Lyricism, suffering & purification: Taylor Swift's epic self-portrait

With The Tortured Poets Department, Taylor Swift opens a new chapter - radically personal, literary and emotionally exposed. In 31 songs, she reflects on failed relationships, identity crises and the fragility of fame - sometimes bitingly ironic, sometimes deeply vulnerable. In terms of sound, the double album moves between electronic pop, indie folk and piano ballad, carried by an atmosphere that is both fragile and self-determined. In close collaboration with Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner, the result is an epic work that reads like a musical diary. The Anthology is not an album in the classical sense - it is a state of mind in four acts.