The CHIEF May 2024

Music Review

By: Taylor Henson

Album Review: The Tortured Poets Department by Taylor Swift

Music can really change a person’s perspective on a subject they thought they were educated about. This is what Taylor Swift’s new album, The Tortured Poets Department has done for her fans and others who didn’t realize what she was going through. In April 2023, news spread that Taylor Swift and Joe Alwyn had broken up after a six-year relationship. Since Swift and Alwyn never spoke on the subject, fans thought they had ended on good terms. Since the drop of her new album, however, fans have realized they were mistaken. The Tortured Poets Department is Swift’s first “break-up” album since her release of Red in 2012. This album has a total of thirty-one songs. Swift sings about her time after the break-up while still being on her highest grossing tour, The Eras Tour. She informs listeners that she was depressed and cried “while the crowd was chanting “More!” in her song, “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart.” However, she also had love songs that were seemingly about her new relationship with football star, Travis Kelce. Some of those songs include “The Alchemy” and “But Daddy I Love Him.” Overall, this album is written so beautifully and was a perfect album to talk about her life in the past couple months and years.