The Album’s Release
Taylor Swift amazed fans after announcing her new album The Tortured Poets Department during her acceptance speech at the Grammys. The singer-songwriter received her fourteenth Grammy, the Grammy award for Album of the Year, for her album Midnights. Swift’s dedication to her music is evident as she is creating new music, even while undergoing an international tour.
Analyzing the Album
Like many of Swift’s other songs, her newest album hints at her past relationships; however, some are harder to decode than others. In her song “Fortnight” featuring Post Malone, the narrator reflects on a seemingly short-lived relationship, as the title suggests; a fortnight spans two weeks. The lyrics “I took the miracle move on-drug / The effects were temporary” indicate that the narrator is still suffering the effects of heartbreak. Furthermore, the two characters are established as neighbors, making the process even harder. While fans know this song is not about Swift’s current relationship with Travis Kelce, a football player for the Kansas City Chiefs, they speculate that it could be about one of her previous relationships, but are unsure who.
Another feature song: “Florida!!!” with Florence Welch is believed by fans to be about the aftermath of Swift’s breakup with Joe Alwyn. While this theory may hold some truth, the artist herself described the meaning behind this song on IHeart Radio as paying tribute to people who realize they have made some bad decisions and must face the consequences by painting Florida as a place for them to escape. Swift’s inspiration for this song comes from true crime shows such as “Dateline” as she noticed a trend of criminals heading to the Sunshine State to reinvent themselves. This theme of escaping to Florida is also present in “Fortnight” as Swift urges the love interest to move to Florida.
Her song “So Long, London” elaborates on the immense effort a past relationship required from her. Her main message for this song is to stop straining yourself to make something work that would fail without your effort. The amount of effort Swift put into her relationship, likely her six-year relationship with Joe Alwyn, is demonstrated by her lyric “My spine split from carrying us up the hill.” This song is full of metaphors alluding to the difficulties of the artist’s relationship such as “And you say I abandoned the ship / But I was going down with it / My white knuckle dying grip.” The song is track five of her album, a number fans have realized tends to be occupied by deeply emotional songs such as “All Too Well” in her album Red.
Swift’s songs also focus on her experiences as a strong presence in the music industry. She begins her song “Clara Bow” with the lyrics “You look like Clara Bow in this light.” Swift references Clara Bow, a famous actress during the 1920s, to highlight the fame and success circulating this actress during her time. Later, the song mentions Stevie Nicks, a popular singer-songwriter, with the lyric “You look like Stevie Nicks in ‘75.” Finally, Swift ends her song with the same repetition in the previous lyrics by relating the song to herself: “You look like Taylor Swift in this light.” This track reads like a timeline of groundbreaking women in the entertainment industry, beginning with Clara Bow from the 1920s, Stevie Nicks in the 1970s, and finally, ending with herself.
Here is a link to the TTPD playlist:
