Some Prose on Some Poetry
Our poets? They're tortured.
Greetings, Dames Nation! It’s time for a good, old-fashioned Dames Deep Dive into a significant piece of popular art!
Time was, this newsletter would upend time itself to serve up piping hot takes on all sorts of cultural events. That was such fun while it lasted, but 10 years (!!!) into being newsletter doyennes and correspondingly, 10 years older ourselves (there are limits to our time-upending abilities), that’s rarely how we roll.
Nowadays, we love a room temperature take, and a partial one, too. All of this to say, hi and welcome to a very partial, room temp take on Taylor Swift’s latest album, The Tortured Poets Department. You may have heard a thing or two about it in the last week, it’s been a whole thing! Some reviews were positive, others were pans, but it’s impossible for any of them to be much more than snapshots of a moment in time the reviewers spent with an album millions of listeners worldwide had been breathlessly awaiting for, for weeks. The imperative to issue a verdict on any piece of popular art just hours after its release is great for clicks, and pretty awful for criticism.
Here’s where I raise my hand to say I have yet to listen to a single note of the second half of the double-album iteration, The Norton Anthology of Taylor Swift, aka Anthology. I’m sure I will at some point! But I gotta say, it’s so nice not to burden myself with cultural consumption imperatives in the volume that used to be normal for me. Remember the year and change when you could look forward—with delight if you were into it, and some degree of irritation if you weren’t—to a full bonus section of this newsletter devoted to This Week In Hamilton? I’m really glad I wrote those round-ups, and am equally glad that that’s not an approach I adhere to regularly anymore.
To be very clear, this restraint is not a brag. I’m not virtuous for taking a little bit of time with this; what I am is tired. I’m also a bear of much brain but precious little ability to focus for hours, especially the hours just after midnight. This Dame needs her sleep!
ANYHOO, herewith, my assorted thoughts about a handful of the songs from this obscure little record by a reclusive artist we only hear from once every few years. First up, my current cool (but not, y’know, cool) takes on four whole songs: “Fortnight”, “The Tortured Poets Department”, “Down Bad”, and “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart”. I include “current” because I won’t be shocked if my thoughts on these songs and the album as a whole shift over time. For example, I disliked reputation when it was first released, only enjoying “Delicate” (still a favorite) at the time. Through some combination of repeated exposure over time and seeing how well-suited those songs were when played in stadiums, I’ve come around on a lot of it.
My ears receive “Fortnight” and “The Tortured Poets Department” as an all-time great one-two punch of an album opening. I love the way they luxuriate in their minor key synthesizer cocoons, I love (I struggle to believe I’m writing this, but life is a rich tapestry) Post Malone’s anguished guest vocals, and I love the sonic allusions to Heartland Synth sounds, especially Bruce Springsteen’s Tunnel of Love (and even more specifically, “Brilliant Disguise”, although it’s the opening of “Tunnel of Love” itself that, to my ear, pops up in the first ten seconds of Taylor’s title track, tucked in after the synth drum that kicks in with a hat tip to Cameo’s “Word Up”, and just before the vocals).
I love that this pair of songs are so conversational while being so ethereal. Extremely earthbound concerns, heavenly coded (and, if you’ll indulge me, maybe even honey-coated).
I’ve been turning these songs over in my mind specifically as a pair for the last week, but as I’m writing this, the following occurred to me just now and I’m giddy about sharing what’s not a remotely original thought, but it’s new to me, so here goes, anyway: You know what these songs are? They’re dreamy. I’m a dreaminess stan, especially when said dreaminess is aimed at something that in the grand scheme of things is so tiny, but as experienced by the songwriter, is also operatically significant.
“Down Bad” is so important to me because of how it flips between Taylor’s whispery, swooping higher register to a more percussive mid-range voice. It’s also important because I don’t think I’ve heard a song previously about a woman left broken-hearted after an alien abduction. Blazing new trails! And finally, I relish a delicious and fairly understated lyrical and sonic callback. “How dare you think it’s romantic / Leaving me safe and stranded?” is a fine couplet all on its face! The forebears to those lines, though, are from the 10 year-old bridge of “New Romantics”: “Please take my hand and / Please take me dancing, and / Please leave me stranded / it’s so romantic”. *Local ABC Affiliate BREAKING NEWS music*: I just re-listened to “New Romantics” for this piece, and it dawned on me that the structure of those vocals are the inverse of “Down Bad”, here starting with her lower register and not getting to the head voice until the bridge. Taylor! I’m glad you found a way to have fun with this song of wretched and correctly resentful heartbreak.
“I Can Do It With A Broken Heart” is a perfect entry in the category of Type-A, hyper-responsible eldest sibling who’s crying on the dancefloor bops. And! A sonic heir to “I’m Lonely (And I Love It)” by Future Bible Heroes. I would love for Taylor to apprentice herself to crankiness king and formal songwriting genius Stephin Merritt. To really mess with your own head, I recommend watching the above-linked lyric video and following it up by watching the performances of “Lover” and “The Archer” from the Eras Tour film. I read them in a more complicated and textured way than I did before hearing “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart”.
The placement of her pre-“Lover” patter about having written these songs some time ago, how she hopes everyone will make, ahem, new memories of them together seems even more significant than on previous viewings, as is the image of the backup singers & dancers whirling around or simply standing beside her as she sings a song originally about Joe Alwyn, and then leads into “The Archer”. My emotions!
Over the course of her performance of “The Archer”, things go from bad to terrible (or good to pretty amazing) as the visual comfort of the singers & dancers present for “Lover” disappear, so she’s alone on stage while golden arrows fly at her. The performance concludes with her two guitarists way in the background but flanking her in a way that I read as protective (also, they’re there to set up the next era and song, “Fearless”).
Friends, that’s 1100 words and change already — it really is just as well I can only speak to these four songs for now. I’m going to close out with some TTPD reviews and podcasts that have been good, thought-provoking companions for me this week, and some of our own past writing on Taylor:
The forever-incisive Ann Powers’ review at NPR Music and appearance on a Pop Culture Happy Hour panel
The New York Times’s not-unreasonably tough review, the NYT Popcast Deluxe episode focused on TTPD (and one that just went up, featuring listener questions and responses – I haven’t listened to that one yet, but certainly will ASAP)
On The Bleachers is a podcast about where sports and pop culture collide, hosted by Sarah Enni and once & future guest editor Zan Romanoff. Each episode is packed with good humor and keen insights. Their episode about TTPD is, unsurprisingly, great!
From our very own archives, we’ve got Dame Sophie & Dame Margaret’s classic 1989 words about 1989, our conversation on folklore (remember what I said about my feelings on her albums shifting over time?), and Dame Margaret’s recent grappling with the Trayvis Phenomenon.
And! On May 19, for Not Sorry Productions, Dame Margaret is convening a meeting of the adjunct faculty of The Tortured Poets Department, i.e. a listening party & discussion group! It’s a very reasonable $10 for 90 minutes immersed in deep and thoughtful and silly and fun conversation, and based on my experience with the listening party she held for 1989 (Taylor’s Version), it’ll be a yabba-doo time for all!