poetry

Taylor Swift The Tortured Poets Department

25th Apr 2024 — Leave a comment

It’s been a while, hasn’t it? I have missed you guys, but I hope you will forgive me when I tell you why I have been gone for so long… I have been listening to The Tortured Poets Department on repeat, and I got quite lost in it. Now, as a Swiftie, I can’t get over the 31 songs, but I’m not going to go through each and every one of them – I am going to do 13.

Taylor Swift The Tortured Poets Department 2024 (not my image)
  1. Fortnight

We all have that dream, we all have that what could have been but what will never be. A tragedy that stains some vital part of our life span, a black spot on the stories of our life that leave us fractured like a windstorm. Its dramatic, its dark, it is accompanied by a beguiling black and white (for the most part) video.

It features Post Malone who, admittedly I did not beleive would be a well serving duo but after listening to the track a few times I was happy for his company, his harmonies complimenting Taylor’s effortlessly. You can sing to it, sob to it, dance to it. Taylor Swift remains on top.

We have all had that one love that has ruined our life be it a lover, a friend, a habit, identify the culprit and run. Also her Grammys 2024 advert makes so much more sense after watching this video and I gotta say I like this new asthetic although I miss midnight’s vibe, I’ll get over it.

Although melencholia permeates through the synth and the melody toward the conclusion of this song there is so much hope, there is optimism that the sun will return. It is the light we have learned to love, it is the light we have learned to live for but without the dark we wouldn’t see its benefits.

2. The Tortured Poets Department

I heard this and immediatley thought of those pretenious people that slide into your lives only to build up their own ego. They frequently quite Charles Bukowsi and exclusivley drink espresso, they writer poetry in their tartan pyjamas until the early hours of the morning, either on a typewriter or with quill and ink. They drink only a specific type of ale and beleive they bring the light to any room they stand in. I have met a few, perhaps have even been this person to some, although I hope not.

I like the rhyming pattern in this song but do I like this song? I do not know. Does it inspire me? No. Did I google Dylan Thomas and Patti Smith? Yes. The lyrics “You smoked then ate 7 bars of chocolate” are just ridiculous especially when followed with ‘like a tatooed golden retriever’ I get the imagery, I get the energy, it just didnt live up to my idea of Swift’s usual standards. But this is one song out of 31 that I am unsure on.

3. Down Bad

As someone who has cried at the gym, its from the cardio I swear…, I love this song. The sound at the start, whatever is the source of such n intoxicating tune, it is so beautiful, it really rinses my brain, I hear it and I breathe better. I think the pain we learn from our first heartbreak never goes away, that pain is part of us and we polish it.

Even in your 30s,40s, 50s, that anger is evocative of end of the world fights when you were 16 having your heart crushed for the very first time, you are full of rage and upset and there is no where to channel it, all this love that has been lost comes out as a black hole in your bedroom, something you collapse in, something you pull the rest of the world into and there is no escape.

This song is on my gym playlist, don’t blame me if you see me singing to myself when I am supposed to be sprinting when this comes on. The vulnerability, the isolation that comes with heartbreak even though it is a universal feeling, your love the one specifally for you was meant to be different, it was mean’t to last.

It is quite clear that I love this song.

4. So,Long, London.

Listening to this with headphones on is otherwordly. The pacing, the power, the harmonies. ‘How much sad do you think I had in me?’ How much pain can one person make you feel, how much do you have in you? Throughout the honest, the vulnerbaility, Swift is a storm, she is sad, enranged but she remains hopeful, a force of resilience she continues. ‘You said that you loved me but where was the proof?’

Words are just words even when you sing them softly! You have just moved someone’s air and warmed it into music for thier mind, where is the action, where are the flowrs, the notes, the planned dates, the suprises, where is the passion?

This track 5 song is allegedly an ode to Swift’s ex who she split with after 6 years. 6 years, 6 months , 6 weeks all a lifetime when you are in love. Heartbreak is a state of mourning, you are yearning for what you once had, but also what could have been and what will now never be.

5. Florida

I instantly loved this track, Taylor’s energy, the impact of Florence +The Machine, the chorus! Sometimes we like comfort, but then there comes the consequence of the comfort and that is when we fight for freedom, or take flight to escapism. Florida is all about reinvention, that stage in your heartbreak where you recreate who you were, you rid yourself of who they once loved and try on new shoes, squeeze into them and tell yourself they fit as you struggle to dance the night away. Going to Florida is perhaps the popstar equivalent to getting a new haircut and handbag after a bad breakup.

The end is an opportunity, live a new life, see the world with different eyes and forget all the lies of the loves that came before. Florida ,for me, is about trying again, again on that note of recreation and resilience. I love the line ‘Me and my ghost we had a hell of a time‘, this is a song for the road, for the summer, rooftop down, windows open, belting out Florida as you drive through your quiet village pretending you are anywhere else.

6. Guilty As Sin?

With an opening evocative of a very slow, sedated blur song 2 riff, this song is all about wanting someone you shouldn’t, or should you? Who is to tell you who you can and can’t love (as long as it is consentual) your friends may try to protect you from further damage by pleading with you to get rid but if you beleive it is love, then for you it mus the love.

This song is abotu a fantasy, you have not acted on what you desire but the desire is there, oh it is there and when you see them are you guilty jsut for looking? Do your eyes give it away, do they see the ghost of themselves in your expression?

The power, the energy, the riff almost a call back to her country days with its slight twang. It is upbeat, it is thought-provoking, it is relatable. ‘Am I allowed to cry?’ Over someone who isn’t and or ever has been yours? Of course you are as it is unlikely the ever will be.

7. Who is afraid of little old me?

If you have ever been underestimated, overlooked, interupted, this song is your collective rage. It is empowering, it is engraging and it is just damn good. Swift’s life was under a microscope early in to her teens, she grew up being watched, these years of eyes, public spies, a strangers foot steps in her lifehave tkaen their toll on her well being and this song takes that power away from them.

I imagine the life of a celebrity to resemble that of a zoo animal, the tiger must always be magnificent and fierce, it must always perfrom and roar for us but its temper msut always be controlled. Here the tiger is unleashed and we put our cameras down and run for the hills. Yes she is a celebrity but she is a creator, she had given us this beautiful art and we are tear it apart, laughing at her broken heart.

8.Clara Bow

A legacy of talented women and the mirrors they hand down to us. We are never us in our own right we must always be justified, oh yes you come next in this single line of success for women, you are sensational, an ‘it’ girl, a younger version of… Clara bow was the first so called ‘it’ girl, paving the way for so many lookalikes. Why can a woman not just be herself and be applauded for it, comparison is a cage we need to break free from.

Clara Bow applauds these women with Swift name dropping Stevie Nicks and herself. It is an empowering song that offers a refrehsing insight on the industry as well as reminding us of these talented women who were never allowed to be talented in thier own right, there was always some other reason.

With this song Swift re-ignites that spotlight, openig up her stage to all the women that have come before, dring and after her. It is not one singers stage it is everyones.

9.The Black Dog

The delcious duality fo this song, the metaphor and meaning behind the Black dog but with it being a traditional english pub name this song has so many corridors. Lamenting the ong summers of love, wondering how could you ever not be enoguh when they had once healed you with their touch?

We are all replacable, even by those who are meant to polish our picture we could easily become a msitake shattered on the mantlepiece. You will forget me, I will forget you but it was love wasn’t it? At one point it was love and my god was it good? Was it good?

10.thanK you aIMee

Rising from the rubble of someone elses wreckage, your house is on fire but you didnt light the match. The world is burning and there are flames on your face, but you dondt light the match. Some wounds dont heal and that is ebcause they are not supposed to, we absorb them, we become part pain, part polish, we learn to live as a recovering patient, always, our smile stronger than any medication.Sometimes we have to watch part of us burn in order to breathe clearly again.

There is much speculation as to who this song is about and I would ahve to say I agree. Sucess is the best revenge and Swift certanly serves this. This song beuatifully reclaims Swift’s standing, wiping off the dust of an ongoing feud. She matuallry addresses the pain and demonstrates how she learned to grow from it. The reference to Sisyphus, I am in love with this album.

Again the actual tune to this track seems to have a country twang to it, definitly a banjo esque backing track going on.. debut fans are you listening?

11. I hate it here

We are all pretenders, we are all poets, we are all here and always somehwere else at the same time, in my mind I am living every other life, visting those ‘secret gardens’. Fantasy lands, places where you are unknown, places where you are seen by that one individual who looks straight through you. We are always born in the wrong era, we always blame our parents.

This track isn’t one of my favourites but I do like certian lines and the chorus is very fun, one we can all relate too. What is your secret garden?

12. I look in people’s windows

I like the repetition of out out out, then south south, south. The melody is very evocative of So, long, London. I think this song is a nod to all of us living other peoples lives, wathcing everything perfectly unfold online, their shiny skincare deals, thier iced lattes, their contoured and carved stomachs and faces, thier prsitine floors and smiling faces, thier instagram age full of passport pages.

We never want to look into the windows of our own life this is about living a windowsil life, dipping your toe into someone else’s strides. It’s s horter song as thoufh swift is literally just glancing through the glass not wantng to linger, not wanting to bother just wanting to watch, wanting to escape, wanting to learn.

13. The albatross

An albatross is a metaphor for an inescapable moral or emotional burden, is this how she felt? Is htis how she felt when she ran round with her super glue, her plasters, her pleading? when she tried to stop the walls from peeling, when she tried to stop you from leaving?

By the end of the song she is using those wings to fly above, to protect you, she becomes a parachute again that theme of resiilience permeates and there is always solace after sadness, there is always peace after a storm.

Similairly to the Black Dog and the Bolter the Albatross references England’s pubs and bars and continues on with the double entendre. Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge is also a peom that references an albatross in which a sailor is cursed for shooting one down, sometimes we do not have to point out the beauty of the bird to someone else to prove its beauty, sometimes we can just appreicate it on our own and let it fly on.

Chemtrails Over The Country Club

5th Mar 2024 — 2 Comments

My Scorpio is sun and my Libra is moon.

Lana Del Rey Chemtrails Over The Country Club Music Video 2021

We are all dreamers. Whether that is just a dream to get through the day or to sell out stadium tours, we all have something that drives us. Chemtrails Over The Country Club boasts a surreal, swooning quality, a melody that washes mundanity in gold and makes it glimmer. We get so lost in major moments we forget about the minutiae of everyday, the beauty in suburbia, the simple joy of ‘late night TV, doing the laundry’. Released 4 years ago, Chemtrails is ever-relevant to the ‘Little life’ romanticism that allows poetry to permeate.

Lana Del Rey Chemtrails Over The Country Club 2021

Of course, mundanity is not so monotonous if you can live it up lavishly. Wearing jewels in swimming pools may not be so accessible to us mere listeners, but Del Rey makes it so with her moving lyrics and magnetic vocals. She is transportative, stepping into her song and finding yourself lost in worlds you have always wished to enter. A forbidden fantasy, a sense of freedom, fields and frolicking, sports cars and speed. This song feels sunny and uplifting, inspiring and powerful, whilst also remaining quite mournful as if all these wishes were once yours and now they are just whimsical memories you can only envision when your head is in the clouds.

It explores the desperate and dreamy duality that comes from having no attachments; being nobody’s son, nobody’s daughter, you are as free as the wind, as light as water. You can move with no restrictions, no eyes watching you, no one to judge, but that’s it – no one is watching, no one to do laundry for but yourself, no one to wash your hair for but yourself. It is a testament to perseverance, a pursuit of passion despite being left to do it on your own – an ill-fated love affair. A love song dedicated to America, suburbia, and family with its signature Del Rey twist.

Lana Del Rey’s distinctive and mesmerizing musical style has a transcendent and cathartic effect on it’s listeners, drawing them into a world full of beauty, riches and sunshine, all infused with a turbulent touch. Her music video for this particular track mirrors the beauty and strangeness of the song, capturing the quintessential essence of Del Rey’s artistic delivery. With its vintage aesthetics and moments of vivid intensity, the video stands as a compelling visual representation that demands to be experienced in order to fully appreciate its intricacies and artistic vision.

With Del Rey announcing the release of her debut Country project ‘Lasso’, scheduled for September 2024 through Interscope Records and Polydor Records, fans are gearing up for the emotional and evocative storytelling that she is known for. As we eagerly await the arrival of this new musical chapter, it’s clear that the upcoming songs will resonate deeply with listeners, becoming the soundtrack to both quiet, introspective moments and the joyful, carefree escapism that we often seek. Whether it’s through heartfelt performances on TikTok, late-night bedroom listening sessions, or imagining ourselves on a romantic road trip as we sing along in our cars, it’s certain that Del Rey’s new music will become a soundtrack to some slice of our lives.

The Last Dinner Party release debut album:Prelude to Ecstasy

5th Feb 2024 — 2 Comments

An audible Banquet of Beauty, brutality and baroque rock.

The Last Dinner Party

Arguably the most talked about band of the last year, The last dinner party are the new reigning monarchs of the rock and roll scene. Corset adorned and sword in hand they are conquering our stages by storm, cordially invited us to basque in their baroque rock ballads and bangers and we do so with valiant might as we all become a united force in the throes of something new, something needed.

Leading up the the release of their debut album TLDP has quickly become a household name in the rock and roll scene, their quick wit, creative intellect seeing them surge to the top of the charts and the forefront of any avid music fans mind.After almost a years wait from the release of debut single ‘Nothing Matters’ ‘Prelude to Ecstasy’ is here and we just had to take you on a literary tour of it.

Prelude To Ecstasy

Prelude To Ecstasy TLDP

A cinematic opening to tapestry of opulent vocals, folk tales and femininity. The blisteringly biblical, sensual spirit that embodies this band is ferocious and vibrant in this track, a soundscape the settles you in for what’s to come.

Burn Alive

Operatic and orchestral this song is like standing in candlelight wearing a wet, period dress. You’ve just ran into the Manor House from the raining woods, to find your lover in bed with another. It is a sensual Bond- esque title track, a karma sutra meets Jane Austen, it boasts a renaissance painting beauty imagine Elisabetta Sirani, Portia Wounding Her Thigh 1664.

Lead Singer Abigail is ferocious and uplifting in her delivery, her voice both heavy with rage and passion, a desperation fuelled through desire. To listen to this song is to have a spiritual awakening, it feels as though the song itself is burning, as though we are all in the woods, dancing around a fire, burning images of past selves and previous lovers, memorised by the flames.

Caesar on a TV Screen

Controversial perhaps but this one didn’t really hit in the way ‘Sinner’ or ‘My Lady of Mercy’ does. Still a vibrant display of double standards and impossible comparisons, the greatness one could have achieved if they were perceived differently, if they were different.If Caesar was a woman would we still speak his name?

It isn’t one of my skips, I actually don’t have any of those, but I do feel like I am sitting waiting to belt the chorus and then to move on. The video for this is what sells it for me, the theatrical delivery, the vibrant colours, the opulence, the acting done so brilliantly. The stand out lines in this track have got to be;

“When I was a child I never felt like a child I felt like an emperor with a city to burn”

To be venerated, to be applauded just for being a white man, and yes times have changed, and yes men’s mental health is a very important issue that needs to be understood but society is still rife with sexism, still rife with double standards, especially in the music industry. TLDP labelled as industry plants just for their success, why can a woman never just be good because she is? Why must she always prove her worth, why must she always be compared to a male? Never good enough in her own rite, so in a way this song is a satirical take back on these comments, and although it is not my favourite it is done well.

The feminine Urge

Baroque rock. Softness and strength, once seen to be unsettling power in the bones of a woman, this song redefines the boundaries of womanhood, infused with all the love and rage that makes a woman so beautiful. Visceral, a vessel for your entertainment, all eyes are on me but I exist just for you, a man must feel so powerful in the face of the helpless, trying to love but achieving control.

You wish to care for your mother in the way she once cared for you, you wish a man would do the same but its like being in love with a beast who just wants to eat. A visceral depiction of love, loving and despair, Abigail’s voice Lizzie Maryland on guitar,Emily Roberts on lead guitar and Georgia Davies on bass take us back in time to watch women in renaissance come alive and see how our lives still share so many parallels.

On Your Side

On Your Side TLDP

This song epitomises beauty, it is so gorgeous to listen to, so soft and tender but still following that pattern of powerful passion in its delivery, especially with Aurora Nishevci on Keys this piano ballad meets rock baroque makes it that more delicious. Semantics of shame, anxiety, desire and despair never felt so wonderful.

We all have stories we can not share, nights we wish had not happened but want to go back too, the horror and hope that it happened but could happen again. At it’s core, for me, it is about being with someone you shouldn’t be with in their time of need, in their time of ruin. And because you are there for them you convince yourself they could be there for you too, they could love you in the way you love them the cognitive dissonance of convincing yourself of this while knowing it not to be true.

Beautiful boy

Oh to be loved a way a man is loved. man merely breathes and he is admired, venerated for his accomplishments whilst a woman must bleed, must break her bones in order to earn love. Eyes devour her always but they never really see.

Emily’s flute offers an ethereal edge to this track, a white linen shirt and golden light, halo beauty surrounds this boy (Think Jacob Elordi in Saltburn), but why? Who has put this light on him? and how does a woman get that?

Gjuha 

An introspective track predominantly sung by Aurora , offering insight into her culture and background. The disconnect and difficulty she feels while living in England, as someone with a Greek and Albanian background, having spent most of her time living in England she struggles with the loss of her cultural identity, relying on dictionaries to remind herself of her language, acknowledging her difficulty to communicate clearly through floating falsettos that boast a dream like quality.

Sentimentality of unfulfilled corridors of opportunity and the passing of time this song boasts a distinctive heartfelt humanity with Morris joining on vocals, her voice a hand reaching out reminding Nishevci that she’s home with her, with the band.

Sinner

Such a feel good showstopper of a song, embedded in the album the way it ties into the song falling before it is so gorgeous it is such a moorish song that will have you dancing by the second word.This is the part in the dinner party where you have had a few glasses of red wine and there is still time before dessert so you dance, cheery on too much champagne the table becomes your stage. Can’t say too much about this song because I am too busy singing along so check out what I wrote about it after seeing it live in June last year here.

TLDP My Lady Of Mercy.

My Lady of Mercy 

A thunderstorm at your feet this song is full of lightening, dark clouds and open heavens. Full of charm, playful wit and orchestral delivery, like power cursing through my veins, like hope and salt from two sweating bodies, like daggers and jewels this song is a masterpiece, play it in the museums. It is poetry, it is rock, it is the future of music, adorned in a renaissance corset and chainmail. An epiphany in the ears, this song is the sound of stuff happening, it is the pursuit of possibility coming into fruition boldly and beautifully.

Portrait of a Dead Girl 

Again another ethereal track evocative of the painting Beauty and the Beast by Adolphe Weisz, in which a woman lies next to a lion. There is a mutualistic relationship between both, to protect and to feed to guard and to groom, but this is a relationship fuelled by fear not love, the fear that the one protecting on you could turn at any time and devour you whole leaving nothing but rotting rose petals behind.

But to be devoured by the one that you love, the one that swore to protect your perhaps that is the very emanating of it all, to love is so sacrifice, to protect is to sacrifice, when your loved one is starving you would give them your heart to eat if it kept them alive.This song is also about having the strength to be your own protector to slay the beast that demands of you to starve in order for it to stand, is it protecting you or preventing your from leaving, are you held by a golden frame or a fist?

Nothing Matters TLDP April 2019 directed by Saorla Houston & The Last Dinner Party

Nothing Matters 

The beauty of this album is we all know this banger is coming but the power of the other songs do not make us feel as though we are waiting for it.

This is the main course of the meal, we are not starving for it but we are so overjoyed its here we can’t help but sing for our supper. It is a clear, florid floor-filler that will have you yelling the chorus fluently before you’ve heard Morris howl it twice. The monotony of the day, the dread of tomorrow, all drains away.

This song enchants, you may be listening to it alone but you feel the choral spirit of all the others belting it out as you do, the woman inner car on the way to work, the boy in his bedroom singing into his mothers hairbrush, the dad listening to his daughters records and reliving his youth, we are a collective, we are all united as we shout the chorus, our heart running through feels of wild flowers, our businesswear, our stained sweatpants all as light and iterated as period drama dresses, the song serving as a propulsive reminder that perhaps nothing really does matter, other than in this moment, the moment in which we are all together, all dancing to our new favourite song.

Mirror

The only way to be successful is to suffer. A star is only on our radar when it is dying before then it is just part of the vast night sky. We are haunted by images of who we ave been, holding us back from who we could be, standing in the way of who we are now, each version of ourselves stand at the end of our bed and scream with their lost potential, we are all mosaics of who’s, has been and maybes, it is about finding peace with the person we are that matters most. An ode to the untapped talent, the band themselves hold up a mirror to those who are trying, you could be like us, but also to the fact that despite being talented you ill only be known if your talent is perceived by another, their perception must become your personality if you want to prosper. It also evokes the ‘Lady of Shallot’ a Victorian ballet based on a poem by Tennyson about a woman cursed to only perceive the world through the reflection in a mirror, an audible reminder that what we see is rarely reality.

This album ends how it begun, with an orchestral ode to womanhood, to stardom and to spiritual energy that will have to pressing replay.

The band are simply authentically them, talented, intelligent, creative beings and it is unfortunate that their existence as al Ann female/non-binary band makes a statement as it is still seen to be going against the norm especially with their success. Of course they deserve the praise, the recognition, but let’s not put them on a pedestal for simply being who they are, let’s allow for these figureheads to become the norm.

Please go and see them live! Tickets available soon.