Taylor Swift – reputation (2017) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Taylor Swift – reputation (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 55:45 minutes | 682 MB | Genre: Pop, Country
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Big Machine Records, LLC

Taylor Swift never hesitated to place a veiled version of herself at the center of her songs, but reputation is her first record specifically about “Taylor Swift Superstar,” not the singer/songwriter who grew up in public. reputation dispenses with the notion that Swift is a babe in the woods, swapping naivete for calculation, leaning hard into the idea that she plots her every move. In that light, it’s difficult not to read reputation as Swift’s first self-consciously “adult” record, one preoccupied with sex, betrayal, and the scars they leave behind. Appropriately, she dresses reputation in dark, moody sounds, dwelling on drum loops and synthesizers. Working with Jack Antonoff, Max Martin, and Shellback — all veterans of 2014’s 1989 — her official pop makeover — Swift achieves a steely, nocturnal sound, one that appears to exist on a gray scale: Apart from the delicate closer “New Year’s Day,” every song on reputation has a cool, gleaming patina that’s designed to put an alluring distance between Swift and the listener. That sense of remove can highlight how clumsy Swift can be in regard to carnality — whenever she writes about sex, she tends to be a bit on the nose — and occasionally her attempts at villainy veer toward the absurd (“This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things”), an awkwardness that’s distracting upon first listen but less so on revisits. Upon repeated plays, these lyrics fade, as does the monochromatic production, and what’s left is a coming of age album anchored by some strong Swift songs, most of which are bunched at the end of the record. “Getaway Car,” “Delicate,” “Dress,” and especially “New Year’s Day” carry Swift’s trademark blend of vulnerability, melody, and confidence, but they are deeply felt and complex, signs that all of the heavy-handed persona plays of reputation were a necessary exercise for her to mature as a singer/songwriter.

On 19 June 2006, someone called Taylor Swift released her first single, Tim McGraw, a straightforward homage to the country singer of the same name. She was only 17 and stood out as a potential future queen of country pop… A good decade later, queen she is: but of pop tout court! The Disney cowgirl getup is gone, replaced by the pop R&B icon who has conquered the heights of the charts, but who, above all, has been able to impose her style and her writing as a canonical part of the modern genre. With Reputation, her royal crown never threatens to fall from her head. On the contrary. With this sixth album, Taylor Swift certainly has not equalled 1989, her most accomplished record released in 2014, though she confirms that she is to her times what Madonna was to the 80s and 90s. Really, it should be enjoyed for what it is: great pop, with catchy choruses, pumped–up production (the Swedish pairing of Max Martin/Shellback as well as the American Jack Antonoff are in charge here) and her autobiographical lyrics which juggle with looove, liiife, fruuustration, saaadness, haaappiness, etc. Here, Taylor Swift unburdens her soul, in particular about how the limelight can burn, especially on Call It What You Want where she explains that she isn’t what she’s said to be… this saccharine orgy concludes with an even more melancholy piano ballad, New Year’s Day. We leave Reputation realising that the star has pulled clearly away ahead of Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and Miley Cyrus.

Tracklist:
1. Taylor Swift – …Ready For It? (03:28)
2. Taylor Swift – End Game (04:04)
3. Taylor Swift – I Did Something Bad (03:58)
4. Taylor Swift – Don’t Blame Me (03:56)
5. Taylor Swift – Delicate (03:52)
6. Taylor Swift – Look What You Made Me Do (03:31)
7. Taylor Swift – So It Goes… (03:47)
8. Taylor Swift – Gorgeous (03:29)
9. Taylor Swift – Getaway Car (03:53)
10. Taylor Swift – King Of My Heart (03:34)
11. Taylor Swift – Dancing With Our Hands Tied (03:31)
12. Taylor Swift – Dress (03:50)
13. Taylor Swift – This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things (03:27)
14. Taylor Swift – Call It What You Want (03:23)
15. Taylor Swift – New Year’s Day (03:55)

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