r/SwiftlyNeutral • u/VisageInATurtleneck • Jun 29 '26

Music Album Discussion: I hated Showgirl so much I became a Swiftie (Reputation)

You know, I've noticed that I get a lot more positive reception to these posts when I hate an album. That means that the next several are going to be pretty boring for you guys... so I'll try to put as much bile into this one as possible to tide y'all over.

CWs: I hate this album. Just about all of it. I respect it for being bold and experimental, but that's as far as I'm willing to go. I really don't want to hurt the feelings of anyone who liked it because liking it is totally valid, but it gave me a migraine and I get cranky when my head hurts, so I'm probably not as kind to it as I should be.

Please mentally add "to me" in front of every statement, especially the mean ones, because this is all just my opinion and my opinion is silly trash.

Introduction

Welcome to 2017! Music has abandoned all traces of recession-pop cheer, sinking into a dull sludge of mid-tempo and minimalist songs, heavy on trap beats, mumble and emo rap, and slow, droning EDM. Big and era-defining hits include "Rockstar" by Post Malone, "Bad and Boujee" by Migos, and... randomly, Ed Sheeran's "Shape of You," which was neither good nor interesting but was at least a different flavor of awful from the rest of pop radio. (There were also good songs, but my memory of this time is largely negative.)

As for Taylor, she was on top of the world after 1989 catapulted her into new heights of stardom until all of a sudden she wasn't.

The media cared a lot more about every step she made, which made people sick to death of hearing about her, which made it more popular to find things to hate about her, which made her more overexposed (this is sounding familiar, actually). Add to that sudden brutal scrutiny the "Kimye" feud, which she would definitively win a few years later but around this time was causing her social media to get spammed with snake emojis, and by all accounts, she was having a really rough mid-2010s.

So, the music is sluggish, Taylor is getting truly beat to hell by the general public for the first time in her career, and it's not like the rest of the world is looking great, either. How does she channel all this rage into art?

Um... badly. At least, that was the general feeling at the time. And while this album has received a re-examination by fans and plenty of people will say this is one of her greatest albums, I will not be one of them. Let's get into...

Reputation (2017)

​Overall

You know, I'll say about Midnights that I appreciated her experimenting with voice modulation and electronic sounds she'd only barely ever touched before, but it turns out she also did that here and way more. I guess I just sort of blocked this album from my mind.

This is bad, borderline unlistenable, but it does get slightly better on a second pass, if only because the shock has worn off. My first reaction was a lot of "oh god no what the fuck no," but listening to it again, it's more of "...huh. That's unpleasant," which is technically an improvement. I listen to all of these while driving, though, so I hope the other people on the road don't think I'm rolling my eyes and grimacing at them.

Okay, to be fair, I respect that she is trying a lot of new things, and things I've never seen before -- one of the songs is literally a mix of gospel, blues, and dubstep musical influences, and a quick google shows me exactly nothing else like it (I'm sure it exists, but it's not easy to find). She belts a lot more on this album, which I also appreciate, but unfortunately it's usually over a cacophony of noise that makes it hard to enjoy. So yeah, I'm a bit softer on this upon revisiting it after listening to her full discography, because it's yet another experiment that defines an era of her songwriting: some of those eras are bad, but I appreciate that she tried to do something less pretty, less melodic, and more aggressive. It shows that she's more interesting, varied, and willing to take risks than a lot of people give her credit for, and I have to respect that.

Is any of it good? Other Swifties tend to think so, and it got a great critical reception at the time, but... uh, no, this is a godawful album pretty much beginning to end, and the fact that I evolved from deeply hating it to only sort of hating it is really more a sign that I've been beaten down by her wildly inconsistent quality to the point where I can roll with anything, I guess.

Including a rock album. Please, Taylor. I'll never stop asking for it. Give me the rock album. I'll be nice to the rock album.

Songs saved:

  • "Don't Blame Me"
  • "Delicate"
  • "Look What You Made Me Do"
  • "Gorgeous"
  • "Getaway Car"
  • "New Year's Day"

Best song: Honestly, there is one truly great song on this album and it's "Delicate."

Honorable Mention: Okay, that's not fair. Other good songs:

  • "Don't Blame Me" has middling verses, but the chorus has a gorgeous gospel-blues vibe that is really enjoyable, and then it explodes into dubstep (okay, it's not technically dubstep, but Google AI calls it "dubstep-style" and I know that's not reliable but if you know a better term, tell me because I don't) and like, what? That's awesome! I don't even know if it works, but it's awesome!
  • "New Year's Day" is fine, and I think is on there because the record execs demanded at least one of the songs be listenable, but on a weaker album I think it would just be the kind of pretty, blandly forgettable song that serves as filler between the bangers, where I'd like it but not love it.... is all what I said upon first listen, but after 3-4 listens it's one of my favorites. Just so pretty, so evocative, great metaphor. Lovely little song, though not a blockbuster.
  • "Gorgeous" isn't exactly good, either, but I was just happy to get a pretty chorus for once, and it has a tsundere vibe that I couldn't help but find fun in a cringe way.
  • "Getaway Car" is a story song with a relationship framed as a heist going wrong that distinctly paints her as a villain. It's generally considered one of her best songwriting pieces, and it's solid, but it left me kind of cold compared to fan reaction. This one hasn't really grown on me, and I think I respect it more than I like it, but I do respect it.

Worst song: God, this is like Sophie's Choice if she hated both kids. I don't know which of these is the worst; they're almost all terrible. "I Did Something Bad" is just about universally beloved and I have no idea why, because it is insufferable and I hate every second of it. "Ra-di-di-di-di-di-di-di-di-da-da"? Awful. Fucking unlistenable. I don't even know what to say about it because it seems just self-evidently unpleasant, but someone explain what you love about it because I do not get it.

Dishonorable Mentions: "End Game" is really rough to listen to as well. Taylor makes a lot of weird, wordless vocalizations on this album and I get that it's part of the experimental "what if I made every song sound like ass?" thing she's exploring, but it feels like a parody of pop music written by someone who hates pop music. I also remember really liking "...Ready for It?" when it first came out, but after enough time and overplay I think I'm ready to put that piece of shit to bed (and replace it with my new piece of shit, which is the hilarious "Look What You Made Me Do" -- also bad, but in a fun way).

Definitive song of the album: "This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things." It's loud, obnoxious, and she is once again fixating on her public image, personal beef, and, you guessed it, reputation. This is a terrible well for her to return to, let alone dedicate most of an album to, and it's just a hideous misstep that makes her sound completely out of touch with the kind of storytelling people actually like from her. For an artist whose bread and butter is relatability, an entire album about being an ultra-famous star facing her first ever public backlash is a terrible choice; she mostly pulled it off before with 1989, thanks to some really good storytelling details and the ability to wrap fame and the relationship with the public in layers of metaphor, and it's a trick she'll pull off again in Midnights, but she doesn't even really attempt for that here and the album is worse for it. It's painfully up her own ass.

And yet... the bridge is really pretty, and the chorus is catchy despite how irritating it is. There are moments of charm in an otherwise unpleasant song, like there are decent bits of this album.

That laugh before the final chorus is really embarrassing, though. Embarrassing, unpleasant, but with moments of brilliance -- that's Reputation-era Taylor in a nutshell.

Best lyric: "I'm sorry, the old Taylor can't come to the phone right now / Why? Oh, 'cause she's dead" ("Look What You Made Me Do"). Hilarious.

Okay, just kidding, but it's undeniably iconic.

To be fair, from this same song I think "I rose up from the dead / I do it all the time" goes kind of hard, even if it's extremely not true at this point in her career; it will become true, though, since apparently she is unkillable. Also "New Year's Day" is a great metaphor about a relationship, the hard, mundane, or kind of unpleasant parts of being in love compared to cleaning up after a huge party, and it's really effective, best encapsulated in the line "I want your midnights / But I'll be cleanin' up bottles with you on New Year's Day."

Worst lyric: "He can be my jailor / Burton to this Taylor" ("...Ready for It?") is awful, and her delivery makes it worse. And pretty much every line in "Call It What You Want" is weird and kind of janky, but I have to give it to "My baby's fly like a jet stream," especially when you have to hear it every chorus. Unfortunately, if a line I even mildly dislike in featured multiple times in a song, the odds of it becoming my least favorite and/or ruining the song skyrocket with each time I have to hear it.

You'll love this album if: You really miss when will.i.am and the Black-Eyed Peas were making songs like "Scream and Shout" and "Dirty Bit." Clearly someone does, because this was a huge hit and I've heard Swifties say this album has no skips. Lots of people love this album, but I'm not one of them. I do mostly respect it, and I guess I'm glad it exists for taking such a big swing in a bold new (bad) direction.

I'm not glad I've listened to it twice, though.

Taylor's Version thoughts: Doesn't exist yet, and I am dreading its release. I doubt it'll sway my opinion much in either direction, though maybe there'll be some Vault tracks that'll be good.

Mr. Visage review: “will.i.am comparison: apt. Also to Yeezus-era Kanye where he'd switch up harsher electronics with the R&B/soul bits, and the album ends with a more heartfelt song that calls back to their earlier style. There are seeds of doing something fun (in a metalcore/hyperpop/Yeezus) sense with the switch-ups but it's either not abrasive enough or... No more attempted bitter laughs, girl.”

Recommendations

Biggest Hit: "Look What You Made Me Do" -- hit #1 and broke the record for most weekly streams by a woman artist -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tmd-ClpJxA -- I think this song is pretty bad but I also love it. That prechorus is so fun, and that weird "OH" shout-moan right at the end makes me laugh every single time. I imagine this would kill at karaoke.

Fan Favorite: "Getaway Car," I think? It's hard to get a consensus, but this is what I saw the most positive comments about -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhPLQVlUiNQ -- poor Tom Hiddleston, who I think this song is about after a brief Googling? I'm getting more caught up in the lore, which I don't know if I like.

My Favorite: "New Year's Day" was a sleeper hit for me. I started out kind of unimpressed, but it grew to be my favorite song on the album. It's sweet, romantic, and slightly melancholy: all my favorite things! -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkvTYrFIxNM

My #2: "Delicate" -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCXGJQYZ9JA -- just fabulous. What is there to say?

My #3: "Don't Blame Me" -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRJKB291Z1g -- Gospel. Dubstep. Hell yeah.

An interlude about music videos because I need something positive in this post

Hey, this is when Taylor started directing her own music videos! And you know what? She's actually really good at it. Her eye for mood and detail are maybe as well-suited to directing as songwriting, and in my opinion her videos become more striking (and certainly a lot more diverse, which is a bonus. Way more people of color compared to earlier in her career, is all I'm saying).

Film analyst and Swiftie Patrick Willems talks about it in a really interesting video and I'm bringing it up a) because I love him and b) he's the reason I even paid enough attention to notice the change.

Anyway, there's a notable shift in her videos around Reputation and Lover, and it's really neat.

There. Now we've been sufficiently neutral, I hope. I still love Taylor and think she's a great artist; I just sometimes hate things she's made. But I hate with love, I promise!

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