In February, Taylor Swift won a fourth Grammy award for Best Album of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Album and during an acceptance speech, announced the release date of her new album The Tortured Poets Department on April 19 (Republic Records) - which has been greatly anticipated by Swifties and musicians of varying genres. Gobs of hype, pre-ordering and speculation have preceded the album and despite some previews, the moment has arrived – it’s out with sixteen tracks in four editions that include different bonus songs, as well as a double album of fifteen extra tracks on streaming platforms
Swift is regarded as one of the most dynamic performers ever and her The Eras Tour attracts sold out audiences that include upcoming concerts in the UK, Europe, Canada and the US. The Tortured Poets Department has all the markings of a musical soap opera due to a tell-almost all and move on account about what it’s like to be in love, out of love and survive the break-up – from her experience. In collaboration with Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner, the lyrics are infused with clever, caustic, romantic, quasi-poetic references to her six year relationship with British actor Joe Alwyn and a brief rendezvous with another beau – set to a leitmotif of music that is…well, more like what it’s not. Don’t expect this album to mirror the exhilaration of her latest Midnights Album of the Year.
Swift maintains a personalized rapport with her fans and in this album she reveals her emotions with lyrics rather than innovative musical gestures. Many of the songs are sung in lower register, although her upper register has amazing high-pitched clarity. So Long and But Daddy I Love Him contain a kind of recitative delivery. And many contain orchestration of hypnotic drone beats with drums or synthesized soundwaves, like in My Boy Only Breaks Favorite Toys, which creates a monochromatic rhythmic swing or repetitive keyboard motives in The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived and loml, where the term cadence isn’t fully realized but contains some compelling vocalizing. Still, this song and Who’s Afraid Of Little Old Me? are among the most effective and offer originally experimental material, where a juxtaposition of syncopated rhythms are neatly used.
Throughout the history of western music and its genres and other cultures, composers have churned out gems and works that have been shelved. It’s inevitable that some pieces are meant to be played, listened to or studied. Totally trendsetting composers like Cage, Berio, Stockhausen, Boulez, Takamitsu and Ligeti put it out there as a way of bucking the norm and opening up new musical worlds. Of course, Schoenberg did just that in the so-called Second Viennese School. And let’s not forget the zillions of love songs that have been whistled, hummed or cried over for centuries. Swift’s The Tortured Poets Department definitely makes a statement about where she was and is transitioning to. She’s certainly earned the right to share her vulnerabilities, which takes a lot of courage and self-awareness.
Swift’s latest album serves as a kind of catharsis and this aspect is reflected in the words of songs such as: THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT - And who’s gonna hold you like me? And who’s gonna know you like me?; FORTNIGHT - I love you, it’s ruining my life with musical collaboration from Austin Post; SO LONG – For so long, London Had a good run A moment of warm sun But I’m not the one; LOML – What we thought for all time Was momentary; I CAN DO IT WITH A BROKEN HEART – I was grinning like I’m winning I was hitting my marks Cause I can do it with a broken heart; THE SMALLEST MAN WHO EVER LIVED – And I’ll forget you but I’ll never forgive The smallest man who ever lived and CLARA BOW, a provocative, perhaps comparative tribute to the legendary silent film star whose career made headliners on and off screen.
Manuscript, one of the bonus tracks comes across as a kind of retrospective about a relationship gone sour in words that include, Looking backwards might be the only way to move forward. The album booklet ends with a written account or self-realization of what she has been through and learned, in phrases like: At this hearing I stand before my fellow members of The Tortured Poets Department With a summary of my findings A debrief, a detailed rewinding For the purpose of warning For the sake of reminding…All’s fair in love and poetry. Sincerely, The Chairman of The Tortured Poets Department.
While The Tortured Poets Department may not satisfy the musical tastes of everyone, it highlights Taylor Swift’s innate talent as contemporary pop artist and writer of songs with lyrics that make us think, reflect and possibly relate to. Isn’t that what the works of tortured poets are supposed to do?