Back with a bang, singles Look What You Made Me Do and …Ready For It made me so excited for the release of Taylor Swift’s sixth album, Reputation. It didn’t feel like two minutes since I was reviewing one of my all-time favourite albums, 1989, and we knew straight away that this album would definitely be very different to the last.
Long gone are the pastel colours and dreamy sound 1989 created with the Polaroid pictures and gorgeous songs such as Style and I Wish You Would, in 2017 we said goodbye to the ‘old Taylor’ and welcomed a black and white aesthetic with apparently, lots of snakes?
It really was the track …Ready For It that stopped my doubts that Reputation was going to be a disappointment, instead when it was released in September I was sure it was going to be the opposite. I love when the beat drops in it after the chorus and it definitely starts the album with a bang.
When I was Ed Sheeran was going to feature on the track End Game, I was more than excited, but the song couldn’t sound any different than their last collab Everything Has Changed if it tried. It might be one of the weaker tracks of the album, held up only by Ed Sheeran’s vocals. Maybe it’s the addition of rapper Future or the fact it’s just not at all memorable, but it didn’t impress me like I expected.
But as I was a little disappointed by that track, I Did Something Bad follows and more than made up for it. I have listened to this one load because it has such an amazing chorus and it’s really exciting and catchy – especially the ‘light me up’ bit, you’ll be singing that all day.
A couple of my other favourites are Look What You Made Me Do and Gorgeous, yes she released these both before the album so it may just be because I have listened to them more but LWYMMD was the perfect comeback single and I like Gorgeous just as much, I absolutely love the lyrics!
Another notable favourite is This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things – her little laugh in it makes me laugh too! There are so many of the tracks on this album, this one included that just has this style that makes you feel like you could take on the world when you’re walking and listening to it!
However, although it seems like Taylor is full on out for revenge on this album, the majority of them are gorgeous love songs. One of my favourites is Call It What You Want, especially because it reminds me of Wildest Dreams from 1989. It has that true Taylor style that I’m glad she hasn’t lost. So It Goes… has a similar feeling and that is another track that stands out to me too.
The album finishes with actually my favourite song off the whole album, New Year’s Day. It’s everything the album needed to finish off with, a simple piano ballad, toning down the angsty tone the majority of the album has. It’s the beautiful ending to Reputation, the perfect choice.
Do I love Reputation as much as 1989? Maybe not, but that’s partly because of how much I loved the dreamy, pastel polaroid aesthetic the 1989 era had. But Reputation hasn’t disappointed me at all, and I can’t wait to listen to it more! Let me know your thoughts in the comments and whether you prefer her latest release or her old style!
