The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the views of his campus.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Conn Coll chapter.
On April 19, 2024, Taylor Swift releases not one, but two new albums. With 31 new songs in total featured on THE DEPARTMENT OF TORTURED POETS: THE ANTHOLOGY, it’s clear that those of us at Her Campus Conn who are Swifties will be sated for a while. Here are some of our thoughts on the release:
Caitlin Boyd ’24
It’s way too long.
Caroline Snyder ’26
I enjoyed most THE DEPARTMENT OF TORTURED POETS! It’s definitely long enough, but I honestly don’t find it unbearable, and I also feel like people would complain if it were shorter as well. A few songs were disappointing, but there were some really great things in there – I particularly like “Guilty as Sin?” “Cassandra,” “The Manuscript,” and “The Littlest Man Ever.” I think I was hoping for a little more folklore Or always type of sound, because these are my favorite Taylor Swift albums, but I really enjoyed it in this album. My main criticism would probably be the stupid line about the 1830s… What the hell was that? Overall, though, I really enjoyed the album, and even the songs I didn’t initially like definitely won me over. Taylor Swift is an incredible songwriter.
Madeline Motes ’27
To be honest, THE DEPARTMENT OF TORTURED POETS didn’t turn out to have the vibe I was hoping for. A lot of the songs sounded very similar and they blended together overall. There are, however, a few exceptions. “Florida!!!” was one of those exceptions for me, and one of my favorites on the album, along with “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” and “I hate it here.” I’m even more excited for TV Representative because it’s my favorite era. “The Black Dog” is another of THE ANTHOLOGY (the 2am set of songs) where you really have to pay attention to the lyrics to really appreciate it. Overall, it’s a solid 5.5/10 for me, and it’s been fun speculating which songs are about who!
Olivia Stacey ’27
At first I was disappointed by TTP. I like some of the lyrics, but I was hoping for more musicality. For me nothing will ever beat folklore. Still, as I play the album more this week, I’m starting to like “Fortnight,” “I Look in People’s Windows,” and “Fresh Out the Slammer.” Many of the songs are super romantic, but you have to listen carefully to the lyrics. The songs I don’t like, I would enjoy if they were just poems. A common criticism I’ve heard about the album is that most of the songs sound the same. I think it’s because the focus is supposed to be more on the lyrics and their function as poetry rather than the music, which is why I think some songs would be better as simple poems. I love the aesthetic of THE DEPARTMENT OF TORTURED POETSand I can’t wait to see what songs Swift chooses to perform live!
Catherine Gwinnett ’24
Full disclosure: I haven’t listened to the full album and don’t know much about it beyond X (formerly Twitter) memes. The songs I’ve heard are good, but to always have an opinion (and I still do), I think it’s interesting how huge pop artists are returning to Western music trends. I noticed that in several songs, such as “I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)” and “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” “, there are a lot of particularly vibrant and deeper guitar notes, which generally characterize Western folk music. . In collaboration with the iconic Beyoncé COWBOY CARTER album, and probably many other musicians and albums that I unfortunately don’t know about, I like to think that western and country are coming back into the mainstream. Coming from North Carolina, folk and bluegrass are two of my favorite genres!
Lara Beckius ’24
To be completely honest, THE DEPARTMENT OF TORTURED POETS hasn’t made its way into my daily Spotify listening like COWBOY CARTER yes, but I continue to be amazed by Taylor Swift, her abilities as a musician and songwriter…and her fans. My favorite song so far is “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?” due to the instrumentation and intensity of a film’s soundtrack. If I had to describe a correlation between my musical tastes and Swift’s discography, the more orchestration there is, the more I like a song. I also liked the changes TikTok made to this one. It will be interesting to see how the public’s reception to THE DEPARTMENT OF TORTURED POETS grows and changes over time, but until then I’ll wait patiently for Dua to give up Radical optimism next week.
