Who uses typewriters anyway? The answer to that question would be the chairman of The Tortured Poets Department, Taylor Swift. Swift released her eleventh studio album on April 19th, 2024. Swift announced this album on February 4th, 2024 at the Grammys, after winning her 13th Grammy. This was a huge shock to everyone since she was teasing the re-release of her sixth album, Reputation. The album consists of 16 songs with an extra 15 songs, called The Anthology. These songs vary from love to breakup to female rage, which was loved by her audience.
The Tortured Poets Department was a huge success, breaking lots of records. Within its first week of release, Swift sold more than 2.6 million copies, 1.4 million of those on the first day. After being released for only 12 hours, The Tortured Poets Department became Spotify’s most streamed album ever. At this year’s VMAs, Swift took home five awards for her song “Fortnight” featuring Post Malone, including Song of Summer, Best Editing, Best Direction, Best Collaboration, and Video of the Year. She was also awarded Best Pop and Artist of the Year, making her the most awarded artist in VMA history.
The big question amongst fans is, “Who are these songs about?” Swift spent about two years writing this album. In that time, she and her ex-boyfriend, Joe Alywn, went through a breakup after dating for over six years. While Swift will never announce who her songs are written about, it can be assumed that songs such as “So Long, London” and “loml” were meant to be focused on Alwyn.
During the summer of 2023, Swift was in a relationship with singer/songwriter, Matty Healy. Many songs on The Tortured Poets Department tracklist are likely written about Healy, hinting to many elements of their relationship. Some of these songs would include “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” and “I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can).”
For the past year, Swift has been in a relationship with football player, Travis Kelce. Even though they started dating toward the end of her writing this album, he managed to score songs “So High School” and “The Alchemy” on The Tortured Poets Department. These being two of the few love songs on the album, it is evident how Swift feels about Kelce.
Swift debuted The Tortured Poets Department on her world tour, The Eras Tour, on May 9, 2024, in Paris. In this set, she included, “But Daddy I Love Him,” “So High School,” “Who’s Afraid Of Little Old Me?,” “Down Bad,” “Fortnight,” “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived,” and “I Can Do It With A Broken Heart.” She completely blew the crowd away with this new addition to The Eras Tour.
Even though The Tortured Poets Department has been out for only five months, it is one of the biggest, most record-breaking albums in history. It is needless to say Taylor Swift can do almost anything with a broken heart.
