Music Review: Reputation by Taylor Swift

“Are you ready for it?” Those are the lyrics from the intro song Ready For It? on Taylor Swift’s sixth album Reputation which was released on Nov 14, 2017. This album comes after a turbulent time in the Look What You Made Me Do singer’s life. Following her 1989 era she was involved in a high-profile scandal involving Kanye West and Kim Kardashian where Kardashian tweeted out snake emojis dedicated to Swift.   

Prior to the album’s announcement, Swift cleared her social media websites and posted individual videos containing the different parts of a snake. Following the final video of the cryptic serpent, Swift posted the album, and it would be called Reputation.   

This is considered one of Swift’s darkest sounding albums with a heavy presence of electropop, synth-pop and it even included new genres such as trap and electroclash.  This record has songs for every emotion including happiness, angry or love. Upon listening to this album, you could feel a transition between hate and revenge with songs such as I Did Something Bad and Look What You Made Me Do and love on Delicate and Call it What You Want.  

The album does have some weak points, one of those is the tone. Swift’s previous works were upbeat and had songs you could dance to. However, that is not the case on Reputation. These songs do not make you want to dance the way Shake it Off from 1989 would and the feeling of half the songs make you want to sit in your room and be angry.   

Another weak spot is the album’s eighth song Gorgeous; this tune sticks out like a sore thumb. The happy tune feels like it does not belong on the album its upbeat pop music sound is more reminiscent of a track from 1989 (2014) or RED (2012). It just does not fit the dark, mysterious mood of this album. 

There are highlights to this album and they come in the form of lyrics, e.g., New Year’s Day. New Year’s Day has lyrics anyone can relate to such as “Hold on to the memories, they will hold on to you,” that can be interpreted in anyone’s life whether it is moving to a new city or following a breakup from a cherished relationship.

More lyrics that cannot be ignored are in the song End Game where the narrator takes on the old saying bury the hatchet, she sings “I bury hatchets and keep maps of where I put them” detailing if she must resurrect an old feud, she would be happy to.  In conclusion, this album was solid for one that strayed away from Swift’s previous works. Due to the overall tone, this felt like Swift was giving us a look inside her head over those years. I give this album a rating of 4/5.