‘Cringeworthy?’ 4 scathing reviews of Taylor Swift’s TTPD album: the 31-song, 2-piece record has already broken Spotify records and earned a 5-star rating from some outlets – but haters gonna hate …

- Taylor Swift’s 11th album, The Tortured Poets Department, and its surprise companion TTPD: The Anthology, signal another round of hits for her, but has earned the ire of some critics
- While Rolling Stone magazine called it an instant classic, another publication had to hide the names of its writers to shield them from the wrath of Swifties

The album has already broken several Spotify records, per Vanity Fair, and garnered widespread acclaim from the music industry, with Rolling Stone magazine hailing it as an “instant classic” while The Independent awarded it a perfect five-star rating. Swift took to X (formerly Twitter) to share the glowing reviews.
But not everyone’s a fan.
Here’s a round-up of some of the harshest criticism TTPD and its follow-up album has received.
1. NME: “Swift’s 11th studio album is surprisingly flat and, at times, cringeworthy”

“Above all else in her career, Swift has always found acclaim through her lyricism, and comparisons have gleefully been made between herself and The Bard (William Shakespeare). Speaking in February, she says that ‘I have never had an album where I needed songwriting more than I needed it on [TTPD]’. It’s surprising, then, that The Tortured Poets Department delivers some of her most cringe-inducing lines yet,” Laura Molloy writes.
“Musically, it’s an album mostly devoid of any noticeable stylistic shift or evolution,” she adds.
2. The Guardian: “Taylor Swift’s new album is about a reckless kind of freedom. If only it sounded as uninhibited”

“The delulu era had found its soundtrack – or at least it would have if TTPD sounded anything like as feral and feckless as its themes,” Laure Snapes writes, referring to the online slang derived from “delusional” about unrealistic standards or beliefs.