On April 19 at 12:00am, Taylor Swift released her 11th album titled “The Tortured Poet’s Department.” Fans were informed of the release on Feb. 4 at the 2024 Grammy Awards in Swift’s acceptance speech after her tenth album, “Midnights,” won Album of the Year.
Ever since then, fans have been speculating about how this new album would reflect Taylor’s life. Many believed that the entire album represented her seven-year-long relationship with actor Joe Alwyn, with whom she allegedly broke up shortly after her most recent tour started. Fans speculated over this because Swift previously released a song titled “London Boy” on her album titled “Lover” back in 2019 that fans felt was very clearly about Alwyn because he’s British and they were dating at the time it was released. On “The Tortured Poets Department,” her fifth track (which is known to be her most vulnerable and heartbreaking) is titled “So Long, London.” which most believe to be a nod to Alwyn.
Others speculated that the album’s content is a combination of her alleged fling with singer Matty Healy, Alwyn, and her current boyfriend Travis Kelce.
Despite all the speculation, Taylor has kept the meaning behind the songs close to her chest. However, superfans who declare themselves “Swifties” have jumped online to analyze the meaning of the lyrics.
An example of this would be how in her new song “But Daddy I Love Him,” Swift sings the line, “I’m having his baby, no I’m not, but you should see your faces.” Many fans have assumed that she is breaking the fourth wall and directly speaking to her fans.
Although this album has a sadder tone, many fans on the internet have called it “sad girl pop” because of the catchy beat, yet depressing lyrics.
Although fans immediately thought the album would be full of drama-filled lyrics regarding Alwyn, in reality it seems to be more about Swift’s mental health through a dying relationship and the rollercoaster of emotions she felt.
This is portrayed in the music video she made for the first track, “Fortnight (Feat. Post Malone),” where she portrays a character in a mental hospital that fans allege is meant to represent her relationship with Alwyn, specifically how she felt insane and destroyed in that relationship and furthermore felt the urge to get out of it by going to Matty Healy.
Whether all of these allegations are true or not has not been cleared by Swift, and perhaps she is teasing her fans once again. As for the album itself, it shares the same themes as two of her previous albums, “Folklore” and “Evermore,” which are known for being more melancholy and emotional in contrast to the rest of her albums.
After the initial midnight release, Swift released a second volume for the album that same morning with 15 additional new songs, which in total makes the album 30 songs long. She refers to this new addition as “The Anthology.” She also wrote all 30 songs in the past two years which means that most of them were written while she was on her “Eras Tour”.
Although this new album is drastically different from her previous one, “Midnights,” the lyricism and relatable temperaments have led fans such as myself to love and cherish this new addition.
