The Tortured Poets Department Predictions and First Reaction

Hello friends!

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard that Taylor Swift has released a new album. And in this post, I’m going to be talking about the album a bit. First, I’m going to share some predictions I made about the album last Thursday before the album came out. And then, I’ll share some of my current thoughts about the album. I’m not going to do a full review of the album just yet though, because I want a little more time to gather my thoughts. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this post!

Hi friends! I’m speaking to you from the past!

XD, basically I just decided that I wanted to give some final predictions about The Tortured Poets Department before I hear the album for the first time. And I thought it would be fun to include it in this post, where I’ll share my reaction to hearing the album for the first time. So the intro I will have written after I’ve heard the album, this portion before, and the rest of this post will be after I’ve heard the album. Makes sense? I hope so.

I am so excited for this album! I’m trying not to get my hopes up too much, because last time I was really excited for a TS album release was folklore, and if I’m honest, I don’t love folklore’s sound. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a Taylor Swift album and I love all of Taylor’s albums, but it just isn’t my favorite. And given my current knowledge of TTPD, I have a hunch it’s going to sound a bit like folklore. I’m trying to keep my expectations somewhat low. But I’m excited, nonetheless.

I’ve been wanting to re-listen to Taylor’s discography before TTPD comes out. I’m currently on folklore and TTPD comes out in…7 hours. Yeah, I got this. I’ve enjoyed revisiting my thoughts on her albums, because there are definitely some albums I don’t listen to super often. I always like to share which albums I’m currently loving when I write album reviews, so let me rank her albums real quick:

1. Midnights
2. Red
3. Lover
4. reputation
5. evermore
6. Speak Now
7. 1989
8. Fearless
9. folklore
10. Taylor Swift

two notes: first, it will probably take me a few months to solidly figure out where TTPD ranks within this list, but I’m kind of thinking it will be between evermore and Speak Now. I’ll update how I feel once I’ve heard the album. (I would probably rank this album at a 8 right now, but I feel like it will go up the more I listen to it. I could see it being like a 5 or 6 soon.) second, I apologize if I listed your favorite album low. Music taste is subjective! I also feel like I love Debut a lot, and it pains me to see it so low on my list, but I just don’t listen to it that much.

Anyway, back to TTPD. Remember how I mentioned I ordered the collector’s edition of “The Bolter” CD?

I also ordered the vinyl! And the Fortnight CD single. I’m really excited about those…

I kind of thought it would be fun to pair some songs from TTPD with songs from Taylor’s other albums that I currently associate together in my brain. I just sort of think these titles give off the vibe of the other songs. I’m not going to explain these, but enjoy!

1. “Fortnight” – “End Game”
2. “The Tortured Poets Department” – “the lakes”
3. “My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys” – “King of My Heart”
4. “Down Bad” – “Lavender Haze”
5. “So Long, London” – “London Boy”
6. “But Daddy I Love Him” – “Ours”
7. “Fresh Out the Slammer” – “Clean”
8. “Florida!!!!” – “Don’t Blame Me”
9. “Guilty as Sin?” – “Carolina”
10. “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” – “peace”
11. “I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)” – “Renegade”
12. “loml” – “happiness”
13. “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” – “Foolish One
14. “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” – “Dear John”
15. “The Alchemy” – “Afterglow”
16. “Clara Bow” – “the last great american dynasty”

Okay, it’s me from the present again. I have now heard the album a couple times. And a double album Taylor? I can’t even process the first 16 songs, much less 31 songs.

Basically, I decided to write just some basic reactions to the album. I’ll write a review eventually, but I’m going to need some more time to sit with my thoughts on this one.

This album somehow sounds nothing like I expected but exactly how I was hoping? I love the way it sounds. I’ll definitely be listening to this album a lot over the next few months. And as far as the lyrics, I feel like those are going to take a while for me to analyze. I usually understand Taylor’s song meanings pretty quickly, but I feel like these songs are a bit more thought-provoking and complex.

I will go ahead and let you know some of the songs that are standing out for me early on. I’m kind of obsessed with “Fortnight”, and I think that’s a great choice for a lead single. It might be my favorite song on the album. “So Long London” is another amazing song, but then again, track 5’s never disappoint. I also love “I Can Do it With a Broken Heart” which was expected. I was really interested to hear “The Alchemy” and that one’s pretty cool. I also really like “The Albatross.”

I feel like most of the other songs may take some time to grow on me. I can’t wait to listen to this album a lot more and organize my thoughts a bit more. I hope you guys don’t mind waiting a bit to hear my thoughts about each song and some more organized thoughts about this album.

I’ll see you next week with another post, and later on with a more official review of this album. 🙂

Please don’t hesitate to let me know what you think of this album! I can’t wait to hear from y’all!