Review: Taylor Swift – ‘…Ready For It?’

Previously on Taylor Swift‘s very own version of Game of Thrones: The “new Taylor” (more on that here) sought to kill her former selves with stinging lyrics and a clever music video so that a vengeful wraith could rise from the ashes to seek revenge on Kanye West and Kim Kardashian. ‘Look What You Made Me Do’ reimagined the Right Said Fred classic ‘I’m Too Sexy’ into finger snapping electropop to polarising critique, though my Edge colleague fell on its more congratulatory side. Since then it’s earned Swift her first UK Number 1, so she must be doing something right, though I’m at a loss to explain what.

In Episode 2 of Season 6 in the musical career of T’Swizzle – subtitled Reputation: Swift Strikes Back – Taylor resurrects her former selves from the dead, meshing them with her new vibe to create an annoyingly incoherent song. ‘…Ready For It?’ twinkles with a 1989-esque sparkle for all twenty seconds of honey sweet chorus, dowsing us in nostalgia before viciously snatching it away again. The verses’ buzzing thunderclaps are probably meant to foreshadow an incoming storm with some ex, but I’ll let the experts speculate whether ‘…Ready For It?’ is about Harry Styles, Tom Hiddleston or someone else completely. War is – once again – declared (“Baby let the games begin / the games begin”), but altogether it’s not as harrowing listening as ‘Look What You Made Me Do’. A glimpse at the old Taylor is permitted and acts as the single’s saving grace. An impressive chorus proves Taylor’s route back to reclaim her kingdom isn’t reinvention or revenge, but being the popstar we fell in love with in the first place.

‘…Ready For It’ is out now via Virgin EMI Records