#she is a poet

[girl4music]

From Apple Music: "In the 18 months after Taylor Swift released Midnights, it often felt as though the universe had fully opened up to her. The Eras Tour was breaking records and blowing past the billion-dollar mark; its attendant concert film became the highest-grossing of all time. She generated interest and commerce and headlines everywhere she stepped foot, from tour stops to the tunnels of NFL stadiums. In 2023, she was named both TIME magazine’s Person of the Year and—just as iconic, tbh—Apple Music’s Artist of the Year. 

But do songs about that level of success speak to you? As the news broke that her highly private six-year relationship to Joe Alwyn had ended, Swifties started Swiftie-ing, quickly recirculating a clip on social media of Swift a few weeks earlier, onstage during an early Eras show, in tears as she sang “champagne problems”—a song she and Alwyn had written together. It was a reminder that, despite the superhero-like aura she now radiates, Swift, at her peak, still hurts like the rest of us. What sets her apart is her ability to sublimate that pain into pop. When she announced her 11th studio album in early 2024—while accepting another Grammy, as one does—we probably shouldn’t have been surprised. 

“I needed to make it,” she’d say of THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT a few weeks later, to a crowd of—[rubs eyes]—96,000 in Melbourne, Australia. “I’ve never had an album where I’ve needed songwriting more than I needed it on TORTURED POETS.” Working again with trusted collaborators Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner, she returns to the soft, comfortable, bed-like sonics of Midnights. But the stakes feel noticeably higher here: This isn’t so much a breakup album as it is a deep-sea exploration of everything Swift has been feeling, a plunge through emotional debris. 

On “But Daddy I Love Him”—over strings and guitar that faintly recall her country roots—she lashes out at the crush of scrutiny and expectation she’s been subject to from the start. Naturally, catharsis comes after the chorus: “I’ll tell you something right now,” she sings. “I’d rather burn my whole life down than listen to one more second of all this bitching and moaning.” On “Florida!!!” she and Florence + the Machine team up for a pulpy escape fantasy wherein they Thelma and Louise their way down to the Sunshine State in hopes of starting over with new lives and identities: “Love left me like this,” they sing. “And I don’t want to exist.”

At turns hilarious and heartbreaking, TTPD is a study in extremes, Swift leaning into heightened emotions with heightened, hyperbolic, ALL-CAPS language and imagery—how we think when we’re drunk on love or flattened by its sudden disappearance. Note the dark humour she weaves through the Post Malone-enriched opener “Fortnight” (“Your wife waters flowers/I wanna kill her”). Or the thrilling self-deprecation of “Down Bad”, a foray into science fiction wherein Swift likens the warmth of a relationship to being abducted by love-bombing extraterrestrials—only to be left “naked and alone, in a field in my same old town.” 

But this remains her most candid and unsparing work to date: As a listener, you frequently get the feeling that you’ve stumbled across emails she’d written but never sent, or into conversations you were never meant to hear. There’s a density and a specificity and a ferocity to her lyrical work here that makes 2012’s “All Too Well” feel sorta light by comparison. If you’re the kind of Swiftie who likes to live in the details, well, this one might be your Super Bowl. “You swore that you loved me, but where were the clues?” she asks on the devastating “So Long, London”, a high point. “I died on the altar waiting for the proof.” Alone at a piano on the haunting “loml”, she flips the script on someone who’d told her she was the love of their life, by telling them that they were the loss of hers: “I’ll still see it until I die.” 

The story, as you likely know, doesn’t end there. We get a glimpse of new beginnings in “The Alchemy” (“This happens once every few lifetimes/These chemicals hit me like white wine”) and something like triumph in the montage-ready synths of “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart”, when Swift, shattered on the floor, “as the crowd was chanting, ‘More!’,” still finds the strength to deliver: “’Cause I’m a real tough kid and I can handle my shit.” 

But we also get a sense of acceptance, of new-found perspective. On “Clara Bow”—named after a 1920s movie star who was able to survive the jump from silent film to sound—Swift reflects on the journey of a small-town girl made good, sung from the vantage of an industry obsessed with the next big thing. She zooms out and out and out until, in the album’s closing seconds, she’s singing about herself in the third person, in past tense, acknowledging that nothing is forever. “You look like Taylor Swift in this light, we’re loving it,” she sings. “You’ve got edge she never did/The future’s bright, dazzling.”

I'm not restricting or limiting her artistic potential or anything but I really think Taylor Swift's niche in genre is dream, folk or synth-pop. That ethereal soundscape goes well with her small-ranged voice and her lyrical style works best when it's telling stories about stuff that isn't even necessarily about her, but about someone or something.

It's her niche. Where she sounds her best. When she's at her best.

I like the fact that in this album she's not worried about singles because most of these songs are too long for radio play unless they have to cut them down, and we all know how she feels about that. It's an album meant to be an album. It's a proper concept album. She doesn't need to worry about singles anyway. She'll sell regardless.

It sounds bloody fantastic in lossless 24-bit 48kHz ALAC/FLAC.

She's done it again. Created a musical masterpiece.

Like we'd expect anything less from Taylor Swift.

"As a listener, you frequently get the feeling that you’ve stumbled across emails she’d written but never sent, or into conversations you were never meant to hear. There’s a density and a specificity and a ferocity to her lyrical work here that makes 2012’s “All Too Well” feel sorta light by comparison." Yeah, you do with every great songwriter. The difference is great songwriters that are actually the musical artists of what you're listening to don't often exist in the pop industry.

Taylor Swift takes up space in pop music because she demands it. Most people would scoff at it. Even call it egoic. I highly respect it because she brings to pop music the point of the music. Art - not just entertainment. There's a phrase I use: Art is meant for expression, not impression. And she provides and delivers both seamlessly within each other. That's why the space she demands, she deserves. Not just any pop artist can do that or have that mark in the pop industry because most of them don't even write their own fucking music.

So if you feel like you shouldn't be present when listening - you feel put out or uncomfortable in any way - that's how you know you're listening to a true and great songwriter because they all DO THIS.

[emmeriex]

the most frustrating part about the shake it off lawsuit isn’t that we won’t be getting 1989 TV for awhile but that someone in the world has the audacity to sue the woman who wrote “while i bath in cliffside pools with my calamitous love and insurmountable grief” for plagiarism

[khruschevshoe]

There is a conversation to be had about the fact that Taylor Swift's album is being played in its entirety across all of iHeartRadio's 868 stations, pushing out the opportunities other artists might have had to get radioplay. That's the literal definition of a monopoly. No wonder she'll hit the top of the radio play charts with this maneuver, because at least 65 minutes (if not the back side of the album, which would take it to nearly twice that length) across EIGHT HUNDRED AND SIXTY EIGHT STATIONS will be dedicated to her, artificially boosting her radio play and decreasing everyone else's. In this essay I will—

[liveandbreathemusicals]

Gay people will be like “this is my comfort show!” And then show you the most emotionally devastating, stress-inducing, tragic piece of media you have ever witnessed

[kingofmyborrowedheart]

The thing that is striking me the most about this album is just how messy and human it is. She’s not holding anything back or trying to appear one way or another. She’s just letting it all out regardless of what anyone might say. She found that trying to be polished and keep all the ugly, imperfect, human stuff in to be stifling and just said fuck it I need to do this for me. This album was an exorcism for her.

[hussyknee]

Her final tweet on October 8 reads:

“Gaza’s night is dark apart from the glow of rockets, quiet apart from the sound of the bombs, terrifying apart from the comfort of prayer, black apart from the light of the martyrs. Good night, Gaza.”

[breakbleheavens]

TAYLOR SWIFT performs WHO'S AFRAID OF LITTLE OLD ME? for the first time ▸ The Eras Tour — Paris, France (Night 1) | May 9, 2024

[brood-mother]

i legalised gay marriage in ck3 and this absolute #girlboss married herself, truly iconic behaviour 

[yoyokslut]

she was like "yeah, i don't give a shit" 😭

[lemonycranberries]

hey guys. be careful. lock your windows. taylor swift may be watching you at any time

[succulentsiren]

HAVING UNSHAKEABLE CONFIDENCE INCLUDES

Not caring what others think.

Voicing your opinion whether others agree with them or not.

Staying true to yourself.

Walking into any room and feeling powerful (not insecure).

Realizing you don’t have competition and not comparing yourself to others.

Feeling best about what you have to offer and who you are.

Putting yourself first.

Dreaming big and taking action to make your dreams happen.

Being a master manifestor.

Not needing anyone or their approval to be great.

Laughing at haters.

Presenting your best self to the world.

Having a stable emotional state (remaining hopeful and not allowing doubt to effect you).

Having your own standards and staying true to them.

Having a secure self image and not allowing others to define you.

Never lowering your standards.

Speaking your truth.

Allowing yourself to shine (talents, gifts) without judgement.

Supporting others and being joyous when they win.

Focusing on self.

Speaking highly of yourself.

Creating and doing what you love (not just what's popular).

Remaining dedicated to your goals even when you fail.

[stillgotscars]

it’s one of those “i’m so proud of taylor and feel really, really lucky that i get to witness her make history in real time” kind of days

[theamazingian]

I forgot I never uploaded this, but thought it might be interesting. These are the first designs I did of the character outfits for The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog

Then, after seeing Ellen’s outstanding sketches, we smushed our ideas together to get closer to what ended up in the final game!

[misty-thecat]

Is it just me or the songs on The Tortured Poets Department sound the same? It's like they all blend together at some point....at first listen there is not one song stuck in my head. And this is coming from someone who genuinely enjoys her music ...Red is one of my faves. You could swap the songs from Midnights and TTPD and I wouldn't be able to tell. I think she should start working with a new producer. Although I stopped being a fan since the breakup, I was still looking forward to new music .... I was excited for what new sound she would explore but it was disappointing to hear the same old repetitive Jack Antonoff synth pop genre.

She probably needs a break .... all this hyper production in the past few years with so many albums and their multiple versions must have had an impact on her creativity and quality...also a lot of lyrics are just......eh I don't know the right words, but she can do better for an artist of her magnitude and caliber.

Also, I feel like the aesthetic for the album does not match the music...like the dark academia/old books thing doesn't really go with the songs for me. Again, they sound a lot like something from Midnights due to the production so probably that's why I feel like that.

Another thing, the album seems to be mostly about the 1975 dude, but the marketing pointed to Joe Alwyn which led to him being harassed by her fans and she did nothing. That was horrible of her. It's these kinds of things that led me to leave that fandom. Even Ariana put out a statement when she released her new album.

Overall, I expected a better album from her. She really needs to take a break. The overexposure and overproduction are not looking good.

[sharonccrter]

I sound like a broken record, but I really can't get over her basically airing out Joe Alwyn's mental health problems to the world and liking tweets of people poking fun at his struggles. She basically made sure any person Joe works with going forward knows he's struggled with his mental health. And while there is nothing to be ashamed of. He's clearly a deeply private person. She writes on Instagram there is "nothing to avenge" and that her "wounds are healed." Certainly doesn't sound like it.

[kingofmyborrowedheart]

Not to be all “I listen to Taylor Swift in a deeper and intellectual way” meme but I am seeing some people just not getting this album at all and I am a bit surprised by it.