Album Review: Taylor Swift’s “Reputation” Sounds Like an Origin Musical for a Disney Villain

Taylor Swift has returned for her latest Airing of Grievances, just in time for Festivus.

On Reputation, her sixth studio album, Swift describes her actions, her exes, her feelings and her fantasies as “bad” more than 25 times. One song—“I Did Something Bad”— cuts right through the subtext. “Why’s it feel so good?” she asks deviously, after vaguely flaming Kanye West, Calvin Harris and Katy Perry.

Swift may be “bad” now, having infamously killed the “Old Taylor”, but we made her do it, she reminds us frequently on Reputation. Taylor was wronged, by so many people—yes, you too!—and she’s threatening retribution, delivered via half-raps over orchestral arrangements and radio-friendly industrial screeches. On one tune, she literally cackles. Honestly, the whole thing sounds like it was sung from the perspective of Maleficent.

It’s not all bad. Opener “…Ready for It?” is an unholy sonic beast—a collision of Yeezus-era horns and calypso music (and more of Taylor rapping)—but it’s weird and fun in the way that the album’s other baroque centerpieces—the hilariously misjudged “Look What You Made Me Do” and the inane “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things”—aren’t. The propulsive “End Game” cedes the floor to guests Future and Ed Sheeran; “Don’t Blame Me” is a catchy gospel singalong; and “Delicate” is a breathy, slinky slice of synth that wouldn’t have felt out of place on Carly Rae Jepsen’s Emotion.

Nonetheless, the enthusiastic villainy of Reputation is a spiritual drag. On her previous efforts, it felt like she was whispering secrets right to us, letting us in on the fun. Here, listeners will likely feel personally victimised by Taylor Swift. 

Mood? “Be Prepared” from The Lion King.

Scar, Ursula, Cruella de Vil, Shere Khan… all inspirational Disney heels deserve a co-writer credit on Reputation, alongside Jack Antonoff, Max Martin and Shellback (the latter two both helped Swift’s pop transition). Taylor Swift remains the chief creative force, however. She is an exceptionally talented songwriter and compelling storyteller, with a nifty signature finishing move: a unique vocal twist in her final choruses. She didn’t suddenly lose her superpowers. (The closing one-two punch of “Call It What You Want” and piano-ballad “New Year’s Day” resurrects “Old Taylor”, mercifully.)

What she did lose is the grip on her public persona, and Reputation fails because it shows her trying to contort to her new identity, rather than against it, as she did ingeniously and with a dash of self-parody on “Shake It Off” and “Blank Space” back in 2014. Besides the snake-themed merch she’s started flogging, Reputation is only unintentionally funny, down to the triangle ‘dings’ on the super-annoying “Gorgeous”.

Artists like Beyoncé, Jay-Z, Solange and even Kanye have returned from scandal with confessionals that still spoke to the larger cultural context. Taylor, on the other hand, has been hemmed in by her carefully-constructed identity, which she feels the need to address, solely, and hearing her relitigate years-old issues with Kim Kardashian makes her seem myopic and removed from the world around her.

There is nothing wrong with artists focusing on their love lives and being diaristic. The year’s best record, Lorde’s Melodrama, does exactly that. The problem with Reputation is that it’s specifically about Taylor taking on The World for the pettiest problems, and not realising The World has more pressing issues. Like when Swift sings “they’re burning all the witches, even if you aren’t one,” on “I Did Something Bad”; it’s like she’s distancing herself from the recent women’s movements in America (maybe accidentally), and still complaining about getting singed. 

Most criminally, Reputation is flat-out inessential, coming on the heels of two superb pop releases. Setting aside the actually unlistenable tracks, we’re otherwise left with “Getaway Car”, which is a watered-down combination of “Style” and “Wildest Dreams”, as well as “King of My Heart” and “Dancing With Our Hands Tied”, B-sides that were surely only included to balance out all the songs about score-settling.

Swift is often underestimated and underrated as a songwriter and a singer. (Her habit of shifting intonations and stopping to talk to herself provides the album with its highlights and its absolute-lowest-lights.) Many of the criticisms she’s fended off in the past have been unfair, if not outright sexist. Perhaps the worst thing about this project is that, for the first time, she’s embracing a reputation she probably never deserved. Look what you made her do.

2.5/5

Reputation is now available.

Photo: Big Machine