Hello, everyone, and welcome to another individual album review! And it’s a long overdue review of one of the most anticipated albums of the year worldwide, the eleventh studio album from Taylor Swift, THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT.

I’m going to begin this review with a bit of a bold statement that’s going to be very misleading, and may invoke exasperation at this platitude which almost patently is mostly ultracrepidarian—possibly the straw that broke the camel’s back. But I hope you hear me out on this one: I don’t really get why Taylor Swift is as popular as she is.

Oh yes, here we go again, yet another clueless ‘expert’ is here to ruin the party, right? And I don’t mean to overreact at something that, realistically, isn’t that big a deal, but I think it’s no secret that there are a lot of people who only know a few Taylor Swift songs and claim that all her music is the same, despite not having even listened to a Taylor Swift album before.

That’s not the case with me. Yes, I’m a bit of a pseudo-intellectual myself—‘a bit’ might even be an understatement—but I had already listened to every Taylor Swift studio album multiple times each (some of them quite a lot) even before very recently when I decided to relisten to each of them once all the way through in preparation for this review.

And not that this makes my opinion any more ‘valid’, but going back to my ‘thesis statement’ (I don’t know what else to call it) and my labelling of it as ‘misleading’ … well, I should mention that I myself am a Taylor Swift fan.

I’m not a superfan by any means—I think she’s got a very inconsistent discography, it’s felt like on many occasions she hasn’t come close to fulfilling her potential as an artist, and I wouldn’t say she’s made an album that’s really knocked my socks off—but not only is there an emotional appeal for me in specific songs, but she’s made some serious bops and bangers as well; “Welcome To New York”, “State of Grace”, “Red”, the list goes on.

So, what did I mean when I said I don’t really get why she’s as popular as she is? Well, it’s pretty simple, and at the same time it’s not. I meant what I said with that statement, and even though I personally am a fan, it doesn’t mean I fully get why she’s one of the most beloved artists in the world right now. Part of that is that if I’m being totally honest, with all the music that’s out there, I can’t help but wonder why an artist whose discography I personally find ‘pretty good for the most part’ is getting all the attention that so many other artists who I think are much better could be getting instead. And I’m not necessarily saying it’s wrong—I mean, music is subjective at the end of the day—but it does feel a little baffling to me. I like to give people the benefit of the doubt, and I’m not trying to call anyone a fake fan, but there is a part of me that can’t help but wonder what percentage of her fanbase is just jumping on the bandwagon, and if it is a large percentage (which it may or may not be) then how much of it is subconscious?

And if I keep going down that rabbit hole we get into a very complicated conversation about accidental bias and a bunch of other stuff which this review isn’t really about. So, why am I bringing all this up as a Taylor Swift fan myself?

Well, the other big thing I wanted to talk about on the topic of me not fully getting why she’s so popular is that emotional appeal I talked about. Because there’s a certain sense of isolation and the self-reflection that comes from that, realizing how much of it falls on you, and while it’s kind of an underlying theme throughout her discography, it’s especially present on my favourite Taylor Swift album, folklore. I mean, it’s hard to fully explain because I feel like unless you have to deal with those same emotions that I do of feeling like a fuck-up when the parts of yourself you like the least get the best of you, you just won’t get it … but it explains a big part of the reason her music appeals to me at all. I’m not proud to say it, but it’s true. Case in point, that’s why “Anti-Hero” was among my favourite hit songs of last year, even though Midnights as an album didn’t really do a whole lot for me.

I mean, don’t get me wrong, folklore has a lot of good writing, I think the production fits with the lyrics really well, and it showed a lot of ambition with the way a lot of the subtleties connect together … but at the same time it’s a very long, messy album in which I don’t think the sequencing is all that good, and the main reason I like it as much as I do is because the best songs are absolutely incredible—I’m mostly talking about “mirrorball”, “this is me trying”, and “epiphany”. But again, it feels like my feelings on those songs might say as much about me as it does about the songs themselves, because of that emotional appeal I was talking about.

For the past few months I’ve been sort of semi writing the intro to this review in my head, even before the album came out, and I was trying to find the right way to describe the reason certain Taylor Swift songs hit so hard for me, and then I heard something that really stood out to me. Around the time this album came out, I was talking to a friend of mine about Taylor Swift, and while I don’t remember word for word exactly what my friend said, it was something like, ‘There are certain songs of hers that it feels like were written specifically for me.’ And when I thought about it that way, I realized how much I relate to that—looking at you, “this is me trying”.

Now, before I talk about this new album, I want to just make it clear that this review is only about the standard edition of the album. I haven’t heard The Anthology yet, although I do plan to probably write about it once I’ve heard it. But I just wanted to get through this review first.

Anyway, now that I’ve gotten all that out of the way and established my status as somewhat of a Taylor Swift fan, I want to talk about my expectations for this album, which were … well, I was excited, but I would also say cautiously optimistic. Like a lot of critics, I wasn’t a huge fan of Midnights (although it has grown on me a little bit since I reviewed it in 2022), and I do find her discography pretty inconsistent overall. My favourite albums of hers are folklore and Red, and if I had to pick a third favourite it might actually be her debut—it’s an unpopular pick, but I think it’s a really damn good country album with some serious bangers on it! But you never really know what you’re getting with a new Taylor Swift album, and I had a feeling I wasn’t going to have much of an idea of what to expect until I started seeing descriptions and ratings online.

And that’s when my expectations were significantly lowered, partially because of the genre descriptions being similar to those of Midnights and because this one also features production from Jack Antonoff. As I said in my review of Bleachers’ self-titled album from this year, whether or not I like Jack’s production often depends on the style of the music. And I didn’t really think it worked on Midnights, which didn’t have me super excited about THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT. But the other big reason my expectations were lower is the ratings—this album was not getting a very positive reception, and while I heard a few people say they really liked it—one of my friends even called it a masterpiece—the vast majority of the opinions I’ve seen on this album have been quite negative. So, while I had some hope, I really didn’t think I was going to end up liking this album. So, ten or so listens later, was I right?

Well, this is a very complicated album, and a difficult one to discuss. I mean, usually Taylor Swift albums are the kind of album that I have a lot to say about, and that’s no different here. But of any album in Taylor Swift’s discography, this might be the most precise showcase of who she is as an artist …

And possibly as a person as well, although that’s where I want to be careful here, because there are reasons I usually avoid talking about artists’ personal lives in my reviews. A big part of the reason why I am usually in favour of ‘separating the art from the artist’ is because in a lot of cases people don’t know as much about the people whose music they’re reviewing as they like to think they do. Of course there are certain circumstances where someone does something so bad that I can’t look past, but the vast majority of celebrities I just can’t really give much of an opinion on as people, because I’ve never met them and haven’t even read much about them.

So, when it comes to Taylor Swift … I mean, I’ve heard both good and bad things about her as a person, and as much as I would like to just avoid talking about her personal life in this review, it might be kind of hard to do that. I mean, a lot of this album is clearly about her brief relationship with The 1975 frontman Matty Healy, and while I don’t know a ton about Matty Healy he doesn’t seem like the most likeable guy based on what I do know about him, and he definitely has a pattern of being problematic. And while I can mostly listen to this album as its own thing, there are moments where it’s hard to separate it from the real life circumstances—case in point, “But Daddy I Love Him”. I mean, the context of it almost certainly being about Matty makes it really hard to hear in the same way as it otherwise would be.

And honestly, I can’t confidently share my opinion on Taylor Swift as a person. It’s pretty clear that there are good and bad things about her as a person—I think that can be said about anyone. If I had to guess, she seems like a good person who is also flawed. But again, when I don’t know her personally, it’s hard for me to really know if she’s a wonderful person or if she’s a total douchebag—I mean, I’d guess probably the former, but considering the way that she writes, I’d believe either.

But that’s not really what this review is about. The majority of this album I can listen to without the asterisk of ‘but this is Taylor Swift writing this.’

Actually, that’s not entirely true. I can separate most of it from the fact that it was written by Taylor Swift the person, but I have a harder time separating it from the fact it was written by Taylor Swift the artist. I’ll have more to say on that later.

And I think it’s easy to forget when listening to this that this is one of the most famous celebrities in the world. I mean, that can be said about pretty much any Taylor Swift album, and yet they often feel very relatable to me at the same time, and I’m not even a fraction of how famous Taylor is.

Because again, going back to what I said earlier, there’s a certain emotional core to Taylor Swift’s music that can feel like it was written for a very specific audience—an audience which I am a part of—and it’s why, despite all the negative reviews it’s gotten, I don’t dislike THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT. And I think it’s a lot better than many critics are giving it credit for.

Now I will immediately follow that up by saying that I don’t think this is one of her best albums, and I think it suffers from a lot of the same problems that Midnights does. But the more I listen to Midnights, the more I realize it wasn’t the ideas behind the album that didn’t work for me, it was the execution. Because while there’s a lot about the subject matter that I don’t relate to at all … that emotional core is still there, and it feels like the album really should be right up my alley—it’s just that the production doesn’t flatter the album at all and for every lyric that really works for me it feels like there’s another one that throws off the vibe significantly.

And I hate to say it, but that’s once again the case with THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT, and I think the biggest example of a song which had missed potential is none other than the title track, the second song on this album. I mean, I can understand why someone might hear this and think, ‘Missed potential? WHERE’S THE POTENTIAL?’ I mean, yes, there’s absolutely flaws in this track which hold me back from liking it a lot more. The percussion is clunky, the synths feel too bombastic to fit with the melancholic vibe; that is when they’re not just creeping into the bridge like a spider in the bathroom—I say that as an arachnophobe—and don’t even get me started on some of the lyrics, such as, ‘You left your typewriter at my apartment, straight from the tortured poets department. I think some things I never say, like ‘who uses typewriters anyway?’’ I mean, Arkells pulled this off in “Leather Jacket” a decade ago with the narrator trying to convince an alcohol addict to get help, and the narrator’s hilarious, unique way of trying not to hold any punches is a huge part of the appeal of that song! The typewriters line here feels throwaway and faux-deep. And I could also mention the cringiness of her saying ‘no-fucking-body’ on the post-chorus, or the line, ‘You take my ring off my middle finger and put it on the one people put wedding rings on’—eyeroll—or, ‘You smoked then ate seven bars of chocolate, we declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist.’ If you think this song is straight-up trash, I get it …

And yet I’m left with a similar feeling I get with songs from Midnights like “Question…?” and “Snow On The Beach”, where there are ideas that, in a different context, could lead to songs that really resonate for me, but the execution feels like a huge misstep. And yet I think I like “The Tortured Poets Department” more than either of those songs. I don’t love this song by any means, but something about the messiness of everything described here with the toxic relationship in which both partners are overdependent really makes me wish the execution had been better here. I don’t relate to the lyrics in this song, but there’s enough elements about it that I really like to make it feel like I’ve been pulled into the story, and there are some details I really like—for example, I like how she refers to them as ‘modern idiots’, which I’ll admit has more magic to it than it probably should over a pretty basic vi-V-I-IV chord progression. Honestly, the end of the chorus alone is pretty much enough to somewhat save this song for me, but even some of the elements of this that I don’t like kind of do serve their purpose. Considering the main idea of the song, the messiness of the execution makes sense … I just wish some of it felt a little less forced.

On a bit of a similar topic, there’s “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived”, which has a nice fragment of a vocal melody, although the emphasis is on the word ‘fragment’. Because it feels like this could have been a really striking moment near the end of the album, especially considering the lyrics and the endless roasts that Taylor sends toward an ex, probably Matty Healy … and yet I don’t think the execution leads to a very good song, in fact this is definitely one of the weakest tracks here in my opinion. That ‘fragment of a vocal melody’ ends up as the main melody of the song, lasting for two entire verses without much of a variation in the chorus, all over one of the most boring instrumentals on the album and a sort of beeping synth in the background which kills the melancholic vibe big time … and then there’s the bridge in which all hell breaks loose and the song becomes a full-on roast, in a way that reminds me a lot of the title track from Billie Eilish’s 2021 album Happier Than Ever, and that’s also a song which I’m not really a big fan of with the overblown production at the end. In both cases, the ‘payoff’ isn’t really much of a payoff if you ask me.

And don’t get me wrong, there are some lines I like in “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived”, such as ‘you crashed my party and your rental car,’ and ‘you kicked out the stage lights, but you’re still performing.’ But it does feel a little awkward how this whole song is criticizing him for being ‘the smallest man who ever lived’ … I mean, it’s clearly metaphorical, but was there not a better choice of wording?

But I will say this about that song: it makes “But Daddy I Love Him” seem a little less awkward in the context of the album. And again, I don’t know a ton about Matty Healy, and I really don’t want to make this review about Taylor’s personal life, but it’s hard to separate this song from real life circumstances. And I feel conflicted on this song’s message, because on the one hand she has a point—there are a lot of people who will pretend to know what’s best for her, most of whom she doesn’t even know. On the other hand, the people who criticized her also have a point, and while she should be allowed to date who she wants to (as long as they want to date her, of course), considering the notably problematic things about Matty Healy which were going on before the start of their relationship, it definitely raises an eyebrow. And if the whole point of the song is about people telling her what to do as if they know what’s best for her, then what was that ‘soliloquies’ line in the chorus about? This song feels in a lot of ways like an unnecessary deflection, but at the same time I think she makes some good points here, thus why I feel so conflicted on it.

But this just feels like one part of a much longer conversation about the way real life circumstances might impact the art itself, because like I said earlier, it’s easy to forget that this is an album by one of the most famous celebrities in the world. And as ‘relatable’ as a lot of her music may seem, there is still that lingering truth that very few people can relate to being as famous as Taylor is, and that context will likely change the way a lot of people experience the album—and I think it does for me as well, at least it certainly affects the ways I’m going to analyze the album.

Look at a song like “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart”. It’s easy to see this as just another song about putting on a fake smile while you’re secretly feeling miserable, and while that’s a very real struggle that I don’t mean to discount, it’s also a very generic song topic … and also one that’s relatable, and it’s going to resonate with a lot of people. But at the same time, does it make it harder to ‘relate’ to this song when you think about Taylor putting on that fake smile in front of millions of people? And I can’t answer that question for you—it really will depend on the listener. But it’s at least something to think about.

And again, it’s a gnawing connotation which persists throughout pretty much the entire album, and it feels hard to talk about the album without acknowledging it. Part of me feels like I understand the sort of guilt she sings about in “Guilty as Sin?”, where you wonder what everyone would think of you if they knew everything about you … and yet, that’s got to feel a hell of a lot different when the random strangers all over the place actually have an opinion about you and you know they do.

But it’s worth noting that I very well could be overthinking all of this. Obviously I can’t fully relate to Taylor Swift, and the fame has a lot to do with that, but can two people ever fully relate to each other? You can never know what it’s really like to be in anyone else’s shoes.

And when you have as much power as Taylor Swift, as someone who millions of people look up to, a lot of whom seem to view you as some sort of goddess, most mistakes you make are probably going to feel a lot bigger than they otherwise would. I mean, there’s no doubt that Taylor Swift is a flawed human, but aren’t we all?

And again, I don’t know enough about Taylor Swift to really have a strong opinion on her as a person. I mean, she’s done some awesome things, but she’s also flawed. And I’m not here to talk about what her intentions are, or whether the positives or negatives outweigh the other, or anything like that. But I will say this: she doesn’t really seem to care what the public thinks about her on this album. Actually, that’s not true—she clearly cares—but she’s not letting that stop her from admitting things that a lot of people don’t want to admit.

I think the reason I really like the ‘modern idiots’ line in the title track is because I think she’s taking the piss out of the notion that she is that goddess many people make her out to be. I think she’s made it pretty clear that she has a ton of appreciation for her fans, and I think she means it, but she realizes that it’s kind of ridiculous just how many people think she can do absolutely no wrong. And not only that, but it’s got to feel really strange being thought of as a genius by millions of people around the world. Again, while I think she’s a very good artist, I don’t consider Taylor Swift an exceptionally great artist … and it seems like she probably agrees.

And not all of this is totally new. I mean, in “Anti-Hero”, my favourite song from Midnights, it feels like she had a lot she wanted to get off her chest for the public to hear, pushing past the fear of what it would do to her public image. I don’t think there’s any doubt that she cares what the public thinks of her, but it seems like she doesn’t want that to stop her from being authentic, and I have to respect that. I think a lot of people, including myself, have misunderstood arguably her most famous song “Shake It Off” for years—never in that song does she deny caring what people think of her, she’s just going to ‘shake it off’, even if it really stings.

And thus, the song on this album that I probably find the most difficult to pin down is “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” One of the first two major observations I made about this song was that it sounds very reputation esque, not only because of the tension in the chords, melodies and instrumentation, and the way the production tries to sound really huge and dramatic, but also because she’s playing into the villain arc. The other of those observations was how oddly reminiscent this feels of Radiohead’s “How to Disappear Completely”. And I say ‘oddly’ because that song is completely different from this one, and I can’t tell if I’m totally overthinking this or not, but when she mentions ‘levitating down your street’, potentially trying to find some sort of escape by changing her own view of herself, that does kind of ring a bell. And this is now the second Taylor Swift review in a row in which I’ve made a comparison to a song from Kid A, and both of them are very possibly a huge stretch.

But anyway, the ‘villain arc’ of reputation felt more like a way of calling out people who she genuinely thought were in the wrong, and who probably were in the wrong. Whereas in this song I genuinely can’t tell what she’s trying to do. She very well could be doing the same thing here, but I also can’t help but wonder if she’s trying to genuinely paint herself as being less likeable than she wants to be. In fact, there’s a very good chance she’s doing both. She even says in the chorus, ‘I was tame, I was gentle ‘til the circus life made me mean.’ And in the bridge she holds no punches, with some of the most crucial lines of the album, such as, ‘So tell me everything is not about me, but what if it is? They say they didn’t do it to hurt me, but what if they did?’ That just brings up so many more questions.

And then there’s “Fortnight”, which is … certainly an interesting way to open the album. I kind of feel like the only person who was not at all surprised when I found out Post Malone was featured on this album—honestly, it’s felt like only a matter of time before these two would collaborate, as there are some notable similarities in their autobiographical writing style and the way they portray themselves as being difficult to put up with in their music.

And this is one of the few songs here I actually find it pretty easy to separate from real life circumstances, as the storytelling is so open to interpretation that it feels like a fictional story inspired by real experiences.

But anyway, I can’t help but think the second big name attached to “Fortnight” is the main reason it was the lead single, because it’s certainly not the song here that sounds most like a radio hit. And again, it’s a strange way to open the album, and it’s the kind of song I could see a lot of people having very mixed opinions on. I mean, she doesn’t hold any punches here, despite the fact that the framing doesn’t even necessarily portray the ex in the song as being in the wrong. I mean, it’s hard to tell, but is the husband described in the second chorus actually the ex, and the cheating is the reason they’re no longer together? Considering the use of the ‘you’ pronoun throughout the song, I don’t think so. And the narrator here seems very clingy and not super respectful of her ex’s feelings … and yet I think this song works, mostly because it feels like a bunch of thoughts going through her mind, and the desire to take her own problems out on others even though she knows it’s wrong. And if it’s only in her mind, why should she feel guilty as sin?

But sometimes it can still be really hard to admit what you’re feeling out of fear that people are going to think less of you, and again, I think she’s pushing past that fear. I don’t know how much of this album is actually about her real feelings and experiences—probably a lot of it, although I’m not totally sure—but some of the things she says on this album really make you think about her in a different light, and that can be said about her last few albums as well. I mean, maybe that’s really the point of “But Daddy I Love Him”—maybe she just wants to be honest and share how she really feels, even if she knows it might be kind of fucked up. She even says in that song, ‘I know he’s crazy but he’s the one I want.’ And that very much seems to be a feeling she only had in the past based on the things she says later on in the album, but it still feels very honest.

She even straight up says in “Fortnight” that she wants to kill not only her cheating husband, but also her ex’s new wife. And while I’m very confident she doesn’t mean it literally, there’s nothing in the song that actually implies that. It’s not a murder story, it’s a fantasy.

And I really like the way this album ends lyrically, even though I don’t love “Clara Bow” as a song. The vocal melodies feel like they could use more variation, the vocal production feels very distant from the instrumental, and the watery bass feels distracting and takes away from the immediacy of the lyrics … but speaking of the lyrics, I really like how the album ends with Taylor still being in disbelief at how famous she’s become, remembering when she thought about how unlikely that would be. And she questions how people are going to remember her—will she go down as an icon or be remembered as infamous? Thematically it kind of reminds me of “The Lucky One” from Red, and while I think that’s a much better song, in a way this kind of feels like the perfect closing track to this album.

And I kind of feel like I’ve been spending more of this review analyzing the album and what it means more than I have actually shared my personal feelings on the album, and at this point this is probably already the longest individual album review I’ve ever written.

And it also feels like I’ve been mostly praising this album up to this point, and while I do generally like this album, like I said it is an album that feels like it could have been so much better, with a lot of the right ideas being here for it to really click for me, but even though I like this a lot more than seemingly the majority of critics, I don’t love this album, and it’s for similar reasons why I don’t love Midnights. Although compared to Midnights it feels a little harder to pin down what it is that’s holding the album back for me.

I will say this: there are some tracks on this album that just don’t appeal to me at all sonically or lyrically. That’s not necessarily me saying they’re bad, but there aren’t even elements that speak to me in the way that a lot of Taylor Swift songs do. And one of those songs, despite being a fan favourite on this album, is “So Long, London”. And it’s the second time in a row that track five on a Taylor Swift album has mostly fallen flat for me. This song is about her separation from her longtime boyfriend, and I don’t mean to be disrespectful or anything, but while there was probably a lot of emotion that went into this, it really doesn’t shine through in the execution, at least to me. This song has some of the most boring vocal melodies on the album, and the monotonous instrumental sounds straight out of a car commercial, and to me it just doesn’t work at all.

And there’s also “I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)”, which has some interesting lyrics in which her partner is a piece of work, and she wants to try and fix him (as the title would imply), before coming to the realization that maybe she can’t. But pretty much everything else about the song bores the hell out of me, sounding like what you’d get if you sucked out all the subtle details on any given song from evermore.

“Down Bad” is another song that feels like a total dud to me, with its clunky snare, and that annoying pitch-shifted noise that opens the song and continues in the background. And while I don’t have anything against swearing in music, Taylor does kind of have a bit of a tendency to use swears really awkwardly in her songs, and the ‘fuck it if I can’t have him’ phrasing feels a little forced. And there’s just not much about the instrumental that grabs my attention in a positive way.

And there’s also my least favourite song on the entire album, “Florida!!!”. Look, I get what this song is trying to do, showing the desire for escape from a difficult situation, and wanting to travel somewhere far away from home … but in my opinion, this song isn’t good at all, and is honestly quite bad; probably the only bad song here. I often like a lot of Taylor Swift’s ‘out there’ lyrics, but some lines here feel like she’s trying too hard to be unique while not showing the wittiness which she can pull off really well—for example, ‘And my friends all smell like weed or little babies.’ And the chorus opens with, ‘Little did you know your home’s really only a town you’re just a guest in’—yeah, that’s true, everything is impermanent, but it feels like it’s supposed to sound like some huge revelation that’s just been made, and it’s just not. And there’s also those extremely underpowered shots of instrumentation in the chorus, the annoying clicking percussion in the verses, the filthy vocal layering in the bridge, and what is in my opinion an awful Florence Welch verse—I really liked Florence + the Machine’s 2022 album, and I’m curious to listen to more of their music, but this verse really doesn’t work for me; the melody almost sounds randomly generated, the vocal production gives it this really weird vibe which doesn’t work at all with the rest of the song, and the ending of the verse is a massive eyeroll moment for me: ‘So I did my best to lay to rest all of the bodies that have ever been on my body, and in my mind they sink into the swamp. Is that a bad thing to say in a song?’ In the grander scheme of lyrics, I don’t think anyone’s going to bat an eye at that. It’s pretty typical poetry—not good poetry in my personal opinion, but it’s nothing all that shocking or appalling. I can think of way better contexts to ask that question.

And I may have made people mad, because “Florida!!!” also seems to be a fan favourite … but with all that being said, most of these songs at least show some promise and feel like songs that could have really worked for me. And while the production does hold this album back for me at points, I think I like the production here more than on Midnights.

I don’t love “My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys”, but while I’m not a fan of reputation and this song sounds very reputation esque, the production on this actually goes pretty hard! The chorus isn’t very strong in my opinion in terms of the writing, but that buzzing synth with the crushing snare reminds me of a lot of the production I really liked on 1989.

And “The Alchemy”, with some minor tweaks, could have been legit great in my opinion … and part of it is the sports iconography and this song having some of the best vocals on the whole album, but the production really helps this feel like a brief moment in time, which really works considering the lyrics, celebrating her boyfriend winning the Super Bowl and the magic of that moment! I think the song takes a bit to really get going, and there are some extra sounds which make it sound overly cluttered, but the production itself is really strong!

And there are way less awkwardly scattered synths here than on Midnights, which is also a positive in my opinion.

And while I’m talking about the production, I’d like to mention “Guilty as Sin?”, which seems to be another fan favourite on the album, and I absolutely get why! The mixing on this track is great, and it’s got such a glorious, magical sound to it which sounds unlike any other song of hers I can think of! And that dreamy guitar in the chorus sounds incredible behind the astonishing vocal layering! And even aside from the production, there’s so much else about this song that I really like! It feels like a catharsis from unnecessary guilt, as she realizes there’s not much she can do about her thoughts, and even if there was, why does it even matter that much anyway? And I love how she says ‘there’s no such thing as bad thoughts’ in the second verse, and that’s just one of so many great lines here! And the rhyming and phrasing is all so good, too! And as far as I can tell there’s nothing here that even explains what is so ‘bad’ about the thoughts anyway, which honestly kind of makes me like the song even more, highlighting the stupidity of it all. It’s an absolutely fantastic song, and while I wish the rest of the album had more like this, it doesn’t make this song any less great!

And as much as I’ve talked about a lot of the individual standout lines that don’t really work for me, there are a lot here that I really, really like, and which feel like such Taylor Swift lines! Yes, I used ‘Taylor Swift’ as an adjective. I mean, there’s the line where she calls herself a ‘functioning alcoholic’ at the start of “Fortnight” which really helps set the tone for the song, and I really like the ‘queen of sand castles he destroys’ line in “My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys”. And there’s also “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” which not only has a great callback to “mirrorball” but also has some really great details, such as, ‘There in her glittering prime, the lights refract sequin stars off her silhouette every night.’ And the list goes on and on, but I can’t not mention that line in the chorus of “But Daddy I Love Him”; if you know the song, you almost definitely know which one I’m talking about!

And sonically there are a lot of things going for this album as well! There are some really strong choruses here such as in “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart”, “But Daddy I Love Him”, “Guilty as Sin?”, and “The Alchemy”. And I already talked a bit about the production, but I didn’t even mention that fantastic vocal production in “Fresh Out The Slammer” which reminds me a lot of folklore, nor did I mention how that deep, distorted synth on “Fortnight” really helps the villainous vibe, or how the sort of bombastic production in “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” almost makes the song sound parody-like, and considering how difficult to pin down the lyrics of this song are it actually kind of works to add to the complexity, almost like she’s trying to fool us!

But I think it’s time I approach this review from a different angle. Because again, I often feel like my opinions on Taylor Swift’s music say more about me than the music itself. And yeah, that kind of goes without saying, because everyone has a different experience with music … but this feels different. In really explaining why I like this album comes me admitting things about myself that I kind of don’t want to admit even to myself. And I’m not going to entirely do that here—although I already have somewhat—and I also don’t want to hold it all back … and at this point I kind of feel like I’m just waffling, but in continuing to do so I will now say this: I’m a complicated human, as is Taylor Swift, and so is everyone else.

Now, with that being said, while I’ll never ‘fully’ understand any person, if there’s anyone I’ll ever come closest to ‘fully’ understanding, it’s myself. And there’s a sort of ‘brokenness’ that’s been in Taylor’s music for … honestly, probably many years now, but it’s been especially prevalent on her last few albums, particularly starting with folklore. And honestly, the more I think about it the more I wonder if I really think folklore is her ‘best’ album or not. Obviously there’s no objective answer, but I kind of think Red is. I mean, it’s not as messy, and it’s the kind of album I would expect to appeal to a wider audience—even though it probably didn’t—and it’s probably harder to argue against the production being great on Red. Because while I think folklore is far from a bad album, in fact I think it’s very good—I’ll even call it great—it’s kind of a mess, and that’s kind of why I like it so much; there’s no doubt it’s my personal favourite album of hers regardless of whether or not I think it’s her ‘best’ album. And we’d be here all day if I really tried to explain why that album appeals to me as much as it does, but like I was saying earlier about that emotional core, I think it’s lingered on her last few albums, even Midnights—I just wish I liked the execution more on that album.

But the point is … well, I don’t know what the point is. This review all began with me trying way too hard to look smart by using a bunch of fancy words, and then I started analyzing the meaning of a bunch of the songs, some of which was probably quite accurate but some of which was what you’ll usually find in my reviews where my interpretations are a huge stretch. And now I’ve been trying to tie it all together to end this review, and there’s a good chance none of this is making any sense.

And even if I tried to share everything I’ve been keeping inside me for this review … I’m not even sure I’d do all that good a job of it. Because it feels like something only a small number of people would understand … although considering how big an audience Taylor Swift has, maybe I’m wrong? But either way, I’m not even sure I could fully explain it to myself with words.

But remember I used the word ‘brokenness’ to describe Taylor’s music, and it’s the sort of brokenness that often has a hint of hope, but also can feel devastating, and there’s a certain comfort I find in her best songs which really make me think a lot about myself, and while there are some things about myself that I don’t like, I also do have a lot of self-love, and I recognize that being flawed is part of being human, and I can try and get rid of those flaws. And I know I won’t be 100% successful at that, but that’s also part of being human.

And I think a good way to sum up these last few paragraphs is by quoting one of my favourite songs in Taylor Swift’s entire discography: ‘I’m still a believer, but I don’t know why. I’ve never been a natural, all I do is try, try, try. I’m still on that trapeze. I’m still trying everything to keep you looking at me.’

But really … am I overthinking all of this? I don’t know, maybe. But overthinking things isn’t always a bad thing in my opinion, and for as clumsy and messy as this review is, it’s honestly one of the reviews I’m most proud of on this website. But at the same time, if you think it’s terribly written and among my worst reviews, I absolutely get it.

And yeah, at the end of the day, music is totally subjective as well. As always, my opinion on this album is my opinion, and you can feel free to disagree with me. But while I am still kind of surprised at how negative the reception of this album has been, I also realize that my perspective on this album is probably going to be totally different from most people’s perspective on it. Obviously there is a lot to this album and it’s a lot to take in, but when you consider everything else I’ve said about the connection I feel to Taylor Swift’s music, that really makes it a difficult album to analyze and review in the same way I would most albums. And if this doesn’t have that emotional core for you, I could see why it might be a total dud of an album.

And it also makes for a really weird album to give a rating to … but I’m going to follow my own rule and give this a rating anyway … how about a 6.5/10? Again, I don’t love this album, but there is somewhat of a connection I feel to it that I can’t help but feel like a lot of people won’t understand.

I mean, she says on this album, ‘Put narcotics into all of my songs, and that’s why you’re still singing along.’ I’m not sure if I should be proud to like her music as much as I do … but I’ve kept singing along anyway. I don’t know, maybe I’m just a tortured poet myself.

And those are my thoughts. I hope you enjoyed reading me trying to articulate the way my messy emotions influence the way I experience art and rambling about a bunch of stuff that I don’t even fully understand.

I hope this review wasn’t too hard to follow. But honestly, I think it may be kind of fitting considering the album this review is about.

But anyway, as always, feel free to let me know your thoughts on the album in the comment section down below. I do still have more individual reviews planned which should be posted pretty soon, and I think I’ll probably make a post about The Anthology. I just wanted to focus on this first, because it’s already so, so much to take in.

And as always, thanks for reading!

Final Thoughts
Rating: 6.5/10
Favourite Tracks: “Fortnight”, “But Daddy I Love Him”, “Fresh Out The Slammer”, “Guilty as Sin?”, “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?”, “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart”
Least Favourite Track: “Florida!!!”