Before a person is allowed to write about music, they must commit to an oath comprised of several tenets. One of the most sacred of these is that any time an artist releases a double album, your reaction must be to say that it would have been so much better as a single album.
On April 26, 2024 the biggest pop star of the last 15 years, Taylor Swift, released her eleventh album. The initial streaming, CD and vinyl versions of The Tortured Poets Department featured sixteen tracks, with four different bonus songs available CD. Then, at 2am on April 27 streaming services were hit with The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology, a 31-track behemoth featuring the original 16 songs, the 4 bonus tracks, and 11 additional songs.
Given that Swift was riding as high as any musician ever has, one might think that perhaps this album would be an exception to the critical rules. But it wasn't. After all, another of those of those very rules is that backlash is inevitable.
So even before the surprise reveal that TTPD was a double album, instant reaction was far short of acclaim. Both paid and armchair critics were largely united in the opinion that Taylor had overindulged and was in desperate need of an editor. They also lambasted the lyrics (parroting the opinions of others is yet another of the above-mentioned tenets, by the way). Though I didn't see it personally, I'm sure there were several people who also suggested Swift take the best of these 31 songs and make a more succinct and palatable album.
I was bothered by the criticism, most of which I read before I'd even listened to a single TTPD song, largely because of its swiftness (please, forgive me for that one). I don't think you can or should listen to and absorb 16 new songs within a 24 hour period, let alone 31 new songs. And definitely not ones as lyrically dense and image-laden as Taylor Swift's.
So I went ahead and proceeded at my own pace. It took some time to find the method in what seems like madness. TTPD is a chaotic record. Moods swing wildly, images sit jarringly next to one another, and things just seem to get just a bit too personal. That said, true artists challenge us, and you can't lightly dismiss their choices. I think a sense of bedlam is exactly what Swift wanted to communicate.
Operating with that benefit of the doubt changed how I experienced and approached the album. I realized quickly that I needed to do some research. Swift has always written from an autobiographical place, but on this album she has given up on any pretense of narrative remove. While I'm sure that Swift remixed and fictionalized some of the events described in TTPD, it seems like she did it a lot less than she has in the past. I also know that Swift loves to put easter eggs in her lyrics. And so I went to the Internet (okay, mostly Reddit and Elle magazine) to research Swift's recent dating history and her fans' rabid dissection of every detail of every song.
I can say without a doubt that the research gave me a deeper appreciation for TTPD, and a better understanding of the divisive reaction to it. Those looking for easy, instant gratification from an album were disappointed. I get it; not everyone likes homework. That's not to say I think TTPD is a perfect album once you know the stories behind it. It isn't, but it's problems, to me, are not the number of songs, or the tone shifts, or the hyper-specific personal detail. I think the main problem is that Swift, in her desire to portray the chaos of the last couple of years of her life, underestimated how exhausting the cumulative effect would be for listeners.
In my investigations and listening I realized that the songs fall into five general categories: 1) songs about Joe Alwyn (with whom Swift had a six-year relationship), 2) songs about Matt Healy (whom Swift dated following the breakup with Alwyn but reportedly had a decade-plus emotional affair with prior to that), 3) songs about Travis Kelce (her current boyfriend), 4) songs about what it's like to be Taylor Swift, and 5) songs about her adolescence.
So I got to thinking. What if I rearranged the songs in mostly sequential way to make the listener feel more like they're a traveler on an emotional journey instead of a pinball bouncing around the machine? Would that make clearer the themes and lyrical cross-references that are all over the record?
I decided to give it a try. I started with the songs that reference youth and feeling trapped and judged, transitioned into the what-it's-like-to-be-Taylor songs, and then moved to the tracks that document the three relationships. Here's what it looks like:
Disc 1
1. How Did It End?
2. Robin
3. I Hate It Here
4. The Bolter
5. thanK you aIMee
6. But Daddy I Love Him
7. Florida!!
8. Peter
9. Cassandra
10. Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?
11. Clara Bow
12. I Look In People's Windows
13. The Manuscript
14. Guilty As Sin?
15. So Long London
16. The Prophecy
Notes on Disc 1:
- We start en media res with the "postmortem" of the end of her relationship with Alywn, "How Did it End?"
- This sends her spiraling back into reflecting on the innocence of childhood ("Robin", which happens to be the name of co-writer Aaron Dessner's son)
- "Robin" has some foreshadowing of the difficulties and regrets of adolescence that are all over the next six songs (from "I Hate It Here" through "Peter"). These songs all mention parents, bullies, and escaping your hometown.
- By the way, "thanK you aIMee" is widely assumed to be about Kim Kardashian, but I don't buy it. She tells us in the final verse that it's not about who you think it's about.
- "Cassandra" kicks off a four-song suite about people's perceptions of who Swift is, especially when it comes to romance. This theme recurs through several TTPD songs.
- There's general consensus that "The Manuscript" is about her brief relationship with Jake Gyllenhaal. This ties in with her being in a ruminative mood, and also thinking about her youth (she was quite young when this dalliance occurred).
- Then she snaps back to the present, with "Guilty As Sin?" referencing her emotional affair with Healy while still with Alwyn.
- By the way, the song referenced in "Guilty As Sin" is "Downtown Lights" by the Blue Nile. Check out that whole album (Hats, 1989) if you get a chance.
- And finally she closes the door on Alwyn with "So Long, London."
- We wrap things up with some self-pity on "The Prophecy," where she surveys her history and begs the fates to allow things to work out for once.
- This is definitely the more contemplative and downbeat half of the double album.
Disc 2
1. Fresh Out the Slammer
2. I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)
3. My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys
4. Fortnight
5. imgonnagetyouback
6. The Tortured Poets Department
7. Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus
8. Down Bad
9. I Can Do It With a Broken Heart
10. The Black Dog
11. loml
12. The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived
13. The Albatross
14. So High School
15. The Alchemy
Notes on Disc 2:
- This disc picks things up as Swift is finally allowed to be with Healy after idealizing and fantasizing their relationship for several years. ("Fresh Out the Slammer")
- Turns out that building something up in your head leads expectations to crash violently into reality. So it doesn't take long for the cracks to show and things to deteriorate and break ("I Can Fix Him" through "Down Bad")
- By the way, "Fortnight" features another reference to Florida. Reddit Swifties say Florida is where she announced her breakup with Alwyn.
- "I Can Do It With a Broken Heart" finds Swift on her triumphant Eras tour while dealing with the end of a six-year relationship and the implosion of her closely-held backup plan.
- "The Black Dog," "loml," and "The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived" are the postmortem for the Healy affair, tracing the bargaining, depression, and anger of her grief.
- "The Albatross" returns to the theme of Swift as a maneater, specifically applied to the warnings Kelce received about getting involved with her.
- "So High School" is a silly love song for Kelce.
- And "The Alchemy" is a slightly more mature celebration of the chemistry between the pop star and the star athlete. This and "So High School" bring Swift back to the reminiscence of adolescence from the first disc.
- They also seem to be a rejection of "The Prophecy," but I personally would not put money on it.
There you have it. I know that suggesting a resequencing is pretty presumptuous, but I hope you will see that it's not as much of a dick move as suggesting half the songs be cut. Don't worry, I revoked my rock critic oath a while ago.
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