Review Summary: Her own self fulfilling prophecy.
Let’s get the persona out of the way first.
It’s just another chapter in Taylor Swift’s discography. We’ve watched her grow from the dainty country girl singing ‘Teardrops On My Guitar’ to the ‘love-em and leave-em’ little miss that’s defined her for the better part of a decade, sliding into pure pop music territory with the subtlety of a brick to the face (Red). 1989 perfected the pop music approach with
five top 20 singles, all while seeming a little more self aware than usual, especially on ‘Blank Space’. In that one track she addresses it - all her relationships are fleeting. Everything always goes down in flames, everyone’ll tell you she’s the crazy one. If you date Taylor Swift you’re definitely getting half an albums worth of songs wrote about you.
That’s it. Girl needs something to write about. That’s all it’s ever been, I think. Public spectacle to keep her in the spotlight, and hey, now you have songs to write about your famous boyfriends. So that’s how I’m approaching ‘Reputation’. The media circus has always been there, and she’s always been directing it. It’s just a...different direction this time. More snappy, snarky, biting. Venomous. Like a snake.
With that settled, let’s talk about the music. Much like 1989, Max Martin is all over this. This leads to some very busy tracks that work well (“End Game”, “Don’t Blame Me”), but without any snarky Swift remarks, they all sound same-y very quick. “End Game” is the standout track from him, with features that
should be extremely out of place, but manage to just work somehow. Maybe some wishful thinking on my part, but it all sounds good. Thankfully, Jack Antonoff is a bigger presence here than he was before. But wait, no, he gave us "Look What You Made Me Do", the Right Said Fred beat turned into Swift’s album thesis about how her being bitchy isn’t her fault, it’s everyone elses, of course! Antonoff’s production is...well, if you’ve heard him produce, you know the story. Light drums, finger snapping beats, airy synths and harmonies...Basically the opposite of Martin. “Getaway Car” is the best track on here, between the catchy writing and the ‘reveal’ of Swift being the traitor in this convoluted relationship metaphor, and Antonoff’s production is only a plus.
With all the sass and uppity attitude of a rich girl whose parents didn’t get her the right color iPhone, Swift clutches and claws her way through the runtime of ‘reputation’. I’m not going to discuss the beeves she has with Katy Perry (literally why) or Kanye West (get over it, you’re in the wrong at this point gurl) because it’s pointless to dissect. You’re here to listen to Swift
pretend she’s in the right, because when has she ever been wrong? "This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things” is kind of infuriating if you have any idea what it’s about, and the line about not being able to forgive someone with a straight face isn't just catty, it's downright mean. The aforementioned “Look What You Made Me Do” is a song written by a text-book narcissist. Speaking of, “I never trust a narcissist, but they love me/ So I play ‘em like a violin, and make it look oh so easy,” go the opening lines of “I Did Something Bad”, and you know that
she knows. She
knows exactly what she's doing, and you're eating it up.
And at the end of the day, that’s all this is. The media created this picture of Swift, so she took it, and ran with it. Into the ground, maybe, but it’s what she’s got right now. A grittier 1989 with OK production and some catty / clever one liners (let’s give some credit to “I bury hatchets but I keep maps of where I put em”). I do hope she enlists someone to replace Max Martin though, because there is nothing more banal and generic then his production. The last two songs on this album are about her current relationship (apparently the album is chronological), and things sound like they’re going good for them.
I wonder what persona she’ll wear when they inevitably break up because she needs new songs to write about.
