The Tortured Poets Department was released on April 19, 2024, followed by an unannounced double album drop with an additional 15 songs. The album itself I think is lyrical genius. Although, admittedly, the beats and songs themselves sound quite similar, which may be due to her producer, Jack Antonoff, one must admit that the lyrics in each one of these songs are incredible and have much deeper meanings to them than appears on the surface. These lyrics give fans the entertaining job of picking each one apart and connecting them to find a hidden, unexpected meaning. For example, Swift drops many marriage and child references in this album, talking about how much she yearned for marriage, but her partner remained unready or uninterested. This pain is seen in the lyrics “At dinner, you take my ring off my middle finger / And put it on the one people put wedding rings on / And that’s the closest I’ve come to my heart exploding.” They show how Swift was being quite literally teased by the idea of marriage from her partner, getting close to it, yet never quite making it, inflicting much hurt on her. This album as a whole revealed many emotions and sides to Swift that fans were unaware of, such as her quiet resentment-filled relationship, supposedly, with Joe Alwyn, her deeper thought connection with Matty Healy, and even her struggles behind her Eras Tour shows. The Tortured Poets Department showed fans an emotional, hidden side of Swift that she revealed through her genius use of words, lyricism, and symbolism.
Through these lyrics, many fans were shocked by the revelations made by them. For example, originally, many expected these songs to mainly be about Swift’s most recent breakup with her 7-year relationship with Joe Alwyn. However, many of these songs are rumored to be about Matty Healy, her ex-fling of about 10 years due to certain lyrics such as “I scratch your head, you fall asleep/ Like a tattooed golden retriever.” This surprised many fans since the relationship, or fling, between Swift and Healy was greatly underestimated in its intensity and connection than what her songs insinuate.
My personal favorites on the album, after the first few listens, are definitely “Guilty as Sin?,” “imgonnagetyouback,”and “The Tortured Poets Department.”I love the lyrics in these songs and how catchy they are! I especially love the lyrics in “Guilty as Sin?” because of how much is left up to interpretation for listeners, and what it insinuates. I adore when Swift writes songs about certain awkward, or “taboo” topics, which you must read between the lines to understand. Overall, I enjoyed listening to this album as a whole, and although it did take about two hours to do so, it was worth it to listen and decode every single lyric!
