A while ago, I talked about Taylor Swift's Lover album and how it was her most underwhelming project to date. I bring it up because it is in stark contrast to her previous effort, reputation, which seemed to center around making a statement. You can see it in the very first single, "Look What You Made Me Do", where Taylor straight up says that the old Taylor is "dead". It doesn't get much more clear than that.
I guess what I'm trying to answer here is, does making a statement automatically translate to greatness? It certainly allows for the potential to be great moreso than a milquetoast album like Lover, but big statements have the risk of backfiring just as big. With reputation, what I found was a totally mixed bag.
I am actually for this album on concept alone. I've always liked it when pop stars develop an ego larger-than-life and it's clear that's where Taylor is headed with this album. Having stepped fully into the pop world with her last album, 1989, it only makes sense that she'd try to cultivate a defined personality with reputation. The results may be mixed, but the effort is there.
"Look What You Made Me Do" is the clear standout from the album in the worst possible way. It is baffling just how bad Taylor is at picking her lead singles. I get that this is certainly the most direct song for what she's going for, but it really does sound like ass and should have been left on the cutting board. Songs like "Don't Blame Me" and "I Did Something Bad" get the point of the album across without... sounding like complete ass. Neither of these scream "lead single" either, but maybe the first song on the album, "...Ready for It?" would have made more sense? I dunno, it's a confounding decision.
Amid the cattiness, there stand out some genuinely sweet songs as well that help to cut through the harshness of this album's tones. "Delicate" is just that, a light, airy pop song that effortlessly floats in your brain. The album's closer, "New Year's Day", is also very nice-sounding in its melancholy. "Getaway Car" is a fireball of a song and should have gotten way more attention. That's not to say some of the harsher moments don't work; if they didn't, I wouldn't sign off on this album as a concept. But the balance is key to making this album less jarring.
Speaking of jarring, let's have a song with Ed Sheeran and Future! Yeah, I won't pretend like "Look What You Made Me do" is the only nonsensical choice on this album. As I said, with big risk can come big backfire, and for every good choice, there's a bad one, mostly coming through in the production. A lot of these songs just have these ugly synths slathered over what could have been pretty good songs, ruining the mood. I get that some of this has to be ugly for the concept to work, but you could have toned it down a little.
All that said, is this a more successful album than Lover? I would argue yes, if only for its ambition. It's still far from the best Taylor Swift album, but I could at least envision someone calling this their favourite Taylor Swift album, because the effort and intent are clear. The good and bad moments on this album round out to a middling score.
6/10
Best Tracks: "Delicate", "So It Goes...", "Getaway Car", "New Year's Day"
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