YMMV / THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT

• Continuity Lock-Out: The album's writing style of using hyper specific details from Swift's own life (with two, "Cassandra" and "thanK you aIMee", referencing the Kanye West / Kim Kardashian feud from 2016, 8 years prior to the album release), combined with the sheer length of the album (31 songs in its entirely, clocking in over 2 hours), has made it difficult for casual listeners and even some of Taylor's more recent fans to understand and connect with the project.
• I Knew It!: With the heavy teasing of the number 2 and peace signs leading to the release of the album, many fans theorized that this would be a double-drop album - either with reputation (Taylor's Version), or that Tortured Poets will be released as a two-in-one album. The latter were proven right. At midnight April 19, 2024, the main album dropped, followed by The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology at 2 a.m. the same day, featuring 15 more songs.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!:
  • A major criticism of the album is that, despite being marketed as Swift leaning into more poetic lyrics, it is ultimately just another synth pop heavy, hyper specifically personalized album from Taylor produced by longtime producer Jack Antonoff, making it not very distinctive from the rest of her discography (most notably reputation, Lover, and Midnights). The "Anthology" songs mainly produced by Aaron Dessner are considered by some listeners to be a big improvement, but many agree that those songs' lyrical content and production style is extremely similar to folklore and evermore.
  • Another major criticism is the sheer length of the album in its entirety, clocking in as over 2 hours, all while containing repetitive melodies and meandering lyrical content. Notably, nearly half of the songs (i.e. a full album's worth) appear to be based on a single short-lived relationship and mostly cover the same ground. Many of the other songs (i.e. another full album) repeat content about Swift's relationship with the media, her fans, and Kanye West/the Kardashians that she's been singing about for over a decade, leading many to wonder why she bothered with such a long album if she lacked much new to say.
• Memetic Mutation: "You wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum where they raised me" from "Who's Afraid Of Little Old Me?" has been used as a caption for many memes made by people poking fun at their past (usually minor) struggles.
• Narm: A major criticism of the album is that the lyrics are overly long and overwritten, causing quite a few lines and phrases to receive widespread derision due to the awkwardness of the content:
  • "The Tortured Poets Department": The line "A tattooed golden retriever" has received widespread mockery due to the bizarre choice of imagery, coupled with unflattering pictures of Matty Healy, someone who is widely agreed to inspire the song.
  • "So High School": "You know how to ball, I know Aristotle / Brand new, full-throttle / Touch me while your bros play Grand Theft Auto" has been widely derided for sounding pretentious and awkward. ^note Supporters of the song believe that the sophomoric lyrics are intentional, to evoke a less accomplished songwriter, or someone so in love they're reduced to the mindset and vocabulary of a high school student, with all the accompanying childish pretensions and awkwardness.
  • "I Hate It Here": "I'd say the 1830s but without all the racists" is widely derided for being tone-deaf and seeming like a ham-fisted attempt to defend herself from fan outrage over Matty Healy's (the main inspiration of the album) racist controversies. ^note Supporters of the line point to it in context: the line is part of a point that "Nostalgia is a mind's trick" and that the version of the past the narrator used to want to go to isn't perfectly peachy either.
• Refrain from Assuming: More so than usual for one of Swift's albums, given its length:
  • The title track mentions its name once in the opening verse and once in the outro.
  • "Clara Bow" mentions the actress's name once in the opening verse.
  • "Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus": The titular list of names is rattled off once in the opening verse.
  • "The Bolter": The track title is mentioned as a nickname given to the subject of the song once at the end of the opening verse.
  • "Robin" joins "Ronan" as the only other song in Swift's discography where the track title (or a similar-sounding phrase) is not mentioned at all in the lyrics.
• Slow-Paced Beginning:
  • For the main album, a lot of fans think the first four songs are meandering and repetitive, and "So Long, London" is where the album really starts to pick up momentum.
  • A lot of fans think the Anthology songs are significantly stronger than the main album. Coincidentally, most of them involved Aaron Dessner as producer rather than Jack Antonoff.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: The narrator of "So Long, London" is upset about her love interest not putting as much effort in their relationship as her and leaving her waiting "at the altar", heavily implied that she was waiting for a marriage or proposal. However, as she sings "You sacrificed us to the God of your bluest days", it is very heavily implied that her love interest has clinical depression, a probable explanation for a lot of his supposed coldness and reluctance to get married.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
  • The narrator of "The Black Dog" is framed as the sympathetic hero of the song. However, her actions are obsessive (stalking her ex both on social media and real life) and judgemental (deemed the new girl he ex is flirting with to be too young and not good enough for him). And then she caps it off by questioning why her ex doesn't remember her or is avoiding her.
  • "thanK you aIMee" is a song about the narrator thanking her bully "Aimee" for her own growth and seeking closure and resolution. However, the narrator came across as just as mean, bitter, and vindictive as her bully, from stating that her mother wished "Aimee" dead to forecasting that her bully's children will one day be singing this song about how awful their mother is. On a meta level, Taylor intentionally capitalized the name of the song to spell out who it is inspired by (Kim Kardashian) so even the sentiment that she changed "any identifying details" from the song is clearly false.