Taylor Swift Bares Her Soul on ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ Album: Review

The first gathering of The Tortured Poets Department has now commenced.

Taylor Swift unleashed her eleventh studio album on Friday, April 19, and it is a literary triumph.

Since announcing the record onstage at the Grammys in February, Swift has been teasing her latest era with moody snippets of lyrics and black-and-white visuals. Aesthetically, the art matches the tone of the album and is perhaps a nod to her 2019 Lover standout “Daylight,” on which she sang, “I once believed love would be black and white, but it’s golden.” On The Tortured Poets Department, Swift is living in the gray area as she examines heartbreak like never before and wrestles with expectations as a celebrity.

Swift’s writing is as poetic and prolific as ever, and both the lyrical and sonic vibe of the often self-referential album falls somewhere between her exceptional 2020 pandemic projects folklore and evermore and her ubiquitous most recent offering, 2022’s Midnights. As on those albums, the storytelling is so vivid, listeners will have a challenge discerning fact from fiction as the Grammy winner lays bare accounts of romances that turned to tragedies over ambient synths.

Fans and music followers alike will be studying the body of work for insight into her high-profile relationships, and her legion of Swifities have already stormed social media with conspiracy theories, speculating which lyrics are inspired by exes Joe Alwyn or Matty Healy and which are about current beau Travis Kelce.

Swift has long had the gift (or curse) of feeling deeply — and the talent and courage to effectively communicate those emotions like few have ever before. On TTPD, she’s living in melancholy and rage; guilt and indifference; despair and hope. And the best tracks here are ones that seem to be inspired by this tortured poet’s own larger-than-life existence — yet are oh-my-god-I’ve-been-there relatable.

On “But Daddy I Love Him” — a seething commentary on overzealous fans’ obsessive, parasocial relationship with her — Swift throws her hands in the air, slamming pearl-clutching “Sarahs and Hannahs in their Sunday best” who say they have her best interest at heart.

“I’d rather burn my whole life down / Than listen to one more second of all this bitching and moaning / I’ll tell you something about my good name / It’s mine alone to disgrace / I don’t cater to all these vipers dressed in empath’s clothing,” she says. “God save the most judgmental creeps / Who say they want what’s best for me / Sanctimoniously performing soliloquies / I’ll never see / Thinking it can change the beat / Of my heart when he touches me / And counteract the chemistry / And undo the destiny / You ain’t gotta pray for me.”

Later, on “Guilty As Sin,” Swift sings of yearning for another lover while feeling caged: “Without ever touching his skin / How can I be guilty of sin?” Similarly, on “Fresh Out the Slammer,” she tells a story of revisiting something comfortable and familiar after a dead-end union fizzled. “Years of labor, locks and ceilings / In the shade of how he was feeling / But it’s gonna be alright / I did my time / Now pretty baby / I’m running back home to you / Fresh out the slammer / I know who my first call will be to.”

And on “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” — the most upbeat, danceable track on the record — the show must go on, come hell or high heartache.

“Lights, camera — bitch, smile / Even when you wanna die / He said he loved me all his life / But that life was too short,” Swift — seemingly referencing hitting the road amid public breakups — sings over soaring, euphoric production that’s a stark juxtaposition to her raw lyrics.

“As the crowd was shouting ‘more’ / I was grinning like I’m winning / I was hitting my marks / ‘Cause I can do it with a broken heart,” she continues, somehow effervescently. “I’m so depressed I act like it’s my birthday every day / I’m so obsessed with him, but he avoids me / Like the plague / I cry a lot, but I am so productive / It’s an art / You know you’re good when you can even do it / With a broken heart.”

With her record-shattering Eras Tour and recent historic Grammy wins, Swift is in an unparalleled imperial phase. But on The Tortured Poets Department, the singer-songwriter once again proves why she’s the brightest shining star in the business.