No one does an album release like Taylor Swift. A mere two hours after releasing “THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT,” Swift announced — and immediately released — a 15-track acoustic follow-up. “THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT: THE ANTHOLOGY” consists of a whopping 31 tracks and spans 122 minutes.

The original 16 songs on “TORTURED POETS” are edgy, synth-pop ruminations on fame and infidelity, but the album’s thematic maturity isn’t matched by its production. Sonically, the first half of “TORTURED POETS” plays it extremely safe.

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Swift and longtime collaborator Jack Antonoff continue where they left off on 2022’s “Midnights,” with the production feeling like a reworked version of Swift’s earlier albums. “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me” bears striking similarities to “my tears ricochet” (also produced by Antonoff), and “The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” is a well-meaning attempt to rekindle the unbridled feminine rage of “mad woman.”

“Florida!!!” is one of few exceptions to this, for all the wrong reasons — yes, the exclamation marks are, in fact, audible, ear-pounding beat drops. If this is Antonoff moving out of his comfort zone for once, perhaps he is meant to stay inside it. Coupled with tired songwriting from Swift and Florence Welch, the track is the album’s biggest disappointment by a long shot.

Although Antonoff has been criticized for his repetitive production in the past, this just may be the first time that Swift’s lyrics aren’t enough to compensate for his overused snares and synths.

To the album’s detriment, Swift sacrifices much of her songwriting prowess for aesthetics on tracks like “My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys,” her weakest “heartbreak” anthem to date, and “The Alchemy,” a bland tribute to Swift’s relationship with Travis Kelce, rife with cringe-worthy sporting references: “Call the amateurs and cut ‘em from the team.”

The album’s lyrical messiness isn’t endearing; it’s just lazy. Throughout “TORTURED POETS,” Swift often adopts a superficial, pseudo-intellectual persona. Whether she’s trying to fit in as many SAT prep words as she possibly can in under 15 syllables (see: “sanctimoniously performing soliloquies”) or embracing slam poetry through convoluted run-on descriptors, most of “TORTURED POETS” is missing what makes Swift’s songwriting so special: her sincerity. And no, the Charlie Puth reference in the titular track — a thinly veiled attempt at relating to the masses — doesn’t count as genuine.

That’s not to say that the album as a whole is poorly written — this is Swift we’re talking about. Even the aforementioned tracks include a handful of well-placed one-liners, such as “He saw forever so he smashed it up.” The opening track, “Fortnight (feat. Post Malone),” is an unexpected breath of fresh air on an otherwise stifling body of work. Swift and Malone reflect on a past relationship against a lush backdrop of harmonies: “I love you, it’s ruining my life / I touched you for only a fortnight.”

“loml” is an additional standout from the original release. Swift uses the titular abbreviation to its full potential, artfully transforming the phrase from “love of my life” to “loss of my life.” A heart-wrenching piano ballad, the track provides listeners a glimpse of the remaining 15 tracks of “THE ANTHOLOGY.”

Whatever lyrical issues Swift was dealing with in “TORTURED POETS” are more than redeemed by its sister album. “THE ANTHOLOGY” expands on the candid storytelling of “folklore” and “evermore,” exploring themes of love and loss with an added layer of maturity. Unlike its predecessor, the work is skipless.

If Swift was a pseudo-intellectual while writing “TORTURED POETS,” she became a renowned wordsmith for “THE ANTHOLOGY.” The album ties Swift’s real-life experiences into those of a variety of literary figures, including the boy who never grew up in “Peter” and a mythological priestess in “Cassandra.”

“THE ANTHOLOGY” is primarily produced by Aaron Dessner, Swift’s collaborator on “folklore.” Dessner’s production is much more acoustic than Antonoff’s, featuring arpeggiated piano arrangements as well as witchy guitar pluckings. To Antonoff’s credit, his three contributions on “THE ANTHOLOGY” are a significant step up from the ones on “TORTURED POETS” — likely because he had more to work with lyrically from Swift.

Conceptually, “THE ANTHOLOGY” tackles a wider range of themes than “TORTURED POETS.” “I Hate It Here” is a wanderlust ballad of escapism cleverly crafted by Swift and Dessner. Swift remarks on her penchant for daydreaming while acknowledging the consequences of becoming too absorbed in one’s inner fantasies. She sings, “Nostalgia’s a mind trick / If I’d been there, I’d hate it.” “The Black Dog” is a career highlight for Swift, somberly contemplating the end of a long relationship: “Old habits die screaming.”

Although the tracklist consists of many ballads, the album still contains moments of levity. Swift sings about her relationship with Kelce in “So High School” and denounces a hometown bully — and possibly Kim Kardashian — in “thanK you aIMee.”

“The Manuscript” is the perfect end to a work covering so many chapters of Swift’s life. Swift sings about making artistry out of her heartbreak — a fitting closer to an album Swift described as a “lifeline” on the Eras Tour: “Now and then I reread the manuscript, but the story isn’t mine anymore.”