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With her synthpop-heavy sixth album, the popstar dispenses with her diary-like lyrics in favour of something darker and more suggestive
For any Taylor Swift fan, a new album release promises not just a fresh batch of music but a chance to engage in that old Swiftian pastime: unpacking and deciphering the references in her lyrics, from allusions to the boys who’ve earned her ire to the ones that captured her heart. Following the release of the superstar’s sixth album, Reputation, the tradition persists: except this time, the album’s as much about Swift as it is the courtships that put tabloids in a frenzy.
With previous Swift albums, clues were hidden inside lyric sheets, where random capitalized letters signalled the person or place that inspired the track. Sometimes, like with the scorched-earth paean Dear John, the clue was in the title, while others were more crafty. In those good old days, making fodder of Swift’s lyrics was a fun indulgence given her, ahem, reputation as a deeply personal and perceptive songwriter, candid enough to recount her romantic travails with a memoirist’s sensibility but calculating enough to hide the real dirt where only super-fans could find it.
Continue reading...
Continue reading...
For any Taylor Swift fan, a new album release promises not just a fresh batch of music but a chance to engage in that old Swiftian pastime: unpacking and deciphering the references in her lyrics, from allusions to the boys who’ve earned her ire to the ones that captured her heart. Following the release of the superstar’s sixth album, Reputation, the tradition persists: except this time, the album’s as much about Swift as it is the courtships that put tabloids in a frenzy.
With previous Swift albums, clues were hidden inside lyric sheets, where random capitalized letters signalled the person or place that inspired the track. Sometimes, like with the scorched-earth paean Dear John, the clue was in the title, while others were more crafty. In those good old days, making fodder of Swift’s lyrics was a fun indulgence given her, ahem, reputation as a deeply personal and perceptive songwriter, candid enough to recount her romantic travails with a memoirist’s sensibility but calculating enough to hide the real dirt where only super-fans could find it.
Continue reading...
Continue reading...