New music from a ‘tortured’ Taylor Swift

Ariana Grande did it with her latest release Eternal Sunshine. I mean she cleared out the emotional baggage left by her divorce from Dalton Gomez using her music with a breakup album. And now here comes Taylor Swift with her own breakup album, The Tortured Poets Department, which is said to be songs about the breakup of her six-year relationship with the British actor and musician Joe Alwyn.

Now Taylor has always been open about having composed songs about her exes, like for Jake Gyllenhaal, The Moment I Knew and for Joe Jonas, Forever and Always and others. So, is The Tortured Poets Department indeed about Alwyn? He must have been extra special to rate not just a song or two but an entire album.

Or maybe Taylor was just putting down her being broken hearted in songs and making a windfall out of it. Remember she makes windfalls out of everything which is why she is a billionaire. Well, nothing also new about broken-hearted songs. These songs sell a lot. Frank Sinatra built his career on those, I’m a Fool to Want You and In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning. And so here is the Taylor version.

Surprise! The Tortured Poets Department is a great album. I was not expecting this. Her last release, Midnights was just nice. I really thought her magic was beginning to wane. Besides, there was her ERAs Tour, all those re-recordings of her oldies for the Taylor Version, plus that breakup. But dynamo Taylor did it. I say this is her career best musically and vocally because she is wild, angry, fiercely defiant just like every woman with a broken heart. And oh, she sounds so endearing navigating words about painful emotions with a sigh or a little catch in her throat.

There are sixteen tracks written and produced with her usual collaborators, Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner of The National. Fan favorites are now making themselves felt like the charming Fortnight featuring Post Malone and Down Bad, which rationalizes being in love or the oh so real, I Can Do It with a Broken Heart, which I am sure every woman can relate to. Think although she does it in jampacked arenas, we do have the same feelings while in the throes of a broken heart.

And this brings me to a “why did I not think about that” moment with The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived. Taylor is wildly angry and has created music to match. I think breaking dishes would be appropriate in the soundtrack. And then she winds down and it is with the gloriously beautiful So Long London. Here is bye-bye love and see you again London said to the accompaniment of church bells or is that Taylor singing?

No matter. I think that with The Tortured Poets Department, Taylor has opened the door to a new era of creativity that will keep her on top for another decade or more.

And now a look at this week’s Top 25 titles from Spotify’s Top 50 Philippines Playlist before the songs from The Tortured Poets Department take over. Swiftie’s invading tunes are already in place.

Pantropiko by BINI; Fortnight by Taylor Swift ft. Post Malone; Babaero by gin+melodies and Hev Abi; Salamin, Salamin, also by BINI; we can’t be friends (wait for your love) by Ariana Grande; Walang Alam by Hev Abi; Alam Mo ba Girl, again by Hev Abi; Down Bad by Taylor Swift; Makasarili, Malambing by Kristina Dawn and Hev Abi; End of Beginning by Djo; Saturn by SZA; Sumugal by Hev Abi, Unotheone and LK; TAKE ALL THE LOVE by Arthur Neri.

Palagi by TJ Monterde; The Tortured Poets Department, also by Swift; Burgis by Flow G and Hev Abi; Lil Kasalaman Shortie by Hev Abi; I Can Do It with a Broken Heart, again by Swift;  Faded (Raw) by Illest Morena; intro (end of the world), also by Grande; So Long London, once more by Swift; Magnetic by ILLIT; Get Low by O SIDE MAFIA and BRGR; My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys, again by Swift; and the classic Tadhana by Up Dharma Down.