Taylor Swift: The Tortured Poets Department – Album Review

I’ve had the chance to listen to the whole album. And man, Taylor really decided to lay it all on the table. Now, I’m not sayin that this review is at all what she ACTUALLY means in her songs, it’s just the feeling I got from listening to all the songs and hearing the music. So this is a personal opinion/feel for it all.

I will say though, my favourites at the moment are Down Bad, Fortnite, I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can), But Daddy I Love Him and I Can Do It With A Broken Heart.

 

So without further adieu, here is my THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT ALBUM REVIEW (brace yourselves, there are 16 songs):

 

Fortnite ft. Post Malone: A slower paced somewhat love song that talks about Taylor’s love who isn’t really hers cause her lover is married. Meanwhile, she is married too. But her husband is cheating on her. So a little bit of a complicated situation, if you ask me.

 

The Tortured Poets Department: Who’s gonna love you like me? Nobody. Who’s gonna know you like me? Nobody. Who’s gonna hold you like me? Nobody. That explains it, right? BUT, by the end of it, it looks like she thinks it wasn’t worth it and that she came out better after it than he did.

 

My Boy Only Breaks His Favourite Toys: He only breaks his favourite toys. So she was the Queen in the sandcastle. It definitely reigns true to kids having a favourite toy until it breaks, then they no longer want to play with it. Or building up a sandcastle carefully only to smash it and break it. To me, this song symbolizes how turbulent a relationship can be once something goes wrong. Always thinking back to “no, but they treated me so well in the beginning”.

 

Down Bad: As the title suggests, she’s down bad for this guy. The feelings she gets because of him are otherworldly, cosmic, or something of the kind, if you look at the start of song, where she asks:

“Did you really beam me up
In a cloud of sparkling dust
Just to do experiments on?
Tell me I was the chosen one
Showed me that this world is bigger than us
Then sent me back where I came from”

 

Seems she wishes to go back to feeling that type of love and can’t understand how he’d just leave her after her making her feel the way he did.

 

So Long, London: Saying goodbye to a person/relationship after trying so hard to keep it going, fix it and make it work. Walking away from the uncertainty and back and forths. Possibly even a situationship where the other person didn’t fully commit.

 

But Daddy I Love Him: No matter what, love above all. Giving the image of a high class girl falling in love with a poorer boy and the people around her not approving. They try to stop them from being together but she runs away with him and possibly gets married??? The title and lyric “But Daddy, I Love Him” reminds me of Ariel in The Little Mermaid, wanting to be with the person she loves no matter what.

 

Fresh Out The Slammer: Fresh out the slammer… looks like she knows exactly who her rebound will be as soon as she gets out of her suffocating relationship. I mean, it did feel like a prison and she finally escaped. Now she’s on her way to him. The one that seems to have treated her right from the start.

 

Florida!!!: In need of an escape, Tay and Florence mention Florida as their escape for whenever things get tough. Be it after a breakup, tough time with work, family stuff. A general escape for whatever life throws at you.

 

Guilty As Sin?: Seems like she’s battling her thoughts and feelings about him. She wants him and longs for him but has never been in contact with him, almost longing for him from afar.

 

Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me: Sounds like an attack letter/confrontation to those that bullied her, those that used her personal life against her, mocking her and spreading more rumours. BUT at the same time, her giving it back to them by showing them she’s not one to mess with.

 

I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can): People are looking at her relationship with the guy that doesn’t look like much to be with on the outside and thinking “god help her”, cause she might need some help to be able to be with him. But she says she’s got this. That maybe she’s the right type of woman to bring out the best in this guy. Or maybe she doesn’t and she can’t fix him.

 

loml: Love of My Life… or Loss of My Life? She speaks of a past relationship that seemed to be the one for her, mentioning how her partner keeps saying she’s the love of his life. But you never hear her say love of HER life. The only time something remotely linked to the abbreviation of the song title is in the last line when she says “you’re the loss of my life”, possibly meaning that she feels like she missed out on a great forever with that person.

 

I Can Do It With A Broken Heart: Going through a heartbreak or any difficulties in life can be hard, but just like the song title says, she can do it with a broken heart. That no matter what, she is still going to go out on stage and perform for her fans and keep going on tour; she is still going to be making and writing music, no matter how much you may have hurt her.

 

The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived: Looking back at an ex, she reflects on the type of man he is, questioning who the person they were was because she doesn’t recognise that man. How he doesn’t measure up to being a decent man because of things he’s said and done. For her, just a good riddance.

 

The Alchemy: Alchemy could be a reference to both Paulo Coehlo’s book ‘The Alchemist’ and back in the day when Chemist’s used it in referring to turning other elements into gold. This would be befitting on Tay because she has said before that love to her is the colour Gold. The song could also be a nod to her current relationship with Travis Kelce, because it seems she’s found someone where things just work out well for them, so much so that it’s gold. There’s “no denying the alchemy”.

 

Clara Bow: Looking at the toxic relationship between a star and the fame they have. She speaks on how “this town is fake but you’re the real thing; breath of fresh air”. Clara Bow, as in the title, as well as Stevie Nicks is mentioned, and it’s quite known that these two women struggled quite a bit with issues caused by the stress and pressure from the levels of fame they’ve reached. Then in the end, relating back to Tay’s own struggles that are coming from her fame.