I have loved Taylor Swift since I was eight years old. However, when I get asked who my favourite singer is, my answer always comes along with the disclaimer: “I’m in it for her music alone! I didn’t even go to the Eras tour and I didn’t like her newest album.”
She has been widely hated before, in 2016-17 (during the Reputation era), and my enthusiasm for her never wavered. Why exactly do I feel the need to include this disclaimer today? Well, it’s probably because she’s also widely-admired this time around… and perhaps far too much.
Proud 2024 Swifties seem to think you have to praise every song she releases as a masterpiece, wear those silly friendship bracelets, keep up-to-date on the ‘surprise songs’ at every show she plays, and practically stalk her every move to be considered a true fan. I still love lots of Taylor’s music and she’s one of my biggest inspirations, but I do not want to be associated with this cult-like fanbase. I went to a Taylor Swift Society dinner last year, which was lovely at first. My discomfort settled in when they played the 10-minute version of ‘All Too Well’ and the sing-along genuinely sounded like a chant, as the attendees’ voices were louder and less melodic than the track itself.
I wish I could talk about my love for her songwriting and past projects without having to acknowledge the overly-verbose and sonically-repetitive disaster that is The Tortured Poets Department. It feels ridiculous for little old me to be saying such a thing about one of the biggest albums of the year. I know, my opinion will do nothing to stop her from succeeding, and honestly, good for her. I just miss when she had artistic integrity. The Taylor who was so widely hated in 2016 would never have released an album like this, because she still had to prove herself.
I support the re-recording of her stolen records and appreciate the release of the “vault tracks” (songs that were originally left off their albums), as they make the album re-releases more exciting. That said, the “vault” existed for a reason. I don’t think she left enough — if any — TTPD songs behind, and that’s because fans raved so much over even the most mediocre of vault tracks.
Credit: TTDP, Amazon Music.
Honestly, she probably forced the track list up to 31 songs just because 31 is 13 (her lucky number) backwards. So kitschy. The 15-20 unnecessary and redundant songs wash out the quality of the handful of solid ones. I have yet to get through the whole album more than once (which I did on release day). I only listen to about 10% of the album voluntarily. Thus, I could not bring myself to attend the Taylor Swift Night this Freshers Week, as I’m not sure I would have wanted to sing along to the tracks. I personally missed the typical Karaoke Night Tuesday, and don’t see why she deserved to have a tribute night (she’s still alive!).
Credit: St Andrews, Facebook, Your Union Events.
To add to the mess, Swift put out ‘acoustic versions’ of several songs on the album (which are not even acoustic) and are solely out there to help her top the charts. They’re still fully produced with vocals recorded in the studio — just with less of Jack Antonoff’s overused synthesiser, and completely devoid of the already lacklustre percussion. Shouldn’t the oh-so-talented, greatest-pop-star-of-our-time know the definition of acoustic?! Also, how could she put on this character of the ‘tortured poet’, then so blatantly be more focused on something so materialistic as the charts? The novelty is poorly crafted, and I expect better as she’s previously paid close attention to creating conceptual albums, ‘easter eggs’, metaphors, and so forth.
With this level of fame and such a loyal fanbase, she could have entirely afforded to put no promotion out for this album, fully committed to the tortured poet character, and kept her artistic integrity by only releasing one version of the album (like she did with folklore in 2020). folklore was legendary because it showed great dedication to her craft. It proved that she was not getting too old to be relevant, and that she knew how to write brilliant songs that were not primarily about exes.
But with TTPD, she’s undone all of the work that folklore/evermore Taylor had put into rebranding and appropriately curating her music which was what made her more likable to the general public in the first place. It was more respectable when she released projects because she knew they were great, and not just because she knew the fans would be obsessed regardless.
Credit: The Eagle.
I miss the Old Taylor, which I used to hate on people for saying. Up until the Midnights era, I still rolled my eyes at those who limited their understanding of her discography to the old Fearless tracks (like ‘Love Story’ and ‘You Belong With Me’). I’d force-feed the music video for the 10 minute version of All Too Well to all my closest friends. I’d hum the melody of famous 1989 tracks (like ‘Blank Space’ and ‘Style’) to strangers to prove that she has written some of the most iconic pop songs of all time, and they’d immediately recognise the tunes, much to their dismay.
… But not anymore. 8-year-old-me would be devastated by this outcome. I still adore her music yet, alas, I can no longer identify as a Swiftie.
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