This week, Taylor Swift has been teasing her fourth single from her soon-to-be-released album, Reputation. I can’t remember any previous albums where Taylor was hyping so many singles before the actual album drop? My anti-snake take is that the reaction to the first three singles was not what Taylor hoped it would be, and Taylor has had to really hustle for the first time in a long time. “Look What You Made Me Do” is a terrible song and video, and the single got easily dethroned by Cardi B. “Ready For It” was easily the strongest single released thus far, but Taylor f–ked it all up with a terrible video. “Gorgeous” is juvenile trash. So what is this next song? “Call It What You Want,” which is sort of a romantic ballad. Before I get to the song, let’s talk about the hype around the song. This was the first teaser:
The rocks. The ocean. Her Rhode Island mansion. Seagulls. Many people were like “OH YES HERE IS THE TIDDLES SONG.” The teaser definitely reminded me of the first photo op for Tom Hiddleston and Taylor, the now-infamous Tiddles-On-the-Rhode-Island-Rocks photos in The Sun. But then the other teaser or whatever made it seem like it was just a love song Taylor sang to herself:
“Call It What You Want” available now. @applemusic
Pre-order #reputation:— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) November 3, 2017
So what is this song and is it about Tom Hiddleston? Lyrically, it seems like it’s more about Joe Alwyn, but I’ll let you interpret it how you want.
I hate some of these lyrics so much, my God. “My baby’s fit like a daydream” is… bad. Also bad? “They took the crown but it’s alright/All the liars are calling me one” and “All the drama queens taking swings/All the jokers dressing up as kings” – can we have one song that’s not about Kim and Kanye, for the love of God? It’s supposed to be a love song and she’s still bitching about KIMYE! It’s hilarious.
As for whether this is about Tom or Joe, and whether “Gorgeous” is about Joe or Tom or what this whole album is about… my take is that Taylor started writing the album last year, as her relationship with Calvin Harris was fading out and she was starting up with Tom. That’s when she started writing, but then she finished the bulk of the album while she was with Joe. Meaning, the songs probably started out as inspired by Tom but she changed up some of the lyrical references to make them more about Joe. Also: there’s a male vocal on this song, right? Is that Joe’s voice?
Photos courtesy of Taylor Swift, Getty.
