Culture chat: Is Taylor Swift’s new album too much?

Life and Art from FT Weekend

Forhecz Topher

Tv & Film, Arts, Society & Culture

4.6 • 601 Ratings

🗓️ 26 April 2024

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week, we’re discussing Taylor Swift’s new album 'The Tortured Poets Department', which is already the most-streamed debut in Spotify history. Lilah is joined by music critic Ludovic Hunter-Tilney and life-long Swiftie Taylor Nicole Rogers to discuss their picks for best and worst songs, whether Swift’s personal life gets in the way of the music, and where she’ll go next.

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We love hearing from you. Lilah is on Instagram @lilahrap and we’re on X @lifeandartpod. You can email us at [email protected]. We are grateful for reviews on Apple, Spotify etc.

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Links (all FT links get you past the paywall):

– ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ is available now on all streaming platforms.

– Ludovic’s four-star review of the album is here: https://on.ft.com/4bf6289

– Listen to our episode on the Eras tour, ‘Can Taylor Swift get any bigger?’ here or by searching in this feed.

– Jo Ellison’s column from 2023, ‘Why I believe in Taylor Swift’: https://on.ft.com/49S6Xdh

More or Less:

– Ludovic wants more rap beef, like the one happening between Drake, Rick Ross, Kendrick Lamar and more. You can read his article about the rap beef here.

– Taylor wants to see more summer pop bangers. Keep an eye out for Ludovic’s review of Dua Lipa’s upcoming album ‘Radical Optimism’, which lands next Friday.

– Follow Lilah on Instagram for some great springtime content.

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The FT Weekend Festival is coming back, and will be in Washington on May 4. Speakers include Nancy Pelosi. To book tickets, go to ft.com/festival-us and use our exclusive discount code: weekendpodcast.

Special FT subscription offers for Life and Art podcast listeners, from 50% off a digital subscription to a $1/£1/€1 trial, are here: http://ft.com/lifeandart

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Clips this week are from Republic Records.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Life and Art from FT Weekend. I'm Lila Raptopoulos, and this is our Friday chat show.
0:08.7	Today we are talking about Taylor Swift's new album, The Tortured Poets Department, which was the outrageously anticipated album released last week.
0:17.4	It quickly broke records, becoming the first album in Spotify history to surpass 300 million
0:23.6	streams in a day. And two hours after it was released, Taylor Swift announced that it was a
0:30.1	surprise double album with 31 tracks instead of the expected 16. The tortured poets department
0:36.5	is widely interpreted as an album about breakups and fame.
0:41.2	It has references to her six-year relationship with British actor Joe Alwyn, which ended
0:46.0	last year, and her short subsequent fling with the 1975 singer Maddie Healey and her new
0:52.4	boyfriend, football star, Travis Kelsey.
0:55.3	Today we have our favorite music duo back with us to talk about it. They were here last
0:59.8	to talk about Cowboy Carter. I'm Lila and all my friends smell like weed or little babies.
1:05.3	Joining me in New York is the U.S. Labor Inequality Correspondent. She's working her life away just to pay for a time share down in Destin.
1:14.3	It's Taylor Nicole Rogers.
1:15.7	Hi.
1:16.6	Welcome.
1:17.4	Thank you.
1:18.5	And on the line from London, he knew what he wanted, and boy, he got her.
1:22.9	It's our great F.T. Music critic Ludovic Hunter Tilney.
1:26.9	Ludo, welcome.
1:27.7	Thank you, Lila. Hello. Hello.
1:30.7	Okay, so let's talk about this album.
1:33.3	Topline, what did you think? Luda, let's start with you.
	...

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