First thoughts on The Tortured Poets Department

Oh, my god, you should see our faces

Photo Credit: Beth Garrabrant

Name: Satu

What are your first feelings about TTPD?

I am feeling great about my release day strategy: I don't read messages or the internet, I just peacefully listen to the album alone. That meant I was thrilled when I got to imgonnagetyouback and realised the album wasn't ending after all. Taylor often puts out a record that breaks new ground and follows it up with perfected songwriting, like the folklore/evermore evolution. I think TTPD is the mature culmination of what she started on Midnights, which felt somehow more flimsy and sometimes a bit underbaked. I agree with my esteemed colleagues that editing this album would make it easier to coagulate around some favourites but I think her songwriting has gotten so much more impressionistic that we're unlikely to ever get another ATW or Cruel Summer even on a shorter, sharper album. Do I want her to spit out a robotic 13-track Max Martin album again one day? With all my heart. But she's given us Everest and it's our job to figure out ways to scale it.

What are your favourite three songs right now? 

Down Bad, But Daddy I Love Him and I Hate It Here - this is such a lovely song about poeticising your life through daydreaming, which is the whole Taylor Swift proposition really.

And your current favourite line / lyric? 

In The Black Dog, there's a lyric that encapsulates what I thought this whole album was going to be, which is a sort of cry of pain from someone who found love but now it's gone, and she can't understand how it can be over: "I just don't understand how you don't miss me / in The Black Dog, when someone plays The Starting Line / you jump up but she's too young to know this song / that was intertwined in the magic fabric of our dreaming".

Do you have an 'I gasped' moment? 

I actually did gasp out loud on the train when she sang "we declared that Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist". Taylor, there could 100 people in a room who don't love your Charlie Puth reference but I do.

What's the Taylor related question currently on your mind? 

Now that we've settled what popstar Taylor listens to (Charlie Puth), I'd love her to give us names for the first part of the TTPD anthology and the second part. I think we can agree that part 1 runs from Fortnight to Clara Bow, and part 2 from The Black Dog to the Manuscript but could they be e.g. The Tortured Poets Department and The Tortured Poets Department 2: Back in the Habit?

What's your prediction on how TTPD will impact the eras tour setlist? 

We're going to lose some songs from various eras and get a new section for TTPD. It will create stupendous amounts of hype and I'm excited to see who she gets to do the costumes for the Poets section - fingers crossed for someone up-and-coming but my guess is Daniel Rosebery at Schiaparelli, who designed her white look for the Grammys. Then once this tour is done is I truly hope she does whatever she wants to do - it will take us years to process TTPD so we have plenty of homework.

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Name: Arielle aka The Crystal Ball Swiftie (because my predictions are usually correct... except I think I need to relinquish this title because I did NOT predict that 80% of this album would be about Matty Healy)

What are your first feelings about TTPD?

My very first feeling was AAAAARGH SCREAMING CRYING IT'S AMAZING!! This is my usual response on first listen, because I feel so happy and excited to be blessed with new Taylor music. But now I'm a day in, the inevitable doubts/negative thoughts are coming in, for example: there are too many songs on this album, I feel overwhelmed and like I can't get attached enough to individual songs because of it. Also why do so many songs sound so similar to other Taylor songs (cough cough Jack Antonoff). I also feel very thrown that it's so Matty heavy - I really thought we'd be getting an ATW equivalent about Joe - so I'm just coming to terms with that (also coming to terms with the self-hatred for maybe fancying Matty again despite how problematic he is). It's all very complicated, and I'm still processing. 

What are your favourite three songs right now?

So High School (we love a happy Travvy song!! we want more!!), But Daddy I Love Him & Who's Afraid of Lil Old me

And your current favourite line / lyric?

Too many to choose (she wasn't playing when she called it 'poetry') but I'm going to be really basic and say, 'I cry a lot but I am so productive - it's an art' because it was the one that jumped out at me on first listen. I love how she's acknowledging her hyper-productivity (no really, how does she do it?), and I just massively relate to this. Functioning depressed girlies, assemble.

Do you have an 'I gasped' moment?

So many - the entire bridge of The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived being one, but if I had to choose one, it would be: 'You look like... Taylor Swift' in Clara Bow. Love a full-circle moment! It really reminds me of the twist in LGAD.

What's the Taylor related question currently on your mind? 

We already know about Cardigan, but what other songs on past albums are actually Matty songs? What does Travvy think of the line, 'he knows ball, I know aristotle'? It's such a burn but, like, an affectionate one. I bet he thinks it's cute.

What's your prediction on how TTPD will impact the eras tour setlist?

I think the entire setlist will be given an overhaul to fit it in. I hope we get quite a few cuts - I would drop The Archer, The Man (although I know she'll never do that because she loves her #feminist moment too much), Tolerate It (as much as I love the song, the performance is just too theatre for me), and I'd probably drop some of Folklore and Midnights too. I can imagine her finishing the show with TTPD - obviously with some kind of library set-design, maybe ending with But Daddy I Love Him, followed by I Can Do it With a Broken Heart. I think it would be such a cool way to communicate with the fans - as if to say: I'm here, I'm making you happy, I love you all... but please don't forget what I'm sacrificing for you.

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The Swiftian Theory team

Name: Kate

What are your first feelings about TTPD?

Disclaimer: I obviously love Taylor Swift, I am one quarter of this newsletter about Taylor Swift, however do be warned that I have found the courage to be mildly critical of Taylor Swift. 

• It’s too long!!!! 

• There are so many songs, I’m struggling to bond with them. Is there nobody on her team brave enough to say, babe what if we did one album at a time? 

• Searching for clues about Ms Taylor Alison Swift’s personal life in the lyrics distracted me on my first listen, so I had to go back and have a vibes-only listen. 

• Great day to be Charlie Puth!!! 

• Weird day to be Kimmy K!!! 

• Love the 1989 vibes (1989 is very important to me) 

• Love furious Taylor! Love petty Taylor! Love funny Taylor! Related: Oh no, I am one of the “sanctimonious soliloquy” girls who wants the best for her 

• Really ruins it for me when I have to think about the men whose terrible/boring behaviour inspired these songs. Best to listen without context, apply emotional truths to your own life, enjoy. 

What are your favourite three songs right now?

My boy only breaks his favourite toys. Down bad. Who’s afraid of little old me 

And your current favourite line / lyric?

“Could someone give a message to the smallest man who ever lived” because I just love when Taylor is scathing 

Do you have an 'I gasped' moment?

“I’m having his baby, no I’m not, you should see your faces” hahahahaha amazing 

What's the Taylor related question currently on your mind?

Really… Matty? 

What's your prediction on how TTPD will impact the eras tour setlist?

Frankly I don’t know how she’ll do it, but I trust her. PLEASE May we have the chance to howl “who’s afraid of little old meee” into the night sky with her PLEASE 

Would love a library set, more Emily Dickinson inspired fashion, some true ominous drama on stage 

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Name: Natasha

What are your first feelings about TTPD?

It’s fun to be wrong when you get to be surprised. And so many of us were wrong: this is not the Joe breakup album we thought we were getting. It is about love ending, but in a far bigger way than I had imagined.

At first I was worried; I didn’t love the first three tracks. I was worn out by the mid tempo synth pop on the 1989 TV vault tracks and this felt like more of the same. But the Down Bad into So Long, London into But Daddy I Love Him into Fresh Out The Slammer run was INCREDIBLE. And then I was in. A few days later, I am in love with this album. Yes, it’s long. Yes, there are songs I’d cut. But the intimacy of the storytelling, the vulnerability and complexity of what she’s telling us, the way she uses rhythm and pace to mirror the emotions.. there are so many layers to it all and I’m still noticing new details with every listen. Also: it’s funny!

What are your favourite three songs right now?

So Long, London, But Daddy I Love Him and The Prophecy. (Very hard for me to leave out The Black Dog and Fresh Out The Slammer though - can I have a top five?!)

And your current favourite line / lyric?

I’m sorry but I have to take three…

1. ‘Still alive/ killing time at the cemetery / never quite buried’ in loml.

2. ‘And you say I abandoned the ship / But I was going down with it / My white-knuckle dying grip / Holding tight to your quiet resentment’ in So Long, London

3. ‘I guess a lesser woman would've lost hope / A greater woman wouldn't beg / But I looked to the sky and said /Please’ in The Prophecy (The vulnerability in this song is so beautiful to me.)

Do you have an 'I gasped' moment?

The biggest one has to be, as Kate said, ‘I’m having his baby, no I’m not, you should see your faces”. But I also gasped when I heard her sing ‘you’re the loss of my life’ for the first time.

What's the Taylor related question currently on your mind?

Could Taylor be the person who finally gets me to the gym just so I can sing Down Bad on the cross trainer?

What's your prediction on how TTPD will impact the eras tour setlist?

Option 1: Evermore, Folklore and Lover get trimmed. I think we’ll lose Tis the Damn Season and either Tolerate it or Willow, as well as The Archer and Illicit Affairs. As replacements I think But Daddy I Love him and Who’s afraid of little old me should be going in, and I agree with Arielle that she’ll put I Can Do It With A Broken heart in there somewhere for the meta of it all.

Option 2: She uses the surprise song section for TTPD songs, and that’s why she did all those mash ups before the break. (Really hoping this is not the case as I love the surprise song section!)

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Thank you for reading. Do tell us your favourite songs, lyrics, first feelings and ‘I gasped’ moments in the comments!