The star has been curiously quiet on the promotional front this time around, releasing a string of lead-up tracks but refraining from any interviews and setting a review embargo for the night of the record’s release.
Luckily, the reaction to Reputation seems to be very positive.
The album currently has an impressive 81 rating on Metacritic, which aggregates responses from mainstream critics.
Among the reactions, The Guardian awarded four stars, saying: “It may be mired in bitterness and gossip, but the pop star’s songwriting smarts and lyrical prowess are impossible to deny on her sixth album.
“At the heart of Reputation lies a sequence of songs that chart the rise, fall and fallout of a fleeting relationship and offer a masterclass in pop songwriting along the way.”
The Independent awarded the same score, summarising: “Each of the 15 songs on ‘reputation’ tackles how Swift is perceived by the people who know her – and the people who don’t.
“When she explored different ‘versions’ of herself in the Look What You Made Me Do video it was less about ‘eras’ of Swift than how, over the years, she has been portrayed by the outside world: as the girl next door, the geek, the romantic, the marketing genius, the victim, the snake. Add them together and you might just get a complete person.
“Swift isn’t denying any of those facets of herself. She’s not excusing them. She’s just saying there’s more than one.”
Rolling Stone, too, gave four stars. Their critic praised the “darker, deeper side of the pop mastermind”, saying Look What You Made Me Do was a red herring for what else is on offer.
“She’s playing for bigger emotional stakes – this is an album full of one-on-one adult love songs,” they reasoned.
“That’s a daring swerve from a songwriter who’s scored so many brilliant hits about pursuing the next romantic high. Taylor might love the players, but nowhere near as much as she loves the game.”
Entertainment Weekly served up a B grade, saying she’s “no longer America’s sweetheart”.
They said: “Swift seems determined to abdicate the throne, or at least retreat.
“Reputation is an oddly bifurcated creation, half obsessed with grim score-settling and celebrity damage, half infatuated with a lover who takes her away from all that.”
And Slant Magazine, too, gave four stars, criticising the “tired, repetitive EDM tracks” but saying: “Reputation isn’t so much a rebirth as it is a retreat inward.
“It marks a shift from the retro-minded pop-rock of 2014’s 1989 toward a harder, more urban aesthetic, and Swift wears the stiff, clattering beats of songs like “…Ready for It?” like body armour.”
Reputation by Taylor Swift is out now.