Taylor Swift announced her 14th studio album at this year’s Grammy on February 4th after winning her 13th Grammy, Best Pop Vocal Album for “Midnights. Swift’s album is called “The Tortured Poet’s Department”. It has been speculated to be named after Paul Mescal, Andrew Scott, and Joe Alwyn’s WhatsApp group chat “The Tortured Man’s Club”. Mescal dated singer Phoebe Bridger back in 2020, and they were rumored to be engaged around the time of their breakup (Cosmopolitan). Bridgers and Swift are close friends and Bridgers was a featured artist on Nothing New (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault) from Swift’s rereleased Red back in 2021. An interview in which Alwyn talks about this so-called group chat arose after Alwyn’s breakup with Swift in April 2023 (El Paso Times). Others have interpreted the album name as a node to how the public sees Swift’s ex-boyfriends.
This album has been labeled as synth-pop similar to “Midnight” which was labeled as “dream pop” and “electropop”, which are both types of synth-pop. What is synth-pop, though? MasterClass defines it as, “… a popular music genre that combines the post-punk energy of new wave with the innovations of 1970s electronic music. Riding a wave of synthesizer technology…”
With released songs: Fortnight (Ft. Post Malone), 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!!! (Ft. Florence + the Machine), 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, and Clara Bow.
She also released four extra vinyl songs and 15 extra songs at 2 am EST. The songs are labeled as The Manuscript, The Bolter, The Albatross, The Black Dog, imgonnagetyouback, Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus, How Did It End?, So High School, I Hate It Here, thanK you aIMee, I Look in People’s Windows, The Prophecy, Cassandra, Peter, and Robin. The release of these songs did not come as a surprise to any Swiftie since Swift did this with “Midnights” too, releasing her 3 am Version.
Like every album, Swift released exclusive merchandise for her website. Part of the merchandise includes two separate hoodies with a pair of sweatpants and shorts. Fans were quick to notice the lack of strings. Because Swift’s music video “Fortnight (ft. Post Malone)” is set in a mental health inpatient facility, fans have speculated that Swift added the detail of no strings as a node to rules set in mental health institutions that do not allow strings on clothes. Swift talks multiple times about different issues, especially how the public sees her and her love life, in the album.
“The Tortured Poets Department” has been successful across the board. Her song filled up the Top 10 Billboards and multiple more through the Top 100.
