The Tortured Poets Department is Taylor Swift’s most forgettable album

Taylor Swift’s music has meant a lot to me in my life. Moments of my teenage years have been textured by her albums, from Speak Now (2010) to Folklore and Evermore (2020); I can almost physically remember, as Rayne Fisher-Quann wrote in her Substack newsletter ‘Notes from the end of summer’, how I felt at the ages of 14 and 21, through her songs. Her lyrics can be so profound that I can almost forgive when her music can feel offensively bad (I’m looking at you Lover (2019) and Midnights (2022)). 

When she first announced her 11th album, The Tortured Poets Department (TTPD), at the Grammy’s earlier this year, I, like most people, felt slightly annoyed that she would once again dominate the charts and thus the discourse. But at the same time, I was hopeful. Producing another album so close to Midnights would mean she wouldn’t regurgitate the same predictable (and slightly annoying) pop sound. While TTPD does differ from Midnights (still poppy but in a much more understated way), it is, unfortunately, a worse album. 

Being a Swift fan can feel incredibly frustrating because you know she can write and create music that feels profoundly transformative. But her “tireless pursuit of superstardom”, as Laura Molloy writes in her review of the album for NME, “is now plaguing her discography”. As she creates no time for herself to develop as an artist, her art is suffering; and it’s a goddamn shame.