Late Thursday night, Taylor Swift’s sixth flat album, “Reputation,” was clearly unleashed on the world.
In the aftermost decade, Swift has gone from Nashville songwriting prodigy to one of the best able pop stars on the planet, and she has a lot of complicated animosity about her fame. Aftermost year, Swift had a asperous time in the accessible eye as she battled celebrity feuds and accord drama. As the anthology appellation signals, it all had actually an aftereffect on her life.
In the addition from the “Reputation” liner notes, Swift — who spent best of 2017 out of the spotlight — spelled out the theme of the record: “We anticipate we apperceive someone, but the accuracy is that we alone apperceive the adaptation of them they accept called to appearance us.”
So demography that at face value, here’s a briefing of every clue on the much-anticipated album — what Swift has absitively to show us, and what she could be adage amid the lines.
[If you anticipate Taylor Swift sings alone about her exes, afresh you don’t get Taylor Swift]
1) “ … Ready For It?” (written by Taylor Swift, Max Martin, Shellback, Ali Payami)
The lyrics announce a adventurous accord (“In the average of the night, in my dreams, you should see the things we do”), but the bonkers music video appearance a action amid two Swifts: an evil, smirking apprentice dressed all in black, and a cyborg trapped in a bottle cage. Eventually, trapped cyborg Swift defeats robot Swift.
Swift agreeably “liked” some posts on Tumblr accounting by admirers who approved to assay the song. According to one theory, the song “illuminates how media/society accept so endlessly approved to actually demolition Taylor Swift’s soul, annihilate her affectionate disposition and actually candidly blemish her reputation.”
The music video for Taylor Swift's new distinct "...Ready For It?" alone Oct. 27. It's high-tech, affected affair has references to her accomplished music and new love. (Amber Ferguson/The Washington Post)
2) “End Game” feat. Ed Sheeran and Future (written by Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran, Future, Max Martin, Shellback)
Perhaps the best absolute clue about how the apple sees her (“Big reputation, big reputation, ohh you and me, we got big reputations … you heard about me, oh, I got some big enemies.”), Swift raps with Future and her abutting pal, Ed Sheeran.
Swift sings one cogent ballad by herself: “I coffin hatchets, but I accumulate maps of area I put ’em/reputation precedes me, they told you I’m crazy/I affirm I don’t adulation the drama, it loves me.” This acknowledges her affection for feuds and grudges (whether adjoin Katy Perry for advancement ballerina poaching; against Kanye West for calling her a “b‑‑‑‑” in a song; or adjoin Kim Kardashian West for absolution that abominable buzz alarm recording). And she forgets nothing.
3) “I Did Article Bad” (written by Taylor Swift, Max Martin, Shellback)
This song is abounding of contradictions, as Swift says bodies are accusing her of accomplishing article bad — and alike admitting that affair “felt so good,” she still did annihilation wrong: “They’re afire all the witches, alike if you aren’t one/They got their pitchforks and proof, their receipts and reasons.” She badly accepts her fate. “So ablaze me up.”
She additionally puts “playboys” and “narcissists” on bang for manipulating her. No worries, she says — because she manipulates them first: “I play ’em like a violin, and I accomplish it attending oh so easy.”
[The old Taylor Swift is ‘dead,’ but the one still wants revenge]
4) “Don’t Blame Me” (written by Taylor Swift, Max Martin, Shellback)
A clue about a actual acute accord (“For you, I would cantankerous the line, I would decay my time, I would lose my mind”) she throws gossip enthusiasts a cartilage by referencing her beforehand celebrity boyfriends: “I’ve been breaking hearts a continued time and dabbling with them beforehand guys.” Swift has been articulate about this affair aback her country music canicule with “Dear John,” a not-so-veiled tale about her accord with John Mayer and their 12-year age gap.
5) “Delicate” (written by Taylor Swift, Max Martin, Shellback)
The aboriginal band delves appropriate into Swift’s boxy year. “My reputation’s never been worse, so you charge like me for me,” she sings. She doesn’t go into detail, and the clue is added about the affected canicule of a new relationship: “Is it air-conditioned that I said all that? Is it too anon to do this yet? ‘Cause I apperceive that it’s aerial …”
6) “Look What You Fabricated Me Do” (written by Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff, Fred Fairbrass, Richard Fairbrass, Rob Manzoli)
As the aboriginal distinct arise from the anthology in August, the Internet figured out that the “little games” and “tilted stage” curve were about West. As Swift declares that the “old Taylor” is “dead,” she seethes with vengeance: “The apple moves on, addition day, addition drama, drama/But not for me, not for me, all I anticipate about is karma.”
The music video additionally mocks her critics, and she preemptively makes fun of herself for aggregate that she knows bodies say about her — that she’s not absolutely that nice, she loves to comedy the victim, etc.
The music video for Taylor Swift's new distinct "Look What You Fabricated Me Do" premiered at the 2017 VMAs. It's a self-deprecating attending at how bodies accomplish fun of her, brindled with abounding references to her life. (Nicki DeMarco/The Washington Post)
7) “So It Goes …” (written by Taylor Swift, Max Martin, Shellback, Oscar Görres)
“Taylor Swift Sheds Her Acceptable Babe Image on ‘Reputation,’ ” one analysis of the album enthused as critics grappled with Swift’s “edgier” lyrics, some of which arise on this song: “You apperceive I’m not a bad babe but I do bad things with you” and “dressed in atramentous now … scratches bottomward your aback now.” This clue hints that it’s about the aforementioned actuality as the one featured in “Gorgeous,” as both tunes advertence affair addition in a bar. Which leads us to …
8) “Gorgeous” (written by Taylor Swift, Max Martin, Shellback)
At her “secret sessions,” area Swift played the anthology aboriginal for fans, the pop brilliant allegedly told admirers that “if anyone fabricated any accusations of who this song is about we acquaint them it is 100 percent about her angel admirer of one year.” For those unaware, that would be British amateur Joe Alwyn, admitting the two accept been around airy in public. (Apparently that’s intentional, afterwards her much-photographed affair with Tom Hiddleston acquired abundant apology and a common frenzy.)
Anyway, this song is about addition who is so adorable that it’s adamantine to attending at them, abnormally if you’re afraid they don’t feel the aforementioned attraction: “You’ve broke my activity by not actuality mine.”
9) “Getaway Car” (written by Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff)
“A circus ain’t a adulation story, and now we’re both apologetic … we’re both sorry,” Swift says in this tune about a accord bedevilled from the start. Could this be about the “Hiddleswift” situation, which absolutely angry into a media circus?
10) “King of My Heart” (written by Taylor Swift, Max Martin, Shellback)
“All the boys in their big-ticket cars with their Range Rovers and their Jaguars/Never took me actually area you do,” Swift sings as she chronicles a august adulation adventure afterwards a lot of bad ones. “You are the one I accept been cat-and-mouse for/King of my heart, anatomy and soul.”
Is it a accompaniment that she was photographed with Calvin Harris (with whom she had an unfortunate breakup) in a Range Rover and Hiddleston in a Jaguar? If you don’t apperceive the acknowledgment to that question, we’re not abiding why you’re alike account this.
11) “Dancing With Our Hands Tied” (written by Taylor Swift, Max Martin, Shellback, Oscar Görres)
The song bliss off with a acknowledgment of addition who is 25 years old, Alwyn’s age aback they met, so booty from that what you will. Here, Swift seems to anguish that the massive absorption on her relationships could ruin aggregate again, but afresh affidavit that their adulation is so acute that it won’t matter: “I loved you in animosity of abysmal fears that the apple would bisect us/So babyish can we dance, oh through an avalanche.”
12) “Dress” (written by Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff)
Listeners at the abstruse sessions address that Swift’s parents were acutely afflictive while alert to this actual affectionate song: “I’m spilling wine in the ablution tub, you kiss my face and we’re both bashed … I don’t appetite you like a best friend, alone bought this dress so you could booty it off.”
13) “This Is Why We Can’t Accept Nice Things” (written by Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff)
This clue is already cartoon the best attention, apparently because it best anon addresses the Kanye situation. “It was so nice throwing big parties, jump into the basin from the balcony/Everyone pond in a albino sea,” Swift sings in the beginning, acknowledging that her acclaimed July 4 parties are as absurd as you would imagine.
Then things booty a turn: “Why’d you accept to rain on my parade?” she asks. A few weeks afterwards her July 4, 2016, party, Kim Kardashian West leaked a recording of a chat amid Swift and West that corrective Swift as a liar. “Friends don’t try to ambush you, get you on the buzz and mind-twist you,” Swift sings. She adds, “It was so nice actuality accompany again/There I was giving you a additional chance, but you stabbed me in the aback while afraid my hand,” a advertence to how they mended fences afterwards the 2009 VMAs incident.
14) “Call It What You Want” (written by Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff)
Back to a adulation adventure — or, specifically, about addition who loves her alike as her acceptability took a hit, and alludes to her time out of the accessible view: “My alcazar burst overnight, I brought a knife to a gunfight, they took the acme but it’s alright/All the liars are calling me one, nobody’s heard from me for months — I’m accomplishing bigger than I anytime was.”
15) “New Year’s Day” (written by Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff)
For an anthology that reflects on such a aphotic time period, it ends on a bulletin of hope. “I appetite your midnights/But I’ll be charwoman up bottles with you on New Year’s Day,” Swift sings. It additionally hits on an beforehand Swift songwriting theme, which is an acute charge to bethink everything: “Hold on to the memories, they will authority assimilate you.”
Taylor Swift's new anthology "Reputation" will be arise on Nov. 10. Here's a attending aback at her best important songs from all six of her albums. (Nicki DeMarco,Emily Yahr/The Washington Post)
