Here’s What The Critics Are Saying About Taylor Swift’s ‘Reputation’
The NY Times called it "bombastic, unexpected and sneakily potent".
Taylor Swift’s new album Reputation is finally here. Naturally, that means breathless lists about new alleged beefs and potential celebrity romances. But once we get past that, we can actually talk about the music. And according to the critics, the music is pretty good.
As a matter of fact, Reputation currently looks set to be one of Swift’s most acclaimed albums to date. The album currently has an impressive 81 rating on Metacritic, and Swift has been spamming her Instagram account with positive reviews all day long.
What The Critics Are Saying
Alex Petridis at The Guardian engaged with the somewhat controversial theme of the album, while still awarding it four stars. “It may be mired in bitterness and gossip, but the pop star’s songwriting smarts and lyrical prowess are impossible to deny on her sixth album,” he wrote.
Roisin O’Connor at The Independent gave the same star rating, writing that “each of the 15 songs on Reputation tackles how Swift is perceived by the people who know her – and the people who don’t… Swift isn’t denying any of those facets of herself. She’s not excusing them. She’s just saying there’s more than one.”
It seems that the petty and self-obsessed album that people feared in the wake of ‘Look What You Made Me Do’ has not come to pass.
“Bombastic, unexpected and sneakily potent” begins Jon Caramanica from The New York Times, although his praise is tempered by a pretty potent burn. “She breaks into a kind of intermittently unconvincing talk-singing,” he writes. “This is a persistent theme on this album: borrowing styles and approaches from black music, then softening them enough to where Ms. Swift can credibly attempt them.” Nevertheless, he later concedes that Swift is “as strong a singer as ever”.
One of the most positive write-ups comes from Rolling Stone, where Rob Sheffield called it “the most intimate LP of Taylor Swift’s career”. “As one of the all-time great pop masterminds, she’s trying something new, as she always does. But because she’s Taylor Swift, she can’t stop being her own turbulent, excessive, exhausting and gloriously extra self. Make no mistake, this girl’s love affair with drama is alive and well.”
It’s not all glowing endorsements, however. Slant Magazine criticised the album’s “tired, repetitive EDM tracks” (although they still gave it four stars). Meanwhile, Entertainment Weekly gave the album a cautious ‘B’ grade, calling it “an oddly bifurcated creation, half obsessed with grim score-settling and celebrity damage, half infatuated with a lover who takes her away from all that.”
Still, it seems the consensus is overwhelmingly positive.
give me dress all day everyday….dress dress dress dress yes yes yes yes @taylorswift13 pic.twitter.com/0RfSI1QHpY
— lanzo (@babyhaim) November 10, 2017
Reputation by Taylor Swift is out now