the thing about Taylor Swift’s Reputation is that it makes perfect sense as a graceful recovery from 1989′s effort at bare-ribbed taste-making

like back to “oh better take all of contemporary America into me and re-present it back thematically united through me” which worked when she came up, when we had different subcultures, that had different thematics

It’s the most lyrical album of hers, I think, and I’m not really sure who it’s for

It’s the first time her songs pose her as getting drunk

…Ready For It? announces the theme of the album - a bit of producer beats and rhythmic lyrics and being so past white boys, a bit of revived vulnerability, and that little throat-clearing at the start makes it all quotative anyway

End Game (feat Ed Sheeran & Future) - feat Ed Sheeran AND Future. I wonder if she’s got a separate UK market strategy

I Did Something Bad - is it an “owning being a manipulative relationship user” song or an “owning being an unapologetic social media troll” song? It really leans the first early on with only the “flames” bit suggestive at all, but then the “pitchforks and proof, their reciepts and reasons, they’re burning all the witches even if you aren’t one” into the “light me up” breakdown..?

Don’t Blame Me - yeah you know what Taylor Swift could make a good trip-hop song, sure

Delicate - it’s not my thing but she carries more of this song on her voice than most but that might be because her tuning’s entirely electronic tbh, this might be a CRJ dig

Gorgeous is a classic Tayswift crush song, like pre-Red, with that papery hi-hat

Getaway Car is like ½ classic Tayswift and 1/6 Outrun signifiers and 1/3 actual “oh shit, Vangelis” ‘80s

King of My Heart might be a sorority girl-daddy song, or a first interracial relationship, or a Michael Jackson tribute, honestly, while being perfectly serviceable generically

there’s that semantic overloading

Dancing With Our Hands Tied - acceptably laser-gridded song, you can read the initial “25 years old, how were you to know” towards either partner with thematics intact

Dress – she always does “I can do my rivals better” songs and this is Carly Rae Jepsen - breathy, a little desperate friendzoned from the girl side - which is to say like her old high school wheelhouse but also her recent BPD Queen personas, throwing in just enough anchors to read your own story into - flashbacks/mistakes/rebounds/earthquakes

This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things - these days you need to try a lot harder to keep your feuds in the news to earn a feud song. the “bouncy, childish” affectations just sound childish. the return of the Bill Hader-ass “laughing out of the script” is cute

Call It What You Want – “yeah I lost that last callout war and went dark on social media, but I’m getting the best dick”, that’s one of Taylor Swift’s biannual Songs For Our Time

New Year’s Day - this is totally the “sorority girl reassuring herself about the relationship to her fraternity guy” - the “please, don’t ever become a stranger whose laugh I could recognize anywhere” echoes the “but if god forbid, fate should step in” verse from Long Live but you know they’ll have a location wedding with a mason jar reception themed after that interwar party from Starlight