Taylor Swift – The Tortured Poets Department (April 19)

[Marooned@Midnight]

I can’t believe I woke up to a double album. The best part is we get The Black Dog on streaming and don’t have to wait!! If the quality is any indicator, I can’t wait to digest the rest of the bonus tracks.

[Grün]

A double album!!!!!!! Well guess I am cancelling my morning meetings haha.

[Dylan :)]

Tracks 17 through 31 are all incredible!! The Black Dog, The Prophecy, Thank You Aimee… production perfection. I can’t get enough. Listening to the first half now. So far I’m in Fortnight and it’s nice, and Post fits extremely well

[schnetzka]

Guys, I listened to all 31 tracks in one sitting. I am in a state of utter exhaustion. Thoughts coming later because I do not have it in me right now to form up more words lol.

[Rose "Payola" Nylund]

About 11 songs in and so far my first impression is #JackNeedsToGo

[Future Captain]

She really should have just said it was a double album from the beginning and have So High School as the focus track, I'm serious

[Taylor.]

All the signs were there but I didn't think she'd do the exact same thing again! Alas, good thing I have a 3 hour flight today to digest this album in full properly now.

I read the Epilogue on Twitter and that helped contextualize the album a lot for me. Shouldn't have commented before properly listening and digesting.

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
As you might all unfortunately recall
I had been struck with a case
of a restricted humanity
Which explains my plea here today
of temporary insanity

You see, the pendulum swings
Oh, the chaos it brings
Leads the caged beast to do
the most curious things

Lovers spend years denying what’s ill fated
Resentment rotting away
galaxies we created
Stars placed and glued
meticulously by hand
next to the ceiling fan
Tried wishing on comets.
Tried dimming the shine.
Tried to orbit his planet.
Some stars never align.

And in one conversation, I tore down the whole sky
Spring sprung forth with dazzling freedom hues
Then a crash from the skylight
Bursting through
Something old, someone hallowed,
who told me he could be brand new

And so I was out of the oven
And into the microwave
Out of the slammer and into a tidal wave
How gallant to save the empress
from her gilded tower
Swinging a sword he could barely lift
But loneliness struck at that fateful hour
Low hanging fruit on his wine stained lips
He never even scratched the surface
of me.
None of them did.

“In summation, it was not a love affair!”
I screamed while bringing my fists
to my coffee ringed desk
It was a mutual manic phase.
It was self harm.
It was house and then cardiac arrest.
A smirk creeps onto this poet’s face
Because it’s the worst men that I write best.

And so I enter into evidence
My tarnished coat of arms
My muses, acquired like bruises
My talismans and charms
The tick, tick, tick of love bombs
My veins of pitch black ink
All’s fair in love and poetry

Sincerely,
The Chairman
of The Tortured Poets Department

[Rhythm Nation]

^ That might be the best thing she’s ever written to be fair

[Deleted]

But Daddy I Love Him is just so good. Taylor Swift you will always be famous!!

[August]

It is catchy, but to me, it all sounds like one long song because every track sounds the same. I didn't even realize I was 7 tracks in because they all have the same soaring music, with the same drum beat, and same whispering layered vocal. It is like Jack knows one sound on the drum machine and presses that button for every track. Don't get me wrong, I like it, but a little variety would be nice.

[Az Paynter]

So I'm just about halfway through the album (near the end of 'The Alchemy' as I type this) and one thought I currently have - that I also had in my initial pass of 'Midnights' - how many songs does she have to write in C major? Further listens of 'Midnights' made those more distinctive for me, so the same will probably be true here, but from first-listen impressions every song that's in that same damn key signature makes it hard to keep some of these songs from bleeding into each other. Like, 'I know this is a different song but why does it sound like two or three other songs I JUST listened to?'.

IDK, just makes it harder for me to get into as a whole when I feel like she keeps doing several different variations of the same kind of sound.

[Deleted]

Apr 19, 2024 6:52:33 GMT -5 August said:

It is catchy, but to me, it all sounds like one long song because every track sounds the same. I didn't even realize I was 7 tracks in because they all have the same soaring music, with the same drum beat, and same whispering layered vocal. It is like Jack knows one sound on the drum machine and presses that button for every track. Don't get me wrong, I like it, but a little variety would be nice.

This is so interesting to me cause I remember the days when an album being sonically cohesive wasn’t a bad thing.

[August]

Apr 19, 2024 6:56:30 GMT -5 @stateofgrace said:

Apr 19, 2024 6:52:33 GMT -5 August said:

It is catchy, but to me, it all sounds like one long song because every track sounds the same. I didn't even realize I was 7 tracks in because they all have the same soaring music, with the same drum beat, and same whispering layered vocal. It is like Jack knows one sound on the drum machine and presses that button for every track. Don't get me wrong, I like it, but a little variety would be nice.

This is so interesting to me cause I remember the days when an album being sonically cohesive wasn’t a bad thing.

Well, that is the thing, it is TOO cohesive...to the point that for the bulk of the first half of the album, it sounds like she is just singing different lyrics over the same music track over and over. It was a relief to get to track 13 (I Can Do It With a Broken Heart) when it picked up the pace, added some new bells and whistles to the music, and felt like it's own distinctive song. Again, I do not hate the album at all, it just sounds so "samey."

[Marooned@Midnight]

Time out. Do we have our first Travis song?? The Alchemy…football references….the “blokes” were warming the bench. She’s finally feeling like herself again. I’m sold!

[Deleted]

Apr 19, 2024 7:00:11 GMT -5 August said:

Apr 19, 2024 6:56:30 GMT -5 @stateofgrace said:

This is so interesting to me cause I remember the days when an album being sonically cohesive wasn’t a bad thing.

Well, that is the thing, it is TOO cohesive...to the point that for the bulk of the first half of the album, it sounds like she is just singing different lyrics over the same music track over and over. It was a relief to get to track 13 (I Can Do It With a Broken Heart) when it picked up the pace, added some new bells and whistles to the music, and felt like it's own distinctive song. Again, I do not hate the album at all, it just sounds so "samey."

Yes. The album is very sonically cohesive and tells a story.

[austin]

Apr 19, 2024 7:00:22 GMT -5 Marooned@Midnight said:

Time out. Do we have our first Travis song?? The Alchemy…football references….the “blokes” were warming the bench. She’s finally feeling like herself again. I’m sold!

Yes, that and “So High School” are definitely about him.

[August]

Apr 19, 2024 7:03:45 GMT -5 @stateofgrace said:

Apr 19, 2024 7:00:11 GMT -5 August said:

Well, that is the thing, it is TOO cohesive...to the point that for the bulk of the first half of the album, it sounds like she is just singing different lyrics over the same music track over and over. It was a relief to get to track 13 (I Can Do It With a Broken Heart) when it picked up the pace, added some new bells and whistles to the music, and felt like it's own distinctive song. Again, I do not hate the album at all, it just sounds so "samey."

Yes. The album is very sonically cohesive and tells a story.

I mean if you want to pretend I am praising the album, go for it.

[Ｓｏｕｎｄｃｌ🕤ｃｋ]

31 songs? really?? I'm SO JEALOUS of people who can sit and listen to a 2h-album, like really, this is just too much for me. I think one verse and chorus per song will do the job for me, that's probably enough to judge, and if I like it I'll finish the song.

also, the fact that TTPD is longer than Ariana's last 3 albums combined...

[Deleted]

Apr 19, 2024 7:21:44 GMT -5 August said:

Apr 19, 2024 7:03:45 GMT -5 @stateofgrace said:

Yes. The album is very sonically cohesive and tells a story.

I mean if you want to pretend I am praising the album, go for it.

I’m agreeing with you. Whether you think an album being cohesive both lyrically and sonically is a bad thing is not my problem.

[ampersand]

So how likely do we think it is she’ll release the double album on vinyl? I’m tempted to get a copy of the “The Black Dog” variant because it’s my favourite bonus track and I’d like to have the album on vinyl, but I don’t want to waste my money if she releases the full thing in like a year lol.

[Ling-Ling]

Apr 18, 2024 18:43:36 GMT -5 Ling-Ling said:

I'm surprised by the divisive reaction to this, it's a very typical Taylor album. Maybe that's the issue? People wanted something more adventurous? Midnights meets Lover is probably the most apt description I've seen. I also disagree with the consensus that there aren't any hits on here, I hear a handful.

But overall, it's another okay/nice album from her. I'd probably trim it down to about 11/12 tracks. But yeah, she does need to switch it up. Listening to a lot of these songs, I felt like I could cut and paste elements of them into about a dozen other Taylor songs.

After listening to the full 31 tracks, I definitely hear folkmore in the mix too. The OG album already needed a trim, this needs a hacking, lol. A double album cannot work with this monotonous a sonic palette. This isn't cohesion, this is limited and lacks imagination. There's more to a song than words and her refusal to play with vocal variation, tempo, production, rhythm, interesting melodies, etc. is deadening. So much here feels recycled. Offering raw lyrical moments accomplishes nothing if you don't do anything interesting with them and I shouldn't have to live in a lyric sheet to make an album engaging. Quite frankly, she's just not a fascinating enough vocalist/persona to sell this without some real musical oomph.

[clsvltn]

Apr 19, 2024 7:23:03 GMT -5 Ｓｏｕｎｄｃｌ🕤ｃｋ said:

31 songs? really?? I'm SO JEALOUS of people who can sit and listen to a 2h-album, like really, this is just too much for me. I think one verse and chorus per song will do the job for me, that's probably enough to judge, and if I like it I'll finish the song.

also, the fact that TTPD is longer than Ariana's last 3 albums combined...

Considering her bridges are some of her best work, I don't think that is enough.  On this album, there are at least a handful if not more of songs that really are elevated from the bridge work.

On another note, I tried to stay up to 2a. I close my eyes around 140a and then was out lol but I cannot wait to check out all the tracks again! She is really feeding the fans for sure...

[August]

Apr 19, 2024 7:29:51 GMT -5 @stateofgrace said:

Apr 19, 2024 7:21:44 GMT -5 August said:

I mean if you want to pretend I am praising the album, go for it.

I’m agreeing with you. Whether you think an album being cohesive both lyrically and sonically is a bad thing is not my problem.

Seriously no disrespect to you, everyone can love or dislike things for different reasons. I would say that cohesive may not be the right word is all. I think "repetitive" describes it better. In terms of recent releases, I would say cohesive would be a better descriptor for Cowboy Carter by Beyonce. She went with a country / R&B sound. It carries throughout, but the songs are distinctive from each other, but sound like they belong together in the same collection. I think with Taylor, they all mostly sound like the same song, as opposed to a collection of different pop songs that sound like they belong together. Structurally, they all mostly sound like one long verse as opposed to the typical pop song structure of verse, chorus, verse, chorus, etc. which makes you remember the hook of the song. Could be intentional as part of the theme of poetry, but the flip side is that it makes it all sound like one long song.

[jenglisbe]

Apr 19, 2024 7:29:51 GMT -5 @stateofgrace said:

Apr 19, 2024 7:21:44 GMT -5 August said:

I mean if you want to pretend I am praising the album, go for it.

I’m agreeing with you. Whether you think an album being cohesive both lyrically and sonically is a bad thing is not my problem.

For many people, there is a line between cohesion and samey. An album can 100% be cohesive but also have songs that feel distinct. Beyonce's Renaissance is an example.

[Marooned@Midnight]

The Prophecy is another gut punch. Right up there with The Black Dog for me. And The Manuscript!

[Peterawr]

Haven’t listened to the whole thing yet, gotta go to work (silly me, only allowing an hour to listen, I should have known lol)

Standouts are “who’s afraid of little old me” “I can do it with a broken heart” and “the smallest man who ever lived”

Lights, camera, bitch, SMILE! (Even when you wanna die)

That is just asking to be a tiktok trend.

[Deleted]

Apr 19, 2024 7:40:37 GMT -5 jenglisbe said:

Apr 19, 2024 7:29:51 GMT -5 @stateofgrace said:

I’m agreeing with you. Whether you think an album being cohesive both lyrically and sonically is a bad thing is not my problem.

For many people, there is a line between cohesion and samey. An album can 100% be cohesive but also have songs that feel distinct. Beyonce's Renaissance is an example.

Right and that’s totally up to you. The great thing about the streaming era is you can just move on to projects that you enjoy more. There’s no buyers remorse!

[imbuemyblue]

It's fun to read the criticisms (which I think are pretty thoughtful and not hater-y at all) and realize I agree with a lot of them but still love the music? Lol.

My first reaction to the album was definitely disappointment, but just as I warned myself in a post yesterday, that is often the case for me with new music (especially Taylor's). I'm settling into the sonic world now, and while I shared the initial reaction that some of it was 'same-y', I'm now thinking how could anyone confuse 'Fortnite' for 'loml' or 'Florida!!!' for 'Down Bad' or 'Fresh Out the Slammer' for 'I Can Do It With A Broken Heart'? The variation is definitely there, but I think the approach to production (previously mentioned 'soaring' drums, etc.) and using the same key (super interesting observation) could be blending things.

I'm still not sure if any of it is top tier Taylor (yet), but that is such a high bar to clear. Looking forward to seeing how this album evolves for me in future listens.

[Choco]

I do look forward to seeing how the double album thing ages. Her longer projects like RED TV and Lover usually get accussed of having a strong album brought down by too many filler or samey songs and this is probably that same issue taken to the extreme.

It's what may bery well hold it down from being one of her best projects.

[JamaicaFunk²]

Apr 19, 2024 8:16:14 GMT -5 imbuemyblue said:

It's fun to read the criticisms (which I think are pretty thoughtful and not hater-y at all) and realize I agree with a lot of them but still love the music? Lol.

My first reaction to the album was definitely disappointment, but just as I warned myself in a post yesterday, that is often the case for me with new music (especially Taylor's). I'm settling into the sonic world now, and while I shared the initial reaction that some of it was 'same-y', I'm now thinking how could anyone confuse 'Fortnite' for 'loml' or 'Florida!!!' for 'Down Bad' or 'Fresh Out the Slammer' for 'I Can Do It With A Broken Heart'? The variation is definitely there, but I think the approach to production (previously mentioned 'soaring' drums, etc.) and using the same key (super interesting observation) could be blending things.

I'm still not sure if any of it is top tier Taylor (yet), but that is such a high bar to clear. Looking forward to seeing how this album evolves for me in future listens.

This is an accurate description of where I’m at too. Top tier? Certainly not. We needed some variety and a few trims.
But I view the criticisms as fair and yet still like (not love) the music so far.