When it comes to the art of carving out a personal mythology through music, nobody can match Taylor Swift.
Over her almost 20-year career she has become renowned not just for her music but also the high-profile relationships which seem to serve as a source of lyrical inspiration.
Therefore, given her split from English actor Joe Alwyn last year, many fans believe he served as the muse for The Tortured Poets Department, Swift’s 11th studio album, which was released on April 19. Which I’d say is a fair assumption.
The tracks on the album – or should that be ‘anthology’, as two hours after its release Swift announced it was a double album with 15 extra songs – almost act as elegies, mourning the end of her six-year relationship. It’s a cathartic confession of a woman who thought she had romance and adulthood figured out only to find herself back to square one.
The fact Swift has chosen to be so vulnerable on this record is commendable. However, the issue with this level of candid honesty is that there leaves a lot less room for relatability.
Part of the appeal of songs like All Too Well, Mr Perfectly Fine and The Way I Loved You is that even though they are presumed to be about Swift’s former flames, that isn’t necessarily who or what people think about when listening to them.
Whereas songs like So Long London and My Boy Only Breaks His Favourite Toys are so pointed and specific that you can’t help but think about Swift and Alwyn’s relationship, as well as her brief romance last year with Matty Healy from The 1975.
Similar to her last album Midnights, The Tortured Poets Department is full of muted drums and pillowy synths, creating an almost Lana Del Rey style melancholic lull to many of the 31 tracks. Which is fine but when it comes to songs like Who’s Afraid Of Little Old Me? littered with Swift’s cleverly written, sassy lyricism, is gets suffocated by layers of echo and gauzy strings.
The album also lacks a defining, catchy radio anthem like Anti Hero which makes it feel quite samey and difficult to distinguish when one song ends, and another starts.
Although in many ways the album feels more grown up, the core themes such as heartbreak and attempting to navigate unrelenting public scrutiny are nothing new from Swift.
Rather ironically given the name of her current tour this is not a new era for the singer. If anything, The Tortured Poets Department operates as an inferior sequel to Midnights, devoid of any noticeable stylistic shirt or evolution.
During her Eras Tour Swift told an audience in Melbourne that The Tortured Poets Department was an album that she needed to write. However, it maybe wasn’t one we needed to hear.
