Taylor Swift is giving fans more information about her new album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” thanks to a track-by-track experience with Amazon Music.
Fans can now listen to the album – which broke streaming records after its release on April 19 – along with commentary from Swift explaining the meaning of each song. To listen to the “Tortured Poets Section” with Swift's commentary, fans can simply say to Alexa: “I'm a member of the Tortured Poets Section.”
Through this experience, Swift revealed the inspiration behind songs including “Fortnight” with Post Malone, “Clara Bow,” and “Florida!!!” With Florence + the Machine, “Who's Afraid of Me?” And “My son only breaks his favorite toys.”
“‘Fortnight’ is a song that showcases a lot of the common themes that run on this album. “One of them is fatalism — longing, exhaustion, lost dreams,” Swift said of the album’s opening track. “I think it’s a very fatalistic album in that there are a lot of dramatic lines.” Very about life or death. “I love you, it's ruining my life.” These are very exaggerated and dramatic things to say. It's that kind of album.”
Regarding the song “Clara Bow,” which is named after the silent film actress, Swift said that the song is “a commentary on what I saw in the industry that I was working in over time.”
“I was working at record companies trying to get a record deal when I was a little kid. And they'd say, 'You know, you remind us of,' and then they'd name an artist, and then they'd say something disparaging about her, 'But you're this, you're so much better' this way or that.” ” “And this is how we teach women to see themselves, as if you are the new replacement for this woman who did something great before you,” she said. “I chose women who had done great things in the past and were models of greatness in the entertainment industry. Clara Bow was the first 'it girl.'” Stevie Nicks is an icon and a great example for anyone who wants to write songs and make music.
“Florida!!!” “Florence + the Machine” is one of the rare songs on the album that doesn't see Swift speaking directly about a former lover. Swift said the inspiration for this song actually came from “always watching 'Dateline'.”
“People have these crimes that they commit; Where do they immediately skip town and go? “They're going to Florida,” the singer added. “They're trying to reinvent themselves, have a new identity, blend in. I think when you're going through great grief, there's a part of you that thinks, 'I want a new name.' I want a new life. I don't want anyone to know where I've been or know me at all. And that's how it was.” That's the starting point, where are you going to rediscover yourself and integrate? Florida!
As for “Who's Afraid of Little Old Me,” Swift revealed that she wrote the tune “alone, while sitting at the piano in one of those moments where I'm bitter about all the things we do to our artists as a community and as a society.” culture.”
“There is a lot about this particular concept in the Tortured Poets section,” she added. What do we do with our writers, artists, and creators? We put them through hell. We watch what they make, and then we judge it. We love to watch artists suffer, often to the point where I think as a society we sometimes sensationalize that pain and just watch it happen.
Finally, Swift breaks down the metaphor in “My son only breaks his favorite toys.”
She said the song is about “being someone's favorite toy until they break you and then don't want to play with you anymore.” “And that's how a lot of us are in relationships where we're valued by someone at first, and then all of a sudden, they break us or devalue us in their mind. We're still holding on to 'No, no.' You should have seen them the first time they saw me.” “They will come back to that.”
Listen to the track-by-track experience on Amazon Music here.
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