But at Wembley, she played all 15 tracks from Reputation in full (some fans may have been disappointed that the surprise acoustic song on her set list, usually saved for a different old classic, was last night “So It Goes”, the only song from the new album not usually played on this tour). It would be easy for Swift to pretend she never said the “old Taylor” is “dead”, and run through her back catalogue of hits. The whole affair crackles with delicious, petty drama.Ī big pop star rebrand poses a challenge when a live show comes around. Taylor Swift’s fans are fiercely in love with her, and most of them adore her early music: the sweet, innocent narratives at play in “Our Song”, “Back To December” and “All Too Well”. It’s a thrilling spectacle: deliberately, delightfully camp. Swift herself drips with attitude, all arched eyebrows and wicked smiles. When gunshot sound effects go off in “I Did Something Bad”, fireworks shoot from the roof of the stadium, and giant balls of fire burst above the stage. (Jafar!? Is that you?) Dancers writhe in serpent-decked leathers. Comically large and evil-looking snake puppets adorn the stadium like something out of Aladdin: The Musical. It would be an understatement to say that Taylor Swift’s Reputation Tour leans in to this vindictive aesthetic. She never tells us what that revenge might be, but she constantly assures us it’s forever: she will have her vengeance, in this life or the next.
“I keep him forever,” she sings of a new lover on “…Ready For It”, and, just when you think she might have put revenge aside for a moment, adds, “Like a vendetta”. Taylor Swift’s sixth album, Reputation, is stuffed with more vague allusions to her future revenge than a hammy production of Sweeney Todd. “All I think about is karma Maybe I’ll get mine but you’ll all get yours”, she sings on “Look What You Made Me Do”.