Or maybe, some say, you didn’t like it because you don’t have all the context. Have you listened to all of her other albums? Are you properly versed in her personal and professional history? Did you even read the prologue in the liner notes that’s found exclusively in physical releases? (You can purchase this crucial context from her merch site or any local record store for $39.99.)
Appreciating and connecting with music doesn’t usually require this much work, but we digress.
Everyone’s entitled to an opinion, but they’re not entitled to gatekeep discussion of an album. The line between “haters” and “fans” isn’t as clear as some might assume. Just as some critics liked The Tortured Poets Department (Rolling Stone gave it their coveted “Instant Classic” designation), there are plenty of die-hard Swifties who didn’t.
“I think that we Swifties, collectively, need to be better about realizing that not every Taylor Swift album is for everyone,” said one fan on TikTok, who feels lukewarm toward Tortured Poets. “And it can’t be possible that every album she comes out with is better than the last and is her best ever.”
When these fans come online to give their takes, they seemingly need to clarify that they are a fan, to clarify how long they’ve been a fan and to give examples of past acts of devotion, such as attending multiple concerts or having a binder for annotated lyrics. “Don’t come for me, but…” is a commonly used phrase to stave off the wrath of less critical Swifties.@hinnyandwinny My honest review #THETORTUREDPOETSDEPARTMENT #taylorswift #taylorsversion #swifttok #swiftie #taylornation #review ♬ original sound - Hinny and Winny
One of the most common critiques of The Tortured Poets Department, even among some who liked it, is the same as one of the most common critiques of her last album, Midnights: Swift’s professional relationship with producer Jack Antonoff seems to have run its course.
Antonoff has been producing for Swift since 2014, when he was a credited producer on three songs on 1989. Since Lover in 2019, his influence on her work as both a producer and a co-writer has been undeniable. Antonoff’s heavy use of synths dazzled fans on Lover, underwhelmed them on Midnights and elicited audible groans on The Tortured Poets Department.
“As much as I love Jack Antonoff, I worry that he is starting to hold her back,” said a TikTok user who identified as “a Swiftie since debut.” “He does have times where he does have a creative touch in the production, but overall it is starting to sound a little bit the same."
Not everyone puts it so delicately.
“This is the most bland, artificial, soulless and just overall fake-sounding album I’ve ever heard in my life,” says another TikTok user after clarifying that they’re a “Taylor Swift enjoyer.” “I would genuinely be surprised if AI was not used in the making of this album.”
The lyrics from the album are also under fire. One promo image released by Taylor Nation (Swift’s official fan account run by her marketing team) recommended a few items fans should have on hand during the first listening. One was a dictionary.
The songs on Tortured Poets certainly have a lot of words, many of them advanced enough to appear on a seventh-grade vocabulary test. Some listeners found the wordiness of the songs too clunky and disruptive.
On “But Daddy I Love Him,” the song's flow grinds to a screeching halt so she can fit in phrases like “sanctimonious soliloquies.” Not only is this phrase unnecessary, coming directly after the much more concise “bitching and moaning,” but she misuses the word soliloquy, which refers to fictional characters sharing their thoughts out loud to no one and not, as the song suggests, to the public's backlash to her romantic relationship. That’s obviously more of a dialogue.
On “The Alchemy,” she uses the word alchemy as a synonym for chemistry, which it’s not. But again, we digress.
One set of lyrics getting a lot of heat from fans comes from the title track: “You smoked, then ate seven bars of chocolate / We declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist / I scratch your head, you fall asleep / Like a tattooed golden retriever.”
“WHY DID SHE SAY THAT?” read the caption on a TikTok of a fan reacting to this lyric. “I had to pause for several minutes because the ick was so bad”
Many listeners find some of the lyrics not only poorly written, but morally questionable and off-putting. One such lyric getting ripped to shreds on TikTok is from “I Hate It Here,” where Swift wishes she could live in the 1830s, but “without the racists,” which many say severely downplays the slavery and genocide that occurred during that time.@rexxtown immediately into the “tattooed golden retriever” line BRO I COULDNT #ttpd #thetorturedpoetsdepartment #taylorswift #charlieputh #fyp ♬ The Tortured Poets Department - Taylor Swift
On “But Daddy I Love Him,” Swift recounts her relationship with (presumably) The 1975’s Matty Healy, which received backlash from her fans while they were together over racist jokes Healy made on a podcast interview. Swift makes the fascinating creative choice in this song to blame her own fans for the relationship’s demise, calling them “vipers dressed in empaths' clothing.”
“I know there's a lot of discourse around Ratty Healy and all the ick that comes with that,” wrote one user in the Swiftly Neutral thread on Reddit. “But what hurts me more is how much her hate and disdain for the fans comes through on this album.”
Others have noted the similarities between the song “imgonnagetyouback” and “Get Him Back!” by Olivia Rodrigo, with lyrics like Swift’s, “Whether I’m gonna curse you out / or take you back to my house” being put up against Rodrigo’s “I wanna break his heart with an uppercut / I wanna kiss his face with an uppercut.”
This move is ironic considering how Swift responded to supposed similarities in Rodrigo’s “Deja Vu” in 2021.
“Great artists steal,” one Swiftly Neutral Redditor writes. “But when great artists see other great artists ‘steal’ and then send their lawyers out to get them instead of just taking it as the honorable compliment that it is AND THEN do the same thing to them afterwards? Embarrassing!”
Rodrigo, Healy and certain critical Swifties are not the only people who caught some strays with this album. The song “thanK you aIMee” recounts an experience with a bully named Aimee who, based on the capitalization in the title, might be based on Kim Kardashian. There are alternate theories, of course, but the person who was not-so-subtly name-dropped is a pretty solid suspect.
While Swift was undoubtedly wronged at the hands of Kardashian and her then-husband Kanye West during “Famous-Gate,” some fans were confused to see it brought up again eight years after the fact.
“She needs to get over it,” writes a Redditor. “I don’t think she realizes that any time she mentions Kim, her sales go through the roof so she’s actually helping her more than hurting her.”
Others cited the lyric, “And one day, your kid comes home singin' a song that only us two is gonna know is about you” and questioned Swift’s choice to drag Kardashian’s children into their feud.
“Taylor may have made a mistake bringing Kim’s kids into this,” another user wrote. “Those are Kanye’s kids too and he won’t hold back in his response. No one takes him seriously anymore but I think he could still cause damage.”
Whether or not The Tortured Poets Department is a good album that paints Swift in a positive light is a polarizing topic among Swifties. Taste in music is subjective, but many fans’ critiques of the album appear to be in good faith, with genuine concern for Swift’s legacy and well-being. Some even chalk the album’s faults up to her being overworked and hope that she gets a break after The Eras Tour.
Meanwhile, the fans who won’t hear any criticism seem to have already moved on to looking for Easter eggs for her Reputation (Taylor’s Version), the presumed next re-release. Just because The Tortured Poets Department is "perfect" to them doesn’t mean they can’t already be bored by it.
