Taylor Swift ‘Tortured Poets Department’ reviews: Some call it ‘stunning,’ others say it’s ‘hollow’ and ‘mid’
If there’s anything Taylor Swift produces, it’s lots of opinions. Her latest album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” which was released April 19, is no exception, with the reviews running the gamut. As of this writing the collection has a 77 score on MetaCritic based on 19 reviews counted thus far: 13 positive, five somewhat mixed, and one outright negative. So the response is still predominantly positive, but if that number holds steady, it’ll actually be Swift’s lowest critical score since her divisive 2017 release “Reputation.”
But she still has superfans among music journalists. Rob Sheffield (Rolling Stone) calls “Tortured Poets” a “stunning” album that “combines the intimacy of ‘Folklore’ and ‘Evermore’ with the synth-pop gloss of ‘Midnights’ to create music that’s wildly ambitious and gloriously chaotic.” Helen Brown (The Independent UK) is also effusive: “Her ability to put her lines over is as compelling as ever. I defy anyone not to lean into Swift’s concisely charged storytelling … She fills arenas and dominates the news agenda because listeners can relate to her starry dramas.”
Olivia Horn (Pitchfork) is more ambivalent, saying of the album and its “Anthology” deluxe edition that “its sense of sprawl creeps down to the song level, where Swift’s writing is, at best, playfully unbridled and, at worst, conspicuously wanting for an editor … It would help if Swift were exploring new musical ideas, but she is largely retreading old territory.” Jonathan Keefe (Slant) agrees that “it’s the first of the singer-songwriter’s albums since her pivot toward full-on pop that would have been improved by an editor — or, more pointedly, by collaborators with the wherewithal to challenge some ideas that just don’t work.”
Even more critical is Alex Hudson (Exclaim), who says her lyrics here “carefully dole out brief references to exes before retreating back into overwrought mixed metaphors without ever getting too vulnerable or specific.” Most withering of all is Paste‘s review, credited to “Paste Staff,” which says “Tortured Poets” “is going to set the art of poetry back another decade … This is your songwriter of the century? Open the schools.” To them, the album is “hollow” and “mid.”
Paste also raises an interesting question: “Can Swift win another Album of the Year Grammy simply because she released a record during the eligibility period? ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ reeks of ‘because I can,’ not ‘because I should.'” The album will undoubtedly dominate commercially in its first week, and maybe for the whole year, with its 31 combined tracks guaranteeing that it will be streamed into oblivion. But her last album, “Midnights,” already seemed to win Album of the Year by default, powered by Swift’s omnipresent inescapability thanks in no small part to her “Eras Tour.” But no one can (or should) be pop culture’s main character forever.
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