‘…Ready For It?’, the second single from Taylor Swift’s upcoming album Reputation, is better than the first single, ‘Look What You Made Me Do’. As we have noted, however, this is not a high standard. ‘Look What You Made Me Do’ chose to eschew radio-friendly hooks and catchy refrains in favor of a darker and moodier direction. Unfortunately, the sharp left Taylor made with this artistic move drove the momentum for her new album directly into the nearest telephone pole (the single debuted at #77 on Billboard’s Hot 100, just behind a 10 month old Kenny Chesney song). Given the relative lack of success ‘Look What You Made Me Do’ has had thus far, it’s no surprise that another track from Reputation has been brought forth. ‘…Ready For It?’ is the better of the two singles that have been released thus far, but it does very little to reset the hype.
The main flaw this song has is its sound. ‘…Ready For It?’ tries to be a trap song a la Bauuer or RL Grime. The way it goes about reaching that trap aesthetic, however, is absurdly amateurish. It’s as if no one in the studio had heard trap music before, and the only knowledge Taylor and her team had of trap music was Flosstradamus’s Wikipedia page. There are several musical elements in ‘…Ready For It?’ that just don’t work. The hi-hats have no character, the kick drum is a cheap attempt at co-opting the distorted sound of Yeezus, and the “horns” that act as a bassline here just lifeless. On their own these sounds are bad, but when mixed together as haphazardly as they are on ‘…Ready For It?’, they create an obnoxiously ugly stew of an instrumental. There are moments where the beat is bearable (the harmonized vocal filter on the last pre-chorus is nice), but when the last chorus cuts back in, the song becomes unbearable. The instrumental lacks any solid musical ideas, leaving the entire track to be simultaneously brash and bland.
Taylor’s singing, while not stunning, is the best part of the song. Unlike ‘Look What You Made Me Do’, ‘…Ready For It?’ has some decent melodies, notably on the bridge. Taylor’s performance fits the cocky and powerful vibe the song is aiming for, even if the instrumental falls miserably short in backing up her voice. The lyrics are ostensibly about sex, but the song reads just as easily as an edgy love letter to a new boyfriend. There are clever bars (referring to her new boyfriend as the “[Richard] Burton to her [Elizabeth] Taylor”) as well as bland ones (the entire refrain where she just says “baby let the games begin”). These are not the most dynamite vocals you will hear on a pop song in 2017, but they are one of the few positives this track possesses.
We’re now two songs into what will become Taylor Swift’s sixth studio album, and these two songs have provided no reason to hope Reputation will come with some grand artistic statement. Thus far, Reputation is not shaping up to be Taylor’s Lemonade: it is instead the musical midlife crisis of a spiteful 27 year old singer-songwriter. One can only hope that if this trend is to continue, it will at least come with some better songwriting.
3/10
Words by Sebastian Campbell
