Taylor Swift surprised her fans with double album The Tortured Poets Department along with anthology!
Just when Taylor Swift fans were handling emotional turmoil with 11th studio album, Taylor said, “Hola! We're just getting started.” Within two hours of initial album release, Taylor Swift revealed “The Anthology,” which is a 15-song companion piece.
Taking to her Instagram late night, the singer wrote, “It’s a 2am surprise: The Tortured Poets Department is a secret DOUBLE album.” Dropping a new poster alongside the caption she added, “I’d written so much tortured poetry in the past 2 years and wanted to share it all with you, so here’s the second installment of TTPD: The Anthology. 15 extra songs. And now the story isn’t mine anymore… it’s all yours.”
In this article, we will discuss about newly released songs, her inspiration, and critic's reviews.
Like previous Swift releases, TTPD has been an anticipated, despite short timespan from her last release. The album features US rapper Post Malone and Florence Welch, of the English band Florence + the Machine.
There are a total of 31 songs (16 in volume 1 and 15 in volume 2). The Prophecy, Peter, The Albatross, Bolter, Robin, etc., are some of the featured songs in the new tracklist.
For the last five years, one could easily point out that Taylor Swift has been in extremely romantic mode. Songs like Lover, Delicate, Invisible String and Lavender Haze took inspiration from her relationship with British actor Joe Alwyn. Even she smartly mentioned about her boyfriend in Grammy Award-winning albums Folklore and Midnights. However, in last year, they announced their separation, which is mentioned multiple times in the new album.
First single Fortnight is a lovely, subtle duet with Post Malone. Songs like ‘My Boy Only Breaks His Favourite Toys’ and ‘So Long, London’ are not getting that much appreciation may be because of lyrics-heavy composition.
‘Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?’ is one of the enjoyable songs in the album.
However, the second volume is not having the depth of the previous version. ‘I Hate It Here’ is definitely a spiritual successor to 1989's ‘I Know Places’
Sonically, you will get some inspiration from Folklore and Evermore in second volume.
Critics were positive mostly: Variety called this album “audacious” and “transfixing” and “the Taylor Swift-est Taylor Swift record ever”.
NME mentioned: “The album contained some of her most cringe-inducing lines yet” and “lacks the genuinely interesting shifts that have punctuated Swift’s career so far”
Let's be honest, while listening to it, you might feel it's a bit chaotic. Even, you will get a feeling of “did she really just say that?” moments.
However, the songs demands multiple listening. Not all the songs are emotionally intense, some are funny, and even silly.
Overall, ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ (TTPD) is an uneven album.
The last one year was highly eventful for the singer's life. There were daily news about her unstable personal life, her break up from Joe Alwyn, a disastrous fling with Healy and now her relationship with NFL star Travis Kelce. Even, couple of weeks back, she recorded for becoming the billionaire at the age of 34, the only musician to do so.
Announcing the expansion of her new album Taylor Swift wrote, “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. This writer is of the firm belief that our tears become holy in the form of ink on a page. Once we have spoken our saddest story, we can be free of it.”
Broadly, Taylor Swift has portrayed a wide range of human emotions like love, pain, vulnerability, and defiance. With TTPD, Taylor Swift is definitely closing a chapter of her relationship, for sure!
