I’m done! I made it through to the end of The Tortured Poets Department and y’all, these songs are fire! Seriously. I am so in love with a LOT of these songs! Most of the additions to my “inspirational” playlist are from this album.
Here are my final thoughts and lyrics that stood out:
16: Clara Bow—“This town is fake but you’re the real thing”, I really need to listen to Fleetwood Mac, “Beauty is a beast that roars”, very interesting imagery to describe the rise to fame—what a twist putting herself at the end.
17: The Black Dog—“But she’s too young to know this song”, “old habits die screaming”—love the change in music on that line, “esoteric joke”, she’s so good with words. I was an English teacher and don’t even have a vocabulary like that. What does esoteric even mean? Google says it means: ‘intended for or likely to be understood by only a small number of people with a specialized knowledge or interest’. So, he’s snobby telling jokes like that in this context. This is a very poetic one. Lots of metaphors.
18: imgonnagetyouback—Dual meaning of “gonna get you back”. Clever! Is it going to be loving or revenge? I love it! “I’m poison either way”
**I keep saying just one more song…
19: The Albatross—“She is here to destroy you”. Damn! Another song that’s Reputation-esque. “Wise men once read fake news”—Wait, a political song? Deeper meaning to this? Didn’t she endorse a candidate at a crucial point in an election year? Google says I was SO wrong. I don’t really know enough about her, I guess, to really do well figuring these songs out. You see “fake news” and just assume it’s a dig at our orange president.
20: Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus—“…loved you the way that you were”. It’s a bad thing? She changed herself for him, he liked that, she’s not doing that anymore now though. “…scarlet maroon”, another red reference. Short, but fast-paced.
21: How Did it End?—“…conduct this post mortem”, “the empathetic hunger”, lots of rhyming in this one, comparing the death of a relationship to an actual death, clever parallel! “Empathetic hunger” Ah! People wanting to know what happened.
22: So High School—“Are you gonna marry, kiss, or kill me?” I love it! This is adorable and sweet! Sounds like a 90s teen movie too.
23: I Hate It Here—“My eternal consolation prize”. Ouch! Secret Garden—I had that book when I was a kid, never read it. Unhappy with her life, dreaming of going anywhere else.
24: thanK you aIMee—**Omg! Typing out the title of that, I just caught on that the capital letters spell out Kim. Oh my…a late revelation that this is about the Kim and Kanye thing!
Talking about a bully, “And I can’t forget the way you made me heal”, “I was buildin’ somethin’”. This is me and my bully! But I will never thank her. Even sarcastically. Never. I don’t think she’s changed either. I LOVE her kid singing the song! That’s awesome! The perfect revenge! When I have a book published, maybe I’ll thank her, couldn’t do it without her hatred (my bully). Another song written just for me! To the “inspirational” playlist!
25: I Look in People’s Windows—The fear of running into someone you know, sort of. Wasn’t all that impressed by this one. Interesting thoughts of the outside looking in.
26: The Prophecy—Would trade it all for someone to love her, don’t want anything else, lots of images and metaphors, “In shades of griege”, interesting color word. Never heard it before.
And apparently this is griege—grey and beige…
27: Cassandra—Ok who is Cassandra? Someone she knew the truth about apparently, went after her next. This is very detailed! Quite a story. An “I told you so” kind of story. (**Google says Cassandra is someone from mythology who told prophecies and nobody believed her. And this song parallels that with the Kim and Kanye thing and how nobody believed her about the truth of it. Damn that’s smart! The songwriting and the duality of the mythology and what happened to her).
28: Peter—Peter Pan, lots of repetition. Is it about trying to hold onto youth? And not being able to?
29: The Bolter—Lots of E’s on these songs, I love it! She leaves before she can get hurt, at the first sign something is wrong, she leaves, she knows better, doesn’t want to get hurt again, break their heart before they break hers, protecting herself.
30: Robin—Having a hard time figuring this one out, is it about a child? Protecting a child for as long as possible? It’s a sweet song for sure.
31: The Manuscript—Wait! This is about her. Someone said this or I read it online, the thing about her only eating cereal at her mom’s house after a bad break up. But, is this her explaining all the albums that came before this? The manuscript is all her songs. “The story isn’t mine anymore.” It’s ours now and you can’t tell me otherwise! This song was specifically for us! I am 100% convinced. I’m not Googling it because I don’t want to be wrong. I love that this could be her handing off her “manuscript” to us. It’s a very beautiful thought.
And thus concludes my thoughts. My journey to becoming a Swiftie will conclude tomorrow when I go to the release party at 7:00. I have my orange sequined jacket ready to go—which, just let me say for the record, I was obsessed with the color orange long before this new album and I am absolutely delighted to embrace my favorite color for it.
I’m excited to experience my first event surrounded by other Swifties. I am certain it is going to be a great time and I’ll be sure to share that with you. I will listen to the new album before I go, but I have to admit that I don’t do well staying up after midnight these days, especially since I have to work tomorrow. But, now that I’m caught up, I’ve got all the time in the world to give the new album the attention it deserves.
I will write a final post tomorrow as an overall reflection on this journey and what it has meant to me. I am going to try and list my favorite albums, maybe a top 5. I have a list of favorite songs that I’ve been keeping, but there is no way I can rank those. Although, I will admit that I’ve almost mastered the 10-minute version of All Too Well and have since begun singing it from my whole chest in my car with the music up loud.
In the meantime, dear Swifties, enjoy the new album and I’ll see you on the other side of the release party tomorrow. Enjoy!
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