As someone who works in conservative media, I’ve been surprised by the intensity of the emotional response to Taylor Swift, of all topics.
Of course, there’s also “Swiftie” on the other hand. She stayed up until midnight for the release of Swift’s latest album, and joining her on her Ellas tour may have been the best night of her life.
It’s worth noting that Swift reserves Christian imagery for songs that tackle the most important personal issues. She is not trying to provoke or shock.
In between are those who can embrace Taylor Swift or leave her. They may like some of her songs, but to them she’s just another musician.
But the other end of the spectrum, the anti-Swifties, you might call them, seems just as emotional and passionate as the Swifties. But what unites them is a shared suspicion that Taylor Swift is a terrible role model, inspired by radical feminism and rejecting Christian values. Her 11th album, The Tortured Poets Department, seems to do little to dispute this.
Guilty as a crime?
When “Poets” debuted on April 19th, critics were quick to pounce on the album’s 31 songs (yes, you read that number correctly) as uninspired, pretentious, and sonorous. I criticized it for being monotonous.
But the most high-profile accusations are making headlines. X It’s Swift’s careless use of religious imagery that makes the album sacrilegious. The most criticized song, “Guilty as Sin,” finds Swift confessing his desire for a romantic partner in phrases that evoke the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. Either way, they’re going to crucify me. ”
In “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived,” Swift once again likens herself to Jesus, saying, “I would have died for your sins, instead I just died inside.” ” he sings.
This isn’t the first time Swift has dabbled with Christian imagery. In 2019’s “False God,” Swift uses similar language to describe the idolization of relationships. We worship this love even if it is a false god. ” Swift also released the undeniably catchy single “You Need to Calm Down” around the same time, which explored “homophobia.”
Although the lyrics do not directly refer to Christians, music video The trailer park setting is clearly meant to evoke white “trailer trash” and the religious right, but it comes at an embarrassing political moment, coinciding with the release of Swift’s documentary “Miss Americana.” These are the same kinds of people who started talking (and sometimes crying). ”
Those who were happy to overlook these riots at the time are reexamining them in light of the lyrics of “Poets.”
Alwyn is on my mind
I agree with my fellow Christians and share their disappointment. Some parts of this album are certainly blasphemous, and I understand why they would be offended. At the same time, much of the commentary ignores aspects of the album that deserve discussion and some appreciation, especially from a conservative perspective.
What I find most profound about “Tortured Poets” is that Swift, 34, is honest about what she wants in life right now: marriage, having children, meaning. Pop’s most famous serial dater has always sung about love, but on “LOML” (an acronym for “the love of her life”) she takes it a step further, highlighting her six-year relationship with actor Joe Alwyn. I am saddened that it ended last spring. .
Swift seems to believe that Alwyn’s lack of desire to get married and start a family was the reason for their breakup, as evidenced by lines like “You talked to me under the table.” [clean version], a talking ring and a talking cradle. The title song also alludes to a marriage that never happened: “At dinner, you take the ring off my middle finger and put it on the side where people wear wedding rings, and that’s when I… That’s the closest thing I’ve ever come to.” My heart explodes. ”
The ballad “So Long London” is one of the album’s most poignant expressions of this longing. The lyrics, which open with haunting a cappella harmonies reminiscent of wedding bells, find Swift furiously washing the hands of a man who wasted her time. “I stopped CPR, it was no use after all. A soul is gone, we can never get it back, and it pisses me off to have that youth given to me for free.”
In another lyric, she reveals what she expected instead, lamenting that she “died in the day.” [wedding] An altar awaiting proof of his love. Evidence of? You guessed it: marriage.
By the time I heard “The Prophecy,” this regret turned to despair. Is it finally too late to find the person who will choose her forever? “I’m so scared that I decided her fate. There’s no sign of her soulmate.”
Songs like “Peter” (as in “Peter Pan”) give Swift the satisfaction of knocking off immature, commitment-averse men, but she hasn’t forgotten her history of heartbreak.
taylor made
In “I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can),” Swift poignantly depicts the deluded optimism of a woman convinced she can turn her “project boyfriend” into husband material. There is. The lyrics of “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” subtly detract from the album’s only pure, upbeat dance anthem, highlighting how easy it is for Swift to hide her misery beneath her girl-power bravado. He sarcastically boasts about this.
Of course, not all 31 songs mourn lost love. “Clara Bow” is a moving and personal rebuke of the way the music industry pits young female artists against older female artists, while “Robin” is a young song written by The National’s Aaron Dessner, who produced the album. It is a gentle hymn to his son. The latter track shows Swift doing what she does best: writing about things she doesn’t know. Here she effortlessly expresses the sentiments of a mother who cherishes her young son’s fanciful imagination (“Keep barking at the dinosaurs, you are the ruler of justice”), and such It comes with a bittersweet acceptance that innocence is inevitably fleeting.
Swift has never been one to downplay the struggles of life in the spotlight, but the two songs on “Poets” serve as an opportunity to chastise an audience for asking too much of her. Her moody ballad, “How Did It End?”, calls on fans to “hunger for empathy” as they consume and gossip about Swift’s breakup.
“But Daddy Loves Him” hits back at the Swifties. campaign has started Swift has called for public amends over her date with musician Matty Healy, after comments on his podcast revealed him to be a “bigot.” Swift has built her reputation on her kindness and generosity to her fans, but these songs also offer a rare glimpse of how exhausted she might be by them.
During a break
When it comes to the music for Poets, it’s clearer than ever that Swift could capitalize on her breakup with longtime collaborator and producer Jack Antonoff, and it looks like things are starting to repeat itself, at least for Swift. . While the songs he produced with Dessner are beautiful, they tend to rely on the same raw, stripped-down sound the duo pioneered on 2020’s “Folklore.” It’s always easy to tell who produced which songs on “Poets,” but that’s not a good thing.
Swift has an undeniable talent for weaving powerful, intimate emotions into her songwriting, but that talent is often undermined by jarring deviations. A single line can convey an emotion with breathtaking precision, but it’s followed by, “After smoking a cigarette, I ate seven chocolate bars.” We think Charlie Puth should be a greater artist. The boring and awkward lyrics continued. I don’t agree with some critics that these juxtapositions are intentional or inspired, but after hearing Swift in top form on “How Did It End?” I can forgive you for saying that. “Bolter” and “The Smallest Man Ever”.
Most hauntingly, there are two songs (“The Alchemy” and “So High School”) written very explicitly about Swift’s current boyfriend, NFL tight end Travis Kelce. These songs are innocent, but Swift here includes some silly football references (“So when you land, call the amateurs and cut them off the team”) and a reference to finding love, which only happens “once in a few lifetimes.” Mixing thoughts. The result is tiring and repetitive.
It’s worth noting that Swift reserves Christian imagery for songs that tackle the most important personal issues. She is not trying to provoke or shock. Although Swift may no longer believe, she was raised as a Christian, so it’s natural for her to reach for Christian language when describing her deepest desires. She acknowledges that what she wants – meaning, dedication, children – is something we were all created to want.
Is Swift realizing what she really wants in her constant search for love? Perhaps soon she will meet the man who has been waiting for her all this time. No matter how you feel about Swift’s music, it’s something we can all pray for.
