Album: Reputation
Artist: Taylor Swift
Grade: D

Taylor Swift really tries to roll out the punches in her newest album “Reputation.” She falls short on her lyrics and a lot of her songs seem unnecessary. I’m not the biggest fan of pop or electronic pop. This album is over produced but, as pop usually is, catchy.
Swift has grown a lot since the beginning of her career, becoming one of the biggest names in the music industry in about 10 years. I’m not fond of most of her music, although middle school me might disagree. In my opinion, her best album is “1989.”
There is a lot of talk about drama in this album, claiming she doesn’t start anything, but it all comes to her. I’m not really sure she even believes that, especially after making this album with a couple of songs that low-key throw shade at some artists in the music industry.
One of the reasons I can appreciate this album more than some of her others is because it lacks the typical fall-in-love-with-boy songs. There are some of those typical songs in here, but not like her others. “King of my Heart” is obnoxiously electronically orientated.
Take her song “Fifteen” from the album “Fearless,” it is a simple, innocent, country song. Those characteristics have been stripped from her love songs of today. I’ve seen those same characteristics diminish through her most recent albums.
The song “End Game” featuring Future and Ed Sheeran is probably one of her best songs off this album. The song adds a trap feeling to the album and the chorus in this song actually is not a horrible chorus.
Her song “Delicate” is another good one. The beat is mellow, and it works really well with her lyrics. If you listen to her lyrics, she says, “Is it cool that I said all that,” “Is it too soon to do this yet,” and “Cause I know that it’s delicate.” It makes it sound like she’s playing it safe, because her reputation “is delicate.”
This album would’ve been better if she had cut out a couple songs that don’t reach the level of ones like “Delicate” and “Gorgeous.” The songs “Dress,” “This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things,” “New Year’s Day” and “Dancing with Our Hands Tied” fall a little short for me.
I’m also not really sure how to feel about the gunshot samples in her song “I Did Something Bad.” Swift definitely make it sound edgier if that’s what she was going for. This album kind of gives me good-girl-gone-bad vibes.
Some of her songs aimed to be dubstep or trap, but didn’t reach that level, and a lot of the songs sound similar in tone. Most of the lyrics on this album are simple and don’t hold power behind them. Like Anthony Fantano said, “they wouldn’t win a poetry contest.”
To get the full effect of Swift’s new album I recommend taking a time out to watch the music videos for “…Ready for it?” and “Look What You Made Me Do.” The videos are great representations of the feel and meaning of “Reputation” as a whole.