2024’s Most Listened to Album: The Tortured Poets Department

by Bella Averett

After countless years of success, Taylor Swift released another record-breaking album known as The Tortured Poets Department. With inconsistent reviews on its 31 released songs, The Tortured Poets Department is a hot topic. Reviewing this vulnerable album is not the easiest thing to do with the nagging haters in one ear and die-hard fans in another. Like it or not this album is no exception to Taylor’s constant success. But does it deserve all the fame? Or are the critics’ hateful comments correct?

The Tortured Poets Department is Taylor’s deepest album, especially including the bonus tracks released following the original edition. With the original edition starting with chart-topping song “Fortnight” and ending with the deep feministic “Clara Bow,” it is no doubt that Taylor intended this final song more for herself than for the media. 

Although this album has consistent similarities to past works of hers, it still has its own unique attributes. The inclusion of the rhythm and beat of Jack Antonoff with the lyricism of Aaron Desner and Taylor herself, this album is a clear illustration of Taylor’s pop princess turned “tortured poet” vibe.

The most interesting point of this album is the inconsistency of self-perception throughout the unchained, sarcastic, and complicated album. She starts off with the lead single “Fortnight,” which, with its revelations about her inner soul, is one of the many lyrically complex songs. She follows these profound ideas with other strange takes in the title track as well as “Down Bad.” Both songs combine the use of a synth-like beat, obscure references, and odd metaphors, but have a lack of a centralized emotion—which is what makes “Fortnight” so strong.

If you look past certain substandard pieces of the album, you can find some masterfully created songs which are the heart of the project. “So long, London,” “Fresh Out the Slammer,” and “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” are the songs that—in the original version—stand out to me. With the heartbreaking echoes and lyricism of “So Long, London,” emotion seeps out beautifully. This track, with its strong anger and grief, expresses many of the best lyrics including, “You swore that you loved me, but where were the clues? I died on the alter waiting for the proof.” Swift calling back to previous songs declaring ideas of marriage is genius and really accentuates the pure grief she is feeling. In addition, “Fresh out the Slammer” and “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” add a lovely contrast to the consistently similar tracks of the album.

Hours after the original release, Taylor shocked fans with the release of a second album: The Tortured Poets Department: Anthology. Contrary to the album’s number of streams, I believe it is better than the original. Although the original has its hits, the unhinged genuineness of The Anthology towers over its predecessor. 

The pure truthfulness and poetry in the songs “Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus” and “The Black Dog” leave the listener with a sickening sad feeling yet a feeling of euphoria because of the power the tracks hold. The songs “How Did It End” and “Peter” have the same strong grief written in with powerful lyrics such as, “Say it once again with feeling, how the death rattle breathing silenced as the soul was leaving.” The metaphor of death to symbolize the end of a committed relationship was such a strong way to convey grief.

To contrast the overall slow tone of the album, songs like “So High School” and “The Bolter,” both featured on the Anthology, add an upbeat tone that improves the overall experience of the album. “So High School,” being the catchy love song that was highly anticipated due to the couple’s popularity, added a different depth to the album. Although the giggly lyrics are frowned upon, the adolescent romance portrayed in the song is a nice break compared to the heavier songs.

The Tortured Poets Department as well as the additional Anthology version are incredibly difficult to rate. Some of the songs lean towards being her best songs while others lean more towards being dull and bland. Overall, the album is simply a puzzle. It may not be worthy of album of the year, but it is an incredibly engaging experience that is replicated by no other two-hour-long album.

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Edited by Sofia Hessler