My top three songs on Taylor Swift’s TTPD: The Anthology
For any confused consumers out there TTPD is short-hand for Taylor Swift’s newest album, The Tortured Poets Department (2024), and the “Anthology” refers to the extended version of the album that features bonus songs. Jumping into this, picking just three songs was virtually impossible given that there are 31 to choose from but I did my best, and here are the results.
“But Daddy I Love Him”
“But Daddy I Love Him” tells the story of a forbidden love and one that could be compared to “Suds in the Bucket” by Sara Evans. You may think this is a crazy take, but keep an open mind. This song could also be related to Swift’s earlier song “Love Story,” especially in that in both songs’ story, the fathers grow to love the man their daughter runs away with. Overall this piece gave an ode to Swift’s first album with how the instrumentals pair with the vocals in a way she had not replicated since her debut album.
“The Albatross”
This song balances on the thin line of men being warned about dangerous women and warning women about how the public might twist their actions. Many online believe that Swift is referencing the albatross in Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” throughout the song. In the poem, a sailor shoots an innocent albatross whom he believed was evil before cursing him and his ship.
Later in the song, Swift uses the symbol of the albatross to showcase how men shift blame onto women they are paired with instead of shining that light back onto themselves and their actions. Others believe the use of an albatross is just a reference to her six-year long relationship with Joe Alwyn. This is due to the albatross being a bird that doesn’t touch land for the first six years of their lives. Regardless of which meaning is actually true, this song is a masterpiece from the minds of Swift and collaborator Aaron Dessner.
“Florida!!!” (feat. Florence + The Machine)
This song takes the listener through the trials and travesties of feeling like something you once called home is no longer there for you. This song is made one hundred times better through the addition of Florence Welch’s voice and history, as she brings a new meaning to the lyrics. Welch’s own approach to music writing and making mixes with Swift’s voice as a singer and writer eerily well. Together, they create a sultry and ominous aura. This instrumental sounds familiar to the one in Swift’s song “Carolina,” which she wrote for the film Where the Crawdads Sing (2022), but adds a loud bass that contrasts the soft surrounding melodies.
I had a hard time picking which three songs would make it into this collection because of how vastly different each song is in relation to one another on the album. This entry in Swift’s discography is one of her best, rivaled by not many of her previous creations, simply due to the breadth and complexity of her lyricism and lost intentions. With every new listen to The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology (2024), you will find something new you had not noticed prior.
Thumbnail photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons