The moment that so many diehard swifties and eager critics had waited for nearly 3 years had come- the arrival of Reputation. Following the release of three singles- Gorgeous, …Ready for It, and Look What You Just Made Me Do- Taylor Swift’s new album was released with a collection of new TS merchandise including custom magazines. Released exclusively at Target, 1.05 Million albums were sold in just the first four days after its release on November 10, 2017. You may “Call It What You Want To,” but Taylor Swift’s newest album has been an epoch for better or worse in the music and pop culture world. Here’s what three of GrassBurr’s writers thought of Reputation:

Grace-

Starting out on the lineup on the Reputation Album, I started with End Game, and right off the bat, she is striving so hard for that “unique sound” that really stands out from all her other albums. But in actuality, most of them are just as good as filler on a playlist on a four year old’s IPad. As I continue to her next song I Did Something Bad, I am starting to see a pattern here….

“Make a regular Taylor Swift song, change the key, and make the message of the entire song really hard to find out so it comes off as “Artistic” and “Deep”… Or something like that.”

I would not be surprised if someone in the pitch meeting for the making of ‘Reputation’ said, “Put a condescending title on all the songs and have a black and white cover so that your entire Album looks edgy.”

One of the major things wrong with this album is that the songs all seem like they run together, like movements in a piece of music; like they are all a part of one big story that never seems to end.

The only song that I find to be actually somewhat worthwhile is the track titled …Ready for It?, but this song only works if you watch her music video along with it. All of her songs on this album are so cryptic that the listener needs more information from the video to actually enjoy the song and know what the message is that she is trying to get across.

Jade-

I had told myself I was going to hate it. I bought the album knowing I would hate it. I downloaded the music thinking I would hate it. You see, I was rather unimpressed with her single releases(No matter how much I complained, they all at some point were stuck in my head) But despite my sultry, scepitacal attitude, I pressed shuffle. Immediately I was shocked, because strangely enough- I didn’t hate it at all. In fact, the more I listened to the album(admittingly over and over and over again) the more I liked it. Swift had struck again, blowing fans and critics  away once more by her drastically different style. Swift career as a musician has been, to say the least, an evolution from the days of “Tim McGraw” and “teardrops on my guitar” to her mega hits from her 1989 album(though some could argue she peaked with her first pop album “Red”) not only is her sound new, Swift showed a new side of herself as a pop culture icon and the 3rd highest paid female musician. Instead of denying the tabloid gossip of new flings or feuds with Katy Perry(… or was it Kanye West?), Taylor owns up to the media picture of her, most iconically as a snake. Attacking the industry that had both made her career and decimated her image, Swift sang angsty phrases such as “They’re burning all the witches even if you aren’t one.” Despite some bitterness in her songs, the majority of her album focuses on what Swift is most known for: love and all its wraths.  Reputation is a development from her previous albums as both a statement to the subjective media and as a fresh, original sound. But despite the originality of her music compared to her own previous albums, exactly how original it is compared to the rest of the music industry is up to you to decide.

Alli-

Taylor Swift has been a prominent figure in pop culture over the years, and for awhile we missed the pop singer. Now she’s back with her made over Reputation. Honestly in my opinion this album isn’t that good. She’s changed a lot since her first album was released. Her sound has evolved along with her personality. Swift’s previous albums have been all about her trials of love and heartbreak, but Reputation has a sense of revival and renewed self discovery. Most of her songs however have no baseline and sings in the same note the entire time. The only two songs that I personally liked were Gorgeous and This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things. I get serious old Fall Out Boy song title vibes. This album is so petty and childish in comparison to Swift’s previous creations.