The Tortured Poet's Department - OUT NOW

[Poker 3,636]

I had gone to bed and when I woke up I found the theories were true 

Edited April 20 by Poker
mistake

[Pennywise 35,841]

I don't really care for the album but you guys do realize that you sound exactly like this, right? 

[Versace 7,860]

5 hours ago, Future Lovers said:

It’s quite bit more uncensored about what she’s really thinking than ever before. She usually has a tendency to dress her thoughts in a way that doesn’t give too much away and she pulls back just short of really getting into the meat and potatoes of what she’s thinking. 

But on this album, it’s almost at times uncomfortably unrestrained. She is really not censoring herself at all or pulling back from being honest with her thoughts even if they’re messy. 

For all the accusing she gets of having a victim complex too she spends large swaths of the album picking out her own faults and explaining what blame she has in the scenarios she’s singing about. 

Really more than any of her other work, she’s kinda just letting it all out as it is without any sort of fancy window dressing to make it more digestible. It’s really, brutally, almost uncomfortably naked. 

Love this post.

Thing is, I felt the album had no purpose in her discography sonically something I felt she always had. She started country with first 3 then Red was in between then Pop with her next 3 and the alt shift with folklore/evermore. Some felt Midnights wasn’t a shift sonically but it was basically a melting pot of all that came before it and hence the perfect project to promote the eras tour. I thought she would take a long break after the eras tour and the re-recordings but to my surprise she announced another album.

Sonically TTPD would have been a huge shift for her had we not gotten records like folklore, evermore and midnights but I think it’s just we are getting burnt out by the antnoff and denser production. Even though your post perfectly explains why this album actually has a purpose, lyrically especially, more so than any of her prior works. This album addresses her longest relationship and probably her biggest heartbreak. She couldn’t bottle it in, even though she knew she was risking overexposure. A big event happened in her already larger than life life and she couldn’t take a long break and then come out with this, it would not feel right. And I get that the feelings of this record probably needed producers she felt safe like antnoff and desner, she wasn’t trying to go for a sound shift so that lyrics were the focus. 

I wish this album didn’t exist in a sense for both her sake in terms of these negative feelings and her risking overexposure and it not even being a shift sonically. I hope after a long break she can come creatively energized, ready to explore new sounds, be it pop rock, disco, psychedelic. I want her to work with Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, more with Imogen Heap. 

 

[elijahfan 24,869]

Not my favorite from her, but I do enjoy a couple songs very much, in particular the title track. Overall it's not massively memorable, she's releasing so much content it's getting hard not to experience it as one long sound stream... and I have yet to listen to the Anthology songs.

My biggest criticism would be that her sound and themes are kinda always the same at this point. It's like all she does is write about processing relationships and breakups to a point it's getting awkwardly obvious who she's writing about. One would think, after reaching that level of success and scrutiny, she'd switch to other subjects so half the conversation doesn't systematically revolve around her personal life.

[Mister Gaga 22,030]

12 hours ago, llemesm said:

what does this album has that her previous work doesn't?

Bore. None of the previous ones did imo

[RodeckDanny 2,215]

too long 

[lavender blonde 623]

11 hours ago, Roughhouse Dandy said:

Omg how did she do that? Details please

In 'Chloe or Sam or Sophie or Marcus' she claims her SO cheated on her with men and women. Most of the album is about Matty and he was rumoured to be bi for years (he denied sleeping with men though) sooo

[Auther 22,065]

After listening to it - as well as the leak - on repeat since I got the leak, some songs are starting to reveal themselves to me as, dare I say, skips (or close to).

[StrawberryBlond 13,985]

So, I listened to the first half last night and the second part today. Many of you will know I'm not a Swiftie to say the least, so this is me speaking as an outsider.

Have to say, I'm really surprised so many of you preferred the second part, I liked just one track on that, the standard's tracklist is clearly what it is for a reason, part 2 seems like rejected tracks for the fans. Overall, I thought it was too long and too pretentious, which I knew was going to be the case as soon as the title and cover art was announced. Anyone expecting upbeat pop from this is rather naive. But truly good tracks are lacking. The only ones I liked (and by liked, I don't mean loved) were Fortnight, So Long London, But Daddy I Love Him, I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can), loml and The Albatross. Yes, the album was cohesive but to the point where it just felt like one long continuous song for the most part and it sounds not unlike the production of her previous few albums, she seems stuck in a rut. So many lyrics were too vague, weren't obvious who/what they were about and some barely made a lick of sense. I've been saying recently that I don't like when artists get too personal with their work where they start making songs about family and friends (including name checking them) who we don't know or care about and we can't connect with it as a result. Songs that personal should just remain unreleased and sent as a gift for the person it's about. And I was shook when I realised that thanK you aIMee was about Kim (I realised which letters she'd capitalised but didn't make the connection because it was so long ago so Taylor still holding onto this is really something). Those lyrics about her mum wishing her dead was frankly unhinged. If someone wrote a song like that about her, she'd consider it a threat and perhaps sue. She hates it when people "attack" her but won't hesitate to dish it out and this is partly why I can't support her. She's way too old for acting this vindictive. Overall, I wish she would go back to a more simplistic lyricist, that's the stuff that was more relatable and hit harder. 

But, yeah, critical acclaim as always, so predictable. For critics en masse to love every album she puts out is very unrealistic and suspicious especially as the public's blowing a bit hot and cold on this one. So many of these lyrics made me go wtf?! and how fans can just glaze over this or consider it amazing blows my mind. Guaranteed if anyone else made lyrics like these, they'd laugh at them but when their queen does it, it's poetic genius. 

[Anderson123 35,562]

1 hour ago, StrawberryBlond said:

So, I listened to the first half last night and the second part today. Many of you will know I'm not a Swiftie to say the least, so this is me speaking as an outsider.

Have to say, I'm really surprised so many of you preferred the second part, I liked just one track on that, the standard's tracklist is clearly what it is for a reason, part 2 seems like rejected tracks for the fans. Overall, I thought it was too long and too pretentious, which I knew was going to be the case as soon as the title and cover art was announced. Anyone expecting upbeat pop from this is rather naive. But truly good tracks are lacking. The only ones I liked (and by liked, I don't mean loved) were Fortnight, So Long London, But Daddy I Love Him, I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can), loml and The Albatross. Yes, the album was cohesive but to the point where it just felt like one long continuous song for the most part and it sounds not unlike the production of her previous few albums, she seems stuck in a rut. So many lyrics were too vague, weren't obvious who/what they were about and some barely made a lick of sense. I've been saying recently that I don't like when artists get too personal with their work where they start making songs about family and friends (including name checking them) who we don't know or care about and we can't connect with it as a result. Songs that personal should just remain unreleased and sent as a gift for the person it's about. And I was shook when I realised that thanK you aIMee was about Kim (I realised which letters she'd capitalised but didn't make the connection because it was so long ago so Taylor still holding onto this is really something). Those lyrics about her mum wishing her dead was frankly unhinged. If someone wrote a song like that about her, she'd consider it a threat and perhaps sue. She hates it when people "attack" her but won't hesitate to dish it out and this is partly why I can't support her. She's way too old for acting this vindictive. Overall, I wish she would go back to a more simplistic lyricist, that's the stuff that was more relatable and hit harder. 

But, yeah, critical acclaim as always, so predictable. For critics en masse to love every album she puts out is very unrealistic and suspicious especially as the public's blowing a bit hot and cold on this one. So many of these lyrics made me go wtf?! and how fans can just glaze over this or consider it amazing blows my mind. Guaranteed if anyone else made lyrics like these, they'd laugh at them but when their queen does it, it's poetic genius. 

I agree that as soon as she announced the name of it and the cover it seemed cringeworthy and pretentious. Now with the lyrics it’s exactly what it is. This is like Reputation 2.0. Can’t believe how she went from Folklore and Evermore to this. 

[RAMROD 104,087]

Just now, Anderson123 said:

I agree that as soon as she announced the name of it and the cover it seemed cringeworthy and pretentious. Now with the lyrics it’s exactly what it is. This is like Reputation 2.0. Can’t believe how she went from Folklore and Evermore to this. 

This alboom is her ARTPOP..., kinda.  

[adoga 528]

Yeah, well this was way too long that it became a burden at one point.

The lyrics are so cringe, as if a high school teenager wrote them so i really don't get the 'songwriter of our generation' thing.

Also, all of the songs sound same. She brought nothing new to the table, but she will break records and get so much praise once again. I don't care about that, but what pisses me off is the way fans and critics have double standards. For example, Dua Lipa has been constantly attacked, even though she actually changed her sound. But whatever, I'm here for the music, not the bling.

[PartySick 144,800]

How dare she write a song about having a fondness for this wretched MAGA infested **** fissure of a state

I used to just dislike her music but you WANT to go to Florida?

Now I'm questioning her sanity

[LateToCult 39,634]

As of now, these are my top 5 in order that they appear on the album:

Fortnight (feat. Post Malone)

Florida!!! ( feat. Florence + the Machine)

I Can Do It With a Broken Heart

The Black Dog

So High School 

[gabeoz 7,915]

yall im gonna be honest, I don’t think a handful of cringeworthy songs discount an overwhelming amount of great lyricism in the album