Taylor Swift, The Tortured Poets Department review: Cathartic, but lacks a climax
The Tortured Poets Department, Taylor Swift: ★★★☆☆
Can one have too much of a good thing? Some sleep-deprived Swifties who waited up to listen to Taylor Swift’s new album The Tortured Poet’s Department when it dropped at midnight last Friday, only to have 15 further ‘bonus’ songs thrusted upon them at 2am, may have been tempted to say yes. Have we reached Taylor Swift fatigue? Don’t be silly. But the middling response to her latest heartbreak album, which brings her song tally to an impressive 274, suggests even her most loyal of fans may be craving a little more curation.
Produced with long-time Swift collaborators Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner, the Tortured Poets Department adds to Swift’s catalogue of synth-pop, while the album’s moody visuals hark back to a more Folklore/Evermore-era aesthetic. The album is mournful and affecting, full of mid-tempo ballads that are cathartic to listen to, but lacks a real climax.
So Long, London, a lament for the city she once celebrated in bubblegum beat in Lover’s London Boy, is one of the album’s most emotive tracks, while loml will undoubtedly become a staple of Taylor Swift breakup playlists. The more vicious Reputation-era Swift is also at play, bringing a sense of conviction to the album: “I’ll tell you something about my good name / It’s mine alone to disgrace,” she writes in But Daddy I Love Him, a song which seems to speak back to Swift’s younger, more naive Love Story-self.
For those invested in the lore of Swift’s own life, the album is certainly bountiful. The title track, which addresses a “tattooed Golden Retriever” with a penchant for smoking and eating “bars of chocolate”, comes shortly after the star’s much-publicised romance with The 1975 frontman Matty Healy, who found mainstream success with the track Chocolate.
Meanwhile, thanK you aIMee literally spells out the “bronze, spray-tanned” target of its “fuck you”. Subtlety is not the name of this game. Swift is certainly empowered, but I wonder if the vengeance-success motive will age like it did for Swift’s 2010 Better Than Revenge, the lyrics of which she recently changed in her re-recording after controversy around its implications of slut-shaming. Swift’s tortured poet persona may borrow from the trope of the starving artist, but her own wealth and fame are her ultimate comeback.