Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know Taylor Swift’s new album is out – or rather, her new albums. 31 brand new songs for Swifties to fixate on while the public tears them to shreds.
I’ve listened to it, of course. And I get it. I get the critics, and I get the fans. I mean, it’s cool that it’s like if Midnights and folklore had a baby who was mad all the time (and deeply traumatised). But it’s not the most digestible of albums. Listening in one go, you have 2 hours of dense songs to get through. And yeah, I will admit, the ones produced by Jack Antonoff do get a bit repetitive (like babe, why are you recycling the backing track to Supercut?).
But, sincerely, I don’t think The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology was made for public consumption. It’s not for us. It’s for her.
It’s not meant to be digestible. It’s her diary. It’s her feelings. It’s raw. It’s real. It’s not meant to have smash pop hits like Blank Space or Shake It Off. It’s simply a way for her to process her recent breakups, shed her skin, release those emotions. She’s just kind enough to provide the Swifties insight into that. It seems more like a gift to the fans who really care.
Arguably, it could also be a way to profit off heartbreak. After all, that’s what most people think of Taylor Swift, right? She’s a serial dater, only starting relationships to end them and write catchy songs about the whole ordeal. Except that’s not true.
Sure, she’s had a few relationships – she’s 34, what do you expect? Sure, she writes songs about her relationships…she’s allowed to take inspiration from her own life experiences. But she also writes about so much more than that. She writes songs that encapsulate the entire experience of being a woman – see The Man. She writes songs about growing up and the pains of that – see Seven, The Best Day, dorothea. She writes on the feeling of being in your 20s, and finally finding your place – see literally all of 1989. There is so much more to this woman, and to diminish her work and say it’s simply about boys is doing her a disservice.
You’re right about this album, though. It’s a deconstruction of the slow demise of her 6-year relationship with Joe Alwyn, as well as her on-and-off 10-year situationship with Matty Healy (if you try and tell me it was just a quick fling, I will fight you).
As one girl put it on TikTok the other day, we’re currently witnessing the MCU-ification of Swift in real time. It used to be that you could simply like and enjoy her songs without any backstory. Now it feels like you have to know every detail of her life to notice every easter egg – otherwise you’re a fake fan. It’s not as fun anymore.
To be fair, this is intentional on Swift’s part. Her brand is built on fans with an almost obsessive interest in her, decoding clues, breaking into vaults, finding secret messages, and, yes, speculating on which song is about whom.
So, I think it’s super interesting that she released But Daddy I Love Him in this new album. The premise of the song is essentially telling Swifties to back off, because her “good name is [hers] to disgrace”. This comes in direct response to the #speakupnow campaign Swifties ran during her relationship with problematic artist Matty Healy last year. They penned an open letter, essentially begging Swift to break up with him and consider her actions.
Her response in the song? “I’d rather burn my whole life down than listen to one more second of all this bitching and moaning.”
Which, like, slay. It isn’t her fans place to tell her who she should or shouldn’t date. But, at the same time, I think it is a bit rich for the billionaire to tell her fans who she usually encourages to deeply engage with her content and life to back off. The parasocial relationship is a weird one to analyse, and I don’t have the time, words, or energy to get into that now.
Anyways, let’s get back to The Tortured Poets Department. One of her songs copping a lot of flak on social media right now is I Hate It Here. A few lines from the verse have gone viral:
Yeah. I know. I don’t like it either.
However, I do think the line is a tad bit better in context:
My friends used to play a game where
We would pick a decade
We wished we could live in instead of this
I’d say the 1830s but without all the racists and getting married off for the highest bid
Everyone would look down
Cause it wasn’t fun now
Seems like it was never even fun back then
Nostalgia is a mind’s trick
If I’d been there, I’d hate it
It was freezing in the palace
In context, she’s saying nostalgia makes us look fondly on times that suck. Which is true, I guess. I still think the line is weird and it’s completely fair if you do too.
It’s lines like this that make people say that Swift’s writing is juvenile. And, yeah, sometimes it is. However, she is an amazing lyricist when she wants to be. Just listen to any song from folklore or evermore. This album just wasn’t the most poetic – unfortunate considering the name.
Look, Swift is a popular artist. Very popular. In fact, she was Spotify’s Top Global Artist last year. So, when she does something, it makes sense that people talk about it. But it is getting overwhelming – I get it. Every second Instagram story is just someone resharing her latest post. Every news outlet is sharing their own hot takes on how she eats her food, how she performs her songs, whether this one is finally too much. So, yeah. I completely understand when people have an adverse reaction when Tay Tay is brought up.
But to say people have bad music taste for simply liking her isn’t cool. Like damn dude, you don’t know their life. It could be a nostalgia thing. It could be that they really resonate with her lyrics. Or maybe they just enjoy white girl music. Is that so wrong?
Nuance doesn’t seem to exist anymore. You either love her or hate her. I don’t know if it’s the toxicity and cult-like behaviour of her more “committed” fans, or whether Taylor Swift is simply a polarising person. But it’s kinda hectic out here at the moment.
I won’t judge you for liking Taylor Swift’s music. I won’t judge you for hating her music. People are allowed to have different music tastes – shocking, I know. Coming from me, a professional hater, that’s saying something.
Get it together.
P.S. If you even care, my faves from the album are I Look In People’s Windows, Florida!!!, Clara Bow, Peter, and loml. Make of that what you will.
