Taylor Swift and the Tortured Notes App Drafts

This is not a review because, honestly, so much of The Tortured Poets Department (TTPD) and The Anthology blends into each other and is pudding in my brain. I would think that recently watching a bunch of Cary Grant movies with dialogue flying 100 miles and hour would prime me for Taylor’s verbose lyrics, but I think they broke me instead? Either way, I don’t really have much to say about album no. 11 aside from “Get it out, girl.” Also, “Okay, now give us Reputation (Taylor’s Version).”

Largely, I am more a fan of Taylor’s poppier stuff than her ballads, so I was hoping that TTPD would sound like Rep TV while waiting for Rep TV, but 1) how would that be profitable, and 2) who was I kidding? It’s in the title. I started my notes with a simple question, “How tortured is Taylor’s Poet’s Department?” The answer is “I guess very? I’m not sure, I stopped listening but I’m nodding supportively.”

I fell asleep on the couch watching the original X-Men Animated Series instead of waiting for the album drop, so when I woke up, I was prepared to listen to what I thought was an album with a normal number of songs (16 tracks, 1 hour and 15 minutes). Much to my surprise/horror, I learned that Taylor then dropped a part 2 subtitled The Anthology with 15 additional songs, bringing the total amount of music I was now committed to listening to 31 songs at 2 hours and 2 minutes.

Anyway, to answer my own question: while her lyrics are very tortured, the music is unbelievably sedated. Ariana Grande, Kacey Musgrave, Olivia Rodrigo, Beyoncé, and Maggie Rogers have also released new music/albums within the past month and TTPD is largely forgettable. This is an album you’d put on in the background; it’s all so same sounding. Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner designed synth-pop soundscapes that really give center stage to Taylor’s lyrics, which are more like runaway rambling thoughts.

However, once I realized who was funding the Poets Department and the context of their relationship, I was a little forgiving. I was expecting a tight tracklist with really weepy songs commemorating the end of her six-year long relationship with Joe Alwyn. Respectful but heartstring-tugging. I don’t think I’ve ever weeped to a Taylor Swift song, but I was ready for it. What I wasn’t ready for was this latest album to be so Matt Healy-inspired… So TTPD is part break-up album but mainly mourning a situationship/a “dude, fuck you” album that reads like a girl’s collection Notes app drafts abut the guy who ghosted her. Just the most insane, incoherent thoughts fueled by rage and shattered hopes. Getting the last word and purging this need for vindication out of your system so you can see clearly again.

Look, I get it. I’m also a yapper. I have ADHD. I need to over-explain how I’ve processed you being a jerk. I need whoever has hurt me to know the exact ways they have done it so they feel bad and apologize (ultimate goal and is satisfying). I’ve written some pissed-off, petty things in my Notes app about many men. But unfortunately, like many of the songs on TTPD, it gets droning. We get the point. And then the efficacy wears off. While I personally would love to confront a man for being inconsiderate, I know he literally doesn’t give a fuck whether I live or die! It does not matter. It’s a hard truth, and that’s why those rants stay in the Notes app.

So again, whomst among us has not had an obsessive spiral after being ghosted by a guy, especially one you sorta had a thing with years ago and then it rekindled for a few months thinking it might actually work out this time, but it fizzled out again because you said you liked them??? It is demoralizing, even as a hot girl!

Thankfully, I’m in my Taylor Swift era in the way that I’m only looking for himbos <3

It also happens to be the first day of Taurus season, of which many of my Notes app drafts are about <3

xx Francesca

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