this is the third post about the tortured poets department

and there will be a fourth and maybe a fifth!

Ahem. I feel ready to discuss the standard track list more in-depth now. Btw, to all my friends who don’t care for Taylor but will scroll through this anyway (whether you actually read it or not), I love you, I do.

I think it’s a really tight 16 and very well done. I definitely love the back half of this album way more than the first, which rarely ever happens with a Taylor album. It really takes you through the entire story and ends where she is now, mentally. Her mental breakdown was a fun journey, but like sorry that it happened.

What I really like is how she’s just unapologetically…mean on this record. I’ll get to it more later with “But Daddy I Love Him” but yeah what growth. She’s not afraid to be really unlikable anymore.

1. Fortnight

   1. Sets the scene for us. She wanted to leave Joe, Matty swooped in and pretended to save her, but then ruined her life. (Posty being one of the scientists running tests but also is the one to pull the plug….)

   2. Her voice goes so wellll with Post Malone and they’re soooo cute in the video. Like the scene where he grabs her face. Please.

   3. I like the way she nonchalantly talks about wanting to kill people.

   4. It’s a weird opening track to me. Like thematically I get it but it’s tonally a very weird way to draw a listener in.

   5. Favorite lyric: I love you, it’s ruining my life

      

2. The Tortured Poets Department

   1. I don’t really love this. I understand what it’s trying to do but the lyrics are too clunky for me to enjoy.

   2. The beginning drums still remind me of “Good Morning, Baltimore.”

   3. This entire aesthetic being born from trying to troll him is so funny. And no one gets it! She’s not calling herself a tortured poet! She knows she’s not Patti Smith, she’s just a modern idiot!

   4. Anyway, she’s realizing he’s a pretentious idiot but she wants to love him anyways.

   5. Favorite lyric: But I’ve seen this episode and still loved the show

3. My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys

   1. I think my least favorite on the album. Sonically it doesn’t really do anything for me. Lyrics are fine but the production bothers me.

   2. Yeah idk if I were to skip one song, it’d be this.

   3. Favorite lyric: I’m queen of sandcastles he destroys

4. Down Bad

   1. She bops. The alien imagery is very funny.

   2. She mentions hostile takeovers how did she know I’m in law school

   3. Favorite lyric: For a moment, I knew cosmic love

5. So Long, London

   1. Okay we are back to scheduled programming, in a good way.

   2. What a delightfully sad song.

   3. She does her classic bait-and-switch thing with “you’ll find someone” into “I’ll find someone” but it’s really nice she ends with “you’ll find someone”

   4. Favorite lyric: And I’m pissed off you let me give you all that youth for free

6. But Daddy, I Love Him

   1. Omg okay.

   2. “Love Story”s petulant sister. Down to the fantasy that Scott comes around to him. (People seem to think she’s talking about Travis in the final verse. I don’t know but I think of it as her fantasizing that her dad accepts the guy from the beginning.)

   3. This song is insane and I need to word myself correctly, because the first time I listened to it I had a few problems with it.

   4. I think…overall…the theme of “he was racist and awful and ruined my life but that’s okay oh wait he was personally mean to ME so prison” is like very very accurate. And I think that’s why non-fans have an issue with this album. Because when the booklets first start appearing online on Thursday, it was the Charlie Puth line and parts of this song that leaked, specifically “I’ll tell you something right now” down to “sanctimonious soliloquies I’ll never see.” And I think this song really is like her being a childish little asshole being like “yeah I know he sucks but I *LOVE* him” and that’s kind of hard for people to grasp because it kinda sucks to acknowledge she knew about all the awful things he’s said (whether in the name of a joke or not).

   5. But that’s where the humor is getting lost. Because she obviously did see the sanctimonious soliliquies and she obviously does care about her name and how people think of her. She’s a pathological people pleaser!

   6. So yeah at the beginning I also was kinda disappointed in that line because it very much was her seemingly brushing off all of the offensive things he’s said (again, whether in the name of a joke or not). But obviously, my feelings have evolved and I think it’s one of the highlights on the album for me.

   7. Favorite lyric: I’ll tell you something about my good name, it’s mine alone to disgrace

7. Fresh Out The Slammer

   1. This is fine. Makes me want to listen to this in a saloon.

   2. The ending when she switches the time signature or whatever throws me off every time.

   3. Taylor bringing up Joe’s depression (and in BDILH) is ever so slightly out of pocket, I will say. Like I get it but asjdk;fl.

   4. But yeah Joe getting “blue” references again is a bummer.

   5. Favorite lyric: All those nights you kept me going, swirled you into all my poems

8. Florida!!!

   1. Nowwwwww this is when it starts getting Very Very Good. It’s still my current favorite.

   2. The line about a timeshare in Destin is also so out of pocket. Stop cosplaying as a middle class American.

   3. I loveeeee the lines about the hometown being where you’re just a guest or arrested because it’s like yeah, you don’t actually belong but also you’re forced to stay here forever.

   4. So let’s escape to Florida.

   5. The drums when they sing “Florida” are just immaculate and her voice blends so well with Florence. What a fantastic song.

   6. Florence Welch looks like she could be from South Carolina.

   7. Favorite lyric: What a crash, what a rush, fuck me up, Florida!!!

9. Guilty As Sin?

   1. I mean come on.

   2. This song is SO GOOD.

   3. I just want to dance.

   4. I like the line at the beginning about how the “cage was once just fine” as an acknowledgment that yeah she used to want to hide. But then the next part about throwing her life to the wolves is very sad.

      1. Like I’ve said before, Taylor Swift has this deep-seated desire to be famous and craves the attention but at the same time realizes how awful it is and has been for her. It’s like pretty concerning. And a little tangent but this puts the YOYOK line (“the jokes weren’t funny, I took the money, my friends from home don’t know what to say”) into more perspective bc like how do you see your friend, who you know is getting fucked up by fame, continuously throw herself into it all for the adoration her psyche most desperately needs and not get a little bit weary about it. Did you know I was a psych major?

   5. This will come up later but her lowkey references to being a child star has me wondering if she’s finally started seeing a therapist to parse through all of her conflicting feelings with fame and her job.

   6. Anyways back to the song. This is really just so so so sooooooooo so soooooososososooooooo good.

   7. Favorite lyric: What if the way you hold me is actually what’s holy? If long-suffering propriety is what they want for me, they don’t know how you’ve haunted me, so stunningly

10. Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?

    1. Oh my god another banger one after the other.

    2. I said this to Lauren but this song reminds me of the book One Dark Window a lot in terms of vibes.

    3. Very spooky. Very fun. I just picture her walking through like a misty field wearing a long red cloak. I’m literally just describing the cover of One Dark Window’s sequel Two Twisted Crowns now.

    4. To me, this is an older, wiser “I Did Something Bad.” And instead of “they’re burning all the witches even if you aren’t one” she’s acknowledging that she is one, which is why she’s at the gallows.

    5. This song is really sad bc again it really grapples with her fame and how growing up in it fucked her up.

       1. There’s a discussion to be had about child stars, especially with Zendaya’s recent comments about it in her Vogue interview. Because Taylor has been very loud about always wanting to be a singer and the narrative was always that she wanted to do it since she was young and so her parents were just super supportive and helped her. And it’s like when you’re a parent, and your kids are very loud about what they want to do when they’re children, so you do all you can to support them and make them successful. And they earn that success when they’re young. But at what cost? Are you a bad parent for not supporting your child? Or are you a bad parent because you were too good at supporting your kid and they found success but now they’re fucked up from it? Much to think about.

    6. Favorite lyric: You caged me and then you called me crazy, I am what I am ‘cause you trained me

11. I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)

    1. This song is funny bc she’s really trying to justify how shitty of a person he is.

    2. I also want to be in a saloon for this song.

    3. I really like all the religious imagery throughout this album. I love when people get funky with religion.

    4. Favorite lyric: But your good Lord doesn’t need to lift a finger

12. loml

    1. This song is so sad.

    2. I like how Swifties finally got something right with the “loss of my life” switch.

    3. Yeah idk this song is really beautiful.

    4. The “White Horse” of it all is quite devastating.

    5. Favorite lyric: Are they second-hand embarrassed that I can’t get out of bed ‘cause something counterfeit’s dead

13. I Can Do It With a Broken Heart

    1. Biggest drop of me in rankings from first listen to now. Still a bop but everything else is just better.

    2. I like the in-ear “1, 2, 3, 4” sound effect.

    3. The second verse is just reallllly clunky to me.

    4. Favorite lyric: All the pieces of me shattered as the crowd was chanting, “More!” (side note: a lot of people seem to think this is Taylor yelling at fans for wanting more of her and I fundamentally disagree)

14. The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived

    1. Yaaaaaaasssssssss

    2. Inject this thing into my veins.

    3. The way the bridge gets louder and her voice gets kinda staticy bc it’s just So Loud.

    4. I love this song a lot.

    5. It’s just so funny that this song fully acknowledges how awful he is but again, he was mean to HER specifically, so prison.

    6. Favorite lyric: I would’ve died for your sins, instead, I just died inside

15. The Alchemy

    1. One day you’ll all appreciate the pure camp of this song.

    2. I always used to think about what color Taylor would use for Travis. Blue was taken, golden kinda taken, red obviously taken. So what would she use for him? Turns out it’s just football. That’s his color. Football and crinkly eyes.

    3. Also “the hospital was a drag” is a great line to describe the first 14 songs.

    4. Favorite lyric: These blokes warm the benches, we’ve been on a winning streak

16. Clara Bow

    1. One of my favorite album closers!

    2. I love this song.

    3. To me, the last verse is very hopeful and is more like big-sister Taylor, rather than “Nothing New” anxious Taylor.

    4. I think ending the album on “future’s bright, dazzling” is just really beautiful. (We will get to the Anthology in a few days.)

    5. Yeah, I love this one.

    6. Favorite lyric: Beauty is a beast that roars down on all fours demanding more

An updated ranking (April 24, 11:36pm):

I love this album!!!!