Taylor Swift’s latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, marks a poignant chapter in her illustrious career.
The album dives deep into the emotional aftermath of her split with long-time boyfriend Joe Alwyn, a relationship that had previously inspired much of her music. This break-up album, announced during her record-breaking ‘The Eras Tour’, seems to showcase Swift’s rawest and most vulnerable songwriting yet.
The album emerges from a period where Swift’s personal life and public persona have been closely intertwined. Her previous works with Alwyn, such as the Grammy Award-winning albums Folklore and Midnights, were celebrated for their introspective lyrics and collaborative creativity.
However, following their split in April 2023, Swift has channelled her solitude into The Tortured Poets Department, reflecting on the relationship’s highs and the painful realisation of its end.
The album has only been out for a few hours, but the critics are already having their say on The Tortured Poets Department.
In a lengthy and detailed review, NPR‘s Ann Power pondered how Swift’s songwriting is viewed by the masses. “…we should ask why Swift’s work feels so powerful to so many — why she has become, in the eyes of millions, a standard-bearer and a freedom fighter,” she wrote. “Unlike Beyoncé, who loves a good emblem and is always thinking about history and serving the culture and communities she claims, Swift is making an ongoing argument about smaller stories still making a difference.
“Her call-outs can be viewed as petty, reflecting entitlement or even narcissism. But they’re also part of her wrestling with the very notion of significance and challenging hierarchies that have proven to be so stubborn they can feel intractable. That Swift has reached such a peak of influence in the wake of the #MeToo movement isn’t an accident; even as that chapter in feminism’s history can seem to be closing, she insists on saying, “believe me.” That isn’t the same as saying “believe all women,” but by laying claim to disputed storylines and fighting against silence she at very least reminds listeners that such actions matter.”
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Variety found the album to be “audacious” and “transfixing,” adding, “in this album’s most bracing songs, it’s like she brought a knife to a fistfight. There’s blood on the tracks, good blood.”
The BBC, meanwhile, thought that The Tortured Poets Department may be the end of an era for its creator. “Swift knows her current world tour is a pinnacle, a once-in-a-career moment of cultural dominance – and there are younger (but maybe not hungrier) stars nipping at her heels… With The Tortured Poets Department, she’s closing a chapter on a relationship, for sure, but maybe on a way of living and working, too… Is this the end of her latest Era?” the review concluded.
Rolling Stone‘s Rob Sheffield, a longtime Swift superfan, called her new album an instant classic. The Tortured Poets Department combines the intimacy of Folklore and Evermore with the synth-pop gloss of Midnights to create music that’s wildly ambitious and gloriously chaotic,” he wrote.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, however, the Sydney Morning Herald was less complimentary: “Taylor Swift’s new album is here, and it’s proof she needs to take a break,” the publication’s review headline stated.
NME also found Swift’s latest to be a “rare misstep,” finding parts of the album to be “surprisingly flat and, at times, cringeworthy.”
If you want to judge Swift’s album for yourself, you can listen to it below.
