Why I’m Glad Taylor Swift Released All 31 Songs on ‘The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology’
Taylor’s Swift’s new double album, The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology contains 31 songs and has a run time of more than two hours. Even in today’s musical landscape, where every new release seems to be a double album, that’s a lot of music.
Plenty of reviews of The Tortured Poets Department have criticized what they see as its excessive length. Pitchfork called the album “unruly, unedited, and even a little tortured.” In the headline of its review, The New York Times proclaimed that “Taylor Swift could use an editor.” And The New Yorker wrote that the album “suffers from being too long…and too familiar.”
I’m a longtime fan of Taylor Swift’s music, and I think there is a lot to love on The Tortured Poets Department. In my review, I pointed out how this album represents a step forward in Swift’s songwriting, especially in how her lyrics combine metaphor and imagery with specific details from her personal life. As someone who really likes Swift’s more wistful and downtempo songs like “All Too Well” and “Champagne Problems,” the relatively subdued musical mode of this album is right up my alley as well.
In that review, I also commented on how I appreciate when an artist has thought carefully about which songs to include on an album and how to sequence them. As much as I love a lot of these new tracks, I’m not convinced that has happened here. But of course, on a 31-song album, not every song is for everyone. Swift’s massive fanbase is made up of people with very different musical tastes — her broad appeal is a big part of what has made her so successful, both musically and financially.
With all this in mind, after about a week of listening to The Tortured Poets Department, I attempted to make a playlist of my favorite songs on the record. You can think of this as a thought experiment — if I had been tasked with being the editor of Taylor Swift’s new album (a job I am certainly not qualified for) and had attempted to pare the album down to its best songs, what would it have looked like? Here’s what I came up with:
1. Fortnight
2. The Tortured Poets Department
3. My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys
4. Down Bad
5. So Long, London
6. But Daddy I Love Him
7. Florida!!!
8. Guilty as Sin?
9. Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?
10. lolm
11. I Can Do it With a Broken Heart
12. Clara Bow
13. The Black Dog
14. The Prophecy
15. The Manuscript
I’ve included each of the first six songs on the album — this record gets off to a very strong start. In total, my condensed version contains 12 songs from the album’s original 16 and three songs from the additional Anthology tracks.
I look over that track list, and I think wow, if this had been the album, it would have been 15 unbelievable songs with absolutely no filler. Go ahead and give Taylor another Album of the Year Grammy.
But here’s the problem (besides the fact that I’m not a voting member of the Recording Academy) — while these are the 15 tracks I’ve chosen, I’m guessing they’re probably not the same ones you would have picked. In fact, I bet you’re furious at some of the songs I’ve left off and are scratching your head trying to figure out why some of these made my list.
This is why I’m glad Taylor released all 31 songs. It’s a decision that recognizes the wide range of musical tastes within her fanbase and allows everyone to find their favorite sonic and lyrical moments. Even better, it fosters discussion about what the highlights of the album are. If I’m pulled towards the gorgeous ballads on this album like “loml” and “Clara Bow” but you wish every song had the upbeat musical energy of “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart,” then that’s great! Let’s talk about it. A good album should make you want to (respectfully) argue with your friends about which songs are the best. The Tortured Poets Department gives all of us Swifties plenty of material for those conversations.
And while these 15 songs represent my attempt to pare the album down to my absolute favorites, there are other songs on this album that I’m certainly glad I have the opportunity to listen to. For example, “The Alchemy” and “So High School” are both really catchy love songs.
Even beyond the fact that different people will like a different subset of the 31 songs, these songs will speak to each person differently as time goes on. If you ask me for my edit of The Tortured Poets Department Anthology in six months, I can guarantee it will look different. I’m sure yours will, too. We’ll all have different things going on in our lives by then and will be looking for music that speaks to us in new ways.
As we all move through these different seasons of our lives, The Tortured Poets Department will be there to provide the soundtrack — all 31 songs of it.
You can listen to ‘The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology’ (and make your own playlist of your favorite songs from the album) on Spotify, Apple Music, or wherever you stream your music.
