No comin’ back around, baby (no comin’ back around, no, no) Na, na, na, na-na-na-na-na (hey)’Cause it’s over now, oh yeah (stop callin’ me, oh) Na, na, na, no, whoa (yeah, yeah, I said) (Oh yeah, yeah, said)Na, na, na, na-na-na-na-na No coming back around, baby (oh, no comin’ back around) It’s not the same’Cause it’s over now, oh yeah So please stop calling meI need you to know that (oh girl) I wish you the best with the life you lead (Oh yeah, yeah)So, I take this just to forget you Nothin’ left to lose, girl, it’s over now It’s best for me, it’s best for youI need you to know thatĪnd it’s not the same’Cause it’s over now, oh yeahĭon’t get too confused, girl, it’s over now They’re not your friendsI need you to know that I know you gettin’ turnt every night, oh yeah Lyrically, Reputation is a blend of brutal honesty and willful opacity that suggests Swift is safeguarding a bit of herself from the world – choosing to emphasize the drama of a new sound rather than that of a new beau.I don’t really care if your tears fall down your face In the larger framework of Swift’s career – a constant tussle between candor and control – that makes sense. Now, Swift exchanges narrative for soundbites, imagination for introspection. On Reputation, some of those writerly idiosyncrasies have been lost, including the sorts of lines that once operated as a compass pointing us toward this boy or that one, like the “plaid shirt days and nights” of All Too Well, a song from 2012 that’s still, to this day, the best display of her songwriting prowess. In the past, Swift has lamented the media’s inclination to sift through her work in search of celebrity gossip, which might explain why, in her evolution from country starlet to pop star, her lyrics have become more cliched and less patently confessional. This wouldn’t be a Taylor Swift album if it didn’t have cryptic love songs. On End Game, featuring Future and Ed Sheeran, she tells a boy his “eyes are liquor” and his “body is gold”. On the slow-burning Dress, she navigates sexuality more explicitly than ever, talking about “spilling wine in the bathtub” and buying a dress just “so you could take it off”. On Getaway Car, the album’s best song, she sings about black ties and white lies – “don’t pretend it’s such a mystery, think about the place where you first met me,” she tells her love interest – which fans have interpreted to be about Hiddleston, who Swift supposedly met at the 2016 Met Ball while dating Harris.īesides the album’s obvious digression from Swift’s musical wheelhouse, she’s also candid about sex and alcohol: Swift’s general avoidance of the topics was perhaps the last thing differentiating her from other modern-day pop stars. Which older guy? Perhaps Harris, five years her senior, or Tom Hiddleston, who is eight years older. She delves into past relationships on Don’t Blame Me, on which Swift confesses to “breakin’ hearts a long time, and toyin’ with them older guys”. But the album is wistful, too, staged in Gatsby-esque parties with “champagne seas” and getaway cars that’d “never get far”. Both are references to the singer’s almost decade-long feud with the Kardashian-Wests, which began at the 2009 VMAs and grew a second set of legs after a scuffle over whether or not Swift knew about the lyrics of Kanye’s Famous (“I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex/ Why? I made that bitch famous”). they got their pitchforks and proof, their receipts and reasons”). Yes, there are digs at Kanye (“Friends don’t try to trick you, get you on the phone and mind-twist you,” she sings on This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things) and his wife Kim Kardashian (I Did Something Bad: “They’re burning all the witches. But despite the track’s pithy rancor, it’s not indicative of the ground she covers on the album. If Swift’s lyrics once seemed plucked from her diaries, Reputation’s lead single forecasted an album of vendettas or, as its music video suggested, a shedding of her snakeskin. As Swift’s music has become more manufactured, pivoting from twangy guitars and yarn-spinning narratives to maximalist synth-pop, she’s become a more satirical writer, too, oftentimes parodying the catty malevolence she first showed in the Blank Space music video. But the Taylor Swift of Reputation is not the Taylor Swift of Fearless or Red, albums made when the singer’s mass appeal was a symptom of her perceived authenticity.
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