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Taylor Swift Takes a Break from Her Busy Revenge Schedule on "Gorgeous"

The Max Martin-produced number is the newest song from 'Reputation,' out November 10.
Lauren O'Neill
London, GB

Taylor Swift hath released a new song and thus, as the rules of the internet dictate, I am called on to write a blog about it. So it goes. Yesterday she teased the opening seconds of the track on social media, and then dropped it at midnight EST. It's called "Gorgeous" and it sees her teamed back up with Max Martin, the man at the helm of most of 1989. It shows.

For my money it's the nearest thing to a return to form she's had on the Reputation cycle – though that isn't really saying a lot – and she's also extremely back on her bullshit with regards to making songs about relationships (something she moved back towards on her last release "Ready For It"). This is, admittedly, much stronger and steadier ground for her than "Look What You Made Me Do"'s childish ruminations on revenge, and musically she seems more at home with floaty synths, reminiscent as they are of the intro to her last album's "Blank Space," than the industrial-style clamour she's tried out on the previous two Reputation efforts.

Weirdly, however, her usual snappy turn of phrase and ear for words seems to have gone awry. "You make me so happy it turns back to sad / There's nothing I hate more than what I can't have / Guess I'll just stumble on home to my cats" are actual lyrics that made the final cut of the song, and while this is probably an attempt at #relatability, it seems bizarre considering the isolated, "I don't trust nobody" bombast that she made such a big deal out of on the first single. This confusion kind of exemplifies how all over the place this album campaign is in general, and quite honestly I have no idea what we're going to get next. I just hope we all get through it.

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