I put narcotics in all of my posts, and that's why you still think I'm the most
I stand before you with a summary of my findings, to date, on Taylor Swift's The Tortured Poets Department
As I did with the Beyoncé album, I’d like to share with you my Slate piece about the new Taylor Swift album, The Tortured Poets Department—as well as some backstage notes.
This was a night-of-release review—unlike some critics, I didn’t have access to an advance. I did hear the album a few hours early, after it leaked on Thursday. But those early reviewers and leak listeners didn’t know there was another whole half of the “double album” coming at 2 in the morning. (It’s not really a double album; these are disposable bonus tracks.) It all kind of happened in, as my editor Forrest Wickman joked, “the fog of war.” Thankfully, Forrest did let me file later in the day this time, so I wasn’t going on no sleep at all.
There are limits to how definitive I want to be under those circumstances. A Facebook friend asked why I seemed to be looking for other angles on an album I didn’t seem to love, and if it’s verboten for critics today to say a Swift album is bad. Here’s how I answered:
A critic absolutely could do that — Amanda Petrusich did in The New Yorker today — but I don't feel that in a clear-cut way. I also would hesitate to make some kind of bold ruling on the basis of less than a day's familiarity with it. (If I could’ve reviewed it a week from now, I would have.) So I tried to represent both the aspects that I don't like and the things I do find attractive. In particular, I tried to point towards some differences between my wants and expectations as a middle-aged man with certain tastes, and what many of her fans may want and expect. My hope is that working through all that is more interesting than some kind of thumbs-up, thumbs-down assessment.
That said I’m happy to declare that two-thirds of the “anthology” back-end tracks are crap. And that Charlie Puth does not need to be a bigger artist.
I tweeted this stray observation that didn’t make it to the page:
I’d be eager to hear your thoughts about TTPD, my review, or the meta-critical issues of Taylor Swift reviewing in 2024.
In other news: This Billboard story about the Tranzac by Rosie Long Decter is required reading for Toronto musicgoers. Hope to see many of you tonight at the fundraiser with Sandro Perri, Masahiro Takahashi, and Anne Bourne (Sat., April 20).
Upcoming in “Crritic!”: Some overdue recent live-show notes, a potted history of pop-culture criticism in Toronto, and a survey of Patricia Highsmith screen adaptations.
If you need to turn around a review of the new Billie Eilish album in a day, at least it only includes 10 songs!
Really enjoyed your Slate piece. Wrote about the album(s) this week for my Substack (https://tomwilliamswrites.substack.com/p/review-the-tortured-poets-department) and felt a lot of the same things you did after listening to it. It's not nearly as bad an album as some are making out, but it sounds far too similar to Midnights and often the lyrics, rather than telling an independently compelling story, seem to require a lot of buy-in to Taylor Swift's brand and all the lore that surrounds it.