The Tortured Poets Department Anthology Review

Hello friends!

I greatly enjoyed sharing my review of the standard edition of The Tortured Poets Department, so I’m extra excited to share my review of the anthology tracks! Now, if you missed my first review, I encourage you to go check it out. I talked a bit more about what I think about the album as a whole in that post, so today I’m just going to focus on the anthology tracks.

I prefer the standard 16 tracks, so I can’t promise I’ll be quite as positive in this post. I know a lot of you guys prefer the anthology, and I love that for you all. These are just my opinions and my personal taste. Besides, we all know Taylor has no bad songs.

Just like with the initial album, these songs took a while to grow on me. 31 tracks are extremely overwhelming for me, and since I’ve listened to the standard tracks more, I think these songs will continue to grow on me.

I was so surprised to see Taylor release a whole second part of an album. I knew she had something up her sleeve, but this was unexpected. Funnily enough, I stayed up to see that she released 15 extra songs, but I didn’t have the energy to listen to them on release night. I’m glad I waited until the next day to listen to these songs because I don’t think I would have liked them very much otherwise. Like I said, 31 songs are overwhelming! But in a good way, of course.

Overall, I feel like the anthology tracks sound quite similar. That isn’t a bad thing, but I prefer music with a bit more variety. Hence why I prefer the standard tracks. But, some of the tracks stand out and I can’t wait to share my thoughts about each song with you all.

1. The Black Dog

This song is quite sad. I love how the chorus is a bit higher tempo than the verses and I really like the drums when she says “screaming.” I saw someone pointing out how she twists the lyrics of “intertwined in the magic fabric of our dreaming” to “the tragic fabric of our dreaming” and that reminds of “Sad, Beautiful Tragic” from Red which is one of my favorite songs. I mentioned this in my past review, but part of the appeal of TTPD for me is how many references to the rest of Taylor’s discography there are.

2. imgonnagetyouback

Firstly, it’s incredibly dumb that people are trying to say that Taylor copied the idea of this song from Olivia Rodrigo’s “get him back!”. An idea of a song can’t exactly be copyrighted. But I digress.

Focusing on the song…I think this is my favorite song on the anthology! I love the production of this song. I feel like the concept of not knowing if you’re angry at a person because you hate them or love them is common, though I wouldn’t know. The bridge of this song is amazing. Ultimately, I just love the way the song sounds. That’s how I feel about most of Taylor’s songs, because I usually can’t relate to anything she sings about. XD.

3. The Albatross

I may have ordered “The Bolter” edition collector’s CD, but The Albatross is my favorite variant now. I’m obsessed with this song! The melody is familiar for some reason but in a good way. Again, I mentioned in the last post that a lot of these songs give me ideas for my fantasy WIPs, and I feel like this song would fit in with some of my writing playlists. This is one of the more upbeat songs on the anthology and it’s also one of my favorites.

4. Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus

I actually didn’t love this one at first, but now it’s grown to become a favorite from the anthology. (my favorites are clustered at the beginning if you couldn’t tell) This is such a melancholy song. Again, can’t relate to the lyrics, but it’s nice to put on if I’m feeling sad. And the lyric about “scarlet maroon” references the song “Maroon” from Midnights! Taylor’s just such a brilliant songwriter.

5. How Did It End?

Here comes Taylor Swift, giving us two track 5’s in one day. Personally, I think this is the better choice for a track 5, but I probably prefer So Long, London as a song. That isn’t to say that I don’t love this one though. This song really makes me feel bad for Taylor. I know a lot of people would probably call me crazy for feeling sorry for a successful billionaire pop star, but I think there’s definitely a dark side to fame. (I absolutely would never want to be famous, btw). I mean, everyone knows Taylor’s business and a lot of people feel like they deserve to know details from her personal life. This song is a good example of how people want to know all the details of her breakups, and she even mentions in the song that she might not understand herself how the relationship ended. Her broken relationship became a source of gossip, and that’s exactly why I do feel sorry for her. This is a poignant song about the price of fame.

6. So High School

Finally, a happy song! I’m glad this song is here because I needed something lighthearted to break up the sad songs. This song sounds exactly like it should be on Fearless or Speak Now, which are albums she made while in high school! I’m glad it sounds like she’s happy.

The reference to kiss, marry, kill is quite funny. I swear I saw someone joke about her writing that in a song when that interview resurfaced…

Anyway, I think this is a good upbeat song. I don’t have strong feelings about it one way or another. It’s just a cute love song, which is what Taylor used to write a lot.

7. I Hate It Here

And here we come to a song that I can actually relate to! I also hate it here. xD.

People seriously wanted to create controversy over this song when it came out, and for what? If you actually listen to the song, it’s not like Taylor genuinely wants to go back to the 1830s. I think she’s just making the point that we tend to romanticize certain time periods without recognizing the negative things that existed then. It actually is quite the interesting song.

This song is perfect for readers and writers who read/write to escape the world. So again, this is the perfect song for me.

8. thanK you aIMee

Me before I saw anyone talk about this song: “why does it spell ‘Kim?’ Who’s Kim?”

XD. So I don’t exactly think this is one of Taylor’s better songs. The melody isn’t really that interesting to me, and the lyricism doesn’t really compare to Taylor’s other songs. I do like the bridge though, and the eventual message of closure is good.

This is the first song in the anthology that I just feel pretty mellow towards. I don’t love it. You’ll see a lot more mellow feelings throughout this post…

9. I Look in People’s Windows

Y’know, Taylor could have left this one in the vault and I wouldn’t mind. If I’d never heard this song, I don’t think I would care.

I think Taylor’s voice sounds great in this song. I also slightly relate to the feeling of watching other people’s lives from the outside, but seriously, “I look in people’s windows like I’m some deranged weirdo” is not one of Taylor’s best lyrics. The song is also really short. I think if it was a little longer and the lyrics were a bit better, I might really like this song, but as it is, I don’t.

10. The Prophecy

Here’s one from the latter half of the anthology that I actually like. This song is sort of like a grown-up version of “Foolish One” from Speak Now. I slightly relate to it. The lyrics are really poetic, especially after the last two songs. The melody is quite soothing too.

11. Cassandra

I like the piano. I guess out of the rest of the songs on this part of the album this is one of the better ones, but I also don’t connect with it. It’s a fine song, but I don’t see me playing it on repeat.

12. Peter

I don’t dislike this song. But I don’t love it either. For starters, I’ve never been a big fan of the Peter Pan story. I don’t really understand why this song seems so beloved in the Swiftie community. It’s a little repetitive for my taste. The production is very basic. Like many of the anthology songs, I don’t have strong feelings about this one.

13. The Bolter

Here’s one I do quite like! I’ve always loved the songs Taylor writes that prominently feature storytelling. This is another song that inspires me to write. It’s quite a catchy song as well. I feel like this song would fit well on evermore, which is one of my favorite albums.

14. Robin

So, this song obviously sounds like it was written about a child. I’ve essentially never been around children. I don’t really like children. So chances are, I’m not really going to like a song about a child either? The production is also minimal and the song sounds slightly boring. Sorry, but this one is a skip for me.

15. The Manuscript

I apologize for repeating myself, but the production of this song is kinda boring…

Anyway, putting that aside, I do think this is a decent song. I like the line about “the story isn’t mine anymore” However, this just isn’t a song I enjoy listening to.

I feel like I ended that review on a bit of a sour note, because I sort of didn’t like the latter half of the songs. Again, I just want to clarify that I understand that a lot of people love the anthology and these are just my opinions.

Overall, I’m glad we have the anthology and I love the first few songs on this part of the album. TTPD as a whole is such a strong album and one of my favorites.

What do you think of the anthology? What’s your favorite song on this part of the album?