Taylor Swift announced the title weeks ago. A thoughtful title, ‘The Tortured Poets Department’, very far from others like ‘Red’, ‘Fearless’, ‘Reputation’ or ‘Love’. But on the day of the launch the news broke. «Surprise at two in the morning: the album will be a secret double album. “I have written too much tortured poetry these last two years and I wanted to share it,” the artist wrote online. 31 songs to immerse yourself in on this eleventh studio album from Swift. But not everyone liked the surprise. The pre-sale of the single album (16 songs) already accumulates thousands of orders and many of those who went ahead will now end up buying the album twice.
An album, of a lifetime, also catches the eye. Much more so if we talk about mass pop. Swift announced the name of the album as she picked up a Grammy (difficult to choose a better speaker), but since that morning their social networks and website had already changed to black and white, with a sepia touch. A change of mentality that served as preparation to enter a universe more of a fireplace and a blanket than big stadiums. More relaxed tempos, elegant synths and more whispers than screams. Of course, in 31 songs there is room for everything: ‘I can do it with a broken heart’ is almost electropop.
The first song, ‘Fortnight’ (an imminent video clip premiere is expected) contains one of two credited collaborationsquite unexpected: rapper Post Malone. The other brings Taylor closer to the indie world: Florence Welsh, from Florence + The Machine (the song is ‘Florida!!!’, and Florence demonstrates a personality when singing that at times dwarfs Swift). You always have to look at collaborations with a magnifying glass to find out the direction, the new audience niches that an artist wants to achieve today.
There is another name to mention, for fairness: The soul of the Taylor Swift sound, and of the great change towards maturity, is Jack Antonoff, producer of most of the album, who has been collaborating with her for more than ten years in addition to working with Lorde or Lana del Rey. These master touches can be found, for example, in the instruments of ‘I can fix him’. And one last vector in the equation: Aaron Dessner, from The National (the kings of elegance), produces the rest of the songs. All, of course, under the direction of Taylor Swift, who also appears as a producer on each of the songs.
colossal tours
The artist comes from becoming strong in her own narrative: her documentaries, especially ‘Miss American’ they convinced legions of new fans to side with them; His tour breaks all records – he will perform on May 29 and 30 in Spain, at the Bernabéu – and his unprecedented re-recording policy is also an example. We are referring to the new versions of his first albums, to which he lost the rights. Now he recovers them the most difficult way: re-recording them, retitling them ‘Taylor’s version’ and trust that people know how to distinguish them on digital platforms.
On the album that has just seen the light Taylor takes revenge with gusto, she expresses herself forcefully, for example, in ‘Who’s afraid of little old me’. Too many things were happening to him recently: since 2020 he has released four albums and re-recorded another four, has embarked on one of the most colossal tours in history, practically having to invent draconian ticket raffle systems. And also, The international press insists on showing her as the best anti-Trump asset. for Democrats in the November elections. Quite a lot of pressure on this 34-year-old singer from Pennsylvania. No doubt.
But the fans, what they call “the army of swifties”, are interested in more things, like searching the lyrics for hidden references to their courtships. Almost all the songs talk about love or lack of love., for example ‘loml’, short for “love of my life”. There are several candidates, but highlights English actor Joe Alwyn, with whom he spent six years, until 2023 (he could be seen in ‘Conversations between friends’, the series inspired by the novel by Sally Rooney). But also the singer from The 1975, Matt Healy, may deserve part of the songs. An enigmatic reference is that of Clara Bow, an actress from the 1920s. Either way, There are 31 new songs that continue on the path of the previous albums: It is known that she is a billionaire superstar, but she He strives to also let people know how he feels.as a tortured poet.
