The cover design from Swift’s latest release (Republic).

This past Friday, April 19th, pop icon Taylor Swift released her 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department. Swift shocked millions of fans with the announcement of the record during her acceptance speech for Pop Vocal Album at this year’s Grammy Awards. 

After a 75-day wait, Swift yet again surprised her fans at 2 A.M. Just two hours after the release of the album, Swift announced that it is actually a double album and released 15 more songs. Swift calls the second half The Anthology.

Fans speculated that this record would be a breakup album, following her split with actor Joe Alwyn early last year and her month-long rebound with the lead singer from The 1975, Matty Healy. 

In October of 2022 just before Midnights was released, during her acceptance speech for Songwriter-Artist of the Decade at the Nashville Songwriter Award, Swift categorized her songs into three categories of pens: Glitter Gel, Fountain, and Quill. Glitter Gel being fun, upbeat bubble pop, Fountain as modern personal stories where you can recall everything in detail, and Quill as old-fashioned lyrics making you feel like you’re in the 19th century.

Within The Tortured Poets Department, Swift continues the use of her usual metaphorical and complex songwriting, while showing sides of herself that she never has shown before. 

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“Fortnight (Feat. Post Malone)”

Although not released prior to any of the album, “Fortnight” is the lead single of The Tortured Poets Department. The term “fortnight” means fourteen nights, potentially referencing her song “Daylight” off of her 2019 album Lover. The juxtaposition of “Daylight” and “Fortnight” contrasts the happiness and love during the day, and heartbreak and sadness of night. 

“The Tortured Poets Department”

Though it is questionable whom Swift is writing about, the title track of the album reflects on and regrets a relationship. Throughout the track, Swift sings, “Who’s gonna hold you? Nobody.” She reflects on the good in their relationship with anger and states that the person on the other end screwed up, and they’re never going to get a love like hers.  

“My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys”

On track three of the record, Swift discusses the back and forth complexities between love and loss. The “Favorite Toys” throughout the song are actually her. “It’s a metaphor of… being somebody’s favorite toy, until they break you, and then don’t want to play with you anymore,” said Swift while discussing the song. In the first verse, Swift calls herself the “sickest army doll,” which is a direct reference to her breakup track “You’re Losing Me” released in May of 2023. On that track, she sings, “Fighting in only your army.”

“Down Bad”

Self-explanatory due to the title, “Down Bad” consists of recurring risks that Swift would take for this person. She discusses subjectively insane things she’d do for this person, because while she would’ve given them the world, they ruined the relationship. 

“So Long, London”

Although both Alwyn and Healy are English, track 5 displays Swift’s sadness over not residing in London any longer. Since her first album in 2006, she always chooses the most gut-wrenching and personal songs as track 5’s, as she’s stated. Since September of 2016 when she started dating Alwyn, she spent a majority of her time in London, as that is where he is from. Throughout the song, she repeats the phrase “For so long,” when discussing the city, and “Had a good one.” Off of her 2019 album Lover, she has a track titled “London Boy,” discussing her love for Alwyn and the city of London. Since “So Long, London” also has the city in the title, fans immediately knew that it was referencing this.  

“But Daddy I Love Him”

The phrase comes from Disney’s 1989 animation The Little Mermaid, which was Swift’s favorite movie growing up. The line refers to a woman loving someone who everyone thinks is bad for her, which was evidently the case for her relationship with Matty Healy. Rightfully so, the general public was fuming over this short-term relationship due to Healy’s extremely controversial past actions. When singer Halsey dated him in 2015, she received the same backlash. Swift calls out the public for shaming them, saying she’d even have a child with him just to shock everyone. 

“Fresh Out The Slammer”

The term slammer, slang for jail, metaphorically represents a relationship here. Throughout the track, Swift describes the “years of labor” and the negativity of the relationship. Now that she is fresh out of this slammer, she is free. She ends the song with the line “It’s gonna be alright, I did my time,” comparing it to a jail sentence.

“Florida!!! (feat. Florence + The Machine)”

On The Eras Tour, the first show after her breakup announcement with Joe Alwyn was in Tampa, Florida. The lyrics describe the state of Florida being somewhere she can escape from her problems and be free. Fans believe that since the groundbreaking announcement was just days before her stop in Tampa, her truth was out and she could be free.

“Guilty As Sin?”

Throughout the track, Swift describes someone who is notorious for being a bad person, but that she can’t be guilty for liking them because they’re good to her. Rumored to be about Matty Healy due to references of his longtime favorite band, The Blue Nile, she sings, “They’re gonna crucify anyway.” She knows that she is going to be criticized for this, but that no one can blame her.

“Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?”

Powerfully, this track confronts any rumors or harmful words said about her. Similar to her 2014 hit “Blank Space,” Swift puts herself into the shoes of who the media says she is. This is portrayed especially in the bridge, where she sings, “You wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum where they raised me” and “Isn’t that what they all said? That I’ll sue you if you step on my lawn–that I’m fearsome and I’m wretched and I’m wrong.” In the title and throughout the song, she repeatedly uses the phrase “little old me,” resembling her downsizing from the media. Some fans also pointed out that the title may be referencing the film “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” (1966), which is about a failing marriage.

“I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)”

Due to the fact that Healy has a reputation for making questionable choices, this song consists of Swift stating that she is able to change Healy’s ways. She sings lines like “Trust me, I can handle me a dangerous man,” and “They shook their heads sayin’, ‘God help her’.” The last line of the track is “Woah, maybe I can’t,” and this song is the shortest song on the entire album. Metaphorically, these aspects represent that the fact that she thought she could change him was a short-lived thought, as they only dated for a month, and realizes that she cannot change him.

“loml”

This track contains a juxtaposition between the phrases “love of your life” and “loss of my life.” Consistently throughout the song, Swift recalls heartbreaking moments significant to their split. She reminisces on a failed relationship, likely hers with Alwyn, and how close they were to a permanent relationship. As stated in previous songs, Swift has said that she had wanted this to last forever and to get married. One of the lyrics that was teased before the album release, “I wish I could un-recall how we almost had it all,” ended up on this track. 

“I Can Do It With a Broken Heart”

Also somewhat self-explanatory in the title, this track explains the fact that even though Swift was extremely sad regarding her breakups, she still went on the most successful tour in history, The Eras Tour. The most upbeat track on the album features Swift singing lines like “They said, baby, gotta fake it ’til you make it and I did,” and “I’m so depressed, I act like it’s my birthday every day.” Referencing The Eras Tour, she sings, “All the pieces of me shattered as the crowd was chanting, ‘More’”. Both breakups happened while The Eras Tour was ongoing. The track is a fan favorite, as it is currently one of the most streamed out of 31 songs. 

“The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived”

Though the media is split between whom they believe she is singing about, this track consists of lyrics full of anger and frustration to a previous relationship. Swift describes how much she would have given, such as in the line “I would’ve died for your sins, instead, I just died inside.” 

“The Alchemy”

Alchemy, a chemistry practice in medieval times, dealt with magical transformation, creation, or combination. On this track, Swift sings about this happening once in every few lifetimes, and her returning to someone/something. Taylor and Matty were friends back in the mid 2010s, and this song potentially references her return to him. Swift sings, “Cause the sign on your heart said it’s still reserved for me, Honestly, who are we to fight the alchemy?” She is explaining that this happened in the past, but now she is free from someone else (Alwyn) and there is no fighting their chemistry.

“Clara Bow” 

Notoriously, Swift has put the most bittersweet and reflective songs at the end of the track list. Clara Bow was an American actress during the 1920’s silent film era. She openly struggled with mental health due to fame and was known for having a rocky love life. Within the song, Swift sings the lines “You look like Clara Bow in this light,” “You look like Stevie Nicks in ‘75,” and “You look like Taylor Swift in this light.” While paying homage to the other two women, the song calls out the industry and media’s commentary on female artists. Every woman in the industry is compared to someone else. Swift has commented on the fact that when she was younger and trying to get deals with record labels, this is the kind of feedback she would receive. The song comes full circle when she makes the comparison back to her own name, and now she is the one that others are compared to.

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The Tortured Poets Department went on to break an immense amount of streaming and sales records within twelve hours of the release. It became the biggest album release in Spotify history, surpassing Midnights, in just four days. She is expected to hold each of the top ten spots on the Billboard Hot 100 on this week’s charts. 

This album, for me, was phenomenal. Even though, in my opinion, it’s ranked at #6 out of all 11 of her albums, I still don’t have all of the words to describe it. Although I have been a fan my entire life, I’ve been avidly listening to every new release of hers for the past eight years. I am in love with the aesthetic taken from classic American literature, especially with the ties to Dead Poets Society. Every album has to grow on me, but The Tortured Poets Department gets better with every listen. I will forever be in awe with every single release that Taylor Swift has. She never fails to amaze me.