Taylor Swift - The Tortured Poet's Department - album discussion thread

[OldHabitsDieScreaming]

Hello Swifties! Thought I would start a thread to chat about TS11 or TTPD or whatever we're calling it 😁Don't know about you but the excitement is building for this old-enough-to-know-better Swiftie and I'll be taking the long way into work tomorrow so I can listen to it in Peace...(see what I did there?)

So this thread is for anyone who loves TS and wants to talk/think/muse/swoon over the newest output from the hardest-working woman in music!

Personally I'm intrigued and delighted that Aaron Dessner seems to have co-writing credits on several tracks - I'm a committed Folklore/Evermore fan and more in a similar vein will be very welcome!

(Oh, and while hopefully this doesn't need saying, please don't bother posting to say how shit/overrated/talentless you think TS is. This is a fan / appreciation thread about a specific piece of work and it would be lovely to keep it that way.)

I agree. Musically it's a more of the midnights vibe and no real pop bangers. But the stories are fascinating!

I am left a bit er, surprised... was Matty Healey really that big a deal to her, that so much of this album is about him?

I thought maybe 2 or 3 songs were about Matty Healy? But I've only listened once.

I think it's 4 or 5 across the 2 albums but that guy is a one-song boyfriend if ever there was one.

Blondie trying to make us forget this is the guy who does nazi salutes for lols

I don't know - there's a few things in these songs that hint towards she doesn't want to talk about Joe. Matt is probably more fare game.

Nah, I’m not even sure they were together. It’s either about someone else or she’s having some fun, poetic licence.

Hmm, I think the opposite, I think she references it often, the end of a relationship, things she loved, the disengagement.

I'm pretty sure "I love you, it's ruining my life' in context is about when they mouthed it at each other's concerts.

@toastofthetown I don't mind her releasing more on streaming services and I think most people stream music now so have free access to all the versions as she releases them, it's just various versions of the physical copies that annoys me. I pre-ordered as soon as it was announced and got irritated at the release of random bonus tracks after the fact as it feels money grabby and some fans will buy every version. But really I just wanted something to play in the car and wouldn't have time to listen to a double album anyway.

https://x.com/alittleleader/status/1781182989939933258?s=46&t=CgGfQxeFBv1WYPqm3kESmA

i actually have a different take than this - than the idea that Joe is so meaningless that he doesn’t get breakup songs. I wonder if he actually is a really stand up guy, Taylor respects him (your integrity makes me feel small), and has made an active choice to maintain his privacy largely which he desperately craves and deserves.

I love the beginning of So Long London with the choral vocals that sound like church wedding bells.

Nothing has stood out so far at all. It all feels a bit one-note and one-speed.

Oh I LOVE The Albatross. The second half of the album is more Folkevermore, which is good for me! Some of these songs are so sad. I think the stuff with Joe is that he thought he could control her. And she tried to change for him, which I think is what hurt her most.

Also, did she rip off a riff from the 1975 at the start of imgonnagetyouback? I feel like she did!

But Daddy I Love Him is the first song that feels like it will be an ear worm. I can imagine it being a summer single. And the lyrics are fire!

I like this bit in How Did It End

"Come one come all
It's happening again
The empathetic hunger descends"

Sounds like she's talking about all the media stuff around "oh dear, Taylor Swift has lost another boyfriend, she can't keep a man, wonder what's happened this time".

loml was a sad one, but no TS song can ever make me cry more than Ronan. I can't watch the video for it at all

Love, men and the story behind each song on Taylor Swift’s new album

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/02bdbd12-5794-41ee-8694-d67d485fb43b?shareToken=f97c38cc13206e95636aed1a92248488

Share token for the Times today

Ok I feel like I'm reading too much into this but I'm sure this album is hinting at Taylor getting back with an ex again after Joe. And Fresh Out The Slammer cemented it for me (although I think we're meant to think it's about Matty)

"Now pretty baby i’m running back home to you
Fresh out the slammer I
Know who my first call will be to"

"I will never lose my baby again"

Fresh out the slammer is the end of the Joe thing and she's running back/again.

The verses sound like Enchanted!

"All those nights you kept me goin'
Swirled you into all of my poems"

All those sad songs in folkmore were for someone she never got over!

The parallel between imaginary rings and paper rings in the outro?

Anyone else seeing this too?

There have been rumours of something with Matty before, I kind of got the impression the difference this time is it was brought out into the open.

I'm dying for the Swiftologist to give his take. Peter must be about Harry Styles, yes? But the smallest man who ever lived... Matter Healy? But maybe not? I love the mystery! Of course, we will never know the truth. She's Evelyn Hugo (no gaylor, though!)

Is The Manuscript about John Mayer?

"In the age of him, she wished she was thirty
And made coffee every morning in a Frеnch press
Afterwards she only atе kids' cereal
And couldn't sleep unless it was in her mother's bed
Then she dated boys who were her own age
With dart boards on the backs of their doors
She thought about how he said since she was so wise beyond her years
Everything had been above board
She wasn't sure"

Oops, I pasted those lyrics and have somehow included a link!

Matty Healy was more than just a 3 month fling. Long term swifties know it dates back to 2014.

"And I'll still see til the day I die, you're the loss of my life"

This song is killer 😩it's beautiful (can tell it's an Aaron one!)

I'm working (not ever so productively) so am dipping in and out of the songs, but it doesn't seem a massive Joe bash as an album? Which I'll be so pleased about if so. It would have put me off her after all the insane hate and vitriol he's been getting by the crazed fans.