To open The Tortured Poets Department, her twelfth album (and fourth in five years), Taylor Swift gives us “Fortnight”. Swift and longtime producer Jack Antonoff give us a song that sonically feels in place with the catalog of Lana Del Rey (unsurprising, considering Antonoff also produces some of her music) as the thirty-four year old singer gives us the story of a woman dealing with a relationship gone way too wrong and delving into alcohol and thoughts of violence to her man’s new wife. “I loved you, it’s ruining my life,” Swift sings in a track that feels like something her and Antonoff could do in their sleep. It’s a good track, and Swiftboats (my term for Swift fans, many of whom have long since forgotten about John Kerry) will love it because it’s the kind of song they’ve heard and loved and sung along to before. It’s a very solid Taylor Swift song.
And that’s why it’s a little underwhelming.
To use a term we heard Swiftboats wear out over the last year, Taylor is a woman of eras. You can trace her career and the evolution of her art (and, I suppose, her life) in terms of specific time frames. And whatever era Swift is in, there is no denying that she is giving us this new album at a point where all eyes are on her. She has been one of the biggest names in pop music for a long time, but in 2024, it feels like the one-time country singer has more influence and adoration than she ever has. Last year, not only did she have the most successful tour, but a film of that tour was the eleventh-highest grossing movie in America. Here is how you know where Swift is as a cultural figure: there was a major theory by conservatives that the NFL was fixing the playoffs and Super Bowl so the game could end with her boyfriend (Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce) could propose as both of them publicly endorse Joe Biden on national television.
Perhaps this is why “Fortnight”, a track I think is perfectly well-executed, didn’t blow me away. Album openers are meant to stand out and set the tone, and this song just feels like Swift had just kept making songs for her last album (Midnights, which Antonoff produced in its entirety). However, this is just part of this era, I suppose, and sometimes a person has to stop being disappointed in what an album didn’t give them and just focus on what we are given.
Twelve of the sixteen tracks on The Tortured Poets Department are Antonoff-produced, and so it makes sense that this feels like we are still in Swift’s Midnights era. Following two sparse and ethereal mood albums from the early COVID era (folklore and evermore) produced by Aaron Dessner of The National, Swift returned to a person who she knew could help her make arena bangers, which makes total sense- she was a person about to go on her first tour in four years. That isn’t to say that these doesn’t tracks aren’t predictable, but they all- for the most part- definitely follow a tone and a feeling- mid-tempo grooves while Swift throws lyrical daggers through a syncopated cadence.
It’s what makes a track like “I Can Do It With A Broken Heart” a surprise standout track in the album. While Swift reflects on how hard it is to be famous while enduring the end of a relationship (“Lights, camera, bitch, smile/Even when you wanna die”), Antonoff picks up the tempo a little to give it the feeling of a Robyn B-side. There’s a disco feel and it’s definitely the song you are going to watch bridesmaids dance to at weddings while the older people just wonder why they asked the DJ to play that song.
I think if you have read the other things I’ve written about Taylor Swift, it’s apparent that I am a fan. I want to like a new album when I put it on, and I’m not going to shy away from that. However, where I see a difference from myself and the die-hard Swiftboats is just how little I delve into her lyrics. This isn’t to say that I don’t care about them or that I haven’t seen her growth as a writer (especially with her folklore/evermore era). I just don’t need to know which songs are about Kelce or Matt Healy or Joe Alwyn or Kim Kardashian.
The Tortured Poets Department is an album about lost love and pain, and Swift goes through all of the steps of grief while dealing with that. “Yes, I’m haunted/but I’m feeling just fine” Swift sings in “Florida!!!”, a song with as many exclamation marks as there are reasons to worry about her if you believe this song is 100% autobiographical. Look, no one wants someone to be unhappy- particularly The Tortured Poets Department unhappy. But, I also know how important and relatable these songs can be to people.
Taylor hurts so we allcan heal.
If you’re like me, you were listening to this album and enjoying the vibes and then you got to the fifth track, “So Long, London”. And things felt different.
This is one of the four songs which Swift has invited Aaron Dessner back to produce, and the four songs that they work together on are some of the best work on this album. Dessner brings a more theatrical vibe to these songs, as if he and Taylor are preparing to write a very moody Broadway musical about heartbreak. It’s not a jarring change from the other songs, but you can feel the songs darken and expand, and that allows these melancholy lyrics to have room and space to grow. And it’s continual proof that one of the biggest pop stars can do whatever she wants.Her album can be a groove but also with some dance moments and some somber ones, too.
Maybe Taylor Swift isn’t the one in an era. Maybe everyone else is in one, and it belongs to her.
Fancy Boys Club 