Magazine Pans Taylor Swift's 'Tortured Poets' Album Anonymously to Protect Author from Feral Swifties Taylor Swift/YouTube

Paste has published scathing review of Taylor Swift's new album, The Tortured Poets Department, without a byline to protect its author from the pop star's obsessive fans.

“Editor's Note: There is no byline on this review due to how, in 2019 when Paste reviewed ‘Lover,’ the writer was sent threats of violence from readers who disagreed with the work,” Paste wrote in an X/Twitter post Friday while sharing the magazine's review of Swift's latest record.

Editor’s Note: There is no byline on this review due to how, in 2019 when Paste reviewed ‘Lover,’ the writer was sent threats of violence from readers who disagreed with the work. We care more about the safety of our staff than a name attached to an article.

— Paste Magazine (@PasteMagazine) April 19, 2024

“We care more about the safety of our staff than a name attached to an article,” the magazine added.

The review's headline declares that “Taylor Swift Strikes Out” on the Tortured Poets project. The byline for the article simply reads: “Paste Staff.”

The tenor of the review — which awards the album with a 3.6 out of 10 rating — is summed up with its opening sentence: “Sylvia Plath did not stick her head in an oven for this!”
Notably, Paste's article is currently the only “negative” review of Swift's “The Tortured Poets Department” album, according to Metacritic.

Two “mixed” reviews of Swift's album have come from major publications — one by the New York Times, and another by New Musical Express (NME).

The New York Times review dings Swift for including too much filler:

At times, the album is a return to form. Its first two songs are potent reminders of how viscerally Swift can summon the flushed delirium of a doomed romance. — Great poets know how to condense, or at least how to edit. The sharpest moments of “The Tortured Poet’s Department” would be even more piercing in the absence of excess, but instead the clutter lingers, while Swift holds an unlit match.

NME writes that TTPD pales in comparison to her previous work. “Ultimately this record lacks the genuinely interesting shifts that have punctuated Swift’s career so far, from the lyrical excellence on her superior breakup album ‘Red’ to ‘1989’’s pivot to high-octane pop,” its review states.

You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and X/Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.

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