straight from the tortured poets department...
a track by track analysis of taylor swift's latest album + my favorite lines from every song
buckle up, friends. this is a long one.
thank GOD i didn’t attempt to squeeze my full analysis into stories, because—much like the record itself, which is a whopping 31 tracks, this post-mortem is anything but short. i’ll admit that i petered out (pun not intended) by the anthology tracks; once we get there, i’ve only written about the ones that stood out to me, vs. going through them all.
my high level takeaway of TTPD: chaotic as hell.
but you know what? i don’t care. because this is an album about the demise of a relationship, likely multiple relationships, depending on who you see in her songs (more on that later). and relationships—both in the beginning and inevitably at the end—are indeed chaotic as hell. one could argue that sonic consistency makes for a stronger record, but i don’t know. i think there’s something to be said for the amalgamation of the thing mirroring the feelings themselves.
so is it my favorite album? not at the moment, but that’s subject to change.
sometimes, music takes a minute to grow on me. especially when there are 31 tracks to sift through. i struggle to choose a favorite album anyway, the answer to that question tends to vary between red, reputation, and 1989 on any given day. that said, TTPD does contain some new favorite songs—as well as some truly excellent lyrics. and that is saying something.
before we dive in, just a note that the below = my own personal feelings.
i have not done a huge internet deep dive on ttpd, nor have i read the plethora of theories on tiktok (someone sent me one about how this album isn’t about taylor but actually, about sylvia plath, which….feels like a stretch?!). my gut, theories be damned, is that taylor is in on literally all of it. she knows we search for easter eggs. she knows we scour the liner notes for clues. she knows we attempt to assign meaning to every.single.word. and so sometimes, she messes with us. not to be mean, but because she’s a writer, and she can.
i do think this album is mostly autobiographical. i think she’s speaking in metaphors and assigning characters as stand-ins for her own story, but i believe that even when she’s not writing about herself, she sort of is. do with that information what you will!
the lines i cannot wait to scream in a stadium:
i cannot put into words the feeling of shouting “fuck the patriarchy!” alongside 80,000 other people at the eras tour, nor the feeling of doing the same for nearly the entirety of all too well or the bridge of cruel summer. it is ✨collective effervescence✨ (you know i love that term and that feeling) at its very best, and i know these lines will bring it come the next round of shows.
#1: “who’s afraid of little old me?!” (who’s afraid of little old me?)
#2: “i’m having his baby…no i’m not!” (but daddy i love him)
#3: “it’s one helllll of a drug!” (florida!!!)
#4: “i’m so depressed i act like it’s my birthday everyday!” (i can do it with a broken heart)
#5: “fuck you aimee!” (thanK you aIMee)
my favorite songs off the (double) album:
these are the songs i’ve played on repeat, the ones i’ve been singing as i stroll down the sidewalk, the ones that are stuck in my head forever(more). (sorry, had to)
who’s afraid of little old me? (this is my favorite off the album and one of my favorites of hers, ever)
my boy only breaks his favorite toys
so long, london
but daddy i love him
florida!!!
i can do it with a broken heart
runners up:
the black dog
loml
down bad
thanK you aIMee
and now, a song by song examination:
fortnight (feat. post malone). did we need post here? no, but he’s a nice addition. i feel like this song could’ve easily been on midnights, but i don’t mind it as an opener here. the sing-song-y nature of the chorus works for me, especially once post comes in to take it home. also, love the nod to “move to florida…” here.
fave line: i love you, it’s ruining my life.
the tortured poets department. this one is giving me 1989-ish vibes, which of course i love. i’d love to see it mashed up with out of the woods. this is where tay drops her first “fuck” with “nofuckinbody” which makes me think of one of my favorite lines in a movie ever: cinderfuckinrella (pretty woman). the bridge here is classic taylor—an entire story in a sentence (see quote below).
fave lines: at dinner, you take my ring off my middle finger and put it on the one people put wedding rings on
my boy only breaks his favorite toys. maybe taylor was influenced by barbie. maybe she just likes comparing the way people love you and then leave you in relationships to plastic toys we love and then easily discard. either way, i’m in. this is a strut down the street straight up bop. catch me outside singing “toooooys, toyysssss. ohhhhh uh oh!”
fave lines: once i fix me, he’s gonna miss me. so simple, so real. haven’t we all had that thought? i know i have.
down bad. look, this is also a bop, and it would have made my favorites list if it were not for the lazy writing of “crying at the gym.” you’re telling me that taylor swift, one of the preeminent songwriters of our generation, couldn’t find something better to rhyme with the word him? i don’t buy it. she could’ve done better. that one phrase turns a great song into something that makes me cringe just a little bit.
fave line: how dare you think it’s romantic leaving me safe and stranded?
also, i wouldn’t call this a favorite, but i get chills every time she says, “like i lost my twin” (makes me think of a line from state of grace, one of my forever favorites from red: just twin fire signs, four blue eyes)
so long, london. wow, this one is a doozy. a sad, beautiful, tragic doozy (sorry, i had to). i love this song, and it breaks my heart. the lines are classic taylor: pure poetry, incredible storytelling, smart turns of phrases that lead you from one verse to the next. i think this will go down as one of her best, right up there with all too well. “how much sad did you think i had in me?” makes me cry every time.
fave lines: i’m pissed off you let me give you all that youth for free + you sacrificed us to the gods of your bluest days (how sad and true—sometimes our depression overtakes us and clouds the light)
but daddy i love him: this one feels like old country taylor, and i love it for that. i’ve been a fan since the early days, and i miss songs like this (hey stephen, anyone?!). songs you sing in your car with your windows down (or if you’re me, hopping around your kitchen with your cat). it’s got long live vibes, with a story arch that feels like mine and love story had a baby. speaking of babies, the line: “i’m having his baby! no i’m not, but you should see your faces!” slays me.
fave line: me and my wild boy, and all this wild joy (it’s giving “made a rebel of a careless man’s careful daughter”)
fresh out the slammer: i interpret this one as her saying that as soon as she breaks up with joe, she’ll go running back to matty healy. and yes, i did say back to matty healy, because if you’re not a swiftie, you might not know that—at least according to internet lore—they’ve had an on and off thing since 2014. it’s ballsy to compare a prior relationship to jail, but given that she sings, “years of labor, locks and ceilings, in the shade of how he was feeling” it seems an accurate reading.
fave line: swirled you into all of my poems (i just love this visual)
florida!!! (feat. florence + the machine). i love florence, and i love this song. i’ve spoken to a few folks who like it but are also like, wtf is it about? and i’m here to tell you two things: 1) i heard taylor say in an iheart radio interview that she’s obsessed with dateline, and that it seems to her any time anyone needs to escape, they go to florida. 2) if you recall way back in the beginning of the album, she sings about “moving to florida” on fortnight. then here, she sings, “love left me like this, i don’t want to exist, so take me to florida.” so! i think it’s a song about escaping after your “home” (your lover) has decimated you. and if it’s not, well, at least we have a song where we can sing “fuck me up floridaaaa!”
fave line: so i did my best to lay to rest all of the bodies that have ever been on my body (SO. GOOD. MY GOD, SO GOOD.)
guilty as sin. this is a soft bop in the same way down bad is a soft bop. it’s got the sing-song-y nature of “my boy…” with the line ,”…only in my miiiiiiiiind?” in other words, it’s a song i will most definitely sing along with when it comes on, but i don’t think i’ll be asking alexa to play it on repeat like i will with some of the others. i’m sure the internet has drawn this conclusion already, but i think this one is about wishing for matty while she’s unhappy with joe, and telling herself it’s fine because she hasn’t acted on it (yet).
fave line: what if the way you hold me is actually what’s holy?
who’s afraid of little old me? my favorite. holy shit i love this song. i probably listened to this 30+ times on friday. cut to me in my car driving to philly screaming, “so i leap from the gallows and i levitate down your street, crash the party like a record scratch as i scream: who’s afraid of little old me?!” for real though, my god, this song. angry taylor is my favorite taylor, and this feels like the sadness of my tears ricochet meets the anger of madwoman meets the sarcasm and storytelling of blank space. i could write an entire essay on this song, and i hope someone smarter than me does (maybe anne helen petersen?!) does. the commentary on what fame is like. the jabs at the people who said they supported her then sabotaged her behind her back. this might be wishful thinking, but i read this one as taylor taking back her power by re-recording all her masters—reminding everyone that they should, in fact, be very afraid of little old her.
i’m also very here for the asylum and circus references. the line, “don’t you worry folks, we took out all her teeth” is like a gut punch, as is the entirety of the bridge. i’m obsessed.
fave lines: SO MANY!! you wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum where they raised me
put narcotics into all of my songs, that’s why you’re still singing along
you caged me, and then you called me crazy/i am what i am cause you trained me
i can fix him (no really i can). meh. this one has great writing, because of course it does. but it’s one i could take or leave.
loml: this one is nearly as heartbreaking as so long, london. it’s also just as lyrically strong, with lines like, “you shit-talked me under the table, talking rings and talking cradles.” if we’re to interpret this song as a recounting of her relationship with joe alwyn, it paints a rather devastating picture—especially given that the two were extremely private; together for 6 years but rarely revealing anything about their relationship to the public. makes you really feel for her, and for having to put on a brave face while this was happening in the background.
fave line: are they second-hand embarrassed that i can’t get out of bed cause something counterfeit’s dead? i love the idea of this—that the people around you don’t understand why you can’t just get over it (whatever “it” is), because it never seemed real to them anyway. i’ve often felt this way with shorter flings that have ended but that have felt meaningful to me in a way they didn’t to others.
i can do it with a broken heart: i have been waiting for a song that reminds me of new romantics, and THIS! IS! IT! sure, it’s an upbeat song about being heartbroken and depressed, but hey, we can still sing along to that, right? i love the “1,2, 3, 4” that counts us in and out of the chorus (this is producer oli jacobs, and mirrors the click track artists hear in their ears on stage!). i wish i still went to spin, because i would sprint my face off out of the saddle to this song. i think it’s a rare artist that can turn a breakup into a bop, and taylor continues to do this (hello, out of the woods). i also love her little, “try and come for my job” giggle at the end.
fave line: i cry a lot but i am so productive (it’s an art!)
the smallest man who ever lived. apparently some folks on the internet think this could be about harry styles, but given that she explicitly said this album is about the last 2 years of her life, i think it’s safer to connect the dots to matty healy. and man is it a full-on takedown of him (the man is known for his jehovah’s witness-style suits). i love the bridge on this one, where she goes full on angry ex, spewing a litany of questions including, “did you sleep with a gun underneath our bed? were you a sleeper cell spy? in 50 years will all this be de-classified?!” it reminds me of “you call me up just to break me like a promise” in all too well (which is my #1 favorite song).
fave line: you kicked out the stage lights but you’re still performing. OUCH.
the alchemy. look, i’m glad that travis got a song on this one. and this song is sweet, it is. i appreciate the references to “touch down” and “winning streaks” but if we’re talking sporty taylor, i much prefer miss americana and the heartbreak prince to this (i lose my gd mind every time the bridge of that song hits— i don’t want you to go GO! i don’t really wanna FIGHT cause nobody’s gonna WIN!). no fave lyrics here, this one is just so so in my book.
clara bow. a “fame destroys all who seek it” narrative in the vein of the lucky one, ruminating on how hollywood teaches women to see themselves not as their own person but in comparison to those around them. i don’t mind this one as a closer, in the same way i don’t mind fortnight as an opener, but it doesn’t do much for me, really. that said, there are a handful of lyrics i quite like, especially around the bridge.
fave line: beauty is a beast that roars down on all fours demanding more
that leads us to the anthology tracks, which, for the most part, are just okay to me.
as a writerly person, i appreciate that taylor shared it all and did not attempt or care to edit herself. she knows her fans will always want more, and so she gave us more. but we will never get to the end of this newsletter if i go into great detail about all of the anthology tracks, so here’s what i’ll say: a handful of them made it to my runner up list, and i’ll share those ones below. the rest, we can chat about in the comments. capiche?
the black dog. this is my fave of the anthology tracks. i love how the music picks up when she says “old habits die screeeeeaming.” it makes me want to headbang in the rain. “six weeks of breathing clean air, i still miss the smoke” reminds me oh so much of one of my top taylor songs, clean (which she co-wrote with imogen heap, and which has a lyric that goes, “ten months sober, i must admit, just because you’re clean don’t mind you don’t miss it”). now that i’ve written that out, i have to wonder: was clean also about matty healy?! it’s on 1989, which means the timing lines up…TALK AMONGST YOURSELVES (in the comments).
fave line: the tragic fabric of our dreaming
chloe or sam or sophia or marcus: the first time i listened to this song, i thought, huh, okay. the second time i listened, i thought, is this about karlie? friends, i do not recommend going down a #gaylor rabbit hole on reddit. or maybe i do?! i don’t know. suffice it to say: the people have strong feelings about this song, and the insertion of the word maroon, which is heavily karlie-coded. by a third listen, it was reading more matty to me (he’s the one dating “some internet starlet”), but it’s a beautiful breakup tune either way.
fave line: you saw my bones out with somebody new, who seems like he would’ve bullied you in school
thanK you aIMee. i mean, the cattiness of capitalizing kim in this title is giving me life. fun fact: she capped it in the song lyrics on spotify, too, so you know she really means it. this song takes me back to speak now taylor, except now she’s screaming “fuck you aimee!” instead of “why you gotta be so mean?” once upon a time it was, “someday i’ll be living in a big old city…” now it’s, “all that time you were throwing punches i was building something, and i couldn’t wait to show you it was real.” this song is a tiny bit petty, but it’s got a country twang and tells a good story, so i kind of love it? also, i cannot forgive kim for standing behind kanye in that moment, so…fuck you aimee.
fave line: but when i count the scars, there’s a moment of truth: that there wouldn’t be this if there hadn’t been you
honorable lyrical mentions:
because there are a handful of truly stunning lines buried in songs that might not stick.
“there in her glittering prime, the lights refract sequin stars off her silhouette every night” (i can do it with a broken heart)
“but even statues crumble if they’re made to wait” (the prophecy)
“she thought about how he said since she was so wise beyond her years, everything had been above board. she wasn’t sure.” (the manuscript)
“the dopamine races through his brain on a six-lane texas highway/ his hands so calloused from his pistol, softly traces hearts on my face” (i can fix him (no really i can))
i’ll tell you somethin’ ’bout my good name / it’s mine alone to disgrace / i don’t cater to all these vipers dressed in empath’s clothing” (but daddy i love him)
and that’s all she wrote! if you genuinely enjoy this newsletter, will you a) tap the little heart at the bottom and b) consider sharing it on your IG stories or forwarding along to a friend?
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I am just eating this up!! So good!! 🫶🏼🩷
This was such a great analysis of the latest album! Thank you for doing this work.