Taylor Swift - The Tortured Poets Department (April 19, 2024) Album • Page 128

I really love that Taylor is so prolific because it shows young musicians that they can do that too, always be writing and releasing new stuff, etc. But if you gave me a song title from one of Taylor's last 4 or 5 albums, I probably wouldn't be able to tell you which album it's on haha.

 

I'm glad people have mostly joined the correct side of history recognizing how great it is.

 

Its easily my favourite of hers.

 

Agreed

 

@SpyKi I am genuinely curious how this could be! What is it about this album that does it for you? Asking without cynicism, because I can’t personally fathom it, but I know you’ve also been a Taylor fan for a long time.

 

I thought i clicked on the vinyi thread and was so confused why there were so many posts on just Taylor

 

I think it's genuinely her best songwriting, her most consistent and emotional, at least for my tastes. The storytelling across the album creates a more satisfying and moving narrative to me than any of her other records. I think musically it's a perfect evolution of the sounds she's been working with on her past few albums and compliment to the songs she's written. I've always been a more vocal/lyrics based listener and I think the production adds so much to the vibe of what she's singing about on any given song. Taylor's vocals are so beautifully emotive across the entire thing and it has many of my favourite melodies she's ever written. I also know a lot of people want her to be less wordy but I am so, so in love with the lyrics on this album and I live for every chorus changeup or extra long bridge/outro. I'd say more than half of the album is up there with my favourite Taylor songs at this point including "loml" finally overtaking "All Too Well" as my number 1.

My physical version of the album is the one with The Black Dog so my ranking of the album is the main 16 and that one because its my second favourite song here and feels like a perfect epilogue to the main narrative. I love the Anthology songs and a lot of them only add to my appreciation of the main album because of how they tie in to it lyrically but I do think the album is stronger without being 31 songs so I view them as bonus material like the vault tracks.

I've been a Taylor fan since Red but I've never been completely in love with anything she's put out, she's never had an AOTY contender for me until now, this album feels like it has everything I've always loved about her songwriting and hardly anything I don't like. The only thing it's really missing are the big poppy hits and I don't think that would really fit these songs.

The Tortured Poets Department - 9
Speak Now - 8.5
Folklore - 8.5
Fearless - 8
Red - 8
1989 - 8
Midnights - 8
Evermore - 8
Lover - 8
Reputation - 8
Taylor Swift - 7

Is about how I'd rank them. So most of her albums fall around a similar level for me and this one just speaks to me more. I'm honestly surprised that such big Taylor fans have this anywhere near the bottom haha.

 

I could cut loml from the album and be ok with it

 

That's like cutting "All Too Well" from Red and being ok with it, haha. Madness.

 

I could never hear so long london again and be ok with it

 

Tbh I fully contend that my reasoning to not listening to tortured poets much is silly, but double albums are so daunting to me. Even if it ends up around a similar length to a single disk long album. For example I almost never listen to xtinas back to basics even tho it's the same length of my favorite album of hers, Stripped. Psychologically the double albums just feel soooo long and like more of a commitment than just throwing on a regular album

Also a dumb reason but I feel like it's hard to divorce her persona with her music sometimes and I'm like all this fuss over a 2 week thing with Matty Healy, sis??

Okay, bad hot takes over. Will resume just my regular bad takes.

 

Ouch

 

just think of them as two separate albums and listen to one at a time.

 

So Long London (2) and loml (5) both make my personal re-organized and truncated version of the album playlist.

 

They're both in my top 15 Taylor songs.

 

I like the first disc but the second is a chore to get through and I have to buy it on vinyl still because of course I do lol

 

Just heard my first track from this ha…they added the broken heart track to whatever the playlist is in the restroom at my office.

Jesus that chorus is obnoxious.

 

The second best song on here for my opinion, too. Which says a lot about the rest, haha.

 

Didn't you just make that same comment a few days ago?

 

"I'm so depressed, I act like it's my birthdayyyy every day"

I dunno, I love that chorus haha. And it's one of the only choruses from that album that I can sing off the top of my head... haha

 

The production alone is wild, it's Jack at his finest, the tempo changes, the layers of audio, the 1, 2, 3, 4, it's so complex and detailed

 

It's also the perfect encapsulation of The Eras Tour and culminates as such in the live performance.

 

I didn't consider buying the vinyl when the album came out because I figured this was inevitable. I'm not sure I'll snag it though, I think this is pretty easily her worst album by both the as an album metric* and the how many pantheon songs metric.

*it's probably better than s/t as a beginning to end listen or 2

 

I think the songs about him prove that is was longer than a 2 week thing.

I also feel like the “call-backs” to 1989 are purposeful since that’s around them first meeting. And the wordiness on this specific album could be attributed to older 1975 being the same. I think it’s all very intentional.