RAMROD 108,354 Posted April 22, 2024 Share Posted April 22, 2024 In standard and extended editions, Taylor Swift’s 11th studio album races to fill the gap between her intimate songwriting and her increasingly outsized persona. It’s unruly, unedited, and even a little tortured. The Tortured Poets Department, Swift’s 11th studio album, senses that widening gap between Taylor Swift the artist and Taylor Swift the phenomenon, and wants to fill it with a firehose of material. The burden of expectation is substantial: This is Swift’s first body of new work since the end of a years-long relationship and a pair of high-profile, whirlwind romances—one of which, with the 1975’s Matty Healy, appears to have provided much of the inspiration here. Fans came to Tortured Poetsseeking emotional catharsis, or at least the salacious details. Swift, it seems, wanted the comfort of familiarity. Returning to Jack Antonoff and the National’s Aaron Dessner, her primary songwriting and producing partners of the last several years, Swift picks up threads from Folk-more and Midnights without quite pulling anything loose. Tortured Poets’ extended Anthology edition runs over two hours, and even in the abridged version, its sense of sprawl creeps down to the song level, where Swift’s writing is, at best, playfully unbridled and, at worst, conspicuously wanting for an editor. The winking title track—a joke about its subjects’ self-seriousness—makes fun of the performance of creative labor, which is funny, given the show that Swift is putting on herself. She piles the metaphors on thick, throws stuff at the wall even after something has stuck, picks up the things that didn’t stick and uses them anyway. There is a clear emphasis here on vulnerability; it’s an effort to rub some of the varnish off of Taylor Swift the commercial product and focus on Taylor Swift the tender, unlucky romantic with whom we fell in love so many years ago. No matter her stature, Swift can still reach the everywoman. She is versed in memespeak: “Down Bad” works because of the juxtaposition between its banal hook and its description of “cosmic love”; the corporate girlies will go feral for “I cry a lot but I am so productive” (“I Can Do It With a Broken Heart”). I can even get on board with the outlaw machinations of “I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can),” if mostly for the lyrical backflip of its chorus: “They shook their heads saying, ‘God help her’ when I told ’em he’s my man/But your good Lord didn’t need to lift a finger/I can fix him, no really I can.” If Swift believes that output for its own sake is what she has to offer, she underestimates her gift. Listeners who believe that her every ounce of experience is inherently interesting—because she was the one to have it—misunderstand her as well. Taylor Swift doesn’t need a whole album to tell the story of a relationship; she only needs one song, sometimes even one line. She almost has it in Tortured Poets’ title track, with the tossed-off brilliance of “We’re modern idiots.” She’s nearly there with the vignette, which needs a bit more burnishing, about her man slipping a ring from her middle to her eager left ring finger at dinner. You can see what she’s chasing here: the moment in time that triggers a flash of feeling that lasts forever—the sort of thing people call Swiftian. We’ve been students of Swift’s poetry for years. The lesson of The Tortured Poets Department is not to push through the pain—it’s to take the time to process it. https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/taylor-swift-the-tortured-poets-department-the-anthology/ (ノ◕ヮ◕)ノ✧*:・゚ 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘢 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘢, 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘯'𝘵 (*´艸`*) ♡♡♡ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RAMROD 108,354 Posted April 22, 2024 Author Share Posted April 22, 2024 This is her second lowest review by Pitchfork to date, the lowest is Reputation with 6.0 Her highest is orginal RED with a 9.00 & second highest is Red (TV) with 8.5 (ノ◕ヮ◕)ノ✧*:・゚ 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘢 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘢 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘢, 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘯'𝘵 (*´艸`*) ♡♡♡ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spartacus 4,485 Posted April 22, 2024 Share Posted April 22, 2024 Cowboy Carter got 8.4 which of course means TTPD will win AOTY. -𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐅𝐀𝐌𝐄 𝐄𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐌𝐀™ Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teletubby 146,657 Posted April 22, 2024 Share Posted April 22, 2024 Anthology got a 6 "You b*tch!" ~ Rat Boy Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rahrahbitchson 19,109 Posted April 22, 2024 Share Posted April 22, 2024 Another 6 more and it would only expose the Illuminati tricks of this one!! Quizás bastaba respirar, sólo respirar, muy lento...💙 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
clownery 6,122 Posted April 22, 2024 Share Posted April 22, 2024 You can tell she paid Pitchfork because this album is a 4.0 at best and still will win AOTY Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anderson123 37,994 Posted April 22, 2024 Share Posted April 22, 2024 I'd fear for my life to be honest. Olivia Horn: Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Levine 23,541 Posted April 22, 2024 Share Posted April 22, 2024 Too generous. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RenegAde 18,925 Posted April 22, 2024 Share Posted April 22, 2024 We love a real review Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
GagaGame 3,590 Posted April 22, 2024 Share Posted April 22, 2024 Tbh maximum 4. Hope the reviews show her that she can't put out music just for the bling when she is the biggest pop girl right now 𝚎𝚢𝚎𝚜 𝚛𝚘𝚕𝚕 𝚋𝚊𝚌𝚔 𝚒𝚗 𝚎𝚌𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚜𝚢 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
StarstruckIllusion 52,315 Posted April 22, 2024 Share Posted April 22, 2024 Them thinking Chromatica is better… maybe we SHOULD call basement restoration services after all EDIT: Help Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucas 26,169 Posted April 22, 2024 Share Posted April 22, 2024 Very generous, it's a 4 at best Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
andy232000 11,199 Posted April 22, 2024 Share Posted April 22, 2024 Saw a few swifties on twitter saying her and her team are probably scrambling trying to soften the blow, and that Taylor usually doesn’t share reviews on her stories but started to after the mixed/bad reviews started to come in. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
4th Time Around 4,447 Posted April 22, 2024 Share Posted April 22, 2024 Her second lowest score yet and it is still way too high Hey, I'm king of the world, you ought to hear my song, you come on measure me, I'm twenty inches long Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
River 114,754 Posted April 22, 2024 Share Posted April 22, 2024 #64 Best Album of 2024 So sploosh your juice all over me you Riverboy Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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