13 April 2024, 09:30 | Updated: 24 April 2024, 11:51
By Kathryn Knight
‘The Tortured Poets Department’, Taylor Swift’s brand new album, is finally out, so we’re taking a closer look at the track list and track lengths.
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Taylor Swift’s 11th studio album ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ has completely consumed our lives with songs like ‘loml’, ‘So Long, London’, 'thanK you aIMee', all about her feud with Kim Kardashian, and ‘The Bolter’, one of many no doubt inspired by her relationship with Joe Alwyn.
Ahead of her new album’s release Taylor released the track list, revealing not just a side A and side B, but a side C, side D and some bonus tracks. She also shared the album's songwriting credits days before its release.
Swifties are keen to know more about ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ track list, including the lengths of each track which you can find more info on at the bottom of this article.
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Read on for our breakdown of 'The Tortured Poets Department', track by track.
Side A
Side A of ‘Tortured Poets Department’ includes the song of the same name, ‘Fortnight’ featuring Post Malone, ‘My Boy Only Breaks His Favourite Toys’ and ‘Down Bad’.
‘My Boy Only Breaks His Favourite Toys’ is giving us flashbacks to ‘This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things’ from ‘Reputation’, where Taylor first gave us a taste of her Gatsby era, which we’ve seen similarly in the ‘Champagne Problems’ and ‘The Last Great American Dynasty’.
Fans reckon this links back to ‘Delicate’, again from ‘Reputation’, where Taylor sang about her fear of ruining a perfect relationship because it was going so well.
Side B
With track names like ‘So Long, London’ –a stark contrast to ‘London Boy’ from ‘Lover’ and ‘Florida!!!’ Featuring Florence and the Machine, Swifties were prepared for a u-turn at this point in the track list, as 'Florida' gets a tad more upbeat than the first few intro songs which had them in tears.
‘Fresh Out the Slammer’ appears to be a hint at newfound freedom, which brings us to ‘Florida!!!’
Over on Reddit fans think all the exclamation points in ‘Florida!!!’ is either ‘next level trolling us’ after ‘slu*t!’ from ‘1989 (Taylor's Version)’ turned out to be a slow song or she’s saying, ‘guys, this time it’s really an upbeat song.’
Florida was also the first show Taylor performed on The Eras Tour after her breakup with Joe went public.
Side C
Side C has ‘Guilty as Sin?’, ‘Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?’, ‘I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)’ –which has similar undertones to ‘But Daddy I Love Him’ in the title alone – and ‘loml’ which hit fans hard as Taylor sings about losing the 'love of my life' before ending the song with, 'you're the loss of my life'. We're in PIECES.
‘Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?’ is a reference to Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, a classic 1962 play which was also a film starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. The story follows a bitter, elderly couple who use their young house guests to feel their anger toward each other over a painful night.
Side D
Side D consists of ‘I Can Do It With a Broken Heart’, ‘The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived’, ‘The Alchemy’ and ‘Clara Bow’.
‘The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived’ is thought to be about her ex Matty Healy, given the fact Matty's height is something often debated. He told The Fader in an interview: “Everyone in [the 1975] is 6’4” and I’m 5’10”, so everyone thinks that I’m 5’5”.”
‘The Alchemy’ title in itself is classic Taylor, as it defines a magical process of transformation, something Taylor no doubt has had to go through numerous times during her career and not just when coming out of a breakup.
Clara Bow was an American actress who rose to fame in the silent film era in the 1920s, another nod to Taylor’s fascination for the decade.
Taylor Swift’s The Era Tours (Taylor’s Version) comes to Disney Plus
Bonus tracks
Taylor released four different versions of 'TTPD' in different sepia tones, each with a bonus track of its own; ‘The Manuscript’, ‘The Bolter’, ‘The Albatross’ and ‘The Black Dog’
After they put the album covers together, fans were adamant the albums represent the five stages of grief and that a fifth bonus song would be announced. However, instead of a fifth bonus song, Taylor gave fans a whole extra track list with The Anthology.
Meanwhile, each of the vinyl covers has a saying written on the back in true Swiftie-Tumblr fashion. You can see them below:
- ‘The Manuscript’ – “I love you it’s ruining my life.”
- ‘The Bolter’ – “You don’t get to tell me about sad.”
- ‘The Albatross’ –“Am I allowed to cry?”
- ‘The Black Dog’ – “Old habits die screaming.”
The Tortured Poets Department track list lengths
The length of each song on ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ vary, the shortest being 'My Boy Only Breaks His Favourite Toys' and the longest being ‘But Daddy I Love Him’ at 5 minutes and 40 seconds.
The track list in total is one hour and five minutes. However, this was before Taylor dropped the bombshell there are 15 surprise songs on 'The Tortured Poets Department The Anthology', making the run time two hours and two minutes.
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