Taylor Swift a pop icon recently released a double album, The Tortured Poets department (Anthology) the style of this album primarily focuses on more mellow style music with some upbeat and pop style. Fans had been looking forward to this album ever since word of it got out.
Taylor had been working on these albums for the past 2 years, in her album she expresses her emotions towards her breakup with Joe Alwyn her ex-boyfriend of 6 years and Matty Healy another ex-boyfriend of 2 months.
Caitlyn McGinn a teacher at Skyline thinks the album is mainly about her short-term ex-boyfriend Matty Healy, (singer in 1975).
“So, I think it is definitely about Matty Healy the majority. It’s about a very specific time in her life between the ending of a 6-year relationship from what seems like someone who didn’t have it in them to actually end things before it got bad or to end things at all.” She speaks.
“so, the end of that which is traumatic, then a short-lived fling with someone that she’s had a connection with for a long time, who’s maybe strung her long. They finally have a chance and he ruins it in whatever way. This is just the bare beginning of meeting her current boyfriend Travis Kelce” she adds.
The album has lyrics that relate to both of these relationships but I also feel as if there is some lyrics in there where she claps back at all her haters when she says
“I was tame, I was gentle ‘til the circus life made me mean Don’t you worry folks, we took out all her teeth” the lyrics say.
This is a good example of how people have always had certain expectations of her music and just her general being so these lines are definitely something that encapsulates what she feels when put into this cage.
“I think it does a good job of reminding people I’ve been wildly famous since I was 16-17 years old, like it does feel weird. It’s weird to grow up in that way, and it is weird for you to then expect things of me when you put me in the cage.” Ms. McGinn said.
“People are complaining about the tiger in the cage and she says don’t worry we took her teeth out, like of treating her like something that should be an object that’s commodified and can be controlled, but also the part that you like about her is the wild animal but it’s a wild animal that you can control. That is something she has been fighting against for a long time in like feeling more confident in expressing what she wants to express.” She adds on.
As someone who has already listened to the albums more than once, I will say that the lyrics were something that I feel like Taylor did really well on being able to put her words and her feelings into something many can relate to. I almost feel like with these albums Taylor read my mind and coming out of a tough breakup myself I truly felt like the songs were something I could relate to and feel for.
Listening to the songs for the first time felt like I was willingly reliving a breakup again in the best way possible, many of the lyrics really spoke to me and I felt like most lyrics were something I took very close to heart. “they’ll say I’m nuts if I talk about the existence of you. For a moment, I was heaven struck” This lyric is one I think many people can relate to because knowing that someone can make you so happy and feel very special but end up leaving you “safe and stranded” is a struggle I overly relate to especially knowing I must let them go.
I will say I think that writing this album was Taylor’s way of telling and showing us her tough journey and what she had been through.
“In a very short amount of time she went through a lot of emotions between ending the relationship, starting something new with someone, beginning the arguably highest point of her career with the Eras tour, and then meeting someone who seems it’s going really well. That’s what all of this is” Ms. McGinn said.
This album was a whole other personality shift from her past pop albums, I almost feel like she just wanted to express her emotions instead of always packaging it into a happier feel. This one of her darker, more twisty albums for sure. I liked how she now feels more able to share songs on this album instead of trying to turn it into a pop feel, she is just letting it be what she felt like. This allows us to get to see this whole other version of her as fans of her work.
“I think it was good for Taylor Swift fans in general, to see this part of the experience of her music. We’ve seen her kind of be sad, we’ve seen some more emotions on Folklore and Evermore some sadder moments in other albums, but this one feels the most confessional.” McGinn says.
“It feels like she’s just now letting it be in a way that she didn’t use to before. I think that a lot of people that’s going to resonate in a different way. “She adds again.
To sum it all up Ms. McGinn shares a very significant quote that I personally felt stuck with me, she saw it somewhere on the internet and I think this quote describes exactly what Taylor does.
“Part of her magic is that she makes the personal feel communal. She takes something what feels normal to her but the way she writes it makes it feel as if everyone’s experienced said thing.”