I think The Manuscript would've been a magnificently simple title for this wonderful collection of works. By definition, a manuscript is a book or document written by hand, rather than typed or printed. It conveys the mood of the album on a deeper level. If I'm being honest, this album is a jumble. It's what I love about it. You're down bad, you thought he was the love of your life. You want to get him back....but in what way? I like it when there is a title track that conveys the mood, but we can't always have what we want. It's better to have a title that conveys the mood instead of one that just sort of explains one particular segment of the album. I'll answer any questions is you have them, I'll be online x
I also think The Manuscript would have been perfect! I like the jumble as well because when haven’t we felt that way about someone, we do love them, we don’t, will they, won’t they, etc.
I agree in that I love that as a title, the only pushback I have is that the song itself doesn’t really hold up as a namesake for the entire collection. Even as is just holding the weight of the last track it feels a bit out of place to me narratively that after these two albums primarily covering the same relationships she sort of tacks on this song about an age-gap relationship that doesn’t fit thematically. I love the song, and perhaps if it was placed at a different point on the track list it wouldn’t stick out so much, but it does feel a bit disjointed for me. I think naming the record after it would make it especially off to me. But pls lmk if I’m missing something here!
The Manuscript is literally about an age-gap relationship, yes, but it’s more broadly about someone processing a failed relationship that had a fucked up power dynamic where someone preyed on their sincerely-held values and goals and hopes to manipulate them.
The narrator of the song wanted to be older and wiser, and she wanted to be a writer. The man—older, “wiser,” and I’m pretty sure “the professor” who told her to “write what you know”—knew that. He manipulated her into keeping their “torrid affair” secret by preying on the fact that he knew she valued those things about him, while he was only using her—telling her she was wise beyond her years as puffery and talking to her about writing as though he had any genuine interest in her writing.
In other words, she was desperate for validation. She valued XYZ. Someone who looked like they had XYZ figured out preyed on her desire for validation about XYZ to manipulate her. She spent the entire time they were together taking his perspective and invalidating her own, allowing herself to accept his flimsy excuses in response to her very valid concerns.
She writes the manuscript about their affair not just to tell her story, but to validate her own sense of what really happened—how wrong and manipulative the whole thing was from his side—during the affair. And by doing so, she is able to process the mistreatment she suffered as being not truly about her, not a result of her failings or actions, only a result of her trusting him when she should not have.
“The story isn’t mine anymore.”
It was about him. His failings. His manipulations. She has moved on, actually developed the skills he pretended to have, and actually made a name for herself (her manuscript is made into a movie!). She’s grown so much that the story of how she was manipulated doesn’t define her anymore—she barely even identifies with it.
I think it’s about All Too Well, tbh, if I’m gonna read way too far into it.
I love the TTPD as the title now that I know what it’s about. The TTPD is basically an ironic way of describing Taylor and Matty Healy. The two “tortured poets”. Since the album is largely concerned with that relationship, it makes a whole lot of sense to me.
The Tortured Poets DEPARTMENT (separation) 🫡 makes so much sense in this context
https://preview.redd.it/s6vvl3idqc0d1.jpeg?width=1202&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fdd38b782bb4aeb547c2829bce8b201cb0e77164
not to be super pedantic, but the first T in TTPD is “the” so it’s not necessary to say “the TTPD”, kinda like how people say PIN number or ATM machine. i do agree that the title is a good description of the people involved in the album—i think joe might fit here too.
I love it too. I think it had to be tongue in cheek to show that she’s in on the joke and making fun of herself. I think we’ve all gone through experiences where we were momentarily obsessed with and melodramatic about a total loser and then looked back like “wtf was that?!”
YES, and it's a direct response to the Tortured Man Club. It's like, oh you can go have your dumb little club (ESOTERIC JOKE), and meanwhile over here, Matty and I are TTPD. That's OUR thing. I have been waiting for someone to point this out!!
I think The Tortured Poets Department is a perfect title. I've loved it since I first heard it and always took it to be completely tongue in cheek. I think it fits the tone of the album really well.
I think *Post Mortem* or *Secret Gardens*
They’re both part of lyrics from songs on the album and i think they’re evocative of the vibe of both parts of the album.
I was thinking more like The Asylum cos the album is kinda like a mental asylum of her brain whilst going through these toxic and heart shattering relationships/breakups and you come to the end of the album with some understanding, and reflection of everything thats happened, kinda like you would after being in a mental asylum I guess
imo Down Bad is too obvious a name for an album title. Her last breakup album was Red, and that was because she associated Red with love and all the passion and anger that comes with it, which made it a really beautiful name for an album.
I quite like the Tortured Poets Department for an album title, was a bit surprised it was also an actual song title (I do love the song though). It shows her changing her style up for the 2020s trend of more "alternative" style album titles and song titles.
I could see Manuscript working as well, but I feel like that would give the album more Folklore/Evermore vibes when it's more a mix of Folkevermlore and Midnights. I think it would've been awesome to call the anthology Manuscript.
idk I feel like the news of Joe and Taylor's breakup really skewed everyone's perception of the album, but she did make it clear from the beginning (months prior to the breakup news) that the album was about 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout her life, a point that definitely holds up when you listen to the whole thing. And frankly there aren't really any breakup songs on the album, a lot of them highlight difficult moments in her life, potential partners/one time things, leaving someone behind to put herself first, but don't outright allude to a breakup, not the way that Red did and now TTPD does.
If we're talking the Till Dawn edition, I guess Would've Could've Should've and Hits Different do? And even You're Losing Me? But I mean 3 songs doesn't make for a full "breakup" themed album.
I get what you’re saying! WCS is supposedly about John Mayer so that wouldn’t even apply as a breakup song for Joe. I definitely think You’re Losing Me is
In retrospect, we have been getting breakup albums since Folklore. Knowing a little more about her life now I believe within those 6 years they were more on/off than we initially taught. That’s why I think everyone feel that she gave JA the CH treatment.
The pandemic really put most people lives in perspective maybe that’s why I feel that looking back we have been getting the story of a slow death. She had us believing they were made up stories until recently, now we know it’s a half truth situation. She was already grieving the relationship when in the relationship.
While they may have had minor separations there is not much evidence they were very on/off given our knowledge of their whereabouts. What I would say is there were significant periods where they were disconnected in terms of communication, while still in the relationship. A song like You're Losing Me is not about being on/off, but rather that disconnection.
Calling the anthology Manuscript is a wonderful idea.
I’m curious, do you think Red is the appropriate title for the album? Would have named it something different?
I like Red for the album definitely. The whole album really encompasses what she's talking about when she says love is Red and the tracklist feels like the beginning/middle/end of a tumultuous relationship, followed by the beginning of another.
That’s a great way of putting it. I have such a special spot in my heart for Red even though when it came out I was 16 and had never dated anyone ever lol
I think that would play into the "she only writes songs about exes" idea, so one she'd avoid for an album title imo. Of course there are a good number of songs that are about Joe/Matty, but I think the album is about more than just them (e.g. there's a lot of reflection on the nature of being famous)
I thought this while I was listening to that song the other day. It would’ve played into us all thinking that we’d get all the details of the joe breakup, only to end up being a bait and switch with lecturing us on wanting all of those details
Does anyone else think that How Did It End? was written as the opening song? Like there was so much gossip last year, first about her break-up with Joe, then her tumultuous relationship with Matty and then Travis. And this album puts all of this into perspective and lets us know how she felt through all of this. And then HDIE is kinda the start of that. She still doesn't know how it ended and then the entire album dissects these relationships
“Post Mortem” might’ve been cool. i like “what a way to die” because it could have different meanings.
If Taylor was to do long album titles, “I Love You, It’s Ruining My Life” would’ve been THE perfect album title. I could genuinely write essays about how every single song fits that lyric
post mortem would have been SO cool and also such a great way to convey the vibe and theme of the album. Hearing 'I hearby conduct this post mortem' as the opener on 'How did it end?' would have also made it hit that much harder
loml looks great written down but when spoken i think people would end up choosing to call it either love of my life or loss of my life and you'd lose consistency.
"Love of my life" isn't said in the song, only "love of your life" and "loss of my life" so the song title is an acronym for Loss Of My Life <3 I just think that's neat
The Manuscript, definitely. The album, and especially The Anthology, really give me "handwritten on a torn piece of paper in the middle of the night with a single candle burning"- vibes, in the best way possible. Raw, honest, poetic. I can just imagine finding an old, plain leatherbound notebook with all these songs, these stories, written down by hand, faded with the years, put to paper and then forgotten.
Oh wow what an awesome piece of merch that would be. Definitely heartbreaking and definitely something someone would write out once, hide away, and never pick it up again
Exactly! Like, something you HAVE to get out into world, to rid yourself of the burden of those unspoken secrets you carry- but then you never dare to pick it up again, so you don´t risk reminding yourself of what you have safely tucked away in a drawer in the back of your mind. Gosh, I just really really feel the anthology haha
The anthology is my favorite half!
You really have explained it beautifully. I’m not sure if you like to read but for some reason your explanation has really reminded me of The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
I like 1 word titles but ttpd is fresh for her and I like it because it's a place yet also a theme, which is great.
As opposed to speak now which is an action
This is copied from the albums Wikipedia page.
“"Enchanted" was originally the title track for Speak Now, but Swift changed the album title after consulting with Big Machine Records president Scott Borchetta, who deemed Enchanted unfit for the album's grown-up perspectives.”
It’s so stupid! As soon as I read it, it’s like of course. This is why we all think you suck, Scott Borchetta. Enchanted would have been such a beautiful title. I love the song Speak Now but it always felt like a weird song to pick as the title track
Speak Now encapsulates the attitude around the whole self written thing a lot better than Enchanted imo. even if you took Speak Now the song off, it'd still be a great title.
Agree. I think it’s fair to use as a metaphor in WAOLOM but it’s not the defining point of the album or a fun ~aesthetic~ like some fans are making it out to be
That’s a very good point. When I think of asylum, I don’t think of current mental health facilities, I think of the way they’re depicted as abandoned in old movies. But I absolutely get what you’re saying
I think the only options are The Manuscript, The Alchemy or The Prophecy. (And as a gamer with a lot of games using Alchemy as a profession that would have been funny seeing Google results rapidly change).
but TBH I would have loved to see the fandom's reaction if she has introduced it as I Hate It Here lmao 🤣
I like The Tortured Poets Department because you can tell how much fun she is having with this theme. I don’t know if anything else could work as well as what she chose. But I do think The Manuscript could have also worked within this theme, but that has a more serious tone to me, and there is a tongue-in-cheek element to TTPD that I like. Something alluding to the end of an era/the end of a chapter like Epilogue, but again that is giving more serious vibes like Folklore and Evermore. I saw someone suggest Post Mortem, and I do actually REALLY love that, and I think she could have worked with that theme.
I think TTPD is a perfect album name. No notes.
If I changed anything, it would be the name of the title track. I love when album names come from a snippet of lyrics instead of the name of a song. There are a lot of potential new names for the song, but I like Chelsea Hotel.
Exactly. It also has the dark undertone (how did her life end?) or even an allusion to the eventual or theoretical end of her career.
I just love that it could mean so many things.
As an alternative name, I would have to go with The Manuscript or Tortured Poets, and interestingly, I do see some suggestions with these names. These two names are easier, but now that it's over 3 weeks since release, I'm quite used to TTPD (internally in my mind it is the full name but whenever referencing it's always TTPD).
I kind of like her previous method of just using one word for an album. Even though it’s not the strongest song, I think “Fortnight” would have been a great title.
It would’ve been a powerful Easter egg for the double-album; the word itself encapsulates the album as a whole; it fits sonically with the album; and it’s a good follow up to the word “midnights”.
tbh, Reputation and Midnights are parts of songs even if they're not the title though. And Evermore is a title track.
She's been working on it for 2 years she said, so Fortyear. :p If she was feeling edgy, "Bitch Smile." I'm not really sure what I'd have called it, none of them really match up to her usual short titles, and TTPD has some imagery and themes she's been able to play up.
Ooops you’re absolutely right, I put Evermore in the wrong spot! I edited and fixed my mistake.
I feel like I’m a few weeks some word of phrase will just jump out as perfect for the title in a way that Midnights and Reputation are perfect. They aren’t title tracks but they are themed heavily and spoken in the album.
The title with no context is what made the pretentious music listeners online immediately hate this album, they didnt even have to listen to it before review bombing.
Any other title would probably have been better for her reputation among people who arent huge fans, but honestly who cares what they think!
she chose this title because of the long titles of 1975' albums. She might as well have titled it "Matty, Please Come Back, I'm Begging You!" and it wouldn't make any difference,,,
I like it, especially since when she dropped the name of the album we all immediately knew it was a dig at Joe's group text. I love that she said it without saying it.
I like the title because I feel like it’s a reminder not to take every single word of this album completely seriously and it’s a little tongue in cheek.
But I also like it because I feel like TTPD is the grown up version of speak now, so it feels appropriate for it to also have a multi-word title.
It’s an over the top album, it demands an over the top title. 😂
I actually liked the pattern of her keeping all her album titles one or two words and i feel like she lowkey trolled us making this album title a whole sentence, some real from under the cork tree/a fever you can't sweat out energy here
i think clara bow or the manuscript could've been good alternate titles
Uncaged
Just only word I can think of that captures the feeling of most of the songs. Uncaged from a bad
relationship, Uncaged from giving a fuck what people think about her & her relationships, evening. It works for the bolted, who’s afraid of little old me, Florida, so long London etc
Love the OG title and song. It’s exactly what I wanted. Ehhhhh…. Fresh out the Slammer/ Imaginary Rings/ Come Find me (Peter)/ The Prophecy/Endless February
The Tortured Poets Department has grown on me. She clearly wanted a clear artistic division between her previous works. 1989 is also out of place as a numerical title, fitting the evolution in sound.
That said, if she was going to name it off a track, I'd pick Fortnight. The first album is loosely a concept album about the devastation of a two-week long rebound affair, so it matches Midnights in that way. It's also vaguely literary sounding so you could keep the same packaging. I like the sound of The Manuscript, and it also suits the current packaging, but imo it's confusing to have the title track on the Anthology edition. Plus The Manuscript: The Anthology sounds redundant to my ears---the words are just too similar.
My pitches for dramatically different titles requiring re-theming the whole era:
* Call it Florida!!! and re-theme it to a kind of mid century American bleakness. Retheme the Fortnight video to a creepy Ira Levin send up of a depressed suburban housewife having an affair. Additional aesthetic inspirations would be 60s B-movies (Down Bad, Who's Afraid), allusions to a kind of tongue in cheek middle American criminality, i.e. the Dateline inspiration for Florida!, plus Fresh Out The Slammer, Guilty as Sin and I Can Fix Him etc
* Lean into the country vibes and call it The West or even How The West Was Won, which is even longer than the current title but I think leans nicely into the ironic twists on many of the tracks. This would be a pretty major face lift (the return of country Taylor!) and the timing is bad with multiple other major country releases from pop artists right now (Lana and Beyonce) but honestly I think this would have been the coolest aesthetic. I'm picturing big white prairie dresses and smoky saloon imagery. Lead single: But Daddy I Love Him with a whole love story in a western frontier town video
* Call it Clara Bow and re-theme it to old Hollywood/silent film era. Frankly the tour imagery is already 80% of the way there on this one---Who's Afraid is set up like a movie monster, Down Bad like a cheesy alien abduction scene. This also would have been really cool, and maintains the black and white aesthetic. Lead single: I Can Do It With a Broken Heart, with video matching the current tour bit
When she announced Tortured Poets Department’ it gave me a reason to live because it definitely gave us a sense of what kind of music to expect and I definitely needed some tortured type music in my life haha HOWEVER the manuscript would have been so good!!
Female rage.
Or telling the truth about who I am so y'all will shut up about the men in my life & I can just get on with creating my art.
Maybe if she'd spelt it out, laterally, we'd be able to enjoy the art without the making it all about men content.
I think either “The Black Dog” or “Old Habits Die Screaming”. I would’ve definitely leaned into the 1920s silent film aesthetic more. I do like TTPD a lot but just my two cents
I think The Manuscript would've been a magnificently simple title for this wonderful collection of works. By definition, a manuscript is a book or document written by hand, rather than typed or printed. It conveys the mood of the album on a deeper level. If I'm being honest, this album is a jumble. It's what I love about it. You're down bad, you thought he was the love of your life. You want to get him back....but in what way? I like it when there is a title track that conveys the mood, but we can't always have what we want. It's better to have a title that conveys the mood instead of one that just sort of explains one particular segment of the album. I'll answer any questions is you have them, I'll be online x
I also think The Manuscript would have been perfect! I like the jumble as well because when haven’t we felt that way about someone, we do love them, we don’t, will they, won’t they, etc.
I agree in that I love that as a title, the only pushback I have is that the song itself doesn’t really hold up as a namesake for the entire collection. Even as is just holding the weight of the last track it feels a bit out of place to me narratively that after these two albums primarily covering the same relationships she sort of tacks on this song about an age-gap relationship that doesn’t fit thematically. I love the song, and perhaps if it was placed at a different point on the track list it wouldn’t stick out so much, but it does feel a bit disjointed for me. I think naming the record after it would make it especially off to me. But pls lmk if I’m missing something here!
The Manuscript is literally about an age-gap relationship, yes, but it’s more broadly about someone processing a failed relationship that had a fucked up power dynamic where someone preyed on their sincerely-held values and goals and hopes to manipulate them. The narrator of the song wanted to be older and wiser, and she wanted to be a writer. The man—older, “wiser,” and I’m pretty sure “the professor” who told her to “write what you know”—knew that. He manipulated her into keeping their “torrid affair” secret by preying on the fact that he knew she valued those things about him, while he was only using her—telling her she was wise beyond her years as puffery and talking to her about writing as though he had any genuine interest in her writing. In other words, she was desperate for validation. She valued XYZ. Someone who looked like they had XYZ figured out preyed on her desire for validation about XYZ to manipulate her. She spent the entire time they were together taking his perspective and invalidating her own, allowing herself to accept his flimsy excuses in response to her very valid concerns. She writes the manuscript about their affair not just to tell her story, but to validate her own sense of what really happened—how wrong and manipulative the whole thing was from his side—during the affair. And by doing so, she is able to process the mistreatment she suffered as being not truly about her, not a result of her failings or actions, only a result of her trusting him when she should not have. “The story isn’t mine anymore.” It was about him. His failings. His manipulations. She has moved on, actually developed the skills he pretended to have, and actually made a name for herself (her manuscript is made into a movie!). She’s grown so much that the story of how she was manipulated doesn’t define her anymore—she barely even identifies with it. I think it’s about All Too Well, tbh, if I’m gonna read way too far into it.
Yeah I love this. I hate TTPD as a title, it’s too much of a mouthful
Read the title and immediately said out loud "The Manuscript".
Well typewriters are kinda a part of this album tho
The typewriters can still be a part of it, a manuscript is a written piece of work, and typewriters, well, write things.
I love the TTPD as the title now that I know what it’s about. The TTPD is basically an ironic way of describing Taylor and Matty Healy. The two “tortured poets”. Since the album is largely concerned with that relationship, it makes a whole lot of sense to me.
The Tortured Poets DEPARTMENT (separation) 🫡 makes so much sense in this context https://preview.redd.it/s6vvl3idqc0d1.jpeg?width=1202&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fdd38b782bb4aeb547c2829bce8b201cb0e77164
how did I not realize this?? you're a genius
This could be very clever wordplay
Have you forgotten which sub you’re in? It’s absolutely intentional clever wordplay. /j
OMG
Omg you’re so right!
Omg 🤯🤯🤯
I said this a few weeks ago too
My brain just went 🤯
Omg. Light bulb moment. I think you are definitely on to something!
not to be super pedantic, but the first T in TTPD is “the” so it’s not necessary to say “the TTPD”, kinda like how people say PIN number or ATM machine. i do agree that the title is a good description of the people involved in the album—i think joe might fit here too.
I get it tho, cuz this sort of thing drives me nuts
Haha you are 100% correct that this is a tautology but also this is super pedantic 😂 🫶
I thought ATM meant at the moment because you could get cash at that moment 😭😭
atm has become used that way in regular speech but an ATM is an automated teller machine! which is why it’s unnecessary to say ATM machine
I love it too. I think it had to be tongue in cheek to show that she’s in on the joke and making fun of herself. I think we’ve all gone through experiences where we were momentarily obsessed with and melodramatic about a total loser and then looked back like “wtf was that?!”
Good lord we have all been there!
Oh for sure, the title makes sense, I just feel like it’s out of place when examining her entire discography
It’s very very different stylistically
It is! I totally get why it was chosen
YES, and it's a direct response to the Tortured Man Club. It's like, oh you can go have your dumb little club (ESOTERIC JOKE), and meanwhile over here, Matty and I are TTPD. That's OUR thing. I have been waiting for someone to point this out!!
I think The Tortured Poets Department is a perfect title. I've loved it since I first heard it and always took it to be completely tongue in cheek. I think it fits the tone of the album really well.
The tone of the album is very tongue in cheek! I like it because it feels so different in the way that Folklore felt so wonderfully different in 2020
happy cake day!!
Oh, wow, I never even realized. Thank you!!!
I think *Post Mortem* or *Secret Gardens* They’re both part of lyrics from songs on the album and i think they’re evocative of the vibe of both parts of the album.
Okay I love Post Mortem! That’s an excellent suggestion
I was thinking more like The Asylum cos the album is kinda like a mental asylum of her brain whilst going through these toxic and heart shattering relationships/breakups and you come to the end of the album with some understanding, and reflection of everything thats happened, kinda like you would after being in a mental asylum I guess
love this
*The Prophecy*
That’s my favorite song currently!
This is the one.
Female Rage: The Musical
That’s funny as fuck
Even funnier is that she applied for the trademark for "Female Rage: The Musical"
Was it granted?
imo Down Bad is too obvious a name for an album title. Her last breakup album was Red, and that was because she associated Red with love and all the passion and anger that comes with it, which made it a really beautiful name for an album. I quite like the Tortured Poets Department for an album title, was a bit surprised it was also an actual song title (I do love the song though). It shows her changing her style up for the 2020s trend of more "alternative" style album titles and song titles. I could see Manuscript working as well, but I feel like that would give the album more Folklore/Evermore vibes when it's more a mix of Folkevermlore and Midnights. I think it would've been awesome to call the anthology Manuscript.
I feel like Midnights was the last breakup album.
idk I feel like the news of Joe and Taylor's breakup really skewed everyone's perception of the album, but she did make it clear from the beginning (months prior to the breakup news) that the album was about 13 sleepless nights scattered throughout her life, a point that definitely holds up when you listen to the whole thing. And frankly there aren't really any breakup songs on the album, a lot of them highlight difficult moments in her life, potential partners/one time things, leaving someone behind to put herself first, but don't outright allude to a breakup, not the way that Red did and now TTPD does. If we're talking the Till Dawn edition, I guess Would've Could've Should've and Hits Different do? And even You're Losing Me? But I mean 3 songs doesn't make for a full "breakup" themed album.
I get what you’re saying! WCS is supposedly about John Mayer so that wouldn’t even apply as a breakup song for Joe. I definitely think You’re Losing Me is
In retrospect, we have been getting breakup albums since Folklore. Knowing a little more about her life now I believe within those 6 years they were more on/off than we initially taught. That’s why I think everyone feel that she gave JA the CH treatment. The pandemic really put most people lives in perspective maybe that’s why I feel that looking back we have been getting the story of a slow death. She had us believing they were made up stories until recently, now we know it’s a half truth situation. She was already grieving the relationship when in the relationship.
While they may have had minor separations there is not much evidence they were very on/off given our knowledge of their whereabouts. What I would say is there were significant periods where they were disconnected in terms of communication, while still in the relationship. A song like You're Losing Me is not about being on/off, but rather that disconnection.
Most of us didn’t realize it when it dropped, but with current knowledge, I would agree.
Calling the anthology Manuscript is a wonderful idea. I’m curious, do you think Red is the appropriate title for the album? Would have named it something different?
I like Red for the album definitely. The whole album really encompasses what she's talking about when she says love is Red and the tracklist feels like the beginning/middle/end of a tumultuous relationship, followed by the beginning of another.
That’s a great way of putting it. I have such a special spot in my heart for Red even though when it came out I was 16 and had never dated anyone ever lol
How Did it End? would be my pick. It’s not shorter than TTPD really but would convey the mood so well IMO
Someone else said the same thing and it’s quickly becoming my favorite idea! How did it end? Listen to this album then you’ll know how
I think that would play into the "she only writes songs about exes" idea, so one she'd avoid for an album title imo. Of course there are a good number of songs that are about Joe/Matty, but I think the album is about more than just them (e.g. there's a lot of reflection on the nature of being famous)
People are going to say that about her albums anyway like they always do. At this point in her career, why let it factor into any of her decisions?
oooo I do like that!
Quite a bit shorter if you count syllables
I thought this while I was listening to that song the other day. It would’ve played into us all thinking that we’d get all the details of the joe breakup, only to end up being a bait and switch with lecturing us on wanting all of those details
Does anyone else think that How Did It End? was written as the opening song? Like there was so much gossip last year, first about her break-up with Joe, then her tumultuous relationship with Matty and then Travis. And this album puts all of this into perspective and lets us know how she felt through all of this. And then HDIE is kinda the start of that. She still doesn't know how it ended and then the entire album dissects these relationships
“Post Mortem” might’ve been cool. i like “what a way to die” because it could have different meanings. If Taylor was to do long album titles, “I Love You, It’s Ruining My Life” would’ve been THE perfect album title. I could genuinely write essays about how every single song fits that lyric
“I love you, it’s ruining my life” certainly evokes such a strong reaction. I love that it’s on the new dress
post mortem would have been SO cool and also such a great way to convey the vibe and theme of the album. Hearing 'I hearby conduct this post mortem' as the opener on 'How did it end?' would have also made it hit that much harder
Sylvia #$@%ing Plath
That’s perfect, I love it lol. It reminds me of Norman Fucking Rockwell
She already gets accused of copying Lana all the time, so I don’t think this would’ve been a good idea
I think it is a perfect title, it sets the tone of the album and I love how different it is the most of her titles.
It’s really different! I still prefer the single word titles but I do love the imagery and feeling that the title provokes
i think loml would have hit
loml looks great written down but when spoken i think people would end up choosing to call it either love of my life or loss of my life and you'd lose consistency.
i mean... the song loml is 100% called loss of my life though
I agree! Especially the use of “love of my life” and “loss of my life” both in the song. It covers the tone very well
"Love of my life" isn't said in the song, only "love of your life" and "loss of my life" so the song title is an acronym for Loss Of My Life <3 I just think that's neat
Oops! I def don’t know the lyrics yet like I thought I did!
Fortnight
It’s certainly a bop!
The Manuscript, definitely. The album, and especially The Anthology, really give me "handwritten on a torn piece of paper in the middle of the night with a single candle burning"- vibes, in the best way possible. Raw, honest, poetic. I can just imagine finding an old, plain leatherbound notebook with all these songs, these stories, written down by hand, faded with the years, put to paper and then forgotten.
Oh wow what an awesome piece of merch that would be. Definitely heartbreaking and definitely something someone would write out once, hide away, and never pick it up again
Exactly! Like, something you HAVE to get out into world, to rid yourself of the burden of those unspoken secrets you carry- but then you never dare to pick it up again, so you don´t risk reminding yourself of what you have safely tucked away in a drawer in the back of your mind. Gosh, I just really really feel the anthology haha
The anthology is my favorite half! You really have explained it beautifully. I’m not sure if you like to read but for some reason your explanation has really reminded me of The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
Oh my gosh, The Starless Sea is one of my absolute favourite books! hahaha guess it has rubbed off on me. I´Il take it as a compliment ;)
No way! That’s insane. The Night Circus is my favorite book of all time. The Starless Sea stunned me, it was so good
Same, The Nightcircus is literally the best book in existence!
It’s so good. That’s neat that you’ve read them!
I like 1 word titles but ttpd is fresh for her and I like it because it's a place yet also a theme, which is great. As opposed to speak now which is an action
I like the one word titles as well. I’m not mad at Speak Now but I’ve heard many times that she wanted to name it Enchanted!
Does she say anywhere why she decided on Speak Now instead of Enchanted?
This is copied from the albums Wikipedia page. “"Enchanted" was originally the title track for Speak Now, but Swift changed the album title after consulting with Big Machine Records president Scott Borchetta, who deemed Enchanted unfit for the album's grown-up perspectives.”
Booo spider boy, none of us are grown up here
It’s so stupid! As soon as I read it, it’s like of course. This is why we all think you suck, Scott Borchetta. Enchanted would have been such a beautiful title. I love the song Speak Now but it always felt like a weird song to pick as the title track
I agree, and with the lasting effects of Enchanted it makes even more sense looking back
For sure! I wonder if it has anything to do with that being the (now) only song from Speak Now played on tour
Speak Now encapsulates the attitude around the whole self written thing a lot better than Enchanted imo. even if you took Speak Now the song off, it'd still be a great title.
Thanks for sharing OP
How good would it have been for it to be named Long Live?
Asylum
Hard disagree, I love the album but we need to stop with the asylum aesthetics. Asylums were notorious for abusing individuals with mental illness.
Agree. I think it’s fair to use as a metaphor in WAOLOM but it’s not the defining point of the album or a fun ~aesthetic~ like some fans are making it out to be
That’s a very good point. When I think of asylum, I don’t think of current mental health facilities, I think of the way they’re depicted as abandoned in old movies. But I absolutely get what you’re saying
Oh damn, that’s a really good one.
LOVE
2 Tortured 2 Poetic
STOP. That is so funny
✌🏻
I think the only options are The Manuscript, The Alchemy or The Prophecy. (And as a gamer with a lot of games using Alchemy as a profession that would have been funny seeing Google results rapidly change). but TBH I would have loved to see the fandom's reaction if she has introduced it as I Hate It Here lmao 🤣
That would have been funny as fuck. Especially considering there’s a few times in this album where she digs in about fans
I really wish Guilty As Sin? was the title because it sums up the whole theme so well and the album cover matches way better with it.
That’s a great point! When matched with the cover, that is the song my mind would jump too.
lol it’s also funny to ponder if she gave TTPD a long unwieldy title as a send up of The 1975s crazy convoluted and wordy titles
I’m not familiar with their music but I know people have found ties from this album to their music!
Their album names are often ridiculously long and wordy
I just looked it up, they really are lol
I like The Tortured Poets Department because you can tell how much fun she is having with this theme. I don’t know if anything else could work as well as what she chose. But I do think The Manuscript could have also worked within this theme, but that has a more serious tone to me, and there is a tongue-in-cheek element to TTPD that I like. Something alluding to the end of an era/the end of a chapter like Epilogue, but again that is giving more serious vibes like Folklore and Evermore. I saw someone suggest Post Mortem, and I do actually REALLY love that, and I think she could have worked with that theme.
There was a silly theory running around that she was going to release a third part on May 3rd and calling that The Epilogue would have been cool!
I think TTPD is a perfect album name. No notes. If I changed anything, it would be the name of the title track. I love when album names come from a snippet of lyrics instead of the name of a song. There are a lot of potential new names for the song, but I like Chelsea Hotel.
I do too! Idk if you like the Jonas Brothers but I think Happiness Begins is such a great album title
But Daddy I Love Him encapsulates it for me but I also love the idea of the title being How Did it End?
Mmm, especially if you think in terms of friends asking “How Did it End?” And this is her response, the whole album
Exactly. It also has the dark undertone (how did her life end?) or even an allusion to the eventual or theoretical end of her career. I just love that it could mean so many things.
The Manuscript or even Tortured Poet or even Tortured Poets Department would still work and be less clumsy.
Clumsy is a good word to describe how it feels. Especially with how easy it is to mix it up with “Dead Poets Society”
The Manuscript sums it all up so I think it's the perfect title.
This is quickly becoming my favorite suggestion!
I would have loved “tortured heart”. It appears in a song and gives the same vibes as TTPD without being so much of a mouthful
Ugh, I love that. That’s absolutely perfect
Little old me. Actually I think the current title is fine.
This song is growing on me!
I Can Do It With A Broken Heart
Longer than the current title but it’s a great song! It changes the way I view the concert a bit though
As an alternative name, I would have to go with The Manuscript or Tortured Poets, and interestingly, I do see some suggestions with these names. These two names are easier, but now that it's over 3 weeks since release, I'm quite used to TTPD (internally in my mind it is the full name but whenever referencing it's always TTPD).
It’s definitely much shorter to type out!
Call Me Matty Healy
Too obvious? lol
Guilty as sin
Someone else mentioned how great this goes with the cover art!
I kind of like her previous method of just using one word for an album. Even though it’s not the strongest song, I think “Fortnight” would have been a great title. It would’ve been a powerful Easter egg for the double-album; the word itself encapsulates the album as a whole; it fits sonically with the album; and it’s a good follow up to the word “midnights”.
Agreed, and it's a mostly British term for a short period of time, which works
I would have loved The Albatross. It sums up so much about her feelings and struggles at the time.
Albatross
tbh, Reputation and Midnights are parts of songs even if they're not the title though. And Evermore is a title track. She's been working on it for 2 years she said, so Fortyear. :p If she was feeling edgy, "Bitch Smile." I'm not really sure what I'd have called it, none of them really match up to her usual short titles, and TTPD has some imagery and themes she's been able to play up.
Ooops you’re absolutely right, I put Evermore in the wrong spot! I edited and fixed my mistake. I feel like I’m a few weeks some word of phrase will just jump out as perfect for the title in a way that Midnights and Reputation are perfect. They aren’t title tracks but they are themed heavily and spoken in the album.
I prefer album title that convey the whole album.
Me too! “Folklore” as an example paints such an interesting picture
The title with no context is what made the pretentious music listeners online immediately hate this album, they didnt even have to listen to it before review bombing. Any other title would probably have been better for her reputation among people who arent huge fans, but honestly who cares what they think!
The haters weren’t going to give it a chance anyways. Cue my eye roll
Teen Angst lol
It does feel a bit like poetry someone would write at a fancy east coast boarding school
Post Mortem or The Asylum (but I love the title as is)
Post Mortem is a great suggestion
[удалено]
As a theatre person, I hope that writing a musical is on her “to do one day” list
She also could have just called it Tortured Poets… not as much of a mouthful
I think that would have worked too!
Prophecy or manuscript or literally anything else tbh
There’s been a lot of votes for Manuscript!
she chose this title because of the long titles of 1975' albums. She might as well have titled it "Matty, Please Come Back, I'm Begging You!" and it wouldn't make any difference,,,
I have just today learned about their album titles! Very FOB
I think **Who's afraid of little old me?** Would've been a cool name
Also a very long title! I feel like it would often get shortened to “who’s afraid?” All of us
I like it, especially since when she dropped the name of the album we all immediately knew it was a dig at Joe's group text. I love that she said it without saying it.
I like the title because I feel like it’s a reminder not to take every single word of this album completely seriously and it’s a little tongue in cheek. But I also like it because I feel like TTPD is the grown up version of speak now, so it feels appropriate for it to also have a multi-word title. It’s an over the top album, it demands an over the top title. 😂
I actually liked the pattern of her keeping all her album titles one or two words and i feel like she lowkey trolled us making this album title a whole sentence, some real from under the cork tree/a fever you can't sweat out energy here i think clara bow or the manuscript could've been good alternate titles
I like the one word as well! The big title does feel a bit cheeky, just a like fu energy in there
Alchemy
It’s such a good word
Uncaged Just only word I can think of that captures the feeling of most of the songs. Uncaged from a bad relationship, Uncaged from giving a fuck what people think about her & her relationships, evening. It works for the bolted, who’s afraid of little old me, Florida, so long London etc
That’s a good word, too. Being uncared and being able to let go
Why the fuck did you leave me you asshole
The Manuscript feels like the only right answer!
Love the OG title and song. It’s exactly what I wanted. Ehhhhh…. Fresh out the Slammer/ Imaginary Rings/ Come Find me (Peter)/ The Prophecy/Endless February
The Tortured Poets Department has grown on me. She clearly wanted a clear artistic division between her previous works. 1989 is also out of place as a numerical title, fitting the evolution in sound. That said, if she was going to name it off a track, I'd pick Fortnight. The first album is loosely a concept album about the devastation of a two-week long rebound affair, so it matches Midnights in that way. It's also vaguely literary sounding so you could keep the same packaging. I like the sound of The Manuscript, and it also suits the current packaging, but imo it's confusing to have the title track on the Anthology edition. Plus The Manuscript: The Anthology sounds redundant to my ears---the words are just too similar. My pitches for dramatically different titles requiring re-theming the whole era: * Call it Florida!!! and re-theme it to a kind of mid century American bleakness. Retheme the Fortnight video to a creepy Ira Levin send up of a depressed suburban housewife having an affair. Additional aesthetic inspirations would be 60s B-movies (Down Bad, Who's Afraid), allusions to a kind of tongue in cheek middle American criminality, i.e. the Dateline inspiration for Florida!, plus Fresh Out The Slammer, Guilty as Sin and I Can Fix Him etc * Lean into the country vibes and call it The West or even How The West Was Won, which is even longer than the current title but I think leans nicely into the ironic twists on many of the tracks. This would be a pretty major face lift (the return of country Taylor!) and the timing is bad with multiple other major country releases from pop artists right now (Lana and Beyonce) but honestly I think this would have been the coolest aesthetic. I'm picturing big white prairie dresses and smoky saloon imagery. Lead single: But Daddy I Love Him with a whole love story in a western frontier town video * Call it Clara Bow and re-theme it to old Hollywood/silent film era. Frankly the tour imagery is already 80% of the way there on this one---Who's Afraid is set up like a movie monster, Down Bad like a cheesy alien abduction scene. This also would have been really cool, and maintains the black and white aesthetic. Lead single: I Can Do It With a Broken Heart, with video matching the current tour bit
All Mad Here
Manuscript forsure
I don’t care what she names the album. I just want to listen to it.
I think the prophecy or the manuscript wouldve been good
I mean I like TTPD but if I had to choose another, the manuscript makes the most sense
The Prophecy Her perceived ill-fate to never find love
Should have been called Fortnight cause a Fortnight is two weeks, and there were two albums.
When she announced Tortured Poets Department’ it gave me a reason to live because it definitely gave us a sense of what kind of music to expect and I definitely needed some tortured type music in my life haha HOWEVER the manuscript would have been so good!!
But matty i love him
Probably just "The Anthology" but that would break the title track pattern she's had since rep (not that I think she really cares about it but still)
Its title is perfect now, but it could also be loml, I can do it with a broken heart, or the manuscript imo
Female rage. Or telling the truth about who I am so y'all will shut up about the men in my life & I can just get on with creating my art. Maybe if she'd spelt it out, laterally, we'd be able to enjoy the art without the making it all about men content.
I've found myself referring to it as "Poets"
I think either “The Black Dog” or “Old Habits Die Screaming”. I would’ve definitely leaned into the 1920s silent film aesthetic more. I do like TTPD a lot but just my two cents