People are still reeling over Taylor Swift’s announcement of a new album, Reputation, and intensely analyzing the hidden messages in her music video for “Look What You Made Me Do.” After teasing another new single during ESPN coverage of a college football game, the singer has now dropped the song “Ready For It,” which is styled as “…Ready for it?.” Swift’s certainly making up for over two years of no new music!
Entertainment Weekly reports that “Ready For It” focuses on the beginning of a new relationship and a person’s knowledge of both sides’ reputations beforehand. The song introduces an intense, rap-like style that is definitely new to Swift, although the chorus is presented a little more lightly than the rest of the song. I don’t know about you, but the refrain actually sounds a bit like “old Taylor” to me!
On Twitter, fans are praising Swift for pulling off another out-of-the-blue reveal and maintaining this new, fiercer persona. Within hours of the song’s release, it also took over the top spot on the iTunes best-selling chart, replacing “Look What You Made Me Do.”
Taylor Swift outdid Taylor Swift on the same week Taylor Swift outdid Taylor Swift with the record made by Taylor Swift #ReadyForIt
— Carly Heading (@carlyylalaa) September 3, 2017
Taylor Swift has officially dethroned herself at #1 on US iTunes with #ReadyForIt. She didn’t come to play!pic.twitter.com/wy7sxMg1gw
— Shady Music Facts (@TheShadyFacts) September 3, 2017
Of course, it wouldn’t be the day a new Swift song is released without the fan theories. ELLE has already published a piece suggesting that “Ready For It” is an ode to her latest relationship with Joe Alwyn. Her lyrics “Knew he was a killer / First time that I saw him” appear to reference photos of Swift leaving a screening for a movie in which Alywn literally played a killer. That’s enough sleuthing to convince me that this theory could be true!
With just two months to go until the full release of Reputation, I think we should expect another new song or two in the next few weeks.