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I haven't commented on Taylor Swift's latest album, The Tortured Poets Department, because I know it has to come with a lot of backstory and caveats.
The summary of the backstory is this: I have been sitting with various forms of grief since 2019, and you'd think after five years, I know the shape of my grief. I have lived with it for all this time, because I cannot help but be aware of it.
You might want to mock my way of working with it, which is to write an entire novel about a crossover pairing that can probably be distilled down to a single chapter. But I know it's what I needed at the time (and maybe still do now).
That's why while I get some of the critique of The Tortured Poets Department, I cannot mock it. There are certain tracks - Down Bad, I Can Do It With a Broken Heart - that have captured my grief in a way that I never expected anyone to get. And those two tracks alone, for better or for worse, bring me back to my grief.
This is coming from someone who, when she first heard the album, made the complaint that it's too much like Midnights. But even if I don't agree with some of Taylor's sonic decisions, I can respect it. I can't throw stones, given the way I have chosen to express myself via niche fic.
But it's still disheartening to see critique of the album from people who haven't cared to listen to it (because Taylor Swift has a reputation) or who twist it to fit a certain perspective (because Taylor Swift has a reputation). Even if this particular album isn't the shape of their grief (and I genuinely hope that they never experience it), I feel that there isn't enough grace given to allow people to have other experiences, or forms of expression, or even to allow this album to just exist. And that's too bad.
The summary of the backstory is this: I have been sitting with various forms of grief since 2019, and you'd think after five years, I know the shape of my grief. I have lived with it for all this time, because I cannot help but be aware of it.
You might want to mock my way of working with it, which is to write an entire novel about a crossover pairing that can probably be distilled down to a single chapter. But I know it's what I needed at the time (and maybe still do now).
That's why while I get some of the critique of The Tortured Poets Department, I cannot mock it. There are certain tracks - Down Bad, I Can Do It With a Broken Heart - that have captured my grief in a way that I never expected anyone to get. And those two tracks alone, for better or for worse, bring me back to my grief.
This is coming from someone who, when she first heard the album, made the complaint that it's too much like Midnights. But even if I don't agree with some of Taylor's sonic decisions, I can respect it. I can't throw stones, given the way I have chosen to express myself via niche fic.
But it's still disheartening to see critique of the album from people who haven't cared to listen to it (because Taylor Swift has a reputation) or who twist it to fit a certain perspective (because Taylor Swift has a reputation). Even if this particular album isn't the shape of their grief (and I genuinely hope that they never experience it), I feel that there isn't enough grace given to allow people to have other experiences, or forms of expression, or even to allow this album to just exist. And that's too bad.
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