#i haven't even listened to the tortured poets department yet

[the-music-keeper]

Your girl deposited her thesis tonight, y'all!

[briar-moon]

Red Rising Characters as Tortured Poets Department Songs

Darrow: i'mgonnagetyouback

-> "Whether I'm gonna be your wife or / Gonna smash up your bike / I haven't decided yet / But I'm gonna get you back"

Cassius: I Can Do It With a Broken Heart

-> "I was grinning like I'm winning / I was hitting my marks / 'Cause I can do it with a broken heart"

Mustang: The Alchemy

-> "He jokes that it's heroin, but this time with an 'E' / 'Cause the sign on your heart / Said it's still reserved for me"

Sevro: Florida!!!

-> "Little did you know your home's really only / The town you'll get arrested / So you pack your life away just to wait out / The shitstorm back in Texas"

Victra: But Daddy I Love Him

-> "I'd rather burn my whole life down / Than listen to one more second of all this bitchin' and moanin' / I'll tell you something 'bout my good name / It's mine alone to disgrace"

Lyria: Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?

-> "I was tame, I was gentle 'til the circus life made me mean / 'Don't you worry, folks, we took out all her teeth' / Who's afraid of little old me? / Well you should be"

Theodora: Clara Bow

-> "Beauty is a beast that roars down on all fours / Demanding more / Only when your girlish glow flickers just so / Do they let you know / It's hell on earth to be heavenly"

Tactus: I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)

-> "The smoke cloud billows out his mouth / Like a freight train through a small town / The jokes that he told across the bar / Were revolting and far too loud"

Roque: The Tortured Poets Department

-> "I laughed in your face and said / 'You're not Dylan Thomas, I'm not Patti Smith / This ain't the Chelsea Hotel, we're modern idiots'"

Ragnar: The Albatross

-> "I swept in at the rescue / The devil that you know / Looks now more like an angel / I'm the life you chose / And all this terrible danger"

Sefi: The Prophecy

-> "A greater woman has faith / But even statues crumble if they're made to wait"

Pax Sr.: So High School

-> "Truth, dare, spin bottles / You know how to ball, I know Aristotle"

Evey: My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys

-> "'Cause he took me out of my box / Stole my tortured heart / Left all these broken parts / Told me I'm better off / But I'm not"

Dancer: Fortnight

-> "And for a fortnight there, we were forever / Run into you sometimes, ask about the weather / Now you're in my backyard, turned into good neighbors"

Eo: Cassandra

-> "Bet they never spared a prayer for my soul / You can mark my words that I said it first / In a mourning warning, no one heard"

Julian: Robin

-> "You got the dragonflies above your bed / You have a favorite spot on the swing set / You have no room in your dreams for regrets"

Volga: I Hate it Here

-> "I hate it here so I will go to lunar valleys in my mind / When they found a better planet, only the gentle survived / I dreamed about it in the dark, the night I felt like I might die"

Orion: So Long, London

-> "And you say I abandoned the ship / But I was going down with it / My white-knuckle dying grip / Holding tight to your quiet resentment"

Lysander: The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived

-> "You kicked out the stage lights, but you're still performing / And in plain sight you hid / but you are what you did / And I'll forget you, but I'll never forgive / the smallest man who ever lived"

Should I do other albums?

[dorxkuu]

Mello doodles before THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT is out .

I'm claiming 'Who's Afraid Of Little Old Me?' for Mello even though I haven't listened to it yet . so it's all up to fate now oop .

[taylorsredversion]

I'm listening to every Taylor Swift album before The Tortured Poets Department drops.

Taylor Swift (album) is a masterpiece that I often forget about because it's my least favourite album but that's just because everything she's done since keeps getting better and better and also personal preference. If somehow you haven't given Debut a proper listen, please do so soon. It's shocking how good it is and when you remember she wrote it between the ages of 13-16, even more so.

I can't believe Debut doesn't have a set on The Eras Tour. I don't know if that's because she didn't want to or because since it doesn't have a Taylor's Version yet and it's not as successful as the rest of her albums, she didn't want to give it more attention and give the OG album more streams and in doing so making Scooter money.

Picture To Burn, Our Song, and my favourite Should've Said No are perfect songs to play live. I love them so much.

The maturity and vulnerability of Cold As You and Tied Together With A Smile will shock most of you when we get their respective Taylor's Versions.

I really need her to sing Mary's Song on tour. It's just so good.

This album for me it's an 8/10. Perfectly solid and really relatable.

[hersurvival]

What does The Tortured Poets Department mean to you?

Honestly, I haven't even listened to it yet. This might be blasphemous but I'm not a Swiftie. Despite Spotify thinking I am because I listened through the entire discography to understand the hype around the Midnights release.

I came out of it with a handful of songs I kind of liked but it's not angsty enough for my emo soul.

[emmyspov]

time for my ttpd (the double album) ranking!

i have to admit that i'm a bit disappointed by the album. even though the lyrics are (as always) insanely good, most of the songs sound pretty repetitive to me. there are a few which i remember and which i really enjoy, but out of the 31 songs, over half of them don't really convince me after the first two times listening - maybe that will still change though once some time has passed!

1. imgonnagetyouback

("whether I'm gonna be your wife or gonna smash up your bike, I haven't decided yet")

2. The Prophecy

("change the prophecy, don't want money just someone who wants my company")

3. I Can Do It With a Broken Heart

("'Cause I'm a real tough kid, I can handle my shit. They said, "Babe, you gotta fake it 'til you make it" and I did")

4. I Hate It Here

("When they found a better planet, only the gentle survived")

5. thanK you aIMee

("All that time you were throwin’ punches, I was buildin’ somethin’")

6. The Tortured Poets Department

("And who's gonna hold you like me? Nobody, no-fucking-body")

7. Fresh Out The Slammer

("Gray and blue and fights and tunnels, handcuffed to the spell I was under for just one hour of sunshine")

8. Down Bad

("'Cause fuck it, I was in love, so fuck you if I can't have us")

9. The Black Dog

("I pledged and I still mean it. Old habits die screaming")

10. So Long, London

("You swore that you loved me, but where were the clues? I died on the altar waitin' for the proof")

11. Clara Bow

12. Florida!!!

13. The Albatross

14. So High School

15. Guilty As Sin?

16. But Daddy I Love Him

17. Fortnight

18. Who's Afraid Of Little Old Me?

19. The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived

20. The Alchemy

21. The Bolter

22. I Look In People's Windows

23. loml

24. I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)

25. The Manuscript

26. How Did It End?

27. Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus

28. Peter

29. Robin

30. Cassandra

31. My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys

[2manyfandoms2count]

In anticipation of THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT I've been (obsessively) relistening to Taylor's albums, making friendship bracelets and lurking around for clues and crumbs (RIP to us who don't have Apple Music/Threads), and here are some thoughts I've been having, in a not necessarily very organised fashion (forgive me, I'm on less than 4h of sleep, but I needed to write this down)

The vibe of the album: obviously the fact that it's very black and white kind of reminds me of Reputation and Folklore, but listening back to Lover, there's also something devastating about looking at it with Daylight in mind :

I once believed love would be (Black and white) // But it's golden (Golden)

I could probably write an essay on what I imagine black and white could mean in this context, from something you only see in old pictures (in black and white), something that's completely clear-cut (no grey area, either there is or there isn't, either it's good or it's bad), to something that's associated with some kind of mourning. But there was a period of time when love, for her, was golden - shiny, solid, scintillating, unvaluable, that can't rust.

And now we're back to black and white.

---

The quotes we've been privy to from the Spotify library: I haven't been able to not draw parallels with other lyrics...

As she was leaving, it felt like breathing When I was drowning, that's when I could finally breathe

I want to hypothesise this quote is from Clara Bow, simply because of the use of "she". Beyond the link to breathing, there's just a vibe there I can't shake.

Except that whoever she is walked away, unlike what Taylor did in most situations she describes in her songs, ending up drowning in the aftermath (adding to the death imagery linked to breakups).

It also has a Why She Disappeared vibe.

Lost the game of chance, what are the chances? Luck of the draw only draws the unlucky

Again, Daylight. I am so, so afraid of the parallels there are going to be between Lover and this album (starting with the obvious London Boy and So Long, London parallel), mostly because there was so much love in the lyrics of Lover, so much faith in this love. Look at All Of The Girls You Loved Before. It's no wonder a lot of songs are in Taylor's Denial playlist. The uncertainty from his part was already quoted then (Cornelia Street, to only quote one), and yet they, she, went for it. And it's awful to look back and see the signs were actually there, before even Folklore/Evermore. That she maybe had an inkling that she'd be the unlucky one, already.

Screaming, crying, throwing up, etc.

One less temptress, One less dagger to sharpen Took this dagger in me and removed it

Okay so I don't know if this is just me reading into this because afaik it's the only two times she mentions daggers in her songs. The way I read this is that she perhaps feels like she was a temptress in a situation, stabbed as a result, but the person she's talking to in Tolerate it looked beyond it and even helped her heal from the situation, before turning away, leaving her to wither away.

Even statues crumble if they're made to wait I think he knows he better lock it down Or I won't stick around, 'cause good ones never wait

This one is the one that hurts most, but maybe it's just me projecting. Because it reads a hell of a lot like she was trying to convince herself she was one of the "good ones", pretending she could leave, when she was already too attached. So she waited, making herself a statue, (e)motionless on the outside, slowly but surely crumbling away at the lack of reciprocated love (and maybe the other person did love her; just not enough - after all, "you know there's many different ways that you can kill the one you love; the slowest way is never loving them enough"). And in this situation, you can't help but wonder why you're waiting, because ultimately, if "the good ones never wait", but you do, then does that make you one of the bad ones?... (Again, this resonates a little too much with me atm and it might be me reading too much into it).

Come one, come all. It’s happening again.

This one is giving The Story of Us; the story-telling aspect, this time inviting us to listen in, like a Bard would usher people to listen to their tales. A (Tortured) Poet inviting us to share their woes.

---

And, finally:

We Hereby Conduct This Post-Mortem

It's not just the post-mortem of her relationship we're invited to. It's her post-mortem, as per You're Losing Me. Dissecting where it all went wrong; and seeing what's left after it- agony, grief, and poetry.

I can't wait to hear the full album 🤍

[thisselflovecamebacktome]

what songs from TTPD and TA are now yours? Which ones have spoken to you the most?

So I'll say straight up just to skip to the last paragraph if you want a songs only answer, but I wanted to take this opportunity to talk a bit about how this album relates to me on a personal level because despite saying that I mostly listen to music for relatability reasons, I haven't really spoken about that aspect of the album yet when I usually would have when it comes to Taylor albums.

When relating this album to my own life, I feel like I can split it into 3 playlists; a 'The Bolter' playlist, a 'The Prophecy' playlist and a 'I Can Do It With A Broken Heart' playlist. Of course there can be some overlap between them, but I'm pretty much going to try confine each song to one playlist while talking about them.

My 'The Bolter' playlist is pretty much 'what if?' playlist. It's full of the choices, benefits and consequences of if I had made different choices in my life. So like it's almost like a parallel universe that I could see existing in this one had I been more free spirited, confident and given certain men from my past a chance romantically or even just feel that I could love more freely. In this playlist we have:

Fortnight

Down Bad

Fresh Out The Slammer

Florida

Guilty As Sin?

Who's Afraid Of Little Old Me?

The Alchemy

Clara Bow

Imgonnagetyouback

The Albatross

The Bolter

My 'The Prophecy' playlist is the songs that I relate to past situations and people that, while obviously still are part of me, my story, and heart, aren't who I currently am. In this playlist we have:

The Tortured Poets Department

My Boy Only Breaks His Favourite Toys

But Daddy I Love Him

I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)

The Black Dog

Chloe Or Sam Or Sophie Or Marcus

How Did It End?

So High School

Thank You Aimee

I Look In People's Windows

The Prophecy

And finally, we have my 'I Can Do It With A Broken Heart' playlist which is everything I currently relate to. Though I would like this playlist to be happier because I have been really working at not simply accepting my pain more... it's not exactly a happy album you know? So with that in mind, in this playlist we have:

So Long, London

Loml

I Can Do It With A Broken Heart

The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived

I Hate It Here

Cassandra

Peter

Robin

The Manuscript

Of these, most of my current top 5 come from the final playlist. While I don't have a ranking for the 5, currently they are So Long London, Who's Afraid Of Little Old Me, I Can Do It With A Broken Heart, The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived and Peter. I also want to note that listening to So Long, London and The Smallest Man who ever lived is the most emotional I have felt listening to Taylor's music since Soon You'll Get Better so they're definitely the ones I'm listening to most right now lmao.

[cellopirate]

now that I've had some time with it...

Fortnight ⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Tortured Poets Department ⭐⭐⭐⭐ My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys ⭐⭐ Down Bad ⭐⭐⭐⭐ So Long, London ⭐⭐⭐ But Daddy I Love Him ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Fresh Out The Slammer ⭐⭐ Florida!!! ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Guilty as Sin? ⭐⭐ Who's Afraid of Little Old Me? ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can) ⭐⭐⭐⭐ loml ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I Can Do It With a Broken Heart ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Alchemy ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Clara Bow ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

...and no, I haven't even started listening to the Anthology yet. It's so much at once.

[therevenantrp]

Tortured Poets department has been out for so little time, I haven't even listened to the whole thing yet. Why you gotta do me dirty posting about it being bad so quick?

Q_Q

i'm a terrible, terrible person

[sitpwgs]

Hi! I hope you had a good week! I hope you have a nice trip with your family and some down time in the upcoming week. Things are mostly fine..I just have to spend time doing a lot of spring cleaning that sometimes overwhelms me. I haven't had time to watch Poor Things or eras yet but will totally tell you what I think when I do. I'm really hoping by the end of this weekend. I've also heard mixed things and it might not be my kind of movie either but I will watch it for her and since it was up for awards. I saw it being compared to Barbie cuz the plot is kinda similar but it's also probably a lot weirder lol. Even if I end up not liking it, I think her performance can make up for that.

I don't really know because she didn't have a lot of singing as Gretchen in the movie or much part at all and I thought what's wrong with me was one of the most awkward parts of the movie besides Stupid with Love lol. But her voice is beautiful and probably better than or for Cady. I totally agree about It Roars! Changing her opening song added nothing..and she really did just seem like a new student, not even homeschooled really. They did try to show some of her awkwardness though. I honestly don't remember the actual scene in the musical for More is Better but I guess I agree cuz she didn't really have a reflection type moment at all, and all her relationships or friendships didn't seem as genuine. So basically the mathletes song would not have made sense in the movie. Like we didn't get to see her growth as the main character..I think Janis and Regina's changes were felt more..idk? So it's just kinda there for me too since the movie and musical already exist. But people seem to still like it, even as a musical or remake, so it's not totally bad. Haha I can't comment cuz that was my first introduction to Les Mis and so were a lot of other movie musicals, like Hairspray or Sweeney Todd. But I didn't even like Les Mis when I first watched it..I thought it was long and boring...l so I will say opinions can change haha.

Well I never had the chance to order and was able to pick the one I wanted since they were all already announced but I agree with your points. Usually I just wait until they're all announced anyway and I did that with 1989 too. I think she specifically wanted something new to announce at every country tour stop though so it kinda makes sense to spread it out. She announced Midnights and 1989 all at once I think...or at least we knew how many there were beforehand. This time I wasn't sure cuz I thought maybe there would only be two bonus tracks at first, similar to Evermore. So that makes it hard because we have to pick the version based on a song we haven't even heard yet. That's why I went with the cover I liked best, the Albatross and I never really play my vinyls anyway lol. I'm honestly still not sure what to think of these bonus tracks yet..like if they're all connected in some way like different endings like Folklore and Evermore or if it's more like 3AM..and they are just extras that didn't fit the album. They all have "the" in the title and seem pretty similar based on the concepts, which is almost like old fashioned words or phrases. It just gives me that vibe. but it also bothers me we won't get to hear them with the rest of the album on a first listen and how the vinyl will be missing other songs. But I think other artists do it and some people like the special edition vibe of each one.

Anyway the explicit tracks are the tortured poets department, Down Bad, But Daddy I Love Him, Florida, loml, I can do it with a broken heart, and the smallest man who ever lived. So I was already interested in the title track but this made me more interested since those are always my favorites. I also think the song will set the tone of the album maybe, like Fearless and Red in a way. Or it might be a single..but if it is, I would expect it to be similar to Cardigan in a way. A song I love with a lot of metaphors or her best lyrics. I also think the song could be about her career or how she uses writing songs to get through her life. But I also saw someone say it could be about how her and Joe loved being sad writing sad songs together so maybe it's a bad thing and a metaphor for their relationship or breakup. Either of these could be interesting to me! So it's hard to imagine her using harsh language for this song so I would guess it's minor. What do you think? I haven't thought much about Down Bad as a song..lol but maybe she will twist the phrase and what we would usually think it means? It's one of the ones that don't stand out to me so I guess this makes me more curious. But Daddy I love Him didn't shock me cuz it's very Lana. loml could be the same idea of down bad and she's changing the phrase, or the title is misleading. I feel like it's something she would do and that was one of the songs I was already excited for and same with Florida. I can do it with a broken heart also seems like one that will have minimal language to me but maybe i'm wrong. It wouldn't surprise me if she says fuck in smallest man who ever lived though. I think maybe two of these songs might say the f word and that's it. It seems to be the pattern from her last few albums. Anyway I can send you more of my thoughts on other songs later closer to the album coming out. But omg about rep! Do you still like some songs? I totally get it if it's not your vibe..but I personally love it. Maybe the rerecording will make you.like it hopefully. I just think it's one of her albums that I like as the full album..more than individual songs. I think half of this album seems like it could be kinda similar to rep almost? Like telling a full story in a way chronologically possibly in the way that rep does..the same way it kinda told the beginning of the relationship. Aww I hope you still have fun and enjoy listening to the new album when you come back! My sister and I started writing our thoughts while we listen to each song on texts to each other so we can remember our first impressions and we do it for albums we are really excited for!

We did it for the last few but sometimes like with the Kacey or Bleachers one there's not a lot to say. For Taylor, I like to get my first listen in and then write my thoughts so I'm not distracted but sometimes I can't always remember certain lyrics that stood out. It's kinda fun to look back at reactions and see which ones stood out and also sometimes helps keep track of which song is which or which ones we liked. My favorites usually stay the same but with Midnights there was so many i thought was just okay at first, like you're on your own kid or Antihero. What are you hoping to get at record store day?

I would definitely recommend the Eternal Sunshine movie! It kinda reminds me of a more weird kinda bleak version of 500 days of summer if you've seen that. But the movie is about erasing all of your memories and a person from your mind which was the concept of the song but didn't fit the whole album to me.

Well twenty one pilots has another new song and video out and I love it! They also announced their tour so that gives me something to look forward to. You can always listen to it or their other albums if you want and see what you think. Even if you play the two new songs, it shows they can do different genres and different sides to their music lol. I also spent the week listening to Beyonce's albums and I realized that I love when artists can do different genres. It shows their creativity and artistry and how much they care about music. I definitely felt that with her new album! It's pretty long but it was new and different for her and I admire how she made her version of country. It was also kinda split into sections with radio interludes. I only heard it once but I'm excited to listen to it again. I think I liked it more than my first listen of Renaissance actually and it has more slow songs and vocals so you might enjoy it! My favorites were Bodyguard, Alligator Tears, Levi's Jeans, Riverdance, and Hands II Heaven I but just on the first listen. I would also recommend Soccer Mommy and Best Coast which are alternative singer songwriters pretty similar to Paramore if you need more recommendations! don't worry about replying, since this ask got really long. I hope you have a good weekend enjoying time with family.

helloooo friend!! i hope you've been doing well 🤍 so sorry this has been so delayed 🤍

how have things been for you? what have you been up to? have you been listening to anything new? i've been essentially looping either cast recordings, schmigadoon (which i finally watched yesterday + today), espresso by sabrina carpenter & good luck babe by chappell roan. i listened to the new maggie rogers once and liked it, same with the new lizzy mcalpine, but haven't had the brain capacity to properly listen and learn lyrics and all that yet!

i haven't really done album of the day in like three weeks... oops? i think it started to feel more like a chore than something i was doing for fun. and that was also what happened to my hobonichi, but i've also been sick + out of town so i'm giving myself some slack there :( i feel like every time i talk to you i am sick and i'm sorry i keep complaining about it!!

i've always loved les mis, but i think i was predisposed to do so! i've only seen the sweeney film, and until recently haven't really been interested in it but i might hunt down a bootleg and see if i like it... we'll see. have we talked about schmigadoon yet? i feel like we have, but i can't remember. i'm currently sick (what else is new) which is why i finally sat down and watched schmigadoon — i might finally watch some bootlegs i've been meaning to watch for ages too.

happy tortured poets release week!! i'm still feeling a bit detached from the album and release week, but i'm excited to talk to you about it and hear your thoughts/your favorite songs! i saw the songwriter credit list came out today; i don't think my opinions on what songs i'm most intrigued by has changed, but i'm curious if yours has based on who worked on what!

i am no longer doing record store day since i'm sick :((((( but i'm hoping that a friend will be able to pick up a record or two for me, and maybe i'll luck out trying to hunt things down online the next day!

i listened to the new beyonce album while i was on vacation! i really liked it and i think the radio interludes were really cool! i'll have to do a couple more listens until i can pick a favorite though!!

did you get tickets to the 21p tour? i hope you did! 🤍 i'm so sorry this is short!! i have not been feeling well but i wanted to reply to this before it got even longer <3333 love you!