Okay, well, Tortured Poets Department.

It could have ended with "Clara Bow" and the short little outro track after that, but on the Deluxe Edition, it doesn't. Yeah, 2 AM on the night Taylor released this record, she came out with a version of the album that expands it all the way to 31 tracks, 2 hours of material. And most of the songs on this half of the record were actually produced by Aaron Desner of The National fame, who Taylor has worked with for years now, which I was looking forward to hearing because I did actually like a lot of the extra songs he produced from the Midnights record. I much preferred Aaron's production to what Jack did on that album.

I will say sonically, I do feel like this half of the record is a pretty big improvement. The vocals sound more natural, more intimate. We are also free free from all of these thin, reverbed out, crummy '80s-ass gated drums that just sound trash and stale at this point. If the first half of the Tortured Poets Department is obnoxious, the second half, I would say in comparison, is tolerable, even if it is in a lot of ways, still lacking in inspiration, especially when you do have derivative cuts on this side that I mentioned before, like "I'm Going to Get You Back."

There are moments narratively that feel almost like a retread, like "The Albatross," for example, which also very much dives into this idea of other people knowing what's better for you, but the gender roles are swapped, and this time it's the woman. That's the danger. But then, weirdly, Taylor is guilty of that very same mindset on the track, "The Black Dog," where she exhibits a level of toxicity that's honestly a little concerning in the first leg of the song.

"I am someone who / until recent events / you shared your secrets with / and your location / you forgot to turn it off / and so I watch as you walk."

That is the start of the song. Is this track about cheating or lying or anything like that? No. Taylor is just watching her ex's moves through her phone as if it's any of her business, and then being judgmental about what her ex is doing as if she's not being weird. A normal person or someone with boundaries or respect for privacy would see what she saw at the start of the song and say, 'Hey, they forgot to stop sharing their location. I'll turn it off.' But instead, she's sitting here writing a song about fuming over where he is, what he's doing, jokes he's telling, who he's seeing.

Weren't you just earlier on the record being pissed at people for being judgmental over them knowing what's better for you? Also, what's a more worrying and toxic trait? What you just mentioned in this track about this girl, this guy is dating, or sitting there angry on your private jet, watching a dot on a map and pretending you were the perfect partner, and then writing a song that is just blatantly unself-aware of how just unflattering it's coming across. It's just gross and obsessive and weird.

To go back to the of this side of the album, while I do prefer Aaron's instrumentation, a great deal of what's here is pretty background, honestly. The deluxe tracks do definitely have their downsides, though, like "So High School," for example, which is clearly the Travis Kelce love song, which I will respect conceptually because I feel like the instrumental nails a 2000s teenage rom-com perfectly. I mean, that's the vibe it's going for. But Some of the lyrics, again, do not come across very flattering in terms of their framing or just the writing quality, with Taylor talking about hanging out with his bros while they play Grand Theft Auto.

I feel like I'm reading bad sexual fanfic on Tumblr. The song "I Hate It Here" has lyrics that have been subject to a lot of scrutiny, with Taylor describing back in the day playing a game with her friends where they would wish that they lived or existed in a different time. And she says she would pick the 1830s, but without all the racists. I mean, at least the track does acknowledge that nostalgia, for the most part, is bullshit and that various times in history just suck and are trash. Unfortunately, these realizations come through in a very convoluted series of thoughts in a one-dimensional song structure that doesn't exactly lead the audience to anything super concrete.

From here, we do have some other interesting storytelling concepts, like on "I Look in People's Windows" or "The Prophecy," where Taylor opines about her loneliness as if it is something that has come from some higher power, and she's begging for this prophecy to change. There's also "Cassandra," which is giving folklore ever more vibes as she is telling a story about something that is very much outside her, but portraying in a way that is relatable with her singing about Cassandra of Troy.

But even though I like the idea of these tracks between the very breathy vocal performances and muted backing instrumentation, clearly, there not as much fire and passion driving Taylor in these tracks as there is for many of the core breakup songs on the first half of the record. I will say there is a bit of that here in the deluxe edition of the album with the song "Peter," which is a track about somebody who at one point gave her promises of love and companionship, but first he needed to go do his own thing and grow up. But that moment where they finally linked together and they loved one another never really happened. Look, there are many other tracks on this record that dabble in similar themes. But in this instance with Peter, it's done in a much more classy way with a better instrumental. Overall, the writing just comes across as more mature than anything that is on the standard tracklist for this record. There's also the Bolter, which I thought was one of the most endearing and snappiest tunes on the entire album. I wish songs that felt this sharp and pointed and well-executed were not such a rarity in this tracklist.

Robin is a very pretty and wonderful ode to childlike wonder and innocence growing up and being fierce, being free-spirited and loving. And amidst all of these tracks about breaking up, the final song, The Manuscript, is actually a very respectable moment on the record where Taylor is going super meta. She's reflecting on a past relationship in a way where she's going back to a moment where she wrote about it in the past, as if she's like a seasoned novelist who is looking at an old story that she panned and rethinking it all again, which I imagine it must feel that way to some degree, especially as she has been going through this process of re-recording all of her old records, going over songs on "Speak Now," for example. I mean, instrumentally, I don't find this song, particularly inspiring, but this here on this song is like the level of self-awareness and maturity that I was hoping I would hear going into this album. It's not that I personally feel Taylor Swift is not a talented artist, that she's not capable of making good quality tracks. She's doing it. She's doing it here. That's just not what's happening for the majority of the time on this album. For this moment to come at the end of a deluxe edition of a record that is two hours long in total is just too little too late.

To me, this is just a tiring, aggravating album cycle that Taylor has come through with. And the biggest issue with it, really, in my opinion, is that I think Taylor, I think I think everyone involved, obviously, thinks and feels she is just too big to fail, and she can come out with and release essentially anything. And it's going to do numbers, it's going to make money. It's going to be huge. It's going to make waves. You know what? Maybe they're right. Maybe they're right. But I feel like at the end of the day, what ends up suffering as a result of that is the literal art itself, because we are now not worried about the quality that and how also freaking embarrassing some of it is. Career-wise, I don't think Taylor is going to suffer any repercussions for that. In fact, she may even be celebrated for it as there are lots of rave reviews for this album that are out right now, and lots of hardcore Swifties who are loving it.

If I had to score this additional section of the album, I would maybe give it like a strong 4 to a light 5. It's better, but not by much. And while Well, there are most likely enough hardcore Swifties to support this record to the point where it's going to sell millions upon millions of copies, I think anyone outside of that bubble is most likely going to be left scratching their head and cringing at a lot of what this album has to offer.

Anthony Fantano, Taylor Swift, Tortured Poets, Forever.