Taylor Swift – Reputation
Big Machine

Taylor Swift’s Reputation is now out for the whole world to hear and lets just say right from the start, it’s not her best work. In fact this is by far the worst album of TayTays career with a bunch of songs that are soulless, emotionless and frankly a little to try hard and seem somewhat out of character.

Now granted the Taylor we are getting on this album may just be who she is as a person and if thats the case then she seems a little bit childish and petty. The sound of the album is the furtherest she’s ever been from sounding like Taylor Swift, even 1989 sounds more like her than Reputation does, which leads me to the conclusion that it’s time for Max Martin and Shellback to go from her writing/production team because since they have both come on board the quality of her releases has gone down and this has happened since they came on board for her Red LP, which although is a great record you can tell the songs they (Martin & Shellback) got their claws in and started their Taylor transformation.

Every song bar one on this record is simply a mash up of all the “Hot” sounds out right now, which mostly consists of the over produced electronic trap pop obsession that loads of artists are jumping on. The most original sounding track of the whole album comes in the form of ‘News Year Day’ which ends the album and is a subtle little piano and acoustic guitar number. Now don’t get me wrong I’m all for expanding your sound and experimenting and changing as you move through your career but Swift is now so far removed from what bought her to the dance that she’s almost totally unrecognisable.

The lyrics are also a low point, Miss Swift always had a way of painting pictures and bringing out the emotion in her lyrics, the lyrics on Reputation seem flat, uninspired and lacking in any kind of feeling, which is a shame for a songwriter who once told you a story and took you on a journey with it. Some of the lyrics here and indeed the cryptic references come across as petty and childish and she’s clearly gone for some try hard shock value, she even throws out a little bit of profanity which I’m sure will send some parents into a whirlwind of outrage because their precious little angel’s idol said “shit” on her record.

Reputation is one of those albums you get, listen to once and then forget about it until a friend mentions it or Swift and you respond with ‘Reputation is by far her worst album’ that is of course unless the quality of her next offering slides even further down the scale. On the other side of the coin of course are the die hard Swifties that will adore this record simply because its a Taylor Swift record and will throw out such phrases as “Fire” and “Lit” about it, but just know they are simply saying this because of blind devotion to their idol. In time I may go back and give Reputation another listen, although I said that about Ellie Goulding’s ‘Delirium’ and I still haven’t gone back to it.

RATING: 4/10