The Tortured Poet's Department - OUT NOW

[blzr 1,522]

I like Taylor, I went to her cinema concert and sang her songs with a bunch of 10-year-olds and their mothers. But tbh I was not excited about this album at all, after it came out iI listened to a song and felt it was the same old sound. I don’t really think I will ever listen to the album in full, 31 songs that all will feel the same at first listen is too much for me and I don’t have the perseverance to listen to them multiple times for them to grow on me and get their individuality. Sorry Taylor. 

[Siena 5,630]

I’m sorry but a lot of her writing just sounds like she selected different buzzwords from social media + some 3 syllable words from the dictionary and then threw them in a bag, gave it a shake and sees what sounds okay when you dump them out. Idk how else to explain but so many of her lyrics now just sound so awkward and like they go on a few words more than they need.   

Edited April 19 by Siena

[King of the Fall 3,778]

Very mediocre, she has no ability to cut out filler and the production is very stale

I am sure all the critics will still be creaming themselves over this though, nobody dares to criticize Taylor or they will get a bunch of death threats from her cult

Also, like @Sienasaid, her songwriting is really weird and incoherent on this album. She always was an overrated lyricist but it is especially apparant here.

Edited April 19 by King of the Fall

[Tinnitus15 50,491]

“Another day, another record broken by Taylor Swift. In less than 12 hours, Swift’s new The Tortured Poets Department double album has become Spotify’s most streamed album in a single day in 2024 so far, Spotify confirms exclusively to Billboard.”
Apparently she did 100 millions in 9 hours 

[River 104,869]

welp I clicked play

Fornite is hmm ok, I kinda dig it

title track is skip, like when Gaga was pretensions 10 years ago  wait, she still is lol

 

my boy only breaks his favorite toys - this song is like Blank Space but just slow

[LadyxGaGa 1,270]

i’m rly worried i hope she is able to clear 100k units with all the negative reviews and press 

[PlasticHo 697]

20 minutes ago, Siena said:

I’m sorry but a lot of her writing just sounds like she selected different buzzwords from social media + some 3 syllable words from the dictionary and then threw them in a bag, gave it a shake and sees what sounds okay when you dump them out. Idk how else to explain but so many of her lyrics now just sound so awkward and like they go on a few words more than they need.   

This has been one of my complaints. You want me to believe Taylor uses altruism regularly? She has a thesaurus and now it's being abused. Which sucks, because I grew up loving her older albums and I don't recall them sounding so pretend pretentious. 

[Economy 47,019]

Fortnight and post malone. Thats literally screeming calculated sales tactics

 

Not saying its a bad song tho, when i get a chance ill listen to album then judge it but im at work rn

[Joshie 714]

Honestly, I literally did listen to the album in full and not one song stood out for me. 

[Siena 5,630]

6 minutes ago, PlasticHo said:

This has been one of my complaints. You want me to believe Taylor uses altruism regularly? She has a thesaurus and now it's being abused. Which sucks, because I grew up loving her older albums and I don't recall them sounding so pretend pretentious. 

Yep. A lot of her songs sound like the fake sh*t I wrote in high school when I was trying to write poetry. It’s fine if her writing isn’t amazing, but I’m tired of being told by the media that she’s the lyricist of the generation. 

Edited April 19 by Siena

[Aga Gydal 3,157]

By Taylor standards this is a really stunning body of work. It’s so tedious to listen to as a casual listener of hers but I don’t think a 30-track album is meant to be digested immediately, so will hop in and out of this.  

[MessyTop 14,304]

This is the best honest Swiftie review :

https://x.com/musicstruggles1/status/1781308678039077250?s=46&t=X2xVts2Dz3OuRMU_k9uq4A

 

i feel as if i’ve listened to Midnights and Evermore back to back

i think jack and taylor have pushed each other as far as they can as collaborators in regards to a whole album, and certainly in this musical direction. taylor certainly seems to write a lot of hits with jack—fortnight and the title track are destined to be huge—but over the course of a whole album his production for taylor has become washed out, repetitive and limp—despite a few new synth flourishes added to their audible pallet along the way

in spite of what twitter might have you believe, jack antonoff is a great producer and taylor swift is a great songwriter, but neither are pushing each other to reach their best work anymore, a fact which becomes particularly noticeable when contrasted with the primarily aaron dessner produced “anthology” tracks; this is when taylor comes closest to reaching the heights of folklore and evermore, and the beautifully subdued production of Evermore—all but one track of which was produced by dessner—is a far better fit for taylor than the often limp synthpop of the non-deluxe Midnights. taylor’s lyrics and songwriting seem far less overwrought and far more natural on the “anthology”, and dessner’s production brings out a beautiful quality in taylor’s voice that jack’s production often can’t. jack tends to wash out taylor’s vocals with his preferred reverb effects, where as dessner’s subtle production allows taylor’s voice to float effortlessly over the instrumentation. disappointingly, jack’s production on the florence & the machine collaboration Florida also seems lacking, with florence’s vocals on the second verse seemingly being levelled too quietly in comparison to taylor’s on the first. i like the collaboration for the most part, but it does sound a little disjointed, as if all three of them were in three separate locations while piecing it together. it is a bit of a disappointment to me after florence and jack’s great work together on Dance Fever

in simplistic terms, i view producers like camera lenses that capture the beautiful work of an artist, sometimes highlighting things about an artist’s work that they themselves couldn’t see. no camera is able to capture the beauty of every scene. a camera suited for concert photography will not serve a deep sea photographer. disposable film cameras can take beautiful candids, but they wouldn’t be of much use to a nature photographer. lately all of jack’s best work as a primary producer has been on *more* guitar-focused albums, such as Sling, Folklore, Dance Fever, and Ocean Blvd; that’s the kind of music that his “lens” best captures. i think taylor and jack can push each other further as a collaborative duo, but not purely under the label of synthpop. i think taylor can make a great “synthpop” album, but not with jack as the primary producer; ultimately he should be brought in as a guest producer on such an album. if we were to have another album with jack as a prominent producer i think it should be in service of a more guitar-focused “rock” album, as i think it’s one of the only directions taylor can move to stop her sound becoming stale and repetitive, as any great artist’s sound would become if they (or their collaborators) failed to push their sound. or else i think she should continue making beautiful folk-tinged pop music with aaron dessner, with jack coming in as a guest producer to bring out the hit singles

taylor is the biggest artist in the world and has full agency over her songwriting and musical output, i just think she needs to try out a few more “cameras”

[RAMROD 104,126]

16 minutes ago, MessyTop said:

This is the best honest Swiftie review :

https://x.com/musicstruggles1/status/1781308678039077250?s=46&t=X2xVts2Dz3OuRMU_k9uq4A

 

i feel as if i’ve listened to Midnights and Evermore back to back

i think jack and taylor have pushed each other as far as they can as collaborators in regards to a whole album, and certainly in this musical direction. taylor certainly seems to write a lot of hits with jack—fortnight and the title track are destined to be huge—but over the course of a whole album his production for taylor has become washed out, repetitive and limp—despite a few new synth flourishes added to their audible pallet along the way

in spite of what twitter might have you believe, jack antonoff is a great producer and taylor swift is a great songwriter, but neither are pushing each other to reach their best work anymore, a fact which becomes particularly noticeable when contrasted with the primarily aaron dessner produced “anthology” tracks; this is when taylor comes closest to reaching the heights of folklore and evermore, and the beautifully subdued production of Evermore—all but one track of which was produced by dessner—is a far better fit for taylor than the often limp synthpop of the non-deluxe Midnights. taylor’s lyrics and songwriting seem far less overwrought and far more natural on the “anthology”, and dessner’s production brings out a beautiful quality in taylor’s voice that jack’s production often can’t. jack tends to wash out taylor’s vocals with his preferred reverb effects, where as dessner’s subtle production allows taylor’s voice to float effortlessly over the instrumentation. disappointingly, jack’s production on the florence & the machine collaboration Florida also seems lacking, with florence’s vocals on the second verse seemingly being levelled too quietly in comparison to taylor’s on the first. i like the collaboration for the most part, but it does sound a little disjointed, as if all three of them were in three separate locations while piecing it together. it is a bit of a disappointment to me after florence and jack’s great work together on Dance Fever

in simplistic terms, i view producers like camera lenses that capture the beautiful work of an artist, sometimes highlighting things about an artist’s work that they themselves couldn’t see. no camera is able to capture the beauty of every scene. a camera suited for concert photography will not serve a deep sea photographer. disposable film cameras can take beautiful candids, but they wouldn’t be of much use to a nature photographer. lately all of jack’s best work as a primary producer has been on *more* guitar-focused albums, such as Sling, Folklore, Dance Fever, and Ocean Blvd; that’s the kind of music that his “lens” best captures. i think taylor and jack can push each other further as a collaborative duo, but not purely under the label of synthpop. i think taylor can make a great “synthpop” album, but not with jack as the primary producer; ultimately he should be brought in as a guest producer on such an album. if we were to have another album with jack as a prominent producer i think it should be in service of a more guitar-focused “rock” album, as i think it’s one of the only directions taylor can move to stop her sound becoming stale and repetitive, as any great artist’s sound would become if they (or their collaborators) failed to push their sound. or else i think she should continue making beautiful folk-tinged pop music with aaron dessner, with jack coming in as a guest producer to bring out the hit singles

taylor is the biggest artist in the world and has full agency over her songwriting and musical output, i just think she needs to try out a few more “cameras”

Yup! Just like I said, I enjoyed some new music, but it is time to change it up with producers.
 

 

Waiting to hear what genuine thoughts that @ProfessionalClown have with this alboom though   

Edited April 19 by RAMROD

[Decodekid 26,668]

it's like it's cohesive but then it isn't  one minute i'm listening to midnights outtakes and then I get a few ones with different production. I don't know how to feel about it yet.

[LG666 1,755]

This is definitely an album for Swifties and is not meant for commercial success or the charts (which yes she'll have both anyways to some extend because of the fanbase).

The writing and storytelling is great. It feels like a body of work out of passion, not out of necessity to dominate the BB100.

My only critique is that the sound is sooooo expected and a little tiring. Some of it feels like B-sides to Midnight, which I wouldn't be surprised if they actually are. Jack Antonoff is overrated and overused and has become predictable in a way that makes me despise him - she needs to work with new people already and work outside the box she is so comfortable in. And learn how to edit. I think this body of work could be half of what it is - would have been neat to do a short EP as a diaristic work. But, again, it feels like this one's for the fans.

Otherwise, it's actually a solid body of work, but it's definitely not for everyone and it feels like this is deliberate and known.