a spectacular show that mirrored the album's visuals very well.
My Critique
Although I find the album very well rounded, the cohesion is a bit dodgy when it comes to The Anthology portion of the album. Swift is someone who knows how to make her albums flow together, and the standard version of TTPD was put together in a way that made sense. However, when the second half of the album was announced at 2 a.m. of release night, it seemed loosely thrown together. The surprise drop added to the chaos of the album, but there seems to be no rhyme or reason to the order of the tracks.
Swift has described TTPD as an album that she needed to write, using it as a form of therapy, making a 31 track album was unsurprising considering how hectic her life was during the time of writing the album. Unfortunately, the tracklist order of the second half really highlights the fact that the album was kind of thrown together out of desperation, and it misses the mark for me. The songs work really well for the album as a whole, but the execution on the tracklisting ruined it slightly for me.
Two Years Removed
Two years have passed since the release of this album, and even though Swift has released another album—The Life of a Showgirl—since, I can’t help but find myself stuck on this album. The surprise announcement at the 2024 Grammy's was a perfect way to start the album cycle, and I was instantly captured by the essence of the album since then. The marketing of the album and the lead-up to the release night is something I’ll never forget. While most of TTPD is near perfect to me, “Fortnight (Featuring Post Malone),” “Down Bad,” and “imgonnagetyouback” have become personal favorites of not only the album itself, but Swift's entire discography.
Although it didn’t get the audience reaction that it deserved, the album has grown on many people and is slowly being recognized as some of her best work. Swift using music as her own personal diary is something I will always idolize, and The Tortured Poets Department is an album that’s so personal everyone should appreciate it for what it is.
Contact Sam Jasionowski with comments at samantha.jasionowski@bsu.edu or on Instagram @sjasionowski.
