On April 19 of 2024, Taylor Swift released an album titled, “The Tortured Poets Department.” This album was first revealed on February 4th as a part of her speech after winning the Grammy for best pop vocal album for her album, “Midnights.” She announced the soon release of an album she had been working on since 2022.  

Hours after the initial release of The Tortured Poets Department, within hours came a surprise release of “The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology.” This album consists of 31 songs, as well as songs featuring artists Post Malone and Florence + The Machine, spanning a little over two hours. This album is quite lengthy despite Swift’s busy schedule, but this album was not received by “Swifties” as well as previous albums. A fan describing it as “Folklore-esque, with some Midnights and 1989 production style thrown in.” 

These 31 one songs follow the premise of a “break up album,” specifically the end of her six-year relationship with actor Joe Alwyn, as well as a short-lived relationship with Matty Healy, the front man for the band, the 1975, the New Yorker summing the albums meaning as, “The unreliability of love. References in many songs allude to this agenda, including the line, “When you’re not sure if he wants to be there” in the song “So Long, London.” As well as the last two songs of the album seeming to be towards a younger child, seemingly a reference to the loss of youth Swift may have in her life. The Manuscript seems to be an example of this as listeners believe this song references her relationships with older men in her youth.  

This album seems to take a more emotional turn compared to some of her older albums, more personal instead of your average high school break up album. Some fans noticed her lyrics seemed more intense; the amount of cursing used to expose these intense feelings increased dramatically over her usual style of music. 

Overall, this album is quite good, it follows emotions that Swift has not explored as much in her music before. While many die-hard fans of Taylor Swift do not feel this is her best work, it is still an impactful album that I believe is one of her better albums due to its expanse on these new feelings. This can be especially relatable for listeners who have had issues during their childhoods.