Taylor Swift - The Tortured Poets Department (April 19, 2024) Album • Page 66

If you all want a break the Blue Nile’s Hats is always there as a Taylor Approved album rec!

 

Listened to most of this today with my gf and it’s kinda boring?

 

Incredible album

 

people i talked to in my RSD line were in agreement that it was too long and somewhat boring, although a few of them were still dead set on variant collecting this thing

 

the blue nile's streaming stats an unlikely beneficiary of TS' matty spite campaign ("love it if we made it" shall we say "pays homage" to "downtown lights")

 

Feeling very full circle with the Starting Line lyric.

 

I cannot believe this is real

 

ok ok, I’ll check out The Blue Nile.

 

Lmao I didn't catch that on my listen. Is this her way of calling him a dumb jock golden retriever while she's Jake Gyllenhaal sitting around talking about the meaning of life and the book that just saved her that he hasn't heard of

 

Also yeah that Charlie puth line is as bad as ppl made it out to be, but get that free promotion Charlie!

Also I know her mom doesn't mind obviously but imagine engaging in a gossip sesh with someone and they just blast it in a song how u wished someone would die lmao

I've listened through once and about a handful of songs stood out but I'm sure more will grow. I just haven't been in a taylor mood much. Nothing stood out as bad to me tho. I mean some corny lyrics aside but also that comes with the taylor territory

She seemed like she had fun writing the songs tho. The lil jokes and cheeky moments and stuff.

 

Puth line doesn't bother me at all TBH

 

I keep seeing people on Twitter connecting old Taylor/1975 songs to each other now and I have to say a lot of them are working for me lol.

 

If you told me in 2002 and again in 2013 the most famous person in the world, Taylor Swift, would be name dropping The Starting Line in a song about a failed relationship with Matty Healy of the 1975 my head would spin off its shoulders. Oddly disorienting for all this to come together like this, especially considering this particular website. From 2002 to 2013 to 2024. I feel old.

 

Actually managed to listen to this entire thing a handful of times all the way through now, and I have to say it surprised me. I am someone who absolutely loves Taylor Swift & Aaron Dessner collaborating, but it is mainly their songs on this that feel kinda half-baked, especially on the second half, which I guess aren't actually part of the album really? The anthology thing is a little strange and honestly feels like she kinda couldn't make up her mind if this was just gonna be one big long album, a double album, or a regular (long) album with an entire extra album’s worth of b-sides tacked onto the end, and still didn't really figure it out and then release day was here.

I do understand that she wanted to surprise people, which in this day and age and at her level of fame is practically impossible, and I also understand that nobody is forced to buy any of her music and this is all by choice, but the shenanigans surrounding the “surprise” this time felt weird and almost like a trick. I don't really see a way that she could have avoided that and still pulled off some sort of surprise though, aside from just doing a complete surprise album drop with absolutely no announcement or warning ahead of time.

Anthology thing aside though, there are a lot of really good songs on this, but there definitely aren't 31 essential ones, yet at the same time there really aren't any stinkers here either. No songs jumped out right away as bad or even extremely weak. The weaker songs on here are just kinda samey and don't stand out from the pack, which at 31 tracks / 2+ hours really isn't surprising I guess.

This post ended up being almost entirely about album length & release strategy, which I hadn't really intended, and I think this is a really good album that I will never listen to in its entirety ever again. Ton of great songs on here though. I think I might like this a little better than Midnights? It's really early though, and I have to spend a lot more time just listening to this as an album and trying to separate it from the hype and craziness of a Taylor Swift album release in 2024.

 

I’ve come to terms with the bad lyrics on the first album/disc one/whatever. Starting to enjoy a lot of it, not gonna surpass Folklore/Evermore but I’d guess I’ll have this playing longer than I did with Midnights, not exactly blown away by anything though, just enjoyable. Listened to the rest of the songs a bit but gonna wait til I’m sick of the original album before I move to that I’ve decided

 

The more I listen it definitely feels like the original 16 is still supposed to be the proper album while the second half is more of an addendum, adding further context and stories to this era of her life. Its like doing the From the Vault thing but without waiting.

 

Gonna say I actually find this much less weird than American idol randomly making the contestants cover the world for a car commercial in like 2010

 

If I were Charlie Puth I’m not sure I’d be thrilled about that line - maybe he feels like a great and accomplished artist. Seems like a backhanded compliment.

Like oh thanks Taylor I never stopped to think I’m not as big as you. Is that the definition of “big”… for a tortured poet?

Maybe it’s just odd to me to call someone out by name and last name like that in song lyrics. Did she ask for permission?

Anyway I’m obviously just souring on her and this project.

 

I'm sure Charlie is fine

 

The album discourse has turned into weird projections, but I guess that’s just general discourse in 2024.

 

I don't think the line is making fun of Charlie, it's just saying Matty is someone who is very opinionated and impassioned

 

I honestly don't think I'll feel the need to listen to the whole deluxe portion again. I'll go back to a few tracks but it feels like a lot of extraneous stuff overall

 

I think Charlie is aware of his position in pop culture and some of his songs that aren't great but where he felt pressured to write hits. His tiktoks used to come up on my tiktok fyp a lot and he was fairly transparent. I feel like there's no other way to take it but as a pretty massive compliment.

 

I hear y'all... It just to me sounds like something that belongs in a conversation, not in the lyrics for the title track of the biggest artist in the world's latest album