“They took the crown, but it’s all right,” she sings with a well-rehearsed shrug on “Call It What You Want.” On “Reputation,” she is embittered and vindictive toward a public that she feels has abandoned her, but she’s also liberated from the imaginary harness of perfection. Now she emerges as a victim turned antihero. Swift went into hibernation last year: the budding country star had become an international pop icon before suddenly finding herself at the wrong end of a long-running public feud with Kanye West. This air of newfound jadedness is one of the many ways in which Swift broadcasts her long-overdue loss of innocence on “Reputation,” an album that captures the singer during the most turbulent but commercially successful period of her career. “But you make me jealous.” This is Swift-the unyielding perfectionist, the professionally heartbroken woman who has built a career by enacting lyrical revenge on her lovers-characterizing herself as “chill.” She has grown fond of this word, which also appears on “Delicate.” She asks her suitor, “Is it chill that you’re in my head?” If there is a wink in either of those lines, it’s imperceptible. There are many inadvertently comic moments on Taylor Swift’s new album, “Reputation,” but none are as jarring as an admission made on “So It Goes.” In the first flush of romance, she’s making a confession to her love interest. On previous albums, Swift was far more loyal to her listeners than to her lovers.
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