The Tortured Poets Department
“Because I Love It” – Taylor Swift’s new album
Taylor Swift performs in Buenos Aires as part of her “The Eras Tour”. photo
© Natacha Pisarenko/AP/dpa
Between tours, performances with her partner Travis Kelce and more records, Swift is releasing a new album on Friday. An ex-boyfriend is likely to be eagerly awaiting the publication.
From superstar to the biggest pop star in the world: that’s the musician Taylor Swift has happened in the past year and a half. The 34-year-old has now reached such a level of fame that every step she takes publicly is big news. For example, when she dances with her boyfriend, American football player Travis Kelce, like many other celebrities at the Coachella festival. Or when she goes out to eat sushi in a black top.
Time magazine, which named her “Person of the Year” at the end of 2023, described it this way: Over the past year, Taylor Swift has become a topic of conversation like politics or the weather – topics on which everyone has an opinion. “She became the main character in the world.”
Her latest (new, not re-released) album was released in autumn 2022. When the follow-up work “The Tortured Poets Department” comes out on Friday, Swift will have been on the most successful tour in music history for more than a year. It is now part of everyday life that reports of the musician’s records are published every few days.
So what can we expect on The Tortured Poets Department from the first person to become a billionaire solely through earnings from music and performances? It should be interesting both musically and for personal reasons. Her millions of fans have long since begun to interpret hints.
Lovesickness and other allusions
Swift is known for incorporating experiences from her life into her songs. Fans suspect that the album could address her breakup with her ex-boyfriend Joe Alwyn. She was with the actor for a few years until 2023.
The 34-year-old herself gave a hint about this. The new album title probably refers to an anecdote from her British ex-partner. He said in an interview in 2022 that he had a WhatsApp group called “The Tortured Man Club” together with actors Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott. Swift’s new album title sounds like an ironic comment on it.
The musician enjoys appropriating stories. Already announced song titles such as “I Can Do It with A Broken Heart” or “My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys” also suggest that heartbreak is likely to be a theme. “So Long, London” could also be a reference to Alwyn. In 2019, Swift released the song “London Boy,” in which Swift sang about love for a Brit.
Electro-pop or indie folk?
Musically, the question arises as to which of the many genres Swift has already served she will take up. Stripped down electro sounds like on “Midnights” from 2022? Indie folk like on the pandemic albums “Folklore” and “Evermore”, or poppy uptempo numbers like on their 2019 album, “Lover”?
Neither the musician nor her usual producer partner Jack Antonoff have commented on this, who recently said in an interview with “Zeit” magazine: “Taylor lets me know that it is possible to be the greatest artist in the world and at the same time a completely intact one to be human.”
The musician unexpectedly announced her new album at the Grammy Awards in February after winning the Album of the Year award with “Midnights.” Fans weren’t expecting this at the moment given the musician’s mammoth tour.
“Why do you make so many albums?”
In the past few months we have learned that Swift’s concerts measurably stimulate the economy of the places she visits. That some politicians are wondering whether she will get involved in the US presidential election campaign. That it can help a popular sport that no one thought could become even more popular become even more popular.
On Friday it will be about her music again. At a recent concert in Tokyo she said: “Everyone asks me: Why do you make so many albums?” But she has a pretty simple answer: “Man, because I love it! I love it so much.”