Taken from this week’s Future Pop mailer. Click here to subscribe. All my Songs of the Week are featured on my Top of the Poptastic playlist, along with the rest of my faves from 2017.
I’ve only had chance to give Reputation a few listens so far, but one track stood out instantly when I first heard it. Songs such as Look What You Made Me Do and End Game are hard to love, despite their strengths, because Taylor’s efforts to prove her self-awareness are so transparent, and she ends up coming off more self-obsessed than self-deprecating. Although she does make one maudlin reference to her reputation on Delicate (“My reputation’s never been worse, so you must like me for me”), the track overall feels far more sincere and relatable. The chorus has a real sweetness and even humility. The happy hopefulness and focus on little details hark back to the romantic side of Taylor that made her lyrical style so endearing and escapist on past albums. Musically, it’s in keeping with her current, autotune-heavy sound, but it reminds me of how Muna combine electro-pop with heartfelt songwriting on I Know a Place and If U Love Me Now – in fact, this could have been on their album. If you’re boycotting Reputation cos it wasn’t on Spotify or you didn’t like the singles, I recommend you at least give this one a listen (here or below at 19:25).