Swift started working on The Tortured Poets Department immediately after she submitted her tenth studio album, Midnights, to Republic Records for release in 2022.
[13] Will Hodgkinson of The Times wrote that it has a dreamy and romantic production that evokes the styles of the American singer-songwriter Stevie Nicks,[11] while Annie Zaleski described the sound as hazy.
[10] In the bridge, Swift's character describes a scene of triumph: her love interest, despite being in an underdog team, wins the football championship ("Shirts off, and your friends lift you up, over their heads").
[10][11] The literary critic Stephanie Burt identified "The Alchemy" as the only three tracks on The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology that are not about failed romance; the other two are "So High School" (about a happy kind of love) and "Robin" (about co-producer Aaron Dessner's son).
[17] Lauren Huff of Entertainment Weekly agreed, saying that "The Alchemy", placed after "songs about heartache so bad that Swift compares it to 'cardiac arrest' in her epilogue", signaled a "good kind" of "madness".
Some critics, such as The Atlantic's Spencer Kornharber,[22] Slate's Carl Wilson,[23] and Beats Per Minute's John Wohlmacher, considered the football imagery in the lyrics weak, "terrible", and "tossed-off".
Sputnikmusic's Hugh G. Paddles argued that "The Alchemy" is an "otherwise effervescent and personally charged" track but criticized the "faux-narcotic slurred delivery" mentioning a drug reference near the ending lines.
[11] Ranking all 31 tracks on The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology, Jason Lipshutz of Billboard placed "The Alchemy" at 21, calling it a "glittering love song".
[29] Following its release, "The Alchemy" debuted and peaked at number 13 on the US Billboard Hot 100, where the song and tracks from the album made Swift the first artist to occupy the top 14 of the chart.