Review: Taylor Swift – The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology
A challenge to both Swifties and laypeople alike, but not for intuitive reasons...
(*****)
The Tortured Poets Department
1. Fortnight
2. The Tortured Poets Department
3. My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys
4. Down Bad
5. So Long, London
6. But Daddy I Love Him
7. Fresh Out The Slammer
8. Florida!!!
9. Guilty As Sin
10. Who’s Afraid Of Little Old Me?
11. I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)
12. loml
13. I Can Do It With A Broken Heart
14. The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived
15. The Alchemy
16. Clara Bow
In The Tortured Poets Department and its elaboration, The Anthology (2024), much is (one can even say clumsily) expressed through words in terms of quantity and complicatedness. This has taken up much of the scrutiny Taylor Swift has received as has the lack of a clear “Cruel Summer”/“Anti-Hero”-esque hit present on the record. There is even more scrutiny because she isn’t churning out back-to-back smash hits, think “Blank Space”, when she was still learning from (or leaning on) Max Martin and Shellback. More broadly viewed, people do not enjoy the fact that the new project is almost entirely mid-tempo. In her defense though, I interpret this to mean the new album/double album emphasizes laser-like focus on album sequencing and construction. This is so even when the lyrical ideas seem to go awry on both TTPD and The Anthology. Luckily enough, the music is the main character here and it is also the vehicle that allows the ideas Taylor wants to express to be interpreted cohesively.
Outside of her star and the phenomenon that “Taylor Swift” has become, the music and artistic integrity behind the album are prioritized. The first four tracks synthesize a general muted, colorless, yet intimate electropop sonic landscape for the album to elaborate upon. This muted electropop is retained throughout TTPD. But “Down Bad” does have a subtle R&B bent to it; the sonic shifts of the album start here. In my opinion, “So Long, London” has Aaron Dessner trying his best to create or recreate rather, what he thinks Jack Antonoff would have done for an electropop track 5 on a Taylor album. This is evident as the intro for “So Long, London” instantly recalls the intro for “my tears ricochet” off folklore (2020), a track 5 produced by Antonoff and Joe Alwyn. “But Daddy I Love Him” contains elements of country (think about her first three albums) and folk music in its instrumentation and is a definite highlight on the record. “Fresh Out The Slammer” and “Florida!!!” follow closely but depart also as they contain gothic and pop-rock elements respectively.
“Guilty As Sin” interestingly blends elements present on tracks 6-8 together with a frank expression of libido/fervor that recalls “Dress”, “False God”, and “I Can See You” lyrically. Track 10 grounds the album in the general mood set by tracks 1-4 as it also expresses Taylor’s warning against the media and her detractors which recalls reputation (2017). “I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)” elaborates on the gothic moods a few of the past tracks had. “loml” shifts the album in a slower, piano-ballad direction while also being beautifully and hauntingly written and produced, a very genuine track and highlight. Track 13 recalls “Mastermind” off Midnights (2022) and it offers a very interesting sonic juxtaposition and contrast to the last track. Track 14 returns to the piano ballad sound and is a directed expose of a former boyfriend of hers which has a prolonged and intentional climax in its bridge. The album begins to close as “The Alchemy” shifts lyrical themes from disappointment to the prospect of a new relationship with another man and the joys that come from this, set to subtle electropop-rock music. “Clara Bow”, a pop-rock song, has Taylor reflecting and expressing her new and synthesized thoughts on women in the music industry and her place in it (see “Change”, “Long Live”, “The Lucky One”, “Nothing New”, etc.).
From the get-go, I hope you can see what is going on here. Many elements from her past oeuvre are being selectively utilized in this record. Her confessional songwriting from Speak Now (2010) and Red (2012) is being utilized except this time it is being set to the sarcastic, quirky, and self-deprecational vocabulary of “Anti-Hero” and “Karma” off Midnights (2022). The entire album’s construction seems like a synthesis of what her, Dessner, and Antonoff created with folklore and evermore set to a sound which descends from the production of Midnights and the 1989 (Taylor’s Version) vault tracks. This production is striking in how it can be posed as a direct antithesis to the color and optimism expressed on the Lover (2019) album. In terms of the album’s lyrical ideas, Taylor’s fears of her self-perception and her proactive defensiveness of herself recalls reputation (2017). When the album ventures into more country and folky sounds, the music of her first three albums are invoked. On a thematical basis, Red (2012) is a logical touchstone as it is her only “breakup” album but this is not the only touchstone. From her entire discography, The Tortured Poets Department finds ample material for reference.
Now onto The Anthology (2024)
(*****)
The Anthology
17. The Black Dog
18. imgonnagetyouback
19. The Albatross
20. Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus
21. How Did It End?
22. So High School
23. I Hate It Here
24. thanK you aIMee
25. I Look In People’s Windows
26. The Prophecy
27. Cassandra
28. Peter
29. The Bolter
30. Robin
31. The Manuscript
The Anthology veers in even more directions lyrically than the first part of the double album. To compensate for this, it also boasts a more varied production which plays like a continuation of the general album set to a production reminiscent of folklore and evermore, but this time, musically. For the layman, this means that The Anthology plays with chamber-pop, indie-electronica, and folk music all while retaining pop-sensibility. Antonoff productions like “The Black Dog” and “I Look in People’s Windows” (hello Patrik Berger) play like intentional imitations of Dessner’s production style. “thanK you aIMee” is a dual Dessner-Antonoff production and is the grand highlight of The Anthology, much like “But Daddy I Love Him” (another dual production) was a highlight for the first part of the double album. Dessner knocks it out of the park in songs like “The Albatross” and “The Bolter” with a beautiful usage of genres such as chamber-pop and folk. Dessner’s emotional piano-playing finds a home throughout the second part of the double album (Tracks 20, 21, 27, 28, 31). It is safe to say The Anthology bests TTPD in terms of the beauty of sounds and instrumentation. On the other hand, The Anthology, is only as effective as it is because it is set to the foundation TTPD provides in its album worldbuilding. The hallmark of a great double-album is that both sides need each other to function… To be greater than the sum of its parts.
Antonoff and Dessner were able to play off each other on this project. Comparing, contrasting, imitating, and referencing each other musically and Taylor is much stronger for it as I can safely say she has another 5-star effort in her hands with The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology. But lightning doesn’t strike twice… The weakness that come from continuous self-reference is that eventually, one runs out of material to draw from. This approach can also alienate potential new listeners of Taylor’s music who may correctly interpret this to mean the new album is too dense to interpret. Luckily enough, as most of the tracks do not stray from the 4-minute mark, audiences shouldn’t be too offended. Many of the topics and lyrics of the entire album are generalized and easy to follow. But above all, the sounds created here, while being similar to her past efforts post-Lover (2019), are still pointedly distinct. Our protagonists have a victory here and hopefully another AOTY Grammy. They must surely take a critical look at themselves musically though and ask, after all the self-reference, where is one left to go?
I enjoy the double album iteration of this new project more than its single album iteration.
TTPD: TA > TTPD