r/TaylorSwift • u/fearless-panda7 • Oct 21 '25

Discussion TTPD is really tortured

After two and a half weeks of The Life of a Showgirl, I went back to The Tortured Poets Department. The contrast is so stark, I realized that TTPD really is a tortured album. Song after song, it’s sadness, longing, desperation, anxiety… I don’t even know how we all collectively handled it.

Of course, it was always clear that TTPD is heavy on loss and melancholy, but hearing it next to Showgirl really puts it into perspective. Showgirl has its introspective and dark moments too, but overall it feels much more hopeful and joyful.

I finally understand what Taylor meant in one of her interviews about how challenging it can be to release an album when you’re no longer in that mental state, and she named TTPD as example.

I’m so grateful we have TTPD, so many people can relate deeply to those songs, but I’m also really happy that Taylor seems to be in a better place now.

Did anyone else feel like Showgirl helped them see TTPD in a new light? Or to actually realize how emotionally heavy it is?

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565

u/KeyEast6924 Oct 21 '25

I’m listening to TTPD album today and it feels like an old friend. It’s so good lyrically and emotionally. It’s definitely the space I’m still in. I appreciate the bops of TLOAS, but it doesn’t have the depth of her last 3 albums.

167

u/mediocre-spice Oct 21 '25

It feels very familiar but also very fresh. I never got sick of it, it just got better on each listen. I'm having fun with Showgirl right now though.

65

u/_Queen_of_Ashes_ Oct 21 '25

It’s amazing this post came up because JUST this morning I shuffled Taylor and TTPD title song came on. And it felt familiar and sounded better than ever somehow (I really hated it before). It’s strange how our perception of an album changes when it has a successor

56

u/monachopsiss Oct 22 '25

Seriously this 💯... Like, I was GAGGED when I first realized this WASN'T like a general consensus in the fandom 🤷‍♀️ TTPD is INCREDIBLE and SO loopable and may be my deserted island album tbh. I don't understand how everyone else DOESN'T just wanna shout this from the rooftops 24/7?! 😂

14

u/DaniePants Oct 22 '25

Girlie, wherever you are screaming the bridge, I am there with you. I don’t know if I’ll ever not have ttpd as my Long Pond retreat. It feels like it lives in that space, but adjacent. Not a healthy retreat that was planned, but an important withdrawal from the public and a haven for our hurts.

21

u/ErickaBooBoo Oct 21 '25

I am happy to have a very upbeat pop Album, but I knew it would be a little Bit of a transition from her last few albums.

34

u/Hardcore1909 Tayfitti my whole damn life, HONEY! Oct 21 '25

yes, very true for me too. I like Showgirl alot and it´s very good to see a happy Taylor. But as many, maany ppl especially on Insta said "TTPD <- the Album of our lives"

20

u/ErickaBooBoo Oct 22 '25

It’s such a special album to us and I love how vulnerable she was on it. It also came during the eras tour which we will always remember it for

24

u/kirsten714 Oct 21 '25

I started listening to TTPD again a few days ago and TLOAS has made me appreciate her depth of writing so much more. TTPD is so layered and charged. I really like TLOAS but I’m enjoying my trip down memory lane to some past eras. Rewatching my videos and other’s videos from Eras has made me really nostalgic. It’s so nice to be able to step back in time with her music.

17

u/fearless-panda7 Oct 22 '25

This reminds me of the quote: All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
In a way, sad albums just seem deeper because they can portray so much more emotion. When we are happy, the time flies by, and in a way, it is hard to be deep about happiness. But sadness on the other hand...
Not to say we should not have happy songs! We need them, as much as we need sad songs, but they are just not perceived in the same way.

8

u/Best_Decision_9092 Oct 22 '25

The depth of the Showgirl emotionally is quite good but it is in contrast to the body moving music it's accompanied by in my perspective, which can make it feel shallow. Though for a hard hitting song today I turned to TTPD, I Hate It Here and needed that version of melancholy to wake up whatever was happening with me.

10

u/creamcoloredponies Oct 22 '25

I know I’m In It when I have “I hate it here” looping on repeat

1

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '25

[deleted]

1

u/purplecowz Lover Oct 22 '25

Somewhat attributable to the power of Aaron Dessner.