Taylor Swift built reputation as a fresh start. After years of being cast as an innocent pop figure, she comes back with 15 tracks aimed at the people who wrote her story for her, and a sound that trades the clean pop of 1989 for something darker and more electronic.
Key Numbers
- Artist: Taylor Swift
- Album: reputation (2017)
- Tracks: 15
- Metacritic score: 71/100
Track by Track
…Ready for It? opens the record with a hard beat and a warning, setting the tone before End Game brings in a hook big enough to survive its crowded arrangement. I Did Something Bad follows with real bite, one of the sharpest character studies on the album.
Don’t Blame Me leans on a church-choir sound and plays it dramatic, then Delicate strips the noise back. It’s the record’s best turn: quiet, unguarded, and the moment Swift sounds most like herself. Look What You Made Me Do is the lead single and the song that split opinion most, a blunt instrument built for headlines rather than subtlety.
So It Goes… and Gorgeous sit in the album’s middle stretch without doing much to distinguish themselves. Getaway Car is the exception in that run: a split-up song built like a chase, tight and fast and one of the smartest pieces of writing on the album.
King of My Heart, Dancing With Our Hands Tied and Dress form the album’s biggest, synth-heavy patch. They’re fine, occasionally excessive, and similar enough to each other that the record’s stronger songs stand out by comparison. This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things is meaner and sharper, with more humor, a return to the sharp-tongued mode Swift does best.
Call It What You Want closes the narrative arc with warmth instead of venom, a rare moment of relief on the album. New Year’s Day ends the record on piano and quiet, a deliberate slow ending after 14 tracks of noise.
The record’s five clearest high points, in order:
- Delicate
- Getaway Car
- Call It What You Want
- I Did Something Bad
- New Year’s Day
Why reputation Works
The production is the album’s biggest gamble. Swift and her producers lean hard into trap drums, distorted bass and vocal effects, and when it works — on End Game, on I Did Something Bad — it gives her lyrics a new edge. When it doesn’t, the record buries good songs under too much noise.
At 15 tracks, reputation runs long, and the back half loses energy in places where 1989 never did. But the writing stays sharp throughout. Swift is at her best when she’s specific, and reputation is full of specific, cutting detail about fame, betrayal and love conducted under public scrutiny.
This is not Swift’s most consistent record.
It is, at points, her most fearless. reputation isn’t the failure that seemed possible before release; it’s full of strong hooks and memorable turns of phrase, and even its excesses come from ambition rather than laziness. The heavy, synth-driven experiment doesn’t always land, but when it does — Delicate, Getaway Car, Call It What You Want — it’s some of the best work of her career.
- …Ready for It?3:28
- End Game4:04
- I Did Something Bad3:58
- Don’t Blame Me3:56
- Delicate3:52
- Look What You Made Me Do3:31
- So It Goes…3:47
- Gorgeous3:29
- Getaway Car3:53
- King of My Heart3:34
- Dancing With Our Hands Tied3:31
- Dress3:50
- This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things3:27
- Call It What You Want3:23
- New Year’s Day3:55
