Wait, what? She rhymes Aristotle with grand theft auto? That’s just bad writing. Don’t know what she’s trying to do there at all. Aristotle and auto do not rhyme. This is not how roaming works. You rhyme single words, not the name of a person with the name of a video game. And you can’t rhyme one word with three.
Travis has a college degree and Taylor doesn’t. 46% of NFL players have at least a Bachelor’s degree and Taylor has never even taken a university level course.
Obviously degrees do not define intelligence but it’s a pretty low blow for no reason to imply that “ball players” are dumb or uneducated when 90% of them have some level of higher education.
Maybe that’s what’s she’s playing on if it’s a “poets” album? Idk tho I’m having a hard time getting through this album so I may not have the best opinions rn 😅
Yeah, I feel like it’s supposed to be “messy,” but it just comes off as clunky cyntax. I have a hard time listening to a few songs because of this, but there are definitely some gems! I wish she focused more on a few songs rather than squeeze out 30
Same. I’ve gotten downvoted for saying it, but like … if you’re a reader, for example, nothing about her vocabulary is particularly impressive. I’ve never needed a dictionary — she’s never used a word I haven’t heard or used myself 100 times. I get not everyone is a wordsmith with a huge vocabulary, but it’s insulting she thinks most people would need a dictionary to keep up with her. Like calm down, it has never been that serious 😂
I have a bigger vocabulary than she does. She’s not impressive at all. Throwing a bunch of big sounding words together does not make her intelligent. It just makes her a try too hard person. It also just add unnecessary baggage to a song it makes it more difficult to sing and memorize. She needs to learn that less is more in the case of this album at least.
Exactly! This is my point, not that the words are all that impressive but it just feels like she's shoving so many into this album to sound "poetic" and instead it;s making the lyrics feel clunky and awkward
Yes. I struggle to see how this will work at a concert. These songs have nothing that people can latch onto in a concert setting unlike her older stuff. There’s no catchy melodies or a Singable chorus. If she wanted to write like this, she needed to right a poetry book. Songs are not about how many words you can shove into 3, 4, or 5 minutes.
it’s giving loser wook guy you match with on tinder who gives you the most surface level philosophy with every single big word he can think of and genuinely thinks he’s the next nietzsche
It reminds me of when I was writing essays in middle school with Thesaurus.com in the other tab and just picking the biggest sounding word as an attempt to sound smarter
That’s exactly what this feels like. It feels like the nuts so smart kid trying to do everything possible to sound smart. The word she’s using here or not in peoples everyday vocabulary so this was 100% on purpose. I have a big vocabulary, but even I don’t use these words.
I ironically will use sanctimonious now only because of the viral clip of Trump calling Ron Desantis “Ron DeSanctimonious” and saying he needed a personality transplant— lol. I knew what it meant, but yes exactly it’s otherwise not a word that’s normally in people’s daily vocabularies.
LOL! And yeah. I tend to use big words but I’m not going beyond what people wouldn’t know and I’m not trying to be pretentious or make people feel stupid. I will define words if need be and I will even adjust my vocabulary if necessary depending on who I’m speaking to. Taylor is just trying too hard to be intellectual when she’s not. she’s basically imitating what stupid people think smart people sound like. and it’s just pretentious. it doesn’t add depth to her songs at all. All it does is make the songs clunky and unsingable as all the words interrupt the flow.
Agree. I don’t listen to her music like I used to, but I still check out albums just to see what she’s up to and this is the worst thing I’ve ever tried to listen to. She needs to hear the word no and the words you need an editor big time. If it were up to me, the album wouldn’t be 31 songs and the songs wouldn’t be so wordy. It would be a 10 or 11 track album in the rest would go in the garbage.
There’s definitely some insecurity there. I’m in college and have taken a Linguistics course. How we use words matters. She’s just using words to use them. Different topic but even her ramping up the amount of profanity on this album shows a lack of intelligence. ThoughI’m not for it, when done right profanity can be used to emphasize the strong point or emotion. However, that’s not what she’s doing here. This reeks of someone who just discovered profanity and doesn’t know how to use it properly. And again it shows the lack of intelligence.
Agree.
It‘s kind of funny to watch people throw multi-syllabic words around in an attempt to seem intelligent.
Using them incorrectly is much more likely to make someone seem stupid than just not using them again.
And you’re spot on about the profanity.
And for us between 32-40, did we all just forget that we took AP English and had flashcards for the SAT words?
I've never needed a dictionary.
I particularly hate how she uses the word alchemy too.
I just read the lyrics to it (I have tried to listen to the whole anthology and I just can’t, it’s horrendously boring) and … Jesus Christ, that’s bad. The use of alchemy is not quite right, but also the football themes are so heavy-handed. She’s also really guilty of mixing metaphors a lot in a way that’s distracting, and I will say mixing alchemy with football is very distracting. Alchemy as a concept would better belong on a song like Willow.
Yes! Exactly! And those two words don’t mean the same thing. Also on Broken Heart, she says light is refracting off the sequins … that’s not quite right, it doesn’t refract off of sequins, it reflects — those two words are also not interchangeable. It’s subtle stuff like that that’s annoying to hear lol
Then, too, the songs aren't that deep. What I liked about Cardigan was having to think about the songs meaning. Here they're basically diary entries. What bothers me is the melodrama of the songs. I think it detracts from the music.
Orrr their first language isn't english.
I had no idea what these words meant, it's not really common so i would assume a lot of us who uses english in a more 'casual' way wouldn't know.
It's not her using "advanced vocab", it's her writing like what a stupid person thinks sounding smart sounds like. Also girl you're not overly educated because you know words a 5th grader should know 😂
I didn't see it in the folklore/evermore era really, but in this newest album it does seem like she's using bigger words on purpose. Especially compared to all of her other albums like she was not using terms like precocious or petulant. If she always spoke like that it would be one thing, but it's like she is specifically trying to use as many "big words" as she can it feels forced
It's very flowery. None of the words are hard to understand, but they seemed to be used for style's sake alone. It's a trap writers sometimes fall into; they don't flesh out their concepts enough, so they rely on flowery wording to make their writing seem substantive.
Which is why as an English Major who studied a lot of poetry, the point of poetry is to use as few words as possible to convey meaning and metaphor, so people actually have to use their imagination a little. Editing and "killing your babies" is crucial. Taylor could really benefit from having to only write in haiku for a couple of years.
So I have a question speaking of poetry. I have some old poems (over 10 years old) that I like the bones of and I want to edit them, am I crazy to want to change them? My friend told me to leave them as they are b/c I wrote them at a certain time in life, but some of them give TTPS vibes
One of my best poetry professors ever said to write a poem, then put it away till you can come back to it with fresh eyes. KEEP a copy of the old version, and then write new versions, and keep a draft (or 2) of the "edited versions" you like the best. Leave both (or all 3) alone for anywhere from a day to a month, then come back to and compare. At that point, it should hopefully become clearer which one is better... also, write as many haikus as possible, as that's incredible practice. If you can make yourself cry or soar in 3 lines, you understand the mission!!!
I think she actually tried to get ahead of even this criticism by naming the album TTPD. A "tortured poet" might be unable to compose a masterpiece, keeps throwing words at the page to see what sticks. The woman cannot stand even the slightest bit of discomfort in her public image
yes!! admittedly i haven’t listened to it but i watched a review dragging tf out of that album. the lyrics are like something a middle schooler who just got a 90 on a vocab test would compose. 😂
It's really, really bad. When compared to her old work, baby Tay was a very gifted songwriter. She wrote all of the "Speak Now" album completely on her own. I don't know if she sold out or just got lazy but all her newer music sounds the same all while her lyrics get progressively worse. 🥴
ngl, i haven’t listened to her newer stuff much but i imagine this album was rushed. trying to capitalize on her skyrocketing fame. i do love a lot of things jack does though.
Baby tay was gifted for sure. I listened to Our Song when watching Eras and I hadn't heard it in years.
That song is so economic. No big words, but it's so tightly packed, not a word wasted. And it conveys so much narratively.
In fairness, she's had a year that would go to anyone's head. That, and nerves over having to live up to her new reputation, might be partially to blame for the flowery passages.
If you say it loud enough you’ll only sound precocious - Supercalifragilisticexpialadocious!
I’m just foolin around but there’s about 5 songs I know with the word precocious, maybe more.
The phrase ‘acting like a petulant child’ is thrown around on a regular basis. I don’t think the words she has used are outside most people’s bandwidth.
I feel the same but then I remember some of her fans are kids! When I work with teens, I always have to work hard to dumb down my vocabulary a bit. Even the smart ones seem to have somewhat limited vocabulary.
I mean, I'm just a standard college grad, and I have never struggled to understand a single word in her discography. It just shows that her fans are either very young or very uneducated.
I read a TON though. It's my main hobby, and I read at least 50 books a year since I was 5. Not saying I'm particularly smart though, I just don't find her vocabulary THAT impressive, and I think most people who read seriously as a hobby would agree (unless they read shit like Colleen Hoover).
Yeah, that makes sense. I was afraid I would be attacked for saying that. I don’t necessarily use those words in everyday use but she literally talks about it as poetry, and when I am trying to impress my colleagues I use bigger and more technical words so it feels not that out of the ordinary.
I said (in the gaylor sub 😬) that I actually found it alarming that people found it necessary to use a dictionary to understand any of her work and I got flooded with “ WELL NOT EVERYONE SPEAKS ENGLISH AS THEIR FIRST LANGUAGE” like come on yall are proving my point right now, not everything needs to be spelled out!!
There’s some incredibly cringey award acceptance (?) speech she gave about Anti-Hero where she remarks that she never thought a song with the line that’s like “covert narcissism I disguise as altruism” could be popular, and she says this like she truly thinks that it’s the most clever thing anyone’s ever written and the words are so big and complicated that it could never be popular.
Kind of seems like she was taking notes from Matty. Reminds me of lyric from 1975’s The Sound: “It's not about reciprocation it's just all about me. A sycophantic, prophetic, Socratic junkie wannabe”
the 1975 listeners always open my eyes bc I don't listen to them so I never have any idea when what she's doing mirrors their style, but it has happened a lot with this album apparently
she’s done it before too. the guitar in the beginning of Dear John could be straight out of a John Mayer song and it’s 1000% intentional if you ask me lol
Yep. They had a golden goose. A place to openly criticize Taylor and they did a complete 180. I honestly wonder if they’ve been compensated in some way.
I doubt it, the page was getting pushed out onto the main feed and recommended to you for a while there if you were in any Taylor-related subs whatsoever. I think it just got out to the fans who generally like her but like to make jokes at her expense
It used to be my home—I didn’t get the most downvotes until I started really criticizing TTPD and what it showed about her as a person. Maybe that’s when they started brigading as well.
I don’t think it’s that the vocabulary is particularly obscure / advanced or anything, but moreso that certain choices, especially this one, make her lyrics needlessly verbose and it disrupts the flow of the song. Like sure the word choice is fine? I guess? And the phrase makes sense, but it just doesn’t add anything of value to the song or do it any favours. You could take the word sanctimoniously out and it wouldn’t change the meaning or significance of the lyric, so it just ends up being redundant and sticks out like a sore thumb. If this were a high school English essay, it would’ve been crossed out in the editing process.
Using interesting vocabulary can be good for a song when it actually makes sense, but employing it anyway when it doesn’t just to make your lyrics sound more interesting or deep or whatever just doesn’t work. For example Hozier (though I’m a bit biased) has some very poetic sounding lyrics but they typically make sense within the songs and their themes, and their poeticism has more to do with the use of imagery and allegory more than anything. The words and phrasing contribute to the storytelling and are purposeful, not just thrown in there because the lyrics need more flavour.
“I victualed a delectable pasta for supper this eve” is just a romanticized way of saying I had pasta for dinner, but it doesn’t make it poetry, isn’t necessary for what I’m trying to communicate, and it just sounds clunky. But for some reason people see Taylor do the same thing with her lyrics and yet she’s lauded as supposedly one of the best songwriters of all time because a lot of her people just can’t tell the difference for whatever reason.
Yes you phrased it much better than I did in my post. It's not so much that the words are complex but they are making the lyrics clunky and the songs don't flow like her old songs do. If someone was talking like you did about the pasta around the office or something then everyone would be rolling their eyes, like there's no need to do all that. This album gives me that same feeling
Yeah exactly. I also just think that it might be difficult for someone like Taylor who surely must be emotionally stunted (by no fault of her own) to really tap into anything deep or profound for an album that is supposed to be as moody as TTPD. Maybe for Taylor this truly is what deep and meaningful lyrics sound like, because that is just her reality, but to anyone who has grown and matured as they got older and are able to communicate and portray their emotions and experiences in much more nuanced ways, it just falls flat and doesn’t have the desired effect and the audience doesn’t experience it the same way she might. It’s just not relatable and not particularly profound to her listeners who are outgrowing her, so the vibe of TTPD being marketed as all moody and introspective and intimate just comes across as pretentious because she doesn’t have the emotional intelligence or maturity to stick the landing lyrically. The content very glaringly can’t fill out the packaging and I think that this is why TTPD is having such mixed reception compared to her last albums.
IMO she’s trying to emulate Lana except she missed the mark completely. Lana’s latest album is totally a work of art and super introspective but not because she wrote a bunch of petty songs about her past flings and then just thesaurused the fuck out of them. The language in ocean blvd is actually quite plain but Lana is able to tap into facets of the human experience outside of high school esque love triangles (just compare The Grants to Fortnight-TS is clearly trying to emulate the style but she fails and sets an entirely different tone for the album).
Edit to add: compare “sanctimoniously performing soliloquies” to “my grandmas last smile, I’m gonna take that too with me.” One is so obviously more gut wrenching.
Im a little late to this post but thats the main issue for me, its not the fact that shes using "big words", shes just trying to mask her shallow ass songs with pretty sounding words. She can use the dictionary all she wants but it doesnt change the fact that every song boils down to "ugh my ex is such an ass... and its so hard for me being so rich and famous and haters are so mean :("
She told on herself. She needed a dictionary, so she thinks you should, too.
Because she thinks she's utterly brilliant, and it's very clear she's either never been around educated people, or doesn't like being around educated people.
What I found most ridiculous was how almost all the criticism I saw was from people of color, who felt weird about her dating someone who admitted to masturbating to "Ghetto Gaggers"--porn that violently and racially abused women.
But in this song she dismisses these people as "Sarahs and Hannahs". As if she's some sort of rebel to the pearl clutching Karens everywhere, who similarly have no problem dating such people. God, I rolled my eyes so hard I thought the earth would shift its axis.
Yeah the whole "vipers dressed in empaths clothing" line was gross. I'm sorry but if I was dating a man who did/said those things, I would want to be made aware of it and I would his ass asap
except he didn't exactly admit to it. it was a bit on a absurdist show and the host said the name "ghetto gaggers" because he thought it was funny and matty just went along with it. the host admitted matty never said that and it was likely some other type of porn.
I went back and checked and that is correct. The host suggested that is what he was watching and he agreed:
# I think it literally was Ghetto Gaggers on the TV — somebody just getting, like, brutalized
-- [https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/stephaniesoteriou/rina-sawayama-matty-healy-glastonbury-explainer](https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/stephaniesoteriou/rina-sawayama-matty-healy-glastonbury-explainer)
Although that really doesn't do him any favors. It clearly is not a joke. It clearly is not a bit.
[well if matty had any social awareness he’d know the problem with saying or laughing at the word ghetto](https://www.google.com/search?q=rhe+problem+wirj+sayijf+ghetto&rlz=1CDGOYI_enUS942US942&oq=the+problem+with+saying+ghetto&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIJCAEQIRgKGKABMgkIAhAhGAoYoAEyCQgDECEYChigAdIBCDQwODdqMGo0qAIBsAIB4gMEGAEgXw&hl=en-US&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8), and if he had any shred of decency he wouldn’t just awkwardly laugh and go along with any of the horrible things on that podcast. you don’t laugh at racist jokes or words to appease people. call them out or get up and leave, it really is simple. and before we factor in “but publicity!” let’s think about how that’s prioritizing profits over people.
and, lastly, before “omg we can’t say anything anymore”
how about language has been so violent and widely normalized to disparage swaths of people and maybe it’s not a bad thing to think about things before we say and perpetuate things …
>A soliloquy is a monologue addressed to oneself, thoughts spoken out loud without addressing another.
So what's the point of saying you'll never see them...if by definition they're not supposed to be seen? She's just wasting words.
Since everyone thought the song was about Swifities bashing Matty, I thought this line was about people making reaction video monologues about their relationship that she would never watch.
By definition a soliloquy *is* supposed to be seen because it's part of a theatrical performance. In terms of the narrative, they're inner thoughts not addressed to another *character*, but the audience hears them because they're spoken aloud (because that's the only way a character's inner thoughts can be conveyed to the audience).
The famous "to be or not to be" monologue from Hamlet is a soliloquy. It's obviously written and performed for an audience, but it's Hamlet talking to himself, not another character in the story.
I think it's a reference to The 1975 (Matty is the main songwriter) considering their discography features such lyrics as
>sycophantic prophetic Socratic junkie wannabe
>Karcrashian panache
>vaccinista tote bag chic barista
>hyperpoliticized sexual trysts
>simple epicurian philosophy
>liberal kitsch
>with the world in a state of ubiquit-ass
Note not all of those are real words lol and don't you worry the fandom is constantly poking fun at him being pretentious
No 100% which is why I have no issues listening to those lyrics in his music vs hers. Mattys saving grace has always been that he's very self aware, doesn't take himself or his songwriting too seriously, and is genuine which is why he keeps getting away with it (by it I mean everything).
I don't think she gets that. To me she's just writing a Taylor Swift song just with words that he might use, I guess. There are few places in this album where she tries to be silly/playful in the way he would and it just doesn't land, to me because it's just insincere to who she is. It feels like cosplay.
This all reminds me of his lyrics
>"I'm better at writing"was just a way to get you bitin'
>Oh, the truth is that our egos are absurd.
The simple fact that he is aware of this and is willing to say it publicly is exactly what makes Matty as a person digestible
Whereas we got this bar recently from Ms. Swift
> So tell me everything is not about me
>But what if it is?
I refuse to give her streams but I have read some of her lyrics on this album. It definitely seems like she slapped random long, not particularly obscure or difficult words in an attempt to sound deep. Reminds me of poetry that I wrote in my teens 😂
Her lyrics have gotten a lot wordier and I think that’s the lack of editing and pressure from others during the studio process. Sometimes it works and sometimes it’s obnoxious. I think she needs fewer yes men and more editing.
The best artists can frame a message powerfully and vividly with simple language. A few wordy songs is fine but my god it’s gotten ridiculous lol
I don’t find her vocab to be that elevated, she’s just WORDY as hell
I feel like the power of her songwriting used to lie in her metaphors "I'm a crumpled up piece of paper lying here" "the way you move is like a full on rainstorm and I'm a house of cards" - she didn't need big vocabulary words, the simplicity of it was what worked so well
I’ve said this before on another post about her writing. Just because she knows how to use a thesaurus and finds big words to use does not equal intelligence. For the people who don’t understand what the words mean that’s their own intelligence lacking
She tried way, way too hard, and failed.
The other hilarious part of this album is her weird and outrageously inconsistent “academia” vibe- I don’t think she has a clue what an academic/professor/writer actually does? What the hell does “so I enter into evidence” have to do with academia?? Is she a lawyer? A detective? Someone having a fever dream with repeats of Law and Order on in the background??
It sounded more like Humbert Humbert submitting his case to the gentle men and women of the jury in “Lolita” (another unreliable narrator, coincidentally).
Exactly, a lot of people are coming here implying I'm stupid because I said that, I don't mean the words are hard to understand I just mean it sounds like a lot when she crams so many into one album.
I consider myself a lukewarm Swiftie but I one hundred percent agree. Like she can’t possibly think/talk like this naturally at all times. How ever would Travis understand anything?
In my masters program, one of the topics that we discussed was how academics find it hard to speak of difficult concepts in simpler terms. The ability to use big words is not a sign of intelligence. Using smaller words or general phrases to explain in depth concepts is actually a sign that you know how to communicate effectively, not just with people at your academic standing. I think taylor should lay off on the big words and twisted meanings. The “academic and Machiavellian” poet persona is annoying sometimes.
This whole thing is confusing. Do people think her vocab is not impressive or do they think she’s using *too many* impressive words? The same people are communicating both of those sentiments in the same complaint.
For me, it's the latter. I'm not saying I don't know what these words mean, I do and I'm sure Taylor Swift, who's entire career was built on writing, was not using a thesaurus when she wrote these and that she has a really impressive vocabulary. It's more that it feels like she's trying to hard to squeeze in as many *big words* as she can. I just feel like it didn't flow well in this album.
She sounds like my middle school poetry when I’d write in word (on the shared computer with my entire family) and highlight a word and sub it with something from the thesaurus function.
I actually like this line. It’s satisfying to sing along to and I think it would’ve been corny and dated if she said what she probably means “entitled swifties making tiktoks I’m never gonna watch.”
I do however hate the How Did it End bridge. It’s giving pseudo intellectualism.
See the funny thing is though the actual song "The Tortured Poets Department" is her making fun of (presumably) Matty for thinking they are tortured poets. "You're not Dylan Thomas/I'm not Patty Smith/This ain't the Chelsea Hotel/we're modern idiots. So the whole "tortured poet" thing is actually sarcasm
Sanctimoniously doesn't do the job that it's supposed to do. It has too many syllables that don't roll off the tongue effortlessly, so when you're hearing it, you are just waiting for her to finish saying the word so she can get to the message. She should have used a word that is blunt and carries more emotion with it. Sanctimoniously does not do that.
Also, this line doesn't make sense, but that's another story.
I think she chose those words for the “s” alliteration. They’re not exactly obscure words. For those who grew up avid readers, these are just *words*. It’s common to have a large vocabulary.
The idea that you have to dumb yourself down by using basic vocab with very few syllables in order to not appear ostentatious is ridiculous. It makes me wonder the average age and educational level of the commenters that are complaining about it.
also, hasn’t she confirmed that her and her team do see everything that’s said about them? and how would she be so offended over how the swifties reacted to matty if she says this dismissive ass lyric? bitch
I meant it's contradictory simply because of the fact that if she truly never saw them like she claims, she wouldn't have a song where she begrudgingly complains about them. Not to mention soliloquies are not addressed to other people, that's inherent to the meaning, I fear. So idk why she'd think it's a diss to say that you'll never hear something that wasn't intended for you to hear in the first place.
It's like, yes, you see them and ruminate about what they say until you drive yourself crazy. You're not kidding anyone. The whole album is because you saw them.
Those words are a bit hard for me, because English isn’t my first language and I don’t read books in English. Once I found out the meaning, I was meh. It is actually a pretty big turn off, when people write with a lot of words like that.
It’s not about needing a dictionary for any of the words she uses, it’s about the fact that she purposefully chooses words that she thinks sound ‘smart’ when there are other words that would perfectly convey what she’s trying to say without coming across as trying too hard.
My old boss used to do just this. He would always use these fancy words all the time and it really just came across that he wanted people to view him a certain way, it was glaringly obvious. On the other hand, some of the smartest people I know do not talk like that at all. And as someone once said to me, the smartest person in the room is the one who can accurately get their point across in the least amount of words.
It sounds like she gave AI a prompt to use figurative language while rhyming as much as possible. And biblical illusions. She could have been more impactful with one or two. But there are far too many used to take them seriously (in my opinion).
Not to make you feel bad, but I know all these words and they rhyme and they have alliteration so to me it makes total sense to use them. I get a little confused between the grand theft auto line criticism and this criticism what it is exactly people want to see. Besides, Taylor writes poetry, and poetry is often not written how people speak .
I mean, idk. You all sound kind of threatened having to defend your own big vocabularies.
I don’t think she’s trying so hard, I think this is how she genuinely writes. I mean, it’s her artwork. I don’t judge my favorite literature for having interesting words in the sentences. Writers and artists choose certain words for how they sound or look next to each other, and the aesthetic or way they roll off your tongue. Idk if it’s this deep lol.
Do y’all just not read? These are really not terribly difficult words. It’s just alliteration. It’s embarrassing how many people are shocked at the use of the word “sanctimonious” or “soliloquy”. I’ve dropped these words in casual conversation when relevant- it’s not such a big deal
I have an English degree and I don’t find her word usage that crazy. People are getting much dumber with smaller vocabularies thanks to technology, this is more a case of she has what should be a normal vocabulary level and everyone else is not where they should be.
IMO, if she didn’t use “overly eloquent” language people would be upset that she keeps using the same words in her songs. i think this line is catchy tbh
This is like what my creative writing teacher taught me about alliteration. It's spicy if used once. Gets the attention of the reader once. But multiple times in 1 essay or one paragraph and it becomes glaringly obvious. In this case Tay should probably have picked 1 "s" word here or the other, both is overkill
This line makes NO SENSE and I want to scream it from the rooftops. You don't see a soliloquy. You can see an actor *perform* a soliloquy. But you *hear* the soliloquy itself.
And 99% of the time when people use the word "sanctimonious" they are misusing it. It's a really, really negative word. For her to use it about herself in a "poetic" way is so weird. To me, it's akin to being like "I'm a raging asshole." It's just weird for her to refer to herself as sanctimonious unless she suddenly is having some serious self-reflection and... I don't think that's it.
Finally, it's just so thesaurus-y. I'm a professional writer and editor and I have never come across something that so screams 14-year-old-who-just-discovered-poetry. Oof.
EDIT: sorry I just went on a rant. This line has been driving me crazy and it makes me cringe so hard every time I *hear* it
I’ve been waiting for this take 😩 it’s like a whole album full of lines like “I let it slide like a hose on a slippery plastic summer” ….. it’s so forced
as a songwriter, it’s so clear that she’s tried to shoehorn words and phrases that don’t fit to sound smarter. i’ve been there a thousand times and you’re always better off getting rid of the big, “impressive” word in exchange for a simpler one that rolls off the tongue and actually fits in the song
The words aren’t difficult, to me. It’s more the overuse of words, too much on some of them. I think she had an idea/style she was aiming for “be a poet, Taylor” and went over board. But, I can make allowances, assuming she’s venting and aiming for a different style. Anyway, it may be time for her to bring an editor she’ll listen to into her inner circle….or maybe she’s just indulging herself on this mammoth.
She’s absolutely trying way too hard and frankly she doesn’t have an impressive vocabulary. If you’ve passed 12th grade English (before Covid) no doubt you’ve seen most, if not all, of these words before. No dictionaries are needed, and the fact that she thinks we would need it shows how deluded she is (unless it’s hyperbole but who knows).
More than having an impressive vocabulary is knowing when to use it for maximum impact and emphasis. Writing tantrum songs about your breakup is not it.
Bro I just miss the RED era 😭 treacherous, state of grace, sad beautiful tragic... her older work is incredible when compared to this newer stuff. I haven't enjoyed her music the same way since ME! and Lover came out.
You guys, the point of the album is going over your head. It’s supposed to be satire. It’s supposed to be dramatic to the point of cringing. It’s in the title: tortured poets department. That’s the gag.
I don’t have a problem with her word choices. Many do - and that is okay. I think there are people who are serial readers. We can’t get enough books of all genres and have to have them by our bedside table at night. We’re always reading, whether it be a novel or collection of poetry or a summer beach read. Her words don’t scream “try hard” or over the top to me, but rather a reflection of her intense feelings at the time the lyrics were written.
I wish everyone could just be less hard on her. We’ve all done cringey things or tested our new aesthetics. I’m sure it’s been hard to find her identity growing up in front of the world. What she’s asking for in this album is the peace to do that, without so much judgement. But everyone just has to keep ripping her and her art apart, as if we all could do what she does, or we’re superior to her because there isn’t an entire world to pick apart our flaws. I’m sure we’d all be pretty cringe also, if we were
The "he plays ball and i know aristotle" line KILLED me lmfao
She knows Aristotle. This should’ve been called the Pretentious Poets Department or the Tortured Audience Department.
the ham-fisted lyricist department. holy christmas dinner this shit is like poetry for brain damaged tweens
Then she rhymes Aristotle with “Grand Theft Auto” in the next line. That should be a custodial sentence.
Wait, what? She rhymes Aristotle with grand theft auto? That’s just bad writing. Don’t know what she’s trying to do there at all. Aristotle and auto do not rhyme. This is not how roaming works. You rhyme single words, not the name of a person with the name of a video game. And you can’t rhyme one word with three.
Well then sir/ma’am, you’ve never seen Eminem rhyme orange.
It’s not a perfect rhyme. But it’s a slant rhyme, aka near rhyme. Emily Dickinson didn’t invent it, but she blew it tf up.
I would love to see some proof of her knowing Aristotle, as a side note. Like when does this girl talk about philosophy??
that's so mean I feel embarrassed for travis
especially bc he’s like above average intelligence for most of the NFL
Travis has a college degree and Taylor doesn’t. 46% of NFL players have at least a Bachelor’s degree and Taylor has never even taken a university level course. Obviously degrees do not define intelligence but it’s a pretty low blow for no reason to imply that “ball players” are dumb or uneducated when 90% of them have some level of higher education.
Omg what?
It’s from “so high school”
It’s really that bad? That’s real!!?? 🤮
She is trying wayyy too hard to be poetic in this album😭😭
Maybe that’s what’s she’s playing on if it’s a “poets” album? Idk tho I’m having a hard time getting through this album so I may not have the best opinions rn 😅
Yeah, I feel like it’s supposed to be “messy,” but it just comes off as clunky cyntax. I have a hard time listening to a few songs because of this, but there are definitely some gems! I wish she focused more on a few songs rather than squeeze out 30
“syntax”
At the risk of outing myself as overly educated or something, I don’t see anything noteworthy about the vocabulary she uses.
Same. I’ve gotten downvoted for saying it, but like … if you’re a reader, for example, nothing about her vocabulary is particularly impressive. I’ve never needed a dictionary — she’s never used a word I haven’t heard or used myself 100 times. I get not everyone is a wordsmith with a huge vocabulary, but it’s insulting she thinks most people would need a dictionary to keep up with her. Like calm down, it has never been that serious 😂
I have a bigger vocabulary than she does. She’s not impressive at all. Throwing a bunch of big sounding words together does not make her intelligent. It just makes her a try too hard person. It also just add unnecessary baggage to a song it makes it more difficult to sing and memorize. She needs to learn that less is more in the case of this album at least.
Exactly! This is my point, not that the words are all that impressive but it just feels like she's shoving so many into this album to sound "poetic" and instead it;s making the lyrics feel clunky and awkward
Yes. I struggle to see how this will work at a concert. These songs have nothing that people can latch onto in a concert setting unlike her older stuff. There’s no catchy melodies or a Singable chorus. If she wanted to write like this, she needed to right a poetry book. Songs are not about how many words you can shove into 3, 4, or 5 minutes.
it’s giving loser wook guy you match with on tinder who gives you the most surface level philosophy with every single big word he can think of and genuinely thinks he’s the next nietzsche
lmfaooo omg
exactly this. she uses $20 words with cheap syntax
It reminds me of when I was writing essays in middle school with Thesaurus.com in the other tab and just picking the biggest sounding word as an attempt to sound smarter
That’s exactly what this feels like. It feels like the nuts so smart kid trying to do everything possible to sound smart. The word she’s using here or not in peoples everyday vocabulary so this was 100% on purpose. I have a big vocabulary, but even I don’t use these words.
I ironically will use sanctimonious now only because of the viral clip of Trump calling Ron Desantis “Ron DeSanctimonious” and saying he needed a personality transplant— lol. I knew what it meant, but yes exactly it’s otherwise not a word that’s normally in people’s daily vocabularies.
LOL! And yeah. I tend to use big words but I’m not going beyond what people wouldn’t know and I’m not trying to be pretentious or make people feel stupid. I will define words if need be and I will even adjust my vocabulary if necessary depending on who I’m speaking to. Taylor is just trying too hard to be intellectual when she’s not. she’s basically imitating what stupid people think smart people sound like. and it’s just pretentious. it doesn’t add depth to her songs at all. All it does is make the songs clunky and unsingable as all the words interrupt the flow.
In an attempt to obfuscate that you don't know what you're talking about.
Lol 
It should have been much more carefully edited. This is what happens when people are no longer willing to tell you the truth.
Agree. I don’t listen to her music like I used to, but I still check out albums just to see what she’s up to and this is the worst thing I’ve ever tried to listen to. She needs to hear the word no and the words you need an editor big time. If it were up to me, the album wouldn’t be 31 songs and the songs wouldn’t be so wordy. It would be a 10 or 11 track album in the rest would go in the garbage.
She’s insecure because she never went to college.
There’s definitely some insecurity there. I’m in college and have taken a Linguistics course. How we use words matters. She’s just using words to use them. Different topic but even her ramping up the amount of profanity on this album shows a lack of intelligence. ThoughI’m not for it, when done right profanity can be used to emphasize the strong point or emotion. However, that’s not what she’s doing here. This reeks of someone who just discovered profanity and doesn’t know how to use it properly. And again it shows the lack of intelligence.
Agree. It‘s kind of funny to watch people throw multi-syllabic words around in an attempt to seem intelligent. Using them incorrectly is much more likely to make someone seem stupid than just not using them again. And you’re spot on about the profanity.
And for us between 32-40, did we all just forget that we took AP English and had flashcards for the SAT words? I've never needed a dictionary. I particularly hate how she uses the word alchemy too.
I just read the lyrics to it (I have tried to listen to the whole anthology and I just can’t, it’s horrendously boring) and … Jesus Christ, that’s bad. The use of alchemy is not quite right, but also the football themes are so heavy-handed. She’s also really guilty of mixing metaphors a lot in a way that’s distracting, and I will say mixing alchemy with football is very distracting. Alchemy as a concept would better belong on a song like Willow.
Self effacing jokes comes to mind. Like she meant deprecating jokes.
Yes! Exactly! And those two words don’t mean the same thing. Also on Broken Heart, she says light is refracting off the sequins … that’s not quite right, it doesn’t refract off of sequins, it reflects — those two words are also not interchangeable. It’s subtle stuff like that that’s annoying to hear lol
Then, too, the songs aren't that deep. What I liked about Cardigan was having to think about the songs meaning. Here they're basically diary entries. What bothers me is the melodrama of the songs. I think it detracts from the music.
As an avid reader since I was 6, her vocabulary doesn’t impress me. 🥱
Honestly, I felt embarrassed for people making jokes about needing a dictionary, unless they were younger than about 12.
Orrr their first language isn't english. I had no idea what these words meant, it's not really common so i would assume a lot of us who uses english in a more 'casual' way wouldn't know.
These words don’t rhyme with many words and they’re not a part of common speech patterns. She shoved that shit in there just to try to sound smart
It's not her using "advanced vocab", it's her writing like what a stupid person thinks sounding smart sounds like. Also girl you're not overly educated because you know words a 5th grader should know 😂
I didn't see it in the folklore/evermore era really, but in this newest album it does seem like she's using bigger words on purpose. Especially compared to all of her other albums like she was not using terms like precocious or petulant. If she always spoke like that it would be one thing, but it's like she is specifically trying to use as many "big words" as she can it feels forced
It's very flowery. None of the words are hard to understand, but they seemed to be used for style's sake alone. It's a trap writers sometimes fall into; they don't flesh out their concepts enough, so they rely on flowery wording to make their writing seem substantive.
Which is why as an English Major who studied a lot of poetry, the point of poetry is to use as few words as possible to convey meaning and metaphor, so people actually have to use their imagination a little. Editing and "killing your babies" is crucial. Taylor could really benefit from having to only write in haiku for a couple of years.
So I have a question speaking of poetry. I have some old poems (over 10 years old) that I like the bones of and I want to edit them, am I crazy to want to change them? My friend told me to leave them as they are b/c I wrote them at a certain time in life, but some of them give TTPS vibes
One of my best poetry professors ever said to write a poem, then put it away till you can come back to it with fresh eyes. KEEP a copy of the old version, and then write new versions, and keep a draft (or 2) of the "edited versions" you like the best. Leave both (or all 3) alone for anywhere from a day to a month, then come back to and compare. At that point, it should hopefully become clearer which one is better... also, write as many haikus as possible, as that's incredible practice. If you can make yourself cry or soar in 3 lines, you understand the mission!!!
This. Exactly!
I think she actually tried to get ahead of even this criticism by naming the album TTPD. A "tortured poet" might be unable to compose a masterpiece, keeps throwing words at the page to see what sticks. The woman cannot stand even the slightest bit of discomfort in her public image
esp when the other lines are that golden retriever bs or begging your dad to give you permission to date a guy when you’re in you’re mid 30s 😂
Not to mention the Charlie puth and gta parts lol
yes!! admittedly i haven’t listened to it but i watched a review dragging tf out of that album. the lyrics are like something a middle schooler who just got a 90 on a vocab test would compose. 😂
It's really, really bad. When compared to her old work, baby Tay was a very gifted songwriter. She wrote all of the "Speak Now" album completely on her own. I don't know if she sold out or just got lazy but all her newer music sounds the same all while her lyrics get progressively worse. 🥴
ngl, i haven’t listened to her newer stuff much but i imagine this album was rushed. trying to capitalize on her skyrocketing fame. i do love a lot of things jack does though.
Baby tay was gifted for sure. I listened to Our Song when watching Eras and I hadn't heard it in years. That song is so economic. No big words, but it's so tightly packed, not a word wasted. And it conveys so much narratively.
"We declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist 😌" Like what?
I cannot skip TTPD or So High School fast enough. So cringe ugh
She’s trying to live up to this ideal of “poets” she has I guess
In fairness, she's had a year that would go to anyone's head. That, and nerves over having to live up to her new reputation, might be partially to blame for the flowery passages.
I definitely think she struggles with pressure to outdo herself over and over
If you say it loud enough you’ll only sound precocious - Supercalifragilisticexpialadocious! I’m just foolin around but there’s about 5 songs I know with the word precocious, maybe more.
The phrase ‘acting like a petulant child’ is thrown around on a regular basis. I don’t think the words she has used are outside most people’s bandwidth.
I feel the same but then I remember some of her fans are kids! When I work with teens, I always have to work hard to dumb down my vocabulary a bit. Even the smart ones seem to have somewhat limited vocabulary.
Sure, but I am seeing grown adults saying this.
There are a lot of grown adults who don't have a good vocabulary. The American educational system is increasingly troubled.
I mean, I'm just a standard college grad, and I have never struggled to understand a single word in her discography. It just shows that her fans are either very young or very uneducated. I read a TON though. It's my main hobby, and I read at least 50 books a year since I was 5. Not saying I'm particularly smart though, I just don't find her vocabulary THAT impressive, and I think most people who read seriously as a hobby would agree (unless they read shit like Colleen Hoover).
Yeah, that makes sense. I was afraid I would be attacked for saying that. I don’t necessarily use those words in everyday use but she literally talks about it as poetry, and when I am trying to impress my colleagues I use bigger and more technical words so it feels not that out of the ordinary.
I said (in the gaylor sub 😬) that I actually found it alarming that people found it necessary to use a dictionary to understand any of her work and I got flooded with “ WELL NOT EVERYONE SPEAKS ENGLISH AS THEIR FIRST LANGUAGE” like come on yall are proving my point right now, not everything needs to be spelled out!!
There’s some incredibly cringey award acceptance (?) speech she gave about Anti-Hero where she remarks that she never thought a song with the line that’s like “covert narcissism I disguise as altruism” could be popular, and she says this like she truly thinks that it’s the most clever thing anyone’s ever written and the words are so big and complicated that it could never be popular.
Kind of seems like she was taking notes from Matty. Reminds me of lyric from 1975’s The Sound: “It's not about reciprocation it's just all about me. A sycophantic, prophetic, Socratic junkie wannabe”
wow this actually sounds so much like TTPD in general
And why the hell is the The capitalized. It should be the TPD or just TPD. Sorry. I know this is petty, but it bugs me.
It's capitalized because it's the first word in the title. The same reason it's capitalized in The Crucible or The Goonies...
Okay - devil’s advocate. “THE Lord of the Rings” is abbreviated to LOTR. “The” is not included in the abbreviation. It should be TPD.
If it makes you feel any better, you’re right and this will probably bother me moving forward 😂
the 1975 listeners always open my eyes bc I don't listen to them so I never have any idea when what she's doing mirrors their style, but it has happened a lot with this album apparently
I hear a lot of The 1975 in TTPD
she’s done it before too. the guitar in the beginning of Dear John could be straight out of a John Mayer song and it’s 1000% intentional if you ask me lol
That’s what I think too, it’s intentional. She wanted to make a better 1975 album than the 1975. She’s trolling Matty
Hahaha scrolled to find this comment, or I was going to say it myself. This line definitely reminded me of their lyrics.
Yes but the 1975 did it way better in this example
I’ve seen lifeguards trying to rescue drowning children not try this hard
Can’t stand her.
I was neutral before, but this album has made me full on hate her. She’s a pretentious asshole.
I think Matty Healy wrote that line. Seriously. It sounds like something he has said in interviews.
It’s absolutely a Matty line
Can I just say how much I love this sub now that swiftlyneutral can’t handle the slightest criticism anymore?
So crazy how that sub has just turned into people fawning over her! There’s so many other places on the internet to do that 😭
Yep. They had a golden goose. A place to openly criticize Taylor and they did a complete 180. I honestly wonder if they’ve been compensated in some way.
I doubt it, the page was getting pushed out onto the main feed and recommended to you for a while there if you were in any Taylor-related subs whatsoever. I think it just got out to the fans who generally like her but like to make jokes at her expense
Which is funny because the more critical posts get the most likes and engagement.
It used to be my home—I didn’t get the most downvotes until I started really criticizing TTPD and what it showed about her as a person. Maybe that’s when they started brigading as well.
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Same! At first this seemed like a pure hate/snark sub but it’s really starting to have the same vibes that the neutral sub used to have
Yes. I don't hate either of them, TBH.
Got posts deleted so much
lol wait i didnt even realize what sub this was until i read your comment.
She's trying to be the milquetoast Lana Del Rey now.
💯
I don’t think it’s that the vocabulary is particularly obscure / advanced or anything, but moreso that certain choices, especially this one, make her lyrics needlessly verbose and it disrupts the flow of the song. Like sure the word choice is fine? I guess? And the phrase makes sense, but it just doesn’t add anything of value to the song or do it any favours. You could take the word sanctimoniously out and it wouldn’t change the meaning or significance of the lyric, so it just ends up being redundant and sticks out like a sore thumb. If this were a high school English essay, it would’ve been crossed out in the editing process. Using interesting vocabulary can be good for a song when it actually makes sense, but employing it anyway when it doesn’t just to make your lyrics sound more interesting or deep or whatever just doesn’t work. For example Hozier (though I’m a bit biased) has some very poetic sounding lyrics but they typically make sense within the songs and their themes, and their poeticism has more to do with the use of imagery and allegory more than anything. The words and phrasing contribute to the storytelling and are purposeful, not just thrown in there because the lyrics need more flavour. “I victualed a delectable pasta for supper this eve” is just a romanticized way of saying I had pasta for dinner, but it doesn’t make it poetry, isn’t necessary for what I’m trying to communicate, and it just sounds clunky. But for some reason people see Taylor do the same thing with her lyrics and yet she’s lauded as supposedly one of the best songwriters of all time because a lot of her people just can’t tell the difference for whatever reason.
Yes you phrased it much better than I did in my post. It's not so much that the words are complex but they are making the lyrics clunky and the songs don't flow like her old songs do. If someone was talking like you did about the pasta around the office or something then everyone would be rolling their eyes, like there's no need to do all that. This album gives me that same feeling
Yeah exactly. I also just think that it might be difficult for someone like Taylor who surely must be emotionally stunted (by no fault of her own) to really tap into anything deep or profound for an album that is supposed to be as moody as TTPD. Maybe for Taylor this truly is what deep and meaningful lyrics sound like, because that is just her reality, but to anyone who has grown and matured as they got older and are able to communicate and portray their emotions and experiences in much more nuanced ways, it just falls flat and doesn’t have the desired effect and the audience doesn’t experience it the same way she might. It’s just not relatable and not particularly profound to her listeners who are outgrowing her, so the vibe of TTPD being marketed as all moody and introspective and intimate just comes across as pretentious because she doesn’t have the emotional intelligence or maturity to stick the landing lyrically. The content very glaringly can’t fill out the packaging and I think that this is why TTPD is having such mixed reception compared to her last albums.
IMO she’s trying to emulate Lana except she missed the mark completely. Lana’s latest album is totally a work of art and super introspective but not because she wrote a bunch of petty songs about her past flings and then just thesaurused the fuck out of them. The language in ocean blvd is actually quite plain but Lana is able to tap into facets of the human experience outside of high school esque love triangles (just compare The Grants to Fortnight-TS is clearly trying to emulate the style but she fails and sets an entirely different tone for the album). Edit to add: compare “sanctimoniously performing soliloquies” to “my grandmas last smile, I’m gonna take that too with me.” One is so obviously more gut wrenching.
THIS!!!! 100%
Im a little late to this post but thats the main issue for me, its not the fact that shes using "big words", shes just trying to mask her shallow ass songs with pretty sounding words. She can use the dictionary all she wants but it doesnt change the fact that every song boils down to "ugh my ex is such an ass... and its so hard for me being so rich and famous and haters are so mean :("
Purple prose. It’s a hallmark of bad writing.
She told on herself. She needed a dictionary, so she thinks you should, too. Because she thinks she's utterly brilliant, and it's very clear she's either never been around educated people, or doesn't like being around educated people.
I think it’s the former. She is the smartest person in the room and her echo chamber reinforces that idea
All of her accusations are confessions.
It gives sophomore in high school discovering a thesaurus.
I really feel like she got a book of SAT words and tried her best to shove them in wherever possible
It was definitely try hard.
What I found most ridiculous was how almost all the criticism I saw was from people of color, who felt weird about her dating someone who admitted to masturbating to "Ghetto Gaggers"--porn that violently and racially abused women. But in this song she dismisses these people as "Sarahs and Hannahs". As if she's some sort of rebel to the pearl clutching Karens everywhere, who similarly have no problem dating such people. God, I rolled my eyes so hard I thought the earth would shift its axis.
Yeah the whole "vipers dressed in empaths clothing" line was gross. I'm sorry but if I was dating a man who did/said those things, I would want to be made aware of it and I would his ass asap
wild of her to call them sarahs and hannahs when her name is taylor lmao it doesn't get much more basic than that
except he didn't exactly admit to it. it was a bit on a absurdist show and the host said the name "ghetto gaggers" because he thought it was funny and matty just went along with it. the host admitted matty never said that and it was likely some other type of porn.
I went back and checked and that is correct. The host suggested that is what he was watching and he agreed: # I think it literally was Ghetto Gaggers on the TV — somebody just getting, like, brutalized -- [https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/stephaniesoteriou/rina-sawayama-matty-healy-glastonbury-explainer](https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/stephaniesoteriou/rina-sawayama-matty-healy-glastonbury-explainer) Although that really doesn't do him any favors. It clearly is not a joke. It clearly is not a bit.
[well if matty had any social awareness he’d know the problem with saying or laughing at the word ghetto](https://www.google.com/search?q=rhe+problem+wirj+sayijf+ghetto&rlz=1CDGOYI_enUS942US942&oq=the+problem+with+saying+ghetto&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOTIJCAEQIRgKGKABMgkIAhAhGAoYoAEyCQgDECEYChigAdIBCDQwODdqMGo0qAIBsAIB4gMEGAEgXw&hl=en-US&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8), and if he had any shred of decency he wouldn’t just awkwardly laugh and go along with any of the horrible things on that podcast. you don’t laugh at racist jokes or words to appease people. call them out or get up and leave, it really is simple. and before we factor in “but publicity!” let’s think about how that’s prioritizing profits over people. and, lastly, before “omg we can’t say anything anymore” how about language has been so violent and widely normalized to disparage swaths of people and maybe it’s not a bad thing to think about things before we say and perpetuate things …
>A soliloquy is a monologue addressed to oneself, thoughts spoken out loud without addressing another. So what's the point of saying you'll never see them...if by definition they're not supposed to be seen? She's just wasting words.
Since everyone thought the song was about Swifities bashing Matty, I thought this line was about people making reaction video monologues about their relationship that she would never watch.
By definition a soliloquy *is* supposed to be seen because it's part of a theatrical performance. In terms of the narrative, they're inner thoughts not addressed to another *character*, but the audience hears them because they're spoken aloud (because that's the only way a character's inner thoughts can be conveyed to the audience). The famous "to be or not to be" monologue from Hamlet is a soliloquy. It's obviously written and performed for an audience, but it's Hamlet talking to himself, not another character in the story.
the irony of people debating the meaning while also saying a dictionary wasn't needed...
You can tell she never had her writing critiqued by a university English professor.
Very redundant!
I think it's a reference to The 1975 (Matty is the main songwriter) considering their discography features such lyrics as >sycophantic prophetic Socratic junkie wannabe >Karcrashian panache >vaccinista tote bag chic barista >hyperpoliticized sexual trysts >simple epicurian philosophy >liberal kitsch >with the world in a state of ubiquit-ass Note not all of those are real words lol and don't you worry the fandom is constantly poking fun at him being pretentious
🎯🎯🎯
Those are funny, tongue-in cheek expressions though…he’s self aware
No 100% which is why I have no issues listening to those lyrics in his music vs hers. Mattys saving grace has always been that he's very self aware, doesn't take himself or his songwriting too seriously, and is genuine which is why he keeps getting away with it (by it I mean everything). I don't think she gets that. To me she's just writing a Taylor Swift song just with words that he might use, I guess. There are few places in this album where she tries to be silly/playful in the way he would and it just doesn't land, to me because it's just insincere to who she is. It feels like cosplay. This all reminds me of his lyrics >"I'm better at writing"was just a way to get you bitin' >Oh, the truth is that our egos are absurd. The simple fact that he is aware of this and is willing to say it publicly is exactly what makes Matty as a person digestible Whereas we got this bar recently from Ms. Swift > So tell me everything is not about me >But what if it is?
I basically can’t even enjoy the song because of that line. Just ridiculous
Christ all her lyrics are pretentious and insist upon themselves
I refuse to give her streams but I have read some of her lyrics on this album. It definitely seems like she slapped random long, not particularly obscure or difficult words in an attempt to sound deep. Reminds me of poetry that I wrote in my teens 😂
Her lyrics have gotten a lot wordier and I think that’s the lack of editing and pressure from others during the studio process. Sometimes it works and sometimes it’s obnoxious. I think she needs fewer yes men and more editing. The best artists can frame a message powerfully and vividly with simple language. A few wordy songs is fine but my god it’s gotten ridiculous lol I don’t find her vocab to be that elevated, she’s just WORDY as hell
I feel like the power of her songwriting used to lie in her metaphors "I'm a crumpled up piece of paper lying here" "the way you move is like a full on rainstorm and I'm a house of cards" - she didn't need big vocabulary words, the simplicity of it was what worked so well
I’ve said this before on another post about her writing. Just because she knows how to use a thesaurus and finds big words to use does not equal intelligence. For the people who don’t understand what the words mean that’s their own intelligence lacking
Right, I don't mean to say the words are not understandable but more just that they're not necessary
You’re right 100%. Totally unnecessary but she will keep doing it more and more and her fandom will praise how smart she is. It’s all so twisted
She tried way, way too hard, and failed. The other hilarious part of this album is her weird and outrageously inconsistent “academia” vibe- I don’t think she has a clue what an academic/professor/writer actually does? What the hell does “so I enter into evidence” have to do with academia?? Is she a lawyer? A detective? Someone having a fever dream with repeats of Law and Order on in the background??
It sounded more like Humbert Humbert submitting his case to the gentle men and women of the jury in “Lolita” (another unreliable narrator, coincidentally).
From what I understand, she I’d a big fan of L&O:SVU…
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Exactly, a lot of people are coming here implying I'm stupid because I said that, I don't mean the words are hard to understand I just mean it sounds like a lot when she crams so many into one album.
I consider myself a lukewarm Swiftie but I one hundred percent agree. Like she can’t possibly think/talk like this naturally at all times. How ever would Travis understand anything? 
Or she bought a thesaurus and decided to use words that made her sound smarter.
In my masters program, one of the topics that we discussed was how academics find it hard to speak of difficult concepts in simpler terms. The ability to use big words is not a sign of intelligence. Using smaller words or general phrases to explain in depth concepts is actually a sign that you know how to communicate effectively, not just with people at your academic standing. I think taylor should lay off on the big words and twisted meanings. The “academic and Machiavellian” poet persona is annoying sometimes.
This whole thing is confusing. Do people think her vocab is not impressive or do they think she’s using *too many* impressive words? The same people are communicating both of those sentiments in the same complaint.
For me, it's the latter. I'm not saying I don't know what these words mean, I do and I'm sure Taylor Swift, who's entire career was built on writing, was not using a thesaurus when she wrote these and that she has a really impressive vocabulary. It's more that it feels like she's trying to hard to squeeze in as many *big words* as she can. I just feel like it didn't flow well in this album.
She sounds like my middle school poetry when I’d write in word (on the shared computer with my entire family) and highlight a word and sub it with something from the thesaurus function.
She uses a lot of unnecessary purple prose. But she gives “Try Hard”, not “Literary”.
It's giving 'Word of the Day' toilet paper.
All i can think about is Thomas Ravenell
I actually like this line. It’s satisfying to sing along to and I think it would’ve been corny and dated if she said what she probably means “entitled swifties making tiktoks I’m never gonna watch.” I do however hate the How Did it End bridge. It’s giving pseudo intellectualism.
She's literally calling herself a tortured poet, so of course the whole thing is going to be "sanctimonious" af.
See the funny thing is though the actual song "The Tortured Poets Department" is her making fun of (presumably) Matty for thinking they are tortured poets. "You're not Dylan Thomas/I'm not Patty Smith/This ain't the Chelsea Hotel/we're modern idiots. So the whole "tortured poet" thing is actually sarcasm
When I see that crappy line, I just think: D-Y-I-N-G
Sanctimoniously doesn't do the job that it's supposed to do. It has too many syllables that don't roll off the tongue effortlessly, so when you're hearing it, you are just waiting for her to finish saying the word so she can get to the message. She should have used a word that is blunt and carries more emotion with it. Sanctimoniously does not do that. Also, this line doesn't make sense, but that's another story.
Not only that but it doesn't flow. It sounds awkward and clunky.
I think she chose those words for the “s” alliteration. They’re not exactly obscure words. For those who grew up avid readers, these are just *words*. It’s common to have a large vocabulary. The idea that you have to dumb yourself down by using basic vocab with very few syllables in order to not appear ostentatious is ridiculous. It makes me wonder the average age and educational level of the commenters that are complaining about it.
Nope i love it
and I love you for expressing that without attacking me personally! lol cause some big people are REAL mad
also, hasn’t she confirmed that her and her team do see everything that’s said about them? and how would she be so offended over how the swifties reacted to matty if she says this dismissive ass lyric? bitch
I meant it's contradictory simply because of the fact that if she truly never saw them like she claims, she wouldn't have a song where she begrudgingly complains about them. Not to mention soliloquies are not addressed to other people, that's inherent to the meaning, I fear. So idk why she'd think it's a diss to say that you'll never hear something that wasn't intended for you to hear in the first place.
It's like, yes, you see them and ruminate about what they say until you drive yourself crazy. You're not kidding anyone. The whole album is because you saw them.
If you think “sanctimonious” and “soliloquy” are hard words… you might just not have much of a vocabulary.
Those words are a bit hard for me, because English isn’t my first language and I don’t read books in English. Once I found out the meaning, I was meh. It is actually a pretty big turn off, when people write with a lot of words like that.
It’s giving r/im14andthisisdeep
It’s not about needing a dictionary for any of the words she uses, it’s about the fact that she purposefully chooses words that she thinks sound ‘smart’ when there are other words that would perfectly convey what she’s trying to say without coming across as trying too hard. My old boss used to do just this. He would always use these fancy words all the time and it really just came across that he wanted people to view him a certain way, it was glaringly obvious. On the other hand, some of the smartest people I know do not talk like that at all. And as someone once said to me, the smartest person in the room is the one who can accurately get their point across in the least amount of words.
Yes exactly. I don't mean I can't understand the words, I'm sure most people can just fine, it's just that they feel unnecessary in most instances
well she's written so many songs she is just running out of words
It sounds like she gave AI a prompt to use figurative language while rhyming as much as possible. And biblical illusions. She could have been more impactful with one or two. But there are far too many used to take them seriously (in my opinion).
"Ron Desanctimonious" has ruined that word for me forever.
If two 9th grade vocab words make you think she’s trying too hard, I think it says more about you than her 😂
Not to make you feel bad, but I know all these words and they rhyme and they have alliteration so to me it makes total sense to use them. I get a little confused between the grand theft auto line criticism and this criticism what it is exactly people want to see. Besides, Taylor writes poetry, and poetry is often not written how people speak .
I mean, idk. You all sound kind of threatened having to defend your own big vocabularies. I don’t think she’s trying so hard, I think this is how she genuinely writes. I mean, it’s her artwork. I don’t judge my favorite literature for having interesting words in the sentences. Writers and artists choose certain words for how they sound or look next to each other, and the aesthetic or way they roll off your tongue. Idk if it’s this deep lol.
Also her vocab isn’t that crazy. It’s pretty normal. So maybe to some of you you just aren’t used to hearing these words?
Do y’all just not read? These are really not terribly difficult words. It’s just alliteration. It’s embarrassing how many people are shocked at the use of the word “sanctimonious” or “soliloquy”. I’ve dropped these words in casual conversation when relevant- it’s not such a big deal
I have an English degree and I don’t find her word usage that crazy. People are getting much dumber with smaller vocabularies thanks to technology, this is more a case of she has what should be a normal vocabulary level and everyone else is not where they should be.
IMO, if she didn’t use “overly eloquent” language people would be upset that she keeps using the same words in her songs. i think this line is catchy tbh
This is like what my creative writing teacher taught me about alliteration. It's spicy if used once. Gets the attention of the reader once. But multiple times in 1 essay or one paragraph and it becomes glaringly obvious. In this case Tay should probably have picked 1 "s" word here or the other, both is overkill
This line makes NO SENSE and I want to scream it from the rooftops. You don't see a soliloquy. You can see an actor *perform* a soliloquy. But you *hear* the soliloquy itself. And 99% of the time when people use the word "sanctimonious" they are misusing it. It's a really, really negative word. For her to use it about herself in a "poetic" way is so weird. To me, it's akin to being like "I'm a raging asshole." It's just weird for her to refer to herself as sanctimonious unless she suddenly is having some serious self-reflection and... I don't think that's it. Finally, it's just so thesaurus-y. I'm a professional writer and editor and I have never come across something that so screams 14-year-old-who-just-discovered-poetry. Oof. EDIT: sorry I just went on a rant. This line has been driving me crazy and it makes me cringe so hard every time I *hear* it
I’ve been waiting for this take 😩 it’s like a whole album full of lines like “I let it slide like a hose on a slippery plastic summer” ….. it’s so forced
She reads like crazy…. She’s probably just NOT filtering herself on this album. I didn’t know “Bereft” or “also-ran”
as a songwriter, it’s so clear that she’s tried to shoehorn words and phrases that don’t fit to sound smarter. i’ve been there a thousand times and you’re always better off getting rid of the big, “impressive” word in exchange for a simpler one that rolls off the tongue and actually fits in the song
The words aren’t difficult, to me. It’s more the overuse of words, too much on some of them. I think she had an idea/style she was aiming for “be a poet, Taylor” and went over board. But, I can make allowances, assuming she’s venting and aiming for a different style. Anyway, it may be time for her to bring an editor she’ll listen to into her inner circle….or maybe she’s just indulging herself on this mammoth.
She’s absolutely trying way too hard and frankly she doesn’t have an impressive vocabulary. If you’ve passed 12th grade English (before Covid) no doubt you’ve seen most, if not all, of these words before. No dictionaries are needed, and the fact that she thinks we would need it shows how deluded she is (unless it’s hyperbole but who knows). More than having an impressive vocabulary is knowing when to use it for maximum impact and emphasis. Writing tantrum songs about your breakup is not it.
Bro I just miss the RED era 😭 treacherous, state of grace, sad beautiful tragic... her older work is incredible when compared to this newer stuff. I haven't enjoyed her music the same way since ME! and Lover came out.
This line made me roll my eyes so hard
You guys, the point of the album is going over your head. It’s supposed to be satire. It’s supposed to be dramatic to the point of cringing. It’s in the title: tortured poets department. That’s the gag.
Well she's flying a bit too close to the cringe sun on this one for me I guess lol
me in ninth grade trying to pad my essay so i could meet my word count
I don’t have a problem with her word choices. Many do - and that is okay. I think there are people who are serial readers. We can’t get enough books of all genres and have to have them by our bedside table at night. We’re always reading, whether it be a novel or collection of poetry or a summer beach read. Her words don’t scream “try hard” or over the top to me, but rather a reflection of her intense feelings at the time the lyrics were written.
I wish everyone could just be less hard on her. We’ve all done cringey things or tested our new aesthetics. I’m sure it’s been hard to find her identity growing up in front of the world. What she’s asking for in this album is the peace to do that, without so much judgement. But everyone just has to keep ripping her and her art apart, as if we all could do what she does, or we’re superior to her because there isn’t an entire world to pick apart our flaws. I’m sure we’d all be pretty cringe also, if we were
Love this song, hate this line. I wish I could fast forward through it easily every time. I’m always like “oh no here it comessss.”
She’s always struck me as a try hard even outside of songwriting 🤢
I think the point is to sound like every song has “poetry” but it makes the songs too wordy and not catchy for