{"id":21041,"date":"2024-05-07T18:01:14","date_gmt":"2024-05-08T02:01:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/?p=21041"},"modified":"2024-05-07T18:02:10","modified_gmt":"2024-05-08T02:02:10","slug":"ttpd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/ttpd\/","title":{"rendered":"TTPD"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Written by: Hannah Field | News Editor<\/span><\/p>\n

Taylor Swift\u2019s newest album, \u201cThe Tortured Poets Department,\u201d was finally released April 19. During the announcement speech at the Grammy Awards show Feb. 4, Swift held up two fingers in a peace sign \u2014 alluding to her double album drop \u2014 when announcing her eleventh studio album. Fast forward to meeting Swift at midnight, fans listening to the 16 tracks of \u201cThe Tortured Poets Department\u201d were surprised at 2 a.m. when Swift dropped an extra 15 songs.<\/span><\/p>\n

The production of the album rested in the hands of Aaron Dessner and Jack Antonoff of the band Bleachers, longtime friends and collaborators of Swift who heavily utilized synths, keyboard tunes and distortion techniques. Track one, \u201cFortnight,\u201d is sung alongside Austin Post, also known as Post Malone, while Florence Welch of Florence and the Machine is featured on track eight, \u201cFlorida!!!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The album itself appears to be the lovechild of Swift\u2019s last original album release \u201cMidnights\u201d and the pandemic-created sister albums \u201cFolklore\u201d and \u201cEvermore.\u201d While officially being a pop genre album, much of the album is backed by a soft piano and utilizes strong lyricism as Swift sings about various tragic topics, such as heartbreak, abandonment and the nuance of fame.<\/span><\/p>\n

The 31 songs have topped the charts, being the first album on Spotify to reach one billion streams within a week as well as being the platform\u2019s most-streamed album within one day at 300 million. Despite breaking records, the album has been surveyed heavily in the media \u2014 with many fans turned anti-Swiftie and strangers criticizing what they consider to be odd lines, off-beat tunes and a lack of true poeticism, rather antithetical to the tortured poet of \u201cThe Tortured Poets Department.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

However, most critically condemned is Swift\u2019s apparent past relationship with The 1975 frontman Matty Healy, with multiple songs dedicated to their previous interloping. Although nobody knows definitively which songs are about Healy, many fans presume at least \u201cFresh Out The Slammer,\u201d \u201cBut Daddy I Love Him\u201d and \u201cThe Smallest Man Who Ever Lived\u201d to be in regards to Healy \u2014 with the latter being a direct descriptor of Healy\u2019s behavior during and after their time together.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology,\u201d the second installment of the album, contains the song \u201cthanK you aIMee,\u201d which, in all capital letters, spells out KIM \u2014 which fans presume to be about Kim Kardashian and their nearly decade-long feud.<\/span><\/p>\n

Overall, the album explores the themes of unrest, misunderstanding, dying romance and Swift\u2019s complex relationship with fame. Very few songs, if any, are considered joyful pop hits, and the most upbeat song of all, \u201cI Can Do It With A Broken Heart,\u201d is likely one of the most \u201cmiserable.\u201d It\u2019s an album for the tortured poets of the world reeling from personal loss in one way or another \u2014 and, according to the Swifties, more is coming May 3. Although, in typical Swift fashion, she\u2019s likely got more tricks up her sleeve to keep the guesses coming and the songs streaming.<\/span><\/p>\n

8\/10.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Contact the author at howlnews@wou.mail.edu<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1094,"featured_media":21042,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[54,507,2855,2856,1669,2853,2854,2857,2852,684,1556,39],"class_list":["post-21041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-music","tag-oregon","tag-swift","tag-taylor","tag-taylor-swift","tag-the-anthology","tag-the-tortured-poets-department","tag-tortured","tag-ttpd","tag-western","tag-western-oregon","tag-wou"],"modified_by":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1094"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}