ÊI think The Tortured Poets Department is an unremarkable album. If not the musical stagnation of the invincible ship called Taylor Swift.

I have to say this clearly: I am a big fan of Taylor. Taylor Swift’s new CD that I ordered a month in advance was on the porch on the afternoon of April 19. I listened to all 31 new songs in one sitting, so I wasn’t too curious or eager to “unbox”. For Taylor Swift fans like me, owning a Taylor Swift item has more spiritual meaning than just listening to new songs.

I listened to 31 songs in turn while sitting on the bus from home to school. Strangely, the 31 songs slipped out of my head.

I listened to it again while riding the bus home from school, and the melodies of a few songs remained in my head. The rest, to be honest, still slipped out of my head.

The feeling of being a 15-year fan of Taylor Swift with skepticism about the new album is not an easy thing, especially in the mornings when the whole world is talking about Taylor Swift with compliments, ” This must be the new Album of the year!”. Am I strong enough to comment back on my friend’s status saying, “no, The Tortured Poets Department cannot be the album of the year”.

“No, The Tortured Poets Department cannot be album of the year”

But I’m cautious. I googled “Does anyone think that the new album of Taylor Swift is not good?” – “Does anyone think Taylor Swift’s new album isn’t very good?”.

A topic on Reddit appeared with a similar question. Right below the question was a comment, “Hey, I had to come here and ask everyone because surely publicly criticizing Taylor Swift is no different from choosing death. Swifties definitely won’t forgive you.”

I laughed in sympathy. “That’s right, if you publicly say Taylor Swift’s new album is not good, you are definitely a new kamikaze in the 21st century.”

I took a deep breath and thought, “but I’m qualified enough to state my opinion fairly, right? I’ve been a Taylor Swift fan for 15 years, I have almost enough. Taylor’s CD, know almost all the songs and I also went to see her concert and even re-watched the concert film 3 times. I am a ‘hardcore fan’ of Taylor Swift “.

To me, “The Tortured Poets Department” is an album that shows Taylor Swift’s lack of musical creativity compared to previous albums. If I ever use the word “good” or “not good”, please assume that it is my personal opinion.

Releasing 31 songs on a new album is an effort of hard work and a lot of “fan-loving” (although I’m a bit sad because when I ordered early, the album I received only had part I, which meant I had to buy more. 1 more CD if you want to have enough. This is something I sometimes don’t like about the way Taylor Swift does too much business, but it’s okay, it’s not a big deal). The whole world was overwhelmed by Taylor’s incredible hard work, admiring her acumen in releasing an album just in time to tell the story of the 3 men who passed away in her life in just 1 year. Taylor doesn’t miss a moment to make people stop talking about her, whether it’s about her music or her personal story.

However, 31 songs is really a double-edged sword. Looking at Taylor Swift’s schedule over the past 2 years, she has gone on dozens of tours throughout the year and recorded 1989 Taylor’s version, meaning the time spent on “The Tortured Poets Department” had to be shared among many. Other category. She does not have enough time to renew and upgrade her creativity with music. Chris Murphy, a writer for Vanity Fair, commented. “It’s as if you have to produce too much… too fast…. in an attempt to completely dominate the market, rather than produce a significant product…”. And in this case, 31 songs become a contradiction. People admire his hard work, intelligence, ability to write lyrics and tell stories… but that’s almost all. Because if the new song doesn’t have anything groundbreaking, the large number of songs will only keep listeners stuck in similar loops. And unfortunately, The Tortured Poets Department falls into that situation.

31 songs is truly a double-edged sword!

Of course, this does not mean that the album “The Tortured Poets Department” will be a failure in terms of sales. With a huge number of fans and increasing day by day, plus the number of people curious to see what new things Taylor Swift will do, “The Tortured Poets Department” became the album with the record number of streams in a day on Spotify with more than 300 million streams. Streaming is not something that surprises me.

But as a Taylor Swift fan, I care more about album quality than such metrics.

“The Tortured Poets Department” is like an extension of folklore, evermore, and Midnights with a focus on poetry and storytelling in the lyrics. I still appreciate Taylor Swift’s storytelling ability, but with “The Tortured Poets Department”, the audience feels like they are eating a somewhat old party. Storytelling or poetry needs to be in harmony with melody and new breakthroughs in music; “folklore” and “evermore” are a combination of indie folk, folk-pop, alternative rock, chamber rock – quite new points in previous albums, then midnights returned to a slightly pop style ( synth-pop, dream pop) and still retains the quality of the lyrics.

But what does “The Tortured Poets Department” have? Many fans and experts believe that the stories in “The Exiled Poet” sound similar to many other breakup-themed songs that Taylor Swift has composed. The theme is not too new, the metaphors in the lyrics are not groundbreaking, the music is like a combination of a few previous albums but still typical of pop. I also often pay attention to the hooks, which are the highlight of many previous songs, but perhaps in the whole album “The Tortured Poets Department”, I can only pick out 1-2 okay hooks. When looking closely at friends’ compliments for the new album, most people are excited because there is a new collection of quotes for love stories (especially breakups), new memes… The number of songs that are praised or counted on the fingers of one hand are “So Long, London”, “Fortnight”, “My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys”….

And on the other hand, many newspapers also released a ranking of the 10 worst lyrics in “The Tortured Poets Department” – many people think that Taylor Swift can’t even keep up her form with writing lyrics, and many listen to them. very “cringy” – cheesy and old. I have no comments on these reviews because I know that I will be emotional when commenting on Taylor Swift.

Many audiences joke that no poet is “damned” – it’s the listeners who are “damned” when they have to listen to an album with melodies that don’t change too much that you sometimes hear. I didn’t even know it was a new song.

Many commentators say that one is that Taylor Swift is in a comfortable, safe zone with music because she knows that she has a strong fan base ready to consume all new products no matter the quality. Second, Taylor Swift really hasn’t found a new direction. Taylor Swift can really still innovate herself with her abilities but is it time for Taylor Swift to think about collaborating with producers other than Jack Antonoff? This is something that has been in question for a while, and not just when “The Tortured Poets Department” came out. Many people are quite tired of the synth bass lines used by Jack Antonoff in so many songs. Taylor Swift also seems to have no one to edit her lyrics anymore. I understand that as an artist, freedom in music and expression is important – and to reach that level requires a certain amount of success. However, having an editor does not make Taylor Swift lose her freedom in music when her perspective and personality are bold enough.

I agree that it takes time to listen and absorb an album, but with previous albums like folklore, evermore or 1989, the audience really found the “bright spots”, even many people (including I) consider 1989 or evermore to be a “non-skip” album – meaning I don’t need to skip any songs as the quality is very good. Taylor Swift fans can say that this is a very personal album and you have to understand Taylor Swift to fully understand the “good stuff”. I do not think so. Taylor Swift has released a popular music product with dozens of commercial items and a long-term promotional strategy, which means that it is not just a “very personal” or “just for real fans”. If it is a public and widely popular music product, fans must accept that the audience has the right to not like it and cannot force listeners to try to understand Taylor Swift’s entire life to find the good things.

Art is always a field that needs constant change and upgrading from the artist himself. Taylor will still be praised for her new product by her huge and extremely loyal fanbase, because they just need her to release music. But if we only do that and seek to break new charts or sales milestones through sales of different versions of an album – is artistry giving way to industry? It took Beyonce 3 years to make the world bow to her masterpiece Lemonade with the painful and personal conclusions of a woman experiencing betrayal, and then it took another 3 years for her to release Renaissance. full of joy and freedom from black heritage. 2 years after Renaisance, Beyonce suddenly released Cowboy Carter – an album with 28 songs heavily influenced by country music – music that is traditionally associated with white Americans.

As a music lover, I look forward to seeing Taylor transform herself and invest more in each album when released, instead of releasing similar songs and each album is only different in concept. and story. Because I always look at her as one of the great artists of this century. I look forward to once again seeing Taylor wow the world like when she shed her country music princess image with 1989, or suddenly let the public see a more thoughtful and mature face with evermore.

Here I do not mean to put Taylor Swift and Beyonce on a scale, but just want to talk about the creative process of an artist who needs a lot of time to research, hone and upgrade their art. own art. It might be better, it might be worse, but you definitely can’t stand still and swim forever in a safe water area. Because for an artist, that kills creativity.

Taylor Swift needs a break!

Taylor Swift needs a break from such intense activity and Taylor Swift fans also need to accept that not every Taylor Swift album will become “Grammy material” or be successful in every aspect. I like Taylor Swift as an artist – a person and it is completely natural to accept an artist with imperfect products, as a human being with imperfections. It’s a healthy fan-idol relationship.

If you can’t accept that Taylor Swift has “imperfections” like a bad album, you won’t be able to go a long way with an artist because there will certainly be times when the next wave will surpass the previous one.

I always hope that one day, Taylor Swift can become the second musician/artist to win the Nobel Literature Prize, after Bob Dylan. To get to that point, perhaps Taylor Swift needs some time to truly rest, like the way she once gave birth to folklore.

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