On April 25th, Taylor Swift dropped a new single titled “ME!” featuring Brendon Urie of Panic! At The Disco. Taylor began sporting a new pastel, bubbly and pretty Instagram aesthetic back in February, hinting that her new album may be a happy, sweet collection of songs in comparison to the negative energy of her last album. After days of teasing the new song, it was finally released and like any devoted fan would, I eagerly listened to it and watched the extravagant accompanying music video and was… completely disappointed. Here are a few reasons I, and many other devoted Taylor swift fans, were so disappointed in “ME!”
- The lyrics were juvenile, unoriginal and sometimes don’t even make sense.
-
Perhaps I have high expectations, but Taylor Swift was always known for her amazing, relatable song lyrics. I mean, how could the girl who wrote “But I took your matches / Before fire could catch me / So don’t look now / I’m shining like fireworks / Over your sad, empty town” be the same one that wrote “I’m the only one of me/baby that’s the fun of me.”
“ME!” contained cheesy phrases disguised as self empowerment, which just came off as cringey and insincere. For example, the line “but one of these things is not like the others/like a rainbow with all of the colors.” Maybe I missed something when they were teaching us about rainbows in third grade but, don’t all rainbows have all of the colors? I also am not in love with how Taylor calls herself “not like the others” which is similar to the whole “I’m not like other girls” thing, but maybe that is just me. Also, the lines from the chorus “I’m the only one of me/baby that’s the fun of me” and “you’re the only one of you/baby, that’s the fun of you.” The repetition of the “that’s the fun of me/you” makes the chorus not only unoriginal, but repetitively unoriginal. I mean seriously, she wrote “And you call me up again just to break me like a promise / So casually cruel in the name of being honest.” She must be capable of better lyrics than this, right?
- The vocal talents of Brendon Urie were totally wasted on this song.
-
For anyone who isn’t familiar with Brendon Urie, that man can sing. So, when I heard that he was doing a song with Taylor Swift, I was expecting a dramatic ballad that contained some of her emotional lyrics and his amazing vocal runs. As we all know now, “ME!” is not that. I really wish that their duet was a song which gave us the opportunity to truly see the talents of both artists, instead of having Brendon sing short simple lines like “let me keep you company” among Taylor’s dolphin-like “Me-e-e”s throughout the chorus.
- The message should have been self-empowerment, but came off as a little “I just want another No.1 hit.”
-
“ME!” had all the pieces that should have made it a No.1 hit. It’s catchy, had a sense of self-empowerment, a funny vocal interlude, a handsome and talented duet partner, and some of the same sound Taylor has had luck with lately (such as in “Delicate”). But, according to Vulture.com, it was Swift’s first lead single in nine years to not hit No.1 immediately. And why? To me, it was not quite catchy or cute enough to be as unoriginal and empty as it was. I will always prefer “Shake It Up” if I want a shamelessly silly song to pump me up, and given that “Shake It Up” was at No. 1 for four weeks whereas “ME!” hasn’t hit No.1 at all yet, I don’t think I’m the only one who thinks this. The sound was just too familiar, the lyrics were too boring and overused, and it seemed that Taylor wanted to piece together a No.1 hit instead of making music that her audience will remember for years, such as her previous albums.
Taylor became popular from her emotional and relatable ballads (which “New Year’s Day” reminded us of) and this shallow pop cocktail just didn’t hit the spot. Sorry, Tay. But, my fellow Swifties, there is hope! In the past, Taylor Swift’s singles have not been the songs that necessarily capture the essence of the entire album. So, who knows, maybe our girl Taylor will suprise us.