Taylor Swift released her long-awaited album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” on Friday, April 19 and it has consumed Swifties and music lovers alike.
Initially teased on her Instagram on February 5, Swift has been generating hype over this album for months. As she does with each new era, her Instagram has become engrossed with the new vibe of “The Tortured Poets Department.”
She released her album at midnight, which had 16 songs total. Swift featured fellow hit artist, Post Malone, on the first song of her album, titled “Fortnight.” Additionally, she also featured Florence + The Machine on her eighth song of the album, “Florida!!!”
“Fortnight” is a slower, softer song, whereas “Florida!!!” is more upbeat and hype, as the title indicated. “Fortnight” acts like the poster child of her album, and it represents many of Swift’s ideas and the atmosphere for “The Tortured Poets Department.” This song has the classic love song aura that is expected from Swift, which is likely why the album began with it.
In a characteristic Swift practice, this song includes one of her famous “Easter eggs.” There is a repeating line in the song that says, “Another fortnight lost in America, move to Florida” which was foreshadowing the song “Florida!!!” that came later in the album.
Following “Fortnight,” Swift has a song titled after her album. This song has a continuation of her conventional love song vibes, but it has slightly less tact to it, with her using profanity that wasn’t typically showcased in her previous albums. It still has a similar slow pace like “Fortnight,” but the true atmosphere of her new album begins to peek through with this song.
Swift’s album proceeds with several slow songs such as “So Long, London,” “But Daddy I Love Him,” “Fresh Out The Slammer” and “Guilty As Sin?” Her album is predominantly softer songs, distinctly on-brand for her theme.
She also has some fast-paced, upbeat songs strung throughout the album such as “Florida!!!,” “My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys,” and “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart.”
Unlike Swift’s conventional style, numerous songs on her album are explicit. Swift stated on her Instagram, “This period of the author’s [herself] life is now over, the chapter closed and boarded up.” This album is Swift’s way of healing old wounds and beginning to leave behind her past as she closed the door on it. She ended this post saying, “Once we have spoken our saddest story, we can be free of it” which was exactly what she was doing with this album.
Only two hours after “The Tortured Poets Department” was released, Swift posted an announcement on her Instagram stating that this album was “a secret double album.”
Swift released 15 more tracks in what she called “The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology.”
Accompanying the softer, slow songs that were dominant in the initial album, The Anthology has similar themes. The additional 15 songs included tracks such as “The Black Dog,” “So High School,” “The Prophecy” and “The Manuscript,” which is the final song of the album. “The Manuscript” is clearly indicative of the end of both Swift’s album and that chapter of her life, with the final line of the song being “Now and then I re-read the manuscript, but the story isn’t mine anymore.”
Swift perfectly captures the poetry behind falling in love, heartbreak, ruminating on the past and taking a step forward to conclude those chapters in one’s life. “The Tortured Poets Department” is another hit album by Swift and it has many of us waiting to see what comes next from her.
Brooklynn Jolley can be reached at [email protected]