Me while waiting for reputation to drop:
Like most Swifties, I’ve been waiting for Taylor Swift’s sixth studio album, reputation, to drop for the last three years. You can bet I was at Target at promptly 8 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 10 to get my copy of the album and the Target exclusive magazine. And yes, I drove to my 9:10 class blaring the album through my car speakers as loud as it could go, knowing every refrain by heart from listening to the previews on iTunes all night long. As you can guess, I did not get any sleep Thursday night, BUT HOW CAN YOU EXPECT A GIRL TO SLEEP WHEN TAYLOR SWIFT IS DROPPING A NEW ALBUM?! IF YOU GOT ANY SLEEP YOU ARE CRAZY, NOT ME! The wait was long, but it was so, so worth it! Call It What You Want, but this album is FIRE. Swift’s rare storytelling ability is hard to come across anymore. She manages to write songs that can resonate with millions across the world with her witty, sophisticated, relatable lyrics that literally broke iTunes with 800,000 downloads in the first hour of reputation dropping. BBC went as far as to rightfully call Swift a “once-a-generation songwriter.” And they aren’t kidding, she rightfully deserves her spot in music history.
Me listen to reputation:
She’s the only female to ever win Grammy Album of the Year twice. She broke the presale record with reputation with 400,000 copies. She’s the only artist to ever have three albums sell over 1 million copies in the first week with Speak Now, Red, and 1989, and she’s estimated at selling 2 million copies with Reputation. Girl’s got game, you got to admit.
Swift told her team before the release that she was going to let the album sell itself. With no promotion tour or interviews with high-end magazines, Swift used tumblr and snuck into Instagram stories’ comment sections to keep in contact with her fans. Like 1989, she invited 500 hand-picked fans to her multiple residences for Secret Sessions to hear the album before its release. The Rhode Island Secret Session group got an extra special session where she played the last song on the album, New Year’s Day – a song about the person who stays to give you Advil and help you clean up after the party – on the piano for them. This video would later be released on ABC just mere hours before the album dropped. And yes, I actually watched TV for the first time in forever to see my girl TSwift slay.
Reputation is a 15-track album that is supposedly split in half, according to fan theories. The first half (from “…Ready For It?” to “So It Goes…”) is what the media portrays her reputation to be. The second half (from “So It Goes…” to “New Year’s Day”) is what she says about her reputation – Joe Alwyn being heavily present. But Alwyn isn’t the only thing new to her arsenal. Reputation is the first time Swift mentions drinking alcoholic beverages (explicitly so) and sexual references (“Only bought this dress so you could take it off, take it off (ha, ha, ha) / Carve your name into my bedpost / Cause I don’t want you like a best friend” – in Dress for example).
Taylor Swift once said if she found a love like that, maybe she would write a whole album about it. Well, girl, I think you did. And it’s fantastic.
What we all look like listening to reputation:
LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO
Swift first single off her album, “Look What You Made Me Do,” like every first single off all her albums, sets the tone for the new era. “Look What You Made Me Do” bleeds major vibes of “don’t give a f*ck.” Although it scared fans that the whole album would have this vibe, many fans were ecstatic that their role model was owning her real self and not caring what the world thought of her anymore.
READY FOR IT…?
Her second single, “Ready For It…?” showed the first references of Alwyn with both their birth years spray painted on the walls (his is 1990, one year later than Taylor’s famous ’89). And it also references her overall theme of the era: the year of the snake.
You can also check out her SNL performance of “Ready For It…?”
GORGEOUS
The third single off the album, that has yet to get a music video rendition, is all about Taylor’s boyfriend, Joe. She told fans at one of the Secret Sessions that if anyone was speculating that it was about ex-fling Tom Hiddleston, to tell them that they were wrong and it’s about her angel boyfriend. This was also the first single off the album that Taylor mentioned drinking, which was a shock to some fans, even though she’s 27 years old.
She also released the Making of the Song by AT&T and DirecTv Now, which is an exclusive look into her songwriting process. Fans who do not have either one, as of right now, will only get a look into the making of the song “Gorgeous.”
CALL IT WHAT YOU WANT
The fourth single off the album, “Call It What You Want, “gives an even more inside look into Taylor and Joe’s relationship (And I know I make the same mistakes every time / Bridges burn, I never learn / At least I did one thing right / I did one thing right / I’m laughing with my lover / making forts under covers / Trust him like a brother / Yeah, you know I did one thing right / Starry eyes sparkin’ up my darkest night).
On the release night, she would perform an acoustic rendition of the song for Sirius XM and a few days later would perform the song on SNL.
OTHER SONGS
END GAME
Swift collaborates with Future and Ed Sheeran on this track, the first collaboration since Red as 1989 was solely Swift’s main vocals. Although to me and many other fans, Swift should have taken out Future or Ed Sheeran, as they don’t match well together, it’s still a really good track. The trio sings about wanting to be the last for a person, wanting to be their end game.
I DID SOMETHING BAD
This is my FAVORITE song off the new album and it’s completely fire. Every time I get in my car, I’m blaring this at full volume. Apparently, the whole neighborhood can probably hear it, but I don’t get it, they’re getting some quality music. On this track, Swift sings penalizing lyrics, such as “If a man talks shit, then I owe him nothing / I don’t regret it one bit, ’cause he had it coming,” which is the first time Taylor has ever dropped a curse word, besides damn because damn doesn’t count. She later continues with “He says, ‘Don’t throw away a good thing’ / But if he drops my name, then I owe him nothin’ / And if he spends my change, then he had it comin’.” This could be – and I’m only speculating – about the groping trial she had regarding radio DJ, Mueller. Although, the song was probably written and recorded long before the trial became a large topic in the media.
Me anytime someone tells me they don’t like Taylor Swift and they be lying:
DON’T BLAME ME
The bridge, guys, THE BRIDGE. The HIGH NOTES. It’s so good, like amazingly good. Swift has been catching a lot of drift in the media about her one-note vocals, but in “Don’t Blame Me,” the bridge vocals are to die for. Like…backtracking on the track to hear it over and over and over again to die for. It adds a nice splash of something new to the track and you won’t regret listening to Taylor sing about how love made her crazy and, if it doesn’t, then you ain’t doing it right.
GETAWAY CAR
This song is probably one of the best written Swift songs in a long time. The entire song is just mesmerizing and it should be the second track you listen to on the album (of course, after “I Did Something Bad”).
This song describes the beginning of a relationship that shouldn’t happen, but she wants it to anyway.
“I wanted to leave him / I needed a reason”
And then moves into the disaster of a relationship it is:
“We were jet-set, Bonnie and Clyde / Until I switch to the other side / To the other side / It’s no surprise I turned you in / ‘Cause us traitors never win / I’m in a getaway car / I left you in a motel bar / Put the money in the bag and I stole the keys / That was the last time you ever saw me”
It’s the ending that literally kills me every time.
“I was flyin’ in a getaway car / I was cryin’ in a getaway car / I was dyin’ in a getaway car / Said goodbye in a getaway car”
DRESS
This is the song Andrea Swift had to leave the room for and Scott Swift was blushing the whole time. Swift goes all out about her sexual relations and how she only brought that dress so he could take it off (“Say my name and everything just stops / I don’t want you like a best friend / Only bought this dress so you could take it off, take it off (ha, ha, ha) / Carve your name into my bedpost / Cause I don’t want you like a best friend / Only bought this dress so you could take it off, take it off (ha, ha, ha)”). At least to me, this is the worst song on the album, although I am growing to like it the more I listen to it.
NEW YEAR’S DAY
This is one of the sweetest songs Taylor has ever written. It’s about the person who stays with you after the party to help you clean up and give you Advil. At first, I didn’t like it, but now I’m in love with it. It’s the perfect track to end Reputation with and it follows how she always ends her albums, with the perfect last liners: “You and me forevermore.”
And although Reputation hasn’t hit streaming services yet, it is rumored to hit them a week after Reputation’s release. So, check out whatever streaming service you use to see if it’s there. If not, find a person who is as obsessed with Taylor Swift as me who has the digital record on their phone or the physical record in their car. They’ll hook you up, it’s a guarantee.
And Taylor Swift, nice work on the album. It’s absolutely fantastic!