Nearly an entire 2 years after the album Midnight was published by Taylor Swift. we get a new album called The Tortured Poets Department. The album was well received for the most part among Taylor fans, but some had some negative feedback about its similarities to other albums. Listeners say that a vast majority of the 31 songs released in this album are very sad.
I listened to the entire album about 3 times and here is my opinion on the first 10 songs upon my first listen.
The song Fortnight wasn’t bad at all. I don’t feel like it was supposed to be an extravagant opening, outstanding or catchy but it was a great opener to the album. It definitely felt like the exposition of a story like everything was just starting and we’re in for a long ride and with over 20 songs, we definitely were.
The beat on the song Down Bad was very alluring. Near the beginning the instrument in the background sounded like an EDM instrument or like a low-key dubstep with out all the extra sounds, which would probably take away from the elegance of the song and the album entirely to be 100% honest. The use of bells and the other sounds really mesh well with her voice.
So Long London had almost hypnotizing vocals with the way it was layered. I really enjoyed listening to it because as an artist myself and a certain feeling when you layer your voice more than once over a track and it comes out sounding as good as it did. It feels almost like a masterpiece.
But Daddy I Love Him was a fun listen. When I hear it I imagine movie credits where this song would play after the character is free from whatever shackles they were previously in. “screamin but Daddy I love him” and “I’m having his baby, no I’m not but you should see your faces,” are some really striking lyrics. They stand out grabbing your attention making you wait for the next part of the song.
While listening to Florida!!! I found that the beginning was beautiful. It had me on the edge of my seat waiting for the next line. The part near the end where Taylor and the featured artist were going bar for bar was enjoyable to me. My absolute favorite line from this song was “my friends all smell like weed or little babies” really hit, like my friends all either don’t care about their life or are invested in their future as well as their child’s, it was a very good contrast. The line makes you think for a good few seconds.
Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me? I’m thinking… nobody, until we heard this. I felt like I was listening to the antagonist of a horror movie, who is also somehow the main character. I don’t know about anybody else, but if Taylor is the bad guy, I guess I want the villain in this story to win. It really brought me back to that one movie called The Terrifier, which is a horror movie where the main character is the antagonist who tends to brutally kill people.
The next thing I’ll cover is how others received the album. Some shared much in common with their likes and dislikes, and others may surprise you with what they had to say about the album.
“There’s 2 sides of the album, there’s the first 15 and the second. For the first half, the best one is The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived. I mean they are all good- there’s not a single song I would skip. Fresh Out The Slammer from the first half was my least favorite, but it was a good song. All the other ones were just better. The Prophecy or The Black Dog or So High School were the best for the second half; those are my top 3. There’s definitely a message in all of them,” said freshman Lily Roth.
“I liked the album. The first time it sounded like the last two albums, but on the second listen and subsequent listens, I appreciated it a lot more. I just love her more now. I don’t like the So High School one, it sounds cheesy. I prefer Alchemy. I have 3 I really like: Florida!!!!, I Can Do it With a Broken Heart, and Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me. Lyric analysis should be thought in English class. But Daddy I Love Him sounds like it was about Harry Styles, if you listen to Harry Styles you hear the connection,” said Ms. Skinker, our on time graduation specialist.
These were the positive reviews I got from people who had listened to the full album. What you’ll realize after reading the next 3 quotes is that most people who didn’t listen to the entire album at least once, had a negative opinion on it.
“Basically I feel like every song sounded the same, like even if some of them had different themes and morals the overall message could’ve been different, but they all sounded similar. Usually I can memorize like half the songs on an album, but all the songs are so boring. But my favorite songs on the album are Down Bad and I Can Do It With a Broken Heart. I only listened to 5 – 10 songs at first, but it felt like I had listened to the whole thing. Idk what guy she was talking about specifically, I didn’t feel the need to do research. There is a song called So Long London and everyone was hyping it. So I had my expectations really high. But when I listened to it, I was so disappointed. It’s sounds like she wrote the lyrics and told a 6 year old to sing it,” said freshman Adia Sesay.
“I listened to 10 of the songs. The album really wasn’t that good. I’ll just say So Long London was the best, as it was just a little bit better than the rest. The worst one was The Tortured Poets Department. People told me it was really good. I listened to it and I was like noooo, it’s actually not,” said junior Darcy Lucas.
“I only remember one song that I actually liked: Fortnight. I skipped Post Malone. I didn’t like the rest of the album; it wasn’t clicking to me, and I couldn’t even go for a second round of the song. My only thoughts is like she’s too old to be writing songs with the names they have. Like, I Can Fix Him. It sounds like she’s trying to fit in with younger people. I think she’s a good songwriter and I liked her albums before Midnights but I didn’t enjoy her new one or the previous ones. I feel like artists from the 2010s are falling off,” said freshman Kira Ellis-Williams.
In my personal opinion the top 5 best from this album from best to least best are Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me, Down Bad, But Daddy I Love Him, Florida!!!, and So Long London.
What were your thoughts on this album? Tell us in the comments!
