Love, poetry and heartbreak collide once again as Taylor Swift unveiled her 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department on Friday. After a surprise reveal at the 2024 Grammys, fans can now stream the album on Apple Music. Collaborating with Post Malone and Florence + The Machine, Taylor Swift brought a new vibe, drenched in black-and-white aesthetics reminiscent of late-night musings and poetic musings. The album’s headline track, Tortured Poets Department, dives deeper into themes introduced in Fortnight. With Taylor Swift’s signature vocals backed by a laid-back synth, the song delves into the struggle for recognition in the music industry. The chorus paints a picture of the narrator’s battle for identity against established poetic legends like Dylan Thomas and Patti Smith, with subtle nods to Charlie Puth.
Taylor Swift doesn’t hold back as she delves into the depths of past relationships with ex-boyfriends Matty Healy and Joe Alwyn. With icy precision, Taylor Swift crafts an emotionally charged double breakup album that offers insight into her experiences and feelings.
A standout track on the album is The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived, where Taylor Swift confronts her ex’s deceitfulness head-on. She questions his sincerity and delivers a biting blow with sexual innuendo: “Once your queen had come / You treat her like an also-ran / You didn’t measure up / In any measure of a man.” The backing music intensifies, mirroring Taylor Swift’s vengeful rage, building like a rhythmic tsunami to engulf her emotions.
After the song was unveiled, Taylor Swift shared a long note about her album on X (formerly known as Twitter). Describing it, she wrote, “The Tortured Poets Department. An anthology of new works that reflect events, opinions and sentiments from a fleeting and fatalistic moment in time – one that was both sensational and sorrowful in equal measure.” Taylor Swift added, “This period of the author’s life is now over, the chapter closed and boarded up. There is nothing to avenge, no scores to settle once wounds have healed. And upon further reflection, a good number of them turned out to be self-inflicted. This writer is of the firm belief that our tears become holy in the form of ink on a page. Once we have spoken our saddest story, we can be free of it. And then all that’s left behind is the tortured poetry. The Tourtured Poets Department is out now” Take a look at her post.
The Tortured Poets Department. An anthology of new works that reflect events, opinions and sentiments from a fleeting and fatalistic moment in time – one that was both sensational and sorrowful in equal measure. This period of the author’s life is now over, the chapter closed and… pic.twitter.com/41OObGyJDW
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) April 19, 2024
Featuring 16 tracks, including four bonus ones, each edition of The Tortured Poets Department is named after one of these bonus songs: The Manuscript, The Bolter, The Albatross, and The Black Dog. During her tour stop in Melbourne, Taylor Swift shared how songwriting became her lifeline during the making of this album.
