On April 19 at 2 a.m. (EST), after Taylor Swift had released THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT, she dropped 15 more tracks known as The Anthology, making it a double album.
A few songs such as “The Black Dog,” “The Manuscript,” “The Bolte,” and “The Albatross” were already made known to fans due to them being bonus tracks on different variants of the album that were made available to purchase, but the other 11 were a complete surprise. I
think including these songs on The Anthology was widely appreciated because it was a big gripe with fans that these weren’t going to be available on streaming, meaning fans would have to buy the variants or find a sketchy way to listen to the songs.
I was a victim of this as I had to choose which variety I wanted to buy to hear one of the exclusive songs. I was scared I wouldn’t get to listen to the other three until she released them to the public much later, which is something Swift has done in the past and is aggravating.
The Anthology opens with “The Black Dog,” which is an unspeakably beautiful song if you ask me. This song covers the struggles of ending a relationship with someone and unlearning all the habits you created.
This song is one of the few bonus tracks not produced by Arron Dessner, and it is where we see Jack Antanoff sort of fade out of the album. Still, he definitely leaves with a good impression, and I am obsessed with the way Swift’s vocals are edited as she sings, “old habits die screaming,” and words can’t even describe the feeling it evokes. The feelings the whole song evokes can’t be put into words.
“Imgonnagetyouback” is the next track on The Anthology. It is very reminiscent of “get him back!” from Olivia Rodrigo’s most recent album, as it is a song about getting back at your ex, but you’re not quite sure if you want him back as a boyfriend or if you want to get him back in more of a revenge way. My favorite line from this song is, “whether I’m gonna be your wife or, gonna smash up your bike, I haven’t decided yet,” I love the range of emotions throughout the song of anger and passion for this past love.
Getting back to the vibe of utter poetry is “The Albatross,” which is just an absolute work of art. An albatross is a type of bird that is often metaphorically associated with causing anxiety or guilt, and just that alone feels like an absolute stab in the chest.
Listeners can hear the anxiety in every verse of this song and how Swift caused anxiety in her relationship and tried to save her partner from it, and each line feels so guilt-ridden.
“Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus” is a tricky song to interpret, but it is a lot about looking at yourself and possibly a past relationship and reflecting on how you’ve changed and what could have been.
Lots of the lyrics seem to cover the feeling of discovering they need to leave a relationship, such as “you needed me, but you needed drugs more, and I couldn’t watch it happen” and looking back at the relationship with “Can we watch our phantoms like watching wild horses.” The last verse also really wraps it up with “so if you want to break my cold, cold heart, say you loved me, and if you want to tear my world apart, say you’ll always wonder, aause I wonder,” and I feel that is such a strong closer on such a carefully crafted song.
Swift constantly provides us with passive-aggressive songs about the media and her fans, and I am so here for it.
“How did it end?” is the next track, and it is so clearly a song about how everyone perceives her relationships, but deep down, they do not care about her. They just care about the drama. I love how she portrays the situation as a death and opens it by announcing it. She later switches it to gossip being spread around town. She sings about getting lost in the media and spreading lies that she does not even know how the relationship ended.
She is begging for an answer. The song also has the most gorgeous and intricate bridge that discusses the fading out of love and parodies a popular playground song with the lyrics “my beloved ghost and me, sitting in a tree, D-Y-I-N-G.”
“So Highschool” is the perfect Travis Kelce song that the fans have been waiting for because what is more stereotypical of high school than the popular girl, Taylor Swift, dating the football star, Travis Kelce?
I am obsessed with this song. It’s so much fun, and you can hear Swift smiling in the recording booth. I could talk forever about how much I love this song and all my favorite things about it cause it is just so undeniably cute and full of joy. Still, my favorite line is, “you knew what you wanted and, boy, you got her,” cause it just solidifies how in love they are with each other.
“I Hate It Here” is a profound and witty song about wanting to escape one’s life. It covers the universal idea of just wanting to escape and go to a dreamland, getting lost in fantasies. Swift beautifully describes this feeling and does it with such despair and urgency in her voice, almost capturing the longing to be in that secret place in her mind as she sings in that very minute. The chorus of this song paints a beautiful picture.
The next track, “thanK you aIMee” reawakens the constant beef between Swift and Kim Kardashian, hence the capitalized letters in the title. While yes, I feel like the song is about the issues between the two, it is more about overcoming them. Swift recounts how the fighting helped her grow and become a better person.
“I Look in People’s Windows” continues on the topic of checking in on an ex wanting to know how they are without the relationship. “I look in people’s windows, in case you’re at their table, what if your eyes looked up and met mine, one more time” is a line from the chorus that I think untimely captures the longing in the songs as well as “does it feel alright to not know me? I’m addicted to the ‘if only’” both of those capture the whole song and just the endless questioning one does after a rough breakup.
Next is another absolute favorite track of mine, “The Prophecy.” Swift captures her fame uniquely in this song as she acknowledges all it has brought him while simultaneously begging for it to end. It can be a struggle to be famous, especially when you are at a level equal to Swift. “Please, I’ve been on my knees, change the prophecy, don’t want money, just someone who wants my company” is arguably the saddest line in the song as Swift is pleading for some form of a real no-strings-attached relationship, which can be applied to numerous things. I imagine that at a point in Swift’s life, this career was once simply a hobby, and it was a luxury she got to call a job.
Still, at times, it must feel like a job, the constant grind of trying to do what the fans want regardless of your feelings, and that can’t be easy on anyone. The pleading in this song is heartbreaking, and I feel like I have to step back and listen every time it comes on.
The many lyrics of “Cassandra” are strung together in such a poetic fashion full of begging to be believed. Lines such as “so, they killed Cassandra first ’cause she feared the worst, and tried to tell the town” help pull through the story of that feeling and how people will dismiss you if you know something and try to warn others.
“Peter” is another track that I do not usually listen to, but likewise, “Cassanadra” is incredibly beautiful, and I love how Swift’s voice sounds throughout the song. In this song, she describes waiting for a past love and realizing they will never return to get you. It is a truly heartbreaking song, but the story is beautifully told and done with care and immense passion in each line Swift sings.
“The Bolter” is another song littered with storytelling, and it has a chokehold on me. I feel like it’s a nice change compared to the couple of songs before it in The Anthology and for some inexplicable reason, it reminds me of the old Taylor in some way. It captures youth in a particular way, similar to her Fearless album, though it is undeniably a tortured poet’s song.
The last song using a name as a title is “Robin,” I find it a little dull; that is not a dig at Swift or the lyricism, but I am just not as drawn to this song as I am to all the other tracks. I feel like it just doesn’t fit well with everything else in the album.
“The Manuscript” is the last of The Anthology, and it opens with a beautiful piano accompanied by Switft’s melancholy voice. This is a perfect closing to wrap up the long journey that is THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT. This song is an absolute work of art, and I cannot even describe all the fantastic detailed lyrics.
Once again, it is an incredibly poetic song, and I notice more and more with each listen. I would argue this song encapsulates everything that the album is about.
