It’s New Music Friday and it’s time for a little grammar lesson from Taylor Swift. Here’s an in-depth look at her latest album. Keep reading to see what other new releases this week are worthy of a listen.
The Best of New Music Friday:
Taylor Swift – The Tortured Poets Department
Not long ago, Taylor Swift told millions of Grammy viewers that her new record, The Tortured Poets Department, was coming. Now her eleventh studio album is here. There’s just as much fanfare surrounding Swift today as ever. Her new music comes out while she takes a brief break from her Eras Tour.
The record begins with “Fortnight,” a shivering bass-grooved ballad featuring Post Malone. The song has rainy-sounding percussion sneak in and out while Swift and Malone sing alongside each other.
The album is a testament to Swift’s continued longevity as an artist. She recorded 16 new songs for The Tortured Poets Department. That’s a lot of music to drop at once for someone who’s released albums for 18 years.
Plenty of verses read like spoken word rap on this record. “You’re not Dylan Thomas, I’m not Patti Smith // This Ain’t The Chelsea Hotel, We’re Modern Idiots,” Swift sings while paying homage to some great writers on the album’s title track. Thomas was a prominent Welsh poet and Smith is known for her poetic lyrics (she might have deserved that Nobel Prize for Literature given to Bob Dylan).
Here’s an English lesson for anyone who can’t remember AP Literature. Iambic Pentameter is a poetic style with ten (give or take) syllables. Every other syllable is stressed when read aloud. It reads like “duh DUH duh DUH duh DUH,” and Swift performs much of “The Tortured Poets Department,” in this style. “You left your typewriter at my apartment, straight from the tortured poets department.” There’s proof that Swift and anyone who follows Shakespearean metrics are a poet.
Swift welcomes other modern poets to perform on and help craft the album. Florence and the Machine join on “Florida!!!” and she relied on two of her favorite producers, Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner of The National.
For those wanting to hear these songs live soon, have no fear. Swift starts her Eras Tour back up with a UK run in May and will be back in the US for more dates beginning in October.
Swift’s latest era is a synth-heavy record with a hypnotic throw-down of words. Enjoy her lyricism. Some of it’s playful but most of it is fairly philosophical. Swift’s songwriting smarts are on full display and deserve to be celebrated.
New Music Friday Top Picks:
Arooj Aftab – “Raat Ki Rani”
Cloud Nothings – Final Summer
DJ Snake feat. Peso Pluma – “Teka”
Fontaines D.C. – “Starburster”
RIIZE – “Impossible”
Which of these tracks from New Music Friday will you add to your favorite playlists today? Any we missed? Let us know in the comments or on Instagram!
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