After a whole year of radio silence from our girl Taylor Swift, the terribly deprived world and all Taylor Swift fans everywhere finally got to witness her reemerge from the depths of her darkest hour, molt her past selves and serve up an album (her sixth to be exact) full of vengeance. In just a mere six minutes after its official release, Taylor Swift’s Reputation slithered its way to the throne of No. 1 album. On top of that accomplishment, it also climbed to No. 1 in 92 countries, reached 826 million views on YouTube and hit about 800k copies purchased on iTunes. How about that for a major comeback? I’d say it was definitely worth the wait.
If you’ve kept up at all with Taylor on any sort of social media, then you may have witnessed sneak peeks into her secret sessions. Taylor graciously welcomed 100 fans (500 in total) into each of her U.S. and U.K. homes to reward them with the first listening of her new album weeks prior to anyone else hearing it! In total Taylor fashion, she posed with fans for photos and even let them hold her vast collection of trophies and awards. The best part about this entire ploy is how Taylor hand-selected the lucky fans: she social media stalked them! Taylor Swift is all of us.
Courtesy: The Sun
Let’s not forget about her tradition of purchasing a copy, or copies, of her album at Target stores. Yep, this year Taylor decided to pop on over to a Target in Nashville to acquire her musical loot while celebrating the release of her album with fans who were there for the same reason. She didn’t come alone though; she called in backup from her backup dancers and they all documented the spectacle on Tay’s Instagram story.
You can call it what you want yeah, call it what you want to, but Taylor Swift’s Reputation won’t be falling from the No. 1 spot anytime soon. In fact, Vanity Magazine has even predicted that it might very well be the album of 2018 too! Taylor has taken another huge step back from her roots as the country sweetheart we once knew and has simultaneously solidified her place in the realm of pop music. Not only does she continue to effortlessly present her skills as the talented songstress she is, but she also shows her confidence and maturity as an artist through 15 potent, dangerously passionate, and ever-so-slightly petty pop anthems.
As a longtime fan of Taylor, my recommendation for the first song to listen to is definitely “This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things.” None of Taylor’s haters get the final word and she makes sure to prove that in this tune. This song actually reveals many telling details about why Taylor went MIA this past year. During her 1989 run, Taylor was known for her Gatsby-esque bashes which she belts out:
“It was so nice throwing big parties / jumping in pools from the balcony / everyone swimming in a champagne sea / and there are no rules when you show up here / bass beat rattling the chandelier / feeling so Gatsby that whole year.”
She then goes on to call out a certain someone, who some fans suspect is Kanye West:
“And therein lies the issue / friends don’t try to trick you / get you on the phone and mind-twist you.”
This is perhaps a jab at the recorded phone conversation about Kanye West’s song Famous? I’ll let you continue the speculation on that one.
Other than calling haters out, Reputation exemplifies many other fantastically raw emotions from the singer everyone loves to hate. It’s definitely worth the listen (and even the $13.99 because it’s not available on Apple Music…come on Tay). Like I said, she’s back with vengeance.