The Tortured Poets Department: Taylor Swift’s tale of heartbreak and healing

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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“I love you, it’s ruining my life” — pop megastar Taylor Swift sets the premise right for her 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department (TTPD), released earlier today. Singing the lines with American rapper-singer-songwriter, Post Malone on the opening track Fortnight, Swift makes sure listeners know what they are getting into.

The album, in bits and pieces, is reminiscent of a younger Taylor — with the focus on penning the lyrics not to make a hit number but to tell you how she’s feeling — mixed with the subtlety that comes with age. However, being older does not always mean being mature. “Your wife waters flowers/I wanna kill her,” she goes in only a minute into the album.

Along with melancholy, unhingedness also seems to be an evident theme that appears to be fairly spread across most tracks. “Screaming, ‘But daddy I love him’/I’m having his baby/No I’m not, but you should see your faces” from “But Daddy I Love Him” or “I’m so depressed I act like it’s my birthday every day” from “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart.”

Also Read: Taylor Swift dropping Easter eggs about ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ on Apple Music

Listening to the album, you can tell that Swift is upset. She’s hurt but she has also moved on. She is now stronger than ever. The Tortured Poets Department is a battle scar and the lyrics are her badge of honour.  It marks a long departure from her previous album Midnights, while also being its afterthought. She wrote Midnights when she was in love, but, was unsure of her place in that relationship. She knew she wanted it, but did she?

The Tortured Poets Department is the answer to that question.

“This period of the author’s life is now over, the chapter closed and boarded up. There is nothing to avenge, no scores to settle once wounds have healed. And upon further reflection, a good number of them turned out to be self-inflicted,” Swift said in her social media post introducing the album on its release.

The Tortured Poets Department. An anthology of new works that reflect events, opinions and sentiments from a fleeting and fatalistic moment in time – one that was both sensational and sorrowful in equal measure. This period of the author’s life is now over, the chapter closed and… pic.twitter.com/41OObGyJDW

— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) April 19, 2024

Swift, for me, has never been about her happy songs. I fell in love with her music as a 12-year-old and it is always the gut-wrenching breakup ballads for me that make you tear up just by thinking of them, be it White Horse from Fearless, Dear John from Speak Now, All Too Well from Red, Clean from 1989, champagne problems from evermore or others. TTPD is like a pat on the back to all those songs, a poetic validation from someone who has turned heartbreak into art.

The album’s mood seems to be more in line with folklore and evermore, Swift’s offerings from 2020, which were born from her fantastical dreamland. The lyrics have the same crestfallen effect but nothing that lit up signals in my brain. Florida!!! by far has been the only track that gave me goosebumps but it could also be Florence + the Machine featuring on the track, a band I’m glad I was introduced to. Swift has done justice to Florence Welch’s commanding vocals, giving her ample space on the track and picking out the lyrics.

“Little did you know your home’s really only/The town you’ll get arrested/So you pack your life away just to wait out/The shitstorm back in Texas.”

The closing track, Clara Bow, is another self-reflective piece from Swift, something that she has mastered over the years. She knows the pedestal she has been placed on and she knows the pressure that comes with it. Her legs are shaking, and she’s unsure of what’s next but one thing is certain “The future’s bright, dazzling”.

Also Read: Lyrics revealed from Taylor Swift’s upcoming album The Tortured Poets Department at Spotify installation

Also Read: Taylor Swift debuts on the Forbes World’s Billionaires List with $1.1 billion net worth 

[Edited by: Akashdeep Baruah]

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow