Down Bad (Taylor Swift song)

Swift started working on The Tortured Poets Department immediately after she submitted her tenth studio album, Midnights, to Republic Records for release in 2022.

[17][18] Chris Willman of Variety compared the production of "Down Bad" to Swift's 2022 album Midnights, pointing out the "sinuous groove, topped by a kind of distorted-electronic voice effect as its own instrumental track".

[19] Mark Savage of the BBC also compared the track to Midnights, highlighting the "delicately percolating" production with "pillowy synths and muted drums".

[24] Finn McRedmond from The Irish Times highlighted the song's blunt lyrics, drawing comparisons to some of her previous work from both 1989 and Folklore.

[27] Willman ranked "Down Bad" 16th on his April 2024 updated list of the best 75 songs by Swift, saying that while it is not one of the most poetic tracks from the album, it has "one of the best grooves, perfect for any workout queen's most depressed cooldown".

[28] SLUG Magazine's Palak Jayswal dubbed "Down Bad" an "anthem that Swifties always crave", adding that it captures the essence of love bombing and falling for another person.

[29] Josh Kurp from Uproxx felt that the track was a representation of the album's verbose and genre-less quality but opined that it was "extremely personal [...] to the point of discomfort".

[30] In less enthusiastic reviews, John Wohlmacher of Beats Per Minute criticized Swift's excessive use of "metaphor-chains" in her lyricism which dilutes the emotional sentiment she wants to communicate,[31] and Laura Molloy of NME said that the track contains some "cringe-inducing lines".

[33] When the album was released, nine of its tracks occupied the top 10 of the Billboard Global 200; "Down Bad" opened and peaked at number two on the chart, behind Swift's own "Fortnight".