Taylor Swift's new album is called The Tortured Poets Department , but the title arguably describes her entire catalog. The 14-time Grammy winner is known for writing "torture" lyrics, which became even more apparent when she released a new set of Apple Music playlists named after the five stages of grief.
Each playlist categorizes many of her past songs into denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. This further highlights the deep emotion and vulnerability that surrounds many of Swift's songs.
The singer has been writing sad songs since she first came out, as evident on her 2006 self-titled debut album, which included No. 5 (aka Swiftie slang for the most emotional song on the album) ) "Cold As You".
But Swift's lyrics really started to feel more tortured on 2019's "Lover," which, despite its romantic title, contained some of her most anguished, raw, and desperate songs. Then, her surprise 2020 albums Folklore and Evermore intertwined fictional narratives with devastating stories tied to her reality.
Below, while you wait to finally listen to "The Tortured Poets Department," released April 19, revisit 22 of Swift's most tortured lyrics.
"So I started fighting because I needed to feel something"
Swift released "Cold As You," the fifth song from her debut album, in 2006 when she was just 16, proving that she had been a "tortured poet" since childhood.
"Before you let me down, I was a dreamer"
The first single from Swift's second album, Fearless , is "Love Story," her take on Romeo and Juliet (but with a happier ending). Just two songs later, she's tearing the story to shreds in "White Horse," and what better way to describe a "tortured poet" than to shred a fairy tale you've written yourself?
"Counting my steps and praying the floor doesn't collapse again"
On "Dear John," Swift reflected on the trauma she suffered from a toxic relationship, citing the age gap between her and her ex and claiming she was "too young to be bothered." The lyrics of the first verse capture her anxiety and restlessness.
"I will watch you live in the photos, just like I used to watch you sleep"
One of the hallmarks of the "tortured poet" is looking back at photos of exes as they move on in life, as Swift does on the melancholy breakup ballad "Last Kiss." When a split is as unexpected as she sings about in this "Speak Now" song, the pain is even deeper.
"You have your demons, honey, and they all look like me."
Swift doesn't just sing about her own tortured feelings. In the wistful "Sad and Beautiful Tragedy," she looks back on a past relationship with both regret and sweetness. But in this case, the other person was tortured because of missing her, and she knew it.
"You're still on me like a wine-stained dress I can no longer wear"
As Swift's first major pop album, 1989 feels more bombastic and confident than tortured, even in its most emotional moments. To achieve the emotional catharsis of "Clean," however, there had to be some damage to clean up, which Swift describes in detail.
“Please never be a stranger whose laughter I recognize anywhere”
Reputation, Swift's sixth album, is partly about new love and trying to protect it. But on the piano-filled closer "New Year," Swift's tortured, poetic side emerges again, praying that her moment of bliss will never end.
"I screamed, 'For what it's worth, I love you, isn't that the worst thing you've ever heard?'"
Even in a song like "Cruel Summer," about joyous love and reckless abandon, Swift still finds a way to emphasize the undercurrent of hesitation and despair in the bridge. While the lyric may be tortured in nature, it's still an epic scream moment from the Eras tour.
"I cut off my nose just to insult my face and then I hated my reflection for years."
On "Archer," Swift opens up about her fears and insecurities for the first time, even taking aim at her appearance in the second verse. While it's a big blow coming from someone as powerful as Swift, it shows that she's only human.
"I asked the traffic light if that was okay and they said, 'I don't know'"
It's unclear whether Swift took the "death by a thousand cuts" line literally or metaphorically. But if you have to look to a traffic light for comfort, you know you're in a dark place. I guess the traffic light that says "I don't know" is just stuck on the yellow light.
"If I'm dead to you, why do you keep a wake?"
In one of her most devastating fifth songs, Swift imagined what her own funeral would be like, leading to some of her most failed songs. If the lyrics to "My Tears Ricochet" aren't torture enough for you, check out Swift's Eras Tour performance, where it looks like she and her dancers are leading her own funeral procession, moving somberly Steely.
"They told me all my cages were mental so I was like all my potential was wasted"
Yes, even the 14-time Grammy winner and Time Magazine Person of the Year still sometimes feels like she's not living up to her full potential, as Swift eloquently explained in "This Is Me Trying." The lyrics showcase Swift's honesty about her deepest insecurities in "Archer" and explore the impact of not facing them head-on.
"Don't call me 'baby', don't call me 'baby', look at the mess you made me"
Swift ended "Illegal Affair" with a bridge so thrilling and painful that during the song's Eras tour, she decided to pare it down to just that bridge and repeated shouting to achieve maximum effect. This is the shortest but arguably most cathartic moment of the entire show, allowing the audience to apply these lyrics to any situation they face.
"I will give you my sunshine, my best, but if you stand with me, the rain will always come."
On the brutally honest "Peace," Swift takes a most poetic look at her level of fame and how it might be preventing her from having a normal relationship. What's more painful than knowing that anyone who wants to be with you may never experience a normal life again?
"I don't want any other blue except you/No other sadness in the world can"
Swift herself stated that "Hoax" was written about so many different things that it was difficult to pinpoint exactly what the song was referring to. Yet the one common denominator that weaves together each lyric is a deep, shameless sadness, as most evident in the chorus.
“I made you my temple, my mural, my sky/Now I ask for a footnote in your life story.”
On another heartbreaking fifth track, "Tolerate It," Swift desperately tries to get a long-time lover to recommit herself to their relationship, but to no avail. This is shown beautifully in "Eras Tour" where she sets a lovely table, but when her efforts don't pay off, she angrily tears it to pieces.
“If I no longer have a relationship with you, then who do I have a relationship with?”
The whole premise of "Coney Island," Swift's collaboration with The Nation, is "sitting on a bench in Coney Island wondering where my kids went." Indulging in heartbreak in one of New York's most romantic places could indeed be called "torture."
“Every grocery receipt should be kept because every piece of you will be taken away from me.”
Swift is a master at dealing with heartbreak in song, but she doesn't often talk directly about death, which makes "Marjorie" all the more touching. For the most part, Swift's ode to her late grandmother is imbued with the optimism and wisdom she learned from Marjorie. But it's hard not to get chills or shed a tear when she shares her regrets.
"I have this weird feeling that this pain will always be there"
There's a reason "Evermore" has been called Swift's saddest album (I'm sorry). On the album's final title track, she simply accepts that heartbreak is inevitable rather than a passing phase, and Bon Iver's bridge only makes the hurt feelings more intense.
"They say everything ends well if it ends well, but every time you betray my ideas I end up in a new hell."
For many fans, the original five-minute cut of "All Too Well" has taken the crown as Swift's most devastating (and to some, best) song. But the long-awaited ten-minute version offers more intricate details and tortured lyrics.
"Everything I touch is sickened with sadness."
While "All Too Well" is to many Swift's saddest song, "Bigger Than The Whole Sky" certainly deserves the title. It's probably the only time Swift has been so sad in a song that she's nearly speechless, and the soft instrumental interlude is filled with as much devastation as her own lyrics ( which aren't many of hers).
"Give me back my girlhood, this is my first"
“Dear John” walked, so “could, could, should” have run. In " Midnights" (3am version) , Swift talks about a relationship she had when she was 19 and the power imbalance that came with it, culminating in this heart-wrenching line that pretty much says everything.
